Chapter 39: Sunbathing

“Whose pet egg is that? It looks pretty nice...”

The Pachi supervisor blurted out what was on the mind without thinking.

Working the port and handling trades day in and day out had given the supervisor a sharp eye for goods. The moment the supervisor saw the egg in the photo, the first thought wasn’t “cute”—it was value.

Because the supervisor could pat the chest and swear: in this entire life, the supervisor had never seen an egg this beautiful.

Just on looks alone, the supervisor would even dare to guarantee that if this photo were posted, it would blow up on StarNet in less than a day.

No one would be able to resist being moved by it.

As far as the supervisor knew, several wealthy, powerful big shots loved delicate, pretty things like this. If it were put up at auction, the supervisor believed this lovely little treasure would absolutely become the most eye-catching presence in the whole hall.

But just as the Pachi supervisor was thinking about how much money this egg could sell for, the supervisor suddenly felt cold.

The surroundings had become eerily quiet at some point.

The Saint Clan standing opposite all had their expressions turn icy.

At the front was a Heimo. The Heimo stared at the Pachi supervisor without expression, vertical pupils narrowing slightly. And behind the Heimo, those Ge De and Tas also all wore cold faces.

Almost in an instant, it was like these Saint Clan had been offended and provoked. The way they looked at the Pachi supervisor filled with chill.

Being stared at like that by the most vicious race in the universe, the Pachi supervisor’s entire back was soaked in sweat.

The supervisor had no idea how the supervisor had offended these murder-gods for no reason.

The supervisor... hadn’t even said anything. Just said egg... and that the egg looked good...

Could it be those words—pet egg—were the problem?

Thinking that, the Pachi supervisor wasn’t just sweating down the back. Even the forehead started to bead with sweat.

The brain started spinning at top speed.

And the mouth desperately tried to patch things up:

“I mean... I mean this egg is really beautiful. I’ve been doing business for so long and I’ve never come across an egg this pretty.”

“Of course you haven’t.”

The Heimo at the front said coldly.

Because that egg was their little Highness. Only their little Highness could be that beautiful and adorable.

The Pachi supervisor still didn’t know what that egg’s background really was, but under the pressure of sheer survival instinct, the supervisor instantly latched onto the right way to flatter these Saint Clan—

Praise the egg!

Praise it like crazy. Praise it hard. Praise it until there’s nothing in heaven or earth that compares!

By the time the Pachi supervisor’s mouth was almost dry, the Saint Clan finally seemed to have cooled off. Their gazes softened a little—at least they no longer looked like they were about to chop the supervisor into eight pieces.

Seeing that, the Pachi supervisor couldn’t help letting out a long breath. But to make up for the mistake earlier—and to make sure the trade with the Saint Clan didn’t die in the supervisor’s hands—the supervisor decided to throw in an extra box of goods.

“These are some of the best-selling toys on the market right now. Babies all like playing with them.”

Taking the earlier lesson to heart, the Pachi supervisor deliberately didn’t use the word “pet,” and instead chose the word “babies,” which could refer to cubs and could also refer to pets.

Sure enough, the Saint Clan didn’t get angry this time.

On the contrary—their eyes were instantly drawn to the product images of those toys.

One set of toys was specially made for bird cubs. Bird cubs were eggs when they were first born too, so the toy company had designed types specifically for baby eggs.

There were little hammocks that could cradle an egg, bubble balls that could wrap an egg up, and baby beds shaped like seashells, and so on...

They were toys meant for kids, but these Saint Clan stared without blinking.

All they could picture was their little Highness playing with them.

C-cute!

When the product demo video finished, that Heimo pointed at that set and spoke.

“How many sets like that do you have?”

The Pachi supervisor froze for a moment, but still reported the inventory honestly.

“These are special custom editions. They won’t be sold publicly on the market. Even we only have ten sets—”

“We’ll take them all.”

Before the supervisor could finish, the Saint Clan side cut in directly.

“...All of them?!” The Pachi supervisor was shocked. Their trades with the Saint Clan had never involved selling toys before.

And besides, this set might look small, but it wasn’t cheap at all.

The materials were real gemstones and pearls—made that way specifically because birds liked shiny things.

They’d even been planning to use these toys to hype up the atmosphere at the next auction.

But after hearing the price, the Heimo didn’t blink. The Heimo even pointed at other toys inside the boxes.

“And those too. We want all of them.”

All of them.

For the Saint Clan, if their little Highness should have something, then their little Highness would have it.

They were just toys. If they wanted to buy them, they’d buy them all back. Then the little Highness could play with whatever the little Highness liked.

—

This time, the Pachi supervisor’s waist didn’t ache, and the hands didn’t shake anymore. Even though the Saint Clan opposite still wore those cold faces...

