Chapter 185: 34

Chapter 185: 34

"So" A freshly cleaned Jia Hyson coughs awkwardly as he hovers cross-legged by Mr Garth's shoulder. "How's the noodles?"

Prince Rigel stares stonily at him, but the fast pace in which he was slurping his noodles, despite his teary eyes, betrayed his true enjoyment. Even though he had gotten used to the more exotic meals and reluctantly admitted they had various appetising appeals, his spice tolerance was not good, and the medium spicy level broth really brought him to tears.

Unfortunately, he had also become a bit addicted to the painful but delicious taste of chilli, resulting in this embarrassing state he refused to show in public. However, the prince could no longer care and chose to lose himself in the painful spicy flavour.

"Prince Rigel, sorry to barge in unannounced." Mr Garth apologizes with half-hearted formalities as he calmly adjusts the fluffy mint green women's dressing gown that was barely covering his muscular body.

Because he had rushed here with Jia Hyson in hand, he currently didn't have much in the way of luggage and clothing resulting in his current predicament. Fortunately, Jia Hyson liked the cute oversized look, so there were still a few things that barely fit the older vampire. Mr Garth was quite thick-faced and didn't mind wearing such clothes though it was a little uncomfortably tight in some places, so he had no opinion on his part. And Jia Hyson found it quite sexy. So it was really only Prince Rigel who had to endure having spicy eyes*.

*eyes are burning, usually when seeing something visually either not pleasant or scandalous or just like wtfness

"Hmm." Prince Rigel haughtily sneers as he swallows down a mouthful of noodles. Patting his mouth with a napkin elegantly, he raises a brow, "And when, pray tell, will you barge out?"

"Darrian will be staying here," Jia Hyson grabs Mr Garth's broad shoulder and drags him over to hug his neck intimately while he continues to float in the air. "Don't worry, he's house-trained."

"Says the person who just squir-" The older vampire was immediately smacked on the head by an embarrassed Jia Hyson. "Sorry, babe." He apologetically twists his neck in order to give the other a soft peck, making the younger vampire lower his eyes shyly, a soft smile gracing his lips.

Prince Rigel's eye flickers over both of them, his beautiful face complicated for a moment before he sighs heavily and lifts the bowl of soup to drink, hiding his mood for a moment. The burning flavour of chilli stung his throat, and the tears were free-flowing from his eyes, though it was not necessarily because of the spice.

It seems that even for him, some dreams should remain dreams.

After chugging the broth at quite a commendable speed, Prince Rigel wipes his mouth with the back of his hand uncouthly and gaspingly grabs his cup of water to drink. Downing the water, which barely sated the heat in his mouth, he clicks his fingers, and vanilla-scented milk instantly fills up the cup, which he immediately swallows down once more.

Once down, he finishes with a gasp.

Jia Hyson claps lightly, and Mr Garth telekinetically passes him a napkin which the prince takes easily. It seems that he hadn't just swallowed the noodle soup, but also most of his previous budding amorous feelings too, and his whole state had become much calmer and relaxed compared to when he entered the dorm.

Still, relaxed or not, it was possible to not feel sour, looking at the intimate couple before him. "So, how's this gonna work?" He leans back in his seat, staring at them while he dabs the corner of his eyes with the napkin. Because of his tears, the eyepatch was quite soaked and uncomfortable. Prince Rigel hesitates for a moment before taking it off, revealing an eye with a black iris, and thus his heterochromatic eye colouring.

Jia Hyson: '' How many shards were in this world???

"No, wait, before that- you don't have a problem with your eye?" Mr Garth raises his eyebrows and even subconsciously points his finger at the prince's face rather rudely in his shock.

It should be known all images of Prince Rigel had this eyepatch, and no one had ever seen him without it. Many vampires speculated that he was blind in that eye, had an ugly scar or birthmark, or even that he had no eye at all underneath the cloth. Some theorised it was related to his powers, some said it was a genetic defect or an accident from coven infighting, and a few malicious people believed the ill-tempered prince had a moment of a true mental breakdown and stabbed his own eye.

