Having small talk was something normal with siblings.
For Lily, this was one way to tighten the bond between them, no matter how meaningless the talks were. That was what Lily took from watching movies in her free time, though she was not completely sure how true it was.
However, she realized now that it was so. The three of them–Lily, Gege, and Nian (the new addition to her family), talked with each other for the entire day without realizing how late it was.
They talked about different things. Nian did not really have a lot to say, though. Gege told her that Nian did not really have a lot of memories of herself. This of course confused her. Was Nian the same case as Gege? The only reply that Lily got when she asked was Nian looking confused and Gege saying that he would tell her later.
Although Lily was not amused by this, she accepted this and moved on to a more interesting subject. Gege told her all about the adventures that he had when he was outside of Yan.
Surviving a terrorist attack.
Helping a Sarkaz that was caged by her own nightmares.
Meeting the Goddess of Kjerag.
Surviving another terrorist attack.
Fighting a creature that came from the deepest depth of the sea.
Went on a hunt to find the Ghost Hunter.
... Surviving another terrorist attack.
Lily was seeing a pattern here, and she didn't like it.
However, she did not let this idea be known to Gege. He was telling all of this with a fond smile on his face that did not go away.
Lily did not want that expression ever to be lost on his face. She wanted to stay longer with him and Nian. However, just as Lily was engrossed in Gege's story, the door of the room opened.
They turned their heads to see Mr Hu.
"Princess, we need to leave," Mr Hu looked conflicted when he said this, "Although I want nothing more for you to talk to the prince, we need to hide you."
Surprised by this, Lily spun her head to the window. True to what he said, the sun was nowhere in sight in the sky.
"Mr Hu." On his bed, Gege called the butler. Hu stood straighter and put all of his attention on him.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Lin Ye chuckled at how tense he was. Although he wanted the man to call him by his name, seeing how he was acting towards him, Lin Ye knew that it was just a waste of his time to do that. So with that in mind, Lin Ye went straight to his point.
"Can you give the first prince's phone number to me?" This shocked both Mr Hu and Lily. Nian, on the other hand, was hugging Ye's arm as she watched all of this play out, "Personal number. I need to have a talk with him. You do have it, right?"
Quickly recovering from the previous shock, Mr Hu slightly bowed his head to him, "Of course, I do. Let me write it down to you."
With that, Old man Hu pulled a pen and notebook out of his pocket. Lin Ye hummed at this. He had that on him?
"There you are!"
Just as Lin Ye was pondering on this, another figure appeared at the door.
Warfarin glared at Nian, who saw her and buried her head into Lin Ye's shoulder.
The vampire was about to let her thoughts be known to the dragon but noticed that Lin Ye was now awake.
"So? Up already?" Warfarin folded her arms around her chest and huffed at him. She slowly walked until she stood beside his bed, "You are more durable than what I thought you were."
"Thanks to you," Lin Ye chuckled, making Warfarin sigh with a smile. Then he hummed to her, "Where are the others?"
"At the hotel by now." She answered, massaging her head like she was remembering something annoying. "It was hard for me to convince them. Especially those two. But this pipsqueak? She's in a different league. I thought that when I left her in her room, she would sleep but no! She had to sneak out from the damn hotel without anyone noticing and came to you. She almost gave me a heart attack! I am too young to die!"
Finished with hearing her rambling, Lin Ye looked to his side at Nian. He arched his brow at her to explain herself.
"... I want to see Gege," She finally admitted and looked ashamed of herself, "... Sorry."
... Well, that's not fair.
Lin Ye chuckled and rubbed her head.
"I am not mad," Lin Ye said to her, "But you can't do that, okay? You made Warfarin worried. Seeing that it's getting late, I think you should go back too with her, okay?"
"... Okay." Although she did not want to, Nian still got off the bed and slowly made her way to Warfarin's side. She lowered her head more now, "... Sorry Gege."
"Don't be like that," Lin Ye smiled at her, "Tomorrow we have a date, no? You need to sleep early so we can have a lot of fun."
Being reminded of this fact, the sad expression that Nian had was now completely gone. She almost looked like she was about to bounce.
"Okay, Gege!"
While Lin Ye was smiling at Nian, he felt Warfarin glaring at him. He turned his gaze to stare at the piercing gaze of the medic.
"What do you mean by that?" Warfarin leaned closer to him as she glared at him, "You just woke up."
"Well, my body is a bit different than most races of Terra," Lin ye hummed, not bothered by how mad she looked, "You should do a check-up on my body tomorrow before I go, though."
