Chapter 46
Yomi was awakened by Lynn.
“We’re almost at Junk Star! Mimi, come look!”
He forced his eyes open. The light around him was painfully bright, natural light coming in from outside the window.
Rubbing his eyes, Yomi slid off the sofa and put on his shoes. He first checked on the sleeping Anxius and Karl. Seeing nothing unusual, he slowly made his way to the window at the front, where a row of people was already standing.
Besides Lynn, Meikai and Harvey were there too. They had obviously only just woken up as well. Their hair was messy, and there were dark circles under their eyes, yet at this moment all of them were staring excitedly at the brand-new world below.
Lynn had thoughtfully brought over a stool for him in advance. Yomi climbed onto it and joined the sightseeing party for Junk Star.
They were still at a certain height above the planet, similar to the view from an aircraft back in the day, so all he could see was a vast expanse of white.
Puzzled, Yomi asked, “Is Junk Star white everywhere?”
“No,” Arlo said as he came over, holding a pile of padded winter coats. As he handed them out, he explained, “It’s winter on Junk Star right now. It probably snowed heavily not long ago, so the mountains, wildlands, and rivers are all covered… Hurry and put your coats on. It’ll be very cold once we arrive.”
The padded coats were standard issue from the starship, all in standard Snar sizes. When Yomi put one on, he looked like a child secretly wearing an adult’s clothes. The hem dragged on the ground, and as for the sleeves, there was no way to roll them up properly. Walking in it was very inconvenient, and it would be easy to trip over himself.
Arlo coughed a few times. “It’s not convenient for you dressed like that. Once we get to the ground, I can carry you on my back.”
Just as Yomi was frowning and considering whether to accept the suggestion, Linda arrived too. In her hands was a noticeably smaller padded coat made for Yomi. She shot her son a glare and said, “Don’t listen to that brat. Yomi, His Highness already had someone prepare your size in advance.”
Arlo, whose little scheme had failed: “…”
Yomi took off the oversized coat and changed into the one that fit. It was much more comfortable now.
An hour later, the starship landed in the most open part of a farm.
From Arlo, Yomi learned that this place was Ghost State on Junk Star, the most chaotic region on the entire planet. Perhaps for that very reason, it was also the safest place for people like them, fugitives from Snar.
The farm had been purchased by Anxius long ago. In order to avoid being discovered by the royal family, he had deliberately chosen one that looked nothing like the sort of property any noble would ever buy. This farm had not the slightest trace of grandeur. In fact, it did not even compare to an ordinary farm. It was old and dilapidated. In the distance, the unused pasture had already half-collapsed, while the farm itself was overgrown with weeds… As for the living area, it consisted of one weathered two-story countryside villa and two small wooden cabins.
Most of the place had been abandoned.
Yexi and Harvey carried Anxius, while Lynn and Arlo carried Karl. The rest followed with the luggage. And so the whole group trudged grandly through the snow toward the villa with mottled walls.
Before they even reached the door, a tall gray-skinned figure ran out from inside the villa. Yomi was so startled that he immediately stopped in his tracks. Yexi explained, “It’s fine. That’s a local who was hired to watch the house. There are lots of fierce beasts here, plus robbers and thieves… When a farm is left unoccupied, people usually hire a local who’s good at fighting to guard it.”
Sure enough, the person ran toward them. After confirming each other’s identities, he joined in to help carry the injured.
When Yomi heard them say the owner of this farm was called “Little Sheep,” he was briefly surprised. But then he thought that Anxius would obviously have used a fake identity to buy property, so the name was probably just something random he had picked.
It was only after they entered the house, when the caretaker bent down under Yexi’s instruction and handed the ring of keys to the farm over to him, that Yomi was completely stunned.
The ring of keys looked extremely heavy. Lynn quickly stepped in and took it for him.
The caretaker completed his task and left, while Yexi and the others carried the two patients into the bedroom to settle them in.
The moment they came out, Yomi—whose mind was full of question marks—immediately went to ask Yexi, “Why did that person hand the keys to me?”
“Because you’re the only Little Sheep here!” Yexi replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “His Highness Anxius bought the farm under your name, so that makes you the owner here.” Then he added jokingly, “My family and I didn’t originally live in Ghost State, and His Highness Anxius has absolutely no property here. If one day you get unhappy and throw us out, all of us will end up homeless!”
