After Egbert’s return, Su Li’s days beca increasingly difficult.
Specifically, besides accompanying each other during normal school hours, Egbert would also hide in trees and observe him during his classes.
At night, he would sleep directly in front of Su Li’s door.
During als, if he didn’t manage to secure a position on either side of Su Li, everyone would subsequently receive his indiscriminate resentful glances.
Cyril, seeing Lan Zhe had finally found an excuse to push Egbert into washing dishes in the kitchen, twitched his mouth and whispered, “Is this really okay?”
“I’d like to treat his brain,” Su Li was aware his words were becoming increasingly less polite, “but treatnt by non-professionals would only deepen his condition.”
Roy sighed softly beside him.
“This can’t continue,” Roy felt it necessary to collaborate with others in the house to discuss with Egbert what he should do next, his plans, future arrangents, and so on.
In short, to drive him away and absolutely prevent him from getting close to Su Li…
Su Li heard this and couldn’t help but show an expectant gaze.
Being continuously observed by Egbert 24 hours a day, Su Li would never feel the kind of happiness a celebrity might experience under spotlight or fan adoration.
Su Li would only continuously imagine the possibility of knocking him unconscious with a single strike…
But he couldn’t be that brutal, at least he shouldn’t be.
In the second before thinking this, in the next second Su Li imdiately regretted it.
The sound of nurous plates and dishes falling and shattering ca from the kitchen.
After a trendous commotion in the kitchen, Su Li heard Lan Zhe shouting inside. “Look at what you’ve been doing these days, you’ve seriously disrupted Su Li’s daily life.”
“Don’t you understand how important daily routine is for this child?”
When the words reached this point, there was another noisy exchange inside, but it was too chaotic for Su Li to hear clearly. He only knew they exchanged a few more words, and then Egbert spoke.
“It’s precisely because I understand that I’m doing this.”
After a while, the sound that had startled Su Li enough to slide off the sofa completely disappeared.
—Presumably, they were cleaning up the broken kitchenware.
Although this was said, Su Li noticed that Roy, who had been sowhat dejected, suddenly perked up his ears.
Seeing this scene, Su Li knew that people from another world were again using those elental powers he completely couldn’t understand, doing so blatant “little maneuvers” that everyone except him could comprehend.
But Su Li didn’t mind.
At the end of the day, each person in the house had a very distinct personality. Though their identities might differ, as long as they could gather in this small building, Su Li could accept them. This alone proved they weren’t utterly wicked.
Therefore, excluding Su Li, if they created a separate chat group or sothing, Su Li genuinely wasn’t jealous at all…
To prove he wasn’t being excluded but was actually excluding them, Su Li promptly pulled out so noble historical records he’d borrowed from the Asa Academy library in the past two days and lowered his head to read.
Thus, Su Li completely couldn’t and wouldn’t know what those who’d created a separate chat group were discussing.
[Egbert: Lord Su Li is destined to be at the center of the storm. So-called daily life is rely a yearning for ending everything by those predestined to be in constant turmoil.]
[Therefore, my reason for close protection isn’t due to any personal agenda. I simply want to protect the daily life Lord Su Li desires.]
[Lan Zhe: I actually fell for your nonsense, you’re just using your own perversion and dragging Su Li into it.]
[Egbert: How do you explain Lord Su Li’s own words: “Physical pain has an upper limit, but spiritual pain is limitless.”]
[Daily life is nothing more than a pain-relieving agent to alleviate past and future inevitable suffering. It’s precisely because the present is beautiful enough that one can remain steadfast when knowingly stepping into the abyss.]
[Have you seen the slums? Those children subjected to human experints suffer a hundred, a thousand tis more than I did when being pursued by the Church. I don’t want to contemplate how painful Lord Su Li’s past might have been, because once I uncover those responsible, I will make them repay a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Ultimately, I’m truly concerned with whether this pain-relieving agent is temporary or will one day develop into a recovery potion.]
[With Lan Zhe’s talent in potions, you’ll understand the aning of my words better than anyone, won’t you?]
[Lan Zhe: Tch...]
[Roy: You’re convinced that quickly? You’re going down too easily.]
[Lan Zhe: But I can’t find a way to refute Egbert.]
Roy’s expression looking at the kitchen door twisted montarily.
The voices mixed with elents were transmitted at a frequency inaudible to human ears, only returning to normal volu when encountering receiving elents, falling into their hearing.
[Roy: Then how would you explain that line from “No One Understands Lord Su Li Better Than ”: “Don’t always attach too much significance to things. Sotis, aningless things are aningful in themselves.”]
[Roy: Admit it, you’re just a pervert.]
[I don’t have Lan Zhe’s ability to treat the root cause, but if you’re monitoring him 24/7 under the guise of protecting the little master’s daily life, I’ll beat you to the point where you can’t get out of bed, to prevent affecting the little master’s psychological health.]
[Egbert: Tch.]
