HLnovel Chapter 50 Heavenly Palace Chapter: Prequel "Sudden Troubles"
Chapter 50 Heavenly Palace Chapter: Prequel "Sudden Troubles"
Time flies, and five years have passed in the blink of an eye.
During this period, Phildor, Lifara, and Helarim were, in order, sergeant, second lieutenant, and first lieutenant, respectively, with Helarim replacing Linde as instructor.
As for this matter, Instructor Linde herself had no interest in it before going to the military camp to train the new recruits. In fact, she was quite happy before she left. Ming even saw relief in her eyes and showed a tiny bit of pity towards Horalim, who was still smiling as he took over.
As for Ming, he was in the SSS rank. Thanks to his great contributions in the 'Htn Incident' and his terrifying strength and powerful combat ability, he was rapidly promoted from corporal to lieutenant.
On a clear, sunny day in London, England, at noon on July 5, 1997, at a well-known Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Ming, who had just graduated from university a few days earlier, was there.
Ming sat leisurely in a restaurant, quietly enjoying a bowl of steaming wontons.
This bowl of wontons was of great significance to him, as it was the first time he had tasted a traditional dish from his hometown since he transmigrated, even though the way it was prepared wasn't authentic.
Ming has now grown into a young man, reaching a height of 1.82 meters, which is above the average height in Japan. He has a tall and upright figure, but is somewhat thin. His sickly pale face has not changed much.
It should be noted that after Ming became an elf, his growth almost stopped. Although there were subtle changes, they were difficult to detect.
Three years ago, Möbius said that Ming's height had not increased for a long time, which was very pitiful. This statement hit Ming's sore spot, so he used the characteristics of the spiritual crystal in his body to slightly increase his height.
Back to the main topic, let's talk about Ming, who was still eating wontons.
"Delicious." He said stiffly, picking up the wontons in his hand with a blank expression and gently putting them into his mouth.
Then his expression froze, as if he had remembered something, and a fleeting look of nostalgia slowly appeared on his cold face.
"I really miss it... just like the food my mother, the only one who was kind to me in my past life, made by hand..."
Just as I was about to recall this moment, the phone in my pocket suddenly rang.
A look of displeasure flashed across Ming's face. He then put down his chopsticks, took out his phone, and saw a message from someone whose contact name was "Father." Upon seeing this, he was stunned again, and the displeasure on his face faded, replaced by confusion.
"Strange? Why would Father suddenly send me a message when it's not a holiday?"
Ming thought to himself, then opened the text message with a puzzled look. Every year before Christmas Eve, he would go back to Japan to see Wu Yilang and the others, so his family relationships wouldn't have deteriorated too much.
"By the way: Ming didn't tell Wu Yilang and the others about joining the SSS. Anyway, his name in the military is now Klein, so they shouldn't be able to trace it back to him."
The note simply stated, 'Xiao Ming has an urgent family matter. Return to Japan immediately and come to the new headquarters of Okayamine Heavy Industries in Tengu City!'
Ming frowned in confusion, his lips moving slightly as he murmured, "The new headquarters of Gangfeng Heavy Industry in Tiangong City? What urgent matter has happened there? Ah!"
His mind was filled with doubt, and he was completely baffled.
However, despite having many questions, Ming didn't choose to ask further. He simply finished the rest of his wontons quickly and prepared to go to SSS to ask Instructor Horim for leave to return to Japan.
Ming rushed home, quickly went upstairs, and then rushed into his room to start organizing his clothes.
When he opened the wardrobe, it was full of black suits and black shirts, except for a few slightly worn school uniforms.
The clothes were arranged neatly together, as if forming a mysterious and deep black ocean.
Mingxian frowned slightly, pondering to himself:
"Uh... But, because of habit, I've always bought black clothes before, and when I move things with my fingers, anything other than clothes with spiritual energy structure will fall to the ground, so I've hardly ever tidied them up?"
However, time was of the essence, and he didn't have time to think much. He quickly picked out a few pieces of clothing and put them in his suitcase.
Then he haphazardly stuffed in some everyday items until the suitcase was so full it could no longer be closed.
After finally finishing packing his luggage, Mingxian breathed a sigh of relief. He then picked up his heavy suitcase and hurried towards the SSS headquarters.
As Ming arrived at the entrance of this building, which was much larger than it had been five years ago, he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions.
Five years ago, the existence of a certain brave, handsome, and powerful "Flame Beast" that made villains fear him led to increased attention from the British government and various countries' departments dealing with spirits.
Today, the SSS headquarters has been expanded by six or seven floors. This once rather secretive elf force has grown from a small force of only a dozen people and a few elites into a powerful force with more than 100 members.
