One by one, the branch-ring badges were pinned onto the chests of these Saint Clan by Wen Yuzhi’s own hand.

Every Saint Clan who received that honor dropped to one knee in excitement.

They lifted their heads proudly, their expressions full of glory as they looked at little highness standing before them in white formal wear.

Wen Yuzhi, meanwhile, remained very calm.

No matter how he acted in private—whether it was acting spoiled with Daddy or playing and fooling around with close Saint Clan like Mond—in a formal setting, Wen Yuzhi would never disgrace his father.

Under the gaze of the crowd, the youth showed no timidity.

On the contrary, the way Wen Yuzhi carried himself at that moment was unexpectedly composed.

With lips pressed together and a straight face devoid of expression, he had learned Mansendis’s manner almost perfectly.

His calm gaze swept over every Saint Clan before him, yet did not linger on any single one.

For a brief instant, the Saint Clan felt as though they could see Mansendis’s shadow in little highness.

But they also knew very clearly—

little highness was different from the King.

When the King stood there, all they felt was fear.

That fear came from every Saint Clan’s instinctive fear of the strong.

They submitted to Mansendis, but they also deeply feared that powerful, cold sovereign.

Wen Yuzhi, however, was different.

When he stood there, he was like a lovely little sun, radiating a bright and gentle warmth from head to toe.

Every Saint Clan who saw him seemed able to feel, from little highness, that soft warmth filled with life.

Both Mond and Mu Luo had once said that every movement little highness made carried a powerful ability to affect others.

And that was indeed true. What he brought to the Saint Clan was always the freshest, most burning emotion.

To the Saint Clan, who had never experienced such feelings before, it was like being a lonely traveler wandering for a very long time, only to suddenly encounter sunlight and rain in the darkness.

In that instant, their world seemed to become brighter and richer.

Since then, that barren, desolate world had gained vivid and beautiful color, and the Saint Clan’s cold, hard hearts had been filled with softer emotions.

Little highness cared for them, and they too cherished little highness from the bottom of their hearts.

Wen Yuzhi was very sensitive to other people’s emotions.

He could sense the goodwill and malice in others.

But from the Saint Clan, what he always felt was their passionate, fervent sincerity.

At this moment, standing here, he could feel emotions from different Saint Clan continuously flowing toward him from all directions.

Among them, the clearest emotion was affection.

They were loyal to him.

They cherished him.

Surrounded by the love of countless Saint Clan, Wen Yuzhi picked up the sword placed beside him.

This sword belonged to Mansendis—or to be more exact, to the sovereign of the Saint Clan.

When each Saint Clan sovereign ascended the throne, there would be a crown, a scepter, and a sword.

The crown symbolized the sovereign’s status.

The scepter represented the sovereign’s authority.

And as for the meaning of the sword, it existed to remind every Saint Clan sovereign that the Saint Clan were a powerful race born for war.

It was the sovereign’s authority, and also the sovereign’s responsibility.

In a setting like this, Mansendis placing that sword in Wen Yuzhi’s hands made his intent almost impossible to misunderstand.

And not a single brainless Saint Clan around them would jump out and say it violated protocol.

Protocol or no protocol, the Saint Clan only had two royal-bloods left.

That sovereign’s seat was either the King’s or little highness’s. In their eyes, it made no difference which of those father and son held the sword.

Wen Yuzhi, however, had no idea what the Saint Clan were thinking. At that moment, holding the sword, he walked toward one of the selected soldiers.

What Wen Yuzhi was about to do next was the final and most important step of today’s selection.

—The investiture.

Many of the Saint Clan’s rules and institutions still followed ancient tradition. After selecting personal guards, investing them was also inherited from the old knightly system.

Wen Yuzhi lifted the sword and lightly rested the tip on the Saint Clan soldier’s shoulder.

Lowering his eyes, with both expression and tone carrying a solemn weight, he asked, “Are you willing to become my personal guard, and offer your loyalty and your life?”

The Saint Clan touched by the tip of the sword also lowered his head and pressed a palm to his chest.

“I swear by blood and honor that I am willing to fight for you and offer all my loyalty.”

After speaking, he pulled a scale from his neck and raised it in both hands to offer to Wen Yuzhi, the scale still warm with blood.

Wen Yuzhi accepted the scale, then lightly lifted his hand.

A butterfly fluttered down gently and landed on the Saint Clan member’s wound.

Very quickly, the place where the scale had been removed healed over.

While that Saint Clan was still frozen in a daze, Wen Yuzhi had already walked to the next one.

The same question.

The same oath.

And the other side answered without the slightest hesitation.

As expected, all three of them offered up scales.

Wen Yuzhi accepted every one of them, and healed their wounds as well.

