Chapter 42: Crying Quietly

The cub’s voice was soft and fluffy. Because he was still little and hadn’t reached the age when voices changed, that soft little sound was incredibly childish, with a faint milky-sweet tail end to it.

But no matter how cute it was, it couldn’t cover up one fact—

The sound the cub made was exactly the same as the Gumu’s “guji guji.”

Did Saint Clan cubs call out like that in their childhood?

For a split second, Mansendis seemed to fall into a deep kind of doubt.

He lowered his head and met the cub’s watery, innocent eyes.

“......”

After a brief silence, the silver-haired sovereign decided to try again.

Since the last tone might’ve been too serious, this time Mansendis even slowed his voice.

“It’s okay. Take it slow.”

The bone spines cheered the cub on from the side too.

Seeing that, Wen Yuzhi deliberately worked up to it for a long while. He pressed his lips together, then opened his mouth again—

“...Gu— guji guji QAQ?”

Wen Yuzhi didn’t even know why it was like this.

He was clearly trying to say Father, but the words came out of his mouth and automatically turned into this.

“Guji...”

The cub’s voice suddenly fell low with disappointment.

Mansendis had a headache about it too.

For a moment, he didn’t know whether the more serious problem was that the child couldn’t speak, or that this was a Saint Clan cub and yet the call that came out sounded exactly like a Gumu.

And when Wen Yuzhi saw the silver-haired sovereign’s expression growing heavier and heavier, the cub’s heart also started to feel at a loss.

The bone spines poked at Mansendis.

C-cub...!

What they were trying to convey was frantic and urgent. They couldn’t even form a complete sentence.

They were only urging him on.

And in that instant, Mansendis seemed to realize something. He quickly looked back at Wen Yuzhi.

The cub was still sitting obediently on the seashell bed, but the head that had been lifted just now had already lowered, buried down, leaving only a small silver head facing him.

If emotions could be shown as a little stage play, then at this moment a cloud symbolizing “shutting down” was probably already drifting above the cub’s head.

The bone spines hurriedly shoved Mansendis again.

The meaning was obvious.

Your cub. You need to go soothe him, right now.

Mansendis furrowed his brows, but still carefully lifted the cub—who was about the size of a doll—into his hands.

Drip.

And the next moment, a drop of wet liquid fell into Mansendis’s palm.

That dampness made the silver-haired sovereign freeze.

Only after a moment did he belatedly react.

This was the cub’s tears.

His child... was crying?

Wen Yuzhi didn’t even realize he was crying.

He only felt a bit sad.

When he saw the silver-haired sovereign staring at him in silence, a wave of panic and unease instantly surged up.

And as the silence on scene dragged on longer and longer, the helplessness Wen Yuzhi had at first gradually got replaced by that unease.

It was as if, deep in his subconscious, he was afraid of seeing disappointment in Mansendis’s eyes.

He knew this kind of unexplainable emotion wasn’t quite right.

But he couldn’t control it.

The more he thought, the sadder he got.

And with a child’s body, the tear glands were naturally especially active. Before Wen Yuzhi could even react, his eyes had already turned hazy with mist.

He blinked lightly, and tears fell like pearls ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) on a snapped string.

Tap tap.

Those slightly warm tear drops hit Mansendis’s hand. The temperature wasn’t high at all, and yet it made the silver-haired sovereign feel like it had burned straight into his chest.

His body went stiff for a split second.

At that moment, his body reacted faster than his mind.

Mansendis’s mind was still blank, but his mouth had already moved on instinct, soothing softly: “Don’t cry...”

But that sentence not only failed to calm the cub down—it seemed to backfire.

Wen Yuzhi hadn’t even meant to cry.

But hearing Mansendis say that, all those sad feelings seemed to instantly find an outlet, and spill out.

His nose stung, and the tears fell even harder.

While crying, Wen Yuzhi also couldn’t help feeling guilty for dirtying Mansendis’s hand with his loss of composure.

“Guji...”

Sorry... I made your hand dirty.

Mansendis couldn’t understand what the cub was saying, but he could see the cub was crying even more heartbreakingly than before.

Unlike a lot of children who cried by making a huge fuss—

Wen Yuzhi cried very quietly.

Those pale-gold eyes were wide open, covered in a watery mist. He didn’t scream or thrash, only blinked with grievance and unease, timid in his gaze, with only the occasional tiny hiccup of a sob.

Mansendis couldn’t describe what he was feeling.

Heartache, helplessness, panic... maybe all of it.

And even back then, the one who’d cried in front of him had also been royal blood.

