Chapter 17 - A SHOOTING STAR (OR IS IT?)

"SO, what happened to your hair?" Wulfric asked staring curiously at Edmund's shiny bald head.

They were already inside the flying shuttle that Edmund brought. He quickly drove the shuttle up before the general changed his mind and decided that his bald head was not interesting after all. Once the shuttle flew out of the Lawless Den and returned to space, he finally let out a sigh of relief. Surely, the general wouldn't be crazy enough to jump off the shuttle at this point.

So, he answered with a peace of mind, "Hil accidentally poured a non-washable glue on my hair a week ago. I couldn't wash it off, so I had to shave my hair."

He still wanted to cry remembering that. All his soft lock of hair, gone just like that. Now, he just looked a little bit better than an egg.

"I bet Hil did that on purpose. You probably pissed him off or something. So, what did you do?"

Edmund went silent for a moment. He also thought that considering Hildred's character, he would have definitely done it on purpose. But he seriously couldn't think of when he offended him. "I'm not exactly sure."

Wulfric looked at the other's bald head and burst out laughing again. This kid probably did something stupid as usual. The thing was, he probably didn't even know that what he's doing was stupid. Which made it even stupider.

"Well, whatever you did, good job. At least you grace the Empire with your perfectly egg-shaped head."

"General, please, don't laugh at my head. My fragile ego will soon not be able to take it."

"Don't worry, with your thick skin, I'm sure you'll be alright."

Edmund didn't know whether to laugh or cry because of that comment. He'd definitely buy some hair growth solution once they returned to the Emperor Star. With that in mind, he finally had a new motivation to quickly return to Beowulf.

"General, I'll set our destination to Beowulf," he said, doing just that. "Should we contact Lieutenant?"

"No need. We'll arrive there sooner or later anyway," Wulfric answered carelessly, leaning back on his seat.

The shuttle they were in had flown for a couple of hours when an alarm suddenly sounded.

Wulfric who was just about to close his eyes was slightly startled by the sound. "What the—"

"General, we're running out of energy fuel," Edmund said with an almost scrunched up face. Energy fuels were what usually powered small vehicles like this. "I- I think I forgot to refuel before I left Beowulf."

Wulfric looked at this stupid egg and he really didn't know if he should punch him or kick him instead. "Then go and find a planet where we could land before we crash into some asteroid or something."

"Yes, General!"

Edmund maneuvered the shuttle to enter the atmosphere of the nearest planet from where they were – Delryria.

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Astrid and Reas were both sitting on the tree house made by their father, stargazing. The tree house was built on the tallest tree near their house. It almost looked like a small wooden cabin on a tree. There was a comfortable couch inside that could double into a bed and also a small fridge filled with drinks and fruits. And near the window, there's an advanced telescope.

This was like the twins' secret base. They often played here when they were kids. And now that they're adults, well, somewhat adults, they chose to go here whenever they have important things to talk about. Like now.

"So, when do you think we should tell them about our college plans?" Astrid asked.

It had already been three days since the graduation party. And up until now, they still hadn't told their parents about their plans for the future. I.e. Reas going to military school and him going to a performing arts school – both were located at the Emperor Star.

"Couldn't we just tell them at the very last minute?" Reas suggested. "That way, they wouldn't have any time to complain and stop us."

"Do you think our parents would not ask us about our plans for the next two months before the new school year began?"

Reas plopped himself on the couch with a bit of frustration on his handsome face. "Then what should we do?"

"Let's tell them tomorrow night. I'll prepare a sumptuous dinner, then we could tell them after that."

"Tomorrow? That fast?"

"There's no use procrastinating. If we put this off, we'll just continue putting it off and before we know it, two months have already passed. So, we will do it tomorrow night," Astrid said, his voice already full of determination.

Reas looked at his twin brother's expression and he knew there was no use convincing him otherwise. So, he could only scratch his head and sigh. "Fine. Tomorrow night then."

Astrid nodded in approval. Then he glanced outside the window and happened to see something like a shooting star. So, he did something that people often do in his past life when they saw one. He made a wish.

[Please, let our parents give us their approval.]