Star of the Empire: Radiance

"Sir, have we met somewhere before?"

Shi Zi'an picked up the sunglasses beside him, put them on, and smiled. "No, you've mistaken me for someone else."

The girl returned to her seat, looking puzzled. Her companion took her hand and whispered, "Is he a celebrity? Why do I feel like I've seen him somewhere?"

"I don't think so..." The two girls whispered to each other all the way, until the young man's back disappeared from view. Then they finally remembered where they had seen that face.

It was in their ninth-grade history textbook, in the modern history section, the final unit. Since it contained no material likely to appear on exams, it had barely made an impression. But that remarkably youthful photograph was impossible to overlook.

He was the youngest leader of an administrative region in the Six Nations Federation, a general in the mecha forces, the leader of the "Six Nations War," and the man who pushed the border of the six-nation alliance thirty kilometers outward: the Empire's star.

Theme: Every one of us should pursue freedom.