During this, Mond—

In truth, Mond could have reminded Wen Yuzhi that the Saint Clan’s self-healing ability was very strong, and that these injuries would recover quickly on their own.

But Mond knew that even if Wen Yuzhi understood the Saint Clan’s constitution, he would still do it anyway.

“The wound may heal quickly, but the pain won’t.”

Back then, when he had still only been palm-sized, the cub had said those words in a soft, fluffy voice.

The cub’s nature was gentle.

When everyone else only saw the Saint Clan’s strength and terror, little highness alone truly cared whether each Saint Clan was happy or not, whether they were hurting or not.

Mond did not know whether those ideas had been taught to little highness by his adoptive parents, but the Saint Clan certainly had no such education, and royal-bloods even less so—they were not taught any such thing as compassion.

Which was why, in many ways, Wen Yuzhi did not really resemble a royal-blood at all.

And yet Mond thought little highness like this was wonderful.

Once the investiture ceremony was complete, these Saint Clan officially became Wen Yuzhi’s personal guards.

They would change into a unified uniform, wear at all times the badges personally bestowed upon them by little highness, and their duties would shift from military training to staying close at little highness’s side.

All of this had already been part of their earlier training.

So as soon as the investiture ceremony ended, these Saint Clan immediately went on duty.

By the time Wen Yuzhi returned to Mansendis’s side, he had also brought his new personal guards up with him.

“Daddy!”

Wen Yuzhi walked over to Mansendis’s side.

The silver-haired sovereign gave a slight nod, but instead of looking at the cub beside him, he did something rare and turned his gaze toward these Saint Clan—Saint Clan he ordinarily would not even spare a glance for.

“I expect you to protect Zhizhi well. Do not forget the oath you have sworn.”

Mansendis’s voice was cold, but carried an undeniable authority.

This was also the first time these newly appointed personal guards had stood this close to the silver-haired sovereign.

Feeling that intensely oppressive coldness, their hearts tightened. Lowering their heads, they answered in unison, “Yes!”

Mansendis said only that single sentence to them.

Then the silver-haired sovereign took little highness away.

The Saint Clan remained standing there in the same posture. For a moment, they were all stunned, not knowing what they were supposed to do next.

It was Mond who reminded them.

“Little highness is about to eat now. No matter how busy the King is, he always accompanies little highness to meals at this time every day. You must remember this from now on as well. Little highness sometimes forgets the time, so you’ll need to remind him...”

Knowing that these newly appointed personal guards still did not understand much about little highness and the King, Mond patiently explained the things they would need to pay attention to in the future.

For instance, little highness kept a white wolf named Awu, whom he was very fond of.

And little highness could occasionally be a bit mischievous, sometimes dressing up like Mansendis to scare people, and so on...

While Mond was explaining all these precautions to the personal guards, Wen Yuzhi and Mansendis had already arrived at the dining hall ahead of them.

By now, Wen Yuzhi had grown enough that he no longer needed those miniature pieces of tableware.

He sat at Daddy’s right hand while the Gumu placed plates of food in front of him one after another.

As he grew, Wen Yuzhi’s diet had changed somewhat, but the one thing that never changed was the milk he was given every morning and every evening.

Wen Yuzhi had originally thought that since he had grown up, he no longer needed to drink milk every day.

But Mond had told him that drinking milk would help him grow taller.

Wen Yuzhi wanted to grow taller, so he could only obediently go on drinking it.

Mansendis asked him how tall he wanted to grow.

Without hesitation, Wen Yuzhi replied, “As tall as Daddy!”

Mansendis lifted a brow but said nothing.

Mond, however, quietly passed down an instruction that for the next several years, little highness’s meals absolutely had to include milk.

At the moment, Wen Yuzhi still had no idea he would be drinking milk for a very long time to come. As he ate, he chatted with Mansendis.

The palace had no rule of silence during meals.

When the father and son ate together, they chatted as usual, and what they talked about were all small everyday things.

Like what flowers had bloomed again in the courtyard, or how many more centimeters the little trees had grown.

In the past, Mansendis would never have paid attention to such matters. But after Wen Yuzhi came into his life, he never grew tired of listening to his child talk about everything happening around him, whether it was something big or small.

And he did not just listen.

Mansendis also responded.

“Daddy, will Dark Tower Star have snow this winter too?”

“Yes.”

“Then can we build another snowman?”

“Yes.”

“Then... Daddy, can I go to Blackrock Star?”

“No.”

Mansendis rejected the request without even needing to think about it.

Wen Yuzhi sighed. He was not surprised by the result.

Over the past half year, he had brought up several times that he wanted to go back to Blackrock Star and take another look. He was unwilling to accept that Xi Heyan and the others were dead.

