Free Web NovelThe royal palace had rarely felt this lively.
Both the king and the little highness were going out, so Mond had a mountain of things to handle. Wen Yuzhi was also picking out what he needed to bring.
This wasn’t just his first long trip since arriving on Dark Tower Star—it was also, in the truest sense, his second long trip ever.
Back then, under the Wen family’s control, he’d never left the Wen family once. That escape had been his first time truly leaving the capital star.
Only, he hadn’t made it to his destination. The starship ran into a storm current midway, and he ended up falling with the escape pod onto Kanirila.
Even now, thinking back on it, Wen Yuzhi still felt a little dazed.
Warm sunlight seeped in through the window, little by little. Wen Yuzhi watched the bright halo sway in front of his eyes, and only then realized he’d already been on Dark Tower Star for more than two months.
Dark Tower Star had also shifted from winter into spring. Sunlight was no longer anything rare, either—it was as common as the wild grass and plants growing everywhere outside.
It clearly hadn’t been that long, and yet Wen Yuzhi had the feeling that everything that happened in the Wen family belonged to another life.
In such a short span of time, so much had happened.
He had a new home. New family.
In the past, Wen Yuzhi wouldn’t have dared to even imagine it.
But now he was already used to life after coming to the Saint Clan. The people and events of the Wen family were gradually fading in his mind; everything from before had fully become something outdated.
Just as Wen Yuzhi was feeling that, Mansendis walked in.
He saw the cub sitting on the bed. A small suitcase Mond had specially prepared sat in front of him, already packed with quite a few things.
“All packed?”
Mansendis’s voice snapped Wen Yuzhi out of that haze. Wen Yuzhi didn’t let his attention linger on those irrelevant people anymore, and looked instead at the luggage he’d sorted out.
He silently counted on his fingers.
Everything in the small basket had to go. The seashell bed he slept in all the time had to go. The silver doll, too, and then...
Wen Yuzhi swept his gaze around the room. In the end, it landed on the two Ge De guards.
Under their tense stares, Wen Yuzhi quietly folded down the last two fingers.
Yiluo and Feier couldn’t be forgotten either. Of course he had to bring them along.
Even though they knew the little highness couldn’t possibly not bring them, seeing the cub willingly count the two of them in still made Yiluo and Feier unable to stop the vertical slit in their pupils from tightening slightly.
After carefully listing everything he wanted to take and confirming nothing was missing, Wen Yuzhi lifted his head and said to Mansendis, “I’m done packing!”
Wen Yuzhi didn’t have much to bring. Mond had already prepared all the daily necessities. The things Wen Yuzhi was “packing” now—rather than real luggage—felt more like Mond had arranged it on purpose, just so the little highness could have the experience of getting ready before a trip.
A suitcase big enough for Wen Yuzhi to lie down inside was, for Mansendis, no more than a small bag.
Mansendis lifted the suitcase in one hand. With the other free hand, he scooped up the cub.
Mond and the others were already waiting at the door.
Wen Yuzhi took one look—Alvin, Selet, Merita, Mu Luo... they were all there too.
This time, the group heading out was unusually large.
After all, with both the king and the little highness leaving, no one wanted to stay behind on Dark Tower Star to “guard the house” miserably while everyone else followed the little highness out to have fun.
Faced with application after application and every possible excuse for wanting to go to Esoris, how could Mansendis not know what these Saint Clan were thinking?
He was just about to reject them all when Mond, off to the side, spoke cautiously. “This subject feels that with them along, the little highness might not be so bored during the trip.”
Mond had always felt Wen Yuzhi was too well-behaved, too quiet.
It wasn’t that being well-behaved and quiet was bad. It was just that for a cub, being a little more lively and cheerful was never a bad thing.
And with Alvin and the others around, the little highness’s side could become more bustling.
Mond’s words weren’t without reason.
Mansendis had originally planned for only Selet to follow this time, but if it was just Selet, then whether on the warship or on Esoris, the cub would be facing an unfamiliar environment and a crowd of unfamiliar faces.
Even if Mansendis could keep Wen Yuzhi beside him at all times, doing that would be no different than binding a child’s space to grow.
Just as Mond said: the cub was sensible and well-behaved. Wen Yuzhi wouldn’t voice any complaints about this.
But as guardians, they couldn’t ignore the child’s feelings.
With familiar Saint Clan like Alvin nearby, if nothing else, the cub could at least feel more at ease.
Besides, Dark Tower Star was under Mond’s hand. Even if the few people who usually made the key decisions weren’t here, the day-to-day operations wouldn’t fall into chaos.
And Esoris wasn’t far from Dark Tower Star. If something truly urgent happened, they could rush back immediately.
With all of that considered, Mansendis granted their requests.
Wen Yuzhi had no idea how much effort Alvin and the others had put in to be allowed to come. Seeing everyone there, he was instantly delighted.
“On the coming journey, this subordinate will accompany the little highness as well,” Alvin said with a smile.
“This subordinate too,” Merita followed.
Selet didn’t speak, but when the cub looked over, Selet gave a light nod.
And with Mu Luo—plus the Gumu Mu Luo was holding. That’s right, these Gumu were going too. They’d basically become Wen Yuzhi’s personal chefs now.
Wherever Wen Yuzhi went, they went too.
Almost everyone in the group was someone Wen Yuzhi recognized.
When it was finally time to set out, Wen Yuzhi looked at the long, imposing line of people behind him, then looked at the palace gates up ahead.
He adjusted his posture, sitting on Mansendis’s shoulder.
The cub lifted a small arm and swung it.
To Esoris—let’s go!
.........
Wen Yuzhi thought that once they left the palace, they would go straight to the port to board the warship.
He didn’t expect Mansendis to take him somewhere else first—just the two of them.
