The identity of the person Augustus would call ‘Your Majesty’ was obvious. Only one person deserved this title in the entire Empire, its sole surviving Grantz– Norton Grantz.
Ye Muo’s eyes widened. As Augustus was still pressing his neck down, he could only peer up quietly without moving a muscle. His perspective was limited. He could only see the feet and calves of the person in front of him. The man stood quite upright in the center, a black cloak lined in dark red hanging down from his back. He radiated sheer oppression.
Slightly behind him was another man with a cane. This should be Mr. Kevin. At the very back on the other side was another person wearing military-issue boots with a sword at his waist. It should be one of the imperial guards.
At this time, footsteps sounded in the corridor again. A waiter had arrived after Augustus. He couldn’t keep up with Augustus’ pace. He scrambled to bow.
“I’m terribly sorry! I failed to do my duty.”
No one answered.
The waiter hesitated for a moment. He seemed to want to come over but gave up in the end. Bowing once more, he retreated to the corner at the end of the corridor.
For a moment, a terrible silence befell the narrow corridor. Augustus exerted some force and pressed Ye Muo’s head down a bit further.
Ye Muo obediently lowered his head.
A few seconds later, Norton Grantz finally shifted. The two behind him immediately followed. Mr. Kevin looked straight ahead, as if Augustus was not his son. The trio brushed past the two boys.
The cloak lightly whipped past Ye Muo’s cheek. He could barely feel it.
Then Norton Grantz grasped the hilt of a thin sword on the statue next to him. The sword was slowly drawn as he continued walking forward, the sharp scrape of the blade sliding from its scabbard filling the air.
Ye Muo did not know what was going on. He subconsciously turned to look while Augustus kept his head lowered.
The waiter at the end of the corridor also had his head bowed. His entire body seemed tense like a drawn bow. His right hand twitched a fraction.
Norton Grantz’s footsteps remained unhurried but steady. He pointed the sword at a diagonal to the floor. A third of the way down the corridor, he flicked his wrist and the sword.
Psychic power silently affixed to the sword. With this swing…
A blade made of pure psychic power instantly cut through the entire corridor, silently carving a deep mark on the wall at the other end. The waiter didn’t even have time to react before his corpse fell to the floor with a dull thud. Fresh blood sprayed onto the carpet as the hilt of the dagger concealed in his sleeve was vaguely revealed.
There was another statue of a mounted knight brandishing a sword in the corridor. As Norton Grantz passed it, he casually slid the sword he was carrying into the empty scabbard at the statue’s waist.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Everything happened so fast. No one stopped walking. And aside from that dull thud, almost no sound was made.
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Many memories intermittently stirred in Ye Muo’s mind. His tiny, childlike hands caked in blood. The galactic pirate collapsed before him.
Norton Grantz’s pace did not slow in the slightest. He soon arrived at the end of the corridor. He stepped over the corpse without sparing it a single glance.
His side profile seemed to overlap with the images Ye Muo had seen on the galactic network.
When Norton Grantz was about to step around the corner, his gaze inexplicably met Ye Muo, who was still in the middle of the corridor.
Even this faint glance from Norton Grantz conveyed a terrifying amount of killing intent, forcing people to avert their gaze.
Ye Muo’s complexion was still ashen. He wanted to look away, to lower his head, to run away…but he was frozen in place. Fortunately, the emperor soon retracted his gaze and disappeared around the corner.
Ye Muo has studied imperial history and seen images of His Majesty, but it was only now that those ice cold texts seemed to come to life and overlap with the man before his eyes.
The Norton Grantz who only existed in textbooks and images. The one who slaughtered his siblings and stabbed his father to death on the throne. The very same who doubled the already vast territory of the Empire.
The living legend whom the other countries criticized. The Last Grantz sitting on that glorious throne forever stained with fresh blood.
As soon as the trio left, two soldiers in uniform came over and began clearing the mess of a corridor with practised movements.
It was only now that Augustus noticed something wrong with Ye Muo. He stood up and pulled Ye Muo to his feet as well. By then, all that was left in the corridor was the bloodstains on the carpet.
Augustus stood beside Ye Muo. They stared at the blood not far away, thinking very different things.
“As expected of His Majesty. He could actually use that statue’s sword as a medium of attack even though it’s not made of a material conductive to psychic power.”
Augustus continued, “I was wondering why I’ve never seen–” that waiter before.
Ye Muo suddenly bent over, holding the nearby windowsill as he began dry heaving.
Augustus immediately stopped talking and stroked his back.
“Haven’t you first years gone on your experiential learning opportunity yet? I thought you would have seen something like this already. Fine, fine. I’ll stop talking about it.”
Watching as Ye Muo started retching harder, Augustus stroked his back while awkwardly changing the subject.
“…I saw you staring at that portrait before. A Clinton once asked for it as a reward from the Grantz after accomplishing a great achievement. It’s been here for a long time. The Grantz don’t like their likeness to be displayed outside of their own palace. There are probably only a handful of artwork depicting them outside of there. It’s priceless.”
“Father wouldn’t even let me come near it when I was little.”
Augustus was still saying something, but Ye Muo couldn’t hear anymore. He kept rubbing his wrists to make sure they were clean, as if he was that child Ye Zhiyuan just took in again.
