Chapter 285: Setting Sail Among the Stars.

The rest of the way went exactly as I had planned. Within a few minutes, I arrived at the small clearing situated deep within the forest beside my dorm.

Naga and Bearlo were waiting beside a massive white-colored spacecraft with a strange honeycomb-like structure.

Damn, it’s actually bigger than I expected.

I muttered in surprise.

I had only ever seen this ship as a pendant the bears wore, so seeing it at its actual size was once again a reminder of just how advanced alien technology was.

But why are they standing there like corpses?

Despite their expressions unsettling me, I walked toward them without hesitation, wondering what the worst that could have happened was.

"Why are you standing like this?"

The moment I appeared in front of them, both of them looked at each other once before kneeling down immediately.

"I am sorry, my lord. We have failed you."

"I am sorry, my liege. We have failed you."

"What the hell? What happened? Did those damned bears betray us or something? Or did this spacecraft get damaged or something?" I asked, unable to think of any other reason. "...Or don’t tell me they died during the attack or something?"

Both of them shook their heads together.

"Nothing like that happened."

"Then?"

Before either of them could explain, an eerily neutral voice came from the direction of the spacecraft.

"I am coming with you as well."

My smile wavered slightly as I turned toward the voice because I recognised that voice quite well.

Arza stood there, dressed in plain white casual clothes. I noticed several storage rings adorning her fingers.

She was prepared.

"What now?"

I asked.

But more importantly, how the hell did she know?

My gaze shifted toward that damned crimson bear because if anyone had any chance of revealing something like this, it had to be that bastard.

He had gotten quite chummy with Arza, calling her My Lady and treating her like his boss, as if I were already married to her.

Sensing my gaze on him, he immediately lowered his head even further.

"He didn’t say anything." Arza interrupted before I could speak. "I overheard those two bears discussing the plan with him when I came to your dorm a few days ago."

Tch... just my luck.

"I won’t let you go if you don’t let me come with you."

She seemed quite stubborn for someone who was always so reserved and emotionally restrained so, I couldn’t help but be curious.

"Why do you even want to come with me? I am not going on some vacation, you know? I have some really really important business. If it’s about chocolates, I can leave all the chocolates I have with you. How does that sound?"

She simply shook her head.

"No, I want to come."

Huh?

This was the first time I had seen her refuse chocolates, which came as quite a surprise since she had never done that before.

"Why?"

I asked again as she walked toward me, taking out a book. It was titled Exploration of the Vast World. As she approached, she quickly opened it to the page she had bookmarked and turned it toward me.

On that page was the scenery of a small planet in the far north. As soon as I saw that scenery, I immediately understood why this damned princess was so obsessed with going beyond Nytharrea with me.

Because it was a planet named Chocoloria.

I actually knew about this planet from the novel as well, since Noah had mentioned it in his extra notes. It was a planet situated at the far northern edge of A.S.S. territory, home to one of the smallest and most intelligent races within A.S.S., known as the Greedolls.

For creatures so tiny and intelligent, those bastards were strangely obsessed with sweets. So much so that they had turned their entire planet into something made of desserts using their uncanny intelligence.

They had literal rivers of chocolate, houses made of biscuits and streets of pudding. And the scenery Arza was showing me was from the Annuan Ceremony, where those people ate sweets as if their lives depended on it.

As for how I knew about those creatures in such detail... well, I had actually used that planet as the setting for an event in my game. It was yet another event designed to make players spend money to earn Arza’s affection...

But after seeing all this, I understood one thing, with how she was, it was nearly impossible to make Arza back down.

So, I gave up.

"Alright, fine."

She nodded, her expression barely changing as she turned away but I could tell from how light her steps had become. She definitely wasn’t any less weird than those Greedolls.

With that done, I looked at Bearlo.

"In any case, what’s done is done. Take my cloak inside to Semo and Bearlian. Tell them to figure out which one is the fuel and get the spacecraft refueled as soon as possible."

Bearlo rose from the ground as my cloak flew toward him. Once they entered the spacecraft, my gaze shifted toward Naga, who was still kneeling on the ground.

"You know what to do after I leave, don’t you?"

"Yes, my lord. I will immediately apply for the exchange student program within the Human Continent and enroll in the academy where Young Miss Lyra studies. Once I am there, I will guard her with my life."

I nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. And make sure she doesn’t know who you really are. Tell her you are a friend of mine. And trust me, if you try anything weird or do anything that would harm her or my family even slightly, I will personally make sure to shatter your soul into countless pieces."

A benevolent smile appeared on my face.

"Though, I believe in rewarding my subordinates for good work. So, if you do this job well until I become strong enough, I’ll free you for good."

"Understood, my lord."

Naga didn’t look convinced but he still nodded. I mean, he didn’t really have a choice since I had already placed quite a few restrictions on him.

"My liege, the ship has been refueled. We can leave at any moment now."

Just then, Bearlo’s voice came from behind me. I prepared to leave, but before doing so, I suddenly remembered something and took out a small needle from my Domain.

The Soul-Chasing Needle carrying Varek’s soul.

"Also, find a commoner within the Human Empire when you get there. Find some homeless middle aged man who has recently died and stab this needle into his body. Make sure it’s the body of someone miserable, without limbs or something like that, okay?"

Couldn’t leave Varek’s soul inside the needle for too long, after all.

And he needed to understand the consequences of trying to kill me. So, in some ways, this was the perfect punishment for him.

Suffering in the body of what he hated the most.

And it’s not like this needle could be used more than once anyway, so I didn’t really care anymore. Naga accepted the needle with a hesitant expression and nodded as I finally turned away with a smile.

I immediately stepped into the spacecraft and ordered Bearlo to take off, who in turn relayed the command to Semo and Bearlina.

Without a moment’s delay, the spacecraft lifted off the ground. The academy quickly shrank beneath us, then the world itself dwindled away until we were finally surrounded by the endless expanse of space as my smile widened.

It was time to begin my first actual journey through this world.

I had arrived there as an ordinary student and I was leaving as someone who had robbed an alien fleet and was about to start a war in space.

***

[A/N: So... are you guys excited to see some cool whales and pirates? 😈]