When Saya had finished his twelfth barrel of beer with Tang Dun, the person he was waiting for finally arrived. It was a beautiful woman with light pink hair. She wore a slightly tight-fitting casual protective suit, showcasing her slender and graceful figure.
"Rose!"
Seeing the woman, a hint of excitement appeared on Saya's face. He quickly stood up and strode towards her. The girl he called Rose responded enthusiastically, and the two embraced tightly in the bar.
"By the God of the Stars, you actually came back alive!" Rose looked at Saya, suddenly covering her mouth, her eyes reddening, tears welling up in her eyes.
Saya echoed the same sentiment: "I never thought I would come back alive, and see you again."
The two exchanged a few tender words, then walked sweetly towards Tang Dun.
"Rose, let me introduce you."
Saya smiled as he introduced Tang Dun to Rose.
"This is a partner I met in the interdimensional battlefield, my best friend. If it weren't for him, I would be dead already…"
"Oh, really?"
Upon hearing this, a strange light flashed in Rose's beautiful pink eyes. This strange light was caught by Tang Dun. His large head leaned closer to her, and he asked with some suspicion, "You seem quite unhappy that I saved Saya's life?"
"Uh…"
Rose's expression froze instantly, and she looked incredibly embarrassed, momentarily at a loss for words. Fortunately, Saya stepped in to defuse the situation.
"Tang Dun, Rose is my girlfriend, and the only person I can trust in the Polo star region. Teasing her like that is really rude," he said to Tang Dun with a serious expression.
"Sorry." Tang Dun shrugged innocently. "I was just joking."
"I don't want you to make similar jokes again…"
"It's… it's okay."
Rose had recovered by now. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, seemingly trying to hide something. She smiled gently at Tang Dun, then said to Saya, "Do Wells and the others know you're back?"
Saya's expression hardened slightly. He nodded. "I saw Hobert as soon as I got off the ship. They probably already know I'm back safely by now…"
Rose thought for a moment, then quickly stood up and said to Saya, "Okay, you'll stay here for now. I'll go check with the Lyresas family. I'll let you know immediately if anything happens."
"That's too dangerous! You…"
Saya was about to refuse when Rose gently pressed her finger to her lips.
"Don't talk nonsense, Saya." Rose looked at him tenderly and softly added, "Doing something so small for you isn't dangerous at all."
"Rose." Saya's eyes melted instantly.
"Alright, let's not delay. We can't wait until they realize what's happening. I'm going now."
Rose kissed Saya's cheek, glanced at Tang Dun beside her, and then turned and hurriedly walked towards the bar entrance without looking back. Saya stared at her retreating figure, and only when Rose was almost out of the bar did he suddenly realize what was happening.
"I'll give you a ride."
He quickly followed. But when he reached the bar entrance, he saw that Rose had already boarded a sleek white small private aircraft, which was flying straight into outer space.
Inside the aircraft, Rose, who had been so intimate with Saya like a couple in the bar, was now coldly issuing orders.
"A283 ring satellite, coordinates: XXX, XXX."
"Directly deploy the patrol ships to fire death ray cannons at the coordinates! Afterwards, just shift the blame to the engineering department. It was the engineers' poor maintenance of the warship that caused a malfunction in the patrol ship's attack system, resulting in the accidental firing of the death ray cannons."
'Honored battlefield veteran? Please, when has such a useless title ever intimidated the Lyresas family? Finally. I hope everything I want to see appears in one minute.'
After hanging up, Rose immediately called another person. On the communicator appeared a handsome young man in a moon-white suit, with features bearing a slight resemblance to Saya.
"Wells."
Rose saw the man and called out his name, her eyes noticeably becoming more submissive and gentle.
"How is it? Did you see him?" The man in the moon-white suit asked immediately.
Rose nodded: "Yes, I saw him. He was with someone else. I was almost seen through on the spot..."
"Oh?"
The man in the moon-white suit's eyes flickered, and he said calmly, "Probably the level 12 that Hobert mentioned. A martial arts expert who can return alive from the interdimensional battlefield must have some skill; it's not surprising that he could see through you."
"Fortunately, my young master Saya seems to be as naive and foolish as ever after his trip to the battlefield. He didn't suspect me at all."
Rose smiled.
"I'm curious, what you plan to do next?" The man in the moon-white suit rested his chin on his hand and leaned closer to his communicator.
She playfully winked and chuckled, "Is this the final test before I marry you?"
The man laughed heartily. "You can interpret it that way if you want. Although I really don't mind at all that you were once my cousin-in-law."
"Wells, don't mention that word again."
Rose's pretty pink eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she said with some disgust, "Just thinking about how I once exchanged bodily fluids with such an idiot makes me wish I could swap bodies again."
"Okay, sorry." The man in the moon-white suit shrugged and added, "…Back to the point, continue."
Rose's expression turned serious, and she replied, "I plan to call in a nearby patrol ship to use its death ray cannon to blast him to death."
The man in the moon-white suit frowned slightly, "A level 12 martial arts expert can't be killed by a death ray cannon, right?"
Rose shook her head: "Wells. You forgot all we need is for Saya to die. What does it matter whether the people related to him live or die? The patrol ship's death ray cannon certainly can't kill a level 12 martial arts expert, but for Saya, it should be more than enough."
The man in the moon-white suit suddenly burst into laughter.
"Haha, Rose, you are indeed more suited to be my Countess than those women. This is truly a brilliant plan. When do you intend to make your move?"
"Now."
Rose smiled gently, like a pink rose quietly blooming. After she uttered the word "now," a massive, almost tangible beam of death light slammed down on her spacecraft.
"Boom!"
