MRG Chapter 30: Seperated, For Now

Translator: Gin

Editor: Agneya

When Light returned from changing into clean clothes, Mu Chen had already completed all of his test tasks.

Kole printed out a copy of his report, preparing to use the hole puncher on it.

Just as he opened the drawer to rummage through it,

“What’s this?”

In his peripheral view, Mu Chen caught sight of a spherical object amongst the scattered debris. Compared to the mess around it, this solitary object stood out.

Light heard Mu Chen’s question and looked over as well.

Kole’s expression wavered. He immediately attempted to use his hands to cover the drawer but it was too late, Mu Chen had already walked over to his side.

Through the thin gap, Mu Chen clearly saw a mini fish plushie keychain based on how he looked as a child, with a big fluffy tail that resembled tufts of cotton candy.

Mu Chen’s forehead scrunched in surprise, “…”

What was this strange item?

He looked up, ready to interrogate the “creator” of this item, but Light had already beaten him to it.

The latter stretched out his hand to pick up the keychain, asking Kole, “You made this?”

Kole’s Adam’s Apple quivered, “Errr…this, this is just…a prototype…”

Wasn’t he getting caught before he even had time to promote the keychain yet?

Mu Chen inwardly sighed in relief, if there was just one keychain, it was still fine, they could quickly destroy it.

The next second,

Light looped his index finger through the ring of the keychain, swinging the fish plushie around a few times, “I’ll take this one with me then.”

Kole was baffled, “Ah?”

Mu Chen:…Hmm?

There was silence for a moment,

“Oh…” Kole finally recovered from his shock. He felt somewhat guilty, like he had been caught producing merchandise about someone without the proper copyrights and was worried that the other party would hold him accountable. He pushed his glasses up, “You, you can just take it then.”

Only Mu Chen remained stunned, rooted in his spot.

He watched Light squish the fish plushie’s head and tail a couple times; he seemed like he…liked it quite a bit?

Mu Chen furrowed his brows, directly glaring at the fat fishie, perplexed.

He, the real person, was standing right here, why did Gege even still want such a strange item?

……

The break before school always felt way too short. After finishing his physical examination, the remaining two weeks passed by in the blink of an eye.

The day Mu Chen was to return to school, Light dropped him all the way up to the port of Roy Island, after which the school would organize transport to pick up the students and take them to the school grounds.

That day, the late morning sun warmed the courtyard. Scores of white doves flapped their wings as they took off from the statue in the center of the courtyard. Roy Island’s port was entirely filled with parents of new students sending off their children.

Light gazed at the handsome youngster in front of him, who was dressed in a black windbreaker.

Clearly, he was already taller than him but still spoke in a childish manner,

“I’m gonna be separated from Gege again…”

“There’s six months from now till the winter break, I won’t be able to see Gege for such a long time.”

“The military school also won’t allow usage of external devices at all, so I won’t be able to call Gege at any time.”

“I hope winter break comes super soon.”

Light brushed away the hair strands that fell across Mu Chen’s forehead, tidying his appearance. His expression slightly showed the helplessness he felt, “You’ve just started school.”

How could he already be thinking of going on break?

Mu Chen leaned over to embrace Light, nuzzling his head in the crook of his neck, “I’ll miss you Gege.”

Nestled in the warmth of his tight embrace, Light pressed his palm to the small of Mu Chen’s back, “If anything happens, message me.”

“Mhm.”

……

Xavier lugged the nylon suitcase that he had claimed from the school back to his freshman dormitory. His neat, freshly-cut black hair hid a pair of handsome eyes.

At that moment, he had just changed into the uniform of a short sleeve military-style T-shirt and a pair of black pants. He was also wearing a pair of Doc Martens, giving him a very military-esque vibe overall.

The dorm was standard, a quadruple room decorated simply yet neatly.

When Xavier had first arrived at the dorm, two of his dorm-mates were already in the process of making their beds. Upon putting down his bags, he took a closer look and realized that, coincidentally, they were his partners in mischief from high school, Charles and Jeffrey.

When they spotted Xavier, they smiled in unison, “Lookie who’s here?”

Xavier went forward to give them both high-fives, teasing them, “How were these dorms even assigned? It’s you two again; if we don’t see each other in class, we’ll see each other in the dorm, either way I’ll have to see you guys all the time, how annoying.”

Jeffrey got his terminal out, “I’m not too sure, but I heard the dormitories were assigned based on students’ overall rankings.”

When he heard the word ‘ranking’, Xavier’s expression suddenly froze and he stood motionlessly.

“What was your ranking in the end Xavier?” Charles enquired from his bedside, which he was busy arranging.

Xavier pursed his lips, reluctantly uttering, “Number 2.”

Recalling the final fight, he felt blood rush into his head. The level of shame he felt was as if his toes had poked out from the soles of his shoes in public view.

He didn’t want to think about it,

More so, he didn’t want to talk about it.

