Chapter 58
Although he had said he would think about it and reply later, the truth was that for several days straight, Yomi did not dare think about the matter at all.
The moment he did, his whole body would go numb and his toes would curl against the ground. He could not even describe what kind of feeling it was. It was completely different from how he had felt the last time the werewolf Mond confessed to him.
Yomi felt it probably had to do with the depth of the relationship. He and Mond were merely acquaintances who nodded at each other. After being confessed to, he had been shocked, yes, but not really flustered. Anxius was different. Yomi felt that the two of them had already formed a kind of comradeship.
It was like when someone who had grown up with you since childhood suddenly said they liked you. Most people would feel a bit flustered. As for whether they liked that person in return, sometimes it was hard to say.
If someone already had no one they particularly liked, then perhaps they might mistake that friendship for love. It was not as though such a thing were impossible.
Yomi did not want to confuse the two feelings. That would not be fair to anyone. Since Anxius did not seem to be in a hurry, Yomi decided to think it through slowly and let his brain relax first.
And so, during the daytime, Yomi was no different from usual. But at night, Yomi turned into an ostrich. He no longer shared a quilt with Anxius. Instead, he took out his own quilt again and treated Anxius with exaggerated courtesy and restraint.
Fortunately, Anxius did not question him about why he was acting that way. Aside from the fact that Yomi kept dreaming of weird, uncanny phenomena at night, he did not feel that life had changed much.
…No, there had been a change.
He and Anxius had grown awkward with each other.
At night, they barely talked anymore.
This kind of “awkwardness” lasted until one night a few days later.
That night, Yomi was suddenly awakened by a loud crashing racket. He opened his eyes in confusion, lifted his head, and looked around. It did not take him long to understand what was happening.
Outside the window, lightning flashed and thunder rolled. The wind howled without pause, and heavy rain was pouring down.
The little wolf cub had woken up too and was looking at him in the same dazed way.
Rain itself was nothing unusual. Yomi had originally meant to lie back down and continue sleeping, but suddenly another thought struck him—
The vegetable seedlings that had only just sprouted in the garden these past few days were in danger!
With rain this heavy, the seedlings could easily be smashed to pieces!
The weather forecast here was never accurate, and no one had expected a sudden downpour like this. They had originally planned to put up rain shelters in the next couple of days.
Yomi was not the only one who thought of the vegetable garden. Before he could even get up, Anxius had already quickly put on his clothes. “I’ll go take a look. You keep sleeping.”
How could Yomi possibly sleep? The moment Anxius went out, he got out of bed too, picked up Gousheng, and went to the door to check.
The rain was truly heavy. The moment the door opened, the curtain of rain practically rushed inside!
Yomi hurriedly shut the door again. He put Gousheng back in the room, put on his raincoat and rain boots, grabbed an umbrella, and went out to look for Anxius.
The big floodlights on the farm had already been turned on. Under the dim yellow light, Yomi staggered forward with his umbrella.
Not far away, in front of the vegetable garden, there stood a huge figure busy pulling at the plastic rain covering—
Anxius had transformed back into his original form.
Yomi’s umbrella could not possibly shield Anxius’s original form from the rain. Just as he was about to call out for him to come back inside, a gust of wind nearly blew both him and the umbrella away.
The moment Anxius saw him come out, his expression changed sharply. He hurried over, scooped him up, and carried him back toward the house. It was not even the slightest exaggeration to say that if the wind had been any stronger, Yomi—holding that umbrella—really might have been blown over or even blown away.
“Anxius!” Yomi shouted as he was being carried. “Just put me in the cloth bag! I can stay in the bag and hold the umbrella for you!”
Anxius had originally wanted to reject the suggestion. But after a second thought, if Yomi ran out again later, it would actually be more dangerous if he was not in front of him. So after going back inside, he carefully checked him over again. The raincoat was buttoned tightly all the way up, leaving only a tiny part of his eyes, nose, and mouth exposed. Finally, Anxius even put rubber gloves on him so that the umbrella handle would not rub against his hands.
Yomi was tucked into the cloth bag hanging in front of Anxius, and the bag itself was wound around and tied to Anxius’s body with several loops of rope so that when he bent over, the person inside would not slide out.
Now, apart from his hands, Yomi was basically strapped directly to Anxius’s body, and his sense of security was through the roof.
Before heading for the vegetable garden, Yomi also shouted a few times in the living room. One more helper was one more helper. The most important thing was to save the vegetable garden as quickly as possible.
