Planet Juvia was a small planet. In fact, it had lost its status as a planet a long time ago, much to the dismay of the inhabitants of the icy rock. A race of frost spirits lived on the planet, the only things that could naturally survive its freezing climate. Although there weren’t many metals located within the planet, and the frost spirits were never able to achieve the status of a galactic race by themselves, they were still a part of the intergalactic society. They had been discovered by the coalition, and since their planet was in the perfect position to leave an outpost, one had been established there. Since the frost spirits fed off of frost energy, and the humans sustained themselves on spiritual energy, there was absolutely no conflict between the two species. As such, the relationship of the frost spirits with humans was a harmonious one.
Jax lived on Juvia. Jax was not a frost spirit. He lived a miserable life. As the bastard son of a famous man who wanted nothing to do with him, Jax grew up without a father in his life. His mother died when he was seven, and to survive, he had joined a gang. Later on, the gang leader fell in love with a police officer and disbanded the gang, leaving Jax homeless. Luckily, by that time, he was old enough to join the army. There, he had fallen in love with the girl of his dreams, but she left him for their commanding officer. Unable to deal with the guilt of leaving Jax, the ex-love of his life beseeched the commanding officer she was sleeping with to send Jax far away. As such, Jax was assigned to the faraway borders of the coalition on an outpost in Juvia. His life was an unfortunate series of events, and another unfortunate event was heading his way.
Jax frowned at the increasing levels of spiritual energy that the outpost radar was picking up. The outpost was specially built to detect spaceships of all sizes; however, the radar must’ve been broken. The energy levels were topping the charts, literally. The display only measured up to three digits, but all of those digits had turned into a nine. Since the units were measured logarithmically, even a whole fleet of battleships would produce two hundred units of spiritual energy. If the ship that was approaching really did exist, then its spiritual energy level was over nine hundred! Or, it was simply a bug.
Jax sighed and opened a clear glass cover, exposing a blue button to the air. Why did this bug have to occur on his shift? Now, he was responsible for reporting it to the captain, who’d forward him to the engineers back on a normal planet inhabited by humans, and he’d have to follow their instructions to fix whatever was wrong. It had to happen at the very end of his shift too; his work hours were going to be extended by a few hours at least. Since he was a soldier, he wouldn’t even receive overtime pay. Jax pressed the button and waited.
“What is it?”
“Sir, there’s a bug with the SE radar,” Jax said. “It says an object with a spiritual energy level of nine-nine-nine is approaching us at a high—oh, wait, it says it’s already here. Should I call the engineers to fix the radar?”
A voice responded, but not that of the captain’s. It was a woman’s voice coming from behind him. “Are you talking to the leader of this outpost?”
Jax whirled around. A beautiful woman wearing ice as a dress was standing behind him, one hand casually resting on her sword’s hilt, the other hand resting atop the first hand, with her body slouching towards one side. A furrow appeared on Jax’s brow. “You can’t be in here. If the captain finds out, you’ll get in trouble. He’s a real bastard with the rules.” It was at that moment that Jax remembered he was on call with his captain and had just spoken those words out loud.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“What was that, private!? Who’s a real bastard about the rules? You and that frost spirit will wait right there! I’ll show you what it means to be a real bastard about the rules, understand!?”
There was a slamming sound, and it was evident the captain was on his way to the radar room right now. “Go,” Jax said, opening the door. “If he catches you here, you’ll be locked up for a while.”
The frost spirit raised an eyebrow. “No, I think I’ll stay right here.”
Jax was baffled. “But if you do that, you’ll get in trouble and possibly physically harmed. I’ll get in trouble for letting you go, but since I already made a mistake, it doesn’t matter if it gets worse.” A man in a million-dollar debt wouldn’t care if another ten thousand was added on top of it. However, why was he so unlucky? First, the radar was broken; then, a frost spirit snuck into the room while he was on call with the captain, and now, she wasn’t even willing to leave. Wait a minute. Could it be? Of course, why else would a frost spirit do this? “D-do you like me?”
The frost spirit’s face remained the same. It was as if she hadn’t heard Jax speak the words at all. Jax gulped. Why wasn’t the response what it was supposed to be? If someone was suddenly asked that question by their crush, they’d flush in embarrassment. If someone was suddenly asked that question by a random stranger, they’d be confused. However, there was no reaction at all! After thinking about it for a while, Jax realized frost spirits didn’t have any blood, so they couldn’t blush in the first place, and since the frost spirit didn’t look confused, then it was clear! The frost spirit must’ve seen him before since he had been living here for over two years now. “There’s no need to be shy,” Jax said. “Just tell me what you’re thinking.”
The frost spirit asked a very strange question, “What do you think will be the most painless way to kill someone while preserving their dignity?”
Jax wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Should he answer seriously? Take it as a joke? As someone who questioned the meaning of his existence often, he already knew how to respond to a question like that. Since the frost spirit seemed to be a direct person and since she wore such a serious expression, Jax decided to give her a straightforward answer. “No matter what, it’s definitely less painful if you’re unconscious. Also, it has to be instantaneous with the brain being destroyed all at once.”
For some reason, not long after saying that, Jax felt sleepy. It took him a few seconds to pass out. He never woke up again.
Rachel thought about the way she killed the man. It seemed like encountering the tribulation truly had changed her. Now, she was actually thinking about the ways to kill people who offended her instead of simply beheading them.
“Who the hell are you?”
Rachel turned around. Although she had sensed the man coming long ago, she hadn’t felt the need to turn around and act as if she were waiting for him. It wasn’t worth the effort. “I’m the false immortal, Rachel of the Moon Lotus Sect. I’m here to deliver a message to the false immortal of the coalition.”
The captain took a step back. False immortal? Then the SE radar wasn’t actually broken? It had reported the right number all along? The pressure coming off the woman in front of him was no joke, and he was a golden-core cultivator. “Uh, yes,” the captain said, not introducing himself, “what would you like it to say?”
“Come out and fight me, or I’ll turn everything you own into mine.”
The captain almost flinched. He knew it wasn’t going to be a friendly message, judging by the corpse on the ground, but he didn’t expect it to be so overbearing. The captain had loyally served in the coalition’s army for over two decades, but that didn’t mean he was planning on dying a needless death for it. He knew what he had to do to survive, and that was to not attempt to capture the woman in front of him, and obediently do what she asked instead. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll have your message sent to him immediately.”
“Good.”