Warfarin was about to yell at him about how stupid he was. However, she knew that Lin ye would still go out even if she was against his idea, at least with her help, she could reduce the chances of him getting hurt.
"... Fine," Warfarin finally gave in and agreed to him, "I will come by tomorrow."
Lin Ye chuckled at how annoyed she looked and in contrast, Nian was beaming in joy.
"Here, Your Highness," Old Man Hu handed a piece of paper to Lin Ye, "This is the first prince's personal number."
"Thank you," Lin Ye nodded as he put away the piece of paper, "So? Leaving?"
"Afraid so, Your Highness," Hu admitted. Just as Lin Ye was about to ask something, Old Man Hu spoke up, "And don't worry for Her Highness' safety, I have someone that will be accompanying us for our safety."
"How's your sleep, Ye?"
A voice came from the door, and the people in the room turned to see who it was. A smile slowly formed on Lin Ye's face when he saw the person standing at the door.
"Hui-Chieh. Glad to see you are fine," Lin Ye chuckled at the Lung, "Nice to see you visiting me."
His remark made her give Lin Ye a chuckle of her own.
"Well, glad to see you too," Ch'en folded her arms and cracked a smile at him. Then she moved to the side, "I am here with someone else."
After saying this, Leizi walked beside her. She let out a breath of relief after seeing that Lin Ye was fine and resting on the bed. She then remembered who she was standing in front of and lowered her head.
"I am relieved that you are well, Your Highness," She said to him, "Forgive me. I was not able to protect you at that time."
Hearing this, Lin Ye hummed at her. Shaking his head at her, he chuckled, which made Leizi raise her head and look at him.
"What are you apologising for?" he asked her.
"I was not able to-."
"What was the order that I gave you before we split up?" Before she could answer, Lin Ye cut her short, "You must remember."
"... To protect the princess at all cost," She told him this.
Lin Ye smiled at her answer. Then he placed his hand on Lily's head, earning him a quick and confused glance from her.
"Seeing that I am able to spoil her like this, you did as I told amazingly," Lin Ye smiled at his sister and glanced back at the confused Kylin, "So thank you. Thank you for protecting her for me."
Hearing such sincere words coming from the true ruler of Yan directed at her, Leizi was dazed.
"I-!" Leizi's mind had short-circuited because she did not know how to respond to all of this so suddenly. Finally, she was able to stammer out a reply.
"T-Thank you for your kind words, Your Highness!"
With her face tinted red, she stammered the words out.
Lin Ye looked at her, confused due to her strange behaviour, but nonetheless, he smiled at her.
Ye glanced back at both of his little sis and saw something he did not expect.
Nian and Lily were glaring at him.
Well, trying to, at least.
It was more of a pout from Lin Ye's point of view.
"Gege, you're dangerous," Lily said to him.
"Mhm!" Nian nodded at him.
Although he was confused by their comment, he still needed to do something.
Alone.
"Hui-Chieh. Leizi," He called their names, "Although I want nothing more to talk more with you both, you must be here to escort both of them back?"
Ch'en nodded at him. She then pointed at Leizi, who finally calmed down.
"Yes, she is with the white hair girl," Then she pointed at herself," I am with Li."
Lin Ye hummed at her answer. He looked at both of his sisters and smiled at them.
"I think you both need to leave," This made both of them conflicted. Seeing this, Lin Ye rubbed both of their heads, "Don't give me that look. Remember, we have a big day tomorrow."
Nian and Lily finally nodded when he said this. After he was done rubbing their heads, Nian made her way to Warfarin's side while Lily went to Hu.
"See you tomorrow then." Lin Ye said to all of them
Warfarin huffed but still had a smile as she stared at him, "I still need to make sure you will be able to go anywhere tomorrow."
Leizi and Hu lightly bow at him.
Hui-Chieh nodded and waved.
All of them slowly left the room.
The last two that left the room were Nian and Lily. Both gave him a quick glance before they closed the door and followed the rest.
Now alone, Lin Ye glanced to the side of his bed to see a phone, his phone, resting not far from him. He stretched his hand and grabbed it from the desk.
He needed to make a call real quick.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Lily looked outside of the car window. In the car, she was with Old Man Hu and Hui-Chieh. Both of them were in front while she was alone at the back. The former was driving while the latter was looking out the window. No one said a word as they were enjoying the silence.
"Hui-Chieh. How is it?"
The calm silence of the car ended when the princess asked something.
Ch'en glanced back at her.
"... What do you mean, Li?" She hummed to the princess, "How is Yan reacting to all of this or how is the royal family reacting to this?"