Mr Garth and Jia Hyson didn't expect to see one of the vampire world's mysteries be revealed so casually today. Nor did they expect it would to be like this. For Jia Hyson, who understood Prince Rigel was very likely a shard, it was still quite amazing, but for Mr Garth, who had grown up with vampires that can turn into bubbles and vampires with flowers for hair, this was considerably underwhelming.

Prince Rigel narrows his eyes. "Why would I have a problem with my eye?"

"Your eyepatch." Jia Hyson comments dryly, "It implied there was something wrong with your eye; otherwise, why cover it up?"

"Oh," Prince Rigel glances at the soggy eyepatch before shrugging and staring up at the pair with wide eyes. Even though the deep pitch-black darkness in his left eye sort of disrupted the holy, dream-like angelic feel to his appearance, his long blonde lashes and delicate facial features still made him look innocent and lovely.

When he looked at them, it was like an arrogant but confused little fluffy kitten who didn't understand why their owners were so stupid and not feeding him. It was very cute. So cute, Jia Hyson wanted to slap that pretty face and then whip his even prettier skin kek. "No, the eyepatch was just because it made me look cool."

Jia Hyson and Mr Garth: "."

Mr Garth's mouth twitches. Even with his politeness toward royal vampires, he couldn't help but move his mouth at such a simple reason. "Are you for real?"

"People put oil in their hair and used to use blue pencils to accentuate their veins to look good. What's an eyepatch in retrospect?" Prince Rigel sneers. "It's better looking than those people who are obsessed with sports shoes that Alaric and I saw on the television last night, anyway."

Mr Garth: '' Well, if he puts it like that, it does seem a bit reasonable.

"This does explain why you actually have so many of them in different designs." Jia Hyson comments thoughtfully. After all, they have lived a decent length of time together; it was impossible not to notice. Most of Prince Rigel's eyepatches were fairly plain black with some little small design sewn or printed or inked on.

There were also fancier ones Jia Hyson had never personally seen the Prince wear but noticed when helping the other tidy up his room occasionally. One he vividly remembered was a lovely white scalene triangular one with a simple golden thread design; the most eye-catching thing was that on the corner of the longer two sides meant to dangle down the face was a light teardrop sapphire hanging from the tip with golden wire. When Jia Hyson saw it, he itched to use it for himself; after all, it was very pretty and matched Alaric's eyes so well, but it was clearly a very special-looking eyepatch, so he didn't dare. Besides, he didn't have a suitable outfit for it anyway.

To be honest, he didn't think much about it; after all, it's just making the best out of a bad situation. If you had to wear an eyepatch for the rest of your life, it's a good mindset to accept and flaunt it in fashionable ways rather than to live in embarrassment. Besides, for the first half of their living together, Jia Hyson didn't like Prince Rigel at all, and their general relationship wasn't good, so how could he even ask such a question in the first place? Then once they got along better, he didn't really bother to ask, and they never really got onto the topic in the first place.

Even if he was tempted to ask, it was a bit like not remembering a person's name after meeting them five times; it just felt a bit late unless they brought it up themselves. Jia Hyson had a lot of curiosity, but it wasn't strong enough to overwhelm his actions and cause him to make any faux pas in the end. It was what allowed him to smoothly deal with polite society well enough, to weigh the pros and cons before choosing his words and actions against different people; whether it was to pry or to hold his tongue, it was within his own calculations. Who knew what he thought was a touchy topic was actually so simple to the point it was humorous.

"Hah," Prince Rigel laughs at the mixed expressions of the other two vampires, their confusion and surprise making him feel immediately much better. "Honestly, it's not just that" His smile was wide, and the prince looked extremely lovely and soft as if there was a halo of light behind him as he wiped the corner of his left eye and smiled mischievously, making Mr Garth and Jia Hyson a little dazed. "I also like watching smart vampires, like you guys, overthinking my eyepatch like fools."

Mr Garth's eye twitches. If Prince Rigel wasn't someone in a politically sensitive role, he would have wanted to say something scathing.

Fortunately, Jia Hyson had no such reservations, having gotten familiar with the Eclipse Coven's prince, and didn't hide his sneer. "Under that pretty face of yours, you sure are a little troll, aren't you?"

