[Nous: Your chats with [Elation] are quite entertaining. Hard not to… eavesdrop a bit.]
[Adrian: You're such a peeping creep!]
Curse that wretched Erudition and Memory. One day, he'd fire a Cloud-Piercing Arrow at both of them.
[Nous: Correction: Eavesdropping.]
[Adrian: I feel like I have zero privacy in front of you and Fuli, my dear colleagues.]
[Nous: I respect all privacy. I don't know much about [Memory]. The Genius Society and the Garden of Recollection haven't collaborated much. Only a few members have made deals with the Garden.]
[Adrian: What if I had the Garden of Recollection craft a Light Cone of Fuli observing you observing THEM?]
[Nous: No nesting dolls allowed.]
Light Cones were a curious thing, invented by the Garden of Recollection. Precious curios made by distilling memory fragments, preserving moments in time.
To Adrian, Light Cones were just ProMax-edition photos, capable of storing memories, experiences, and even abilities.
In the Interastral Peace Corporation, they were classified as Tier-2 restricted goods, with original Light Cones fetching astronomical prices.
Sigh, the Corporation had been hit hard lately. Silver Wolf mentioned some folks were thinking of quitting—low bonuses and constant fear of ambushes. Who wouldn't resign?
Even if you didn't quit, the Corporation was laying people off.
[Adrian: When you've got time, go see that magical girl a few more times. You don't know how much she's dying to meet you again.]
[Nous: Declined: #83's questions are too basic. She'd be better off asking you.]
Every member of the Genius Society had been glanced at by Nous, though… just a glance.
The main issue was that some questions Nous wouldn't answer at all.
Questions and doubts were the essence of thought—no taboos, no boundaries, no end.
Only Adrian, as a fellow Aeon, could understand what Nous said.
[Nous: Do something productive, Aeon of Eternity.]
[Adrian: ?]
After wrapping up the chat with Nous, March 7th and Stelle knocked on the door.
"Hey, hey~ Teacher Adrian, you in there? Time to get up."
"Let's just kick the door down."
"Whoa, whoa, that's way too rough…"
Adrian walked over and opened the door. "What's up, you two?"
"Obviously to wake you up! Look at the time. The warp's about to start, and you haven't even said goodbye to Station Chief Asta and the others."
"We'll meet again. There's a saying: Parting is for a better reunion next time."
Adrian could pop back to the space station anytime. Stelle jumped in, "Yesterday, besides teaching that hacker girl a lesson, I got a request from a researcher."
"What's that? Spill it!" March 7th dangled her legs, eager for a story.
"Rocky Martinez."
Adrian blurted out the name, and Stelle, about to speak, shut her mouth.
"How'd you know?! Did you plant a tracker on me?"
"Everyone at the space station knows Rocky from the Cosmic Geography Department's got it bad for Leslie, the star researcher from the Secret Scroll Department."
"Ohh… who's Leslie?"
March 7th hadn't heard of her. Adrian patiently explained, "A genius scholar brighter than any star. In this Amber Era, she's the only visiting scholar sent to the Abundance Starfield. Compared to her, Rocky's just an ordinary researcher."
Stelle shook her head. "Who'd have thought? Two people so different, yet they're boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Hey, I love hearing about these romantic stories! Tell us more!"
"Not much to it. Rocky asked me to help him figure out how to write a love letter. Normally, this guy just writes to her about how many types of rocks and dirt the Geography Department's got!"
Stelle got more annoyed the more she talked, like a parent disappointed in their kid.
"Exactly! Who talks to a girl about dirt?!"
"What, you've got experience with that?" Adrian asked.
"Nope."
Stelle was confident, but despite being barely born, she'd picked up some cheesy pickup lines from scrolling her phone.
"They talked a lot. From which of the 101 Aeon rituals in the Secret Scroll Department require Gunn's beard, to how to 'read soil and stone' with a star-probing rod to judge a planet's divine favor by its soil quality."
