Unedited chapter
47. The Crown Prince is Defective
Edgar turned his head, saw Ian’s odd expression, and felt helpless for a moment.
It seemed that the way he and Shu Shu looked was a little inappropriate?
"I’ll wait for you outside." Ian said, drawing back and out of the room at lightning speed. After he got outside, he promptly slapped his right hand with his left hand.
Who let you to not knock on the door! And now you saw what you shouldn’t see!
Anyway, there was finally someone who wanted his son . . . .
Ian felt that his decision to not come over and disturb his son during the past few days was simply the most correct. As it happened, the relationship between the sub-beastman and his son was progressing rapidly.
Shu Shu was not aware of Ian"s way of thinking. He wasn’t even aware that his and Edgar"s postures were very questionable. In fact, if it were not for knowing that all humans had to wear clothes, he would’ve already run around naked inside the house with constant temperature!
"The empress is coming, ah! Let"s go out quick!" Shu Shu climbed out of the virtual cabin and then remembered that he was not wearing any clothes. He immediately picked up his clothes and started to put them on, unfazed.
When he first lived together with Edgar, he didn"t stop changing clothes in front of Edgar. Now, he would not feel embarra.s.sed either.
Nevertheless, Edgar was stiff from head to foot and then left the study without saying a word.
Standing at the entrance of the study, Edgar took a few deep breaths, and only then did his whole person calm down. Following this, he couldn’t help but become gloomy again . . . . Shu Shu changed clothes without avoiding him at all. Was it because Shu Shu thought it was unnecessary to avoid him since they’re both beastmen?
Thinking of this, Edgar blinked and went downstairs.
"Mother, is there something that matters for you to come over?" Edgar asked.
"Nothing important. Actually, you and Shu Shu . . . . It’s better if your affair is settled earlier. Even if Shu Shu’s still too young, you can also hold an engagement feast first. Would you like me to prepare it?" Ian replied. He was very well maintained; although he was not young, but he did not look much older than Edgar.
"No need." Edgar refused.
"Why’re you so unconcerned? You’re not worried about being outrivalled by other beastmen?!" Ian took one look at his son, feeling resentful towards him for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement.
Edgar"s face was expressionless. It was impossible for Shu Shu to be robbed by other beastmen. Sub-beastmen, on the contrary . . . . He had to pay more attention to them later!
"By the way, you’ve confessed, right?" Ian asked again.
Edgar nodded.
"That"s good . . . . Shu Shu’s still young, so you more or less have to wait some more, OK." Ian said.
Just a moment ago, Edgar found out that the person he liked was a beastman. Now that he was being questioned closely like this, it was just like someone was sprinkling salt on his wounds . . . . Edgar decided to get the upper hand by taking the initiative to talk, "What made mother come over?"
"Shu Shu, of course." Ian smiled and continued, "You took him to the Imperial Plaza and also sent him to school. Everyone in the upper circles basically knows of his existence, and many people have asked me about him . . . . I’m thinking that it’d be better to hold a banquet to introduce him."
"It’s not necessary." Edgar refused.
"Who said it’s not necessary? Others will probably belittle him if we let him stay in our family without status." Ian said.
At first, Edgar worried about exposing Shu Shu’s particular details, which prompted him to hide Shu Shu away, not wanting to let too many people to take note of Shu Shu. But now, Shu Shu already had a normal ident.i.ty. If he still didn’t introduce Shu Shu to others at this time, it would indeed make people think that Edgar and his family didn"t care about Shu Shu, and then Shu Shu might get bullied at school. "What time?"
"This weekend, I guess." Ian answered. Then, seeing the fully dressed Shu Shu coming down from the upstairs, he gave Shu Shu a smile and said, "Shu Shu, I’m going to hold a banquet in the Imperial palace in a few days. I’ll take you to get some custom-made clothes."
"No need, no need. I have a lot of clothes." Shu Shu promptly replied.
"But you don’t have the clothes for attending the banquet." Ian said, stepping forward and grasping Shu Shu"s hand.
Shu Shu was really not used to getting close to people. After his hand was held, he felt a little uncomfortable, and Edgar happened to notice this.
