MRG Chapter 28: Have No Way Out

Translator: Kii

Editor: EllieKit

That evening, after Kuina ordered the servants to prepare for dinner, she clearly felt that something was off with the atmosphere in the palace.

Usually, if the eldest prince, second prince, and Mu Chen were in the palace, they would all eat together. But today, after she asked the servants to notify them, only Lance walked into the dining hall leisurely, while the other two locked themselves in their rooms. Nobody knew what they were busy with.

Kuina could only ask the two of them separately.

Knock, Knock.

When Light’s door was knocked on, he was sitting at his desk with his head buried in the documents sent from the Konaren Military Base, which were about the abnormal magnetic field signals detected at the border over the past few days.

Seeing how busy he was, Kuina stood by the door and waited for a while before tentatively asking, “Your Highness, are you busy? Are you dealing with something urgent?”

Light’s eyes slowly left the terminal. He pursed his lips and was silent for a moment. “Mhm…”

He was indeed handling official business right now, but it wasn’t really considered “urgent.” After all, the local officials had already personally reported these issues to him earlier, and Light had given specific instructions for each matter. These documents merely provided detailed written descriptions of those reported issues, and they were written in a relatively trivial manner, so it didn’t matter even if he didn’t read them.

Light usually would look over the documents piled up each week when he had free time, so he didn’t need to use his dinner time for it.

Dealing with official business was only an excuse to skip dinner.

A lot of things happened this afternoon—first, he found out that Mu had applied to the military academy without telling him, then saw a side of Mu Chen that was usually unknown on the ring. Light felt a bit annoyed, and he hadn’t figured out what attitude he should use toward Mu Chen.

He was angry with him for his recklessness and his lack of concern for himself, but at the same time, he was worried about him.

Once he thought about the fact that the other party would go to military school and might even have to go to the frontline in the future, Light became even more upset and even wanted to smoke a cigarette to calm down.

These tedious documents couldn’t help Light relieve his frustration, but he knew if he softened up and compromised with Mu Chen like he used to, he would never be able to help him break his bad habit.

So, Light planned to use the cold treatment for a while, giving both of them some time to think.

At this moment, Kuina’s arrival broke the originally lifeless atmosphere in the study. Light exited out from the terminal’s interface and saw the eye-catching chat window next to it.

That was the chat record between Mu Chen and him from a quarter of an hour ago.

Mu Chen: [Probing_shark.jpg]

Mu Chen: [Gege, have you eaten dinner yet?]

At the time, Light had turned on Do Not Disturb mode for messages, so he didn’t see the messages sent by the other party.

Thus, a minute later—

Mu Chen: [I’m hungry]

Then there was a gap of about ten seconds—

[Shark_knocks_on_door.jpg]

[Shark_slumps_on_the_ground.jpg]

[Sleeping_shark.jpg]

……

These emoji stickers were collected by Mu Chen from his classmates when he was in high school. Coupled with his nickname, “Great White Shark,” almost no one would associate him with the cool and handsome guy in real life.

In fact, Mu Chen’s usual chatting style was quite concise; he only sent a lot of emojis when he was acting coquettish with Light.

The latter benefited greatly from it.

If one logged into the chat software of Light’s terminal, they would notice that the Imperial General, who never used emojis, had secretly added a couple of cute little sharks into his favorites, which were extremely inconsistent with his style.

But this time, even the little shark strategy had failed.

About five minutes ago, Light saw these messages and replied to the other person—

Light: [I’m busy, you eat first.]

Mu Chen: [I also don’t really want to eat, the bruises still hurt.]

The chat record ended here.

Putting away the terminal, Light looked up at Kuina again. “I won’t eat right now. You can go tell Mu Chen to eat.”

Kuina sighed in response. “Your Highness, I have already asked him. His Highness Mu Chen also said he wasn’t hungry. He said that he exercised too much during the day and his whole body ached, so he has no appetite…”

Then, she looked down, muttering to herself—

“Being young doesn’t mean you can act recklessly.”

“If you’re careless during training, you’ll end up bedridden for three days, which isn’t worth it.”

