The moment the dormitory door was pushed open, Su Cha realized that Pandora’s box had been opened.
Land lowered his head slightly, a heavy gloom spreading from his eyes across his face. The words he spat out were like the hiss of a venomous snake before it strikes: “Good. Very good.”
The soldiers behind him stood in silence, their lowered fingers entwined with silver threads formed from spiritual power—a sign that blood was about to be shed.
Su Cha’s heart tightened, and he wanted to speak.
But before he could, the tiles in front of Land had already shattered silently, clattering forward in a wave. The entire floor trembled.
There was no sky garden. The room still followed the old layout of an upper bunk and lower desk, the cramped space facing a poor direction. His fury had reached its peak. As he raised his eyes, a cold gleam burst forth: “This kind of place—I’m afraid there’s not even enough room to breathe.”
Su Cha: “…”
It’s my dorm that’s being unreasonable, suffocating you all.
The Marshal’s surging spiritual power clashed head-on with the spiritual power of the Galan Emperor. This time, the suffocation was real. The confrontation between two powerhouses distorted the space, forcing the people around to retreat. The soldiers of Fogstar immediately shielded Su Cha and pulled him back a few steps.
Many who had sneaked into the dormitory building hoping to catch a glimpse of the Emperor suddenly sensed something was wrong. The intense danger made their legs go weak.
At some point, Li Huai had already gone down to the first floor. Soon after, the broadcast rang out: “Anti-terrorism drill in progress. Students still inside the building, evacuate immediately.”
“Repeat: anti-terrorism drill, please evacuate in an orderly manner.”
Under such pressure, the students had long forgotten their original goal and rushed outside. Once outside, they looked at each other in confusion: “Wait a second, there’s no one here. What kind of drill is this?”
It was class time. This dorm housed only freshmen. By logic, only the Emperor and his entourage should be here.
Who could a terrorist even attack?
At this moment, Su Cha was the one who most wanted to evacuate—but he couldn’t.
In the heat of battle, nearby showerheads were shattered by psychic shock. Land calmly instructed the soldiers nearby: “Go find someone to replace them with gold ones.”
Even now, he hadn’t forgotten to protect His Highness’s property in his own way.
In fact, Su Cha had reason to suspect Land of doing it on purpose—he overheard Fogstar soldiers sternly discussing with the foreign minister, insisting on immediately locating the manufacturer, price being no issue. The list even included a gold toilet.
He couldn’t help getting a headache. On one hand, helpless about the foreign minister’s lack of tact; on the other, curious why Sanses wasn’t stopping it—surely he understood Su Cha’s signals.
Back before they came upstairs, Su Cha’s two attempts to stop things had clearly been seen by Sanses, yet he had let events escalate to this point. He must have been interested in testing Fogstar’s strength. In the process, he discovered something else: Land’s powers differed from Su Cha’s—he lacked the latter’s inclusiveness and healing nature. Su Cha was a rare exception.
Fogstar’s soldiers were now talking about installing crystal tiles on the ceiling.
One outrageous demand after another piled up. The foreign minister’s previous politeness had completely vanished: “We welcome friends from afar, but if you’re here to cause trouble, the Galan Empire will see it through to the end.”
“Cause trouble…”
Those words completely hit the bottom line. Even the calmest warrior exploded. The fine yet unimaginably sharp silver threads sliced through the air, darting toward the foreign minister.
A deafening roar like an ape’s shriek rang out, and behind the foreign minister, a powerful ancient ape materialized. There were no true civil officials in the Empire—anyone holding such a high post had experienced countless battles.
Fueled by rage, Fogstar soldiers’ combat ability rose to a new level. During the standoff, they gained the upper hand and took the first step forward. With each move came another complaint: “We can overlook the lack of a 300-square-meter bed— this place doesn’t even have two square meters of space!”
“The wardrobe is only 1.63 meters long.”
“The balcony tiles don’t even number ten!”
At that moment, Fogstar’s precision in measurements was disturbingly accurate.
