Chapter 15: The Newly Born King

Chapter 15: The Newly Born King

……

For the latter half of the journey, Yun Huai dared not mention letting the robots leave him again. He didn't understand why everyone he met in this world didn’t want to leave him.

Lu Lin'an at least had a nesting period as an explanation, but Tang Sisi and the Ita robots were utterly inexplicable.

AG-0781, when sad, emitted a strange whining sound that blended with the wilderness winds, sounding almost like ghostly wails.

Lu Lin'an endured it for a long time, almost turning back to dismantle the robots' vocal cords.

So, they flew for hours across the wilderness, the light gradually dimming. Yun Huai fell asleep in Lu Lin'an's embrace, his recent sleepiness beyond his control, dozing off involuntarily despite reminding himself to stay alert.

When he opened his eyes again, Yun Huai found that Lu Lin'an was sitting atop a chimney of an abandoned factory at the city's edge.

This chimney was probably the tallest structure in K420. From there, one could see the lights of the spaceport and the low houses of the indigenous inhabitants, one of which was Yun Huai's home.

Yun Huai wasn’t sure how long Lu Lin'an had been there, but he saw that the flames on his wings had completely died down.

He was holding Yun Huai securely, one leg dangling high in the air, the other bent on the chimney's edge to provide a comfortable angle for Yun Huai to lean on.

Feeling his movement, Yun Huai paused for a moment before asking hoarsely, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

"You were sleeping so well," Lu Lin'an lowered his eyelashes, his black hair fluttering in the wind, "Eating well and sleeping well help you grow. Although I have no experience caring for younglings, I inspect several youngling nurseries every year."

Yun Huai licked his dry lips, shifting his gaze away, as Lu Lin'an took out a red tube, waving it in front of him: "Hungry, right? It’s time to eat."

Before, Yun Huai would not easily refuse Lu Lin'an's feedings, as he would starve in the abyss without them. But now that they had arrived in the interstellar city, Yun Huai had other means to fill his empty stomach.

Though compared to Lu Lin'an’s, those alternatives were less nutritious.

But he no longer wanted to eat from him. The white sand beach was already stained with noticeable gold and red, and his psychic sea, like a child tasting sweets for the first time, grew increasingly greedy. Continuing like this, the nature of their relationship would only become more blurred.

So, for the first time, Yun Huai refused Lu Lin'an's offering. Turning his head, he said, "Take me home first, I live at 89, Thirteenth Street, near the spaceport, in an underground house."

Lu Lin'an paused almost imperceptibly for a moment, then threw the blood tube into a spatial rift. He looked at him: "Okay, go rest first. I'll check nearby for clothes shops."

Yun Huai wrapped himself in the blanket, murmuring indistinctly, "Whatever, we're no longer in the nest. You don't need to be so fixated on me. You'll come to your senses sooner or later."

Lu Lin'an was left speechless.

Not far away, on the other side of the huge chimney, the war robots sat or stood. AG-0781 saw the monstrous man's tail flare up for a moment, then seemingly suppressed instantaneously.

Those wings, which instinctively frightened them, drooped slightly. AG-0781 subtly understood a bit of Lu Lin'an's frustrated and discontented mood, still needing to hide it from the king.

It showed a flicker of sympathy.

Poor alien, not even an Ita citizen, unable to connect even with the most basic psychic link with the king.

Everyone desires the king's love, but not everyone is as fortunate as to save the entire universe.

This thought, by the time they reached the front of Yun Huai's house, swiftly shifted from Lu Lin'an's drooping wings to AG-0781, reveling in schadenfreude.

Because they too had been ordered to stay outside.

AG-0781 emotionlessly thought that the king gently yet irresistibly rejects everyone; no one in the universe could obtain the king’s love. Everyone is the same.

Equally miserable.

It was deep into the night. The residential area had fallen into a deep sleep. Lu Lin'an, standing 198cm tall, was in front of Yun Huai's door, where his line of sight was met not by a door or frame, but a wall.

Yun Huai expertly used a code to open the door. Everything inside was as he left it, just covered with some dust. It seemed that interstellar societies protected citizen privacy well – as long as the rent was paid, not even landlords could intrude.

Yun Huai entered and immediately rinsed his dust-covered face under the tap.

A moderately loud noise came from the door. Looking up, Yun Huai saw Lu Lin'an awkwardly trying to squeeze in, having to bend and lower his head to barely fit through the door frame.

The noise was because, although his body squeezed in, a pair of wings with a span of over six meters were still flapping outside.

“……”

Yun Huai pointed towards the door, “My house can't accommodate you, and we agreed that you wouldn't follow me after we got up here.”

Lu Lin'an stepped back, revealing a pile of robots behind him, his tone subtly dissatisfied, "What about them? Are they supposed to live with you?"

