Free Web NovelMansendis sat behind the desk. In front of him still lay that berry tart, tempting in appearance.
The butterfly bow on the packaging hadn’t been untied. Inside, there wasn’t the slightest trace of it having been touched.
Just from the look of it, it seemed exactly like Mansendis simply didn’t like sweet desserts, so he couldn’t even be bothered to take a bite—only set it off to the side.
But Mond knew clearly that if it weren’t important enough, Mansendis wouldn’t have brought it back at all—much less place this berry tart, which shouldn’t have belonged here, on a desk covered in crucial documents.
And in terms of distance, the desk sat right under Mansendis’s eyes. With just a lift of his gaze, the silver-haired sovereign could see this gift that held the cub’s feelings at any time.
So rather than “dislike,” Mond felt more that the king must care a great deal about this gift the little Highness had given.
Care so much that he couldn’t even bear to just eat it outright.
After all, nearly every Saint Clan who received a gift was like this.
This was the first gift the little Highness had given them. Its meaning was precious beyond measure to every Saint Clan who received it.
The bone spines were no exception.
After showing off, they immediately tried, carefully and cautiously, to hide the little cookies—posture so defensive it was as if they were terrified someone nearby would snatch away their treasure.
Truthfully, if you really talked about safety, there was no place safer than the mental sea where they dwelled.
But if they did that, the cookies—cookies that were not formed from mental power—couldn’t be taken in.
The bone spines refused to accept that.
So they could only stay on guard in all directions while pacing back and forth through the study, trying to find a place where they could hide something.
In the end, they picked a box set in the corner.
The box wasn’t big, but it was more than enough to hide a few little cookies.
After putting the cookies inside, the bone spines still weren’t satisfied. They shut the lid, then squeezed together in a heap and flopped down around it.
It was plainly the look of not being able to relax, deciding to personally keep watch right here. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Watching the companion entity do all these behaviors that could only be called “childish,” Mansendis’s face didn’t change, but in his heart he was already considering that these bone spines lately seemed to be getting bolder and bolder.
Mond, however, felt that the change in the bone spines wasn’t a bad thing at all.
Before, Mansendis’s condition had already been faintly trending toward the brink of mental sea collapse. The silver-haired sovereign probably hadn’t even realized it, but at that time there wasn’t the slightest rise or fall of emotion in his eyes—toward all things, he seemed indifferent.
Ever since he killed all his kin and took the throne, Mansendis’s emotions seemed, day by day, to be stripped away amid pain that only grew heavier.
Just as Alvin had said, their sovereign sat on a lofty throne, yet as subjects they could only feel coldness and deathly silence.
That kind of emotion in Mansendis also affected his companion entity.
No one knew when it started, but the bone spines began to fear him. They hid in the mental sea and refused to come out. Even when they did come out, they became more and more cautious.
They were a talent ability born together with Mansendis—yet the relationship between the two gradually grew distant afterward.
Mond watched it happen, helpless.
Just like Mond could only watch the Saint Clan’s atmosphere grow oppressive and taut.
Fortunately...
Mond’s gaze drifted to the berry tart on the desk.
Fortunately, the little Highness returned to the Saint Clan, before everything completely slid into the worst-case outcome.
And the bone spines’ shift had also started only after the little Highness returned to the Saint Clan.
With the little Highness here, they seemed not so resistant to Mansendis anymore, even doing some brazen, outrageous things.
Mond was naturally happy to see that change.
Mond hoped the king’s side would no longer be so lonely, and also hoped the Saint Clan would not reach the point of falling apart.
......
The study fell quiet again.
Mansendis stood before the floor-to-ceiling window. Looking down from where he was, the view happened to take in the courtyard where Wen Yuzhi had been during the day.
That snow beast that had been piled up was still there.
Wen Yuzhi had been meticulous. During those days on Kanirila, he had once observed the silver giant beast up close.
Even some details on the scales, he had sketched out.
Only, limited by time, Wen Yuzhi had merely formed the rough shape of the giant beast.
But it was enough for Mansendis to recognize it as his own true form.
He looked at the snow beast standing quietly in the snowfield. Everything around it was a vast expanse of white, making the only snow beast in the courtyard look a little lonely.
From Mansendis’s angle, that sense of solitude was even more obvious.
In the past, he would almost never have spared attention for such trivial things.
But this time, for some reason, Mansendis felt that snow beast shouldn’t be so alone.
...At its side, there should also be—
Just as he stood still, staring at the snow beast as if lost in thought, a knock suddenly sounded at his ear.
The movement stopped.
When he turned around again, the coldness on Mansendis’s face had already returned to how it usually was.
And the emotional stir of that moment seemed like nothing but an illusion.
