251: A foolproof plan? It doesn't exist.

Kong Jiamu had not been able to return since the day The Emperor threw him out of the flagship.

He appeared on Tu Nan's Video Call in a state of exasperation, complaining that the workload Your Majesty assigned him was becoming increasingly ridiculous, making it impossible for him to complete in the short term.

Tu Nan scanned the online list and noticed that Hain's icon was lit.

But just as he had been most of the time lately, he didn't turn on his projection or speak; he simply stayed online quietly.

“Anyway, help me say some good things in front of Little Bird,” Kong Jiamu grumbled. “Look, he won't even greet me now.”

This Major General Kong was truly living a miserable life as a father.

He lowered his voice and said to Tu Nan, “Tell me, if Little Bird were a daughter, would he like me more? Definitely, right? This silly boy's aesthetic taste is absolutely terrible.”

Tu Nan looked down at “Little Bird” hiding under her desk; the child's ears were pricked up straight, clearly showing he wasn't as indifferent to Kong Jiamu as he seemed.

But now, unfortunately, he had heard everything.

Sure enough, the next moment Little Bird hugged Tu Nan's leg and pressed his face against it, not saying a word, just huffily refusing to let go.

Sigh, at this rate, when will the Peacock ever establish positive communication with his son? Tu Nan felt worried for him.

Of course, although Kong Jiamu was full of resentment, he was actually just complaining; after all, he was truly very busy.

The Emperor was equally busy.

Lately, The Emperor left the flagship almost every day, often failing to return by nightfall.

Tu Nan tried her best not to inquire about his whereabouts; after all, the more she knew, the harder it would be to maintain her lies.

She only softly said to him once: “Children will need you.”

“And you?” he asked her in a low voice.

“Everything has been going smoothly with work lately, I'm doing fine.”

She always brushed it off with such understatements.

She had sensed that the direction of The Emperor's questioning was becoming increasingly dangerous, and she knew exactly what that meant.

Meanwhile, that Silver Armored Knight—the other “Emperor”—was also absent more and more often in the afternoons.

“You've been so busy lately,” Tu Nan complained. “Without my body pillow for my nap, the quality of my sleep has declined.”

“A few days ago you were saying I was harassing you and giving you dark circles under your eyes. You're so difficult to please.”

He replied quickly, his tongue as sharp as ever.

With this excessive familiarity, Tu Nan could now easily distinguish the two by the slight rising inflection at the end of their sentences.

Days passed in this back-and-forth testing.

Until one day, the System somewhat shyly released a notification.

[Detected that the host is pregnant.]

Tu Nan let out a heavy sigh; what difference did it make whether this notification existed or not?

The System also knew its reminder wasn't of much use, so it tried its best to add more detail.

[Um... it's twins, did you know that?]

“I know that too.” This time she was being watched closely by James, and the prenatal checkup cycles were very frequent. Just a few days after her pregnancy was discovered, James confirmed she was carrying twins.

That day, the old doctor's hands were shaking with joy. When reporting to The Emperor, he kept muttering the very unscientific “beast god bless.”

His excitement, which exceeded Tu Nan's expectations, was actually due to a reason she hadn't anticipated.

“Your Majesty, it's two girls.”

“Girls? Two of them? Really?” The Emperor was beaming with joy, a rare sight.

The Emperor's imposing aura faded from him as he repeatedly kissed the top of Tu Nan's head.

“Daughters, two of them...” He even looked a bit silly.

James was even wiping away tears as he sighed emotionally, “Yes... the Royal Family hasn't had a Princess in many years.”

“Why, does the Royal Family favor daughters?” Tu Nan asked.

The Emperor didn't answer, but James took up the conversation.

“It might be that the Bloodline is too dominant. Imperial descendants have always been difficult to conceive.”

He glanced at The Emperor, and seeing that Your Majesty did not deny it, he continued: “If you were to check the Royal Family tree, going back ten generations, they were almost all males, and the numbers dwindled further with each generation. By the time it reached Your Majesty... well, you know.”

Tu Nan criticized inwardly.

What did she know?

Did she know that they clearly seemed to have a pair of twin Imperial Heirs, yet insisted on stuffing one of them into silver armor?

Or did she know that they had turned to cloning technology because descendants were so scarce?

She suddenly remembered The Emperor's unfinished, philosophically charged words from a few days ago.

Between those two Silver Armored Knights, which one was “forced by circumstances”? And which one was “unexpected”?

