Chapter 85: Extra
In the third year after their marriage, the various problems on Snar Star were finally resolved one after another, and things within the royal family had stabilized as well.
Yomi was about to graduate from the Imperial Academy. Before graduation, blessed with a long holiday, he happily went away on a vacation with Anxius!
They went to an extremely cold region. On the first night, after soaking in the hot springs, Yomi slept especially soundly in Anxius’s arms. He even had a beautiful dream, one in which he saw his parents, who had long since turned into stars.
His father and mother asked him, “Baby, are you doing well?”
Yomi beamed and bobbed his head. “Very, very well! I have lots of friends, and I even found myself an adoptive father. I’m married now too!”
He had wanted to add that the person he married was a man and hoped they would not mind. But then he thought about it again. Compared with gender, Anxius was not even human, so gender suddenly did not seem all that important…
In the dream, his parents said nothing. They only smiled as they looked at him.
When he woke up, Yomi was still a little dazed. He raised a hand to scratch his head, only to touch his horns, and that was when he realized he was no longer dreaming.
In the dream, he had not had horns.
Just then, Anxius came out of the bathroom. He had finished washing up, and seeing that Yomi was awake too, he went over, scooped him out of the blankets, kissed him thoroughly, and began dressing him.
Yomi had only just finished getting dressed when there came a knock at the door.
It was a hotel staff member saying that the print magazine they had ordered had arrived.
The monster delivered the item and left.
“What magazine?” Yomi walked over in puzzlement. The moment he saw the cover, his face turned red.
The giant headline on the cover read: Build Your Own Business Empire, Starting from Junk Star!
And on the cover photo: a tiny little man in a suit, his hair slicked back in the style of a domineering CEO, standing with his arms crossed. The expression that had supposedly been meant to show the cold aloofness of a businessman instead came off looking a bit blank and dazed in the shot.
Behind him was only a monster’s leg. Clearly, the entire little man was not even as tall as that reporter monster’s thigh…
It was a magazine devoted to personal biography interviews, and this issue’s featured figure was Yomi.
A month earlier, Yomi had accepted the invitation to be interviewed as the chairman of the Little Sheep Group, talking in detail about everything from his time on variety shows to his faked death and move to Junk Star—now Treasure Star—and all the developments there since.
Yomi had taken that interview extremely seriously. He had prepared a great deal in advance, bought several past issues of the magazine, and dressed himself according to the styles of the featured tycoons, doing his utmost to make himself look professional and mature.
But now, looking at this magazine cover… he really did not look like some business magnate at all.
Yomi stared gloomily at the cover, but Anxius could not take his eyes off it. He looked it over several times, then immediately contacted the photographer from that day and got hold of all the behind-the-scenes photos of “CEO Yomi,” which he then proceeded to look through nonstop.
Seeing how much Anxius liked them, Yomi looked again at the cover and gradually stopped finding it so strange.
…He really did have a bit of boss aura, after all.
After breakfast, Big Boss Yomi went out with Anxius to play. On the first day, they interacted with the animals there. On the second day, they joined a special program to go underwater and view the ocean depths. After resting another day, the two of them, feeling that life was especially fulfilling, went out for a walk hand in hand.
Yomi’s height was practically one of a kind on Snar Star. His fans only needed a glance at his silhouette to know it was him.
Still, there were not many tourists in the polar region, so Yomi did not run into too many fans.
They arrived near a snow mountain, and in plain sight there were only around ten or so tourists.
After taking countless photos, they went to rest at the foot of the mountain. There were no shops nearby, so Anxius took out the pad he had prepared in his backpack and spread it on the snow. The two sat down close together.
Yomi flung himself into Anxius’s arms. So comfortable—the pad was soft, his husband was warm, and he felt as though his whole body had been released!
Anxius’s breathing hitched. He held him tighter, then took out a thermos from his bag. Inside was hot tea, Yomi’s favorite.
Just as Yomi reached out to take the cup, the rim was already brought to his lips first.
Anxius stared at him intently, as if Yomi were doing something of the utmost importance.
…He was only drinking water.
As he drank, Yomi secretly glanced up at him.
Caught being stared at, Anxius asked, “Too hot?”
And he was already about to blow on it for him.
“No, it’s just right…” Yomi kept shaking his head behind the mist of steam.
