Transmigrated to the Interstellar Era to Raise Mermaids GL - Chapter 18
That evening, on the wide welcoming avenue of the Mûsin main planet.
A column of soldiers on motorcycles led the way, and dozens of military vehicles closely escorted an extra-long luxury sedan toward the Grand Cathedral.
Crowds gathered on both sides of the street. When people saw the sedan approaching, they excitedly surged forward. The police maintaining order on the street had to shout to restrain them. The clamor on the street was deafening and persistent.
Orsa sat ramrod straight in the back of the luxury sedan. She was wearing a military uniform with a badge pinned to her chest, her golden hair tied up and hidden under the brim of her hat, her sharp gaze scanning the situation along the street.
She said to her aide beside her: “The police force is clearly understaffed. Transfer three companies from the army for support.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
The aide immediately conveyed the order. She looked at Orsa’s seemingly frozen expression and said with a nervous smile: “There’s nothing we can do. The Grand Cathedral is even more packed, and the Saintess of the Tarte system requested fireworks and firecrackers. The police were afraid of chaos, so they sent most of their personnel there.”
The chill in Orsa’s eyes deepened. She snorted lightly: “An official visitor doesn’t go to the Imperial Palace to see Her Majesty, but demands that I meet her at the church, and spreads the word for people to gather and watch. What a grand show!”
This visiting Saintess was the daughter of the Pope of the Holy Eagle Papacy, which ruled the Tarte system. To ease the tension between the two princesses, the aide explained: “Your Highness, you have been living a secluded life in the military for a long time. She knew she wouldn’t see you even if she went to the Imperial Palace, so she made this request. And look at the people on the street holding banners and fans, they are all here for you! Why don’t you open the window and wave to everyone?”
Orsa glanced at her and said coolly, “If there’s a stampede incident, will you take responsibility?”
The aide immediately wiped her sweat with a handkerchief, not daring to say another word.
The sedan stopped at the entrance of the Grand Cathedral. Orsa, dressed in a peacock blue military uniform, stepped out of the car.
Under the bright and magnificent lights, her cool and noble demeanor was strikingly dazzling. The layers of onlookers, seeing her graceful appearance, immediately let out gasps of admiration and ecstatic howls.
“Ahhh! After one year, three months, and six days, I finally see Your Highness again! That profile is so perfect it’s simply deadly!”
“Your Highness is still so beautiful, so captivating! I envy the Saintess of the Tarte system, is she going to meet Your Highness in a moment?”
“If only it were just that! It is said that this Saintess has admired Your Highness for a long time. Maybe she has some other intentions!”
“What intentions? What intentions! Her Royal Highness the Grand Princess is the dream of three hundred million young men and women of the Mûsin system! I won’t accept anyone having her all to themselves, ahhhh!”
Seeing Orsa elegantly shrug the red cloak, representing the royal family, onto her shoulder, the onlookers collectively clutched their chests and let out a sharp gasp, falling into madness again as they watched her receding figure.
The Saintess standing in the main hall of the church heard the shouts outside. She hastily smoothed her skirt and tidied her hair, then instructed the choir leader: “Start when she pushes the door open!”
Orsa pushed the door open and was surprised to see the main hall, which she thought would only have a few people, filled with Papal believers holding candles, reciting a hymn in unison to her.
A blue-haired girl in a snow-white gown walked up to her, lifted her skirt, and elegantly curtsied: “Your Highness, it is an honor to see you again. I am Fleur, daughter of the Holy Eagle Papacy’s Pope.”
Orsa politely bowed in return: “Hello. I am Orsa, Grand Princess of the Mûsin system.”
She had lived in an extremely quiet environment since childhood, and her ears had been filled with clamor along the way. Now, hearing the choir’s singing only gave her a headache, so she said: “Your Excellency the Saintess, it is getting late. Please come with me to the Imperial Palace to rest!”
“Wait a moment!” Fleur said bashfully: “Your Highness, I have prepared a small welcome gift for you. Could you accompany me to the back hall first?”
Orsa just wanted to get away from the singing crowd and have some peace and quiet, so she followed Fleur into the empty back hall of the church.
The Grand Cathedral was designed with a high, vaulted ceiling. Looking up through the large glass skylight, one could see the stars and moon outside.
Fleur took out a delicate and beautiful small box and handed it to Orsa: “Your Highness, please accept it with a smile.”