Yun Huai had already thought about how to arrange these war robots. Water droplets ran down his fair face; due to his smooth skin, they gathered at his sharp chin and dripped onto the floor.

Lu Lin'an suddenly noticed that with growth, the youthful curve on the boy's face had slightly faded.

But he still looked very small and fragile.

“I will help them find suitable jobs.”

Lu Lin'an’s gaze wandered around the small dwelling, smaller even than his nest, occasionally landing on the youth, waiting for him to continue.

“Since you disabled their attack systems, there’s a robot bar near the spaceport. I can introduce them to work there as security servants. This way, they can charge for free and won't break down before their people arrive.” Yun Huai said all this in one breath, slightly gasping afterwards.

Lu Lin'an took a few seconds to process Yun Huai's words.

He never imagined that one day, the fierce Ita tribe war robots would become security servants in an alien domain. Imagining that scene, Lu Lin'an suddenly found it too bizarrely beautiful.

But more unsettling to him than the bizarre image was that Yun Huai had arranged for a bunch of robots but not for him, making Lu Lin'an feel unbalanced. His hands itched to dismantle a few more robot parts.

Was it because he was too strong to need care?

Lu Lin'an stood at the doorway for a dozen seconds, lost in thought, his brows furrowed, and then without a word, he spread his wings and silently vanished into K420’s night.

Yun Huai didn’t speak again, watching him leave, feeling like he had just seen off another guest.

Lu Lin'an and Tang Sisi weren't much different; he might return, or perhaps never come back.

Lu Lin'an was even prouder than Tang Sisi. Yun Huai knew he had never been treated so coldly before; perhaps he would fly straight to the spaceport and leave this planet on the most luxurious spaceship.

He would soon forget him, just as he had forgotten Tang Sisi.

Yun Huai temporarily let the war robots that followed him come in. The robots dutifully helped him clean and wipe things down, occasionally emitting a couple of strange, ghostly sob-like sounds, all the while continuously cursing the Ita tribe as useless.

When Yun Huai was ready to sleep again, the “combat nannies” finally settled down, sitting against the farthest wall, just watching Yun Huai lie on the bed with their piercing mechanical eyes.

The youth closed his eyes, overwhelmed by their overtly affectionate gazes, and turned his back to them, taking a while to drift into a hazy sleep.

In the quiet underground house, AG-0781, along with a few robots that still had arms, quietly approached the bed, half-kneeling to adjust the king's blanket.

Then they maintained that position around the bed, motionless.

Yun Huai, half-asleep, felt a warmth under his feet and the familiar psychic sea softly roaring as it washed over the island in his dreams.

They playfully brought up some oddly shaped shells, leaving them on the red and white intermingled beach.

Yun Huai looked down and suddenly remembered never seeing such shapes in this sea area before.

Frowning, he picked up the shells, only to realize they only resembled shells; in fact, they were smooth, flat objects.

These objects had sharp red edges, gradually becoming thicker and blunter towards the end, with the color intensifying into complete black.

Yun Huai paused for a moment before realizing what they were.

They closely resembled the flame scales on the tail part of Lu Lin'an's wings.

He inhaled sharply, the person he had almost forgotten popping back into his mind.

Yun Huai threw the hot black scale back into the sea. The playful waves turned to chase it, like a puppy chasing a ball thrown by its owner.

"…I told you eating too much would cause problems." Yun Huai was grateful he had "stopped in time"; any more, and he’d start to wonder if Lu Lin'an himself would one day come ashore.

With this thought, he couldn’t help but sigh with a headache.

Meanwhile, the brightest star under the deep blue night sky flickered slightly.

Under the Mistral Super Constellation, asteroid J51, four giant asteroid belts away from K420.

El brought over a well-matched dinner for Xi Yena.

Inside the cold white starship's cabin, the first system's grand noble executive of the Ita Empire gazed into the cosmic starry river.

"Sir, it’s time to eat."

El placed the meal on the table, watching Xi Yena turn and walk over.

In just over a month, this noble seemed even leaner and taller, but no one dared question Xi Yena's strength. Anyone who could come close to the king was undoubtedly a powerful being.

Xi Yena expressionlessly picked up a spoon, about to eat, when suddenly a low, soft sigh echoed in his mind.

“Sigh.”

Followed by a voice that seemed to murmur to itself gently.

“Nothing to eat again, huh.”

Author’s note:

Psychic Force → Kid King: Is the dad who birthed me!

Psychic Force → Linzi Bro: Is the mom who breastfed me!

Yeyezi: Sorry, I ate one extra grain of rice today, I’m sinful (penitent, eyes closed.jpg)

Linzi Bro: Is it my fault if my wife doesn't eat? No! It must be because I'm not delicious! (some efforts to cook oneself)