Yomi knew that Anxius had always loved watching him eat and drink. Back on Junk Star, whenever Yomi lazed around on the sofa munching jerky, Anxius would secretly watch him. Sometimes, he would even unconsciously smile…
After a few mouthfuls of hot tea, Yomi felt warm all over. Satisfied, he leaned back into Anxius’s arms, breathed out two little puffs of white air, and began chatting about life. “Anxius, this place is so big and empty… Brule said that when you were little, you used to train here all by yourself. Weren’t you scared?” In Yomi’s mind, Anxius must have been terrified. Forget children—even now, if Yomi were here alone, he would be scared too… Before he had crossed over, Yomi had been alone at home when the apocalypse came. He could not contact anyone else, and it was dangerous outside, so he did not dare go out. He always felt like he was the only living person left in the entire building, even the only living person left in the whole city… Every time he thought of that, he would be so frightened that he would secretly cry for ages.
“I wasn’t scared.” After answering, Anxius finished tidying his backpack and pulled Yomi more snugly into his arms. “I was used to it back then.” Ever since he had been old enough to remember, that had been the kind of life Anxius lived. There had never been any question of fear or not fear. Back then, he had not even really had a concept of fear. But Yomi’s question made him think of something else.
Before coming to Snar Star’s main city, how had Yomi lived all by himself?
None of the planets here had any trace of humans. Yomi was as though he had appeared from nowhere.
The moment Anxius thought of that, panic rose within him. He instinctively tightened his arms, terrified that in the next instant someone would take Yomi back to wherever he had originally come from.
Warm in both body and heart, Yomi did not notice what was wrong with Anxius at first. It was only when he was being squeezed so tightly he could hardly breathe that he finally let out a little protest. “Darling, you’re hugging too tight!”
Anxius immediately loosened his hold a little. After a while, he lowered his head and latched onto Yomi’s lips, kissing him endlessly.
Now Yomi felt warm all over. Soon, he pressed his burning lips together and looked up at Anxius. “What’s wrong with you?”
After a brief silence, those eyes looked at him tensely. “…Will you disappear just as suddenly as you appeared?”
?
Yomi could tell that Anxius was doing everything he could to control his emotions. He had not gone into a berserk state, nor was he on the verge of one. He was simply trying to suppress his fear.
And all of Anxius’s fears seemed to revolve around him.
Yomi understood with painful clarity that his answer here was crucial. Otherwise, it would become a blade hanging forever above Anxius’s head, never knowing when it might fall.
“Anxius, in the place I originally came from, humans are just humans. They don’t turn into other forms.” As he spoke, Yomi had already used his skill to transform himself into a soft, fluffy little sheep, lying belly-up in Anxius’s lap, both front hooves enthusiastically kicking at Anxius’s shoulders and neck to try and help him relax. “Darling, maybe the reason I appeared here is because there was some sort of superpower hidden in my genes. In my original hometown, people with superpowers wouldn’t be allowed to disrupt human society!”
He spouted that nonsense with perfect seriousness. Then he wriggled again and pressed close to whisper into Anxius’s ear. “Besides, we’re already married. Even if I ever did go back, we’d go together. Did you forget? We had a symbiosis surgery!”
Their lives were already bound together, so even if some kind of crossing through worlds happened again, there was no way they could be separated now.
Anxius froze.
That was right. Their lives were connected.
…This was undoubtedly the happiest moment Anxius had had all day. He lowered his head and bit Yomi hard with a kiss, then gazed at his smiling little sheep face. At last, the anxious, unsteady heart inside him truly calmed.
With their heads pressed close together, they looked out at the endless white world around them and rested there for a long time.
Yomi yawned, his eyes brimming with a little watery sparkle. Suddenly, he noticed a family in the distance building a snowman, and as he watched them, interest began to grow.
The snowman they had built looked like a giant snow sculpture in Yomi’s eyes. At that size, in his old world it would have counted as one of those landmark things people went to take photos with…
All at once, Yomi got an idea. He hurriedly patted Anxius, who was holding him. When Anxius looked down at him, Yomi awkwardly burrowed his head into his chest and said, “Darling, they’re building a snowman.”
“You want a snowman too?” Anxius did not at first understand why Yomi was embarrassed to ask. Then the little sheep shook his head and stared at his own hooves. “I… I want you to use your original form to build a snow house. I want to go inside and have a look…” He had never seen a snow house in his life.