The same silver hair. The same golden eyes.

Only that had been crying from fear.

That royal blood had known he was going to die, so they’d gone hysterical, trying to beg Mansendis to spare them by acting weak.

Mansendis had looked at the tears on that face and felt nothing. He had taken their life without hesitation.

And yet it was the same act of crying.

When the one crying became a cub—Mansendis’s cub—he felt heartache. He felt anger. He even felt self-blame.

.

So facing the cub’s tears falling tap tap, for the first time, a powerless feeling rose in the silver-haired sovereign’s heart—like things had slipped out of his control.

He didn’t know how to soothe a cub. And since he’d only said one sentence and made Wen Yuzhi cry even harder, Mansendis didn’t dare move rashly now.

He could only, a little panicked and a little clumsy, hold the cub up against his chest, then—copying what he’d done before when he lulled Wen Yuzhi to sleep—use his other hand to gently pat the cub’s back.

This was the only way Mansendis could think of to comfort him.

A familiar scent. A familiar embrace.

The moment he was held in the silver-haired sovereign’s arms, Wen Yuzhi’s hiccupping stopped. In that environment full of safety, his tense emotions seemed to slowly ease.

He hesitated, then still carefully, little by little, tugged at Mansendis’s collar.

Wen Yuzhi’s strength was very light.

To Mansendis, that much force was almost nothing.

But he didn’t dare move at all, afraid he might startle the cub in his arms.

Only that hand kept lightly patting Wen Yuzhi’s back.

Again and again.

In that rhythmic soothing, Wen Yuzhi gradually stopped crying.

When Mond received the news that the little Highness had hatched and rushed over, what Mond saw was the little Highness nestled against the King, worn out from crying and already asleep.

Mond was just about to step forward and lift the little Highness out of the silver-haired sovereign’s arms—

But Mansendis didn’t let Mond touch the cub in his arms.

He shook his head.

Only then did Mond notice that even asleep, Wen Yuzhi’s hand was still gripping Mansendis’s collar tightly and refusing to let go.

If Mond tried to take him away rashly, it would be easy to startle the sleeping cub awake again.

Still, holding him like this forever wasn’t a solution.

The little Highness had already hatched, so continuing to stay in the King’s Pool wasn’t very appropriate.

After all, no matter how you arranged things here, it still couldn’t be as comfortable as the palace.

Mansendis was willing to stay here because he was tired of dealing with the outside world—especially those royals who were arrogant and conceited one after another.

Compared to going out and fighting those boring struggles again and again, he preferred staying in his nest and not leaving.

But clearly, Mond didn’t think the King’s Pool environment was suitable for a cub.

Especially when the little Highness’s body still wasn’t as strong as other royal blood.

Mansendis had lived here through his entire childhood, but when it came to Wen Yuzhi, he rare as it was, held the same view as Mond: this place wasn’t suitable for a cub to live long-term.

What’s more, with his current duties, he couldn’t stay here all the time like he used to.

When there were tricky tasks, he always had to go out to handle them. But Mansendis also didn’t want to leave the cub alone in the cavern. Even with the bone spines nearby, he couldn’t relax.

And inside the palace there was Mond, there was Merita, and there were plenty of attendants. No matter what, it was far better than this cavern.

So Mansendis didn’t refuse Mond’s intent.

He glanced at the cub sleeping against him and lowered his voice.

“In two more days, once his condition is a bit more stable, I’ll bring him back.”

Mond nodded, and still couldn’t help stealing look after look toward the little Highness.

Compared to the other royal blood Mond had seen before, the little Highness’s appearance was what truly matched Mond’s image of a cub.

Soft, small, nothing but childishness.

Not like hatched royal blood who immediately started fighting, each with an extremely strange temper, faces full of arrogance, using bloodline suppression and treating them like servants...

Thinking of past events, a trace of darkness flickered through Mond’s eyes so faint you could barely catch it.

But that emotion was quickly pressed back down.

When Mond raised the head again, the expression was already calm as usual.

Mond lowered the voice too.

“Then this subordinate will return first and make preparations.”

With the little Highness’s current size, the room layout needed to be redone, and they needed to find smaller furniture.

Just right—among the toys bought from the Pachi this time, there were plenty of suitable ones.

Once Mond went back and sorted them, Mond would pick some to put in the little Highness’s room.

Mansendis seemed to think of something and ordered, “Bring some crystals back with you.”

Mond didn’t react at first.

Then Mansendis said lightly, “If I didn’t sense wrong, he should have inherited my mental energy talent.”

Whether intentionally or not, the silver-haired sovereign emphasized the word inherited.

