Chapter 63: I Only Care About Dad

When Mansendis killed those royal-blood members, nothing inside him stirred.

In Mansendis’s eyes, he had only done the right thing.

He granted those rebels death, so their souls—already long since rotten—could return a step sooner to Mother’s embrace.

Only Tasiya was different.

Mansendis had never been able to understand that sister.

Everything Tasiya did felt like pushing the already-wobbling Saint Clan into a deeper abyss.

Even at death’s door, Tasiya was still raving.

Tasiya fell from the throne and, in a hoarse voice, ordered Mansendis to kill her.

“Kill me! Mansendis!”

It was the Bloody Mad Queen’s final command.

Mansendis looked at Tasiya with icy eyes. His face was calm—so calm it was like he was looking at a cold, lifeless object.

And Tasiya really was close to death.

Anyone could see it. The queen who had once been so high above them all was at the end of her strength. The female officials who had followed at her side had already fallen one after another in battle.

And Tasiya herself had suffered extremely severe injuries.

The Saint Clan had powerful recovery ability, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t die.

In fact, because their healing was so strong, after suffering a severe, fatal wound, they still had to endure a long, torturous stretch of pain before they could die.

Tasiya didn’t want to go through that.

So she demanded that Mansendis kill her.

Considering the tiny sliver of blood relationship between them, Mansendis followed her wish, and personally sent this blood kin off at the end.

Even now, thinking back on it, Mansendis didn’t feel the slightest sadness.

He never had any feelings for any of the royal blood.

If anything, compared to sadness, what Mansendis felt was more regret—regret that during that period he hadn’t noticed Tasiya’s many abnormal moves, and so failed to discover Wen Yuzhi’s existence sooner.

Otherwise...

Mansendis’s eyes darkened.

If he’d found out earlier, his child wouldn’t have been left outside for so long.

—

After hearing Mansendis’s answer, Wen Yuzhi only nodded. “I understand.”

Then, under Mansendis’s gaze, the wings behind Wen Yuzhi gave a small tremble. He pressed his lips together, and in a voice that was soft but firm, said, “I only needed to know that Dad isn’t sad.”

Everything else didn’t matter to him.

Back during the Padar incident, Wen Yuzhi had already shown it through actions: compared to those Padar people who looked so pitiful, his heart leaned more toward the Saint Clan.

And now it was the same.

Compared to a royal-blood member he’d never even met, Wen Yuzhi cared more about whether Mansendis would be hurt by this.

Different from what Mond and the others believed, Wen Yuzhi wasn’t as soft and kind as they imagined.

If he were only purely kind, he would’ve died by accident long ago in the Wen family.

In a noble household like that, making a child without parental protection “disappear” was the easiest thing in the world.

Yet Wen Yuzhi had survived in the Wen family just fine—and had even managed to keep most of the property his parents left him.

To do that, his heart could not possibly be the type that overflowed with sympathy.

Call it selfish. Call it bias.

Wen Yuzhi had his own measure of closeness and distance.

In his heart, Mansendis and Mond and the others were the most important.

As for everyone else—he didn’t care at all.

“I only care about Dad.”

The cub hugged Mansendis’s wrist. The wings behind him settled over the back of Mansendis’s hand.

The touch was light.

And soft.

Wen Yuzhi blinked those wide, watery eyes. His cheeks—still carrying a bit of baby fat—puffed slightly as he looked at Mansendis and said he only cared about Dad.

There probably wasn’t a single father in the world who could withstand that kind of killing blow.

Mansendis held out for a moment, but in the end he couldn’t resist. Carefully, he pulled the cub into his arms.

“...Dad?”

Wen Yuzhi tried to move, but the instant he did, he felt Mansendis’s grip tighten.

He couldn’t see Mansendis’s face, but he could feel it—the silver-haired sovereign’s emotions seemed a little out of control right now.

Wen Yuzhi simply stopped struggling.

Nestled in his dad’s arms, he even lifted a hand and patted Mansendis lightly, as if soothing the adult in front of him.

“I don’t know what happened before, but no matter what, you’re my dad.”

He wouldn’t distance himself from Mansendis because of it.

Mansendis heard what the cub meant beneath the words. He rubbed Wen Yuzhi’s hair.

Wen Yuzhi was grateful he hadn’t worn the little crown today. With Mansendis’s force, the crown would’ve been knocked right off.

Trying to coax a guardian wasn’t easy, either.

Fortunately, Mansendis didn’t stay like this for long.

After a while, he finally calmed down.

Other than his voice being a little low and hoarse, the silver-haired sovereign returned to his usual indifferent calm, his expression blank.

Only, in the way he looked at Wen Yuzhi...

—

“Salilaino’s golden bloodline’s blood.”

Wen Yuzhi knew that piece of history.

The Goddess of Prosperity created all things, including the Saint Clan. And when she created the Saint Clan, she bestowed a drop of blood. That blood eventually gave birth to Salilaino’s golden bloodline.