The moment he said it, Anxius imagined the adorable sight of tiny Yomi going inside a snow house to look around. He became even more enthusiastic than Yomi was. Without another word, he shifted back into his original form, found an open patch with plenty of snow, and immediately began custom-building a little snow house tailored perfectly to Yomi.
Yomi lay on the mat and watched with great interest for a while. Once Anxius started piling up the snow walls, Yomi ambled over to help as well.
He did not change back into his human form. A little sheep’s wool was very warm, and his hooves were actually quite handy for scraping snow. But after he helped for a bit, Anxius stopped him. His little sheep hooves were already starting to crust with ice!
Cold begins at the feet. After warming up Yomi’s hooves, Anxius dug into the backpack again and took out the little sheep boots he had packed, fitting all four of Yomi’s hooves into them properly!
Yomi puffed his cheeks. What kind of sheep wore boots? He would never have the face to meet anyone now.
But the boots were so warm. There were even little warming pads inside, and now both his hooves and legs felt cozy and warm…
Yomi’s whole way of walking became lighter. After giving Anxius a few more instructions and rubbing his head against Anxius’s scales to cheer him on, he finally left the “construction site” with a helpless expression.
Little sheep Yomi then began his snowfield exploration. The place was very open. Some people would leave, and new tourists would arrive. Occasionally, there were tourists with little shovels digging through the snow for treasures. Most of what they found were items or even trash left behind by earlier visitors, and only rarely did they dig up naturally formed stone souvenirs.
Watching them from a distance, Yomi thought: That looks so fun. It’s like beachcombing.
Only here it should be called snowcombing.
Yomi, rubbing his hooves together inside his little boots, could not resist. He took the knitted hat from his mouth and went over to a patch of clean snow. He put the hat beside him to use as a storage bag, then earnestly began scraping snow aside.
He cleared quite a bit in no time, making a lot of fuss.
Anyway, now that he had boots, he was not afraid of his feet freezing, so he did not mind if Anxius saw him.
A few minutes later, a monster child was drawn over by the sight of the sheep in boots. It was a little boy whose original form was a sled dog.
To get the chance to talk to the adorable sheep, he transformed back into his original form too and trotted over to help Yomi dig in the snow. When Yomi looked at him, he grinned ingratiatingly and said, “Little sister, you’re so cute. Let’s play together.”
Yomi was practically frightened out of his skin by that. He hurriedly said, “I’m an adult, not some little sister… kids shouldn’t run around. Hurry back.”
The moment the little boy heard his voice, he knew he had gotten it wrong. But he had never seen an adult with such a tiny original form before. For a moment he was utterly baffled, as if he had encountered something impossible, tilting his head as he studied Yomi.
Faced with those innocent doggy eyes, Yomi could not bring himself to keep chasing him away, so he just lowered his head and continued “snowcombing.”
This time, he dug out a very large magnifying glass. Yomi was overjoyed, first holding it up to his eyes to inspect it. Ah, yes. He still could not inspect anything at all~
Still, finding something was enough! The little sheep happily clamped the handle in his mouth, about to take it back to Anxius to show off, when the sled dog boy beside him said, “That looks more like a broken pair of glasses…”
Yomi slowly turned back. The dog boy had started digging there too, and sure enough, he had uncovered the other half of the glasses and the scattered pieces…
“I knew it. Hardly anyone even uses magnifying glasses that small these days.”
Yomi: …
He no longer wanted to bother with this child. Just as he was about to carry the broken glasses back anyway and pretend it was a great treasure, cries of alarm and pain suddenly rang out in the distance. At the same time, a large hailstone dropped from the sky and struck the snow at Yomi’s feet.
In truth, only a few seconds passed, but to Yomi those seconds stretched out unbearably long. He saw the little dog boy get struck directly by a chunk of hail and start crying. He did not even seem to understand why he had suddenly been “hit,” only looked helpless and shocked.
Adults were already shifting into their original forms and rushing over. Anxius’s figure was charging this way too—
More hailstones fell, just as the cries and screams grew louder…
By the time Yomi came back to himself, he had already scooped the little boy into his arms. Not only that, he had also wrapped in nearly everyone else within his line of sight.
The little boy cried and looked up, only to be so stunned by the countless white threads that he could not speak.
“The sheep… the little sheep turned into a cocoon!” The boy’s eyes were red as he pointed at the giant cocoon protecting them, repeating this over and over to his parents.
Yomi’s grades at the Imperial Academy had always been very good. He had long since learned to control his transformation skill with ease, and now the length of time he could maintain a large form had also become a little longer than before… But because his enlarged form still had a time limit, he had always felt the skill was not all that useful.