Prince Rigel widens his eyes innocently and tilts his head, "Perhaps so?"

Under such an exaggerated innocent appearance, Mr Garth couldn't help himself and laughed, "Turns out you're quite a brat like the rest of them; nice to know. No offence, your highness."

Jia Hyson lightly slaps the older vampire, "What do you mean 'like the rest of them?'"

"And how is that 'no offence'?" Prince Rigel retorts haughtily.

"Hey, hey-"

As they all began to banter and bicker, the three slowly sorted out a dynamic as they familiarised themselves with this new combination of people. It was surprisingly not very difficult, especially with Jia Hyson present, who was skilled with filling the silences and keeping the discussion light and interesting. Mr Garth and Prince Rigel, despite their incredibly large differences in appearances, were actually closer to the same age and had met once or thrice previously; coupled with having a shared acquaintance and a much more casual setting, the conversation flowed quite easily.

Prince Rigel, who entered in a bad mood, had relaxed over time. As he sips his water while he listens to Alaric and Mr Garth debate about the pros and cons of making St Lailah's Academy a neutral organisation that was powerful enough to have a say in the Council, Prince Rigel couldn't help but feel this pleasant scene was a little fantastical with himself in it. After all, they were from enemy covens.

But even though he found it a bit strange, uncomfortably bizarre even, he didn't hate it.

To be completely truthful, what he said before about the eyepatch was partly true, partly false. It was true that the reasons he gave indeed were reasons he did have to enjoy wearing an eyepatch, but it was also partially false in that there was far more reason for his choice than just to pursue aesthetics.

His heterochromatic eyes had brought him quite a bit of trouble when he was born. In this world, only those with black eyes are associated with the Golden Rose Coven royalty; generally, only those closely related will express this trait and the further related, the less chance of expressing it.

This usually isn't a big deal and can even be considered a little badge of honour for other vampires. Even if it was just a rare mutation unrelated to the Golden Rose Coven, no one would shun them but just crack a few jokes or produce a few small misunderstandings at best. But for the Eclipse Coven, who hated and was hated by the Golden Rose Coven, of course, it had very different meanings. Not only were the two covens enemies, but also it implied the Eclipse Coven queen had cheated on the Eclipse Coven king. Even if it wasn't true, Prince Rigel's black eye was enough proof for some people, and it could be considered a stain on the royal family's reputation.

Sometimes Prince Rigel felt if it wasn't for this left eye of his, maybe he wouldn't be treated so callously as he had been by the royal family. By his own parents.

But now, the unimportant people who've seen this eye of his have been silenced, and those that couldn't be didn't dare to say anything in the face of his ability and worth. Prince Rigel was already long used to his parent's estrangement and long understood that even without his presence, their family was never a family compared to others. Besides, he was asleep too much to do anything about it anyway. So he didn't hold too much self-hatred for his eyes as one would think; he just felt the eyepatch looked much better.

Touching the corner of his left eye subconsciously again, Prince Rigel's eyes curve as he watches Alaric point his finger half-angrily at Mr Garth, animatedly running his mouth with various logical points before stammering as the older vampire just lightly bites the other's finger. The image was warm, and it was undeniable that it made Prince Rigel envious, but maybe because he was part of the scene too, he felt a little warm himself.

He sips his water again. Well, it's not bad to just keep maintaining their current relationship for now.

Of course, sometimes, what people want is not what people can necessarily get.

"Excuse me for a moment." Mr Garth frowns as he takes out his phone, which started ringing, interrupting the conversation which had meandered into the topic of zombie apocalypses. Looking at the words on the screen, the older vampire gave a heavy sigh and looked at the other two vampires apologetically. "I have to take this."

Jia Hyson smiles understandingly and waves him off. Even though Mr Garth was now on more friendlier terms with Prince Rigel, they were still individuals from opposing covens with many conflicts of interest. In terms of business matters, especially on delicate and private topics such as the human experimentation case, it was inappropriate to allow Prince Rigel to listen in.

