Adrian wasn’t using a lot of force to hug Ye Muo. His actions could even be called gentle.
Ye Muo wasn’t tense in the slightest, making him very comfortable to hold. It also meant that Ye Muo had complete trust in him.
Adrian chuckled. “You really are still a child.”
But instead of letting go, he tightened his arms a little more. Adrian hasn’t experienced an embrace like this for so long. They were rare even with his other siblings.
Most of the time, hugs between them were the kind him and Norton shared before, a bump of shoulders before quickly separating.
Even if they knew that they shared an unbreakable trust and would even give their lives for each other, outward expressions of warmth still seemed too difficult for the Grantz.
Like Mother had once said, the Grantz were basically a group of stubborn, rigid gits.
Even so, it should be normal to give little Grantz that had yet to mature care and love, right?
It was a long while before Adrian let go of Ye Muo.
He stroked Ye Muo’s hair, cheek and neck, checking if the child had been injured in any way from the confrontation just now. When he was sure nothing was wrong, Adrian carefully cupped Ye Muo’s cheeks and took a good look at him.
His fingers slowly stroked Ye Muo’s face as his gaze shifted.
“Your mom must be very beautiful.”
Adrian’s chains clinked as he sat down and crossed his legs.
Ye Muo bent forward with his hands on his knees to make it easier on the man. He was like a little white bunny that obediently let others move him about.
He smiled when he heard Adrian’s words. His eyes crinkled as he nodded, “Yes, she’s very beautiful!”
Adrian couldn’t help but ruffle Ye Muo’s hair a bit. He said with satisfaction upon seeing the child obediently close his eyes,
“Your grandmother was also very beautiful. She would have been very happy to meet you.”
“All right. Your name is Ye Muo, right? So you took your mom’s surname. Who is she? I might know her–”
Ano heard their conversation through the door. He was about to speak when someone else did first.
“Xavier.”
Norton interrupted their conversation. He had arrived at some point and was watching them from the doorway.
Ye Muo straightened and turned to Norton.
Norton extended a hand to him. “Come here.”
Ye Muo walked straight past Adrian to stand beside Norton. Only then did the man formally introduce Adrian and Ye Muo to each other. “That’s Adrian, your uncle.”
“This is Ye Muo, also known as Xavier Grantz.”
Norton glanced down at Ye Muo. “You still have items on your afternoon itinerary.”
He paused, “It’s time to say goodbye to Ano and Adrian.”
Adlet glanced at Norton and added, “That’s right, Your Little Highness. We may be able to come back another day if you ask me in advance.”
Adlet chose his words carefully. Norton had mentioned forbidding Ye Muo from coming to the fourth floor before.
Ye Muo nodded. He had no objections. He first spoke to Ano through the door, “I’ll come visit you next time, Ano.”
Ano’s response was obviously somewhat reluctant. He didn’t forget to condemn Adrian, “All right. It’s all Adrian’s fault for monopolizing you. Let’s ignore him next time…”
After saying goodbye to Ano, Ye Muo turned to Adrian.
Adrian waved his hand. He heard what Norton referred to Ye Muo as. “Goodbye, little Xavier.”
Norton saw Ye Muo and Adlet off with his eyes before turning back to Adrian.
The man was still sitting with his back to the wall like before, but he was obviously in a better state. Some life had come back into his eyes.
“That rascal Ano’s so irresponsible, Big Brother. How can he just father a child like that? Fine, I guess he’s a lucky git too. I can’t believe a beautiful lady settled for someone like him–”
Norton interrupted Adrian, “Xavier is my child.”
Ano clicked his tongue disdainfully. He heard the clanking of chains from Adrian’s room.
Adrian’s chains tightened as he changed positions, but he just stared at Norton incredulously. He couldn’t help but ask, “He’s Big Brother’s child??”
Adrian could understand if Ye Muo was Ano’s child. That guy has always been impulsive and ruled by emotion.
But Norton?
Adrian couldn’t help but ask, “Who is his mother? A member of the Ye family?”
“He grew up in the Ye family, but he has never met his mother.”
Adrian’s chains clinked some more.
Norton tilted his head to the side before continuing, “He was a product of the rebellion, an accident.”
“I discovered his existence during last year’s Military Academy League. He had a psychic meltdown on the field as soothing agent not having any effect on him.”
Norton briefly explained Ye Muo’s origins before looking down at Adrian.
“So it’s better not to mention his mother in front of him.”
Adrian sat back, utterly stunned. He recalled how Ye Muo was just smiling and telling him how his mother was very beautiful. It was a while before he made a sound of acknowledgement.
