After Colphalon's death, the shattered memories that Promelia had read from the Dark Bishop's mind were first returned to Russell through the Zelo Soul Stone before dictating them to the Imperial Clerk for written records, but when Russell actually heard her voice, it was nearly a decade later.

40

In the 012th year of the 40th millennium, Russell, who was learning about subspace in Teacher Ma's psionic class, suddenly received a copy of his memory from Promelia.

Then he laughed out loud in the study.

"What's wrong?" At the log desk, a tall, red-skinned giant dressed in a scholar's robe looked across the desk with his one eye: "Is something happening?" ”

"You can say that, too." Russell smiled and snapped the book in the spirit language full of obscure syllables in his hand, and said, "An expeditionary fleet has fought the Legion of the Bearers in the maelstrom...... No, maybe it's already over? ”

The 6th Expeditionary Fleet entered the Maelstrom at a point of 40, about 10 years ago.

Ten years is enough time to fight a small-scale interstellar war.

Magnus didn't have fun with Russell, but frowned slightly: "Your thinking still hasn't changed, Star Marble, you are still observing reality from the perspective of a mortal who drifts with the tide in time, and thinking about the vast ocean with linear thinking." ”

Russell was stunned for a moment, and then laughed dumbly: "My fault, I'm used to it." I've always assumed that I've always been a mortal and don't like to be aloof from the masses. ”

"The ruler is destined to be alone, with herds of cattle and sheep and beasts walking alone." Magnus said, "Admit it or not, you are now the uncrowned king of the Far Eastern star field, and the king should accept his own unique ......"

"Stop." Russell unceremoniously shut up Magnus directly: "Don't instill your political ideas in me, you are just a subordinate prisoner with some use value, not the prime minister of a feudal kingdom." I just need your academic knowledge, I don't need you to dictate my philosophy. ”

You're a bit arrogant. This is the second half of Russell's unspoken sentence.

Magnus opened his mouth, and in the end he did not continue the topic, but returned to the question of time at the beginning, saying:

"Ahriman told me that you have equipped the 6th Expeditionary Fleet with faster-than-light communication devices capable of communicating with you in real time, and that this fleet is the one who encounters the Bearer in the Maelstrom if nothing else...... This means that 002 is not ten years ago, but now, here and now. ”

The year 002 of the 40th millennium is the same year as the year 012.

Russell bowed, and he understood what Magnus said. The Great Spiral Star Field is an exceptional region where reality and subspace overlap, where the flow of time is chaotic, and the time difference is often tens or hundreds of years, and you may even meet ancient characters who have been lost from the era of the Great Expedition 10,000 years ago to the present, and ask them when the emperor will die, they pulled out their chainsaw sword and said that the emperor is preparing to make Horus the commander, and if you don't support Ryan El Johnson, just wait for death.

The time of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet was 10 years slower than Falla, which was already a very, very small error, after all, they were in Gormek, the demon world of the Whisperers.

Leaving the crimson Magnus at the desk to continue sorting out the books, Russell left the study alone, intending to talk to Greywind about it.

The departure of the expeditionary fleet took away a large number of combatants, and it seems to have also taken away the war itself, which has been burning for thousands of years, and the dark and chaotic Far Eastern star field ushered in a rare peace and development in the fortieth millennium.

…… Peace and development, that is something more precious than gold.

Walking out of the door, Russell came to the balcony entwined with tender green vines, leaning on the snow-white guardrail, and could directly see a piece of blue and verdant coastline down, which was the west coast of the southern continent of Falla, and a little south, it was the once prosperous "Qinxin Estuary", but now this port is rarely inhabited.

"Falla is getting colder and colder every year......" Russell murmured softly.

"Yes."

A soft voice suddenly sounded from behind him, and a girl with long silver hair quietly came to Russell's side, lying on the guardrail with him and looking at the beautiful blue coast below. The cold wind in the sky blew her skirt like a mango tree on a typhoon day.

"Since the reconstruction process of the Far Eastern Star Domain is on the right track, the economy that was originally shattered by the war has also begun to recover, the trade network with the L-Stargate Network as the core has been re-established, and the Fallas system, where the terminal exit is located, has once again become the trade center of the Far Eastern Star Field."

Gray Wind held his chin in his hands, turned his head to look at Russell's side face, and said softly: "But there is not only the planet Falla in the terminal exit galaxy, for the merchants who come and go between the stars, the urban planet Embra is a more ideal trade distribution center, and the facilities such as the star ring base in orbit are also more complete. ”

"In the Far Eastern star field, only the urban planet Embra has the most complete industrial capacity and the most high-paying jobs, and the phenomenon of population siphoning will naturally occur. Many of the young people in Falla were attracted by Embra's high-paying jobs and good pay, and they left their hometowns to work in the bustling city of their ideals......

In just ten years, the Ideal City, which received a large number of workers and talents, quickly became prosperous and noisy, and Falla, who had been siphoned off most of the young population, became more and more deserted, which further exacerbated the outflow of young people, and even their families moved away, forming a closed loop.

Today, with less than 1 million permanent inhabitants, the beautiful planet of Gaia has become a resort for the entire Far East, losing almost all of its political status.

"That's good." Russell smiled, and his left hand habitually stroked the back of Gray Wind's head, rubbing her originally smooth hair into a mess: "Falla is also my hometown. ”

"Uh-huh......" Grey Wind squinted at his stroke like a jaw-scratching feline, purring comfortably in her throat, but it was a pity that she didn't have a tail on her ass like Colonia, otherwise she would have waged by now.

"That's right."

"That's right......"

Russell had just wanted to talk to Grey Wind about the 6th Expeditionary Fleet's encounter with the Bearer in the maelstrom, but Grey Wind suddenly opened her eyes and said the same thing to him, and it seemed that she had something to tell her.

"Well, what do you have to say, Marshal?" Grey Wind tilted his head and looked at Russell with a puzzled look.

"Let's talk first." Russell took his left hand away and looked at the gray wind that was pushing a bird's nest with a smile.

"Okay." Gray Wind didn't restore his messy hair to its original state, and his originally brisk tone became a little heavy and serious: "But it's not good news, you have to be mentally prepared." ”

"I'm not a child." Russell was speechless, he felt that he was being looked down upon by Grey Wind.

"Okay, then I'll just say it." Grey Wind's eyebrows drooped in frustration: "Not long ago, the flagship of the 9th Expeditionary Fleet, the Unripe Dream Valkyrie, lost contact with us, and the last news from the 9th Expeditionary Fleet was that they were about to arrive in Baal. ”

Russell's expression also became solemn, and he understood what it meant.

Each Valkyrie-class battleship is equipped with a faster-than-light communication array based on the principle of quantum entanglement, and every once in a while it will send a message back to the home port of the seeker, reporting its status, and the lightning will not move.

There are not many extreme cases that can make Valkyrie lose contact with her home port, the best one is that the faster-than-light communication array is damaged in the heat of battle and is being repaired, and the worst case is:

- The 9th Expeditionary Fleet, annihilated.

(End of chapter)