Chapter 37
When he saw that sentence, Anxius froze for a long time.
The little lamb tilted his head at him. When no response came, he was about to keep typing, but before he could even lift his hoof this time, the monster’s claw scooped him up and pulled him tightly into an embrace.
Yomi was held right against his chest. The medicinal smell became even more obvious. He twitched his nose, confirming that Anxius really was sick, so he patted him with a hoof in comfort.
The monster’s heartbeat was very fast.
After a long while, the monster shifted slightly onto his side in a more comfortable position, still holding him.
But nestled in the monster’s arms, Yomi became uneasy because of that tiny movement. He was so small now—what if Anxius turned over and forgot he was there? Wouldn’t he get crushed to death?
Once that thought started spreading, all four of his hooves trembled. After shivering, the little lamb quickly shook his head. It’s fine, it’s fine. Back on Rhea Continent, Anxius often slept with him wrapped up like this. No need to worry. Don’t overthink it.
He did not know that the monster still was not asleep.
Anxius lowered his eyes slightly, watching the little lamb tremble his hooves one moment, then stiffen them and wriggle around in his arms the next…
After a while, the monster tightened his hold around the sleeping lamb and took a deep breath in. Finally, he closed his eyes and, for once, had a good night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, over at the imperial palace, the emperor stayed awake all night.
He had heard that Anxius had recently been searching frequently for ways to restore a human form, and the more he thought about it, the stranger it felt—so strange that he could not sleep.
For an ordinary person, it was only natural to want to regain a human form after becoming disabled. But for Anxius, this was rather abnormal.
Back when he had first become disabled, whenever the emperor and empress said they would help him find a solution, Anxius had always reacted coldly. Not only did he refuse to cooperate, he had even been dismissive of it… So why had he suddenly become so invested in this now?
Could it be that he had discovered what happened back then…
No, surely he was overthinking it.
Perhaps the current situation had made Anxius feel a sense of crisis and realize the importance of a human form.
…
Over the next two days, Yomi devoted himself completely to remote lessons with professors from the Imperial Academy, and he quickly grasped the basics of ability-related knowledge. Seeing that his studies were going smoothly, Anxius followed the plan and had Karl take Yomi to Brule’s place for one-on-one practical training.
It was only the day before the little lamb was sent to the black market for lessons that Karl learned Yomi had awakened an ability. He was shocked for a while, then realized there was really nothing to be shocked about—mainly because Yomi’s ability looked far too harmless.
Still, since it involved Yomi’s ability, Karl did not feel it was appropriate for him to watch. So he followed Anxius’s arrangements, taking Yomi there in the morning and picking him up again at dusk.
With Brule around, Yomi would be perfectly safe.
Since he was going there to study, Yomi even specially brought a few books, all packed into the little backpack on his back.
When he got off the starship and walked into the shop, Brule was drinking tea. He glanced at him—and suddenly sprayed out a mouthful of tea.
The little lamb with the backpack dodged in time and let out a puzzled “Baa?”
Brule looked at the backpack-wearing lamb in front of him, half amused and half helpless. Shaking his head, he got up and took him downstairs.
Yomi’s books turned out to be useless, but Brule did take off his backpack and use it as a temporary sheep bed for him. “Keep this thing. If you get sleepy, you can lie on it and nap.”
Yomi: “…Baa baa baa.” He was here to study, not sleep.
“Alright, alright. You’re just a little lamb, yet you sure can chatter,” Brule said, swaying his head as he sat down in front of him and closed his eyes. “Now do whatever I say… close your eyes with me…”
The little lamb immediately folded his legs under himself and shut his eyes.
Brule was teaching him how to control his mind. Yomi followed along exactly, and gradually, just as Brule had said, he discovered a tiny golden circle in front of his eyes.
“The bigger this circle becomes, the better you’ll be able to control your ability,” Brule said. “Do you see the golden circle?”
“Baa!” The little lamb did!
Brule said, “Practice seriously for a while. Usually, the first golden circle a person sees is very small, about the size of a thumb. After a little while, take another look and see whether it’s gotten a bit bigger.”
The little lamb pressed his mouth shut and said nothing.
Yomi felt that the golden circle in front of him was only the size of a sesame seed. He practiced seriously for quite a while, and finally it grew to the size of two sesame seeds!
The little lamb nodded repeatedly in delight.
Brule opened his eyes. Seeing the little lamb nodding away, he reached over and vigorously ruffled his sheep head. The feel of it was actually quite good—soft and fluffy, not prickly at all.
Yomi let this teacher of his tousle his forehead.
The innocent little lamb thought this was some kind of transmission of mental power. Every time Teacher Brule patted his head, he would even close his eyes with utmost seriousness.
