Chapter 13
When they arrived at that garden, Yomi was like a sudden bright accent dropped into an enormous painter’s palette. The sea of flowers rolled in waves beneath the evening breeze, and he became the unexpected stroke of color within it.
There were many flat little paths here, making it a perfect place for Yomi to practice driving.
The sky at the horizon blazed with layers of rosy light. Anxius sat on a wooden bench beside the goldfish pond. Holding a book in his hand, he flipped through it while watching Yomi drive over there from the corner of his eye.
Afraid of disturbing his reading, Yomi tried his best not to drive near the goldfish pond while practicing. But before long, the monster rose from the pond with his book and sat himself directly beside a fork in the path that the little sports car had no way of avoiding.
At first Yomi minded it a little, but not long after, he threw himself wholeheartedly into practicing again.
Even though Anxius had wings, scales, and terrifying horns, the lowered gaze in his eyes and the perfect degree of dignity and steadiness in every movement made Yomi forget several times, as he passed by, that this was actually a monster.
When he drove past Anxius once again, Yomi glanced at the book in his hands—The Human Handbook Every Snaran Should Read.
He was surprised for a moment, then continued focusing on driving.
The people of Snar Star already admired human appearances to begin with, and this imperial crown prince had even specially watched a documentary about humans before. That meant he was interested in the subject, so it was only natural that he read related books in daily life as well.
Once the little sports car had gone off into the distance again, Anxius lowered his gaze back to the book.
[Humans are very small in physique. The tallest human fossil discovered so far is just a little over two meters… This is drastically different from the body size of the people of Snar Star.]
[Humans do not possess monstrous forms. From birth to old age, aside from the changes brought by age, they remain in a perfect human shape the entire time. However, humans generally have short lifespans. According to expert research, their average lifespan is around seventy years, while those above one hundred are already considered rare long-lived elders. This stands in marked contrast to the Snarans, whose average lifespan exceeds two hundred years.]
Suddenly, while Yomi was making a turn, he heard a tearing sound. He immediately stopped the car and looked over.
Not far away, Anxius was using his horrifying claws to rip the book cleanly in half. The faintly angry expression on his face turned slightly anxious again the moment he looked toward Yomi.
Karl, thinking the crown prince had entered a berserk state again, had just been about to contact the guard corps when he saw the monster over there turn another page in the already torn-apart book—and then, unexpectedly, slowly calm down…
Page 35 of The Human Handbook Every Snaran Should Read:
[According to one expert’s research, the secret behind human longevity may be inseparably linked to diet…]
Under the parasol tree—
After confirming that the crown prince had not gone berserk, Karl pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his sweat, then carried his handbag briskly over to the little sports car. “It’s all right. His Highness Anxius is simply too strong and accidentally tore the book apart.”
Yomi let out a dazed “Oh,” and then watched as Karl took a little cat plushie out of the handbag and placed it in the passenger seat beside him. “Would it be okay to put it here?”
Not long ago, when Yomi had been so happy while driving around, he had passed Karl and unconsciously shouted, “Want to get in?” Right after shouting it, he himself realized how funny the remark sounded, laughed sheepishly, and drove off.
But Karl had started thinking along another line. In that little sports car, aside from Yomi, there was definitely no one else in the estate who could possibly fit inside. If he drove alone all the time, would he eventually feel lonely?
So Karl had brought over this little cat plushie.
A real cat might run around wildly and could even hurt tiny Yomi, but this plush cat looked very much like a real one and could also serve as company. It was the perfect option.
Yomi was indeed delighted. Leaning over, he fastened the toy cat’s seat belt. “Is this also a surveillance device? Is it meant to be used as a driving recorder?”
“…”
Karl let out a small snort of laughter and barely managed to suppress it in time. “No, this is a toy cat. But you can treat it as a passenger while practicing your driving skills.”
“I see.” Yomi nodded. When he started up the little convertible again, his speed was noticeably slower, as if what sat beside him was not a toy at all, but a real living being.
Karl could not help himself and snapped several photos in rapid succession, then calmly sent them into the group chat.
[(Empire’s Little Darling Related Work) Public-Funded Mimi Viewing Group]
Karl: [Image] My colleague is practicing driving. I am supervising…
After sending the photo, he ignored the commotion erupting in the group and smiled as he walked toward the little car over there…
Night had fallen. It was time to go home.
Anxius rose and led the way in front, while Yomi drove behind him back to the house.
