OVPBM 31

Chapter 31 – “Only I Can Look at It Here.”

The corners of Lu Yunwan’s eyes were faintly red, his breathing trembling with emotion.

His slightly disordered breaths brushed against Chu Xuanzhou’s collarbone like warm ocean waves, colliding there without rhythm.

The young man’s heartbeat was thrown into disarray as well.

“But…” Chu Xuanzhou tried to speak. He seemed to want to continue fighting for himself.

The Regent would not allow it.

“Your Highness…” Lu Yunwan lifted his head and looked straight into Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes. His hand slid to the young man’s collar and seized it tightly. “You can never leave me…”

An overwhelming possessiveness and despair nearly crushed him.

Lu Yunwan’s voice grew softer, fading until it was no more than a dreamlike murmur.

When he finished speaking, he let out a soft cough.

An unbearable itch gnawed through his heart and lungs. Before long, several specks of bright red spilled from the corner of his lips.

Yet, as if afraid that Chu Xuanzhou might disappear from his sight the moment he loosened his grip, he refused to let go even in that state.

Chu Xuanzhou raised his hand before he realized it, intending to wipe the blood from Lu Yunwan’s lips.

But before he could touch them, that warmth suddenly pressed against his own collarbone.

The person before him seemed to think he was about to push him away, and leaned in to bite the merman, attempting to punish him with pain.

It was only in the instant when warm lips collided with the merman’s cold, unyielding skin, when the chill spread between teeth and lips, that Lu Yunwan, who had become too immersed in the act, finally came back to his senses.

Ahhh!

What the hell?! That’s so perverted! Am I some kind of zombie? Why am I biting someone?!

…But since I’ve already bitten him, and it’s come to this, I can’t exactly let go now, can I?

As the saying goes, “Spilled water cannot be gathered again.”

Having fully regained his senses, Lu Yunwan paused for a moment. In the end, for the sake of the Regent’s dignity, he could only continue applying pressure gradually.

A merman’s body was exceptionally hard. Lu Yunwan felt as though he were biting into stone.

Yet at the same time, all Chu Xuanzhou felt was a tingling sensation, and his body gave a slight shiver.

Lu Yunwan’s teeth posed virtually no threat to him.

After several seconds, Lu Yunwan seemed to realize this as well.

He slowly loosened his teeth and lowered his head with a soft laugh.

“Your Highness…” His breathing disrupted his voice as it passed through the young man’s long hair to reach his ear. “You will never be able to leave me…”

He repeated the sentence again and again, as though he did not know whether he was saying it to Chu Xuanzhou or to himself.

Lu Yunwan’s heartbeat slowly settled into a state of calm.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he finally straightened slowly and stepped back half a pace.

By the faint glimmer of light outside the window, Lu Yunwan saw what he had expected.

Sure enough, not even the slightest tooth mark had been left on Chu Xuanzhou’s body!

The young man’s collar was stained with his blood, while only a faint red mark lingered at his collarbone, looking unbearably ambiguous.

He immediately shifted his gaze away, then looked deeply into Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes with utmost tenderness.

“Your Highness, promise me.”

In contrast to that infinitely gentle gaze, Lu Yunwan’s voice was icy, carrying an overwhelming force.

Chu Xuanzhou could not refuse.

* * *

The next day was the anniversary celebration of the Imperial Military Academy.

The event was held on the largest artificial island on Planet Chenmu.

The island sat at a relatively high latitude. At six in the morning, a thick layer of mist still hung over the sea.

The faint blue light on the elevated platform diffused through the fog. With just a single glance, one could almost feel a chill that seeped into the bones.

Yanwei was the only legion in the Empire whose uniform was black.

Before Lu Yunwan arrived, the soldiers of the Yanwei Legion were already standing in perfect formation on both sides of the platform.

Nearly a hundred thousand students from the Imperial Military Academy, along with other invited guests, were already standing there early in the morning, waiting for him.

Although he had been in this world for quite some time, at the moment he stepped out of the starship hatch, Lu Yunwan still could not help but feel shaken.

The damp, frigid wind penetrated through his thin military uniform and coiled around him. The black-clad guards at his side, armed with live ammunition, immediately pressed their hands to their hearts and dropped to one knee the instant they saw him arrive.

From Lu Yunwan’s vantage point, beyond the thick sea fog ahead, there was nothing but a vast, dense mass of silhouettes.

They were too far away for him to make out a single face.

But Lu Yunwan knew that among them were both those who admired him and those who regarded him as an enemy.

In that moment, separated by the lingering sea mist, Lu Yunwan seemed to truly merge with this identity and become the Regent of the Empire.

Within the dark blue haze, his figure looked somewhat solitary.

He frowned slightly, and for once, the faint smile he usually wore was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone watching the live broadcast on the StarNet witnessed this scene.

To Lu Yunwan, the Imperial Military Academy’s anniversary celebration was somewhat dull.

After the principal finished recounting the academy’s historical development, it was followed by various mecha performances.

In the months since he had transmigrated into this book, Lu Yunwan had not only observed the Yanwei Legion’s daily training, but he had even personally experienced being surrounded and attacked. Compared to that, these school performances were unbearably boring.

After watching for a while, his mind began to drift.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the mechas suspended in midair finally descended one by one, and everyone’s attention once again focused on the high platform.

Is it finally over?

Lu Yunwan, eager to get off work, immediately perked up.