Light paused as he was tidying up his desk, his eyebrows unconsciously furrowed. He recalled the message Mu Chen had sent him earlier and started to ponder…

Could it be that Mu Chen was really hurt?

He knew how hard he had hit, but before that, Mu Chen had also participated in the military academy auditions, and after so many fights, it was inevitable that he would get bruised up.

Before, at the arena, Light was too angry to carefully look at the other’s condition. Maybe there were some hidden bruises that he had missed. Moreover, if it was really as painful as he said, he probably had internal injuries somewhere. If the muscles and bones were injured, the situation would only get worse.

Given Mu Chen’s personality, even if he was injured before sparring with him, he would just feign that nothing happened and push through. But afterwards, he used the injury as an excuse for why he lost, making it difficult to tell if it was true or not.

But what if it was true?

When he thought of this, Light knitted his brows tightly and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a while, he said in a deep voice, “Send a doctor to check on him.”

“Okay, Your Highness.”

After Kuina agreed, she closed the door for him and left.

Inside the quiet study, Light looked at those documents again, but he couldn’t immerse himself in them. The densely packed text floated before his eyes, and he kept losing focus halfway through reading.

When he snapped out of it, he noticed that he had read this title for the sixth time already.

Light simply closed the terminal. He crossed his fingers together against his chest as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Just then, Kuina returned.

The moment the study door opened, Light stood up from his seat. “What did the doctor say?”

Kuina shook his head. “The doctor didn’t go in. When the doctor arrived, the door was closed, and there was no response after knocking. The door was even locked. I’m guessing he has already fallen asleep. As you know, the palace bedroom door has an iris scanner, so no one except for a few people can open it. It’s not convenient for me to go in now, Your Highness.”

Light’s eyes were half-lidded, his long lashes covered the deep gaze in his eyes, making it hard to discern any emotions.

He said to Kuina, “Alright, thank you for your hard work.”

After Kuina left, Light opened the terminal chat interface again and looked at the chat record that stopped an hour ago, his eyelids twitching.

He ultimately compromised, rising from his seat and headed out of the study.

……

Outside Mu Chen’s bedroom, accompanied by a beeping sound, the black screen displayed the words [Identity Recognition Passed], and the heavy door opened.

Six years ago, after what happened with Kyle forcing his way into Mu Chen’s bedroom, this lock was installed on Mu Chen’s door. At the time, only Light, Kuina, and Mu Chen’s irises were registered. As time passed by and the merman grew up, he had hardly used the door lock, except in some special cases.

—For example, like today when he was in a bad mood.

Although Light could pass the lock’s identity recognition, only Mu Chen had the authority to change and add to it. He could remove or add people’s identifications from the system at any time.

It could be that because he had now grown up and needed his privacy, Mu Chen removed Kuina’s access two years prior.

Also, Light had been at the borders for two years, he hadn’t tried the door lock since he came back, so he wasn’t sure if Mu Chen had also removed his access.

So when the door opened, he was momentarily caught off guard.

In the pitch-black and quiet bedroom, a pair of glowing round eyes shone like searchlights in the night. Then, a furry figure stepped gracefully toward the door…

Hearing the sudden noise outside the door, Cutie immediately entered a level one alert state. Just when he was about to tear the intruder to shreds, he vaguely smelled a familiar scent.

Light made a “Hush” gesture at it, so Cutie could only force back the howl that was about to burst through its throat. It hiccuped anxiously and finally slipped away whimpering.

Light had the AI butler turn on the table lamp. Under the dim light, he saw that Mu Chen was already laying in bed and sleeping.

He quietly walked over, then sat on the edge of the bed.

The merman’s sleeping posture was really bad when he was younger. His head and feet would turn completely in one direction, and he constantly kicked the blanket off. Mu Chen liked to wear loose pajamas to sleep, so when he slept, his pajamas would ride up, revealing a large area of pale skin, which made him easily catch cold.

Of course, it wasn’t good now either.

