Zong Yan thought Edward had changed a lot.
In the past, the young prince was childish and even somewhat naïve, but the current Edward was a solid, qualified heir.
After the death of his father and his covert struggle with the other heirs, Edward transformed from a carefree, spoiled little prince to the true sovereign of the nation.
After he greeted Zong Yan and Wang KeMing and brought them into the palace, he said with some embarrassment that he needed to visit the royal tailor to try on clothes for the coronation. Zong Yan and Wang KeMing expressed their understanding. After all, they’d arrived here as a surprise for Edward. The coronation was about to take place and they knew he’d be busy. They ended up going along with him as bystanders.
During the fitting, they watched Edward methodically try on clothes while having a conference call with the prime minister.
It seemed that several members of the royal family still had mischief on their minds and were secretly plotting a rebellion to take over the country. They’d resorted to dirty methods. Edward was distracted for a while. It wasn’t an easy thing to decide whether to attack your closest relatives.
“The situation isn’t clear at the moment, Your Royal Highness. They’ll most likely choose to act on the day of the coronation.”
The prime minister disagreed. Over the phone he kept persuading Edward to take action immediately.
Edward had come out on top so far and was cooperating closely with the Spire Council. If he wanted to move, there was nothing to stop him.
In addition, the other prince and princess had sold out the interests of their own nation and joined up with the reactionary forces of a foreign country. Everyone in the cabinet was furious. The prime minister petitioned Edward, hoping he’d attack immediately.
“I see.”
When Edward spoke, his blue eyes were covered with a layer of shadow. The light in his face was dimmed with a layer of hardened ice, which made it difficult to directly meet his gaze.
Edward didn’t reveal his final decision, and perhaps that was because he was affected by Zong Yan and Wang KeMing’s presence. As for the outcome, Zong Yan could guess.
But Zong Yan didn’t mind.
People grow up, just like Zong Yan. After his grandmother fell ill, Zong Yan became responsible for everything in the family. He went from being a teenager to taking on the full burdens of an adult. All it took was a simple life event.
Zong Yan didn’t know the prince’s siblings, and he didn’t know what happened in the past. He wasn’t qualified to comment. Besides, this was someone else’s family business. They were best friends, but it wasn’t his place to tell Edward what to do.
In the short period of half a year, Edward had changed, but so had Zong Yan.
He’d gone from being a normal high school student to the leader of the evil gods, the Lord of the Universe, and from a righteous, unswerving investigator to the biggest infiltrator of them all. Not to mention he had an evil god boyfriend.
The butler in Buckingham Palace was the same elderly man whom Zong Yan had met before. When the butler was showing Zong Yan the way, the butler smiled and said, “His Royal Highness Prince Edward is very fond of you.”
“Hahaha.” Zong Yan smiled with a tinge of awkwardness. “That’s because we’re good friends.”
He didn’t know why, but he felt a little guilty when he said the words “good friend”.
An investigator’s three tools: an old seal, the holy sword of physics, and a friend.
The old seal was good for banishing mythical creatures, and evil gods hated old seals with a passion. To them, old seals were as appealing as poop.
The holy sword of physics was better known as a crowbar. Investigators always carried one when they went on missions. A crowbar was so useful it could be called a holy relic.
As for the ‘friend’… when you’re about to be taken out by an otherworldly monster, a friend becomes a disposable item. If used properly, a friend is a consumable that can be exchanged for the good fortune of allowing an investigator to escape with their life.
The butler was obviously unaware of the reference, so the gray-haired old man narrowed his eyes in a smile. He suddenly lowered his voice. “His Royal Highness has been anxious and rather depressed ever since His Majesty’s death. If Mr. Zong has time, I hope you can talk with His Royal Highness more often.”
What the butler didn’t say was that he hadn’t seen a smile on Prince Edward’s face for a long time.
His Royal Highness stayed up late the night before, but this morning not only did someone wake him up with a phone call, they were also able to make Prince Edward jump out of bed. It was astonishing to see him wash up in such a hurry. He even ran out in his pajamas.
Such a thing would never happen unless this was a very important friend.