Even though Selet had not found their bodies at the time, no traces of human life had been discovered on Blackrock Star either.

It was as if they had simply vanished.

And because of that, Wen Yuzhi still held on to hope in his heart. He wanted to return to Blackrock Star and look again for himself.

But Mansendis did not have a good impression of humans, and there was no way he would allow Wen Yuzhi to leave him and run off to such °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° a distant place.

Wen Yuzhi understood Daddy’s reasoning, but disappointment still inevitably showed in his eyes.

That emotion was even reflected in how much he ate.

Mond noticed that little highness ate less today than usual. He had barely even touched his favorite desserts.

The old chief steward frowned, obviously worried.

Mansendis, however, knew very well why Wen Yuzhi was in a bad mood.

Sitting behind his desk, he was listening to Alvin’s report when Alvin noticed that the silver-haired sovereign was, rather unusually, distracted.

Mansendis had not really been listening to what Alvin was reporting.

He was still thinking about the dimmed light in Wen Yuzhi’s eyes.

Though disappointed, Wen Yuzhi had been sensible. He had not thrown a fit or insisted on leaving Dark Tower Star no matter what. He had not even exercised his usual right to one act of daily willfulness. Instead, he had quietly and calmly accepted Mansendis’s refusal.

And he had not worn that emotion on his face all day either. He had gone on eating, studied with Mu Luo in the afternoon, and in the evening still attended another one or two of his small classes.

The entire time, he had acted as though nothing were wrong.

That child was always like this—overly good, overly understanding.

Which instead gave Mansendis quite a headache.

Whether those humans were alive or dead, he did not want his child tangled up with them.

Thinking this, Mansendis came back to himself and asked Alvin, “What were you saying just now?”

And in the face of the silver-haired sovereign’s unprecedented lapse of attention, Alvin, as aide-de-camp, behaved as though nothing at all had happened and calmly repeated the contents of the earlier report from the beginning.

“The planets we captured earlier have already been cleared.”

During the period when Wen Yuzhi was missing, the Saint Clan fleet had thrown the major star sectors into complete chaos.

As a result, an anti–Saint Clan faction had arisen across interstellar space. Formed by several races, they believed that if enough races united, they ought to be able to defeat a single Saint Clan.

So those races chose to declare war on the Saint Clan and even issued a formal challenge.

At the time, because the cub had been missing longer and longer, Mansendis had happened to be in the foulest possible mood.

Since those races had thrown themselves right at him, Mansendis chose to oblige them.

The result was predictable. In less than two days, that resistance alliance formed by several races was crushed by the Saint Clan, and even the planets they lived on were taken by force.

And once the Saint Clan had taken them, there was no chance whatsoever they would hand them back.

Alvin had been given full responsibility for dealing with the aftermath.

He had not slaughtered them all, nor could he be bothered to keep that many prisoners of war alive. Instead, he spared their lives, drove all the races living there off the planets, changed the ownership markers of those worlds from their original races to the Saint Clan, and brought the star cores back to Mansendis.

And the “clearing” Alvin referred to was the clearing away of everything those races had left behind.

Mansendis glanced at the positions of those planets on the map.

Among them was one very beautiful planet called Blue Zither Star, formerly a resort world especially suited to travel and leisure.

Its previous ruling race had grown swollen with ambition precisely because the income generated by that resort planet had been so considerable.

They thought that if they could get rid of the Saint Clan, then transport ore from the Ninth Star Sector, they would have energy once they had the minerals, and their resort planet could rise to another level altogether.

The reality, however, was that not only had they failed to rise any higher, even that resort planet had become spoils of war for the Saint Clan.

At that moment, Mansendis was looking at Blue Zither Star.

What he was looking at, of course, was not how beautiful the planet was, but the fact that it was currently in winter. For the next three months, snow would continue to fall there.

Thinking of the cub saying at the table that he wanted to build a snowman with him, the silver-haired sovereign was silent for a moment, then lightly tapped one bent knuckle against that planet’s location.

“Make preparations. I’ll take Zhizhi there in the near future.”

Alvin paused, then answered, “Yes.”

...........

On this day, the pale metal prison cell was visited by a rare guest.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the person seated by the bed did not move at all.

Heavy shackles wrapped both wrists and ankles, and a metal collar was fastened around the neck.

Against the bleak white surroundings, the figure looked like a dog locked in a cage.

No.

The figure was even more miserable than a dog.

At least a dog cage had gaps.

This prison cell, however, was made entirely of metal on every side.

There was no sunlight here, yet it never truly sank into darkness either. Everywhere the eye could see was forever a miserable white.

A person with weak will would go mad after only a few days of being locked inside.

And yet this one had been imprisoned here for half a year already.