Free Web Novel“Little Highness?”
Alvin’s tone was still slightly urgent.
After pushing the door open, Alvin’s gaze swept quickly around the entire bathroom. Only after confirming there was nothing abnormal—no traces that shouldn’t exist, no blood—did the tightly drawn string in Alvin’s heart slowly ease.
But when Alvin saw the cub—thinly dressed, hair still dripping wet, eyes faintly reddened—panic rose again, no less than before.
Behind the lenses, those vertical pupils contracted sharply to needle points. Alvin frowned, and even the usual gentleness in that face took on a hint of anxiety.
“Forgive this subordinate’s rudeness.”
Alvin hurriedly took off the coat he was wearing. With a light shake, he draped the still faintly warm fabric completely around Wen Yuzhi.
At that moment, Wen Yuzhi’s mind was still stuck on the image he had accidentally glimpsed earlier. Distracted, he hadn’t really listened to what Alvin said at all.
He obediently let himself be led out of the bathroom in Alvin’s arms.
Alvin moved quickly. First, Alvin set the unbelievably light little Highness down at the edge of the bed, then found a clean towel and began carefully drying the soaked silver hair.
By the time Wen Yuzhi came back to himself, he was already sitting on the soft bed, wrapped in Alvin’s coat, while the adjutant continued diligently drying his hair.
The clammy chill that had clung to him was gone, replaced by a steady warmth.
If this had been before—given the upbringing he’d received since childhood—Wen Yuzhi would never have allowed someone to fuss over him like this.
But now, the boy was quiet to an unusual degree.
Wen Yuzhi kept his head lowered, saying nothing. He was still shaken by what had just happened—and... perhaps feeling the faintest trace of guilt.
Even though he didn’t quite understand why he felt guilty, the sensation was like when parents or elders entered the room and he tried to hide something from them.
Maybe because this well-behaved Omega had rarely done anything like that before, he felt inexplicably short of confidence.
Even though he didn’t actually need to be nervous. After all, it had only been a slip of the hand.
However...
Thinking back to that blush-inducing moment—and the situation at the time...
Fine. Maybe it really would be hard to explain.
After weighing everything, Wen Yuzhi decided that silence was probably safest right now.
Alvin, however, didn’t know Wen Yuzhi was quiet because he didn’t know what to say.
Seeing the little Highness keep his head down without speaking, and recalling how soaked and red-eyed the cub had looked in the bathroom—
Alvin’s heart sank.
A particularly bad guess surfaced in Alvin’s mind.
...Does the little Highness dislike them?
So much so that he couldn’t accept—even loathed—the identity of Saint Clan?
If that were true...
then things would be difficult.
Alvin adjusted the glasses on his face and chose his words carefully, speaking as gently as possible.
“Little Highness, no matter how upset you may feel, please prioritize your health. If anything happens to you... the Saint Clan cannot bear to lose another Royal Blood.”
Wen Yuzhi blinked at those words.
Upset?
He didn’t think he was upset...
But when he met Alvin’s worried gaze, he realized there had been a misunderstanding.
“I’m not upset,” Wen Yuzhi quickly explained. “And I’m not thinking of doing anything foolish.”
He thought his tone was firm enough.
But he overlooked one very important thing—
his current appearance was far too deceptive.
Wen Yuzhi’s complexion had always been pale. On skin as white as milk, even the slightest flush was obvious. The faint redness around his damp eyes stood out sharply.
And he was still wearing thin pajamas, wrapped almost completely in Alvin’s oversized coat. With his lashes lowered and expression quiet, that fragile, almost breakable quality—like someone in need of protection—seemed ready to spill over.
Combined with Alvin’s preconceived filter, Wen Yuzhi’s appearance now looked exactly like a cub depressed and unable to accept reality.
Even though Alvin was loyal to Mansendis, at this moment Alvin couldn’t help feeling some dissatisfaction toward the king’s apparent avoidance of paternal responsibility.
In Alvin’s view, this was precisely when the little Highness needed the presence and care of blood kin the most.
While Wen Yuzhi had still been asleep, Alvin had already skimmed through more than ten manuals on raising cubs.
Ordinary Saint Clan cubs didn’t require such delicate care.
But the little Highness was different.
Any Saint Clan who had seen Wen Yuzhi in person would have no objections to Alvin’s caution.
If anything, they would think Alvin still wasn’t careful enough.
Alvin felt the same. Softening his tone again, Alvin asked the question that had been weighing in his mind for a long time.
“Do you... dislike us?”
Wen Yuzhi shook his head. “I don’t.”
He wasn’t being polite.