Yomi had only been holding up the umbrella for about two minutes before Anxius started feeling pained on his behalf. Holding an umbrella high was tiring enough by itself, never mind doing it in this kind of wind and rain. At that point, using an umbrella was practically wrestling with the storm.
Once the plastic shelter he was handling was in place, Anxius directly took the umbrella away. Folding it shut, he spread open both his huge wings, which were enough to block off most of the rain by themselves.
Yomi assumed the umbrella was getting in Anxius’s way, so he did not insist. He held the flashlight and watched the situation in the vegetable patch, constantly reminding Anxius not to step into the drainage ditches and slip.
By this time, the others in the villa had all gotten dressed and come outside too. They ran over to help, though the rain made it hard to see.
This was when Yomi’s familiarity with the entire vegetable garden really showed itself.
With more hands, the work went quickly. Under Yomi’s direction, the rain shelters were soon fully set up. The downpour had not been going on for very long, and for now the seedlings were safe, with only minimal losses.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
With the vegetables protected, the whole group ran excitedly back to the living room and grabbed towels to dry themselves off.
Anxius was soaked through, especially his two pairs of wings, which were in a truly pitiful state.
Gousheng had already been running around anxiously in circles. The moment the door opened, it immediately ran out with a towel in its mouth and brought it to Yomi.
Yomi had not actually gotten rained on, so he handed the towel Gousheng brought over to Anxius. “Hurry and dry off. Go take a hot bath in a bit!”
Anxius was in no hurry to dry himself. First he untied Yomi’s raincoat. The little person inside emerged, his fair face showing a faint circular red mark where the edge of the rain hood had pressed into it, as though someone had stamped a little round seal on his face. He looked both pitiful and adorable.
Anxius touched his face, carefully wiped away the water droplets on it, and only then roughly wiped himself off.
While Anxius went to bathe, Yomi followed Linda to boil ginger soup. Linda carried a large pot, while Yomi carried a small basin—though in truth it was a large bowl by Junk Star standards—and bustled around calling everyone to come drink ginger soup to ward off the cold.
Everyone noisily drank their ginger soup and felt wonderful. After finishing, they looked outside at the downpour that was no longer causing them any trouble and could not help sighing in emotion.
Once everything was done, everyone went back to their own rooms to rest.
After returning to the bedroom, Yomi discovered that Anxius had already put his own quilt back into the wardrobe, but he did not say anything. He took off his shoes and climbed into the only remaining quilt on the bed.
Anxius spread his arms and hugged him tightly, as though he wanted to squeeze him straight into his own flesh and bones.
Yomi did not feel uncomfortable at all. Outside, thunder and rain raged mightily. In Anxius’s arms, he wriggled closer, and with each little movement, Anxius’s heart trembled once.
“Anxius,” Yomi said in a sweet voice, his little feet swaying against Anxius’s leg, “I didn’t hate how things were before. Let’s be like before again… Once I’ve thought everything through, then we can change.”
The man’s thin lips moved a few times, but in the end he did not say anything too frightening. Pressing close to Yomi’s face, he simply gave a quiet hum in agreement.
…
Once the storm passed, the sky began to clear. Most of the vegetables in the garden survived, and the farm was as full of life as ever.
Recently, Anxius had often been discussing something with Yexi. Yomi assumed it was all part of the grand plan to return to Snar, so he did not pay much attention. If it was something he did not understand, Yomi tried not to get involved.
However, during this period, Yexi had also been giving him frequent physical checkups. The reason given was that because Yomi was so small and had only recently arrived on Junk Star, they had to guard against any bad physical reactions or illness.
Yomi had no reason to doubt this. He himself also felt that his energy was far worse than before, and he had become especially greedy for food. Getting checked was not a bad thing. If he really had some illness, it would be better to prevent it early.
Thankfully, heaven was kind. He never seemed to have any serious problem.
Now that they had a camper vehicle, Yomi had begun planning some trips out.
Spring was just too perfect for going out. He seriously suspected that the reason he had so little energy lately was simply because he had stayed indoors for too long!
In any case, once a person had the thought of going out, they would always find plenty of reasons to support it.
Recently there were basically no new prisoners coming in anymore. Yomi planned that after a few more days, once the last batch of prisoners had been released, he would take everyone out for a team-building trip! Besides the people at home, he intended to pack along all the workers at the farm, the prison guards, and the people from the clothing shop too!
There were many people, yes, but with one camper, one large truck, and one small cargo truck, it would be more than enough.
After informing everyone of the good news, Yomi began preparing for the outing.