What vicious murder-gods? These were clearly the golden patrons the supervisor had been praying for.

The kind with mines at home!

Once the transaction was over, both sides were satisfied.

The Saint Clan came loaded and left loaded—only this time, what filled their warship were all kinds of toys suitable for cubs.

The Pachi got the ore they wanted, and also landed a prepaid toy order from the Saint Clan. It was a single deal that left them swimming in profit.

“You’re saying what?! Did I hear wrong? The Saint Clan bought all the toys?”

“Yes, sir, you didn’t hear wrong. We’re very sorry, but we currently have no toys available for sale.”

“Then can I pre-order?”

“Sweetie, the pre-orders are already fully booked too~”

“.......”

That day, toy distributors on every major planet were stunned.

They placed orders with the Pachi as usual.

And the replies they got were basically all the same: the toys on the market had been bought out by the Saint Clan in one go, and there was no stock left.

Even pre-orders would probably have to wait twenty years. Every toy company was working overtime to produce the Saint Clan’s orders, and they simply couldn’t keep up.

Very quickly, along with the news of the toy sellout wave, the hashtag #SaintClanToys shot up the StarNet trending list.

And every race scrolling StarNet today had the exact same first reaction when they saw that trending tag—

Who made up this fake news?

It was way too fake.

You could tell it was nonsense at a glance.

How could the Saint Clan possibly be connected to toys?

But the moment they clicked in... they froze too.

“So it turns out someone really can buy up all the toys in the galaxy. So the dream I had as a kid could actually come true...”

That was the highest-liked comment under the post.

Of course, besides the sighing and the shock, more people were mostly baffled and curious.

—Why on earth were the Saint Clan buying that many toys?

That was the biggest question.

Very quickly, countless guesses mixed with conspiracy theories flooded StarNet, and everyone debated every possible explanation. But no matter which one it was, it was still miles away from the real truth.

Only that Pachi supervisor vaguely knew the Saint Clan bought all those toys for an egg.

Even now, the Pachi supervisor still felt regretful.

That really was a beautiful little angel.

If only it really were some family’s carefully raised pet egg... then no matter how much it cost, the supervisor would be willing to take it down.

.......

Inside the cavern.

The bone spines suddenly felt a chilly shiver crawl over them.

Weird. Why did it feel like someone was thinking about the most treasured little thing in their hearts?

Puzzled, the bone spines moved over to the stone slab.

Inside the little basket, the angel egg the Pachi supervisor had been obsessing over was sleeping obediently under the small quilt.

From the egg’s faint, subtle rise and fall, it almost felt like you could see through the shell and glimpse the cub sleeping soundly inside.

Only the bone spines—who had been taking care of it this whole time—knew just how well-behaved it was.

The cub didn’t fuss or cry inside. Every day, it slept obediently and ate obediently.

The cub is amazing =v=

As usual, the bone spines stood in front of the slab and admired the cub for a while before starting today’s work.

First, they brought over a tape measure.

Then they gently wrapped it around the egg’s body and measured a full circle. Seeing that the mark was a little longer than yesterday’s, the bone spines were thrilled—had the cub grown just a tiny bit?!

They excitedly brought the tape measure to Mansendis and urged him to look.

Look, the cub grew a little compared to yesterday!

The silver-haired sovereign glanced at it, then took the egg out of the basket and weighed it.

“Gained weight.”

Seeing the little increase on the scale, Mansendis could confirm the egg really had grown a bit.

To the naked eye, it even looked a little chubbier and rounder.

But the inside was still quiet, like the cub was still greedy for sleep and refused to wake.

Mansendis didn’t have any better method for that. He could only keep placing the egg on the stone slab formed from red crystal, letting it absorb more energy.

The bone spines, however, remembered the fairy-tale book they’d played for the cub before.

Following what the book said, they carried the little basket toward the area near the cavern entrance.

There was a spot there that could catch sunlight.

The sunlight wasn’t very strong yet, so they felt at ease pushing the little basket into the sun.

Cub, time to sunbathe!

You have to sleep well today too.

Maybe it was sensing the bone spines’ thoughts, or maybe the cub really liked the sun—either way, not long after the bone spines set the basket down, the egg buried in the small quilt gave a small wobble.

The movement wasn’t big, like it was expressing happiness.

The bone spines instantly caught that little motion.

The cub... moved...

The cub... finally moved!

They wanted to lean in closer to look, but Mansendis had already noticed. He walked over too and lowered his head, staring at the egg in the basket for a while.

But the cub inside was obviously lazy. After that single wobble, it refused to move again.

Seeing that, Mansendis still couldn’t quite relax. He sent a thread of mental energy into the egg.