Lily glanced away from the window and stared at the Lung, "Is there a difference?"
"Depends," Ch'en shrugged, "For how Yan is reacting to all this, after the Catastrophe finally settled down, miraculously no civilians died. The media said that all of this was achievable because of how fast the higher-ups responded to all of this. However, some say that they felt like something was protecting them from the disaster. No matter the cause, no one was killed during all of this"
"Good," Ying Li breathed a sigh of relief, "I am glad that everyone is fine."
"Well... Not all were fine," Ch'en sighed, "Some were killed but not confirmed yet. One of those people is the prince himself, Ying Jie."
This name caught Lily's attention.
The person that Gege killed.
"... What did the Royal family do when they knew about this?" Lily asked Ch'en.
"The first prince, Ying Ren made an announcement about this situation," Ch'en started to explain the situation as she stared at Lily, "Based on what he said, after doing the best they could they concluded that the second prince died in the disaster and his body is not found, saying that his body might be washed away into the ocean."
"Died because of a disaster?" Lily did not believe what she was hearing.
Then she remembered who made this announcement, Ying Ren. Although Ren's relationship with Ying Jie was not as bad as Gege and that person's, Ren still would like that Jie was out of the picture.
Less competition.
Gege was not interested in the throne so it was partially his now.
A thought made its way into her mind.
"What about me?" Lily immediately asked Ch'en, "How did they respond to my disappearance?"
"The prince said they are still trying their best to find you," Ch'en explained to her, "For now, you are still missing."
"... I'm missing?"
Lily was confused by all of this. Before meeting Gege, she got a call from Ren, saying that she can come back at any time she liked. The only condition that she needed to do was to not leave the country.
"So, Lily?" Ch'en snapped the princess out of her thoughts by calling, "When do you want to go back?"
This question made Lily think. The most logical thing she should do was to go back immediately and not cause trouble for people. She should do that because it was her responsibility as the princess of Yan.
Although she knew that was the right answer...
Tomorrow is a big day for us.
The voice of Gege echoed in her mind.
Finally, she got the answer.
Although it was not right, it was not bad either.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
In a spacious room, where the wall was coloured bright red and there were a few sofas, a man could be seen sitting on one of them. His black hair which was tied into a low ponytail matched perfectly with his dragon horns and tail. The clothes that he was wearing spoke volumes of what type of world this man was in.
The shirt that he was wearing was black in colour and the sleeves covered his whole arm up until his hand. Although it may look like any normal shirt, it was made from silk. Silk was one of the most expensive materials in Terra.
The prince of Yan, Ying Ren rested his elbow on the armrest and placed his chin on his fist. He stared at the man who was covered in red cloth that bowing in front of him.
"So? Do you have any new information that I need to know?" Ren hummed, "Or is that all, Vice Minister of the Department of Discipline and Supervision, Taihe?"
Hearing how calm the prince was asking him, the Forte lowered his head more to the ground. He did not dare to look at the prince.
"Yes," Taihe reported, "The file you are holding is all we know about this situation, Your Highness."
"I see," Ren hummed as he raised the file that he was still holding with his other hand.
He scanned through the documents one by one. The prince took his time with the document in his hand, he did not want to miss anything. While he was doing all of this Taihe still had his head lowered in front of him. Finally finished with the file, Ren closed it and placed it gently on the other armrest.
Taihe could feel the prince's gaze on him, which made his whole body tense.
"Good work," Hearing this unexpected response from the prince made Taihe raise his head to look at the prince, "You did more than I expected."
Although Taihe couldn't see a smile on the prince's face, he knew that he was pleased with all of this.
This confused Taihe.
"... I do not understand," He stammered out, "We failed."
This was something Taihe truly believed. His department was not able to protect Ying Jie and a lot of soldiers were killed during all of this
"You failed?" He sounded amused at what Taihe was saying, "Strange. You did all you were told to do."
While Taihe got even more confused, Ren leaned back on the sofa and sighed.
"What was my order?" Ren asked the confused bull.
"... To protect the next ruler of Yan."
"Good, you remembered," Ren nodded at his answer, "Answer me this then: who died?"
"... Ying Jie," Taihe slowly understood what was going on now.
"Is that child suited to become that?" Ren asked him.
Taihe did not dare to answer but Ren seemed to get the answer that he wanted.
"Zhen is alive," Ren stated, "Leave Li alone. For the best of this country, we do not want to anger him."
Just as Taihe was about to say something, a ringing came from the prince. Seeing how Ren raised his brow at the sound, he was as confused as him.