Mond understood what Mansendis meant.

But Mond’s attention was clearly more on that phrase mental energy talent.

Mansendis’s talent was something the entire Saint Clan had witnessed firsthand. They followed the strong, and Mansendis was the strongest Saint Clan member they had ever seen.

There was no second.

Mond knew it even more clearly than that.

If you flipped through the whole history of the Saint Clan, you probably still wouldn’t find anyone stronger than Mansendis.

As royal blood directly born from the Prosperous Mother Goddess’s granted blood, once Mansendis and Tasiya passed childhood and began to show their edge, many Saint Clan had once expected that if they had offspring, would that talent be inherited?

Unfortunately, neither Mansendis nor Tasiya had any intention of leaving descendants.

But who would’ve thought the world could be so strange—through a twist of fate, Mansendis still ended up with a bloodline of his own, and the little Highness, just as they once imagined, perfectly inherited the talent of blood kin.

“The Mother Goddess’s glory still favors us,” Mond couldn’t help murmuring.

But amid the joy, Mond also thought of how much danger a talent like that, combined with healing, would draw.

“Your consideration is very thorough.”

Given the little Highness’s situation, sealing the entire Ninth Star Sector and isolating it from the outside world truly was the best choice.

Mond also brought up the matter of StarNet stirring up a storm, demanding the Saint Clan hand the cub over.

“It was the Pachi who leaked the photo. They said they’ve already removed and punished the supervisor who took it, and they personally brought compensation and are prepared to visit our door to apologize.”

It was just that this group of Pachi had very bad luck.

They had arrived right as the Saint Clan sealed off the Ninth Star Sector, and their starship was stopped as well.

And Alvin was busy and had no time to deal with them.

In the end, left with no choice, these Pachi relied on an entire ship’s worth of toys meant as apology gifts, and only then managed to persuade the patrolling Saint Clan.

That was the one stroke of luck in their misfortune.

The Saint Clan side happened to feel the little Highness needed toys, and the Pachi’s apology gifts landed right in the Saint Clan’s heart.

That was what gave them a chance, after twists and turns, to finally contact Mond.

Mond came this time to tell Mansendis about this.

Hearing that the cub egg’s photo was circulating everywhere on StarNet, the silver-haired sovereign’s expression cooled.

“Delete all the photos.”

Mond nodded lightly. “This subordinate is already arranging it. It’s just the Alliance’s cub protection agency...”

“Don’t bother with them.”

Mansendis didn’t care about any Alliance.

Back when he led the Saint Clan’s expansion, he had received no shortage of warnings from those so-called organizations.

Mansendis couldn’t even be bothered to respond.

Mond wasn’t surprised by that answer.

“Then should we accept the compensation the Pachi brought, on the little Highness’s behalf?”

It wasn’t for nothing that these Pachi could do business across the entire galaxy.

Their apology visit also had their own careful intent.

They came in sincerely admitting their mistake, then immediately said the compensation they brought was meant for the cub egg in the photo.

It was precisely that sentence that made Mond willing to mention this matter to Mansendis.

Otherwise, Mond estimated Mond would’ve already told these Pachi to take their apology gifts and leave.

“What did they bring?” Mansendis asked.

“Toys.”

Toys...

Mansendis’s gaze flicked to the seashell bed beside him.

He considered it, then told Mond, “Have them wait.”

Since it was a gift for the cub, it should be Wen Yuzhi who decided after waking.

So the Pachi, who had been waiting miserably outside the Ninth Star Sector, received the Saint Clan’s reply.

Pachi A asked Pachi B: “What did the Saint Clan say?”

Pachi B said in a daze, “They said... they have to ask the one we’re apologizing to before they can reply, so we should wait.”

The one they were apologizing to...?

Wasn’t that an egg?

Whether it was a cub egg or a pet egg, it was still an egg.

And they had to ask an egg’s opinion first...

Were they crazy, or was the Saint Clan crazy?

At the same time.

StarNet saw something magical.

People logged on as usual, ready to keep condemning the Saint Clan for seizing and abusing a cub, and discovered the little angel egg’s photo was gone.

Not just gone on one person’s light-brain—every single photo of that cub egg on StarNet was gone. Even the related trending terms were gone.

All those organizations that had been making noise before also went silent at this moment.

No matter how netizens @-tagged them, they didn’t make a sound.

One by one, they clamped their mouths shut, acting extremely guarded.

Joke’s on you—if they dared make noise again, the Saint Clan’s warship might drop on their heads the very next second.

#StillBeingAliveMattersMore