The old butler felt relieved. Edward always had a shadow in his heart because of the late queen, which was difficult to overcome.
After so many years, the old butler knew just about everything. He knew how much the old king genuinely loved his little son, and he knew Edward hadn’t been aware of the full story.
The previous king Lanchester II wanted to repair their shaky relationship, otherwise he wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to the crown prince’s admission to Miskatonic University.
But perhaps Edward couldn’t look past the resentment of so many years, or maybe he wasn’t able to overcome the barrier in his heart. After learning the truth about his mother and everything that happened back then, he instinctively chose to escape and still found it difficult to accept the truth.
After all, no matter what else happened, Lanchester II had betrayed his marriage. That was an absolute fact.
What makes people human is the fact that they’re imperfect. Not to mention Edward was a small child at the time.
“I don’t blame him.”
When Lanchester II was lying in the hospital bed, he said to the old butler, “The blame is mine. I… wasn’t a very good father.”
Lanchester II had a long and distinguished public life. He’d even gone through the turbulent period of World War II, but there were many things he regretted.
It wasn’t until his death that a secret letter, which had been written long before, was handed over to Edward.
Edward shut himself in his room for an entire day and night. By the time he came out, the tray in his hand only contained the letter’s ashes.
His eyes were red and bloodshot. After he emerged, he ordered the immediate destruction of the North Tower of Buckingham Palace, particularly the uppermost section.
“I will, don’t worry.”
Since this was for his friend, Zong Yan naturally agreed and said he would do his best to look after Edward’s mental health.
The next day, Zong Yan got up early and sent a message from his phone. It disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea. Wang KeMing was probably still sleeping, so Zong Yan shook his head and left the room.
“Didn’t sleep well last night?”
When he saw the young prince with obvious dark green shadows under his eyes, Zong Yan froze for a moment.
“Well, I had a nightmare,” Edward said in a wan voice.
Strangely enough, last night Edward had a bizarre and horrible dream.
Although he couldn’t remember the exact content of the dream, the feeling of panic he’d experienced remained with him. It was like another being was present….
“Do you want to get more sleep?”
Zong Yan saw Edward was under the weather, so he reached out to touch the little prince’s forehead. But his friend looked up with a frightened face and dodged by instinct.
Zong Yan: “…?”
He waved his hand in front of Edward’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, I do seem to be a little out of sorts.” After moving by reflex, Edward realized what he’d just done. He quickly apologized, feeling somewhat embarrassed. “I had a bad dream last night. Somehow I kept hearing a terrifying voice telling me not to have physical contact with you…?”
In fact, there were other details, but Edward wasn’t quite ready to talk about them.
He’d also dreamed about jumping out of the car in his pajamas. Just as he was about to spring forward and hug Zong Yan, a bottomless black hole opened up beneath him. He immediately fell into the hole, then set off on a fantastic, unbelievable adventure. Of course, it was the kind of adventure you experience in a horror movie.
The enemies in every level had Zong Yan’s face, so that when Edward saw Zong Yan right now, he felt a vague pain in his stomach, almost like PTSD.
It was obviously just a nightmare, but it felt like years had passed, and the feeling of doom was incredible.
Edward even began to wonder if his dear brother and sister had joined forces and gone to Southeast Asia to curse him with an evil spell.
“Maybe I just haven’t woken up yet. I confused reality with dreams.”
The little prince hung his head with chagrin and gave Zong Yan an apologetic glance.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Go back to bed for a while.”
When Zong Yan heard his friend describe his dream, he immediately knew the culprit.
He felt a little embarrassed to have caused his friend to end up like this.
Zong Yan recalled the magic pattern he obtained from the Black Pharaoh’s pyramid. He gently pressed the center of Edward’s forehead, blessing his friend to have good dreams.
“No, I can’t sleep now.”
Just after Zong Yan finished casting the spell, Edward suddenly took his hand.
Zong Yan: “…”
He stared at his hand which was gripped in Edward’s and inwardly lit a candle for his friend. “What’s wrong?”
