103.5 Sidebar: Current Status, Four Heavenly Kings 2

Two updates planned today for the sidebar.

☓ Next update scheduled for around 12:00.

◯ Wrote it faster, so updating at 1:00.

Two avatars gathered in the secret meeting room of the cyber-space.

Of the four seats, two were already empty.

One was the Prince’s seat. The other belonged to the 10th Prince, Cain.

Cain’s dimensional communication had been severed—his relay through the Hub Dimensional Jump Gate (Gate) had been blocked by Akira.

The 10th Prince Cain was now confined to his home star system—what one might call a de facto retirement.

“Cain’s bastard finally submitted to Akira.”

“He probably thinks we’re coming to rescue him.”

“If we go to help him, and he’s already exposed his failure across the Empire, we’ll take the same hit.”

Both let out long sighs.

"Then there's Akira's strength. A fleet of fifty thousand, wielding antimatter particle cannons... just imagine."

"That was our new weapon, yes."

"Prince—trying to hide it from us, even, and mass-produce it? How deep does your thirst for power go?"

"Thanks to you, we can't build that new weapon."

"All that progress from the DNA we acquired... wasted."

The two speaking, their irritation plain, shift their focus from the Prince to another figure.

"The DNA's owner is missing too?"

"Sending the Prince to rescue him turned out to be a mistake."

"Didn't think he'd actually run off."

"Elopement...?"

There was nothing they could do but smile bitterly.

"Eventually, we'll reach Akira and Cain—just a matter of time."

"Troublesome brothers."

They were, in fact, the Prince’s half-brothers—same father, different mothers.

But they came before him in line of succession.

They didn’t bother with formal respect—no older brother act. Just called him by name.

“Even pretending to be a well-meaning third party… the fact that Earth-born can’t be returned is a real problem. Fighting’s unavoidable.”

“If we’re gonna nitpick some mistake and challenge Akira to a duel, relying on Cain’s strength still puts us at a disadvantage.”

“Guess we’ll have to send our commander out after all.”

“We’re just followers of a commander who’s already given up on the throne. A mere title, really.”

“Isn’t that exactly why we keep this master-servant arrangement? He won’t say no when we need him.”

They didn’t get it.

The commander’s enemy wasn’t just Akira.

By fighting Akira, they’d weaken themselves—handing an advantage to other enemies.

That they weren’t worth saving, not even to this extent.

“Seems like it’s time we played our ace.”

“You’re actually going to pull that out?”

“Perfect for harassment before direct combat, wouldn’t you say?”

The two of them wore unpleasant grins.