Once the little lamb had gotten more practiced, Brule carried him upstairs. He let the lamb continue practicing on his own while he lay back in the boss’s chair reading the news and waiting for customers.
Previously, Yomi had always stayed obediently in the basement. But now that he had some free time, all four of the little lamb’s legs started itching as if they had minds of their own, and he bounced around all over the place. After hopping for a bit, he noticed Brule glancing at him and quickly stopped moving, hanging his head in a guilty little posture that seemed to say, Teacher, I was wrong.
Brule knew that this kind of goat was naturally lively and active, so he laughed. “Go ahead and play. No one lives downstairs anyway, so you won’t disturb anybody.”
But Yomi blushed at that. He was not here to play. He was here to study.
So after lightly hopping around once, he lowered his head and went back to practicing his mental control in earnest.
Today’s goal: make the golden circle the size of three sesame seeds! Come on, Yomi.
After a while, Brule noticed it had become very quiet around him. He looked down and searched a bit, quickly finding the little lamb in a corner, holding up one hoof and practicing with total seriousness. He could not help laughing.
When the little lamb opened his eyes again, Brule advised, “Take a break. You need a balance between work and rest.”
Yomi nodded and lay down on the wooden floor beside him.
…He really was remarkably well-behaved.
Brule could not resist using his wing to rub the lamb’s head. The little lamb immediately looked up at him once, then lowered his head and continued lying there.
Brule grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and asked, “Want some?”
The little lamb said, “…Baa.” No thanks. A sheep’s mouth isn’t convenient for that.
As Brule cracked sunflower seeds, he chatted with him. “Have you ever thought about going back to your hometown?”
Yomi froze, stumped by the question.
Brule pushed the computer in front of him with a wing, clearly intending to have a proper talk.
Yomi had no choice but to type with his hoof: There’s no one left in my hometown.
His fake hometown, the Black Miasma Wasteland, truly had no residents. And as for the world he originally came from, it had already ended. There was no going back.
Now he only wanted to settle down here and live properly.
Brule nodded and was just about to continue chatting when his communicator rang. He glanced at it, accepted the call, and aimed the camera at himself. “What is it?”
On the other side, Anxius frowned and searched the screen for a while before asking, “Where’s Yomi?”
“…I knew you wouldn’t call unless you needed something. He’s right here with me. Are you really this worried?” Though he said that, he still turned the camera toward the little lamb.
The moment the little lamb heard that the call was for him, he immediately stood up straight. Raising a hoof, he greeted Anxius: “Baa baa…”
Seeing that the little lamb seemed to be in good condition, Anxius on the screen appeared to smile faintly. Then, after Brule turned the camera back, he hung up directly.
Brule: “?”
He cursed in irritation. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is your grandpa really that ugly? It’s only because your grandpa has a good temper—if it were anyone else, they’d have smacked you by now!”
When he turned his head after saying that, he found the little lamb looking utterly stunned.
Yomi was not just a little shocked. He had never imagined Brule had this identity too—Anxius’s grandfather? Then naturally, he was also part of the royal family… But why was he here?
Brule did not feel that he had revealed anything especially shocking. Instead, he found the little lamb’s expression rather amusing. “So sheep expressions can actually be this rich?”
“Baa…” Is that really the important point here?
Brule stretched lazily. “Are you wondering why I’m here? There’s nothing strange about it. Leaving the royal family can sometimes be a kind of blessing.”
The moment Yomi heard it involved the royal family, he immediately flattened his ears. Sadly, that did not block out the words. Seeing how unconcerned Brule looked, he fell silent for a moment, then could not resist his curiosity and typed with his hoof: Are you really Anxius’s grandfather? Why does your relationship seem so distant?
“Distant?” Brule tilted his head and glared at him, seeming to find the question very amusing. He bent over, picked up the little lamb, set him on the table, and rubbed his forehead. “How is it distant? He’s never been the type to hug and kiss family from childhood. At this level, our relationship is already quite good.”
The little lamb: “…”
“Don’t look so unconvinced. Anxius was the first Snarian on Snar Star to be conceived through ability-based creation. Even though the emperor’s blood runs through him, unlike Joseph, who was carried and born by the empress, Anxius was burdened with the responsibility of fighting from the very start. Once he was capable of living independently, he was always training in various bases and rarely stayed with his parents… His understanding of family affection is different from that of ordinary people. Compared to a parent-child relationship, I think he and the emperor are more like colleagues… You think we seem distant, but in truth, among all his relatives, I’m already the one he gets along with best.”
Yomi’s ears were practically at the limit of how flat they could go. He almost wanted to raise his hooves and cover them. …Are these really things he can say to me?
Did he know a few too many secrets now?
