Before Wen Yuzhi could run into them, the bone spines reacted first.

They moved in front of him, as if on guard, refusing to let the other party get any closer to the cub.

And when the Saint Clan coming from the other direction noticed what was happening here, they immediately stopped as well.

Only then did Wen Yuzhi realize that the ones across from him were those unfamiliar female Saint Clan.

Kasha and the others clearly had not expected to run into the little prince here either, and they froze on the spot.

Their status was special, and they knew that themselves.

So before Mansendis made any formal arrangements for them, even though the silver-haired sovereign had not given any order restricting them, Kasha and the others had still very tactfully chosen to stay shut inside their rooms as much as possible.

They were doing their best to reduce their own presence.

And this time, leaving their rooms really had been unavoidable.

Lina’s light-brain had broken. The light-brains they wore were all older models, and after they had been dormant for so long, all of them more or less had some problems.

The other issues were not that important, really, but inside Lina’s light-brain were many photos she had taken back when the little prince had still been in his royal egg.

Those photos could never be retaken now. If even one was lost, then that was one gone forever. That was why, after discovering that her light-brain was broken, Lina had hurriedly gone to find Kasha.

Since there were photos of the little prince inside, the light-brain had to be repaired no matter what.

To avoid the other Saint Clan, Kasha and the others had deliberately chosen this hallway by the kitchen.

Normally, very few Saint Clan came here. Under usual circumstances, they would not disturb anyone.

It was just that what Kasha and the others had not expected was that while they truly had not run into any other Saint Clan along the way—

they had run into the little prince instead...

Meeting each other at the corner, both sides fell silent for a moment.

Kasha and the others were surprised, with panic and helplessness mixed in under it.

Of course they longed to see the little prince, but they had not been ready to truly meet him like this.

Strictly speaking, they had once been the ones closest to the little prince.

Back when he had still been a royal egg, they had guarded him day after day, watching with their own eyes as the royal egg grew bit by bit.

But all the things that happened afterward had not only made their position awkward, they had also left them bearing the crime of dereliction.

Because of their carelessness and mistakes, the little prince had been lost outside for so long.

Deep in their hearts, Kasha and the others had always felt profound guilt and self-reproach toward Wen Yuzhi.

They believed they had no face to meet the little prince. In all the time since waking up, other than that one distant glimpse, they had only watched the videos other Saint Clan posted on the light-brain network to learn how the cub was doing.

First, they did not know how to face Wen Yuzhi.

Second, they were afraid the cub might not want to see guilty retainers like them.

All those tangled feelings wound together in their hearts, leaving Kasha and the others instinctively without the courage to face the cub.

Wen Yuzhi was a little surprised too.

He still remembered these female Saint Clan, and from what he had overheard before, he knew they were the Saint Clan who had once been ordered to care for him.

And their status... seemed to be that of the previous Saint Clan sovereign’s personal guard.

Wen Yuzhi saw the rose-shaped brooches pinned at their chests.

He had seen that kind of rose inside Thorn Castle.

When Wen Yuzhi looked at them on his own initiative, the bodies of Kasha and the others instantly tensed even more.

Their slit pupils tightened slightly, and their expressions stiffened a little.

In the end, Kasha was the first to react. She dropped to one knee, using the knightly salute the guard corps offered when meeting their sovereign.

“Your subordinate greets Your Highness.”

The other Saint Clan followed with the same salute.

When Wen Yuzhi saw the Saint Clan before him suddenly kneel, he froze for a second, then quickly told them to get up.

But Kasha and the others did not rise immediately. Keeping that posture, they carefully asked, “Have... have you been well?”

Every day, Saint Clan posted videos they had taken of the little prince on their internal network.

From the cub’s condition, it was obvious that Mansendis was taking very good care of His Highness.

The little prince in the videos always looked happy and cheerful.

And yet Kasha and the others still could not help wanting to hear it directly from the cub himself. They wanted to know from his own mouth whether he was truly doing well.

Wen Yuzhi tilted his head and replied, “I’m doing very well.”

That was not an empty polite answer.

Ever since coming to the Saint Clan, he truly had been doing very, very well, and he had been very happy living among them.

“I’m happy every day here.”

A cub’s emotions were easy to read, especially joy that came from the bottom of his heart. It was the kind that seemed able to spread to other people too.

Kasha and the others stared blankly for a moment, and the final trace of worry in their hearts completely disappeared.

For them, as long as they knew that—

Kasha took a deep breath. When she raised her head again, there was a smile in her eyes.

A brilliant, unrestrained smile.

“...Is there anything Your Highness wants?”

They did not ask for themselves to be forgiven.

The royal egg had been stolen. They had failed in their duty. That was a crime they could never wash away, and they were willing to accept any punishment.

But at the same time, they still wanted to do something for the little prince.

As long as Wen Yuzhi wanted it, even if it were the moon or stars in the sky, they would think of some way to bring them to the cub.

...Anything he wanted?

Wen Yuzhi shook his head.