The forr Son of Light’s exclamation revealed his true inner thoughts.
Never did they imagine that the seemingly straightforward person who would have fallen into the pit without a chance of climbing out would be the one revealing the truth…
As a result, after Lan Zhe confird the barrier would prevent noise from disturbing Su Li, the second round of the Holy Sons’ conflict officially began in the kitchen.
But all of this, Su Li knew nothing about.
****
The next day at school, finally free from Egbert’s close protection, Su Li felt satisfied.
But Cyril looked at Su Li and let out a fatal lant.
“It’s fine, but really unnecessary.”
“I don’t think I, just a dragon-blooded child who’s weak even if awakened, need guidance from two Holy Sons and a three-star rcenary.”
He truly couldn’t handle it.
Su Li saw absolute despair on Cyril’s face.
While trying to offer so comfort, Cyril managed to console himself.
“But if it’s to help you get stronger, then so be it. After all, during academy hours, we’re mostly together.”
Su Li gave serious acknowledgnt to his self-consolation abilities and decisively praised. “As expected of you.”
Cyril twisted his mouth. “Feels a bit like mockery.”
“That’s your misunderstanding.”
After morning classes ended, Qi, who had been observing for a long ti, noticed the excessively hot gaze that usually appeared daily had disappeared. He cautiously lowered his voice and asked, “Is that person… gone?”
“He didn’t co today,” Su Li said as calmly as possible.
Just thinking about being monitored around the clock recently made Su Li suspect whether his heart was abnormally large or suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy.
The next second, Su Li saw Qi visibly exhale in relief.
Su Li was sowhat speechless. “It’s not that exaggerated, right?”
“Oh, but it is,” Qi waved his hand. “Just feeling that gaze made my hair stand on end. Not only could I not concentrate during elental cultivation lessons, but during yesterday’s lottery when I beca your practice combat partner, I genuinely felt I might be silenced at any mont.”
Unknowingly, Egbert had cultivated an aura of controlled intensity.
The only one insensitive to this strange Egbert energy was Su Li.
Seeing Su Li looking sowhat weary, Qi awkwardly added, “Sorry, I might have exaggerated.”
Su Li: “……”
“Let’s drop this topic.”
“Let’s change the subject to sothing everyone can accept.”
If they continued, Su Li would suspect his hair wasn’t platinum blonde, but pure white.
The kind of elderly ntality that could tolerate anything at a glance.
This absolutely wouldn’t do!
But speaking of changing topics, Qi did ntion sothing.
“You know, before being affected by talent, I was the legitimate heir to the Amikbi royal family,” Qi recalled, realizing there was no one else he could share this with besides Su Li.
“But since being exiled to Sadina City, I’ve actually stopped paying attention to royal family matters for a long ti.”
“But reality is just this strange. So things won’t disappear just because you stop paying attention. They’ll only hit you with a new round of impact when you believe you’ve already let go.”
This situation related to his identity could be complicated or simplified to one sentence.
Amikbi had recently announced a replacent for Qi as the chosen heir.
When this news arrived, Qi was only ntally dazed for a mont, without any particularly strong feelings.
But accompanying this ssage was another: “The King Amikbi demands that the new heir prove their abilities by killing the forr heir, and will be sent to Sadina City.”
“The person delivering this ssage was one of my mother’s subordinates,” Qi’s mouth twitched, forming a bitter smile.
“I don’t understand why she would tell this.”
If it were concern, Qi had lived here for so many years without seeing any practical manifestation of care.
If it were indifference, why tell him this ssage at all?
The person replacing Qi’s identity was adopted under the queen’s na, which is to say, under Qi’s mother’s na.
As long as that child would inherit the king’s position in the future, she would beco an unalterable queen dowager.
Telling Qi about his potential sacrificial fate would only make him try to escape and avoid being killed.
Moreover, if Qi survived, it would only create instability in the officially announced heir’s status.
These matters were too complex for Qi to understand. He simply laughed at Su Li as usual. “I truly don’t understand.”
Su Li didn’t know how to respond to Qi.
Initially, he just wanted Qi to change to a topic that wouldn’t hurt him, but if Qi was now talking about sothing that would hurt himself, Su Li wouldn’t know how to continue the conversation.
So Su Li asked, “What do you want to know from ?”
Only when Qi clearly stated his request could Su Li provide an answer that, while perhaps not precisely what he wanted, might still have so reference value.
Qi took a deep breath and walked to Su Li’s side, placing his hands on Su Li’s shoulders with unwavering determination. “I want to know what my mother is truly thinking – good or bad, I want to know all possibilities. Only then can I decide how to proceed with my path.”
The wind on the rooftop was strong.
Unlike modern society, no one in this otherworld academy would think that a group of teenagers resembling large gorillas standing on the rooftop would risk falling.
Su Li felt the wind blowing his hair into disarray, sighed softly, and said, “I must preface that what I say might not be correct.”
“I’m only offering my personal, private perspective that may not hold objective truth.”