But he had barely felt pleased for a few seconds when an official seated beside him shot to his feet and spoke… donating a starship to the academy?

When the next person rose to their feet, Lu Yunwan finally realized that today’s event actually included a donation segment.

But I have not brought anything at all!

The original host had been able to rise to his position largely because of his authoritarian tendencies.

Aside from Chu Xuanzhou, his nominal assistant, there was not a single secretary or aide by the Regent’s side to help manage his affairs.

Thus, until this very moment, no one had reminded Lu Yunwan that attending an anniversary celebration required preparing a gift.

Not far away, the hovering camera adjusted its angle and turned toward Lu Yunwan.

And the Imperial Military Academy’s principal, Fang Yixue, looked at him with an expectant smile, nodding slightly in his direction.

Lu Yunwan smiled faintly and looked toward the distant starships and mechas.

He had truly come empty-handed this time.

“Your Excellency the Regent…” Seeing that Lu Yunwan remained silent, Fang Yixue called out to him softly.

In the next second, Lu Yunwan finally lifted his head.

He might not have brought anything, but he had money!

His gaze drifted into the distance. “It is a great honor to have spent the most important four years of my life at the Imperial Military Academy. On the occasion of this anniversary celebration, I will establish a foundation in my personal capacity…”

“To help more humans step into the interstellar era,” he said softly.

The hovering camera faithfully recorded the scene and broadcast it across every corner of the StarNet.

The first half of Lu Yunwan’s speech was entirely official rhetoric, nothing unexpected.

But upon hearing the latter sentence, even Fang Yixue beside him could not help but look over in shock.

—Lu Yunwan’s meaning was clear. He intended to sponsor humans?

In the interstellar realm, everyone knew that Lu Yunwan was human. Yet his conduct and his suppression of his own kind often made people forget that he himself was human.

If no one’s memory was mistaken, this seemed to be the first time in all these years that Lu Yunwan had explicitly proposed helping humans.

Just because of that single sentence from him, the StarNet froze for several seconds.

Immediately afterward, its users, along with countless officials across the Empire, began analyzing every word of what he had just said.

In truth, Lu Yunwan had not thought that far ahead at all.

As someone preparing to fake his death and become an ordinary human, it would be impossible for him to transfer all of the original host’s assets away.

Establishing this foundation would not only prevent waste but also allow there to be a few more humans among the Empire’s upper ranks in the future. It was killing two birds with one stone!

After the anniversary ceremony came a luncheon.

In addition to the guests, some outstanding students and nobles studying at the academy were also invited to the banquet hall.

Lu Yunwan was dressed in the same military uniform as before, the neat double-breasted buttons covering every inch of skin on his body.

Chu Xuanzhou, however, who did not hold a post within the legion, wore only formal attire.

Lu Yunwan noticed that beneath Chu Xuanzhou’s outerwear was a gray silk shirt. The top two buttons were left undone.

With the movement of his body, the faint red mark at his collarbone appeared and disappeared intermittently.

Chu Xuanzhou himself seemed unaware of it, but quite a few people passing by were casting ambiguous glances in their direction.

It was obvious that before long, yet another rumor about the Regent and His Highness the Ninth Prince would spread across the entire interstellar realm.

Lu Yunwan silently tightened his grip on the wineglass in his hand.

…So embarrassing, unbelievably embarrassing!

By the time they were about to enter the banquet hall, Lu Yunwan could no longer endure it.

“Your Highness.” He snapped his gaze toward Chu Xuanzhou.

His gaze first settled on the young man’s beautiful violet eyes, then slowly drifted downward, like the tongue of a snake brushing over his body, finally stopping at his collarbone.

“I don’t like your clothes,” Lu Yunwan said with a slight frown.

His eyes were filled with affection and possessiveness, his tone uncharacteristically willful.

“But you were the one who gave them to me,” the young man replied, somewhat puzzled.

All the clothes he had worn since arriving at Planet Cangrui had been sent by the Regent.

Lu Yunwan paused for a moment, finally recalling that such a thing had indeed happened.

I absolutely cannot contradict myself now…

He placed a hand on Chu Xuanzhou’s shoulder, then frowned at his collar.

“But I don’t like them now,” Lu Yunwan said, shaking his head.

He let out a soft sigh. “Your Highness, everything about you belongs to me. Your eyes, your lips… even your skin.”

As soon as he finished speaking, before Chu Xuanzhou could react, Lu Yunwan’s hand moved to the young man’s neck. With great patience, he fastened the buttons one by one.

Chu Xuanzhou held his breath at once. He did not dare disturb Lu Yunwan’s movements, greedily savoring this tenderness instead.

From his angle, Lu Yunwan’s chin was almost resting against his chest.

A faint fragrance wafted toward him, and Chu Xuanzhou inhaled deeply.

As he moved, Lu Yunwan’s fingertips brushed lightly across his neck.

The young man heard him whisper softly, “Your Highness, all of this belongs to me. Only I am allowed to look at it here…”

His voice was saturated with possessiveness.

And as Lu Yunwan murmured those words, Chu Xuanzhou’s gaze fell unbidden into the human’s dark eyes, deep as night.

Lu Yunwan’s words were like a spell, striking against his heart with every syllable.

𓇼 ˚｡⋆ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Author’s Note:

Lu Yunwan: Your Highness, pull up your collar. Guard your virtue as a man!