They would bring tents and food, and have a two-day, one-night trip~
The destination, of course, had to be decided in advance. Yomi first asked the workers at the farm, but the answers he got were not very satisfactory. After all, they did not really have the concept of tourism in their daily lives.
That same day, Yomi went to the internet shed at the market and looked up nearby places that would be fun.
The whole place was filled with primal natural scenery, and in Yomi’s eyes, all of it was beautiful. But to many Junk Star locals, that was just the same old mountains and forests they saw all the time. It was not novel to them. This time, Yomi wanted to find somewhere with amusement facilities so they could all properly relax.
Luckily, near the lord’s castle of the neighboring state there was a park, and it had plenty of amusement equipment too—though it was all aimed at adults.
Yomi: Great. We’re all adults!
So he immediately bought the tickets with his optical brain. They could exchange them once they arrived.
They were going to the park located at the boundary between Ghost State and the neighboring state? After hearing this, everyone became very excited. The workers had never been to that park before, and for several days in advance they began preparing clothes for the outing, their faces full of anticipation.
On the day of departure, they hired some familiar nearby hunters to watch the farm, and then the whole group set off grandly.
Yomi: First time bringing everyone out for team building. Nervous.
Anxius: Going on a date with baby. Nervous.
Along the way, everyone sang at the top of their lungs, as if they wanted to sing out all their happiness.
They arrived at noon. Karl went to exchange the tickets, and everyone lined up to enter.
Even while still standing at the entrance, they could already see the various exciting facilities inside. Because it was an adult area, the rides looked absolutely wild and clearly very thrilling.
Inside and outside the park, there were all kinds of little stalls, selling food, drinks, games, and everything else.
The boss and second brother from the prison guards led their coworkers through ticket inspection and went in first, waiting inside for the others.
As the boss, Yomi consciously took the last place in line. This time Anxius had come out in human form. Though there was a height difference of twenty centimeters between them, in the eyes of the aliens around them, it was not really much of a difference at all.
At last it was Yomi’s turn to be checked. Excited, he raised his ticket and was just about to step forward when a staff member suddenly came out of the little booth and blocked him.
“Sorry, you can’t go in.”
Thinking someone was deliberately causing trouble, Anxius immediately pulled the stunned Yomi behind him. “What do you mean?”
The tall, monster-bodied staff member looked at them and pointed to the extremely tall height-measuring board beside him. “The center of the park can only be reached by cable car. The cable car seats have height requirements. Anyone under one meter ninety is not allowed on—it’s dangerous. You look about one meter ninety. If you measure and pass, you can go in. As for this friend of yours, he should probably hurry and process a refund.” Then the staff member glanced at the little wolf cub in Yomi’s arms. “Pets can’t go in either.”
Following the direction the worker pointed, Anxius looked over and sure enough saw cable cars gliding in the distance. But the cars were not enclosed, and the seats were specially configured. If someone was too small, it really would be dangerous.
His brows drew together.
Yomi also immediately saw the connection between the cable cars and the height requirement. At first he was stunned for a moment, but now he had recovered and smiled at the worker. “Okay, I understand. I’ll go get a refund in a while. Thank you.”
Sigh. There had not even been any sign of this when buying tickets online. So careless.
Yomi pushed at Anxius. “Hurry and go in. I’ll go buy drinks first. Later I’ll take Gousheng back to the camper and watch movies.”
“…”
From the moment he learned that Yomi could not go in, Anxius lost all interest in the park. Just then, a stall not far away flashed through his line of sight and suddenly caught his attention.
“Wait for me a moment.” He strode quickly toward the stall inside.
Lynn and the others had all already noticed Yomi’s situation. They immediately started clamoring to come out too. Karl first told them not to rush, then went over to make arrangements with those Junk Star people, telling them to go enjoy themselves in groups. He also handed some cash to the boss among them to cover their spending for the day, and told them to meet again at the entrance in the evening.
Karl knew very well that Yomi had picked this park largely for those people. He did not want Yomi’s careful planning to go to waste, and he genuinely hoped those people could enjoy themselves to the fullest.
The boss could tell what was going on and nodded. In a situation like this, splitting into two groups was actually better. Once Karl and the others came out, there would at least still be another place for everyone to go and play together. But if only Yomi had been left behind, then Yomi could only have stayed in the camper.
After making all the arrangements, Karl saw that Anxius was buying something at that stall and knew Anxius would definitely come out, so he first led Yexi and his wife, along with Lynn and the others, out of the park.