Right now, Mu Chen was wearing a white T-shirt and sports pajamas. He was laying sideways, one arm was pressed under his head, and his long legs stretched directly out of the bed. His T-shirt had ridden up halfway, showing his waist and abdomen completely. He was covered in a thin blanket, but it didn’t make much difference whether he was covered with it or not—only a corner of the blanket was covering him, the rest was pressed under Mu Chen’s arm.

The warm light illuminated his deep facial features. The merman’s sleeping face looked especially obedient. Mu Chen’s thin lips were pressed into a straight line, his long crow-feather eyelashes cast a shadow around his high nose bridge, and his long hair fell to his waist.

Mu Chen’s temper wasn’t exactly good with others, but his face alone made it impossible for anyone to get angry with him.

Although this comparison may be a bit inappropriate, the sleeping merman was like the “Sleeping Beauty” in the fairy tale.

Seeing that he was soundly sleeping, Light didn’t plan on waking him up. He only carefully lifted up a corner of the T-shirt to check his injuries.

His attention was completely focused on how to control his hand strength.

Light tried his best to make his movements as light as possible so as to not disturb him.

But when the shirt was lifted only halfway, accompanied by a rustling sound, his hand was suddenly grabbed by someone.

Light raised his eyes, meeting with a pair of blue ones.

It was unknown when the person in the bed had opened his eyes.

Light’s fingertips shrank as if they had received an electric shock, and his eyes were slightly stunned, as if he had not expected Mu Chen to suddenly awaken. He was about to retract his hand, but it was firmly held by Mu Chen.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward in the silence.

“Gege…”

Mu Chen had just woken up, so his voice was a little hoarse. His gaze fell on the hand that Light had stretched out, then brought Light’s hand over to press on his abdominal muscle. “Why has Gege come over? Is it because you were worried about me?”

Light had just come from outside and his hands were still a bit cold, so when he suddenly touched the other person’s hot skin, his fingertips shrank as if they had been burned.

The skin under his palm was delicate and smooth, thanks to the merman’s natural racial advantage. Their skins were usually flawless and slick, but Light could also clearly feel the firm muscle contours and the ridges of his toned abs.

Light’s eyes trembled. He looked at the person lying on the bed. “Didn’t you say your bruises hurt so much that you can’t eat?”

“Yes.” Mu Chen nodded, seeming to not sense anything was wrong. He held Light’s hand and pressed it against his stomach, then pressed it from bottom to top. He obviously didn’t touch anything, but he deliberately frowned. “Hiss, it hurts…”

“Hiss…”

It “hurt” so much that he couldn’t help but curl his lips.

He blinked his eyes. “Gege, look, isn’t it serious?”

The sensation of the smooth, burning-hot skin pressed together made Light’s fingers stiffen a bit, to the point he barely registered what the other person had just said.

He pulled out his hand and lifted Mu Chen’s shirt to look carefully, only to see the bruise on his abdomen had faded long ago. Apart from that, Mu Chen’s skin was so smooth that there were almost no flaws.

Light lifted his gaze and raised a brow thoughtfully. He coldly squeezed out a few words from his lips, “Where does it hurt?”

Mu Chen half-supported himself on the soft pillow. He lifted his own shirt in “surprise” and said in puzzlement, “That’s weird, how come it’s better as soon as Gege came?”

After he caused such a ruckus, whatever negative feelings Light had toward him before were basically gone, leaving only helplessness.

He pursed the corner of his lips, then pulled out the blanket pressed under Mu Chen, and covered him with it. “Don’t lie to me about your injury again… And don’t skip dinner, this kind of habit is bad for your health.”

“Oh.”

Mu Chen wrapped himself into a big “fish roll,” asking him, “Then did Gege properly eat dinner?”

“…”

Light went silent.

When alone, he did prefer to just have something casual to eat.

Mu Chen continued to ask, “Did you?”

The other party’s straightforward and passionate gaze made Light feel slightly guilty, and he slightly turned his gaze away.

Because he wrapped himself too tightly, Mu Chen couldn’t stretch out his hand. He could only arch his body like a cicada pupa and place his head by Light’s legs. “I’m a little hungry now…”

“Then I’ll get someone to make you something to eat?”

“Gege eat with me.”

“…”

“Okay.”