There was nothing he especially wanted.

If he really had to name one thing, what he wanted most was probably for all the Saint Clan to get better and no longer suffer from mental power disorder.

But that was something he wanted to work hard to do himself. He did not want to rely on someone else to solve it for him.

Still...

Seeing that the Saint Clan before him seemed a little disappointed, Wen Yuzhi pressed his lips together. He could tell that ever since they met, these female Saint Clan had been treating him with a sort of cautious care.

They seemed extremely careful, especially restrained in both word and action.

As if they were afraid that one wrong sentence or one wrong move would make him unhappy.

Wen Yuzhi could more or less guess why they were being so cautious.

As for those events in the past, Wen Yuzhi actually did not care that much.

What happened back then had come too suddenly, and he also believed Kasha and the others had not done it on purpose.

Besides, afterward they had already done everything they could to make up for it, and even now Wen Yuzhi could still feel their guilt.

That uneasy, anxious feeling—they had tried hard to hide it, but it still showed in the way they spoke and acted.

Wen Yuzhi thought for a moment. Flapping his wings, he picked out several ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) gemstone balls from the pile.

He placed the chosen gemstone balls in Kasha’s hand.

“You asked me if there was anything I wanted. Um... then next time we meet, could you smile again?”

He blinked, his soft little voice gentle.

“You looked beautiful when you smiled just now.”

Kasha stared blankly in place, still kneeling on one knee.

She did not even notice when Wen Yuzhi left.

A slightly aching feeling gradually spread through her chest, an utterly unfamiliar emotion.

By the time she came back to herself, her vision was already blurred.

She raised a hand and touched her cheek.

It was wet.

Was this... tears?

Ever since swearing herself to Tasiya’s personal guard, Kasha had always been the most outstanding one in the corps.

Whether in front of other Saint Clan or among her many sisters, she had always worn a stern, cold face.

Even when she suffered her most serious injury, she had never cried.

But now, Kasha was crying.

Tears silently slid down her face.

And yet she did not feel sad.

On the contrary, Kasha’s heart was full of happiness.

Not only because the little prince had praised her, but also because the little prince’s attitude toward them was nothing like the disgust—or even unwillingness to see them—that they had feared.

...The little prince had not blamed them.

Kasha looked at the gemstone balls in her hand. The cub had just given them to her.

The other female Saint Clan hurried over as well. They counted them.

There were exactly five.

No more and no less.

There was no need to say it aloud. Wen Yuzhi had clearly given one to each of them.

“...”

They felt the same as Kasha. For a moment, there was a feeling in their hearts they could not put into words.

Kasha, however, wiped away her tears and distributed the gemstone balls into their hands one by one.

“The little prince has not blamed us. But we cannot forget.”

Kasha spoke slowly, her voice calm and steady.

It was a reminder to all of them, and to herself as well.

Lina and the others also thought of the knightly salute Kasha had given at the very beginning, and they had already vaguely guessed what she intended.

But none of them raised any objection.

Instead, after receiving the gemstone balls, they said, “Does His Highness like this kind of gemstone?”

“I remember there seemed to be many beautiful gemstones left at the old base, but the prettiest ones were stolen.”

Back then, they had specially chosen several of the most beautiful gems to place beside the royal egg, intending to decorate the nest a little.

Later, those gems had also been stolen by those star pirates.

“Those damn star pirates. One day, I’m going to tear them apart!”

“There should still be some left in the base. When we get the chance, we should find a way to go back and bring them over. His Highness might like them.”

“If that’s not enough, we can always go take some. The merfolk have plenty of beautiful pearls too...”

-

Wen Yuzhi had no idea at all that after he left, Kasha and the others had already quietly fixed the impression in their minds that the little prince liked gemstones, and were even planning to go seize some prettier ones from other races.

Following his original plan, he first delivered the gemstone balls to the Gumu. Fortunately, there were many of them, so even after giving five away, there were still enough left for every Gumu to get one.

The Gumu were clearly very happy to receive the gifts, chirping guji guji nonstop.

They even rubbed their jellylike, bouncy bodies against Wen Yuzhi.

Wen Yuzhi leaned in and rubbed against them too.

Only after playing around for a while did Wen Yuzhi take the bone spines, Yiluo, and Feier back.

Inside the study, Mu Luo had already left. Only Mansendis was still seated behind the desk.

The silver-haired sovereign lifted his head the moment he sensed the cub’s presence, and Wen Yuzhi immediately flapped his little wings and dove straight into his arms.

“Dad.”

Mansendis did not ask where the cub had gone. The bone spines had followed Wen Yuzhi the entire time, and through mental power, he could sense every movement the cub made.

So the first thing he did when Wen Yuzhi came back was smooth out the fur that had been tousled on the cub’s body. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Only after that did he pick up the little warm baby bottle set aside nearby.

“It’s time for dinner.”

Wen Yuzhi glanced at the window. Outside, the sky had darkened at some point without him noticing.

