Chapter 457: Beyond the Main Story, New Year’s Chapter 12

Chapter 457: Beyond the Main Story, New Year's Chapter 12

"My apologies, Your Highness."

Feilin bent down and took Ye Mo into his arms. His perception naturally got sharper the closer he got, so every time, he'd hold Ye Mo close before checking him over.

Ye Mo let himself be held without a fuss, then corrected him, "It's Mo Mo."

"Yes, Prince Mo Mo."

This exchange repeated nearly every time they met. It wasn't that he didn't remember—he just thought the little prince was adorable.

After a good while, Feilin finally set him back in Norton's arms—since their owner couldn't cooperate yet, checking Ye Mo's mental power took a lot of time, but he had endless patience.

He let out a long sigh. "No problems. The little prince's mental power is seriously impressive—perfect in both quality and scale. But what's even crazier is that it doesn't affect his body or emotions at all."

Normally, mental power gives a matching boost to physical fitness, which is why most kids develop their mental power during their growth spurts. But at a young age, that wasn't ideal—having too much mental power could mess with a young body and mind.

His current state was absolutely perfect.

This meant Ye Mo could handle way more mental power than others—than the other Graths.

Once he hit his growth period, the little prince's physical condition would also shoot up. And then, how big would his mental power get?

Feilin could already picture Ye Mo's future.

He said sincerely, "Little Prince, you'll one day become a great Grath."

Baide, done with his work, smiled as he watched them. "That's a given. You've noticed it too, right?"

The last time he'd felt like this was with Norton.

"He's got potential even I can't understand. Norton, maybe he'll even surpass you?"

On the other side, Norton lowered his eyes, looking unusually relaxed. "I'm looking forward to it."

Norton had been sitting there, feet up on the footrest, reading a book that was now lying face-down nearby.

He reached out, palm half-curved around Ye Mo to help him keep his balance. Ye Mo seemed to be trying to stand up, stepping on Norton's thigh and grabbing his shoulder to pull himself up.

Norton's hair had grown longer, reaching his shoulders, because Ye Mo loved grabbing at it—whenever he was picked up, he'd instinctively clutch a handful to feel safe.

Baide watched them, tilting his head. He wasn't disappointed by the lack of reaction—he'd expected Norton's response anyway. He looked at the others and clapped his hands together. "Anyway, it's been a while since we've seen the Zerg. You guys feel a bit lonely too, right?"

Herli chucked the documents in her hand at him. "Not one bit!"

She'd lost yet another bet to Baide.

Baide tilted his head, letting the documents drop behind him. "Mo Mo, Herli says she doesn't want to catch Zerg for you."

Herli shot up in shock, both hands slamming on the table. "I never said that!"

Ye Mo thought for a couple seconds, then looked up. "Mo Mo doesn't want bugs. Mo Mo wants to chew on Mo Mo's leaves."

Norton looked down.

All the Graths turned to look.

Even Herli, still glaring at Baide, quickly whipped her head around.

Ye Mo had already dug up two plants from that garden that never seemed to end, and Adelaide had potted them for him and took care of them. He checked on them every day, and recently, a hole showed up in one of the leaves. A shocked Ye Mo, after Adelaide explained it, learned that things called bugs existed in the world.

Arnold tried to correct him. "It's Zerg, not bugs. Zerg."

Ye Mo tried hard to repeat it. "Zerg."

"That's right, Zerg. Mo Mo is so smart."

Ye Mo nodded over and over. Yeah, Mo Mo was smart. He puffed out his chest a little, proud of himself, then went on, "What's that?"

The office went dead silent.

Jacob, who rarely spoke up, broke the silence. "He's so little—it's normal he doesn't know, right? We can just teach him now."

"Mo Mo, the Zerg are—"

Herli froze. "They're—uh—they're—"

She looked at Deenlie, Deenlie looked at Elia, and after a chain of looks, the gaze finally landed on Arnold.

Arnold held out on his own for a bit. "They're—"

A few seconds later, he looked at Baide. Baide started trying to remember how he'd raised Norton and that whole bunch of Graths, then gave up and looked at Adelaide.

Adelaide was quiet for a moment. He'd only ever dealt with calming down and stopping the little Graths—in his memory, all the young lords could hold a sword as soon as they could walk, learning to kill as if by instinct. He'd never had to worry about teaching the little ones.

Adelaide slowly turned to Feilin.

Feilin felt a ton of pressure. The Graths' stares gradually landed on him too.

Ye Mo swung his feet, looking left and right, then followed everyone's gaze and looked over too. He thought it was funny.

Feilin finally spoke under the weight of all those Graths' eyes on him. "I remember the military made some documentaries a while back."