Alvin walked in.
The adjutant immediately noticed the changes in the study. Their gaze first fell on the berry tart on the desk, then they saw the bone spines lying in the corner around a box.
Alvin’s eyes paused, then silently drew back.
Their expression stayed the same; their tone remained calm.
“Regarding how the little Highness appeared on Kanirila, this subordinate has already investigated it clearly.”
Because it involved royal blood, Alvin had already begun looking into it back on the Thanatos.
Mansendis told them to continue.
Alvin went on. “Near the B-type star system in the Eighth Star Sector, there are indeed traces that a wormhole existed, and the timing also matches the point when the little Highness appeared on Kanirila.”
“This subordinate also inspected that escape pod. It was damaged from the crash, and all the instruments on it are already destroyed. Judging by the model, it’s a type that was eliminated long ago. As far as I know, the human side shouldn’t be using that model of escape pod anymore either.”
All these traces matched the claim that the little Highness had indeed lived in another spatial plane before.
In other words—another world.
As for whether, within the universe they lived in, there existed other parallel realms, those theories had always been around.
Space was vast and boundless. Who dared guarantee that besides this one world of theirs, no other worlds could exist?
For example, in the Saint Clan’s legends, the universe at the beginning had been a chaos of nothingness. It was the Mother Goddess of Prosperity who created all things, then evolved the earliest civilizations.
And her true form was an incomparably massive tree. Its roots were flourishing and thick; each root was a small world.
The reason Dark Tower Star was so enormous was because it was formed from the roots of the Mother Goddess of Prosperity. Only the Saint Clan could live there. Its situation was unique—although located within the Ninth Star Sector, it was also independent of the Ninth Star Sector.
So in a certain sense, this too counted as a small world.
But whether other parallel planes truly existed still had yet to be proven.
If the little Highness really had once been lost to another parallel plane, that would explain why they hadn’t sensed the birth of new royal blood.
Otherwise, if they had known long ago, they absolutely would not have allowed a noble royal-blood Highness to remain lost outside for so long.
Thinking of how the little Highness had crashed onto Kanirila in an escape pod, Alvin’s heart sank slightly.
Under what circumstances would someone use an escape pod?
Obviously, only when facing extreme danger would one have no choice but to use an escape pod to survive.
If the little Highness hadn’t happened to encounter a wormhole...
If the escape pod hadn’t happened to crash onto Kanirila, but landed somewhere else...
Or if the little Highness hadn’t been /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ able to get out at the very beginning...
With Wen Yuzhi’s physical condition, Alvin didn’t even dare imagine how terrible it would have been.
What Alvin could think of, Mansendis could naturally think of as well.
Listening to Alvin’s report, his gaze grew colder and colder.
Those pale-gold vertical pupils looked soundlessly toward Alvin.
The silver-haired sovereign said nothing.
But that cold, dead silence made Alvin lower their head respectfully.
Time passed second by second. Just as Alvin’s body gradually tensed, Mansendis’s voice came from the front.
“I found a large amount of infant supplies inside Thorn Castle.”
Alvin’s pupils shrank violently.
They slowly raised their head, only to see that Mansendis’s expression at this moment was icy.
“Tasiya set up a nursery beside her bedroom.”
“......”
Thorn Castle looked almost exactly the same as it had in Mansendis’s memories.
Its exterior was still beautiful. The red brick was covered in vast swaths of rose vines, as if—just like when its owner was still alive—they were still blooming in vivid splendor.
The entire castle was quiet.
After Tasiya died, everything here was sealed. Very few Saint Clan came to this place again.
Mansendis was the first visitor since it was closed.
In fact, even when Tasiya was still alive, Mansendis had only come to this castle once.
They were twins, but Mansendis had almost no contact with any Salilaino—Tasiya included, even though she was his biological elder sister.
Their relationship wasn’t even as close as the one between him and Mond.
Stepping into this blood relative’s territory again, Mansendis felt not the slightest ripple in his heart.
He swept with mental power and walked straight toward the top floor.
There, he saw Tasiya’s bedroom, and beside it, a nursery that had already been renovated and fully arranged.
Inside were many infant supplies: soft carpets, adorably shaped toys, and all kinds of fluffy dolls.
And on the crib, Mansendis also found crystals that should have existed only in the royal pool.
Salilaino could only hatch successfully by relying on the energy of those crystals.
If seeing so many infant supplies had already been enough for Mansendis to confirm it, then the presence of those crystals completely erased the last trace of doubt in his heart.
—Tasiya had indeed, behind the backs of the entire Saint Clan, secretly produced a royal-blood child.
............
After Wen Yuzhi finished bathing, he returned to bed.
Probably because he’d had a good dream last night, he wasn’t very sleepy right now.
