The sky was completely dark.

At this hour, the only one who would request a video call was the Minister of Internal Affairs, Sai En.

“First, congratulations to the Marshal on successfully completing the drill once again,” said the elderly man in the projection. His greying hair was neatly slicked back with hair gel, and his sharply tailored formal suit made him look even more energetic and dignified. His tone carried unmistakable admiration. “You’ve worked hard.”

Fu Linyuan’s expression remained calm. “You flatter me.”

“An urgent report came in from Fortes Base an hour ago,” Sai En didn’t bother with further pleasantries and got straight to the point. “The garrison has already detected traces of the Zerg. This year’s patrol will likely have to start earlier. At the latest, in four weeks, the Zerg swarm is expected to reach the vicinity of the base’s jump point.”

The Aon Empire was located in the eastern region of the entire interstellar federation. Fortes Base was situated right on the eastern border of the empire.

It was the planet farthest from the capital’s main star and served as one of the boundary markers of Aon’s territory.

Especially when it came to resisting the annual winter Zerg wave, Fortes’ geographical location made it a critically important military fortress in the east of the empire.

Thus, over the past five or six years, the patrol duties had always fallen to the elite First Legion.

Typically, the Zergs would appear in large numbers near Fortes Base between mid to late December.

And it was only early September now.

It was indeed much earlier than usual.

Upon hearing this, Fu Linyuan furrowed his brows slightly. “Has His Majesty been informed?”

“His Majesty has already reviewed the report.” Minister Sai En tapped the intelligent terminal beside him, and a secure file was transmitted to Fu Linyuan’s device. “Here it is… His Majesty’s intention is for the First Legion to depart on patrol as soon as possible.”

At this point, Sai En’s tone softened with a hint of apology. “During this time, you were originally scheduled to undergo treatment at the research institute…”

The instability of the First Legion Marshal’s mental sea was no secret. Everyone knew the price of possessing immense power.

Fu Linyuan did not respond to that. He simply lowered his head and quickly began reading through the file Sai En had sent.

The report wasn’t long. It summarized that the previous evening, a patrol team had discovered signs of a Zerg nest about two hundred star-miles outside the base perimeter.

It included detailed records of numbers, coordinates, and even surveillance photos taken by drones.

Roughly three hundred star-miles beyond the Fortes Base perimeter, there was a massive natural jump point formed by a collapsed black hole. Every late autumn, hordes of Zerg would emerge from it and advance toward Fortes Base.

The purpose of the patrol was to repel these Zerg.

“…Understood.” Having quickly noted the key details, Fu Linyuan looked up. “I’ll have the legion prepare to set out as soon as possible.”

Sai En responded affirmatively, then paused and added, “There’s one more matter. His Majesty specifically asked me to inform you personally.”

“This year, His Majesty’s birthday banquet will be attended by many allies from the Federation, including members of the royal family of the Punk Empire.” As he spoke, Sai En’s pale green eyes observed Fu Linyuan’s reaction. “The Crown Princess of Punk… just turned twenty-five this year.”

Upon hearing this, Fu Linyuan’s just-relaxed brows furrowed again.

“Trade between Punk and Aon has grown increasingly frequent in recent years, and their economy has been flourishing. His Majesty hopes the Marshal will assist the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in receiving the royal family of Punk.” Sai En tapped the table lightly with his finger and added, “But if the Marshal already has someone in mind…”

“I don’t.” From Sai En’s perspective, Fu Linyuan’s already impassive voice had turned completely cold, with no attempt to hide his displeasure. “There’s no need for the ministers to concern themselves with matters like this.”

Cut off, Sai En fell silent for a moment, then said, “Truthfully, we old folks shouldn’t interfere in personal affairs like this. But a stable partner can help regulate mental fluctuations…”

A fixed partner could use their own mental power to soothe the other’s turbulent mental sea. Although it worked more slowly than strong tranquilizers, the effect lasted longer and had far less strain on the body.

After years of research at the institute, it was found that the closer two individuals’ mental fluctuations matched, the higher the success rate of mutual stabilization.

Thus, this fluctuation similarity was also called a compatibility rate. At the military academy where Fu Linyuan once studied, all students had to undergo a compatibility test before graduation to help them find their ideal match.

Those who continued to work in the military could participate in an annual compatibility test.

Fu Linyuan remained the only graduate over the years to possess SSS-level mental power.

Whether out of curiosity or deeper motives, many people wanted to know what kind of partner someone like Fu Linyuan would ultimately match with.

But every year, the result was exactly the same — the test showed that only someone with equally powerful mental strength could be a match.

If the disparity in power was too great, the weaker party would be unable to help the stronger one and might even be affected by them, causing both to fall into a synchronized mental storm.

In other words, at present, there was still no suitable candidate in the entire Aon Empire.