Orsa was finally able to find some peace, but her expression became extremely serious the moment she took the box. She grabbed Fleur’s hand and asked in a low voice, “What is inside?”
“Ah?” Fleur blinked with a sweet smile: “You’ll know once you open it!”
Orsa’s ears twitched. Confirming that she hadn’t misheard the sound inside the box, she said coldly, “Did Your Excellency the Saintess travel thousands of miles just to give me a bomb?”
“What?”
Fleur jerked her hand away in shock, forced to retreat a few steps by the bone-chilling hostility radiating from Orsa’s eyes: “N-no, it’s just a harmless flare. As soon as you open the box, the fireworks outside will start…”
She just wanted to create a romantic moment exclusive to the two of them!
Seeing the panic in Fleur’s eyes, Orsa understood that the contents of the box had been swapped.
Without needing to open the box, she immediately judged the bomb’s power by its sound and weight, and it was about to enter the final countdown to explosion.
Excluding this quiet back hall, the church inside and out was completely surrounded by people. There was no time to defuse the bomb, and nowhere to throw it away.
Orsa scanned the surroundings, then decisively placed the box on a chair in the center of the room. The explosion power here would not breach the walls and affect the innocent crowds outside.
She looked up and saw Fleur still standing there foolishly, so she had no choice but to step forward, grab her, and rush out: “Hurry up! It’s about to explode!”
The moment Orsa opened the door, the small box behind her suddenly erupted with a “boom.” She forcefully flung Fleur out the door, blocking the rolling, surging flames with her own body…
The people inside and outside the church heard a thunderous, earth-shattering sound. Before anyone could react to what had happened, a burst of colorful fireworks exploded in the sky, illuminating the dark night like day.
Oh, so the firecrackers had started!
The crowds happily looked up at the brilliant night sky lit by the fireworks, completely unaware that the shocking moment just past was their beloved Grand Princess decisively sacrificing herself for everyone’s safety.
“Run, run! It’s about to explode!… My legs, my legs!!!”
Orsa could only watch helplessly as her legs were blown off. She suddenly woke up from her meditation, sweat pouring down, and saw her regrown fish tail, finally pulling herself out of the terrifying memory.
After two more meditations, she finally recovered all her memories.
She could even see through her groggy consciousness after being bombed: Fleur crying and rushing towards her, Ouda leading the Royal Guard to seal the church exit, and her long-unseen mother appearing beside her hospital bed.
The Empress of the Mûsin system glanced at Orsa, who was charred and missing limbs, and turned to ask the doctor, “What is her condition?”
“Please rest assured, Your Royal Highness the Grand Princess possesses the Lasea family’s strongest mental power. As long as she is sent back to the Cêzar Planet to recuperate for a period, she will be able to recover on her own.”
“Immediately dismiss everyone on the Cêzar Planet and send her there to recuperate.”
After instructing her subordinates, the Empress asked, “How long exactly is ‘a period’?”
“That… Your Highness had her legs blown off. She needs to regrow her fish tail and undergo another shedding. Her last shedding took three years.”
The doctor judged based on experience: “Given Her Royal Highness’s current physical condition, she should only need about a year to fully recover.”
The Empress nodded, preparing to leave the ward.
The subordinates exchanged quick glances, and Ouda spoke up: “Your Majesty, since Her Highness is so severely injured, does she need someone to be sent to take care of her this time?”
The doctor hastily added: “Yes, yes, Her Highness’s condition is actually very poor. After waking up without her fish tail, she will temporarily lose all her abilities, and even her memory will need time to recover gradually.”
“No need.”
The Empress turned around, her gaze sternly sweeping over everyone, and said sharply: “I already said last time, as the heir to the Mûsin system, she must endure loneliness and solitude, and grow up independently without relying on anyone!”
“Everything will be the same as last time. Finding someone who doesn’t know her on a remote planet to be the administrator is enough! Also, this incident involves diplomacy with other planets. Until the truth is uncovered, no one is allowed to leak a single word!”
Orsa looked at the dim and empty clamshell in front of her, ending her recollection.
She couldn’t help but raise her hand to stroke her recovered fish tail, finding it hard to believe that she had recalled everything even before shedding her skin.
It hadn’t even been three months; the recovery was too fast!
It seems Mother was wrong. Loneliness and solitude cannot help her grow…
Orsa smiled silently. She could feel that the time for her next shedding was not far off.