“Hu...”

“Huhu...”

A shallow breathing sound came through.

Mansendis didn’t know whether to feel disappointed, or if he was already used to it.

Just as he was about to pull the hand away, something very light, very light brushed against him.

It wasn’t an illusion.

Mansendis lifted his eyes in surprise and tried, carefully, to touch the eggshell.

And very quickly, the cub inside seemed to respond, gently rubbing against the finger.

“...D-don’t be sad.”

That thread of mental energy Mansendis still hadn’t withdrawn transmitted the childish, sleep-murmur-like voice from inside.

Obviously, the cub had sensed Mansendis’s emotions—and even while sleeping, instinctively wanted to comfort him.

A gentle strand of mental energy, a little clumsy, stretched out from inside the egg.

It flew and flew and flew, finally reaching the silver-haired sovereign.

Mansendis felt that mental energy carefully touching him.

Just like its owner, the cub’s mental energy was soft, without the slightest aggression—only warmth and gentleness.

Wherever it brushed, the pain seemed to fade a little.

Mansendis had been soothed by the cub unconsciously before, but this time the feeling was clearer, more distinct.

He could truly feel the mental sea inside him—restless at every moment—slowly calming down.

It was like a wound that had festered for a long time with no way to heal, finally being tended with soothing hands after day after day of pain.

Even if that relief was only a drop in the bucket for Mansendis’s chaotic mental sea, he still felt a rare, long-lost lightness.

But the cub’s condition wasn’t so good.

After that mental energy wandered around outside, and after it worked so hard to soothe the “sad” silver-haired sovereign, Wen Yuzhi, still asleep, suddenly felt exhausted to the bone.

That showed on the outside as well—the whole egg looked a little listless, and even its luster dimmed.

The bone spines panicked at once.

Mansendis frowned. He didn’t even take the basket—he wrapped the egg in the small quilt and placed it back on the stone slab.

And the instant it touched the red crystal, the cub inside began absorbing energy on its own.

As a large amount of energy poured in, the snow-white little egg finally recovered. Only, it still looked a bit droopy.

Mansendis knew it was because the cub was tired.

How could it not be tired?

So small, and it was already thinking about combing through his mental sea.

And it didn’t even consider that the tiny bit of mental energy it had just condensed was like a tender sprout newly grown on a branch—fragile enough that one careless moment could get it hurt by backlash.

If Wen Yuzhi were standing in front of him, Mansendis could scold him a few lines.

But facing an egg... the silver-haired sovereign couldn’t exactly reason with an egg.

Still, Mansendis had a way.

The bone spines’ bedtime story was switched by Mansendis to an interstellar mental-energy enlightenment science book shared by cubs of all races.

So the little duckling searching for its mom was gone—replaced by a cold electronic voice reading seriously:

“Chapter One: the definition of mental energy...”

Wen Yuzhi: “Huhu...”

“Chapter Two: the origin of mental energy...”

Wen Yuzhi: “Huhu...”

Still asleep, the cub even rolled over inside the egg.

There was nothing to do about it. Wen Yuzhi felt so tired, so tired—like he hadn’t slept in ages. Now that he finally had a chance to sleep in such a comfortable environment, of course he didn’t want to wake up that quickly.

And while Wen Yuzhi was trying hard to sleep, he had no idea that outside, everything was already in an uproar because of him.

It started with the Saint Clan buying out all the toys.

Given the Saint Clan’s strength, any little disturbance in the Ninth Star Sector was always a huge focus on StarNet.

Most of the time, the Saint Clan never participated in interstellar affairs, which made them low-key—but also a race everyone constantly discussed online.

This sudden massive toy purchase was no exception.

The Saint Clan had been quiet for so many years. Recently, the only big news had been the conquest of Kanirila—and then this, buying so many toys from the Pachi.

At first, StarNet discussions were relatively friendly. But as people kept talking, the tone shifted and everyone started arguing.

Different races fought to the point of near chaos over why the Saint Clan would buy toys. Even military experts came out to analyze what possible intentions might be hidden behind the move.

In no time, StarNet was lively beyond belief.

Some people thought the Saint ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Clan had finally gone insane. Some thought the Saint Clan had to be brewing some kind of conspiracy.

And some people went to Malente Star, got information from the Pachi supervisor, and heard that the Saint Clan bought the toys for an egg.

The moment that information dropped, StarNet exploded even harder.

What? You’re telling me the Saint Clan—who kill without blinking—would buy toys for an egg?

You might as well say the universe is going to explode tomorrow. That would sound more believable.

Without exception, almost no one could believe the Saint Clan would do something like this.

Until...

They saw what the egg looked like with their own eyes.

“!!!”

Excuse me—what kind of little angel is this?!