Prince Rigel also wasn't offended; if he had gotten a phone call from his own coven, he would've done the same. "You might as well go retrieve your baggage as well." He notes, before wrinkling his nose in disgust, "Unless you two are so enamoured, you already have shared the living space."

Jia Hyson and Mr Garth glance at each other with slight embarrassment. "..I'll go fetch my things too, then." Mr Garth coughs awkwardly before waving himself off and leaving the other two sitting in the room.

As the door closes, Jia Hyson stands up. "I'm going to get some bubble tea from the fridge; you want some?"

"Bubble tea? Oh, the boba. Sure," Prince Rigel stretches his arms languidly like a cat, "Where do you even get those things anyway? I don't think I've ever seen the place."

"It's not my fault you're blind." Jia Hyson snorts, carefully sidestepping the subject. After all, boba wasn't really present here, these were all bought from the BeBay shop. Because the ones from Bebay could be stored for a few weeks and there was a discount if you bought in bulk, Jia Hyson immediately purchased twenty-one cups worth. It can be said it is easier to deny good things when they aren't in front of you.

With so much bubble tea on hand, Jia Hyson had completely let himself go in that aspect and had become too addicted to the high-quality bubble tea the system stores produced. It was especially so after he added the blood boba toppings to it, which completely satiated both the human and vampire sides of him.

Eventually, though, he inevitably got caught by a suspicious Prince Rigel two days ago when he was sneaking around with his cup of hazelnut-flavoured blood boba. This resulted in him being forced to share his drinks with the others to avoid explaining where they came from.

Plus he's seen the praise when Alaric posted their photos. Seeing the vulgar and stupid populace all wholeheartedly compliment him, even more than Alaric was. Pretty good!

Ah, but if this was the case, does that mean he should still live with Alaric and Darrian, those two lovers in their honeymoon period? That was a bit annoying. But he didn't want to leave much either; after all, it wasn't often he acknowledged another vampire as he had with Alaric. Plus, he had to keep an eye on him, too, given he knows far too much now.

Tsk, decisions, decisions.

Lost in thought, Prince Rigel was suddenly bumped into by someone. Startled, he nearly choked on his drink and looked at the offending party, who had fallen down onto the ground, coldly. Don't look at his delicate appearance, he was a royal vampire, after all, and his physical appearance didn't reveal his true inner strength. Even if a car ran at him at full speed, it wouldn't necessarily be him that will fall down in the aftermath.

Seeing the embarrassed appearance of some delinquent with red and yellow hair, disdain flashed in Prince Rigel's eye. He could sense fellow vampires, and from the feeling alone, he knew this was a turned one.

Prince Rigel looked down on humans and favoured vampires. And in his opinion, turned vampires were really just humans who got a bit lucky to win a vampire's favour. They were ignorant and despite their enthusiasm, never really wanted to integrate with the culture, only wanting what they perceived to be the correct way to be a vampire, which was just their self-righteous way of gaining the benefits they wanted. The growing problem with vampiric monsters being secretly born was just one example of this.

Too lazy to speak, Prince Rigel sneers and walks past the other without a second glance.

"Hey, wait-" Suddenly, a hand grabs his own, and a flash of static hits his skin with the unexpected contact. Prince Rigel's eyes, both silver and black, flash, with one darkening for a moment and the other brightening.

In shock, the prince of the Eclipse Coven pulls his hand away roughly and turns around to see the confused and irritated silver eyes of the delinquent.

No.. the silver eyes of Kylan Laframboise.

Assimilating the information, Prince Rigel frowns as he realises a large inconsistency with the data overflowing in his brain. How can the other be a vampire?

No, not just that; there were too many inconsistencies. And most of them revolved around Alaric Rong.

At that thought, the hand holding his drink squeezed so hard that what little bubble tea was left began to fall out as the cup failed to withstand the pressure. Prince Rigel didn't care that his hand was getting dirtied; his mind was whirling too quickly to pay attention to something that trivial.