Seeing what he was thinking, Brule burst out laughing. “Anxius even let you know about his disability, so what’s the big deal about telling you this? What else do you want to know? Ask me. I’ll tell you everything.”
Yomi: “…”
The little lamb turned to stone for a while. In the end, he just went back to practicing on his own, though from time to time he still worried about the fact that he had bought horns here before… Brule seemed a little loose-lipped?
“Oh dear, it’s time for lunch!” The old man stretched and stood up. “I’m going out to buy some lunch. What do you want to eat? The lamb skewers over there smell great. Want to try some?”
The little lamb: “…Baa!”
Looking at the lamb’s angry, misty eyes, Brule grinned in that irritating way again. “Alright then. When I come back, I’ll pluck a few handfuls of tender grass from the roadside for you as a snack… I’m heading out now. Stay here and be good. Don’t run around.”
Of course Yomi was not going to run around. The moment Brule left, he began seriously reviewing.
He practiced his mental power for a while, then started hopping about to burn off his sheep energy. All four of his hooves were quite strong. At one point, he even bounced straight onto Brule’s chair, startling even himself.
What amazing jumping power.
Once he got thirsty from playing, Yomi dragged his little basin out of his backpack with his mouth and walked over to the water dispenser to get some water.
After learning that the little lamb would be studying here, Brule had changed the settings on the dispenser and installed a button much lower down.
The little lamb placed the basin under the corresponding spout and smacked the button with one hoof.
Water came gushing out with a splash.
The moment he let go of the button, Yomi lowered his head and licked at the water. After one lick, he frowned with his nonexistent eyebrows, then stuck out his tongue. A moment later, he cautiously licked again…
“Baa!” Something was wrong! This was not water—it was alcohol!
Brule really was a shameless drunkard. He had actually put alcohol in the water dispenser!
The little lamb stuck out his tongue and looked up at the spout. Only then did he notice that there were actually three spouts here. Two were labeled hot water and cold water, while the one he had just used had no label at all…
After pouring out the alcohol in the basin, Yomi placed it under the spout labeled cold water. This time he filled it with a little water to rinse out the basin, then got a bit more and took a taste. Once he confirmed it really was water, he nodded in satisfaction.
Yomi was not very hungry. Karl had packed lots of grains and hay suitable for sheep in his backpack for him, so he only ate a few symbolic bites before stopping. His head felt a little dizzy, and even the tip of his nose had turned red. Clearly, those two mouthfuls of alcohol had been too strong for a little lamb to handle. Feeling woozy, he hopped onto Brule’s boss’s chair and lay down to rest.
The chair swayed gently. It was actually pretty comfortable to sleep on. The little lamb closed his eyes, lying there with all four legs in the air.
A few minutes later, faint noises came from outside the door—it was the sound of someone picking the lock.
But by then Yomi was drunk and failed to notice, sleeping in a blissful stupor on the recliner.
One minute later, the lock clicked open.
A man with mouse ears quietly slipped inside. He looked around. When he turned and saw the little lamb on the recliner, he jumped in fright, then quickly pointed at the prosthetic limbs on the shelf and pretended to be a customer. “B-boss, how much are these prosthetics?”
A customer had come?
Dizzy, Yomi gave a fuzzy “Baa.” He was not the boss. He could not sell anything.
Seeing that it was only an animal that could not talk, the man let out a sigh of relief and hurried back outside to call his companion in.
He had just come in to scout the place, and now he gestured to his companion that there was no one else inside—just a sheep.
They had been secretly watching this shop for a long time, waiting until the owner left before picking the lock and coming in.
Once the two thieves entered, they began rummaging through cabinets and drawers looking for cash. When they could not find any, they did not panic. They simply started taking the expensive prosthetics instead, paying no attention at all to the drunk little lamb on the recliner.
They were making enough noise that Yomi was quickly awakened. He opened his eyes and looked over.
What were these two doing, acting so sneaky…
Weren’t they stealing things?!
The little lamb froze, then immediately started shouting anxiously, “Baa baa!”
The two thieves ignored him. Hearing the lamb cry out only made them move a little faster.
Although Yomi’s glamorous photos had already spread all over Snar Star, he was only a sheep right now. Naturally, the thieves would not associate this mute little lamb with the wildly popular superstar Yomi.
One of them, the fatter one, was about to go inside in search of even more valuable beast-type prosthetics, but the other thief glanced toward Yomi, who was preparing to call the police. “Take the sheep too. This kind of pet sheep is worth quite a bit… Once we’re broke, we can sell it.”
?!
They were not just stealing things—they wanted to steal him too and sell him?
Yomi’s fur practically exploded. He lifted his hooves and hurried to find the computer, but the thief was faster and reached out to grab him—
At the critical moment, the little lamb hurriedly lowered his head into an attacking stance and shouted, “Help!”