Ano has been thinking all this time about how to teach Adrian a lesson and make him realize what he did wrong, but he hesitated again and again. In the end, Ano turned away and grumbled under his breath, “You’re such an idiot, Adrian.”
……
Secretary-General Lin walked briskly into the Grantz palace. He just came back from directing the troops left behind to take care of the laboratory and base on the planet Adrian was recovered from.
He carried a briefcase in his hand. Two soldiers of high ranks followed behind him, carrying a sizable metal box together.
They ran into Adlet along the way. The butler seemed to have known of Secretary-General Lin’s arrival for some time. He nodded to them before leading the way.
Adlet led them with barely any stops straight to the door of Norton’s study. He pushed open the door before standing aside.
The two soldiers who came in with Secretary-General Lin set down the box they were carrying. Although they were careful, the box still thumped heavily as it hit the floor.
Secretary-General Lin raised his briefcase to Norton. After receiving permission, he placed the briefcase down on Norton’s desk and took out the pre-organized documents inside.
“Here are the documents found at the scene, Your Majesty. There are records pertaining to His Little Highness’–”
He paused here and chose his words carefully, “Pertaining to His Little Highness’ development and birth, as well as some records of relevant experiments. It’s very comprehensive. Preliminary analysis suggests it hasn’t been altered or censored.”
“There are other items of interest as well. I brought a portion of those that have been identified here. The rest are still being analyzed.”
“Here are some pictures from the scene.”
The photos showed a room filled with boxes of items and documents.
The last photo was of one of the room’s walls. A line of eye-catching words were written there: [For Our dear Little Highness, Xavier.]
Seated behind the desk, Norton brushed that line in the last photo with a finger when Secretary-General Lin held it up. He focused on the last part, whispering, “Xavier.”
Norton raised his eyes. “They deliberately left these things for us.”
Secretary-General Lin nodded.
Of course no one present would be naive enough to believe the other party was doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. It only solidified their belief in a deeper conspiracy brewing beneath the surface.
“We’ve already checked. The experiment in question had 632 recorded failures. His Little Highness was born on the 621st attempt. They attempted to reproduce the results several times afterwards, but all failed without exception.”
This was within Norton’s expectations. Adult Grantz were required to nurture the next generation. The psychic power of a direct blood relative was preferred.
In other words, Ye Muo’s survival was what surprised Norton.
Secretary-General Lin went on, “According to the researchers’ preliminary analysis, His Little Highness’ gestation was unremarkable and routine aside from one thing: they’ve implanted a security protocol into His Little Highness.”
Everyone present understood what that entailed. Adlet had just accompanied Ye Muo to inject the second ‘vaccine’ dose he had brought back.
The atmosphere in the quiet room was solemn. You could almost hear each individual breath.
In the end, Norton moved first. He set the photo back in its original position.
Secretary-General Lin breathed a deep sigh of relief and finally added.
“Some documents in the room were leaked due to the holographic projection equipment inside. However, further analysis shows that the leaks were minor and of minimal risk, so censorship hasn’t been implemented for the time being…”
Indeed, some quick-thinking netizens managed to save some of the information, but it was all irrelevant logs and obscure data. You could barely piece together that they pertained to an experiment of sorts. What kind of experiment exactly remained totally unknown.
But the words on the wall have circulated widely.
People enthusiastically discussed what this experiment had to do with Xavier of Grantz.
[These bastards probably experimented on Adrian! But then why did they dedicate it to His Little Highness?]
[Damned lunatics. How dare they mess with the Grantz like this? Do they have a death wish? Did they not learn from what happened to the Exile Sectors’ galactic pirates after the failed assassination of Prince Ano? I suggest they take a good look at the former location of the black market there. What was once one of the few habitable planets of the Exile Sectors is basically a nature conservatory now.]
……
Ye Muo’s life went on as usual, aside from the more frequent physical examinations.
He headed upstairs as usual. Just as he stepped onto the first step, he suddenly paused before speeding up to catch up with Adlet, who was preparing to leave.
“I want to go to the fourth floor to see Ano and Adrian, Adlet. Is today okay?”
Although His Majesty forbade Ye Muo from going to the fourth floor a few days ago, Ye Muo has asked countless times for permission since. Adlet made sure to bring this to Norton’s attention.
Today, the doors on the fourth floor had just been replaced with a reinforced version. The crystals inside the walls have also been replenished.
Adlet bent down. “All right, but you mustn’t open the door.”
He stressed, “You must remain outside and come downstairs immediately if anything happens to find me or His Majesty, all right?”