From initially flaring with anger to gradually wearing a strange expression, the foreign minister now genuinely thought the other side was mentally ill. Not an insult—he truly thought they were sick. Who the h*ll describes a bed as 300 square meters?
That’s big enough to build a public square.
Before more absurdities could surface, Su Cha noticed the Deputy Chief of the intelligence department giving him a subtle signal. There was no mutual understanding between them, so Su Cha couldn’t quite tell what the other meant. He guessed it meant he should try to stop the conflict from escalating.
“Stop fighting!” The words were scattered by the turbulent energy in the air. Su Cha braced himself and shouted again: “Please, stop fighting!”
But no one present had any intention of stopping. Their strikes only grew more ruthless.
He took a deep breath and prepared to charge directly into the fray to force a ceasefire. He barely ran a few steps before realizing he couldn’t get through. The air had practically solidified from Land and Sanses’s power—he couldn’t even poke his head in.
D*mn it.
Su Cha swore under his breath, expressionless.
He could imagine how ridiculous he looked right now.
And reality confirmed it. To others, it looked like a little yellow duck dove in headfirst, crashed into an invisible wall, and bounced right back.
…Su Cha was done.
Yise couldn’t bear to watch. He stepped forward to help, and while doing so, gently patted Su Cha’s head, signaling him to calm down.
Fight or no fight, Land always kept an eye on Su Cha. The moment someone else touched His Highness’s head, he took great offense.
“My flower.” Su Cha, still sulking, suddenly gasped—this time, genuinely anxious.
The flowers on the balcony had been affected by the clash; their leaves were wilting.
At that shout, the Marshal was the first to withdraw his power.
Su Cha hurried past the others and rushed to the balcony to channel a bit of spirit energy into his beloved overlord flower, helping it recover.
One of the soldiers couldn’t help commenting, “So kind-hearted.”
The sight of the young man feeding his flower with an open palm was as beautiful as a painting.
The Marshal silently nodded and even took out his communicator to snap a photo.
The foreign minister was speechless—completely unable to respond. These people must be blind. Not only could they not see how poisonous that plant was, they even showed warmth and a deep sense of duty. They were one step away from sewing “Protecting His Highness’s Kindness Is My Mission” onto their uniforms.
After being fed, the flower perked up. Su Cha finally relaxed and stored it back into his folded space.
The Fogstar people were happy to see this and, thinking of how their prince had been enduring such hardship alone, felt heartsick. They swore to make up for all the love he lacked.
When Su Cha turned around, he met their affectionate gazes and nearly knocked over another flowerpot.
“I’m fine,” he explained seriously.
Unfortunately, Fogstar’s people wouldn’t listen. Their eyes were full of doting affection.
Before things escalated further, Su Cha coughed lightly: “There’s nothing more to see here. Let’s go somewhere else.”
Finally, everyone’s goals aligned. The Marshal didn’t want Su Cha to remain in the stuffy dorm another minute, and together they headed out.
On the way, his subordinates kept calling to ask when the gold furniture would arrive.
The affiliated school was strictly managed—students rarely wandered about—but that didn’t affect its beauty.
Pavilions and towers, lotus ponds in full bloom—these were the exclusive splendors of summer. Su Cha was about to use the lotus flowers to steer the topic away, but the Marshal stopped in his tracks.
The school bulletin board was plastered with photos. Land’s gaze locked onto one.
It was taken during the Ten-School Tournament’s award ceremony. Su Cha stood with his teammates, smiling brightly with the trophy in his arms. Behind them was a massive screen showing a paused video: Su Cha selling watermelons in a desert, with a beast’s corpse beside him.
The Marshal shut his eyes tightly, slightly raised his head—just like the time Su Cha first learned via media that he had been sent to the wrong planet and nearly passed out.
“You fought a beast?”
Su Cha nodded and pointed at the blurry creature in the photo: “But I didn’t kill that one.”
He traded a watermelon for it.
“You’re still so young. How could they let you fight beasts?” Land asked Su Cha, but his eyes remained locked on the school principal—as if looking at a heartless executioner.