Although StarNet painted the Saint Clan as vicious—like they could swallow a child whole—in actual interaction, Wen Yuzhi had never sensed hostility from them.
On the contrary, ever since boarding the warship, he had been treated like an honored guest. They prepared medicine for his cold and fever, provided food he could eat, and even arranged this room—clearly designed with a cub’s preferences in mind.
In Wen Yuzhi’s heart, these Saint Clan treated him better than the Wen family ever had.
Hearing the sincerity in the boy’s words, a faint light flickered in Alvin’s eyes. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Not disliking them was enough.
As long as it wasn’t hatred... there would be a way for the little Highness to gradually accept them.
With that thought, Alvin stepped back several paces, then dropped to one knee. One hand pressed over the heart; the other gently lifted the back of Wen Yuzhi’s hand.
And placed a light kiss upon it.
Under Wen Yuzhi’s startled gaze, the handsome adjutant’s expression remained calm. The voice was gentle—but carried a faint humility, almost like a quiet plea.
“Since you do not dislike us... could you give us a chance?”
A chance for the Saint Clan to become your family.
A chance to be accepted. To be close.
Alvin didn’t say the latter part aloud, but Wen Yuzhi understood.
After hesitating for a moment, under Alvin’s brightening gaze, Wen Yuzhi slowly nodded.
Truthfully, he didn’t know how to treat this unfamiliar race that might be his kin.
But he could feel the goodwill Alvin was trying so hard to convey. Madam Jilanya had once taught him that trampling or wasting someone’s sincerity was wrong.
So Wen Yuzhi thought—even if he might not stay with the Saint Clan in the end, he should at least understand them first before deciding.
Of course, he still couldn’t accept that he wasn’t human.
Alvin knew that too, and deliberately avoided mentioning the genetic test again. Instead, Alvin brought out a new set of clothes and placed them in front of Wen Yuzhi.
This time they weren’t fluffy.
They were ornate—so ornate that once Wen Yuzhi put them on, he looked like a prince from some distant kingdom.
Looking at the noble, aloof boy in the mirror, Wen Yuzhi felt slightly unaccustomed. He tugged at the layered bow at his chest.
“Isn’t this a bit too flashy?”
“You look very good in it.”
Alvin praised calmly. The boy felt it excessive, but Alvin thought it perfectly appropriate. Given the little Highness’s status, even more splendor would not be out of place.
Still...
something seemed missing.
Alvin adjusted the glasses thoughtfully.
Ah. A crown.
Wen Yuzhi’s head was still bare. That silver hair—more radiant than starlight—deserved a crown to adorn such noble blood.
Alvin silently reproached himself for the oversight and made a mental note to arrange for a crown to be forged immediately upon their return.
Wen Yuzhi had no idea that a crown was already in his future.
When they stepped out again, Wen Yuzhi now walked in front, with Alvin half a step behind at his side.
Alvin began introducing the warship.
“This is the Thanatos. It is His Majesty’s private property.”
Private property...
Wen Yuzhi thought he had seen the world. The Wen family had been one of the prominent households on the capital planet. Yet even so, the few starships under the Wen name were nothing compared to this warship.
The difference was like that between an ant and an elephant.
And this belonged solely to Mansendis.
According to Alvin, warships were divided into light-class, heavy-class, hunting-class, lord-class, and annihilation-class. An annihilation-class warship was already a behemoth in interstellar space.
Its cost was as terrifying as its size.
Only truly powerful races had the ability to build and maintain such a gold-devouring monster.
Even the Padar people, who rose through plunder, had only one annihilation-class warship across their entire planet—and not long ago, Mansendis had personally dismantled it.
Within the Saint Clan, however, Mansendis owned over a hundred annihilation-class warships.
All private property.
Thanatos was merely one of them—used for military campaigns simply because it was large enough to accommodate tens of millions of Saint Clan, and because the king, who valued efficiency above all else, found it convenient.
In other words—
it was used just for travel.
Wen Yuzhi fell silent several times just listening.
So rich...
He suddenly felt that perhaps he hadn’t actually been that wealthy before. At the very least, he couldn’t even afford the most basic warship.
As he was thinking this, Alvin adjusted the glasses and added calmly:
“When you return to the Ninth Star Domain, you will also have your own fleet under your name. The scale of the warships may not yet compare to the Thanatos, but they will all be annihilation-class.”
Wen Yuzhi: “......”
He didn’t hear the second half of that sentence at all.
His mind was stuck on—
“your own fleet.”
Belonging.
To him.
Fleet.
He knew each word separately. Why did they sound so unfamiliar when put together?
Are the Saint Clan really this rich?!
Wen Yuzhi suddenly didn’t know what to say anymore.