Ye Mo nodded along, copying him. "Documentaries."

He had no idea what that was, so when Baide unfolded the huge light screen in the office, Ye Mo kept going "wow" in awe.

He'd seen the educational videos Theodore showed him, but those were tiny light screens hidden from the cameras—nothing compared to this. This was top-of-the-line gear, able to transmit info without error even in wartime, with visuals matching what an S-grade mental power observer sees with their own eyes.

Feilin still felt it wasn't enough. Teaching the next generation of little Graths was super important—you couldn't be too careful.

Adelaide spread a thick round rug over the carpet next to Norton's feet, and Ye Mo automatically crawled over, stopping to lean against Norton's leg.

Adelaide handed him a bottle and gave Ye Mo a pillow to hug, then turned off the lights. Ye Mo was weirdly excited—everyone together, lights off, made him feel safe.

Once everything was ready, Adelaide opened the video library and stopped at the top-rated documentary—The Complete Guide to Zerg Species. The footage was recorded using instruments that captured the mental power of multiple eyewitnesses—totally real.

The cover showed the back of a pure white, see-through Zerg, really beautiful—super rare among Zerg. You could still find pretty Zerg if you looked hard enough, but this rare, flashy color usually got eaten by its own kind before growing up.

Adelaide hesitated, glancing back at Ye Mo's eager face. It was just a picture now, but once it expanded, it would be a full-on immersive experience—at an S-grade mental power observer's level.

Was this really okay?

But in the end, at Baide's urging, he hit play.

The opening slowly zoomed in on the white Zerg.

Ye Mo nervously grabbed Norton's clothes with one hand.

The bugs that came next grew increasingly ferocious and terrifying. Since they were taken from the memories of eyewitnesses, there were even clips of bugs suddenly charging out to attack.

A few minutes later, Adelaide left before the opening preview had even finished playing.

Ye Mo clung to Norton's leg, whimpering right there.

Amid the chaos, Adelaide couldn't help but feel grateful that he hadn't taught Ye Mo to watch it with his psychic senses—because then just closing his eyes and hiding his head wouldn't have been enough.

"W-want to eat Mo Mo, bite off its leg."

"Can't bite it off. I'll go deal with them first."

Ye Mo looked up at Arnold, then buried himself back into Norton's embrace, continuing to whimper, "Don't go. Daddy's not going either. Nobody's going."

He tugged at Arnold's clothes, as if afraid Arnold would head outside right then.

Having witnessed the horror of the outside world for the first time ever, Ye Mo was super panicked and really hard to calm down.

Even the Queen, who'd been busy setting up a play area for Ye Mo in the palace, got notified.

Baide chimed in, complaining, "Why am I the only one being scolded? When I wanted to put it on, no one said anything either."

Doesn't not stopping someone mean you're okay with it?

Sylvia gave him a dirty look. Holding Ye Mo, who was buried in her chest and still occasionally sobbing, she patted his back and walked around slowly, asking, a bit confused, "Aren't there plenty of cartoons? Why not put those on instead?"

Feilin looked like he'd just realized and was kicking himself for not thinking of it.

Adelaide stood frozen in place, turning ashen—this was a serious failure on his part.

Sylvia quickly put on a cartoon—a short fairy-tale style story about cute cartoon animals fighting cute cartoon bugs, with a brave little lion as the main character.

She tried to calm Ye Mo, "Mo Mo, look, this one is real. What you just saw was fake."

Ye Mo peeked out one eye, quickly drawn in by the story, and gradually revealed his full face, twisting his body to watch. Sylvia turned him around and let him rest his head on her shoulder to watch the cartoon.

Ye Mo watched with great interest, occasionally letting out soft "ah" sounds following the story's progress.

He genuinely believed there was a little lion like that in the world.

Being super cautious as always, Ye Mo pointed at the grassland in the cartoon and said, "We should live there too."

Lions would eat all the monsters.

Sylvia paused for a moment. Moving would be a pain—at the very least, they'd have to wait until Ye Mo was older. "The lion lives right in our home. He's always been protecting Mo Mo. Mo Mo is very safe."

Ye Mo got a bit excited. "Mo Mo hasn't, hasn't seen it before."

"Because Mo Mo is still too small right now. You need to grow up a bit more, and then Daddy'll take you to see the lion, okay?"

Ye Mo immediately listened and did what she said. "Then Mo Mo needs to eat."

"Oh? You really want to eat? There are still many stories about the little lion here. Doesn't Mo Mo want to keep watching them?"

And so, easily distracted, Ye Mo instantly forgot about eating. "Want to watch, want to watch."