Chapter 73: The transfer is complete.

Oisín came back from the courtroom and recovered at the Third Prince’s home for over half a month before he was fully well.

To avoid being found out, he had been given far too much of the drug, and it had not fully left his body. The side effects were bad, with fevers and drowsiness that came and went.

Oisín showed no sign of discomfort. The day after he came home, he went back to his work as house manager and began making afternoon tea for Lorcan. It was not until Lorcan touched his skin and felt the fever that he forced Oisín to stay in bed.

Oisín was in a daze then, looking at Lorcan with blurry eyes. His sight would not focus, and he realised he was pinned down by the Third Prince and could not even turn over, let alone get up. In the end, he let his body go limp.

"All right," he murmured, closing his eyes. "It looks like I cannot look after you for a while."

Lorcan clenched his jaw. Over the past few days, Oisín had collected quite a few bite marks. Every time he joked around without caring about his health, Lorcan got so angry that he could not help biting his shoulder.

"Just worry about yourself, General. I do not need you to look after me."

Oisín muttered, "If I do not have to do anything, it feels like I am retired."

He had stepped down from the Third Army and was now on a long holiday. He spent his days looking after the garden and soaking up the sun like a retired man.

During this holiday, Oisín handed the whole Collins Family over to Lorcan.

He transferred everything, the family businesses, the property, all of it, and kept nothing for himself. He even brought the younger members of the family to meet Lorcan.

Apart from Oisín, the current generation of the Collins Family had no strong leader, so the family was in a time of change. The younger members were all small children, around seven or eight, who only came up to Lorcan’s thigh.

The children stood in a straight line and chirped "Third Prince" in their high voices. Lorcan’s eyebrow twitched as he complained to the System.

"016, do you know what this reminds me of?"

016: "?"

"It reminds me of an old story. A king knows his time is short, so he leaves his young son in his trusted minister’s care. The difference is that the king left one kid, and Oisín left a whole lineup."

016 looked at the row of little kids.

"..."

It fit quite well.

Other than that, everything was normal, even rather peaceful. The only unusual thing was that Lorcan noticed Oisín spending more time in the training system.

He kept practising on still targets and hit every shot with deadly accuracy. Lorcan fired a few shots himself and had to admit that even as a top-ranked streamer, there was still a gap between him and a general who had fought through blood and fire.

As the days passed, the 21st drew closer. Lorcan counted the days in his heart until only a few hours were left.

Colonel Cathal of the Third Army had taken his yearly leave early and parked his ship near the Third Prince’s estate. He visited Oisín under cover of darkness, and at dawn they would set off for the border of the 23rd District.

Lorcan flipped through the last paragraphs of the novel again and again, looking for clues, but the descriptions were vague, with only a few short lines.

"Oisín raised his gun and aimed ahead. It was a long-range sniper rifle, and its bullet could cross the dark void and bury both him and his enemy in the graveyard of stars. He loaded, aimed, and pulled the trigger, and then he welcomed death."

Who he aimed at, who he would be buried with, and how he died, the novel never said.

Holding back his frustration, Lorcan nodded to Cathal.

"Colonel, may I see the ship you are taking?"

Cathal was taken aback, not used to Lorcan being so polite, and quickly nodded.

"Of course. Please."

They had been sitting together drinking tea. When he heard this, Oisín reluctantly put down the pastry in his hand and stood up.

"What’s so interesting about that?"

Lorcan replied, "I just want to make sure it is safe."

He followed behind Cathal, gripping a small storage stick in his hand, and quietly asked, "016, are you ready?"

The little screen flashed a thumbs-up.

Lorcan was uneasy about Oisín going to the 23rd District, but he could not stop him outright either. After a lot of thought, he had come up with a plan.

He decided to follow the first prince’s example and install a tracker on the ship.

016 was a system from a higher-dimensional civilization. It could watch everything and could even take over the ship if needed, overriding the cockpit controls by force. At a critical moment, Lorcan could order the ship to come back.

The only problem was that he first had to get into the ship’s control system.

The military ship had been upgraded several times, and its security was beyond question. Even 016 could not hack into it without a physical connection. Lorcan had to load data into the main control system first, and the stick in his hand was how he would do it.

Lorcan boarded the ship.

The inside was surprisingly roomy and was split into a living area, a rest area, and a cockpit. The rest area had a big floor-to-ceiling window made of a single piece of dense glass that could stand the pressure difference between space and the inside of the ship, like something out of a science fiction novel.

Oisín stood beside him, looking out through the window. The night was deep, and beyond the glass was only the outline of the prince’s estate.

Oisín said, "When we break through the atmosphere tomorrow, we will have a direct view of the capital planet and the nearby nebula from this window. If we are lucky, we might even catch the sunrise from here. The morning sun will turn the clouds rose coloured, and the rolling clouds will look like a field of scattered gold."

Lorcan did not linger. He only said, "It must be beautiful."

He turned and went into the cockpit.

Unlike the comfortable, tidy living area, the cockpit was far more cluttered, with bare wires and mysterious buttons everywhere, and it was very complicated.

Oisín frowned. "You should not be here."

The cockpit was full of sharp things and was not a safe place for visitors. Someone who did not know the layout could easily get hurt.

Cathal followed closely and added, "Your Highness, this place is too dangerous. You should not stay here."

He was afraid that a delicate, wilful male might damage something, and they had no time to repair it or find a replacement.

Lorcan waved a hand and sat down in the pilot’s seat. He seemed to casually brush over a row of buttons, and when he touched a certain port under the seat, he quietly pushed the stick in, hiding it with his body.

Click.

The port made a slight snapping sound.

016: "Data transfer starting. Trying to get into the ship’s control system."

At the same time, Lorcan pointed at the instrument panel to draw their attention and used his voice to cover the snapping sound.

"Major General Oisín, I am very interested in the ship. Tell me about how it is built."

"...All right."

Males usually had little interest in such things, so the Third Prince’s request made Oisín raise an eyebrow in surprise, but he began to explain anyway.

He sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and turned to teach Lorcan how to use the buttons, patient and careful.

"This is the main control for the millimetre radar, used to detect and locate enemy ships or rock turbulence. This one..."

Lorcan’s eyes followed him, seeming to listen closely, but really his mind was wandering and drifting somewhere far away.

He knew these things already.

In the military simulator, Oisín had taught him how to fly a ship, over and over, without ever tiring.

Although Lorcan had never touched the real thing, in the simulator his score had long been near the top, a little below Oisín’s but no worse than any military female under the rank of colonel.

When they finished the first row of buttons, 016 whispered, "Host, the transfer is complete."