Leaning against the huge silver plush, Wen Yuzhi first sent the desserts he made today to Xi Heyan.
[Today I made some berry tarts and little cookies.]
[They’re gifts I prepared for my new family.]
Wen Yuzhi thought about it, and calling it “family” didn’t really seem wrong.
After coming here, every Saint Clan had treated him well. Wen Yuzhi had no way to see them only as subordinates and subjects.
In his heart, they were more like his family.
—Completely different from the Wen family.
Thinking of this, Wen Yuzhi sent another message.
[Today I did something I never dared to do before. My father... um... my new father. I hugged him.]
[Mom said that between family, you can use hugs and kisses to express affection. He’s done so many things for me, but it feels like I don’t really have anything to repay him with.]
[I hope he won’t dislike it.]
After typing the last word, Wen Yuzhi tossed the light-brain aside and buried his face into the plush.
But in his mind, one moment was the image from daytime—Mansendis walking toward him surrounded by a crowd of Heimo—and the next moment was the scene in the council hall, with the other sitting on the throne and personally teaching him how to respond.
Wen Yuzhi had to admit: Mansendis truly was a sovereign worthy of the name. Every word and action matched every expectation Wen Yuzhi had ever had of what “a king” should be.
...So this was what a monarch was supposed to look like?
Wen Yuzhi felt like he was vaguely touching a field he’d never understood before.
Maybe the more he thought, the more awake he became. He lay there for a long while and still couldn’t fall asleep.
And on the light-brain, there still wasn’t a reply from the other side.
Wen Yuzhi thought for a moment, then decided to use this time to read the books he’d brought back.
At a time when interstellar technology was so advanced, paper books were already rare.
Most people were used to using the light-brain to handle all kinds of things, including reading and studying.
But Wen Che and Madam Jilanya were part of that minority.
They preferred paper reading. And when Wen Yuzhi was little, they would even bring him to read together, claiming it could improve the family atmosphere.
That also led to Wen Yuzhi still, even after growing up, liking to hold a physical book and read, just like them.
And it so happened that the Saint Clan’s royal palace also seemed to have many such books.
When Wen Yuzhi took them, he hadn’t looked closely—he’d just casually picked two that seemed like general knowledge books.
Only now did he realize one of them was describing the Saint Clan’s origins.
It mentioned the Mother Goddess of Prosperity, the one who personally created the Saint Clan as a species.
What caught Wen Yuzhi’s attention was that the book said the Mother Goddess of Prosperity’s true form was an incomparably huge tree.
...A tree?
Curious, Wen Yuzhi read on.
He didn’t know what he had touched.
All at once, a segment of imagery flooded into his mind.
It was a tranquil sea of stars. Between the boundless stars, a luxuriant, verdant giant tree stood there.
Wen Yuzhi recognized it at a glance.
Wasn’t this the giant tree he had seen in his dream?
That towering, magnificent appearance was exactly the same.
Its existence was like a miracle.
So grand. So... filled with divinity.
Even after the imagery ended, Wen Yuzhi was still immersed in what he’d just seen, unable to come back to himself for a moment.
Only...
Back on the warship, he clearly hadn’t seen the Mother Goddess of Prosperity. So how had he dreamed of her existence?
How had he dreamed so clearly of what that tree looked like?
And... in that dream, besides the tree, he seemed to have dreamed of Mansendis too.
A silver giant beast lay beneath the tree, eyes closed, as if sleeping.
......
Maybe because he was still turning these things over in his head before sleeping, this time, after Wen Yuzhi fell asleep, he dreamed again.
He dreamed that he was in an incredibly cramped yet very warm place.
This warmth wasn’t only because the liquid he was soaked in was warm—it also seemed like something outside was continuously gathering heat and sending it in.
All around was pitch-black, not a sliver of light. He could only hear his own breathing and heartbeat.
After a long while, faint sounds finally came from outside.
One of them was clearly a feminine voice.
“Salilaino... bloodline... chosen target...”
By the time those words reached him, they were already distorted. Wen Yuzhi couldn’t hear them clearly, only catching a few words.
And that feminine voice was obviously talking to someone.
Because right after, Wen Yuzhi heard another voice.
This voice was even farther away. He couldn’t even tell if it was male or female, and of what it said, he only heard a single word—
“Mansendis.”
......
In the morning, when Merita came in, she discovered that the little Highness seemed listless today.
Wen Yuzhi yawned, and his eyes were veiled in a hazy layer of moisture.
Last night, he’d been thinking about those things, and he’d also had a strange dream. Unsurprisingly, Wen Yuzhi went straight into insomnia in the second half of the night.
He lay in bed with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling until dawn, and still couldn’t fall asleep again.