Yomi blushed red at once. “It’s not like that…” This was everyone’s home.
Meanwhile, Meikai and Harvey were wandering around the house, quite satisfied with the place.
The villa was very spacious. It had probably once housed a large family as well as the workers who maintained the farm, so the daily necessities were all complete. With a little cleaning, it was more than enough to accommodate all of them.
Yexi went off to examine the two patients.
Linda and Arlo went first to the kitchen to prepare food, while Yomi followed behind Lynn, Meikai, Harvey, and the others to help clean the house. He was the smallest of them all, and a lot of the tools were hard for him to handle, so in the end he simply took a rag and wiped the floorboards.
The place was not actually dirty or messy. The caretaker had been keeping it clean on a regular basis. The few of them only needed to do some simple tidying. They had just finished when Linda called them over from the kitchen to eat noodle soup.
Outside it was a frozen world of ice and snow. The few of them gathered around the small stove just outside the kitchen, noisily slurping down hot noodles, all of them feeling as if they had survived a disaster.
Yomi needed the least food of all. Holding his own little bowl, he ate with particular satisfaction. At first he had thought it was just plain vegetable noodles, but as he kept eating, he suddenly bit into a fragrant strip of meat.
“There’s meat!” he cried in delight, immediately lifting the tiny strip of meat with his chopsticks for everyone to see.
“It’s pork from Junk Star,” Linda said, looking at him with great tenderness. “There was only a tiny bit left over from what the caretaker hadn’t finished eating, so I chopped it into mince, stir-fried it, and put it in the noodle soup. But everyone was wolfing down their food. Only Yomi noticed.”
Yomi: “…”
That did not seem like something to be proud of.
Once they had filled their stomachs, it was time to face the issue of how they were going to live from here on. Looking at all those blank, confused faces, Yexi directly convened a small meeting right there in the kitchen.
“We’ll be living here for a while. Possibly a very long time. For safety’s sake, it would be best if everyone used fake names.” At that, he smiled. “People on Junk Star name themselves very casually. You can see all sorts of names like Apple or Orange. So let’s do as the locals do. From now on, you can call me Coconut.”
Arlo burst out laughing.
Linda smoothed the few peacock feathers in her hair. “Then I’ll be Peacock.”
Meikai and Harvey were too lazy to think up names, so following Linda’s line of thought, one called himself Crocodile and the other Lion. Extremely simple and crude.
Lynn jumped on the bandwagon too. “Okay, then I’m Octopus.”
Yomi thought about it seriously for a moment and found there was really nothing much to think about. “Then I’ll be Little Sheep.”
Arlo secretly glanced at Yomi and said in a low voice, “I’ll be Rice Noodles.”
Yomi thought Rice Noodles was about the same as names like Apple or Orange. The others, however, did not think so.
…What Rice Noodles? That was obviously Mimi’s fan! Meikai, belatedly realizing Arlo’s true nature: I was careless!
The stove in the kitchen was very warm, and no one felt like moving away from it just yet. So Yexi continued introducing the situation here to them.
Yomi listened with complete concentration the entire time, and in the end carefully summarized the following points:
Compared to the main city of Junk Star, this place had a much smaller population, and fierce beasts often appeared here. Of course, the locals of Junk Star were also rather fierce themselves.
A small number of exiled Snar natives were scattered here, along with the majority of Junk Star’s indigenous inhabitants. The people of Junk Star were very similar to those of Snar in that they also possessed both original forms and human forms, except their original forms were much more savage.
Life here was extremely inconvenient. Places like shops, hospitals, and schools existed only in the town. But getting from here to town by car took at least three hours. There were no private aircraft here, and ordinary vehicles were the common means of transport.
So if they wanted to buy necessities, their best option was to go to the nearby market organized by locals, where they could buy and sell goods.
The place where their farm was located was probably in a very rural and remote area. There was no internet at all. If they wanted to get online, they would have to go to the market. But even there, the signal was laggy and unstable, so private contractors had set up internet sheds nearby.
These internet sheds were nothing like the indoor internet cafés Yomi had known, where people sat at separate computers playing games. Here, it was just a large canopy with a bunch of stools underneath, where people connected their own optical brains to the network.