The cub remembered it well. Mansendis rubbed his head and said, “After creation, the Goddess of Prosperity returned to the depths of the starsea and entered slumber. The only remaining branch is on ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) our Saint Clan’s Bounty Island.”

This was the Saint Clan’s greatest secret. Outsiders didn’t know it.

Most people believed the Creation Tree was nothing more than a myth.

Even if someone wanted to search for it, they could never find it.

The Saint Clan set Dark Tower Star as their capital not only because it was their origin land, but also because their Mother—the Goddess of Prosperity’s branch—rested here.

Only, Mother had already entered slumber. The branch left within the Saint Clan looked no different from an ordinary tree.

Until, suddenly, one day it bestowed blood.

Mansendis and Tasiya were born from that blood. That kind of specialness also set them apart from the other royal blood.

By rights, as twin sister and younger brother, their relationship should have been close.

So how did it end with Mansendis killing her with his own hands?

Wen Yuzhi didn’t speak, but the question was almost written on his face.

Faced with the cub’s curious gaze, Mansendis only said calmly, “She went insane.”

Strictly speaking, all royal blood were a pack of cold-blooded madmen. It was just that Tasiya was more insane than anyone.

She almost pushed the entire Saint Clan into a bottomless abyss with no return.

And her wish to die—Mansendis saw it as a kind of escape.

Back then, she was severely wounded and couldn’t live anyway. After indulging in every kind of reckless madness, she chose to leave behind a heap of wreckage, and die with composure.

As for the Mansendis who survived, he had to keep cleaning up that wreckage.

And even now, after cleaning up for this long, he realized everything from before was nothing. Wen Yuzhi’s existence was the biggest thing Tasiya had secretly done in the dark.

“I originally didn’t want to tell you this so early, but...”

Mansendis looked at Wen Yuzhi. The cub’s eyes were clear and clean, and the words Mansendis wanted to say suddenly became a little hard to speak.

The investigation was still ongoing. A lot of things still weren’t clear.

But one thing could be confirmed: Wen Yuzhi’s birth was very likely a planned act with purpose.

No one knew why Tasiya used Mansendis’s blood to make this child, but her goal definitely wasn’t as simple as wanting the Saint Clan to have one more royal-blood member.

More likely, she meant to use the child for something.

And no matter what it was, it was full of naked calculation. For a cub who’d been left outside for so many years, it was no less than a cruel blow.

Mansendis was torn inside.

But Wen Yuzhi seemed to see the silver-haired sovereign’s hesitation. He tilted his head and spoke up on his own. “Then Dad can tell me when you feel like telling me.”

Even if Mansendis didn’t say it, Wen Yuzhi had already vaguely guessed something the moment he saw this nursery and that note.

But he wasn’t very concerned.

He didn’t regret meeting Dad and Mom. Even after everything bad he’d gone through in the Wen family, Wen Yuzhi still didn’t regret being Wen Che and Madam Jilanya’s child.

On the contrary—he was grateful he could meet such good parents.

He’d been curious about why he’d ended up left outside, but that curiosity was only curiosity. He wouldn’t get tangled up in it.

Wen Yuzhi believed every experience might be fate’s best arrangement.

So when he sensed Mansendis’s hesitation, Wen Yuzhi chose to make an agreement with the silver-haired sovereign.

Whenever Mansendis wanted to speak, then he could tell him. That would be fine.

All of a sudden, Mansendis understood why Mond was always worried in front of him that the cub was too sensible.

Mansendis finally felt it now.

The cub was almost too well-behaved, too sensible.

“In the future, you can be a little more willful.”

It was the first time Mansendis had ever offered Wen Yuzhi an opinion.

“I’m your father. In front of me, you can be willful.”

Wen Yuzhi blinked.

Wen Che and Madam Jilanya had said similar things before, too.

“In front of us, Zhizhi can be a little willful, okay~?”

Only later, he’d lost the right to be willful. Slowly, he became the sensible, well-behaved child in other people’s eyes.

But clearly, Mansendis wanted the cub to become more willful.

He lowered his head and looked at the cub in his palm, and as if making a promise, said, “You are my child. You don’t need to be afraid or fearful. You can be willful. You can make any request. Do what you want to do—and I, and the Saint Clan, will be your support.”

As he said it, the silver-haired sovereign’s brows and eyes were like sealed ice and snow melting away. The usual coldness faded, and in the sunset light, his expression looked inexplicably gentle.

Wen Yuzhi stared at Mansendis without speaking.

In the next moment—

He felt a soft touch fall on his head, followed by the silver-haired sovereign’s cold, crisp voice.

“Starting today, Zhizhi can make one request of Dad every day. Including today.”

Including today...

Wen Yuzhi thought for a moment, then voiced a wish he’d been burying for a long time.

“Then can I sleep with Dad tonight?”