It had not hailed here for many years. This time, such terrifying giant hail had fallen without warning. Adults might be able to endure it in their original forms, but children had no way to avoid being hurt.
At that moment, Yomi had practically acted on instinct, clutching the crying little boy and transforming himself into one huge, round cocoon!
Thick, soft silk wound itself tightly around them all, pulling every person in view securely into the cocoon’s shelter.
Yomi could not see what was happening outside, and the monsters being protected were equally bewildered. No one knew when this terrifying hailstorm would end, what exactly this angelic cocoon was, or when rescue might arrive.
Still, strangely enough, aside from the initial sensation of being struck, Yomi did not feel much pain after that. Yet he could still hear the crash and smash of giant hailstones punching into the ground nearby…
“Anxius?” Yomi called out with all his strength. He remembered that Anxius had been running toward him when this all started…
“What is it?” A familiar voice answered from very close by, as if pressed right against him. Though Yomi could not see outside, he immediately imagined what must be happening and panicked. “Anxius, get inside the cocoon! My cocoon is really sturdy!”
The other man’s voice remained steady. “I’ve already contacted the rescue team. They’ll be here in twenty minutes at the latest. Right now I’m bracing it with a stone slab. It’s safe.” After a pause, his voice moved even closer. “Do you hurt anywhere?”
Yomi could tell that he seemed to be trembling. His eyes immediately welled up. “No, I don’t hurt. I feel fine… Xius, do you hurt anywhere?”
Somewhere against the cocoon’s surface, a warm touch landed—apparently a kiss. He heard Anxius say, “Mimi, I feel fine too.”
The crashing outside was deafening, enough to make Yomi’s heart jump with every impact, but he was not especially afraid. If this had happened in the past, perhaps his mind would have been filled with nothing but fear. But now he knew that even if they were walking toward death, he and Anxius would remain together.
He mumbled to Anxius, “Darling, are you still awake?”
“Mhm.” He answered, and then kissed the cocoon again.
Yomi wanted to smile, but he could not. He was so tired. He wanted to kiss Anxius too, but he simply could not move. He felt his consciousness slipping away. Amid the colossal roar of a world that sounded as if it were ending, Yomi truly believed, for a while, that he was about to die. Full of regret, he could only use the last of his strength to release the fixed setting on the artificial horns atop his head.
That way, others would be able to knock them off easily, and he could be buried beside Anxius in his original human form.
In the haze of his fading awareness, it seemed like he heard the sound of a rescue starship arriving. Yomi’s mind jolted, and he immediately tried to adjust the horns again—but when his hand reached up, there was nothing there.
The half-conscious Yomi thought fuzzily: Where did my horns go?
He had no more time to think about that, because in the next few seconds, he lost consciousness completely.
When the rescue team finally arrived, they could not even get out at first. The sight below them left them too shocked to speak.
To be honest, when they had received the emergency call, they had already prepared themselves to find casualties. There were no buildings in the surrounding area capable of resisting giant hail of that magnitude, and many of the tourists there had children with them.
All the way there, they had been praying.
They had prayed that everyone would have found a cave to hide in, prayed for some miraculous little corner that would just happen to block the worst of the storm… but never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that everyone would survive.
There was a huge white cocoon there, almost blending into the snowy ground. And the reason they had noticed this miraculous cocoon at all was because above it stood a massive monster with wings spread wide, holding up a huge slab of rock along with his own body to shield the cocoon from the hail.
Many parts of the silk cocoon had been stained red with the monster’s blood.
All of this was captured by the rescue team’s live-broadcast camera.
One day later.
On a Snar Star forum:
[Did you all watch yesterday’s live rescue broadcast from the polar hail disaster?]
[Didn’t it suddenly cut off midway?]
[Of course it cut off. They filmed the empress without any monster traits. Apparently, in order to save people, even her horns got smashed off, sob sob…]
[What are you talking about? The horns were fake! There was even some special device under them… those weren’t the natural horns of a monster. This has already been blowing up all night on the Human Enthusiasts Forum. There’s tons of evidence!]
[Huh?]
[I also just came back from the Human Enthusiasts Forum after catching up on all the gossip. Yomi really is human, ahhhh! No wonder he’s so tiny!]
[???]
[What nonsense are you all talking about?]