The ones who chose to go to the internet sheds were basically all exiled Snar natives. After all, any Junk Star local who could afford an optical brain would not still be living in a place like this… Of course, there were also a small number of locals who had bought used optical brains cheaply from Snar exiles.
Aside from animal husbandry, hunting was one of the locals’ main sources of meat. If necessary in the future, they might end up joining in on hunting as well…
While Yexi was saying all this, Yomi was frightened from beginning to end. At the same time, he looked over at Lynn and the others. Their reactions were completely different from his. They seemed to find all of it rather interesting.
Although Lynn had previously lived in the slums, life in the main city on Snar was still very convenient. From the time he was born until he left, he had never hunted before. So the moment he heard about hunting, it was like the wild nature in his original form woke right up, and he looked thoroughly eager.
Meikai and Harvey were much the same.
Yomi: “…”
He still could not bring himself to get enthusiastic about hunting, but he did think of some business opportunities. Town was too far away, so in the future, they could sell things at the market instead.
Meikai had clearly thought of the same thing. Rubbing his hands together, he said, “Our Mimi Stinky Tofu has already been a huge success on Snar. Conquering the people of Junk Star is only a matter of time!”
Yexi had already heard from his son on the starship about how they had sold stinky tofu with Yomi. He had eaten it himself. The moment he heard those words, his mouth practically watered. But things were no longer like they had been on Snar. The ingredients for making stinky tofu might not even be easy to get here, and besides, stinky tofu was not a common food. On top of that, they had to avoid exposing themselves. All of this required long-term planning… Meikai had clearly thought of that too at this very moment and sighed. “Actually, we can always just set up a stall selling something else. A stall is still a stall, no matter where you are!”
Yexi smiled. “Once everyone has rested up, we can go look around the market first.”
They were all exhausted now and only wanted a proper rest. After eating their fill and chatting a little more, they all yawned their way back to the rooms they had chosen and went to sleep.
When Yomi returned to Anxius’s room, the first thing he noticed was that the bandaged hand was trembling slightly. He immediately ran over. But the moment he touched that hand, before he could call Yexi, it calmed down once more.
“…”
Just like on the starship, the moment he held his hand, he no longer seemed afraid.
Yomi had already decided to look after Anxius anyway, and now he had even less reason to leave.
Fortunately, the bed here was exceptionally large, made according to the size of most Junk Star natives. Anxius’s human form was only about one meter ninety now—tall by human standards, but still human. Two human-sized people sleeping in this big bed was more than manageable. Still, Yomi was afraid that if he fell asleep, he might end up pressing against Anxius, so he found a large pillow and placed it between the two of them as a divider, then lay down under the other blanket.
By the time they reached Junk Star, it had already been afternoon. When they finally went to sleep, it was probably around evening, and that one sleep carried them straight through to the next morning. Arlound six o’clock, Yomi opened his eyes.
The air was cold—colder than yesterday. The moment Yomi stuck himself out from under the blanket, he hurriedly shrank back in and shivered.
Yexi had gotten up even earlier. He seemed to have guessed how Yomi would be feeling, because he knocked and asked whether he was awake.
Yomi assumed he had come to examine Anxius, so he answered and let him in.
After entering the room, Yexi glanced at the unconscious “mummy,” then turned and rummaged through the wardrobe for a while. In the end, he pulled out a little padded jacket, obviously in Yomi’s size. This one was thicker and softer. He handed it to Yomi. “I forgot to tell you yesterday. His Highness Anxius already put all the clothes you would need here into the wardrobe ahead of time.”
…So he had known that early on that I would come to Junk Star too?
Yomi was briefly stunned, then quickly put it on. It was wonderfully warm, fluffy, and soft—very comfortable. The only downside was that once he wore it, he looked like a little ball.
Yomi got out of bed and followed Yexi outside. As soon as he stepped into the hall, he discovered that almost everyone else was already awake.
Those young guys like Lynn were in the middle of repairing the fireplace. It was truly too cold here. Without a fireplace, life would be unbearable.
Yomi urgently hoped for a warm environment too, so he trotted over to help. But not only did he fail to help, he ended up smearing his whole face with soot. Lynn laughed softly. “Mimi has turned into a little black kitten!”
Yomi laughed stupidly too. Since he did not want to get in the way, he simply headed outside with his little blackened face, planning to familiarize himself with his new home.