When this topic came up, both Charles and Jeffrey grinned mysteriously.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Charles slung an arm over Xavier’s shoulder,

“Mr Natt, isn’t this just…”

“Back then on the stage, you couldn’t take your eyes off his face and then you just couldn’t get up after being crushed? Hahahahahahahaha.”

Charles and Jeffrey howled with laughter, clutching their sides.

Xavier huffed and pushed them aside, putting away his suitcases with a gloomy expression.

Charles cocked an eyebrow at Xavier in contemplation, “But going by the rankings, then won’t our last dorm-mate be…”

Jeffrey understood what he was trying to say and reported his ranking, “What a coincidence, I’m ranked Number 3.”

Charles, “I’m ranked Number 4.”

Xavier twitched, resisting the numbness in his scalp; he began to think seriously about this possibility.

“F*ck…it really might be…”

At this moment, Charles noticed something and stopped mid-conversation. He slowly walked to the door, waving to someone standing behind Xavier, “Hey Mu Chen, are you also in this dormitory?”

“Clang!” Xavier dropped the cup of water in his hands, and the thermos cup rolled over a few rounds on the floor before coming to a rest.

He abruptly turned his head, but the doorway was empty. There wasn’t even a shadow there, much less someone Charles could call ‘Mu Chen’.

Seeing this comical situation, the two people next to Xavier burst into raucous laughter again. Charles especially, laughed so hard he started slapping the headboard of his bed.

Xavier picked up the thermos cup with a stony expression, determined not to pay the duo any mind.

As he was focused on folding his blanket, the laughter in his ears died down.

Xavier turned his head in confusion, meeting Charles’ stunned gaze.

The latter muttered to himself, “F*ck, he really showed up.”

Xavier snorted slightly.

Pulling this joke twice, did they really think he was an idiot?

“Showed up my ass!”

The anger he had been holding in till now finally burst forth. Xavier stood up with his arms akimbo, harshly yelling at the pair, “Who said I was scared of that merman?”

“Even if you f*cking call him before me, I won’t even f*cking blink.”

Charles gripped his forehead with one hand and poked the tip of his tongue into his cheek. Out of sheer embarrassment, he pointed behind Xavier, “That, behind you…”

“What’s behind me?” Xavier furrowed his brows.

They’re still going on?

So this was turning out to be quite an endless gag, right?

“Nothing behind me can…” At this point, he turned his head, pretending to play along with them. His gaze froze mid-air, his entire body so still it seemed like he had turned to stone, completely forgetting to even blink.

The man’s tall figure cast a shadow across the doorway.

Mu Chen’s silver hair was tied up in a high ponytail. Today, he wore a military-style cap which exposed his defined jawline and two strands of his bangs. His lips were pressed together in a tight line, making him look like a model on the cover of a magazine.

Then, he raised his slender, blue eyes, slowly scanning the room once.

Xavier could feel the cold sweat almost dripping down his forehead. He was not sure how much of their conversation Mu Chen had heard, but in order to ease the tension and awkwardness in the dormitory, he still ‘bravely’ chose to speak up.

“You, you…I…”

Although he could only stutter out a few garbled words.

Mu Chen cast him a sidelong glance as he rolled his suitcase into the dormitory, “Is this Room 502?”

“Ah?”

“Mhm.” Xavier finally reacted to his question, stepping to the side to give him space to pass, “It is…”

As soon as he opened his mouth, he bit down on his tongue and nearly turned himself into a mute.

Charles and Jeffrey could not deal with how cowardly he looked anymore and came up to Mu Chen to introduce themselves.

After exchanging greetings, the few people in the dormitory continued packing away the items in their suitcases, and the atmosphere in the dormitory instantly became much quieter and calmer.

As Mu Chen was bending over to make his bed, Xavier’s attention was involuntarily drawn to the silver ponytail that cascaded down his back.

As Mu Chen arranged his belongings, the tip of the ponytail would swing back and forth. Unconsciously, Xavier began to stare and after a long time, his intense gaze was broken when he made eye contact with Mu Chen who was staring back at him coldly. Only then did he recover from his trance-like state.

Mu Chen furrowed his brows, “What’s the matter?”

Xavier’s back stiffened, “No…it’s nothing, don’t you need to cut your hair?”

One of the rules of No. 1 Military Academy was that boys could only have short hair.

Mu Chen plainly said, “I’ve reported this to the higher-ups already.”

Growing out one’s hair was customary in Atlantis. To them, hair was an important marker of self-identity, and for mermaids, from birth to death, they would not cut their hair even once. Only criminals and sinners would have their hair sheared as punishment. When Mu Chen was admitted into military school, he had received permission from the school to keep his hair long as an exception.

“Oh.” Xavier rescinded his gaze and did not ask any further questions.

Once they had finished unpacking their luggage and cleaning the dorm, an alarm went off in the corridor, a sharp, ringing sound resounding in the room. This was the signal for freshmen to gather.