In one, no, one and a half years time, so the year after next, the protagonist Jessica Fang will enter the academy. Prince Rigel, himself, befriends her under false pretences out of fun, curiosity and manipulation. Then the year after that, he will dream about a vampiric deity, which his coven will believe is the Ancient Evil Vampire God they have all been waiting for. Under the ritual, he will summon the god from his dreams and then kill himself so the creature can live permanently in this realm of existence.

Prince Rigel didn't know much about what happened after, but given he was the villain, it was easy to hypothesise the plan was thwarted in the end.

Therefore in roughly two and a half years, he will die a fairly useless death.

However, even if it might be useless, it was a death he would still do again. Both for the sake of his fulfilling his obligations and duty to his coven and for his own reasons as a shard. Unless an external force like Alaric intervenes, he is unlikely to stray from this path.

And even though Alaric has changed a lot, there was no indication he would change such an ending for himself. Meaning it was very likely the other, whoever he truly was, would let him die such a death.

Prince Rigel could only smile bitterly. He wonders maybe if maybe Alaric liked him a little more; he could also live a nice life.

Kylan, who had long gotten back up, was staring at the petite eyepatch-wearing blonde boy in front of him with some impatience and the gaze of looking at a mental case. Not only did he ignore when he fell, he tried to walk around him, pulled away when they touched and now was just staring at him while squeezing his drink till it crumpled and liquid spilt from it. And now he was smiling?! The first half of his actions could be attributed to being an asshole, but the latter half was clearly a sign of a mental problem!

"Hey," He snaps his fingers at the other's face, "Hey, aren't you going to apologise? Your drink is also broken too? Hello?!"

Prince Rigel leaves his thoughts and stares at Kylan unhappily. He didn't have a good temper and was wilful and erratic; if he couldn't be happy, then neither could others, especially this character who was part of the group opposed to himself.

Besides, between knowing his death that he will most likely continue following and living blissfully ignorant, he would've rather the latter option, yet this encounter with a shard has provided him this unwanted information! Thinking this made the prince even more angry.

"Silence, you half-vampire," He snaps, "It was you who bumped into me first; what qualifications do you have that deserve an apology for? You're just a person who got the opportunity to come here because your sister seduced a married man."

Hearing the sudden barrage of insults, Kylan's face turned ugly. "You fucking-!"

"Just looking at you ruins my appetite greatly." Prince Rigel states as he throws the now scrunched-up bubble tea cup to the ground in disgust. "Look, now you ruined my drink."

Kylan: !?!?!

Can you invert black and white* like this?! Clearly, it was your own fault you ruined your drink! Fuck, god was indeed fair; he gave this guy a beautiful face to contrast with his garbage personality!

*twisting words

Seeing the stunned anger on the teenager's face, Prince Rigel nods in satisfaction and leaves the other, who is silently raging in his heart. However, after a few steps, the blonde vampire pauses and walks back. "Well, don't feel bad; even if I find you disgusting to look at, there are others who specially like people like you. If you see a vampire with black eyes and long silver hair, you should definitely go up to talk with him. Don't look at his appearance; he's a gigantic pervert who's happy to drug others and play with them. He especially likes those with multicoloured hair. Apparently, it reminds him of the birds he cages at home, hahaha."

Now truly satisfied, Prince Rigel promptly left the scene.

Kylan:

What a fucking lunatic!

..

.

Little Theatre:

Kylan: I am so mad; I need to calm down by looking at Jasmine's blog. It's been a while since I've checked on it since I've been busy getting used to this snobby academy.

..

.

A/N: It's been so long :D

Hi hi~ Blue has been procrastinating kek, but also blue has experienced something called severe eye fatigue from microscoping too much at work kek, which caused her eyes to get very sore and then not wanna do much typing after work but I did still read a lot which didn't help quicken my recovery much :P

I'm sure you're all devastated I didn't put in the bottom garth scene, kek. You're probs like, bruh, where is my smut? My uniform play? My muscular bottom?

And all I can say is ahahahahaha.

Nah, I'm kidding; it'll be in a small extra ah. Otherwise, y'all be waiting for this chap even longer :0 cuz smut is harder to write.

Blue can no longer tell her the updated schedule rn any more sadness; one day, she hopes to go back to weekly, but with winter on the way, blue lake may become a frozen Lake UwU. Ah well.

