BATTLE FOR STARS

Ever since Lina met Ding Yufei and began learning Tai Chi, she had practically thrown herself into the training grounds every single day.

She felt this combat style suited mechs extremely well, but fully integrating Tai Chi into mech combat still required a tremendous amount of detailed adjustment and practice.

In order to use Tai Chi proficiently during the final match, she trained almost day and night without rest.

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At last, the final round of the Mech Fighter Tournament arrived.

The beginning of this match also marked the approaching end of the entire carnival season. Afterward, many tourists would begin returning to their home planets one after another.

Naturally, this period was also the peak of tourist spending. Massive gambling bets and extravagant expenditures were usually concentrated around this time.

What surprised Belina slightly was that Balk had made no moves whatsoever during this period.

At first, she had assumed he would retaliate quickly or come looking for trouble again. But instead, everything seemed to have settled down completely.

Nothing happened.

No suspicious people appeared around Belina, nor around Lina.

It was almost as if the previous conflict had never happened at all.

Although Belina didn’t entirely believe things were truly over, reality was reality. In the end, she could only tell herself that perhaps with Emperor Hogan present on the planet, his son had restrained himself.

Which suited her just fine.

At least it meant she could enjoy this period of leisure peacefully.

The finals of the Mech Fighter Tournament were still being held at the same Gladiator Center as before.

Early that morning, the Emperor had already arranged a special vehicle to pick Belina up, informing her that Lieutenant General Frederick would also be present.

However, neither Belina nor Ding Yufei rushed over immediately.

The earlier matches at the Gladiator Center were still the finals for the sword fighters, and those battles almost always ended in bloody slaughter.

Neither of them liked such brutally direct killing, so they intentionally waited until the sword fighter finals were nearly over before setting out.

Sure enough, by the time they were watching the live projection inside the flying car, one of the sword fighters had already been decapitated.

The other fighter had also suffered severe injuries and was being dragged away by emergency medical robots.

Although Ding Yufei had already expected the outcome, seeing such a bloody scene with his own eyes still made him deeply uncomfortable.

Of course, for some people, this sort of thing was probably the ultimate entertainment.

“Sword fighter matches really are separated by life and death every single round,” Ding Yufei said while watching the projection.

Several matches had been held already, and nearly every one had ended with another sword fighter dead.

“Yeah,” Belina replied quietly. “In matches where the competitors are evenly matched, it’s extremely difficult to control the outcome. Especially in major tournaments with huge prize money involved.”

“Nobody shows mercy to their opponent.”

“Because showing mercy usually means losing yourself.”

There wasn’t really anything they could do about competitions like this.

At most, they could only sigh about it.

“But why,” Ding Yufei asked, “even after technology has advanced this far, are people still so fascinated by bloody violence like this?”

“From a human perspective, scenes like these stimulate certain neural responses and give people pleasure,” Belina explained.

“But on another level, it also reflects humanity’s instinctive attraction toward conflict and war. People naturally admire heroes and warriors.”

She paused slightly before continuing.

“Of course, there’s another angle too.”

“This could also be a method used by the ruling class. It keeps people constantly aware of death and fear.”

“Kind of like one of your Earth idioms — killing one as a warning to a hundred.”

“And competitions like this are also useful for cultivating soldiers who are fearless in battle and willing to die without hesitation.”

While the two were talking, the flying car had already arrived.

As usual, it stopped beside the elevated VIP booth suspended in midair.

Since this wasn’t their first time meeting the Emperor, Belina and Ding Yufei were already familiar with the procedures and passed through inspection smoothly.

The only minor issue was that Sade was almost stopped outside.

As a cyborg warrior, his build looked much more like an armed security guard, and no outside security personnel were normally permitted inside the Emperor’s private room.

However, after Belina explained that he was her companion — and after the staff confirmed it with the Emperor — Sade was finally allowed to enter alongside them.

Perhaps because there were more people present this time, the VIP room itself seemed larger than before.

When the three entered, Emperor Hogan was already speaking with a military officer who appeared to be around fifty years old.

At least, that was Ding Yufei’s estimate.

As for the man’s real age, there was no way to tell.

Still, judging from the rank insignia on his uniform, he was undoubtedly Lieutenant General Frederick.

What surprised Ding Yufei even more was that Prince Balk — or rather, General Balk — was also present.

This time, he wore a military uniform as well. Judging by the insignia, he appeared to hold the rank of Major General.

For some reason though, he was merely standing silently in a corner behind the Emperor.

“Princess Belina, welcome,” Emperor Hogan greeted warmly upon seeing her arrive.

The military officer beside him quickly stood up as well.

“This is the Lieutenant General Frederick you’ve been waiting for.”

The Lieutenant General immediately gave Belina a military salute.

“Princess Belina, it’s an honor to meet you for the first time. I am Lieutenant General Frederick.”

Belina returned greetings to both the Emperor and the Lieutenant General in her own manner.

Her position within the Kramic kingdom was somewhat special.

In the Kramic kingdom, all military forces belonged directly to the king. Each new monarch automatically became the supreme commander of the armed forces, and royal children could also possess or command portions of the military.

Belina herself owned a private Fleet.

However, she technically wasn’t an official member of the military, meaning she held no formal rank, making a standard military salute somewhat inappropriate.

“General Frederick, you’ve really kept me waiting for quite a long time,” Belina said with obvious dissatisfaction in her tone.

Even though she knew this delay was almost certainly Emperor Hogan’s intention as well, she still openly expressed her unhappiness the moment they met.

“My sincerest apologies,” the Lieutenant General replied calmly. “As you know, the Hill Empire’s offensives have been far more aggressive than usual recently, so many matters have required urgent attention.”

Belina didn’t believe that explanation at all.

Although the Hill Empire’s attacks had indeed intensified over the past few years, and the Confederation had lost quite a few affiliated planets, there still hadn’t been any true large-scale interstellar war between the two sides.

Most of the lost planets were remote systems with little population and few resources.

More importantly, the Hill Empire’s main offensive direction wasn’t even focused on the Resk Empire.

Inside the empire itself, life had remained peaceful and prosperous all along.

So how could there supposedly be endless military affairs demanding attention?

Was there really only one general in the entire empire?

Of course, Belina understood perfectly well that this was merely an excuse from Frederick.

She had no intention of exposing it directly.

Recovering the starship was the true purpose of this mission.

“General,” Belina said calmly, “according to our agreement, the retired starship replaced by the Resk Empire should be returned to our kingdom.”

“So may I ask... when exactly do you intend to proceed with that matter?”