Looking at the castle in front of him, its walls covered in roses, Wen Yuzhi was curious. He didn’t know what Mansendis had brought him here to do, or what kind of place this even was.
Very soon, the dust-sealed gates were opened, and traces of its old splendor were still faintly visible inside.
Mansendis carried Wen Yuzhi into the castle.
Wen Yuzhi looked around curiously. The architecture here was no less grand than the royal palace. The high walls were draped in vast waterfalls of roses; under the last light of the setting sun, those bright, delicate blossoms were tinted with a rouge-like pink glow.
The castle was huge, and very, very beautiful. Everywhere looked like it had been arranged with care. Without exaggeration, every building and every corner was filled with the decorator’s starkly distinct preferences and style.
It was completely different from the palace’s steady, solemn feel.
It was too luxurious—so luxurious it was almost over the top.
Wen Yuzhi judged silently.
And once inside, that lavishness hit even harder.
Everything looked gilded and dazzling. Wen Yuzhi even saw gemstones.
So many gemstones.
Whoever designed the interior clearly treated gemstones like ordinary stones. That was how the inside ended up with that kind of glittering brilliance everywhere you looked.
But amid all that blinding extravagance, Wen Yuzhi noticed a painting in the corner.
It had been placed on a shelf near the window, covered with a white cloth. Maybe whoever covered it had been in a hurry—the cloth had been flipped back in one spot, revealing a corner of the portrait beneath.
From that corner, Wen Yuzhi could tell the portrait seemed to be of a woman.
Beautiful long curls. A crisp, practical combat uniform.
But what Wen Yuzhi focused on was...
The hair color in the painting was almost exactly the same as theirs—pure silver, clean enough to hold not a trace of impurity.
In the entire Saint Clan, only the Salilaino had silver hair, so...
Was the woman in the painting also royal blood?
A thread of doubt rose in Wen Yuzhi’s chest.
Ever since coming here, the questions that left him confused only seemed to grow.
But Mansendis kept leading him up the stairs.
In the end, they arrived at a nursery on the top floor. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Why call it a nursery? Because the decor was simply too childlike and cute—so out of place against the castle’s ubiquitous luxury.
Wen Yuzhi even saw a cradle bed meant for a small child, and piles of infant supplies.
He couldn’t help but fly down off Mansendis’s shoulder.
Stepping onto the soft carpet, Wen Yuzhi walked forward a couple of steps.
In the arms of a stuffed doll, he found a card.
As if possessed, Wen Yuzhi chose to pick it up.
He opened it, and saw a handwritten line:
A gift for my precious baby who hasn’t hatched yet—Tasiya.
...Tasiya?
That was clearly a woman’s name.
Was it the woman in the portrait?
Wen Yuzhi thought uncertainly.
He went back to Mansendis’s side and held the card up for him to see.
But when the silver-haired sovereign saw the handwriting, his expression turned complicated.
Just when Wen Yuzhi was starting to think there was something wrong with that sentence, he heard Mansendis ask, “Does Zhizhi remember this place?”
Wen Yuzhi froze, then hurriedly shook his head.
This was his first time here today. He didn’t even know what this place was, so how could he have any impression of it?
But Mansendis seemed to see the confusion in Wen Yuzhi’s heart. He said slowly, “This is Thorn Castle. It was my sister’s—also the former Saint Clan sovereign’s—territory.”
Wen Yuzhi was even more confused.
...Sister?
Dad had a sister?
Mansendis looked at the cub’s foggy expression and simply sat down on the carpet. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Wen Yuzhi, extremely well-behaved, sat down across from him. Father and son faced each other like that and began to talk.
“Her name was Tasiya.”
Mansendis’s gaze paused on the card.
Wen Yuzhi thought: so the name on the card really did belong to the woman in the portrait.
That silver hair proved she was royal blood, too. The portrait was placed in this castle—so the woman was very likely the owner here.
Wen Yuzhi’s lashes trembled lightly.
It felt like he’d never heard that name from Mond or the others.
And inside the palace, there hadn’t been a single item related to her. If Mansendis hadn’t brought him here himself, Wen Yuzhi wouldn’t have even known this royal-blood existence.
So where was she now...?
“Then now she...”
Wen Yuzhi hesitated as he spoke.
“She’s dead. I killed her with my own hands.”
Mansendis’s voice was still indifferent. Even talking about killing family, his expression remained calm.
Wen Yuzhi went still.
But he didn’t show fear or terror. Instead, he looked at Mansendis seriously.
“Then would Dad be sad?”
Killing your own family—would Mansendis be sad?
No Saint Clan had ever asked Mansendis that.
A transfer of power—no matter the race—was often accompanied by blood and slaughter.
Mansendis’s path to the throne had been even more brutal than most.
He killed every Salilaino, and he even killed his twin sister.
To outsiders, Mansendis was a tyrant in the purest sense. And because he was a tyrant, they naturally assumed he was cold and cruel—someone who would stop at nothing to seize the throne.
Even Mond and the others didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.
No one knew what truly happened in that ten-day blood riot inside the palace. They only knew that out of thirteen royal-blood members, only Mansendis had survived—and the rest had died by Mansendis’s hand.
As the sole survivor and victor, Mansendis quickly ascended the throne as the next Saint Clan sovereign.
The law of the Saint Clan had always been the same: the strong rule, the weak are eaten.
What the Saint Clan saw was simple: Mansendis defeated the other royal-blood members, which meant he was the strongest Salilaino—and he had the power to make them willingly submit and follow.
In that kind of situation, of course they wouldn’t care whether Mansendis felt sad about it.
Maybe only a cub would ask a question like this.
Mansendis didn’t hesitate for even half a second. He answered directly:
“No.”