Thinking of this, Ming's lips twitched. He would never forget the scene when all the usually composed seniors of SSS suddenly became agitated after learning the news that day.
"What is this [Flame Beast]! What a disaster! This is my dad! We sergeants used to earn less than 1 a month, but with him we have 1! It's awesome! If I work a few more years, I won't have to worry about my retirement."
"I vaguely remember that this was said by a teammate whose image I don't remember. At that time, I was drinking juice to celebrate and I even sprayed it all over Lifara's face when she came over to toast with me."
Ming slowly snapped out of his reverie. He took a deep breath and then strode confidently into SSS’s underground training headquarters, which was several times larger than before.
As soon as I entered, I was immediately struck by a tense and busy atmosphere.
"Well, at least the price of the pay raise is that the recruits' training has increased several times over," Ming added, seeing the new recruits still training hard.
While Ming was still complaining, he saw a figure rushing towards him. It was none other than Fei Erduo, the only one who had not been promoted.
Before Ming could react, Fildo was already standing in front of him, panting, and said anxiously, "Little brother Klein, something bad has happened! Instructor Horim is looking for you everywhere, saying she has something important to discuss with you."
Ming sighed helplessly, "Why is it me again? So many people are looking for me today. But it's perfect timing, I also need to see Instructor Horim." After saying that, he quickly walked towards Instructor Horim.
Upon arriving at the instructor's office, Ming knocked on the door. "Come in," came Instructor Horarim's weary voice from inside. Ming pushed open the door and entered, finding Instructor Horarim frowning and deep in thought, staring at a pile of documents.
"Senior Horalim, you were looking for me?" Ming asked.
"Yes, Klein. There's an urgent mission right now, but considering your consistently excellent performance, and even the fact that this mission is crucial to whether we can continue our daily routine of nominally capturing Pokémon while actually just doing mundane tasks and slacking off..."
Horalim was about to immediately pass the task to Ming, who was currently the most capable person, when she inadvertently noticed the suitcase Ming was carrying, and an awkward look appeared in her eyes.
“Klein, what are you doing? Are you really planning to leave? Wait! Don’t rush off! Although since I became your instructor, I have always preferred to assign you to the most challenging and difficult tasks, it’s because I know your outstanding abilities and believe that it is the most reliable and dependable way to handle these tricky situations! But in any case, you shouldn’t just resign so easily!”
Horalim's face was filled with panic. If she hadn't been working overtime to correct documents, making it difficult for her to stand up completely, Ming felt that she would definitely have knelt on the ground and begged, hugging her own legs.
After a long silence in the office...
Ming shook his head expressionlessly and explained, "Heralim, you've misunderstood. I'm not resigning. I just want to take a break because there's some urgent business back home in Japan that I need to go back to check on..."
'Although you've given me so many tasks, you're really not treating me like a human being.' The following paragraph is Ming's true feelings, but he didn't say it out loud for the sake of his colleague's face.
Instructor Horalim breathed a sigh of relief. "In that case, this mission is perfect for you. You can take a break right after you finish escorting her, and we can send another group to pick her up." Instructor Horalim seemed to have grasped at a lifeline.
Ming sighed unsurprisingly after hearing this, "Ah! What... Okay, but what are the mission details?"
Horalim immediately explained, "This mission is of utmost importance. You're escorting Her Majesty the First Princess of Great Britain to a secret national conference on spacequakes in Japan. Since you're on your way back to Japan, why not give her a ride?"
Ming nodded helplessly, but in his heart he was worried that this eldest princess would definitely be difficult to serve.
Haralim noticed Ming's worry and said with a smile, "Don't worry, Her Highness the First Princess may seem a bit cold on the outside, but she's a stunning beauty who's even more beautiful than any of us!"
Having said that, Horalim placed a scroll of documents on Ming's desk. Ming picked it up, glanced at it, nodded, and said:
“Angelica, right? Uh… that sounds familiar, but leave it to me. But where is she now?” After reading the document, Ming returned it and asked Horarim, whose eyes were shining with excitement.
"Yes! Her Majesty the First Princess is currently in the highest VIP suite at our London Airport."
With a barely suppressed smirk, Hedalim quickly told Ming where the First Princess was. A moment later, Ming picked up his suitcase and left her office.
Upon seeing Mingke heading to London Airport, Haralim finally seemed relieved and shouted, "Go and work overtime for our future happiness!"
Note: Actually, this was the instructor's private task, but because Hedarim had a mountain of documents to review after becoming an instructor, she asked Ming to take her place.
Q: Why didn't she go to Lifara, who was also a major like Ming? A: Of course, Lifara had already noticed the instructor's subtle actions and refused him before she could even speak.