He bit down on the nipple and gulped away at his dinner while telling Mansendis about how he had run into Kasha and the others just now.

Wen Yuzhi also told him about giving them the gemstone balls.

Mansendis listened quietly, his expression unchanged the entire time. Only when he heard that Wen Yuzhi had voluntarily given the gemstone balls away did something faint shift in the silver-haired sovereign’s eyes.

“Do you like them, Zhizhi?”

Mansendis did not ask what Wen Yuzhi thought of Kasha and the others.

He only asked whether the cub liked those Saint Clan or not.

Wen Yuzhi shook his head. “I don’t dislike them.”

But liking them... that did not seem quite right either.

When it came to liking people, he liked Dad, Mond, and the others more.

As for Kasha and those Saint Clan, all Wen Yuzhi could say was that he did not dislike them.

At that, Mansendis rubbed the cub’s ears.

“I plan to arrange for them to enter your guard corps.”

Wen Yuzhi was so startled that he forgot to keep drinking his milk.

But the silver-haired sovereign said unhurriedly, “Not as guards. As instructors.”

“They used to serve at Tasiya’s side. They have experience with building a guard corps, and their abilities are quite good. They can just happen to help you train those guards properly.”

This was also the best arrangement.

With Kasha and the others’ current status, nothing else they did would be particularly appropriate. On the contrary, putting them beside the cub was something the other Saint Clan would not object to too strongly.

And with Kasha and the others’ abilities, training those candidate soldiers would be more than easy enough. They were also already extremely familiar with the affairs of a guard corps.

Besides...

There was one more thing Mansendis did not tell Wen Yuzhi.

Kasha and the others had just come to see him and sworn that they would use their lives to protect Wen Yuzhi.

For Mansendis, the killer who had slain Tasiya, no matter what the reason had been, Kasha and the others could never swear loyalty to this new sovereign.

“Then what is your choice...?”

Mansendis had sat behind the desk, his expression cold, his gaze indifferent as he looked at the Saint Clan before him.

Kasha and the others had answered without hesitation:

“Before the Mother Goddess, we swear upon our lives to place our loyalty and our mission in the hands of your beloved son.”

The one they wanted to follow was Wen Yuzhi, the Saint Clan’s one and only crown prince.

Refusing to support the new sovereign and instead supporting the crown prince was a great taboo in any race.

If Mansendis felt anger because of it, they might well be killed by him.

And yet Kasha and the others had still chosen to make that decision.

It was an extremely risky move.

But they did not regret it.

The frozen atmosphere spread little by little through the study.

Mansendis said nothing.

Kasha and the others did not rise.

Just as the temperature in the room seemed about to fall below freezing, Mansendis’s hand touched something like a glass bead.

It was one of the toys the cub had been fiddling with here a little earlier.

Mansendis picked it up in his hand, and then saw that Kasha and the others each also had an identical gemstone ball on them.

There was no doubt about it.

The cub had given those to them.

And that also represented Wen Yuzhi’s attitude toward them.

With that thought, Mansendis broke his silence.

“I will arrange for you to serve at Zhizhi’s side.”

“He needs to establish a guard corps. I will assign you positions within it. I need a group of guards for my child who are sufficiently loyal and sufficiently reliable.”

From the moment he decided to release Kasha and the others, Mansendis had already had this idea.

He did not need their loyalty to him.

He only needed them to be loyal to his child.

And during this period, Kasha and the others’ conduct had barely been enough to satisfy Mansendis.

Of course, the most important thing was that Wen Yuzhi did not dislike them.

Considering all of that, Mansendis had ultimately chosen to leave them by Wen Yuzhi’s side.

Whether it was to atone for their guilt or because they sincerely wanted to swear loyalty, after what happened before, Kasha and the others would care more about the cub’s safety than the other Saint Clan would.

During Tasiya’s reign, the guard corps under her command had been the fiercest among all those of royal blood.

These female Saint Clan had been her right and left hands, fighting at Tasiya’s side. The entire Saint Clan had once been overshadowed by the edge of these rose knights.

They were a group more terrifying than thorns, and the swords in their hands had once been stained with Salilaino blood.

Compared with them, even Yiluo and Feier were still far from qualified.

Having them train this newly appointed guard corps was undoubtedly the most suitable arrangement.

Since it was something Mansendis had already decided, Wen Yuzhi had no real objections.

He was just thinking that if Kasha and the others were going to serve in his guard corps, then only giving them gemstone balls felt a little inadequate.

Um... he should probably pick out some other gifts too.

Oh, right, and he also needed to give Dad a gift.

And if he gave one to Dad, then Mond and Alvin and the others needed gifts too.

As he gulped down his milk, Wen Yuzhi silently counted in his heart that he seemed to need to prepare a whole lot of gifts.

And from a certain point of view, that probably counted as the trouble that came with having too much family...?

Every time he prepared gifts, he had to prepare so many of them.

But Wen Yuzhi did not dislike that trouble at all.

He liked this kind of trouble.

The kind that came with having lots of family.