After entering the garage, Yomi got out of the car and quickly walked around to the other side. He opened the door, unfastened the seat belt, and picked up the little cat to return it to the stunned Karl. “I’ve already become very skilled today, so I’m giving this back to you.”
Karl was dazed for a moment before hurriedly waving his hands. “Th-This is just a toy the dealer included for free when the car was bought. It’s of no use to us at all. You may take it with you!”
Yomi carefully looked at the little cat toy and also felt that it was too small for them to use, so he smiled and thanked him. Hugging the little cat, he followed Crown Prince Anxius, who was waiting for him outside, back into the house.
While going upstairs, he noticed that the monster had been staring the whole time at the little cat in his arms, so he asked in a low voice, “Do you want it?”
Anxius blinked slowly, then suddenly reached out a hand toward him.
Yomi immediately lifted the little cat up. However, those terrifying claws went straight to the top of his head.
Yomi felt his head and his little lamb horns both being gently touched. He looked up in confusion.
“Do you want to keep a cat?” Anxius asked him.
Yomi paused, then quickly shook his head.
He still had not truly gained a footing on Snar Star. Nothing about the future was certain. He did not even know whether he might be dismissed again someday for one reason or another… Something like keeping a pet was not something he ought to be considering right now—he himself could scrape by, but his pet could not.
After sending him back to the little castle that occupied half of the master bedroom, Anxius took several books and went out again.
It seemed he had something to attend to.
Naturally, the crown prince had many responsibilities. Yomi did not think much of it. He entered the castle, opened his suitcase, and prepared to tidy up a bit before bathing and going to sleep.
There was a private little bathroom inside the castle. Yomi carefully shut the doors, windows, and curtains, took a simple shower, then ran hot water and soaked in the bath while messaging Lynn.
[Yomi: I have a work vehicle now! I already drove it today [excited.jpg]]
[Lynn: Wow! You actually know how to drive!]
Lynn knew that the conditions at the remote bases were poor, and the roads were nowhere near as good as those in the capital. Many factories in such places, for the sake of efficiency, provided those shared vehicles used by groups of workers. But he still felt that little Yomi being able to do all this was already incredibly impressive.
As they chatted, Lynn still decided he ought to remind Yomi of something.
[Lynn: By the way, nobody strange has been looking for you lately, right?]
[Yomi: No, why?]
Only then did Lynn feel relieved.
[Lynn: Mimi, your human form is so good-looking. Out there, you absolutely have to be careful of bad people!]
[Yomi: I will!]
He was a human. Among a crowd of monsters, of course he had to be ten thousand times more cautious.
After soaking in the bath, their pleasant conversation came to an end as well. Yomi put on the pajamas he had brought from home and stood in front of the mirror blow-drying his hair.
The pajamas on him were a little wrinkled, and the style was very plain. At first glance, he looked almost like a doll wrapped in a little burlap sack, somewhat out of place against the gorgeous and noble decor behind him.
And yet Yomi loved these pajamas dearly.
He had not yet had time to wash the new clothes the monster had placed in his little cart before, and as for the walk-in wardrobe in the little castle, he had only looked at it and had not touched anything inside. After all, since he had brought clothes with him, Yomi felt he already had more than enough.
This set of pajamas had been made by his own hands.
The old doll clothes he had recycled earlier had all been designed mainly for decorative purposes, so comfort was naturally not considered. Even if there were pajama-style pieces among them, they were not truly comfortable to wear. So Yomi made his own pajamas.
And the raw materials had not cost him any money either—when he had first entered the furniture factory, it had happened to coincide with a minor Snaran holiday, and the factory had given every worker a bag of flour.
When Yomi used the flour to cook, he discovered that the cloth bags used for packaging flour there were incredibly soft and delicate, far softer than the free fabric distributed by the factory!
The flour came in premium packaging, with two layers of cloth bags inside and out.
He washed the flour bags until they were perfectly clean, then took them apart and made himself a set of loose, simple pajamas.
After drying his hair, Yomi went to inspect the skincare products set out on the bedroom vanity. Hesitantly, he picked up a bottle. When he saw the words “moisturizing” and “sample” on it, he sprayed some onto his face.
…So comfortable. His skin no longer felt tight at all!
Yomi was just about to continue researching the other bottles and jars when his optical brain suddenly started beeping insistently.
It was an unfamiliar number. Once he answered, a man with a somewhat formal, broadcaster-like voice spoke from the other end. “Hello, is this Mr. Yomi?”