In that instant, both the thief and Yomi himself were stunned by the words.
The two thieves immediately looked around, seeming to think there was someone else in the room…
At that very moment, an iron cage dropped from above and covered the little lamb, who stood there dumbfounded inside it.
The little lamb and the two thieves stared at each other.
The fatter thief was the first to react. He rushed over, intending to grab the sheep and silence it, but the moment he touched the cage, he was electrocuted so badly that he began convulsing. The other thief thought his partner had been rammed by the sheep, so he hurried over to teach the little lamb a lesson… and a few seconds later, he too was shocked to the ground.
Yomi stared at the cage that had protected him in astonishment, then used a hoof to wipe away nonexistent sweat. That had been terrifying.
While the two thieves convulsed, the little lamb marched angrily to the edge of the cage and spat.
If he were not worried that the cage might shock him too, he absolutely would have kicked them twice with his hooves.
Just as the two thieves, dizzy and disoriented, were about to get back up, the tightly shut door creaked open.
Standing in the shadows, Brule gave a chuckle and walked in carrying a box of vegetable salad. “We have guests?”
“!” You finally came back!
Yomi got so excited that he jumped straight up, tears of joy even shining at the corners of his eyes. All four of his legs stiffened straight as he was just about to explain how complicated the situation had been—when he suddenly felt a fierce gust of wind. With a dark face, Brule violently swept his massive wings, sending the two thieves crashing hard into the wall. “Stealing from my shop was bad enough, and you even wanted to steal my family’s little lamb? You’ve got a death wish!”
“N-no, no!” The two thieves immediately dropped to their knees and begged for mercy. “W-we just came to buy prosthetics! If you don’t believe us, ask this little lamb… ah!”
This time Brule skipped the talk and directly slapped them hard several times. He did not waste any more words on them. Instead, he turned and went outside to make a phone call.
Not long after, two administrators from the black market arrived. They had already learned the whole story over the phone. After glancing at Brule and the little lamb and confirming that no one had been injured or killed, they took the thieves away.
Brule walked them to the door. Still inside the cage, Yomi could only see the two administrators whispering something to the old man, while Brule smiled and nodded.
When Brule came back and shut the door, Yomi could not wait to show his progress. “I-I can talk now!”
Brule was not surprised. A short while ago, he had already seen through the surveillance feed on his communicator the moment Yomi shouted for help. Even without the cage, he would have made it back in time.
“Quick, check whether anything’s missing!” Yomi remembered only that he had gotten drunk and the thieves had come. Licking the red tip of his nose, he added, “There’s alcohol in your water dispenser. I accidentally drank a little and think I got drunk. I don’t know whether any other thieves came before this…”
“No,” Brule said, raising the cage back up and crouching down to pat his head. “This must have scared you, huh?”
The little lamb shook his head and looked at him with a smile. “It’s alright now… Since I can talk now, does that mean the next step is being able to change back?”
Looking at the lamb’s smiling face, Brule finally understood why Anxius had been so tense about him. Never mind Anxius—even after spending only a single day with him, Brule himself already found it intolerable that anyone would bully this little lamb.
“Yes. Take it slowly.” As he spoke, Brule’s communicator lit up with a new message. He glanced at it and grinned. “Little lamb, here’s another piece of good news. In a bit, I’m taking you to the police station to receive a commendation.”
What?
Yomi’s face was full of question marks.
Brule said, “Those two thieves have used special stealing techniques to rob many shops over the past month. Now that you caught them, of course you’re going to be commended.”
Yomi shook his head. “I didn’t catch them.” Not only had he not caught them, he had nearly been stolen and sold off himself.
“You did catch them,” Brule said shamelessly. “If you hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have set up this whole protective system for a little lamb. If I hadn’t set up the system, the thieves wouldn’t have been electrocuted unconscious. So yes, you caught the thieves. That’s perfectly correct.”
…Could it really be counted like that?
“Forget it, I’m still not going. You go instead.” Too guilty. Better not go.
The little lamb lay down and played with his hooves. After a while, Brule, looking full of fatherly affection, scooped him up into a fluffy bundle. “You’re going. You absolutely have to go!” What kind of logic was there in a child from one’s own family refusing a certificate of merit?
Two hours later.
Several shop owners in the black market who had come out to stretch suddenly saw Brule, the prosthetics seller, returning from outside. Unlike his usual solitary self, this time Brule proudly led along a little white lamb.
The little lamb kept his head lowered, looking somewhat shy.
The shop owners were stunned.
Almost in unison, they looked at the red sash the little lamb was wearing. On it was a line of glittering gold words—
[Hero Who Caught Thieves, Model Little Lamb.]
“…”