“It wasn’t easy for you to come here. School will start up soon. If I go back to sleep I’ll waste time we could have spent with each other.” The little prince in his pajamas said with a righteous face, “You’re my only friend. We shouldn’t waste a single minute when we’re together.”
Edward wasn’t sure why, but after saying these words he felt an intense chill around his body.
“Well, that’s true.”
Zong Yan gave an awkward but polite smile and made a slight adjustment to his vision.
When he looked around again, he saw a constellation of glowing, luminous eyes distributed everywhere around the room. There were so many eyes that they were arranged in dense layers. Each one was staring at him eerily, as if he’d just been caught committing adultery.
These eyes were the medium used by the true body of the Lord of the Gate to observe different dimensions. The moment Zong Yan saw them, his scalp began to tingle like he was developing a phobia.
The mighty One-in-All had no need of physical organs to observe the cosmos. Zong Yan had a reasonable suspicion that Yog was messing with him.
Edward wasn’t able to detect the frightening scene around them and had no idea he was standing in front of a crowd of disembodied eyes. When he saw that Zong Yan’s face wasn’t right, he asked with concern, “Did you have trouble sleeping too?”
The little prince completely ignored Zong Yan’s hesitation and took Zong Yan by the hand to lead him. His smile was incredibly bright.
“Come on, let’s go to my room. We’ll lie in bed and talk. If we feel tired we can just sleep together.”
—
The author has something to say:
Danger, Edward, Danger.
YaYa got a sudden inspiration when writing this chapter. I was even able to add some eye play (lightly). As it turns out, our evil god operates in a multitude of ways. Everything impossible can be made possible.
TL Notes:
""an investigator’s three tools – Refer to Ch. 54 for the note about “a friend, a crowbar, and an old seal”
PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder
eye play – The word “play” was in the raw – Yog was using his actual eyes, but I think it usually means something like voyeurism
I’m heading home tomorrow. Bad weather is expected so I really have no idea what time I’ll arrive or when I’ll be able to post.
I hope everyone is having a Merry Cthulhu-mas! (✿◕▽◕)
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
Zong Yan thought Edward had changed a lot.
In the past, the young prince was childish and even somewhat naïve, but the current Edward was a solid, qualified heir.
After the death of his father and his covert struggle with the other heirs, Edward transformed from a carefree, spoiled little prince to the true sovereign of the nation.
After he greeted Zong Yan and Wang KeMing and brought them into the palace, he said with some embarrassment that he needed to visit the royal tailor to try on clothes for the coronation. Zong Yan and Wang KeMing expressed their understanding. After all, they’d arrived here as a surprise for Edward. The coronation was about to take place and they knew he’d be busy. They ended up going along with him as bystanders.
During the fitting, they watched Edward methodically try on clothes while having a conference call with the prime minister.
It seemed that several members of the royal family still had mischief on their minds and were secretly plotting a rebellion to take over the country. They’d resorted to dirty methods. Edward was distracted for a while. It wasn’t an easy thing to decide whether to attack your closest relatives.
“The situation isn’t clear at the moment, Your Royal Highness. They’ll most likely choose to act on the day of the coronation.”
The prime minister disagreed. Over the phone he kept persuading Edward to take action immediately.
Edward had come out on top so far and was cooperating closely with the Spire Council. If he wanted to move, there was nothing to stop him.
In addition, the other prince and princess had sold out the interests of their own nation and joined up with the reactionary forces of a foreign country. Everyone in the cabinet was furious. The prime minister petitioned Edward, hoping he’d attack immediately.
“I see.”
When Edward spoke, his blue eyes were covered with a layer of shadow. The light in his face was dimmed with a layer of hardened ice, which made it difficult to directly meet his gaze.
Edward didn’t reveal his final decision, and perhaps that was because he was affected by Zong Yan and Wang KeMing’s presence. As for the outcome, Zong Yan could guess.
But Zong Yan didn’t mind.
People grow up, just like Zong Yan. After his grandmother fell ill, Zong Yan became responsible for everything in the family. He went from being a teenager to taking on the full burdens of an adult. All it took was a simple life event.