As the commander of the First Legion, Fu Linyuan held immense power in his hands. Whether out of fear or the desire to win him over, countless eyes were fixed on the position beside him.

Unfortunately, this young Marshal himself seemed to have absolutely no interest in the matter.

Even someone as high-ranking as Minister Sai En could only receive a clearly impatient response: “Does the Minister have any other important matters to discuss?”

If Yu Bai had been present, he would definitely have remembered what a human looked like when angry in an instant.

He might even secretly think to himself that Fu Linyuan looked a little scary when angry.

Minister Sai En, interrupted for the second time, found it difficult to maintain his composure. As the Minister of Internal Affairs, second only to the Emperor, there were only a few people in the Empire who dared to speak to him like this.

Still, whether out of fear of the military power in the other man’s hands or for some other reason, Sai En managed to maintain a surface level of calm despite his dissatisfaction. He gave a few more formal reminders about the patrol mission before hastily ending the communication.

The study returned to silence.

Frowning, Fu Linyuan opened the star map on his smart terminal and began planning the Legion’s patrol deployment.

But within a few minutes, the man behind the desk suddenly looked up.

?

He seemed to faintly hear some sound.

The sound was very soft and indistinct. Fu Linyuan listened carefully for a few seconds before making it out.

It was the sound of water droplets.

From the bathtub in the bathroom.

The water under the fishtail suddenly began moving in a strange way. Yu Bai was startled, and his tail instinctively flicked, but ended up hitting the inner wall of the bathtub with a dull “thud.”

The movement of the fishtail splashed a large amount of water onto the floor.

Outside the door, Huo Si also detected the unusual disturbance. It politely knocked and asked, “Do you need assistance?”

After instinctively flicking his tail, Yu Bai finally saw a few fist-sized round holes had appeared at the bottom of the bathtub at some point. These holes were now gurgling and producing a large number of bubbles.

These bubbles were stirring the water.

The little mermaid, seeing a massage tub for the first time, was fascinated. Once he confirmed there was no danger, he ducked his head below the surface and began trying to blow bubbles along with the holes.

“Glub glub glub—”

Having fun, Yu Bai didn’t notice that, not receiving a response, Huo Si—after making a judgment—decided it was still necessary to go in and check.

The robot opened the door, carefully avoided the puddles on the floor, and walked to the edge of the bathtub.

“Mr. Yu?”

It softly called to the ‘person’ in the tub who was face-down in the water.

But Yu Bai’s ears were full of the sound of bubbling water and didn’t hear Huo Si calling him.

—No response to sound

—Face down in the water

—Completely motionless

—Strange silver reflective object in the water

…Could this guest have drowned?

Though the conclusion was a bit absurd, all of Huo Si’s programming prioritized the user’s personal safety above all else.

So even though the likelihood of drowning was low, Huo Si, following safety protocol, quickly reached out, trying to pull Yu Bai from the water.

Startled again by the sudden touch of icy mechanical hands, Yu Bai reflexively flicked his tail again.

This time, Huo Si—standing very close to the tub—got a full splash right in the face.

Water dripped into the seams of the robot’s outer casing, and the fragile mainframe immediately emitted some ominous “zzzzzt zzzzt” noises.

“Uh-oh—” Sensing something was very wrong, Huo Si immediately tried to reboot its system. “Initiating system reboot—”

It had only been one or two seconds. Yu Bai, now realizing that the thing touching his arm was Huo Si, had just surfaced from the water when he heard the robot saying something about rebooting.

“Huo Si?”

He didn’t understand what “reboot” meant, so he hesitantly called Huo Si’s name.

“Initiating system reboot—”

The little mermaid still didn’t understand.

“Re… re…”

He tried mimicking the word a few times but couldn’t get the pronunciation of “boot” quite right.

But in the waterlogged ears of the elderly, non-waterproof Huo Si, this stutter triggered a new command:

—Guest wants to take a bath; bathing requires filling the tub with water.

Then Yu Bai suddenly noticed the bubbles in the tub stopped.

Just as he was feeling confused, a large amount of water gushed out from the nearby shower head and water inlet, almost instantly filling the tub to the brim.

Excess water flowed over the pristine white edges and splashed onto the floor.

Yu Bai: …???

Following the suspicious puddles in the hallway, Fu Linyuan arrived at the bathroom door.

Now only a single door stood between him and the sounds of gushing water, which had grown noticeably louder.

Seeing the water seeping through the gap under the door, Fu Linyuan knocked.

“Yu Bai?”

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but the sound of water seemed to grow louder the moment he spoke.

The Marshal’s brows nearly twisted into a bow.

After a moment of thought, he decisively pulled open the door…

“WHOOSH——!!!”

A torrent of water with no clear source rushed out to meet him.

The powerful impact made Fu Linyuan stumble back a few steps, while his arms instinctively reached out and caught the person flung out by the water.

The body temperature was slightly cool, and the texture smooth and delicate.