Perhaps his very first memory in this world was too tragic. He wasn’t truly a toddler too young to understand what was going on, after all. Back then, Ye Muo would often have vivid hallucinations that brought him back to that sealed living room with a man’s corpse on the couch. He had just crawled out from under a woman’s corpse, his body covered in congealing blood.
Once in this state, Ye Muo would check whether he was clean again and again. Was there fresh blood on his clothes? Even if logic told him there wasn’t, that it was all an illusion, he couldn’t control his overwhelming fear.
Ye Yun once played a prank on Ye Muo by smearing ketchup on him. For the first time, the child who always accepted Ye Yun’s mischief good-naturedly slapped the ketchup bottle hard from his hand before darting back to his room to hide. Even Ye Yun was scared stiff and settled down for a very long time.
That night, Ye Muo washed himself again and again with water.
……
Norton Grantz ordered as soon as he stepped out of the hallway.
“Clean it up.”
The people behind him received and split off to carry out his order. One group went back to clear the hallway, the other drew their weapons and set off on a different kind of cleanup.
Kevin Clinton was behind Norton Grantz.
“There’s no need to go through the trouble, Your Majesty. It’s good in a way for children to gain more experience. That rambunctious rascal needed to be taught a lesson long ago.”
Mr. Kevin held a cane in hand. Although his leg was not as mobile as it used to be, he looked to be in good spirits. Yet in truth, his stomach sank ever since he saw Ye Muo. The Clintons have always been loyal to the Grantz. He himself has never hidden anything from the Grantz before either.
This was why he flatly cut Ye Zhiyuan off when the man wanted to explain Ye Muo’s origins.
At least he would feel better facing His Majesty if he didn’t know such things. Still, he could more or less infer that Ye Muo was most likely the descendant of one of the Ye family members who had rebelled. The descendants of rebels were prohibited from serving the Empire by entering the military or the cabinet. Ye Zhiyuan probably went to such great pains to raise the child under his name for the sake of the child’s future.
Norton Grantz didn’t deny it. “The blond one is your youngest child, yes?”
Kevin Clinton replied, trying his best to overcome the guilt welling up inside over deceiving His Majesty and not reveal a thing.
“Yes. His name is Augustus Clinton. A bear child now after being spoiled rotten by me. The other is Ye Zhiyuan’s youngest son, an obedient but sickly child that was sent to my side for treatment. Different from the other two that I’ve met, but he seems to get along well with Augustus.
Ye Zhiyuan’s two older children are excelling at the academy and are the presidents of their respective years. His eldest should be graduating this year. It seems that he will follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the military.
This batch of students has mettle. The Second Military Academy even has a Level S graduating. They truly are the future pillars of the Empire. Perhaps it’s time for fresh blood to enter Your Majesty’s imperial guard as well. Many youngsters stationed there have reached the end of their term this year and were sent back to the legions.”
“I’ll consider it.”
Grantz’s imperial guard wasn’t just for show. Power in the Empire was highly centralized, with Norton Grantz as the supreme commander of the military.
The imperial guard was a special legion that only the most talented in the Empire could enter. They had to undergo rigorous training and answered directly to Norton Grantz.
The imperial guard followed Norton Grantz both inside and outside of imperial territory. Aside from a few personal guards responsible for ensuring the personal safety of the Grantz, all other members would return to the legions after serving a certain term. With their outstanding ability and valiant conduct, these soldiers usually rose quickly in the ranks.
During the course of their conversation, Norton Grantz had descended to the main floor of the Clinton manor. As he arrived at the entrance, someone had already opened the car door for him.
Norton Grantz glanced back at the second floor of the main Clinton manor. The curtains were half still drawn. The banquet downstairs was still ongoing. Aside from Ye Muo and Augustus who had stumbled in, no one knew of the purge that had just taken place inside and outside the manor.
“I’ve made a mess of your residence.”
Kevin Clinton shook his head.
“It is a great honour for any Clinton to witness your swordsmanship, Your Majesty.”
Many forces in the Exile Sectors had been purged as the Empire followed the leads on the king insect found on that abandoned planet, sending many little rats scurrying out into the open. The number of assassination attempts on the Grantz has seen a sudden spike.
Kevin Clinton had a cold look in his eyes. Did those rats not think about why they were able to enter the Empire so smoothly and carry out their scheme?
Author’s Corner
Clocking in, lying down…
so heckin neat, thank you!!
Poor Ye Muo. I can imagine Norton never killing anyone in front of Ye Muo again once he discovers that Ye Muo has a phobia against blood. I bet Daddy Grantz would clean himself of blood everytime, as he worries about his cub’s mental state! Please, I’m desperate for the pampering arc alreadyy! ≧∇≦
Hopefully Daddy Grantz has the nurture ability as well…
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🗡️👀
If we go by what the summary teaser says, Ye Muo will probably feel terrified to be identified by Big papa 🥲
Poor little traumatized cub 🥲🥲🥲
Thanks for the chapter! That’s one strong first meeting!
I have a strong feeling that I know who the Prince’s personal guard will be
These Clinton’s are loyal to the core . It’s rather frightening to watch.
They’ll worship whatever royal family do huh?