He did not dare go too far. He only wandered around near the villa, leaving behind little tracks that were noticeably different in size from everyone else’s.
Covered in snow, Junk Star looked very clean. Pure white and beautiful. It did not suit the word “garbage” at all. With both hands tucked into his pockets, Yomi gazed out at the new world before him. Just then, a plump little white bird flew down from the sky, landed on a branch, and lowered its head to stare at him with obvious curiosity.
Yomi greeted it. “Hello, little chubby bird.”
The little chubby bird was instantly shocked. Looking at this tiny human who seemed like a ball with a head growing out of it, it exploded in anger on the spot. “Chirp chirp chirp!!!”
You’re the chubby little bird! You’re the round one!
Yomi was delighted.
Was it greeting him? How enthusiastic. The animals on Junk Star were really so friendly…
By noon, Karl had woken up. Though still very weak, the very first thing he wanted upon waking was to see Yomi.
The moment Yomi heard he was awake, he rushed into Karl’s room at once.
Seeing that Karl was all right, Karl smiled in relief, as if he did not care in the slightest that he had already left Snar behind.
Yomi also broke into a broad grin. He had originally had a lot he wanted to say, but now that his heart was so full, he could not get any of it out.
Not long after waking, Karl fell asleep again. Yexi said that was normal. His injuries had been severe, and it would take at least a month or more before he could fully recover.
Anxius was still unconscious. All day long, Yomi drifted back and forth between the two rooms.
Toward evening, Karl woke up again. He ate a little food, all of it plain vegetable porridge.
Afraid that Karl might not be used to such a simple life, Yomi kept trying to reassure him. “Don’t worry, Karl. Resources here are very abundant. There are lots of wild beasts. We just don’t have much food for now, but once everything’s prepared, we’ll go hunting.”
Karl froze and looked at Yomi’s tiny body. “…You’re going too?” He was certain Yexi would never have the nerve to bring Yomi along.
“Yes.” Yomi nodded shyly. He did not feel at all as though he were exaggerating. Even if he did not have Anxius’s powerful hunting abilities, as a human, he still knew how to make traps! If the day really came when they lacked meat, he could absolutely bring meat back for the patients to eat!
Karl stared blankly for a while. Before he had even fully processed the information, he had fallen asleep again.
Before dark, Yomi—as the farm owner—went out together with Lynn and the others. They were about to begin thoroughly familiarizing themselves with the farm.
The vegetable plots, the fields, the livestock sheds—everything was checked carefully. Though Yomi’s optical brain could not connect to the internet, it could still take pictures. After taking photos, he went back and began planning how in the future he would buy seeds and baby animals and start raising livestock…
Their second day on Junk Star passed very quickly. Only, Yomi had not yet seen any dance ants, probably because the weather was too cold.
Night fell. Outside, everything was pitch black, and from time to time the roars of distant beasts could be heard. Curled up tightly in his blanket, Yomi did not dare make a sound.
In fact, there would have been nothing wrong with making noise. The beasts here would not casually come running into residential areas.
But unfamiliar surroundings made it easy for the imagination to run wild. Yomi thought and thought, from wild beasts all the way to ghosts. Since this was Ghost State, could there really be ghosts here? Thinking like that, he only managed to fall asleep once he was too sleepy to keep his eyes open. Then, halfway through the night, he was forced awake by the need to pee. He got up quietly to go to the bathroom.
He was a little scared, so he hunched his shoulders and brought a flashlight with him.
It was very cold at night. He had wrapped himself up thickly before climbing out of bed.
After taking care of things in the bathroom, Yomi immediately scampered back to the bed. Just as he was climbing onto it, he suddenly felt a scorching gaze fixed on him.
!
Yomi stiffened and turned to look.
…Thankfully, it was not a ghost. It was Anxius.
Who knew when he had woken up? His body was still lying there, yet his eyes were fixed on Yomi without moving.
Yomi quickly climbed onto the bed. Creeping closer on all fours, he whispered, “You’re awake?” His tone was full of surprise, and his fluttering lashes still carried traces of sleepiness.
“…”
Looking at the tiny steamed-bun-like person in front of him, Anxius seemed to stop breathing altogether. A few seconds later, those golden eyes flickered faintly, as though he was beginning to wake fully. Then the man stretched out an arm and pulled Yomi straight into his embrace.