But when they got outside, Yomi was no longer by the entrance. Just as Karl was about to go look for him near the camper, the worker who had stopped Yomi from entering earlier suddenly came out and quietly pointed them in a direction.
Karl looked over suspiciously. His expression changed at once.
Not far away, in a corner by the wall, a little person holding a wolf cub was secretly wiping away tears.
Karl’s heart shattered. Just as he was about to go comfort him, a figure rushed past him so quickly it brought wind with it—
It was Anxius!
Anxius clearly had not expected Yomi to secretly cry either. Without a word, he pulled the aggrieved little person tightly into his arms. “Baby, don’t cry.”
Being suddenly hugged startled Yomi. When he saw it was Anxius, however, the shock did not diminish.
He had thought they had all already gone inside after ticket inspection, which was exactly why he had dared to cry here. He really did feel terribly wronged. Why was it that even though he was an adult, they still would not let him in? Wuwuwu…
“A park that can’t even make proper cable cars shouldn’t exist at all!” Anxius said as he coaxed him, taking out a music box and placing it into his hands. “Baby, a present.” Ever since the first time that word baby came out, he had no longer bothered restraining himself.
With tears still clinging to his face, Yomi stared in disbelief. “A music box? Did you just buy it?”
Anxius nodded, then set the little wolf cub in Yomi’s arms down on the ground. “It can walk by itself. Don’t spoil it too much.”
“…”
Yomi’s red eyes curved into a small smile. He opened the music box, and very soon, the ballerina inside began moving slowly. At the same time, a clear, lovely melody chimed out… Just as Yomi gradually sank into the beauty of the music box, a mechanical human voice suddenly rang out from it at the end of the tune:
“Yomi, love you.”
His eyes widened slowly.
The others who had come closer also heard the music box’s message. Meikai seemed to notice something from the shredded-squid logo on the music box. He stepped forward, turned it over, and sure enough found an advertisement link to a fan station on the back…
“It’s fan-made merchandise for Yomi!” Meikai exclaimed. “There are even signs it was used before. It was probably left outside somewhere and thrown away as trash, then eventually ended up on Junk Star, where someone picked it up, cleaned it up, and resold it…”
Arlo, hearing that, also leaned in for a closer look. As a former fan, he very much agreed with Meikai’s conclusion.
It was fan-made merch, no doubt about it!
Yomi felt both amused and sad. Because it had been treated like trash, it had ended up on Junk Star. That, in turn, was why Anxius had been able to find it, buy it, and give it to him. And that was why he had been able to see the feelings of his fans again, even though two planets separated them… It was all too strange and wonderful.
“Do you like it?” Anxius asked.
“I do.” The thing he liked was no longer just the music box. Looking at Anxius, then at the friends who had come out for him too, Yomi felt both guilty and happy. “Thank you.”
Now that the Empire’s little treasure was no longer crying, Karl could finally relax. “Actually, I’m not interested in those rides anyway. Team building doesn’t have to mean one big group. Two groups is still fine. What matters is that everyone has fun. That’s real fun!”
“Exactly,” Lynn agreed. “Let’s go have a picnic instead. We’ve already played all that kind of stuff back on Snar! On the way here I saw that there are lots of beautiful mountains and forests nearby. I think there’s even a waterfall over there. Let’s go see it!”
Yomi nodded and said softly, “Okay. Thank you.”
That soft little thank-you made everyone’s hearts melt into a complete mess.
…You’re the one bringing us all out to have fun. We’re the ones who should be thanking you, silly Yomi.
Once they got into the vehicle, taking advantage of the fact that Yomi was sitting in the passenger seat, Anxius bent over to fasten his seatbelt and then lowered his head and kissed that face several times in a row. After kissing him, his thin lips trembled nonstop—he had been holding himself back for so long.
Yomi froze for a moment, looked at him with a red face, and then lowered his head.
There was not the slightest direct response, yet Anxius’s heartbeat roared like thunder. For a moment, all his blood surged upward, and he felt as though he wanted nothing more than to hold Yomi and kiss him endlessly… Happiness flooded his entire body. He stared at Yomi with almost indulgent adoration and could not resist kissing his cheek again, no trace of princely restraint left in him at all. “Do you still want to go in and play? Tonight I can take you in with my original form. I’ll be your cable car. Nothing will happen.” After all, they had already bought the tickets.
…Who knew you were this kind of Crown Prince.
“…” Rarely, Yomi was actually amused by him. The earlier sense of grievance had long since disappeared, and his mood had become bright again. Smiling, he shook his head. “As long as everyone is together and having fun, anywhere is fine.”