Who was calling him on his personal phone?
As he pulled out a phone from his pocket he answered it.
"Hello?"
Judging from how Taihe was kicked out of the room, he could guess the caller was someone important to Ren.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Alone in his room, sitting in his bed, Lin Ye ended the call.
He lowered his hand away from his face and heard something fluttering near him.
He glanced to the side to see the curtain of the window being forced to dance because of the wind. Slouching back, Lin Ye's body relaxed as he sighed. He hummed to himself, enjoying this rare moment of silence. Being alone like this, made him realise something important.
The life he was living now was not something he wanted.
Lin Ye was not someone that enjoyed fighting for his life every month. An uneventful type of life was something he wanted.
Alas, who was he to pick the life that he had?
That was not the only thing that he realised.
In this world...
He's all alone.
"Hoh? What a face you have there~"
Lin Ye sighed when he heard a voice coming from in front of him. He opened his eyes and raised his head to look at the owner of this annoying voice.
A clothed figure could be seen sitting in front of his bed. The smirk that he had was still visible for Lin Ye to see under his hood.
"Shut up," Lin Ye really did not want to deal with the fucker but like everything in his life. He did not have a choice. He folded his arms around his chest and glanced at the man.
This made the man chuckle, "Aww, you still mad about the clean-up?"
Lin Ye's eyes narrowed at this comment, "What do you think?" He pinched his nose, "Out of all things you could use, you pick a goddamn tornado."
"Well, you only asked me to clean up, not how I was going to do it." The man leaned closer to him, "But did you have to cut the prince up like that? It was hard to fix him up. You have no idea how hard and complex it is to stitch up a body."
"Although I made the promise to you, I am curious," Lin Ye hummed, "What do you need that bastard's body for? It's just meat shaped like a man."
The man chuckled at his comment, "How cruel of you to think like that. However, you are not wrong," Then the man gripped the edge of his hood, "Let me show you."
After saying this, the man pulled down his hood. Seeing the face of the man, almost made Lin Ye launch himself at him. Only because of his willpower did Lin Ye not punch that face. Based on how the man was smirking, he noticed how tense Lin Ye was now.
"... What did you do?" Lin Ye's voice was dangerously low now as he asked this to him.
This only made the smirk on the fucker's face grow larger.
A face that did not belong to him.
His black eyes stared into Lin Ye's.
"Ying Jie" hummed as he fixed his jaw.
"The hardest part to fix on this body was its mouth," The man said without the care of the world as he massaged his jaw, "I needed to collect each mush of flesh of him to get this body as fixed as I possibly can. I even had to use his tail to make up the part of his mouth that I did not bother to find." Then he pointed at his head. Then he lifted up one of his arms, "His horns? I used it to make this arm. Did you really have to cut it? It was a pain to attach this damn thing on."
Lin Ye finally got over his previous shock and asked him, "You have a body now?"
He really did not like how he was smiling at him right now. In his defence, who would? The person that you just killed was now smiling in front of you like nothing ever happened to him.
Lin Ye's displeasure was something the man was enjoying, based on how he was smiling at the moment.
"Not quite," He admitted, "It still has some issues."
"Issues?" The question got his attention.
"Well, to start, this body cannot feel," The man, "I cannot feel my own touch. I cannot taste. I cannot hear. I cannot see."
Something was not adding in right now, "... If what you said was true, how can you talk to me now."
"Good question," The man nodded at Lin Ye. Then he opened his eyes and stared at him. At first, Lin Ye did not see anything weird about this, but then he saw his eyes were changing colours from black to blue, "In people's terms, I do not sense anything. But I can sense in my own way."
"How-?"
"Ah ah ah~! Let's not think about it too much, shall we?" The man wiggled his finger at Lin Ye. Then he smirked at him, "Let's talk about what you want from me."
Lin Ye closed his mouth at this. He had a hunch that this man knew what he was about to ask. The only reason why this fucker did not ask was he wanted for him to say it first.
"... Tomorrow," Lin Ye sighed. He really did not care that he was playing around with a corpse and is wearing it now in front of him. What he was about to ask was something much more important than that.
"I have a date with two beautiful people," Lin Ye stared directly at the fucker while the man was smiling at him, "Make sure that nothing happens."
The man tapped on his chin and acted like he was thinking hard about his answer. He glanced back at Lin Ye, "What is in it for me?"
Based on the bright smile the man had on his face when Lin ye gave him his answer, he knew that nothing bad would happen tomorrow.
So his deal with a bastard was secure.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft: Jaq
Proofread: Discord
Edit: Jaq