Ye Muo noticed during breakfast the next day that there were far fewer people around the table. Aside from Norton, only Ano, Helene, and Aria were present.
Adlet set down a glass of milk in front of Ye Muo. “The others have already set out to eradicate the insects.”
Ye Muo felt a little disappointed as he clasped the glass with both hands. “That was fast. We barely got to spend any time together before things got busy again.”
Adlet somewhat understood. “This is Grantz’s first time testing out the new equipment and incorporating them into the warship fleets, so it’s important to prepare early. The operation won’t officially commence for a while. They’ll most likely be running drills somewhere for the next few days. Of course, all of this is just speculation on my part based on what I’ve learned.”
Ano nodded. “You got the gist of it. No one wanted to take the first shift. Dylan and the others are only going because they lost.”
Helene couldn’t help but gloat, “That’s what losers like them deserve.”
“Who told them to be so weak, hahaha! I can’t believe Bert got dragged down as well.”
Adlet removed empty plates from the table like nothing was amiss.
Ye Muo knew that the Grantz split into teams to determine who would go to work first. “What happened to Bert?”
Ye Muo recalled Bert shamelessly using the excuse of having a bad back to exclude himself from participating.
Norton reached out and touched the rim of Ye Muo’s glass. “It’s getting cold.”
Ye Muo turned his attention back to chugging milk.
Meanwhile.
Bert sighed in the main ship’s command centre. “I’m very sad right now.”
The adjutant standing by his side was used to his theatrics by now. “Would you care to share, Your Highness?”
Bert looked quite melancholic as he covered his face with one hand. “Despite raising so many children, I still have to work so hard. I should be at home watching over Xavier at my age. Norton must have a bone to pick with the elderly. Do you agree?”
The staff in the command centre all straightened up. Even if they had no work at the moment, they dutifully flipped through their documents and pretended not to hear. Weighing in on royal family intrigue was not a part of the job description.
The adjutant had been with Bert for quite some time now and had a straightforward personality. After thinking for a moment, he hesitated, “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”
Bert glanced at him. “What do you think?”
The adjutant straightened with a complicated expression. “The truth is, I don’t think you need to worry about this, Your Highness. You’re still quite young comparatively speaking–”
Bert cut him off with a gesture. The adjutant obliged before stating with a straight face, “I completely agree with you, Your Highness.”
“Very good. Now, if you go write up a report on this matter and ‘accidentally’ send it over to Sylvia, you can continue to be my adjutant.”
The adjutant subconsciously responded, “Understood, Your Highness.”
“However…”
The adjutant seemed somewhat conflicted. “Do you recall how Empress Sylvia has already blacklisted our entire command centre? She also warned us beforehand that she will send us to the Exile Sectors if we send any more frivolous documents to waste her time with.”
“Then borrow Dylan’s comms system. I’ll speak on your behalf if she gets angry.”
“I believe by ‘we’, Empress Sylvia was also including you, Your Highness.”
“That can’t be. Don’t slander my Sylvia. Don’t worry, she won’t chase you guys out while there’s still work to be done. Sylvia isn’t that heartless.”
The adjutant nodded. “Then I’ll draw up that report right away.”
Bert stroked his chin thoughtfully before calling out to him, “Let’s borrow Xavier’s comms system instead.”
Sylvia would never blacklist Xavier. And surely she wouldn’t get too angry for Xavier’s sake, right?
……
Ye Muo had a lot of free time this morning. Ano and the others had to head out with Norton on short notice. The garden had just been tended to by robots. Pangzhua was taking a nap.
Ye Muo watched Pangzhua roll around on the lawn for a while before deciding not to disturb it. He caught up with Adlet, who happened to be passing by. “What are you up to, Adlet? Can I help with anything?”
Adlet gladly accepted, “Thank you very much, Your Little Highness. I was just preparing to go and tidy up your room.”
The other Grantz only allowed robots to enter their rooms.
Ye Muo wasn’t as territorial, but his room had always been personally cleaned by Adlet. The butler also made sure to do so at times when Ye Muo was out and return everything to their proper places.
It was to the point that Ye Muo often didn’t even notice Adlet had tidied up his room.
Ye Muo’s pace slowed down. He didn’t like making his bed and had a habit of leaving his clothes and toys all over the place. He could put it out of his mind normally, but now he felt a little embarrassed.
He sounded a bit uncertain, “Mumu should have made my bed already.”
“Yes, Mumu has always been very capable. I was planning on changing out your wardrobe.”
Adlet skillfully pushed open the walk-in closet door and pulled out a roller clothes rack from somewhere. He began to transfer rows of clothes onto the rack.
Ye Muo helped out as well.