[He is human. Otherwise they wouldn’t have suddenly cut the livestream. A perfect human body—my God. Yomi’s fans are so blessed. If any of you ever shook Yomi’s hand, took a photo with him, or got his autograph as fans, then from now on you should put those hands/photos/signatures up on an altar and worship them, ahhhh…]
[Your forum’s news is way too outdated. Yomi’s fan groups have already been screaming all night. Right now they’re crying and demanding that the Empire officially declare Yomi Snar Star’s Special-Class Stellar Treasure and protect him properly!]
[Oh my God. Back when I thought Yomi had died, I bought his tea eggs and soaked them in water for days while eating them to remember him. Now I hate my past self. I should have thrown those tea eggs into a well so I could have kept drinking Yomi-flavored water forever!]
[…The person above is insane!]
[So what you’re saying is, in that sudden polar giant hail disaster, we Snar people were protected by a human? [shocked]]
[Humans may be very small, but they are not fragile. At critical moments, they possess a toughness beyond anything you can imagine. Yomi is exactly like that. Don’t be fooled by how small he is—he’s terrifyingly strong!
]
The netizens clicked on the video. It showed footage from the Imperial Academy’s skill training grounds.
In the video, an enormous and powerful mecha stood there majestically. It first gave a respectful bow toward the target opposite it, then smashed the target down with one blow. After that, the mecha went bang and transformed into an adorably dressed little person. The little man gave a gentlemanly bow, then shyly walked toward the camera.
[Help…]
[AHHHHHH such incredible combat power, I’m dead—]
From then on, the replies beneath the video were completely drowned in textual screams.
Main City, Royal Private Hospital.
Yomi’s bedside was crowded with people. Bandaged Anxius, Brule, Karl, Lynn, Meikai and Harvey, and even Satan and Hanya, who had rushed over from Treasure Star.
Fortunately, Yomi was not in danger. The doctors said the reason he had fainted was that he had pushed his skill beyond the utmost limit his body could endure—in other words, he had overexerted himself and needed proper rest.
At this moment, every single person in the room was intently staring at the sleeping-beauty-like Yomi.
No horns, pale skin, exquisite features that looked like the richest brushstroke in an oil painting—he was unmistakably a human, with not the slightest resemblance to any of them!
Yomi… was human!
The first person unable to take it was Satan. Hanya had to hurriedly call a nurse over to fit him with an oxygen mask so he would not actually pass out.
When Yomi woke up, the only thing he felt was that his whole body was tingling and weak. He opened his eyes in a daze for a second, then immediately searched for Anxius. Thankfully, he found him with just one turn of his gaze.
Even before Yomi woke up, Anxius had already moved to the bedside. The moment Yomi’s eyes opened, he pulled him tightly into his arms.
Yomi wrapped both arms around his neck as well, rubbing his face against Anxius’s jaw. Still shaken, he muttered, “Anxius, I thought we were going to die… it was so scary.”
“We won’t die.” Anxius kissed him frantically, his lips trembling as he spoke. “I love you.”
“I love you too~” Yomi happily rubbed against him and kissed him for a long while, until a doctor knocked and he finally noticed the whole roomful of people. Even Satan and Hanya were there!
Yomi was both surprised and delighted. He obediently let the doctor examine him, but his mouth stayed busy the whole time, greeting each person one by one. At last, he looked toward the strangest one of all—Satan. “What’s wrong with you? Are you not feeling well?”
Satan really did look odd. His back was trembling slightly, his eyes locked straight onto Yomi, and both hands seemed not to know where to go, twisting in front of him almost spasmodically…
Before long, Yomi realized that practically everyone’s eyes in the room were focused on his forehead. Curious, he reached up and touched it. There was nothing unusual there. His hair was still there.
Then his eyes widened—his horns were gone!
And here, what was ordinary for him had become the most extraordinary thing of all.
In that instant, Yomi remembered everything from before he fainted. He had overused his skill, gone limp all over, and genuinely thought he was going to die in that hailstorm. So he had changed the fixed setting on his horns, and apparently they had fallen off… looking at things now, the rescue team must have arrived just in time.
Yomi: It’s over. It looks like everyone found out the secret.
Just as Yomi was at a loss, someone suddenly kissed the middle of his forehead. Pressing close to him, Anxius murmured, “It’s okay.”
“Yes, exactly. They’re only horns. If they’re gone, we’ll just make new ones.” Brule chuckled. “Grandpa will make you an even prettier pair.”