After getting up, his head was even more of a mess. He couldn’t muster even a shred of energy. Even when Merita asked what he wanted to eat, Wen Yuzhi kept spacing out.
This couldn’t help but make the newly appointed head maid feel worried.
Seeing Wen Yuzhi looking so dispirited, Merita couldn’t help starting to worry that the little Highness might be sick.
Once that thought came, Merita hurried to find Mu Luo.
Mu Luo lived inside the royal palace in the first place, so it would be more convenient to look after the little Highness’s health. Mu Luo had already been planning to pick a time within these next few days, after the little Highness settled in, to give Wen Yuzhi an examination.
Only Mu Luo hadn’t even gone yet when Merita arrived first.
Guessing the little Highness might be unwell, Mu Luo hurriedly grabbed the medicine kit. Before Mu Luo had even run two steps, Merita already disliked how slow it was.
Merita was anxious and had no patience to wait for Mu Luo to jog over bit by bit.
After saying a quick apology, Merita directly hoisted Mu Luo onto her back—carrying Mu Luo in the same posture as hauling a sandbag on the battlefield—and ran.
And Mu Luo’s weight seemed effortless to Merita. In the corridor, that head maid’s swift, brisk figure swept past in a rush.
By the time Mu Luo saw Wen Yuzhi, Mu Luo looked almost more haggard than Wen Yuzhi did.
Merita’s sudden burst of movement also startled Wen Yuzhi.
Then, the next moment, Merita unloaded the “heavy object” on her back.
Only after seeing clearly what the “heavy object” was did Wen Yuzhi realize Merita had brought back Mu Luo.
“Grandpa Mu Luo...?”
After being dragged so roughly all the way, Mu Luo wasn’t angry. Mu Luo knew Merita was worried about Wen Yuzhi’s health, so after catching breath, the first words were also asking about Wen Yuzhi’s condition.
“Little Highness, are you feeling okay?”
Wen Yuzhi blinked. Hearing that, he finally realized Merita seemed to think he was sick, so she had rushed to invite Mu Luo like this.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and he also couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty.
After all, it was because of him that Merita and Mu Luo had worried so much.
“I’m not sick. I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
Wen Yuzhi tried to tell them there was nothing wrong.
But Mu Luo didn’t completely relax.
Mu Luo still gave Wen Yuzhi a simple check. Only after confirming the teenager’s lack of spirit really was from poor sleep did Mu Luo let out a breath.
“The little Highness may have just arrived in a new environment, and the body still hasn’t fully adapted.”
This was also one manifestation of a cub lacking a sense of security.
Mu Luo didn’t say that outright, but planned to bring this up with Mond later.
In Mu Luo’s view, this was simply outrageous.
How, exactly, did Mansendis raise a child? Did he even know how?
A perfectly good cub—how had he followed Mansendis and suffered so much.
Merita also pulled out the same focus and seriousness as fighting an enemy on the battlefield, recording every word Mu Luo instructed without daring to miss a thing.
Wen Yuzhi, on the other hand, after that first sentence, couldn’t get a word in at all.
He really had only not slept well...
But Mu Luo and Merita’s attitude made it seem like his condition was extremely severe.
When Mu Luo finally left, and Merita still stood there looking tense, Wen Yuzhi could only hurry to change the subject, diverting Merita’s attention.
“Um... can I ask—about the king’s... my mother. Doesn’t she live here?”
Yesterday, while wandering around the palace, Wen Yuzhi had noticed there didn’t seem to be any trace of a mistress of the household here.
And from Mond and Alvin’s attitudes, it seemed like the only ones living in this palace were him and Mansendis.
Wen Yuzhi couldn’t help being curious. Where exactly was that “mother” he had never met?
Besides, yesterday he had also dreamed of those voices.
One of them was a feminine voice, and they had mentioned Mansendis. So Wen Yuzhi guessed: could the owner of that feminine voice be his mother?
However, the moment he asked, Merita froze in place. Even the tray in her hands fell, and she didn’t react at all.
Wen Yuzhi saw Merita’s expression suddenly turn complicated.
It was a look of shock mixed with dazed disbelief.
Merita was the type whose face was so stiff that even the simplest smile couldn’t be done. For such a clear expression to appear, it showed just how surprised Merita was right now.
Was this question that hard to answer?
Before Wen Yuzhi could decide whether to retract his words, Mansendis’s voice came from behind Merita.
“I don’t have a companion.”
The silver-haired sovereign walked over directly with Mond and Alvin.
Mansendis first assessed Wen Yuzhi’s condition.
Seeing that the teenager didn’t look like he was sick, the dark heaviness gathered in his eyes gradually faded.