The walk-in closet was quite sizable. Ye Muo realized as he sorted through the clothes that he had never seen many of them before.
“Will all of these be changed out?”
“Yes, they’ve been sitting around for too long. I’ll bring over new clothes shortly.”
“But I haven’t even worn many of them.”
Adlet stopped and turned to Ye Muo with a smile. “Do you have any outfits you wish to keep? I’ll make a note of them and bring you a fresh set, Your Little Highness. However, these clothes need to be cleaned and processed before they can be worn again.”
“I’m looking forward to you trying them on. They’re all very nice, aren’t they? Some were even personally selected by Empress Sylvia and Mr. Hebert. Very tasteful.”
Adlet picked out an outfit and put it up to Ye Muo to compare. He sighed with some regret. “You were willing to wear a variety of clothes when you were younger, but now you’re following in the footsteps of your father and the other princes and princesses, always wearing the Grantz uniform or training clothes that are easy to move around in.”
“It’s because other clothes have too many pieces. The same goes for this one. There’s a shirt and a vest on top.”
Ye Muo discovered as he rifled through that the pants had straps to boot. He glanced at the tag, which had numbers indicating where the corresponding accessories and shoes could be found.
“There’s even a tie and a hat. The outfit I’m wearing right now just has a top, a bottom and a pair of boots. It’s very comfortable as well. I’m just used to wearing things like this.”
Ye Muo spun around to show Adlet.
Adlet sighed, “It looks good on you, yes, but you were much willing to wear more elaborate outfits as well when you were younger.”
He raised the outfit he was holding again. “Do you feel it’s too troublesome now because I no longer assist you with dressing? You can ask me for help at any time, Your Little Highness.”
A few minutes later.
Ye Muo came out of the dressing room in a brand new outfit.
Adlet tidied up his hair and collar before fastening a thin tie of a complimentary colour. “It suits you and your hair well, Your Highness. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
The praise made Ye Muo a bit shy. He tried moving around a bit. “No, this is pretty comfortable too.”
“Empress Sylvia picked out this outfit for you. I’m sure she would be overjoyed to see you wearing it.”
Adlet picked up a camera from the side with a smile. “May I take a photo? I would very much like to share this cute moment with the Empress.”
Ye Muo blushed and stood there with a slightly restrained smile. “Alright. Please thank Sylvia for picking this outfit out for me.”
“Certainly.”
They continued to tidy up the closet. As Adlet pushed a fully loaded clothes rack away, he said to Ye Muo:
“Your Little Highness, do you need me to repackage the gifts in your room and store them in a safe location? Forgive me for being blunt, but the room will appear too crowded if any more items arrive.”
“Okay, let’s pack them up together.”
Adlet smiled. “Many thanks, Your Little Highness. Please wait here for a moment. I will be back shortly.”
Ye Muo took off his shoes and stood on the carpet. He pushed the neatly stacked pile of bags and boxes over before hiding Adlet’s gift somewhere else.
Adlet soon returned with many neatly arranged ribbons and exquisite gift boxes.
Theodore adjusted the brightness of the lights in the room for them.
Ye Muo separated the gifts by recipient before assigning each pile a different colour of ribbon. “This colour will be for Adlet. I’ll pack that one myself later.”
Adlet smiled at him. “Alright. I’m looking forward to receiving it.”
Ye Muo scanned the gifts again before suddenly raising his head. “Everyone’s gifts are ready, Theodore. Is there anything you want?”
“I know I’m being too forward by asking you directly, but I want to get to know you better. I considered buying you a core or a music box or all sorts of strange things…”
You could gift a human anything from food to daily necessities, but what did an AI need? A sentient one at that.
It was around that time that Ye Muo realized that he didn’t know much about the AI that always kept him company. Theodore was very familiar with him, down to his bedtime habits, but he knew very little about Theodore’s preferences. This revelation made Ye Muo a little sad and even guilty.
Did Theodore like watering plants? But that was just a task he assigned Theodore. Theodore did save up money to buy parts and searched a while for a suitable shell, but it had previously mentioned it wasn’t interested anymore.
Shattered light materialized out of thin air and circled the room like a dazzling ribbon.
Ye Muo couldn’t help but reach out and try to catch some. Theodore played along with practiced motions, staying just out of reach. They had played this little game many times before.
[I truly would like to give you an answer, but even I do not know. However, I would cherish any gift from you, Xavier.]
[In truth, I am already very content knowing you want to give me a gift.]
Happiness and anger were the two easiest emotions to distinguish.
Theodore felt like every line of its data was skipping along, and it didn’t want to bring them back under control.
Xavier valued it greatly. Xavier wanted to get to know it better.
[When I have something I want in mind, Xavier, I will tell you at once.]