“Yes, I am…”
“This is the organizer of the tunnel-burrowing competition. We have received your registration application. May I ask, are you really only one meter seventy? If false height information is discovered, you will be disqualified.”
Yomi immediately felt less certain. He hesitated and said, “There might be a difference of one centimeter or so… but if I wear slippers, I’ll definitely be over one meter seventy!”
There was silence on the other end. After a while, the person said, “Our standard for determining false height reporting is a difference of one meter or more. Are you sure you haven’t given the wrong unit?”
Yomi said, “No, I really am one meter seventy.”
The other side fell silent again for a moment, then, following procedure, asked, “If the information you filled in is accurate, then there is absolutely no problem participating in the preliminary round. The preliminaries will be held this Saturday. Because the competition carries a certain degree of danger, the participant’s family must give consent. Could you please provide a contact number for your family members?”
Yomi froze for a moment.
The other side seemed to think he simply did not want to provide it, and explained, “We will strictly protect your privacy. We do this because there was once a contestant who suffered an accident, and we ended up entangled in a lawsuit with the contestant’s family for many years. Because of that precedent, we are now required to obtain family consent… If your relationship with your family is poor, or you have cut off contact and live alone, then proof of that is also acceptable.”
“I’m an orphan,” Yomi said. “So I don’t have any family contact number. I can provide proof that I live independently.”
This time, he was not lying. Before transmigrating, Yomi truly had been an orphan. When he was in primary school, his parents had died in a natural disaster. He had been fostered by relatives… On the eve of the apocalypse, Yomi had happened to return to that empty home, planning to save up some money through part-time work during the holiday.
In a certain sense, he felt that his encounter with Lynn had very much been a case of like attracting like.
The person on the other end paused, softly apologized, then said, “Understood. In your situation, you will at least need to provide the contact information of one friend, so that if anything unexpected happens, we can still reach your friend… Of course, if your friend is able to accompany you to the competition, that would be even better.”
Yomi filled in Lynn’s contact information. “All right. But as for an accompanying person… I’ll need to ask him later whether he has time.”
The other party then went over some additional competition rules, and the two sides confirmed a number of details before finally ending the call.
Over in the kitchen, Anxius was studying a healthy human recipe.
The cook, trembling with fear, said, “Your Highness Anxius, perhaps I should do the chopping instead?”
The monster shook his head. Holding the knife handle carefully with both claws, he cut up the white radish and placed it into the clay pot.
The cook truly could not understand why he had suddenly run into the kitchen and started cooking—and of all things, making some kind of nourishing soup! From the moment Anxius entered the kitchen, her heart had been in turmoil. She was practically beginning to wonder whether her own cooking skills were not good enough and she was about to lose her job…
But even if the crown prince were dissatisfied with her cooking, surely he should have replaced her immediately, rather than cooking personally himself. What exactly was he doing?!
Finally, when the white radish and old duck soup had finished stewing, the cook gathered her courage and asked, “Your Highness Anxius, may I… may I ask whether the recent meals have not been to your taste?”
His mind was entirely on that pot of soup. At her words, he shook his head. Once he had ladled the soup into a bowl, he set down a book titled Research on Human Recipes and left.
The cook’s suspended heart finally settled, but with her face still full of question marks, she picked up the book…
Upstairs, in the bedroom.
When Anxius pushed open the door carrying that tiny bowl of nourishing soup, his whole body suddenly froze.
At the end of his line of sight, Yomi was just walking out of the pink castle. Standing on tiptoe, he carefully placed a washed fig onto the tea table in the bedroom area. After putting it down, and seeing that Anxius had returned, he quickly explained, “It’s fruit I brought with me. I wanted you to try some.”
The monster seemed to turn into a statue, standing in the doorway and staring at him without blinking.
Reflected in those golden eyes was a tiny figure wearing a loose set of beige pajamas. The pajamas looked a little old, but very soft against the skin. Only, on them… were printed many words.
[Delicious Flour, 3 Star Coins Per Jin.]
[Super White, Super Fragrant, Super Chewy!]
Anxius’s breathing nearly stopped.
Under the bright lights, after delivering the fruit, Yomi waved at the monster. When he turned and walked back toward the castle, the back of the pajamas naturally came into view:
[Net Weight: 10kg]
[Every Grain Carefully Chosen]
[Even Snarans Say It Tastes Great!]