In the first place, holding hands did not mean anything, but Shu Shu was a beastman. Did he feel uncomfortable because he was holding the hand of a sub-beastman?
Edgar stepped forward and grasped Shu Shu"s hand to pull Shu Shu away from his mother. "Mother, I’ll go too."
Seeing Shu Shu being pulled over by his son, Ian was rather dumbfounded. His son would even get jealous of him?
The clothes that Shu Shu bought before were all ready-to-wear. This time, since it was formal attire, it had to be tailor-made, and it also had to be made by the capital star’s most famous Khamun studio.
Science and technology were very good nowadays. So, taking someone’s measurements naturally didn’t need to be done by hand anymore. After Ian took Shu Shu to see Khamun to get their custom-made clothes, Shu Shu stood in a machine that could scan the whole body, and then, the data of his whole body was all recorded.
Edgar had been following closely behind Shu Shu with a wooden face all this time.
The makers of custom-made clothes were generally sub-beastmen, such as Khamun and his personal a.s.sistants. The beastmen usually wouldn’t get jealous in this situation. But unfortunately, Edgar now couldn’t bear to see any sub-beastman getting close to Shu Shu, so that when a sub-beastman a.s.sistant asked what clothes Shu Shu fancied, Edgar’s face was constantly dark. Edgar also urged Shu Shu to hurry up, and in the end, he even had them make clothes for Shu Shu according to the very ordinary and plain style he chose.
Once they left, an a.s.sistant beside Khamun immediately said, "Master, is that the relative whom the empress brought from a remote planet? It seems that he’s truly a country b.u.mpkin, not understanding anything at all."
"Even if he doesn"t understand anything at all, he’s still the empress’ relative." Khamun replied.
"Master, do you think that His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince will marry him? It should be unlikely, right? Just now, I saw the crown prince looking very unsightly, his face was all black." An a.s.sistant commented.
Another a.s.sistant also said, "Yeah, but maybe the empress will force the crown prince to marry him."
Khamun glanced at his a.s.sistant, slightly approving. The crown prince’s countenance had been perpetually bad today. It could be a.s.sumed that he indeed disliked that sub-beastman very much.
After Ian got onto the aircraft, he glared at Edgar very fiercely for a moment and then used his communication device to sent a message to Edgar. "Stinky boy, chasing after someone isn’t done this way, you know? If you mess around like this, be careful of Shu Shu thinking that you don"t care about him!"
Why did both father and son have the same behavior? When he first came to the capital star with Chris, Chris’ behavior was exactly like this. It eventually made him think that Chris actually didn"t like him and liked the sub-beastman adopted by Chris" parents instead . . . .
Although he later knew that this blunder was the venting of emotions—that guy completely felt that his sub-beastman was too irresistible and, wanting him to be plain and simple, refused to give him the best-looking formal attire—but for a time, it also made him feel very uneasy.
Thinking about it, Ian gave Shu Shu a worried glance and found that Shu Shu was gnawing on a dried meat and seemed to be totally unconcerned about the thing earlier. Ian breathed a sigh of relief.
Edgar deleted the message from his mother. It was already good if he could chase after Shu Shu . . . .
But even if he could not do it, he still liked Shu Shu and didn"t want to give Shu Shu up.
Back in the Imperial palace, Edgar sent Shu Shu back first, letting Shu Shu continue to play the virtual game machine, and then he went to his father’s place together with Ian.
He had something he wanted to discuss with his father before, and now, there was one more thing he wanted to tell them.
What Edgar was going to discuss with his father was that someone wanted to do harm to himself from the beginning.
The murderer had finally been caught. He was a mech great master who once went through fire and water with his father and whom his father trusted very much.
This mech master was a beastman, but he was of the fox race and did not like to fight. He had also never been on the battlefield and had been producing mech instead. And before Edgar went to the battlefield, Edgar had asked him to service his mech.
Edgar had suspected him before while hoping that it was not him. As the truth came out, Edgar honestly didn"t expect that it would really be him. His mood at that time was truly bad.
"We grew up together from childhood." Chris sighed with sorrow, his face full of exhaustion. Although the other party had never been on the front line, but his position was not low at all. Chris could not understand why this person would do something like this.