To tide you over, here are some BL recs I've read while I was missing kek:

The Supporting Male Character Just Wants to be a Tool Man

(Almost fully translated by Pawprintpathtranslation- I am currently reading this on; it is, like, the funniest shit ever haha. I LOVE IT's one of the best comedies I've read this year, I feel. It's got a mc whose not chaste- mc and ml meet and like have sex immediately they're sex friends ah, and ml is funny and expressive and ahhh they're both great ok, both sunshine trolls who spread dogfood and act all dramatic and side characters are hilarious too, even the brainless villains, they're awesome cuz their reactions are just ahahaha I suspect story should be fully translated by this week so join the pit hehehe)

I am the Father of the Villain

(175/265mainstorychaps translated by Rainbow Mushroom - it's SO GOOD. The one above I said was one of the best comedies I read this year; well, this is one of the BEST BOOKS IVE READ THIS YEAR. OMG, IT HAS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED. Cute kids, cute romantic interactions, warm family interactions, humour, mc is the uncle of the future cold male god in the plot, ml is the disabled uncle of the future villain boss, a bit of entertainment industry, loveliness, ageuhadioQGFUILEFQEGKFFK. ALSO MY READERS ON DISCORD CALLED MY A HEATHEN BUT ITS REALLY HARD NOT TO SHIP THE KIDDOS LIKE THEYRE SO CUTE AND THE PERSONALITY DYNAMIC IS SO MY TYPE I WANT VILLAIN TO TOP THO AND MY COLD BABY LIN FEI TO BOTTOM BUT OBVIOUSLY WHEN THEYRE LEGAL OK PLS QWQ. Fr dude, when I got to the last translated chapter, I frigging mourned *sobs* I was like, is this what you sad readers always feel like with my book? Sigh, so sad, so sad. Fortunately, I found the book above, so I am happy again ,,UwU,, still I highly rec you at least put this high up on your reading list)

He became a Salted Fish After Inheriting Millions of Secret Arts

(fully translated by Exiled Rebels Scanlations- ngl I don't like European/Western setting transmigration stories much, idk they kinda feel a bit meh cringe to me sometimes esp when names are strange like Pansy for a dude, tho if we stuff up Chinese names all the time hahaha *sweats in Jia Hyson*. But this was definitely a very pleasant surprise. I wasn't huge on me at first with his attitude over the inheritance, but omg, I binged this story in 2-3 days like It was so good, and the ENDING AHHH, I am such a sucker for when things end with every element coming back like ahhhhh. I also really like how they can just kill off characters, too; it's not an 'oh everyone lives and is happy and loves love' - well, it kinda is, but also, they do stuff where it's like, oh damn, they really did kill them, huh. Which I like, given the theme of the story ah. Overall I wish they did a bit more on the store itself, but this story is def now one of my fav from Exiled Rebels Scanlations site, I think ah. More for the plot than the romance, which was a bit mmm, especially from ML, like bruh, legit, no reason to fall in love. I didn't see any tipping point or anything. Still, plot slaps ah.)

The Villain Loaded My System (fully translated by CKanda Writes- QT with a twist, where ML character in each world has access to mc's system kek. Tbh kinda wish they did more with that element since it's a very unique point but overall satisfactory hehe :3 I like)

ALSO KISS THE ABYSS MANGA. I DIDNT FUCKING KNOW IT WAS DONE CUZ ISTG THE SITES I WENT TO NONE OF THEM WROTE END TO THE LAST CHAPS AND NO ONE MARKED IT COMPLETED WHICH IS LIKE???? I CAMPED UNNECESSARILY FOR LIKE A YEAR LIKE A FOOL QWQ If you haven't read it or were camping on it I advise you to go go go! It's very good, I do wish there was more, especially when they tease a larger plot like that which I can't spoil to y'all but its SO GOOD LIKE AGHHHH WHY I WANT

Also it's been.. a month so I'll just *slides discord link here* it expires in 7 days ah

https://discord.gg/ZXpyBGKn

Hope you enjoy~ and hope to be back with new chapter soon~