The principal, however, remained calm: “Our Empire enlists all citizens. Kids as young as ten take part in wilderness survival.”
Land said nothing. His bodyguard sneered: “So what? Our Marshal killed a beast with his bare hands at thirteen.”
Su Cha gasped softly: “Really?”
He had thought Fogstar’s kids were raised in greenhouses.
Mistaking that surprise for admiration, Land felt immensely proud—more than he would from winning a major war.
“That was an accident. We just happened to run into a beast invasion.”
Fogstar valued pure bloodlines and had special testing instruments. A strange phenomenon occurred on Fogstar: those with over 70% purity were fragile before adulthood, but powerful after awakening. Conversely, lower purity meant better survival but came with limited strength and shorter lifespan.
Some with low purity risked their lives trying to break limits—but few succeeded. Land was one of those rare few.
As he spoke, he still hadn’t taken his eyes off the principal, his gaze full of unmistakable hostility.
That’s Fogstar for you—double standards, clear as day. It was perfectly fine for others to fight, but their own children had to progress step by step.
Su Cha pressed his lips together. Although they had only interacted for half an hour, he had already gotten a visceral sense of the Fog Star people’s temperament. If he stayed any longer to “observe,” every little detail might become something that offended them. Even the combat room—just thinking about the fact that he had trained there—might get him branded as some kind of criminal.
He accidentally glanced at Land’s epaulettes, which were covered with a thin layer of dust. After a brief pause, Su Cha said, “It must’ve been exhausting coming all this way. Why don’t we go grab a meal together? My treat.”
To better strike down space pirates and search for younglings, Land had led his legion across the interstellar battlefield, passing through over a hundred unstable wormholes alone. Just one simple “must’ve been tough” warmed his heart and even quelled much of the battle-hardened rage radiating off of him.
“Alright.”
Whatever Su Cha suggested, Land agreed to unconditionally.
High-end restaurants only existed in the city center—and even then, there were very few.
The degradation of taste and smell had made Galan people nearly indifferent to cuisine. Customers came either for business meetings or dates—almost never purely for the sake of food.
The Chief of Justice, a true old fox, instantly recommended a restaurant and made the reservation over the phone.
With His Majesty out and about, the entire city center was locked down. Without the usual crowds, the broad streets even carried sharper, swifter winds.
Su Cha’s long silver hair blew upward in the breeze. Land and the others watched this scene, involuntary smiles playing at the corners of their mouths. Everything was exactly as they’d imagined—this child had the same silver hair as their King.
So beautiful, so confident. What an honor it was to witness this with their own eyes.
“Shine with brilliance, shine with confidence—come and shampoo with Hyperlight!”
The 24-hour naked-eye 3D ad in the square was impressively vivid. Even the slogan had the impact of surround sound. On the screen, Su Cha was confidently flipping his hair, flashing a bright, gleaming smile.
“…”
The Marshal abruptly halted mid-step.
Seeing he had suddenly stopped, Su Cha turned his head. The motion mirrored the ad’s pose exactly—even the arc of the hair flip was nearly identical.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
After a long silence—during which Land had clearly been struggling to find his voice—he finally asked, “The person in that ad… is that you?”
“No,” Su Cha answered without hesitation. “That’s my twin brother, Su Tu.”
Then, calmly urging him on, he added, “Come on, let’s go.”
Su Cha walked ahead, looking perfectly composed, but his stiff posture gave him away. As he moved, his arms and legs swung in sync—same side, same step.
“Pfft—”
Xie Rongjue cast a glance at the official who had burst out laughing at an inopportune moment. The man immediately corrected his posture. But still—who could blame him? It was hilarious. The official suddenly understood why so many people had applied to be Su Cha’s guardian. If nothing else, the way he earnestly told such obvious lies was just too entertaining.
Even he found it charming—how could the Fog Star people resist? That inexplicable fondness surged anew. The more they looked, the cuter he seemed. In ancient internet slang: they were totally “moe-struck.”