Coming from an information explosion era, Su Li had seen and experienced so much that even before being accurately expressed in words, he couldn’t himself describe how many possibilities existed in his brain.
“Perhaps there’s a possibility that your father was testing your mother…”
If Qi’s father was testing which child his mother would choose, then her telling Qi this news could be interpreted as establishing a harmless persona before the king.
A woman’s indecisiveness, her emotional attachnt to kinship, would naturally make Qi’s father think: look, even if she’s dissatisfied with his choices, she can only accept reality and make so aningless, inevitably failed small moves.
Su Li said, “I even look forward to the developnt that might follow this possibility, where a woman who positions herself as harmless and pure ultimately chooses to initiate a revolution of her own, ascending to the throne as a queen…”
The ga designer’s imagination for rich narrative monts subtly erged.
“And my reason for believing this possibility stems from what you previously ntioned – that your mother and father’s marriage was a political alliance, and your mother was originally a Holy Maiden of Light.”
Qi nodded.
“Let’s begin the next speculation.”
“From an extre self-interested perspective, the possibility exists that your mother is using this information to blackmail the heir.”
“After all, you were replaced at a very young age.”
“As a mother, having her only child killed by an adopted son, she should receive compensation. In the future, as the Queen Dowager, your mother might beco an absolutely authoritative figure in certain circles.”
The Church of Light that could produce soone like Egbert is strange indeed.
Su Li would bet that even Qi’s parents’ marriage was, to so extent, a manifestation of religious power’s attempt to control human rights.
Although this era’s national situation was particularly complex, with self-governing areas like Sadina City existing, this wasn’t a reason to underestimate a country.
By the sa logic, a self-interested person, whether extre or not, was destined to abandon Qi’s value the mont he was exiled to Sadina City, aning he could no longer participate in the heir’s vortex.
Being abandoned in terms of value doesn’t necessarily an emotional abandonnt.
“Ignoring all utilitarian possibilities, the greatest likelihood is simply that your mother hopes you will survive.”
Su Li actually knew what Qi wanted to hear.
Adults are skilled at saying comforting words, and Su Li was no exception.
But Su Li was also clear that this was a world dangerous enough to have subjective murderous intent, with many willing to act on it.
If Su Li had changed the order of the three speculations, placing the last one first, Qi would likely harbor a slight sense of hope.
But by placing it last, it ant finding the best outco within the worst conclusion.
Talking to children is truly exhausting…
Su Li thought wearily.
And Qi indeed responded exactly as Su Li had imagined.
“I understand,” Su Li saw him say.
“Talking with Su Li is different,” Qi’s mood was well-settled. “If it were soone else, they would only comfort , saying it’s not as bad as I imagine.”
“I probably know that things have already reached a point where I must choose between life and death, I’m just unwilling to face it.”
“But you’re different. You seem able to always peek beneath the surface of things, to their deeper roots…” Qi laughed again.
This wasn’t a fake social smile maintaining situational stability, but a sincere laugh of gratitude for knowing Su Li.
“You’re truly gentle,” Qi said.
“Like a big tree protecting a sapling from the winds that might overturn its destiny.” When saying this, Qi’s eyes emitted a soft, faint light.
He had never t, nor ever imagined, that he would encounter soone like Su Li during his academy days.
“It’s not as exaggerated as you think,” Su Li didn’t pay much attention to Qi’s description.
Rather than saying Su Li was the luminous character in his imagination, it was more that Su Li had simply experienced and seen more, and was relatively passively guiding potentially wayward individuals back to their proper path.
This was no different from helping a visually impaired elderly person cross the street.
It was ultimately just a casual act.
But as for why Su Li had no significant reaction to Qi’s praise…
That could only an that a well-behaved, obedient child and an increasingly perverted stalker could never be the sa thing.
They were absolutely not the sa.
Su Li’s head hurt as he glanced at the tree below the rooftop, where Egbert’s grayish-brown hair was visible.
So your so-called “no more stalking” just ans not 24-hour stalking?
Headache.
But this obviously noticeable gaze that even Su Li could detect was certainly noticed by others.
Qi felt it most acutely.
When he had his hands on Su Li’s shoulders, he had already sensed that burning gaze. But with more important matters at hand, Qi had ignored it, focusing entirely on his own situation.
But once the conversation ended, the unavoidable burning gaze made Qi quickly withdraw his hands from Su Li’s shoulders as if electrocuted.
He awkwardly coughed and said, “That, sorry.”
Su Li was montarily stunned, then saw Cyril pointing toward the tree.
Su Li: “…………”
“Just pretend it doesn’t exist.”
The wind carried Su Li’s words away. While Egbert continuously imagined stabbing Qi in his mind, he also thought…
Ignoring is fine too.
After all, the premise of ignoring sothing is knowing that it exists, only then can one choose to ignore it.
In the fanatic’s mind, whatever Lord Su Li does is always right – this thought was on repeat.
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