THE moment Astrid stepped out of the shower, the water droplets still sliding down his body quickly disappeared, even his wet hair dried up with just a blink of an eye. He must admit that this technology was really convenient. He didn't even have to use a towel or a hair dryer. This was probably one of the things he loved in the Interstellar era – the convenience that these technological devices brought.
He walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped on his waist. He opened his closet and took out the clothes he had already set aside last night. He wore a light-blue dress shirt and tucked it in a black denim pants then paired it up with high-cut black leather boots. The fashion in this era was very avant-garde. But Astrid still preferred the simple fashion from his last life.
He walked towards the full body mirror and looked at his reflection. The teenager staring back at him had short black hair and about 178 cm in height. His skin was white and looked very delicate. His body's frame was more on the slender side. He had pinkish lips, a small straight nose, and a pair of black phoenix eyes.
He looked almost exactly as he did in his last life. He was just a bit more handsome in this life. Probably because of his parents' genes. But compared to his twin brother and their parents, he definitely got nothing on them. The irony of it was, his parents named him 'Astrid' which meant 'beautiful' in some ancient Earth language. He not only had to adapt to such a girlish name, he had to do that knowing its meaning.
Well, his parents probably did think he was beautiful. Because in this Interstellar era, having both black hair and black eyes was very, very, very, rare. The appearance of the Empire's citizens leaned more on the Westerner's and European's side. So, him having black hair and black eyes was very eye-catching. Not to mention, his features were more Asian-like. Especially his phoenix eyes.
So, in the eyes of these Interstellar people, he was very beautiful. But in his eyes, he just looked like an ordinary handsome guy. You know, one of those you could pass by the streets and think 'oh, that guy looks cute', but after a few minutes, you would quickly forget about them. That type. That's why he couldn't help but cringe whenever he heard a compliment about his so-called 'beauty'.
Astrid went out of his room and walked towards the dining area. There, a petite woman with long ice-blue hair braided behind her back was busily arranging the dishes on the table. When she heard his footsteps, she raised her head and her pair of sapphire blue eyes bent into crescents when she saw him.
This woman was Emmaline Townsend who his father fondly called 'Emmy'.
She walked up to him and kissed his cheek. "Good morning, my beautiful baby."
Astrid only smiled helplessly. His mother had always been very touchy. It was her way of showing affection. At first, it always startled him. But after 18 years, he already got used to it. "Good morning, Mom."
Emmy looked at him from head to toe, as if thinking. "Are you sure you're going to wear this set of clothes for your graduation? It seems a bit, I don't know, underwhelming?"
That's right. Today was his and his twin brother's graduation from secondary education. In this era, people have to study six years of primary education, then six years of secondary education. After that, they could apply to a university. There's one university for every possible career out there. Unlike the universities in his last life which catered to a lot of majors and degrees, universities here were fairly different. They catered to only one specialized degree. Like there's a whole university only dedicated to engineering and another dedicated to medicine, something like that.
"Mom, this is fine. You know how I like things simple," Astrid said before his mother suggested that he wore some elaborate dress or something.
"But it's just such a shame. These clothes simply don't highlight your beauty."
"Emmy, just let our son be," said a gruff voice.
Both mother and son turned their heads to the direction of the voice. There, standing by the door of the dining area was a big bear of a man. He had shaggy brown hair. His left eye was covered by an eyepatch while his right eye showed an iris teal-gray in color. But despite the imperfection, he was still one heck of a handsome man.
This big man here was his father – Gage Townsend. He was a farmer. But Astrid knew that he wasn't always that. That eye patch covering his left eye was quite a big evidence of that. With how advanced the medical technology of this era was, they could easily regrow missing limbs and stuffs. So, the fact that his father's eyes wasn't healed meant that he was in a situation where he wasn't able to get immediate medical attention. In this war-free time, Astrid had always wondered what kind of situation that must have been.
"Oh, shoo, you always contradict me," Emmy said, pretending to be mad.
Gage only grunted. How could he let his beautiful son wear something that would make him even more beautiful? Wouldn't those wolves that were circling around him just increased in numbers?
He sat down at the head of the table and asked, "Where's Reas?"
"Here," suddenly said by a lazy voice.
Walking inside the dining room was a tall teenager, probably about 190 cm in height. This was his twin brother Andreas or Reas as they so fondly called him. He had the same ice-blue hair as their mother and a pair of teal-gray eyes which he obviously got from their father. He perfectly inherited the good looks of their parents, resulting to a super handsome specimen.
There was this lazy atmosphere around him. As if he couldn't be bothered to raise a finger and work. It's probably true most of the time. But when it came to things that mattered, really mattered, he always managed to push through.
Whenever Astrid stood amongst this family of his, he always felt like a Chinese cabbage surrounded by three beautiful flowers.
When people saw the four of them together, they always wondered if he was a child of this family. After all, he didn't look like any of them. If he had no memory of the time he had given birth to him and his twin, he might have also thought that way.
A doctor said that his appearance was due to how he was born – like his mother giving birth instead of being made in a lab like everyone else. This triggered a certain recessive gene which led in him having black hair and black eyes. Which actually sounded quite stupid, in all honesty.
He wasn't really interested on how it happened. It didn't matter anyway since he knew who he was. He was Astrid Townsend – the eldest son of Emmaline and Gage Townsend. And that's all that mattered.
"Come, let's start eating breakfast," Emmy said pulling both her sons towards the table.