Zong Yan didn’t know the prince’s siblings, and he didn’t know what happened in the past. He wasn’t qualified to comment. Besides, this was someone else’s family business. They were best friends, but it wasn’t his place to tell Edward what to do.
In the short period of half a year, Edward had changed, but so had Zong Yan.
He’d gone from being a normal high school student to the leader of the evil gods, the Lord of the Universe, and from a righteous, unswerving investigator to the biggest infiltrator of them all. Not to mention he had an evil god boyfriend.
The butler in Buckingham Palace was the same elderly man whom Zong Yan had met before. When the butler was showing Zong Yan the way, the butler smiled and said, “His Royal Highness Prince Edward is very fond of you.”
“Hahaha.” Zong Yan smiled with a tinge of awkwardness. “That’s because we’re good friends.”
He didn’t know why, but he felt a little guilty when he said the words “good friend”.
An investigator’s three tools: an old seal, the holy sword of physics, and a friend.
The old seal was good for banishing mythical creatures, and evil gods hated old seals with a passion. To them, old seals were as appealing as poop.
The holy sword of physics was better known as a crowbar. Investigators always carried one when they went on missions. A crowbar was so useful it could be called a holy relic.
As for the ‘friend’… when you’re about to be taken out by an otherworldly monster, a friend becomes a disposable item. If used properly, a friend is a consumable that can be exchanged for the good fortune of allowing an investigator to escape with their life.
The butler was obviously unaware of the reference, so the gray-haired old man narrowed his eyes in a smile. He suddenly lowered his voice. “His Royal Highness has been anxious and rather depressed ever since His Majesty’s death. If Mr. Zong has time, I hope you can talk with His Royal Highness more often.”
What the butler didn’t say was that he hadn’t seen a smile on Prince Edward’s face for a long time.
His Royal Highness stayed up late the night before, but this morning not only did someone wake him up with a phone call, they were also able to make Prince Edward jump out of bed. It was astonishing to see him wash up in such a hurry. He even ran out in his pajamas.
Such a thing would never happen unless this was a very important friend.
The old butler felt relieved. Edward always had a shadow in his heart because of the late queen, which was difficult to overcome.
After so many years, the old butler knew just about everything. He knew how much the old king genuinely loved his little son, and he knew Edward hadn’t been aware of the full story.
The previous king Lanchester II wanted to repair their shaky relationship, otherwise he wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to the crown prince’s admission to Miskatonic University.
But perhaps Edward couldn’t look past the resentment of so many years, or maybe he wasn’t able to overcome the barrier in his heart. After learning the truth about his mother and everything that happened back then, he instinctively chose to escape and still found it difficult to accept the truth.
After all, no matter what else happened, Lanchester II had betrayed his marriage. That was an absolute fact.
What makes people human is the fact that they’re imperfect. Not to mention Edward was a small child at the time.
“I don’t blame him.”
When Lanchester II was lying in the hospital bed, he said to the old butler, “The blame is mine. I… wasn’t a very good father.”
Lanchester II had a long and distinguished public life. He’d even gone through the turbulent period of World War II, but there were many things he regretted.
It wasn’t until his death that a secret letter, which had been written long before, was handed over to Edward.
Edward shut himself in his room for an entire day and night. By the time he came out, the tray in his hand only contained the letter’s ashes.
His eyes were red and bloodshot. After he emerged, he ordered the immediate destruction of the North Tower of Buckingham Palace, particularly the uppermost section.
“I will, don’t worry.”
Since this was for his friend, Zong Yan naturally agreed and said he would do his best to look after Edward’s mental health.
The next day, Zong Yan got up early and sent a message from his phone. It disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea. Wang KeMing was probably still sleeping, so Zong Yan shook his head and left the room.
“Didn’t sleep well last night?”
When he saw the young prince with obvious dark green shadows under his eyes, Zong Yan froze for a moment.
“Well, I had a nightmare,” Edward said in a wan voice.
Strangely enough, last night Edward had a bizarre and horrible dream.
Although he couldn’t remember the exact content of the dream, the feeling of panic he’d experienced remained with him. It was like another being was present….
“Do you want to get more sleep?”