***

And so, exactly four months passed since she became pregnant.

The Star Worms' disturbances became increasingly frequent. Although still within controllable limits, The Emperor had already sensed something unusual.

He suspected these disturbances were related to the growth of the Two Children in Tu Nan's womb.

And if that were true, the day the Children were born would very likely trigger an unprecedented riot.

Therefore, accurately observing Tu Nan's due date became even more important; it even concerned the timing for the start of the great war.

For the first time, they could truly deploy troops in advance to surround and block the Star Worms.

But for Tu Nan's safety, he decided to take her back to the Capital City to give birth.

Moreover, his Children, the Empire's Imperial Heirs and future successors, being born in the Imperial Palace would make everything more perfectly legitimate.

“Then you'll need to transfer a new S-rank over to fill the vacancy left by you and the Silver Armored Knight,” Tu Nan said casually.

“Correct.” The Emperor smiled. “I will transfer an S-rank from the Fourth Legion.”

He paused, a faint, mocking smile on his lips.

“And then there's Hain. He has applied many times, wanting to come to the border to contribute. Since a Civil Official is so motivated, I cannot deprive him of this opportunity, don't you agree?”

Tu Nan gave a fake smile and didn't speak.

Why had Your Majesty been speaking in such a Yin and Yang way lately?

She certainly knew why Hain wanted to come; he surely wouldn't want Tu Nan to have already returned to the Capital City by the time he arrived.

But this was actually perfect for Tu Nan, as she was starting to find Hain's thoughts unreadable.

The emotions on Kong Jiamu's face were easy to identify, whereas Hain was sometimes far too restrained. Tu Nan believed she shouldn't continue to dig deeper.

Perhaps distance was a good thing for both of them, Tu Nan thought.

Seeing that she didn't object, The Emperor was finally somewhat satisfied.

He was like a Flood Dragon that had discovered a Treasure Trove, polishing that increasingly radiant gem every day.

But every time this precious jewel was polished to a brighter shine, he couldn't help but think: What if he had been the one to directly polish this unpolished jade from the very beginning?

Fortunately, he still had some time... The entire combat formation and the Star Worms were not stationary in space; they were constantly moving through the vast Asteroid Belt.

And on this day, the clearance mission proceeded exceptionally fast. Those high-level Star Worms were surprisingly cooperative and were smoothly cut down by him. Soon, only a large number of low-level species remained.

He could completely leave the rest to his subordinates.

Handing the cleanup task over to the legion soldiers, The Emperor decided to return early.

He wanted to go back and accompany Tu Nan to watch that starry sea the flagship was about to pass through; when he left today, he noticed that a part of it actually looked like a Flood Dragon.

It was rare for The Emperor to have such romantic whims.

They were about to turn back to the Capital City soon, and such an opportunity might not come again in the short term. The Emperor wanted to tell Tu Nan about one of his decisions under the starlight.

In order not to miss the angle of that Nebula, he left the main fleet behind and rushed back.

It was just afternoon. When he arrived at the conference room, the busy staff told him that Tu Nan had gone for a nap.

But he had already been back to their room, and she wasn't there. He frowned, stepped out of the conference room, and while walking down the corridor, he used his authority to pull up the surveillance footage, finding the clip of the conference room and rewinding it.

He saw Tu Nan walk out of the office, turn left, and after walking a short distance, push open the door to a room.

She had actually found a room nearby.

It seemed she thought going back to their room was too far and tiring, the lazy cat. The Emperor shook his head with a chuckle.

He would just have to go there to pick her up. The Emperor was about to close the surveillance when he suddenly saw a strange, blurred figure appear in the middle of the next clip.

The person swayed over from the end of the corridor and directly pushed open the door to that room.

He froze on the spot, his blood running cold in an instant.

This was his flagship. Out of respect for royal authority, the surveillance footage would blur his figure when it scanned him.

But he was standing right here, and he hadn't been on the flagship at all today.

Furthermore, he had no memory of ever having gone to that room.

So the question arose.

Who was that?

He already knew, he just didn't want to believe it.

But in his heart, he seemed to have a sudden realization. It was that inkling he hadn't understood before, seen in the various data reports he received every time he woke up.

Now those scattered Pearl were strung together by a thread.

Everything was almost clearly visible.

The Emperor's golden eyes turned toward the direction Tu Nan had gone.

Concealing all his presence, he walked silently toward that room.