"One may know a person for a long time without understanding his true nature." Edgar said. That person admitted to harming him and even admitted that he later looked for a snake beastman in the capital star whose beast form was the same as Edgar’s to harm people while posing as Edgar and then to discredit Edgar on the star network. But he firmly refused to speak out why the h.e.l.l he would do such things and also refused to say what method he used to the extent that he chose to kill himself.
It was because of this that Edgar would come to find his father.
"When he died, the trail’s broken. We’ve caught the people below, but those people were contacted by someone through the star network and can"t provide any clues." Chris said.
"What does Father plan to do?" Edgar asked. He supposed everything was that person’s personal move, yet he always felt that this matter was very likely not that simple.
"I’ll continue to pay attention to this matter." Chris said.
Edgar nodded.
"Well, we’re done talking. Let"s go." Finished talking with his son, Chris went down and hinted at his son to leave—he also wanted to spend couple time with his own sub-beastman, OK!
Edgar and Chris went downstairs together and found Ian sitting on the sofa watching an adventure program. Although Ian was a sub-beastman, but he was always very curious about the outside world.
Edgar glanced at his father and then at his mother and suddenly said, "Father, Mother, I have one more thing to say."
"What?" Chris asked in puzzlement.
"My beast bead was lost. It should’ve broken down." Edgar said. After the beast bead left the beastman"s body, if it was not ingested by the sub-beastman, it would break down after a while.
Chris and Ian’s expressions were all stiff. Edgar’s beast bead was lost?
If a beastman"s beast bead was lost, it meant that said beastman could no longer have children. Generally, even if the beast core was shattered, the beast bead would not be lost. Moreover, only if the beastman himself was willing would the beast bead be expelled from within the body. Even a general examination could not detect the existence of the beast bead.
"I was dying then, and I already forgot what I’d lost. I only knew that when I woke up on Ga.s.s planet, not only the beast core was gone, but the beast bead was also gone. If it were not for Shu Shu, I’m afraid that I would die there." Edgar explained.
"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" Ian cursed, gritting his teeth. Those people actually made his son childless!
If a beastman had no beast bead, he was equivalent to being "defective". At present, Edgar was on very good terms with Shu Shu, and Ian totally didn’t expect that Edgar would lie to them. Getting angry now was pointless.
"It"s already very good now." Edgar said. Compared with turning into a fallen beast, merely having no children was pretty good.
The bloodline of the Imperial family was likely to be severed; this was quite a big blow to Chris and Ian. However, they thought Edgar was dead before, and compared to knowing that Edgar had become a fallen beast, this could be regarded as nothing . . . .
"It"s already difficult for the Imperial family to produce an heir in the first place. Sooner or later, the bloodline will be severed . . . . Later on, you go and adopt a child or simply donate the property. It doesn’t matter." Chris said. These two routes were ones he had once considered.
"Thank you." Edgar said. He knew that saying this might probably make his father and mother angry and upset, but this thing had better be said as soon as possible.
Anyway, it’s better for him to have no beast bead than turning into a fallen beast. Now was the time when his parents would likely be most accepting towards such a thing.
"What did you thank us for?" Ian frowned. "Shu Shu, on the contrary, what’re you going to do with him?"
"I’ll tell Shu Shu." Edgar said.
"You definitely must make it clear that if Shu Shu isn’t willing, you won"t lay a finger on him." Ian sighed and, thinking of Edgar"s previous att.i.tude, fought the urge to get angry again. "Also, you treat Shu Shu well in the future. Don"t mess around! You’ve already let him down!" His own son was actually infertile. The more Ian thought about this, the more he felt sorry for Shu Shu.
"I know." Edgar replied. Then he bowed to his parents and left.
Chris and Ian glanced at each other, a little troubled . . . . Their son was actually "defective". This was truly a major bad luck.
When Edgar returned to his own residence, Shu Shu was reading and eating at the same time. He ate very quickly, and both his cheeks bulged up.
This boy who clearly looked like a sub-beastman was actually a beastman, but Edgar still liked him very much. Taking in Shu Shu’s appearance, Edgar took a deep breath and expelled the beast bead in his body one more time.
When he told his parents that his beast bead had been lost, he was already prepared . . . .
Handing over the red bead to Shu Shu, Edgar said, "This is for you."