But soon, reality set in—and with it, the real problem: as adorable as he was, why had their young prince been reduced to making such cringe-inducing commercials to earn money?
Land stepped in front of him and said one word at a time: “It was you.”
The soldiers all nodded in unison: “We could recognize you even if you turned to ash.”
Su Cha: “…”
Taking a steadying breath, Su Cha replied, “I was hired for a high-paying endorsement.”
To avoid it being blown out of proportion, he deliberately emphasized: high-paying.
“How much?”
Su Cha puffed out his chest proudly. “Eight hundred thousand starcoins.”
If this were Fog Star, Land would’ve locked him up for that answer. Even ten times the amount wouldn’t have been considered a fair offer—it would’ve been a favor.
The soldiers cast resentful glances at the Galan people. How could they let their prince live in such poverty—reduced to filming ads just to survive? How dare they?
Su Cha coughed lightly, forcing out a defense: “Actually… I kind of like filming ads.”
His Highness had said it himself—he liked it. So they had to take it seriously. Land turned to the Foreign Chief. “Please contact that company. Immediately begin preparations for a re-shoot. Set design must be luxurious—everything to be done at ten times the highest industry standards.”
Only then would it barely be worthy of even a single strand of the prince’s hair.
“Endorsement fee: 800 million. We mustn’t let His Highness’ status be diminished.” Land produced a translucent crystal card—only diamond-tier clients at the Universal Bank could hold one. A daily asset threshold of 1 billion starcoins was required to qualify.
The Universal Bank not only protected its depositors’ wealth—it also handled currency exchange between all star systems.
Land: “All production and endorsement costs will be covered by us.”
Su Cha’s throat bobbed. “Then what’s the point of doing the ad in the first place?”
It completely defeated the purpose of making money.
Land replied gently, “To make you happy.”
If His Highness liked filming ads, and if it made him happy, how could they begrudge such a trivial amount of money?
Su Cha had no response to that. Thankfully, the elevator arrived just then. As they rose to the top floor, a wave of warmth greeted them upon exiting. The restaurant’s soft, warm lighting touched every corner. Nothing about the decor felt perfunctory. The Chief of Justice suddenly smiled and introduced: “This restaurant has virtual fireworks.”
He looked at Su Cha. “Though it’s not as nice as the ones I set off for you that night… it’s got its charm.”
Scumbag!
It wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t brought it up. The mention of that “S” brought back too many memories, and Su Cha had to fight the urge to expose him on the spot.
At that moment, noticing that Land was still hung up on the ad, Su Cha said, “Actually, I have another reason for wanting to earn money…”
He dragged out the ending slightly. His gaze swept quickly from Ji Tianjin, to Yise, to Li Huai, and even to Xie Rongjue, before finally landing sincerely on the group of Fog Star people. In a soft voice, he said: “So that once I’ve earned enough, I can support you all.”
The word you was spoken lightly, as if hinting at a specific someone.
“…”
Direct hit—straight to the heart!
Now it was the Justice Chief’s turn to barely maintain his smile. Such a young age, and yet so politically smooth.
The restaurant had already set up a long table over ten meters in length, with ornate candelabras placed at intervals. Sanses took the main seat. Land sat beside him. To the left were all Fog Star personnel. On the right, closest to Sanses, was Xie Rongjue, then the various officials. Ji Tianjin, being a student, sat at the far end.
Seats beside both Land and Xie Rongjue had been deliberately left open.
Only Su Cha had yet to sit down.
No one said a word, but a silent tug-of-war seemed to play out in the air.
A waiter came over cautiously to pour water. Xie Rongjue got up, took the teapot, and began pouring himself. As he did, he slowly said: “I remember the first lesson we learned at school was how to say no.”
A not-so-subtle cue to Su Cha—that he could refuse to return to Fog Star.
“No?” Land looked intrigued as he stared at the candelabra in front of him and snuffed out the flame. “A hundred battleships are now docked at your national border. In half an hour, a hundred more from the interstellar battlefield will arrive. In the coming fortnight, reinforcements will continue to pour in. If your nation insists on being stubborn, these warships don’t understand what ‘no’ means.”