On the parade square,

Freshmen lined up in an orderly fashion, forming a square shaped array under the blistering hot sun. Uniformed senior students strode around the parade square, inspecting this incoming group of ‘noobs’.

In No. 1 Military Academy, it was tradition for these seniors to act as their instructors in their daily physical training.

Of course, such power given to the seniors could also bring out the worst in them.

The first year spent by new students in the military academy would always be the worst out of all the years there. Often, they suffered both mental and physical pressure from both veterans as well as the heavy academic workload.

The senior in charge of Mu Chen and his squadron was called Woods. His hair was blonde and near his mouth, he had a hideous scar. From looks alone, he seemed like a rogue soldier.

With his hands behind his back, Woods patrolled between the rows and rows of freshmen. He instantly spotted the particularly eye-catching silver-haired youngster standing in the first row.

If not his physical build, it was his striking appearance that made him stand out all the time.

Woods stopped in front of Mu Chen. He lifted his gaze to make eye contact with the man who was almost half a head taller than him. He had a sinister look, akin to a hyena staring at its prey in the dark. The moment he saw the other person’s face, he let out a soft snort.

“You’re male?”

“Then why do you look so girly?”

No. 1 Military Academy had no lack of female students and the school did indeed allow them to keep their long hair. Not only did Woods’ words insult Mu Chen, they also disrespected the female students.

If these remarks were made elsewhere, they would definitely cause the general public to voice their dissatisfaction. However, this was a military academy. The most important rule here was ‘obedience’ and freshmen would, naturally, always obey their seniors. Even though Woods had no real rank in the military, he was a Third Year student at the Academy, and compared to these freshmen, held a significantly higher position, which meant that they had to obey him.

Owing to this special rule, bullying of new recruits was rather common in the Academy.

Woods had received special instructions from his superiors. He had been made aware that amongst this new group of recruits, there was one belonging to a special species, and that was most probably the person standing before him. However, peculiarity was unwelcome anywhere and apparent ‘approval’ from the school did not prevent him from ‘educating’ the recruit before him.

“Do you f*cking think the Academy is somewhere you can come to vacation? Leaving such long hair, when the time to fight on the battlefield comes, are you going to rely on flicking your hair around?”

Meeting with silence from Mu Chen, he hollered in anger, “I asked you something!”

Mu Chen coldly looked him over, “It seems you’re an expert in this area, perhaps when you fight, your skill is in plucking out people’s hair, sir.”

“Pfttt…”

Someone in the crowd involuntarily let out a giggle.

Woods fiercely glared at them, before continuing to berate Mu Chen, “Are you talking back to me recruit?”

Mu Chen, “I’m just answering your question, sir.”

Woods ordered, “Fall out.”

He raised his hand and randomly pointed at the people who previously laughed, one of which was Xavier,

“Those who laughed just now, you, you…and you, all of you FALL OUT!”

“The lot of you, go run ten rounds around the back of the mountain. If you don’t finish running, you can’t fall in!”

Under the blazing afternoon sun, this group of people began to run rounds around the foot of the gigantic mountain. It took them until the evening to complete ten laps. By then, several people had already collapsed halfway through and were taken to the medic.

Mu Chen and Xavier’s physical abilities might be ranked Top 1 and 2 amongst the new recruits but running ten laps caused them to sweat all over as well, consuming considerable amounts of their energy.

At seven in the night, the new recruits had dinner together.

Everyone sat at square tables according to their dormitory room number. When they ate, a senior student would also be on patrol by the side.

From afar, Mu Chen and Xavier could see Woods and the other senior students standing in a corner glaring at them maliciously.

They walked round half of the canteen to find the table with their nameplate on it, but the moment they sat down, the blood drained from their faces.

What was placed in front of Mu Chen was a plate of cyan-coloured, dirty pig slop. The mushed-together ‘food’ smelled like sewer water, making people’s stomachs roll, causing bile to rise in one’s throat.

Xavier resisted the urge to vomit, pressing his hand to his nose…

This was way too disgusting. No one would believe it if those seniors said they were not purposely targeting Mu Chen.

Mu Chen coldly cast his gaze over the bowl of ‘pig food’. Without any trace of hesitation, he picked up the bowl and walked to the trash can. With a “Bang!”, he poured all the filthy matter on his plate into the trash can.

Looking at this scene, the seniors in the distance showed triumphant smiles.

Xavier could not tolerate this anymore. During the day, they had to do rigorous exercise. If he did not eat at night at least…even people made of metal would succumb to such treatment.

He pushed his own portion towards Mu Chen, “How about we share half…”

However, just as he finished speaking, Woods walked over to their table and punched Xavier’s tray, sending it flying with a clatter, causing bits of meat and sauce to splatter on his forehead.

“Do you think this is a picnic?”

“Flip through the rulebook, the Academy does not allow wasting of food or sharing and exchanging of food!”

Woods looked down at Mu Chen and Xavier condescendingly.

“Now, pick up the crumbs on the floor, then go outside and perform 200 push-ups.”