A deep red mushroom cloud instantly erupted on the asteroid, engulfing nearly a tenth of it. All the spaceships passing by in space came to a halt; people stared blankly at this major and rare sudden event.
Rose and the man in the moon-white suit watched the slowly expanding mushroom cloud below through the virtual window of their spacecraft, as if they were enjoying a grand fireworks display. They smiled, even lightly clinking glasses with red wine.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't see it. Not far from Rose's spaceship, Saya stared blankly at it, utterly dejected, as if all strength had been drained from his body.
"That's a good thing, buddy!"
Tang Dun patted Saya on the shoulder, comforting him. "Seeing a woman's true colors before marriage is something so many people want to do but can't."
Saya remained silent for a long time, head bowed. Finally, he slowly raised his head.
"Come with me somewhere else, Tang Dun."
"Where?"
Saya's eyes suddenly became unusually deep. He seemed to see through the boundless starry sky, his gaze fixed on another place. He slowly said, "A place that can guide my destiny."
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translation notes by dhoo:
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Rose aka Maeve aka Meifu [new character]
玫芙 (trad. 玫芙, you can't see it but 芙s slightly different, méi fú: 玫 (first syllable of 玫瑰, méigui, rose), 芙 (first syllable of 芙蓉, fúróng, lotus)
Hmm, méi fú, ro(se) lo(tus)... Rolo, Rose, Meifu, Maeve, Mayfair...
I found 54 occurrences of 玫芙 in chapters 582 (x32), 590 (x9), 591 (x6), 592 (x5), 594 (x2)
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Wells aka Wills aka Wales
威尔斯 (trad. 威爾斯), wēi ěr sī: 威爾斯 Wills (surrname), Wales (Hong Kong and Taiwan only)
I found 50 occurrences of 威爾斯 in chapters 582 (x4), 590 (x14), 591 (x11), 592 (x6), 593 (x2), 594 (x13)
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slight resemblance, my cousin-in-law
Damned, it's now turning into a space soap opera with treacherous lovers, intrigues and politics, interesting :) Saya Lyresas and Wells Lyresas look similar, Saya said Rose was his girlfiend and Wells said Rose used to be Wells' cousin-in-law. Well, OK then. Time to do some tidying up in the Lyresas family.
我的表嫂, wǒ de biǎosǎo: 我 I, me 的 's 表嫂 cousin-in-law (表 exterior 嫂 sister-in-law)
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The Lyresas family, aka Sassylyre, Lyresass, Sassyliar, Liarsars,Croolpest, etc.
Damn, there so many translation options. Saya fans, feel free to help me out here :') I like Saya and Tang Dun, it's nice to get to know other characters and these two seem to be genuinely good people, so I feel like taking a moment to try to find fitting name options and choose one. Why croolpest? I explain it below, but yeah sometimes you gotta be creative, a bit like Harry Potter's "Hogwarts" school [literally hog warts] was translated into "Poudlard" [pork-fat louse] in French. Well, with sinograms (Chinese characters) and novel characters' names, unless the author gives explanations, we don't know for sure if what's written is a meaning, a pronunciation, or a mix of both, sometimes a complex pun.
莱尔萨斯 (trad. 萊爾薩斯), lái ěr sà sī: 萊 cruel 尔 you 萨 Sa (surname), 斯 Si (surname) [薩斯 sàsī is SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)]
Can you notice something about the characters? Compare 莱尔萨斯 Lyresas and 威尔斯 Wells.
The characters ěr and sī [尔 (trad. 爾), ěr and 斯 (trad. same) sī] are used botth in the family name lái ěr sà sī and in Wells' name, wēi ěr sī. Damned. No way I can translate that. Lyresa'ss, Wire'ss..?
莱尔萨斯 (trad. 萊爾薩斯), lái ěr sà sī: Lyresas
威尔斯 (trad. 威爾斯), wēi ěrsī: Wells [same characters ěr and sī]
撒亚 (trad. 撒亞), sā yà: Saya [撒 sā in Saya isn't the same character as 萨(薩) sà in Lyresas]
Saya is not a sassy liar! He is depicted as innocent, naive, genuine and good hearted, a poor little boy from a rich bitch family.
I found 71 occurrences of 萊爾薩斯 in chapters 578 (x4), 581 (x7), 582 (x2), 586 (x3), 588 (x6), 589, 590 (x14), 591, 592, 593 (x9), 594 (x23)
Pronunciation: "lie err sah suh-ee" or simply "lyresassy", or even "lyre sass" if the last vowel is muted, like a weak, unstressed schwa sound]. I'm not sure what the author intended us to hear when this name is pronounced.
Maybe this name was supposed to sound English. It's possible, it happened with other names before in this novel, especially once the story that used to take place on a planet similar to earth and in a country similar to China (the author's country) turned into a space opera taking place in a whole galaxy.
Phonetical version: Lyresass or Lyresas, close to Liarsass or Liarsas. It's a bit les sassy when we remove an S :) Modified version: Sassyliar, interesting.
Maybe I go for the musical instrument, the lyre, maybe for the liar behaviour. Liar might be what the author was going for, I mean, it's more likely since this is a family with a powerful business selling combat suits, not old musical instrurments. What about the disease/pandemic, sars, should I keep it?
Mixed version: Liarsars - Translated version: Cruelsars, Croolsars, Cruelpest, Croolpest (haha, I like the originality of this last one) - Other versions: Lyrsas, Lylesas, ...
Hmm, I dislike the family's schemes and I like Saya and I don't want to give him a Cruel sassy name. I'll go with Lyresas from now on, I'll have to update it in the pervious chapters. What do YOU think? What's your favorite?