Xie Rongjue calmly poured the final cup of water. “Here are Su Cha’s mentors and friends. If war breaks out… whose side do you expect him to aim his gun at?”
Land sneered, “Stay here, and continue sleeping in slums and filming trash ads, is that it?”
Su Cha: “…”
I deeply regret filming that ad.
Fog Star warriors on one side, Galan Empire officials on the other—both began arguing fiercely.
“He grew up entirely on Galan Star!”
“And his life was threatened right here, too!”
“What can you even teach him? How to read books about killing beasts all day?”
Both sides turned to Su Cha, waiting for an answer.
Land: “Don’t worry, Your Highness. You have warships behind you. You don’t need to save their pride.”
Warships?
Su Cha’s eyelids twitched.
Under the scorching, intense gazes of everyone around him—each one full of pressure—he opened his mouth: “I…”
He realized that no matter which side he chose, one wrong move could spark full-blown conflict.
His brain spun fast. Suddenly, he remembered the unreadable look from the Deputy Chief in the dorm building earlier—and made up his mind.
“I…”
“Three—”
The person closest to Ji Tianjin was the Deputy Chief of Intelligence, muttering something under his breath. Ji Tianjin glanced over at him.
“Two…” The Deputy Chief continued his countdown.
Su Cha’s face had now taken on a perfect expression of panic. He subtly shifted his center of gravity.
“One.” The Deputy Chief took a calm sip of water and said lightly: “Fall.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Su Cha dropped backward like a delicate flower stem breaking, crumpling to the floor.
Land’s expression changed instantly and he was the first to rush forward.
“Your Highness!”
“Su Cha!”
Amid the chaos, only the Deputy Chief, who had witnessed Su Cha’s many fake-fainting episodes, remained unmoved. Watching them scramble, he muttered, “The kid’s being a bit dumb today.”
If he’d fainted sooner, none of this would’ve happened.
….
When chaos broke out in the restaurant, the people of the Imperial Capital were busy discussing this sudden cultural exchange. No one knew that just moments earlier, the StarNet had been temporarily taken over by the upper levels of the government to prevent critical information from leaking.
Meanwhile, hundreds of warships that had received orders were already retreating from the interstellar battlefield. The star pirates, who were on the verge of being utterly crushed, almost dropped to their knees in gratitude—these harbingers of doom were finally leaving!
“Thank the heavens…” At that moment, they even had the sudden urge to live a virtuous life for the rest of their days.
Ironically and absurdly, the 5,000 elite soldiers previously dispatched by Sanses as reinforcements had also received the same order to return, and in an instant, the relationship between the two sides shifted from cooperation to guarded vigilance.
The warships of Fog Star and Galan Star now traveled side by side. When they passed by some small and medium-sized planets, the terrified inhabitants immediately activated their highest-level defense systems.
“So many people.”
Unlike those planets in a panic, a mechanical doll less than one meter tall was steadily walking through the vacuum, its two slender titanium alloy legs carrying it firmly forward.
This mechanical doll was none other than Su Cha’s former system. Through the warships, it caught sight of the fully armed soldiers inside.
It didn’t pay much attention to this grand scene. Unwilling to waste time, the system simply performed a point-to-point lock on Su Cha’s location, so it could head directly to him later.
“Coordinates: Milky Way, C-6533, 500 million light-years away.”
It seemed it would arrive soon.
A cold glimmer flashed in the system’s eerie, hollow eyes. It wondered whether Su Cha had changed over all these years—probably soaking in honey, enjoying every possible blessing.
…Useless. Why insist on playing house with some brat? It shook its head in disdain.
In the next instant, the mechanical doll disassembled on the spot, dissolving into countless particles that shot toward the destination at faster-than-light speed.
Brat, I’m coming!
Can’t wait until next week to see more? Want to show your support? Come to my Patreon where you can get up to 5 more chapters of The Cutest in the Galaxy right away ! Or go donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