Then the four of members of the Townsend family began eating breakfast.
Mini-theater:
Meet the Townsends!
Papa Gage: Please take care of us from now on.
Mama Emmy: Hi! I'm so glad to meet all of you! Have you met my my lovely children?
Reas: *yawns*
Astrid: I hope you would give your support until I become the number one star in the Interstellar era!
(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ
ASTRID was sitting at the back of the flying car, beside him was his twin brother – Reas. And sitting at their front were their parents. They were currently on their way to the planet's space port. The shuttle that would take them to the planet where the academy they attended for their secondary education was located was waiting there for the students who lived in this planet.
That's right, they needed to go to another planet to go to school. Which was not really rare in this era. Usually, each planetary system in a galaxy had a dedicated planet for the primary and secondary education of their young populace. These planets were commonly known as Academe Planets.
The planet Astrid grew up in was called Delryria. It belonged to a small planetary system known for its agriculture. It's under the Palioxis Galaxy – the former territory of the Federation. When the Moon Empire won the war, it became part of it. Just like how the other two galaxies that formerly belonged to the Kingdom of Terra and Human Alliance were also now part of the Empire.
He looked outside of the window of the flying car and saw that they already left the land that their family owned. The size of their family's land was almost the size of a small country. His father built a farm here to utilize the richness of the land, planting different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Of course, he wasn't doing this all on his own. They have a lot of tenants that helped with the farm works and farm operations.
As he mentioned earlier, the planetary system their planet was in was known for its agriculture. It was because most of the planets belonging to this system was very similar to Earth. They had four seasons and lands that were suitable for planting. So, a lot of vegetables and fruits being supplied to the rest of the galaxy came from this planetary system. Some farms from these planets even delivered to the other galaxies under the Empire's rule.
Their farm – Astreas Farm, yes, his parents named it after him and Reas – was one of these farms. So, one could say that their farm's operation was a bit big in scale. Especially since they receive a lot of orders from high-end restaurants located at the Emperor Star – the capital of the Empire. Eating cooked food was actually kind of a luxury in this era. Because most people just drink nutrient solutions. They don't bother eating real food because the nutrient solution could give them all the nutrients they needed.
But Astrid couldn't really bear the taste of it. So, when he was five, he cooked a simple vegetable stir-fry. Of course, his parents were surprised. But they didn't think too much and just assumed that their son was simply a genius. When it came to their children, his parents had a quite thick filter. For them, he and Reas could do no wrong. If he didn't have the memories of his last life, he might have grown up like a spoiled brat. Good thing that wasn't the case. Of course, he also didn't allow his twin brother to be a brat. He just grew up a bit lazier.
In the past years, he also taught his mother how to cook. She had a real talent for it, so it wasn't that hard teaching her. Nowadays, she was the only one cooking in the house.
Because of their farm, they're family could be considered as pretty well-off. But they still couldn't compare to those families that literally owned planets. Most of the time, those families belonged to nobilities.
Even so, sometimes, he still wondered how his parents managed to buy the land their family owned. Because in all appearance, his parents seemed to only be normal citizens of the Empire. But he had a strong feeling that that wasn't the case at all. Because from that one conversation he heard when he was still a baby, he could tell that his mother was from some kind of prominent family.
He just didn't want to pry. After all, it's his parents' business. Besides, their family was already living happily without their interference. If his parents ran away from them, then it's probably better to not ever meet them in this life.
Astrid's train of thought stopped when he felt something heavy leaning on him. He glanced sideways and saw that Reas had already fallen asleep. This kid could really sleep anywhere. He was probably playing all night at the virtual network, doing those mecha battles.
In this era, there were two types of network – the star network or StarNet for short and the virtual network or VirtualNet. The StarNet was almost like the ancient day internet, except that it was more advanced. You could search for information there, download stuffs, watch videos and the likes. There's also a microblog feature very similar to Weibo where people could post their thoughts and other things. It's called [Cyberspace]. Almost every citizen of the Empire had a [Cyberspace] account.
One could also do live broadcast using StarNet. The live broadcast in this era was unlike the live broadcast back in his past life. Here, you could pick different perspectives while watching a live broadcast. You could pick the perspective of the one doing the live broadcast, you could also pick the god's view where you could see everything, and finally, you could pick the simple audience perspective where all the focus was on the host of the show.
The VirtualNet, on the other hand, needed a virtual pod to access it. It was literally like a complete virtual world. People could sell and buy things there. There were restaurants, different kind of shops, auction houses. But the one that's probably the most popular was the Mecha Hall. Here, people could battle using mechas. If he remembered correctly, there was even a ranking for how many people you defeated. And that's where Reas spend most of his nights.
This twin brother of his was simply a huge 'mecha addict'. It's a good thing that all of those mecha fights he'd been participating was only happening in the virtual world. Or else, the rest of the family would definitely die of worry for him.
Astrid smiled helplessly. He relaxed his body and adjusted his sitting position so Reas could sleep more comfortably.
Emmy, who saw this scene, couldn't help but take a photo. She smiled looking at the picture of her two babies. She happily saved it on the folder named 'My Lovely Babies'.
Soon, they arrived at the space port of planet Delryria.
Sorry if it's full of narrative again. This interstellar world is kind of complicated. I want you guys to have a clear view of how things work in this world before we really proceed to the story. I don't want you to go in blind and just fumble along with our MC. So, I hope you wouldn't think it's too boring and drop it. Thank you! (@^◡^)
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