“Mimi is very good-looking without horns too… no, even better-looking!” Lynn added.
As for Yomi being human, though Lynn had been stunned, during the long wait for Yomi to wake up he had already learned a great deal from Brule—namely, that Yomi had probably been terrified of the Snar people from the very beginning, had not wanted to be different from everyone else, had not wanted to be hurt, and so had bought horns to disguise himself as a little monster.
Lynn felt horribly guilty. As Yomi’s good friend, he had failed to notice any of that all along.
Meikai and Harvey were completely dazed—especially Meikai, who had entered a full petrified state.
The friend he admired so much and also his idol was actually an extinct rare species. The only trace of their remaining dignity was that they were still managing to stand upright.
Among everyone in the room, Karl was actually the calmest. Even though he had only just learned Yomi was human, deep down he did not find it that shocking… After all, Yomi had always been a one-of-a-kind existence here. Whether he was human or some other strange identity, it somehow did not make that much difference.
Since the revelation of his identity had not brought endless questioning, scrutiny, or fear, Yomi was deeply grateful.
“I… I really am human,” Yomi said at last, gathering his courage. Then with great confidence, he added, “Even if I’m a lot smaller, I still think… there isn’t actually that much difference between us.”
When he finished, he glanced at his little hospital bed and the enormous room around him, and before anyone else could react, he was already smiling sheepishly.
Brule bent down to look at him, his face warm with laughter. “And now? Doesn’t it feel more comfortable?”
Yomi wiggled his head. Not wearing the horns really did feel strangely unfamiliar, but also liberating. His head felt lighter somehow. He nodded. “Mm!”
That little head-wobbling gesture instantly melted the hearts of everyone in the room.
Seeing him nod, Anxius rubbed his face against Yomi’s and asked, “Then from now on, do you still want to wear horns?”
Truthfully, he did not want Yomi to keep suffering through a disguise forever. But if Yomi was afraid, then disguising himself was fine too. If it made Yomi feel even a little more relaxed and happy, Anxius would immediately have all news of the matter sealed away.
Even if Yomi wanted to become a villain, Anxius would gladly become the best henchman for him.
He respected absolutely any choice Yomi made.
…Would he still wear horns in the future?
Yomi looked out the window.
Outside, flower petals drifted down. The distant skyline of tall buildings was briefly obscured by those little petals, and Yomi’s thoughts followed them, carried far, far away. Before his eyes rose the noisy world of his past life, where there had been so many people: his father and mother, relatives, classmates, friends.
Then Yomi turned his eyes back to everyone in the room. At last, his gaze settled on the handsome lines of Anxius’s face.
The petals had fallen, yet by the windowsill there was a little green plant proudly stretching itself upward.
“No more!” Yomi declared with great spirit. “Because… because I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”
Outside the hospital room, the sun was blazing high, the breeze soft and gentle.
Inside, laughter and startled cries rang out everywhere, along with Satan’s strange wail of, “My son really is a human baby!”
Even the little dog boy and the other tourists who later came bearing flowers to thank Yomi were rooted in place before that vivid, beautiful human face…
The planet continued turning as usual, and yet countless monsters had been thrown into disarray by a single human.
On the hospital bed, Anxius held Yomi tightly and, before long, leaned in to kiss him once more. “When you recover, I’ll build you an entire snow castle.” That day he had actually planned to build a snow castle already. It was just that in the end… still, they had plenty of time ahead of them.
“Wow… but a castle should have stairs, right? If I stepped on them, wouldn’t they collapse?”
“For the rooms upstairs, I can hold you up outside the windows in my original form.”
“Anxius~~” Drawing out his voice in a long, sweet whine, the pampering Yomi’s eyes shone bright with expectation, his whole body naturally spilling over with coy affection.
Whenever he acted spoiled, Anxius could only answer with even fiercer kisses.
And once Yomi had been kissed enough, he would offer the other side of his face too, as though worried the marks would not be evenly distributed otherwise.
Before long, all the monsters who had lost control over the adorable human quietly filed out of the room. Even Satan, reluctant as he was to leave his son, called everyone to hurry up and go out for a meal together.
No one refused.
They all knew that until Yomi recovered, Anxius would stay by his side day and night, sleepless, cherishing him, caring for him, looking after him.
Until the day the two of them could walk out of that hospital room hand in hand and begin once more the peaceful, happy life that belonged to them.
—End of Extra—
