Thuel was laying in his bunk resting at one of the cabins assigned to students. He may be royalty and his roommate may be the admiral's son but in the academy, they are equally low forms of life as the rest of the students.

He still smiled and promised himself a payback for how they fooled him but he was so happy. This party yesterday was fantastic. Then private party with his parents. He got so many small gifts from all his friends and he knew all of them were honestly given.

He burned all red at memory of best of them: Luna kissed him in cheek. But when he thought of it now while daydreaming of her he realized she actually might did that out of the custom of her ffather'speoples.

His home planet was called Nova Roma and was inhabited by descendants of Italians who claimed they originated from ancient Romans. It may sound complicated but compared to his father's family tree it was obvious. Their culture was warm, family-oriented, full of over expressions, and well... loud. How Luna could be this shy with such ancestry was a mystery but maybe because of her shyness, she was so cute.

He sighed with resignation. He will never dare to propose to her. At first, Fa'enni's race made his Mother a Queen since they had no idea what to do. They were all terrified after Days of Great Fear and Salvation as historians already started calling not so distant past and only she seem to know what to do. But now all Fa'enni are deadly serious about their newly funded monarchy and Royal Family.

His Mother is treated almost like the personification of the Star Goddess and certainly as a living saint. No wonder since it is her hard work that allowed for so much better standing of the entire race with the Terran Commonwealth after just 20 years than with the Federation during all previous centuries.

His Father was a war hero who led the Terran army and fleet to victory over the cursed lizard Hegemony. Near the war's conclusion he personally and alone killed the entire Xhrestla royal guard regiment guarding the Hegemon throneroom, killed Hegemon, and took his head as a gift for his mother.

And here I am. Zero pressure...

He wanted to cry sometimes. How on Earth he is gonna meet anyone's expectations having such great parents?! At least fate was merciful and he is everything best his parents could wish him to have. He studied hard the last few years and train himself to be a worthy leader. Defending Fa'enni and Commonwealth was a duty his mother bestowed upon Royal Family and he at last here did not disappoint anyone. The grueling training he attended made him a specialist in melee combat and usage of every weapon Terran Marine would use. That was at least comforting. He tried to think about something else and looked at his cadet's power sword.

He liked swords, they were elegant and deadly. Terran power swords look simply. Just take any medieval or other sword era arming sword, long sword, saber, rapier, katana just name it. However they are clean so no unnecessary spikes, stupid shapes or whatever. No rule of cool is allowed besides some embroilments or other decorations but nothing stupid. The material used in forging is a special alloy durable but not brittle. In its grip is a hidden power source but 'power' in 'power sword' is not refering to any bullshit lightnings or anything like that. But rather to practical solving of the problem that made swords cumbersome weapons.

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No matter how sharp your sword is when you hit your target your weapon inevitably will lose all its momentum due to friction and can even get stuck. The solution was maybe not simple but brilliant. In pommel and cross-guard are hidden microgravity generators. Or to be precise anti-gravity generators. The entire blade is enveloped in a field that gently but perceptibly repels the matter in contact with the flat part of the blade. It gives now the excuse for making edge monomolecular but now projectants faced the problem of dulling weapon edge. After a very long brain-storm session engineers finally decided they are stupid and the solution was all this time already implemented into their swords.

The gravity field generator in the cross-guard was replaced with a modified force field generator that clad the entire sword in a very thin but durable field. Normally force field dissipate energy. But when hit with kinetic weaponry it is capable of partially destroying the projectile. So after many trials and errors, they managed to create a cutting field. And that's what a power sword is. A cutting field can't be formed in thin air- it uses a sword blade to give itself shape while a repelling field simply cut material tensed like a bowstring no matter how deep the cut goes. With it, almost no material can stop a power sword, and that's why marines take their swords into battle.

Thuel looked at his inbox and saw a message with birthday wishes from Lady Khrisa. Luna's mom. Ehhh... There go away all distractions.

As for Luna... He made a sad face. I'm the prince of Fa'enni. If I ask her to be with me, she most probably will agree. Maybe not from love but from this newfound sense of duty that all Fa'enni developed. He couldn't rob her of her happiness even if it meant his torment.

What does grandpa tell in situations like this? Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather.

He was determined to make his parents proud. He will carry his duty if not with happiness then with dignity. He will spend the last month before graduation as close as possible to her. At least he has his best friend.

Johan was more than just a friend, Thuel could trust him with his life, competent as his father and trustworthy. They were like brothers raised together. When they finish their joint army and navy training here at Ra-Nael Academy both of them are going to join the most prestigious Navy Academy on Terra in the ancient city of Annapolis. They were selected as so-called Exceptional Students.

Johan was excited about their five years year-long visit to Earth but he had mixed feelings. That was Deathworld... Well, technically he is half-blood deathworlder... He sighed once again. But Luna and Anna will part with them. Johan and Anna were dating for some time. Anna is going for some science program her father run recently and she was tasked with some serious work so she will be buried in work for the next two years at least. But he didn't hear anything about Luna besides she will start working with her mother on this top-secret research ship his mom mentioned when they talked just before. He fell asleep thinking about the love of his life...