Zong Yan saw Edward was under the weather, so he reached out to touch the little prince’s forehead. But his friend looked up with a frightened face and dodged by instinct.
Zong Yan: “…?”
He waved his hand in front of Edward’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, I do seem to be a little out of sorts.” After moving by reflex, Edward realized what he’d just done. He quickly apologized, feeling somewhat embarrassed. “I had a bad dream last night. Somehow I kept hearing a terrifying voice telling me not to have physical contact with you…?”
In fact, there were other details, but Edward wasn’t quite ready to talk about them.
He’d also dreamed about jumping out of the car in his pajamas. Just as he was about to spring forward and hug Zong Yan, a bottomless black hole opened up beneath him. He immediately fell into the hole, then set off on a fantastic, unbelievable adventure. Of course, it was the kind of adventure you experience in a horror movie.
The enemies in every level had Zong Yan’s face, so that when Edward saw Zong Yan right now, he felt a vague pain in his stomach, almost like PTSD.
It was obviously just a nightmare, but it felt like years had passed, and the feeling of doom was incredible.
Edward even began to wonder if his dear brother and sister had joined forces and gone to Southeast Asia to curse him with an evil spell.
“Maybe I just haven’t woken up yet. I confused reality with dreams.”
The little prince hung his head with chagrin and gave Zong Yan an apologetic glance.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Go back to bed for a while.”
When Zong Yan heard his friend describe his dream, he immediately knew the culprit.
He felt a little embarrassed to have caused his friend to end up like this.
Zong Yan recalled the magic pattern he obtained from the Black Pharaoh’s pyramid. He gently pressed the center of Edward’s forehead, blessing his friend to have good dreams.
“No, I can’t sleep now.”
Just after Zong Yan finished casting the spell, Edward suddenly took his hand.
Zong Yan: “…”
He stared at his hand which was gripped in Edward’s and inwardly lit a candle for his friend. “What’s wrong?”
“It wasn’t easy for you to come here. School will start up soon. If I go back to sleep I’ll waste time we could have spent with each other.” The little prince in his pajamas said with a righteous face, “You’re my only friend. We shouldn’t waste a single minute when we’re together.”
Edward wasn’t sure why, but after saying these words he felt an intense chill around his body.
“Well, that’s true.”
Zong Yan gave an awkward but polite smile and made a slight adjustment to his vision.
When he looked around again, he saw a constellation of glowing, luminous eyes distributed everywhere around the room. There were so many eyes that they were arranged in dense layers. Each one was staring at him eerily, as if he’d just been caught committing adultery.
These eyes were the medium used by the true body of the Lord of the Gate to observe different dimensions. The moment Zong Yan saw them, his scalp began to tingle like he was developing a phobia.
The mighty One-in-All had no need of physical organs to observe the cosmos. Zong Yan had a reasonable suspicion that Yog was messing with him.
Edward wasn’t able to detect the frightening scene around them and had no idea he was standing in front of a crowd of disembodied eyes. When he saw that Zong Yan’s face wasn’t right, he asked with concern, “Did you have trouble sleeping too?”
The little prince completely ignored Zong Yan’s hesitation and took Zong Yan by the hand to lead him. His smile was incredibly bright.
“Come on, let’s go to my room. We’ll lie in bed and talk. If we feel tired we can just sleep together.”
—
The author has something to say:
Danger, Edward, Danger.
YaYa got a sudden inspiration when writing this chapter. I was even able to add some eye play (lightly). As it turns out, our evil god operates in a multitude of ways. Everything impossible can be made possible.
TL Notes:
""an investigator’s three tools – Refer to Ch. 54 for the note about “a friend, a crowbar, and an old seal”
PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder
eye play – The word “play” was in the raw – Yog was using his actual eyes, but I think it usually means something like voyeurism
I’m heading home tomorrow. Bad weather is expected so I really have no idea what time I’ll arrive or when I’ll be able to post.
I hope everyone is having a Merry Cthulhu-mas! (✿◕▽◕)
[ Project Page | Ko-Fi ✿ | Other translations by Confectioner ]