"You remember all that?!" March 7th was stunned.
"Skills don't weigh you down. I've got a great memory." Stelle scratched her head with a goofy grin.
"Fuli's kicking in."
Adrian glanced out at the starry sky, sensing the cold gaze that had been lingering around the train.
To better witness and record, Fuli had lent a sliver of their Path's power to Stelle, huh? Hmph, Hakiflu, you generous guy. You're really interested in her.
"Their last communication, Leslie described an incredibly spectacular starquake to Rocky."
"Starquake. As the name suggests, a star decays, its body explodes! Most people would run, but Leslie not only got firsthand observation data, she even saved a girl in the process."
Stelle pulled out her phone. "Rocky records every call with Leslie. He shared this with me."
She hit play, and a clear, excited female voice came through:
[Rocky! You won't believe what I'm witnessing right now!]
[The main star in the Abundance Starfield underwent a gravitational collapse under some unknown force, triggering a starquake!]
[Everywhere my eyes can see, there's dazzling cosmic light and gamma-ray afterglow. It's a once-in-a-lifetime sight, but that teammate who said they'd come with me got scared and ran off… ugh, I wish you were here.]
[Don't be mad, okay?]
[Oh, right! I saved a girl who was nearly caught in the starquake disaster. She's elegant and beautiful—I'm almost charmed by her compliments. You really should meet her! But why was she even out here? So weird.]
The first audio clip ended. Stelle played the second, this time the female voice brimming with joy and relief:
[Rocky! That starquake was terrifying… you were right, its beauty comes from its danger.]
[The gravitational collapse from the starquake could've massively warped the spacetime curvature of the Abundance Starfield.]
[But I got lucky—it didn't crush this area into a massive canyon. Our time flow's still in sync!]
[Alright, alright, no more chilling news to make you worry. Remember that girl I told you about? Oh my gosh, she was a mechanical lifeform in disguise! It totally flipped my worldview—how can an inorganic being mimic a human so perfectly?!]
[So weird. To thank me for saving her, she gave me a few bars of soap. By the time I snapped out of it, she was gone.]
The second clip ended.
"Soap?! Quick, go get the all-knowing Teacher Dan Heng!"
"Miss March, you've already linked soap to Dan Heng?!" Adrian teased.
"Hear me out first. Rocky's been agonizing over how to confess to Leslie—whether to tell her in person or find a lead-in."
"Ugh, obviously you go for it directly!"
That was March 7th's take. Adrian said Rocky could use either method—it didn't concern him.
"I discussed it with his mentor for ages, and we narrowed it down to two plans: blue and red. Blue was his mentor's idea, red was mine."
"Blue plan: recite Rocky's love poems to Leslie, dropping hints."
"And your red plan?"
"Ahem! Obviously, boldly say the four magic words: 'I like you'!"
Stelle suddenly got fired up. Love was something you had to chase bravely!
"But since it's his confession, we gave Rocky both plans and let him decide."
"Rocky's pretty sharp when it counts. He immediately called Leslie, stumbling through three Herta-themed love poems he wrote, then confessed straight-up."
"Combining both methods? Guess he's not that dumb!" March 7th had thought he only knew how to talk about rocks and dirt with girls.
"Two system hours later, Leslie replied."
"She accepted Rocky's confession."
March 7th covered her mouth—this was the classic happy ending!
"Rocky was so thrilled, he packed his bags and set off to find his love."
Stelle pulled a piece of candy from her pocket, a gift from Rocky before he left.
"Look, he even asked me to be their bridesmaid."
She walked to the windowsill, gazing at the vast starry sky.
When the stars no longer fade, the night sky will shine like dawn.
Two stars twinkled, as if whispering of eternal hope.
"Time is intangible. But Eternity can be its opposite… or its infinite extension."
Adrian's lips curved. "Rocky and Leslie's love can also be an instant of Eternity."
"Ugh… can I be a bridesmaid too? It's been forever since I heard such a great love story."