MRG Chapter 44: He Likes Mu Chen

Translator: Kii

Editor: yuki_shuichi

At midnight, Dolly walked into Mu Chen’s bedroom nervously. He pushed open the door, and the moment he saw the delicate face that was not like an ordinary person under the dim light, he quickly lowered his head.

“Your Highness, you called for me?”

“Mhm.” Mu Chen crossed his long legs, leaned back on the sofa, and glanced casually at the person standing in front of him. “Help me get a bottle of wine.”

The remaining heat from the mating period kept his nerves tightly wound; he needed to do something to distract himself.

Recalling the situation from earlier, Mu Chen unconsciously pursed his lips. Gege ran away so fast, faster than a rabbit. He was obviously already there but was too shy to face it. Otherwise, they could have done something happy together. It was a pity to miss such a good opportunity.

The moment he heard the other party asking for wine, Dolly raised his gaze, and an ambiguous look flashed in his eyes. “What do you want?”

Mu Chen held his chin and thought about it for a moment. “Whiskey from New Zealand.”

Dolly, “Yes, Your Highness.”

When he turned to leave, his palms were even sweating.

After an unknown amount of time, there was a knock on the door, and Mu Chen called out, “Come in.”

He felt that this attendant was a bit slow at getting the wine.

The latter entered carrying a tray, the already opened wine bottle was submerged in an ice bucket, and beside it were two glass cups for drinking wine.

Dolly’s gaze stayed on the open bottle for a moment, then he carefully raised his eyes to look at Mu Chen. “Do…do you want to add ice?”

Mu Chen, “Mhm.”

The attendant took out two large cube of ice from the icebox. Then, perhaps out of nervousness or some other reason, his hands seemed to tremble slightly as he poured the drink.

Mu Chen looked at the amber liquid that was almost covering the ice cubes and said, “That’s enough.”

“Oh.” The attendant hurriedly withdrew his hands, and the violent shaking almost caused the liquid in the cup to spill out.

Mu Chen took the wine glass, then casually asked, “Are you new?”

The other party almost had the word “nervous” written on his face.

The moment his eyes met those blue eyes, sweat began to break out on Dolly’s forehead. He lowered his head, his gaze wandering. “Mhm…yes, Your Highness.”

It couldn’t be, couldn’t be that Mu Chen noticed that he did something to the wine?

Just when Dolly’s back was breaking out in cold sweat due to nervousness, Mu Chen pursed his lips.

“You’ll get used to it.”

Dolly froze for a moment. The merman’s handsome and charming face was reflected in his eyes, whose deep blue eyes were as vast and embracing as the sea. Dolly’s heart began to pound intensely, and he lowered his head in shame, feeling ashamed by his action.

“Do…do you have any other instructions?”

Mu Chen, “No, you can go back and rest.”

After he finished speaking, he raised the glass in his hand.

Through the distorted reflection of the liquid in the glass, he saw the other person hurriedly leaving.

There was a sharp and clear clanging sound of the ice colliding with each other.

Mu Chen drank the glass of wine in one gulp.

He placed the glass harshly on the edge of the table, and at the same time, he reached out and unbuttoned two shirt buttons. Strong liquor was always like this—the moment one drinks it, they would feel a burning sensation in their internal organs.

And there was an indescribable dryness in the mouth.

……

The usually solemn and tidy room was filled with smoke, making one wonder if it had just been through a live-fire drill. Any normal person entering would probably cover their mouth and cough a few times, while also starting to calculate their chances of getting lung cancer.

There was an ashtray filled with ashes and cigarette butts in front of Light.

Light sat on the edge of the bed, holding a freshly lit cigarette between his fingers. His usually neat blonde hair now hung messily over his forehead. Two buttons of his shirt were undone, and the fabric was wrinkled. He exuded the desolate air of someone returning from a hangover. If he pushed open the door and walked out now, others would definitely not recognize that he was their crown prince.

He took a drag from his cigarette, his brows furrowed very tightly.

Lance’s loud question was still incessantly resounding in his ears.

He was like a person hiding in a bell, and the other person’s words were like a mallet that struck the bell, making his eardrums hurt.

Lance had asked him, “Do you like him?”

Light’s eyes looked empty.

Like…

Does he like Mu Chen?

When Light saw Mu Chen smiling at his suitors, he couldn’t ignore the sour jealousy in his heart.

He previously tried to use all kinds of “legitimate” excuses to explain this feeling, such as that his suitors were not good enough, or that he was angry for Mu Chen’s own good, but now, he could no longer deceive himself like this.

The throbbing feeling that had been buried deep inside and had been fermenting finally broke through the soil and emerged.

What followed was an even more terrifying sense of loss of control, which dragged Light down as he continued to fall…

He was afraid Mu Chen couldn’t differentiate between “dependence” and “like.”

He was even more afraid that if someone with such a bad personality like him were to be together with Mu Chen, they wouldn’t even be able to maintain their existing stability.

And when a relationship showed signs of shrinking before it even started, that was perhaps the biggest problem.

In Light’s subconscious, it was impossible for him to have a happy relationship.

Ever since he could remember, Light had always had this uncommunicative personality.

After all, when one’s ears were always filled with the sound of smashing, beating, and scolding, they wouldn’t have much desire to express themselves.

At this moment, through the pervading smoke coming from between his fingers, the furnishings in front of him began to change, becoming the same as they were twenty or thirty years ago. The woman’s face, which had already become a bit blurry in his mind, gradually became clear.

At the time, Light was only around seven to eight years old.

The woman placed her hands on his shoulders. Her expression was gentle, but her smile was a bit nervous. “You are the eldest prince of the Oz Empire. You won’t let your mother down, right?”

Seeing him not saying anything, the woman suddenly raised her voice, the corners of her lips curved higher, yet there was no smile in her wide-open eyes. “Right?”

It was not until Light gave a positive response that she smiled and took Light’s hand, warmly saying, “Good child.”

This was his mother, the queen of the Oz Empire, Caroline.

Before marrying the king, Caroline had a childhood sweetheart. However, her father—the former Prime Minister—used promises of wealth and opportunity to entice her sweetheart to leave for distant lands. At the same time, he leveraged the honor of the family to pressure Caroline into marrying the current king, who was none other than Light’s father.

It was almost common knowledge that the young king had a secret lover before his marriage, and Jorah never broke off contact with her after his marriage. This made Caroline, who sacrificed everything for her marriage and family, plunge into a hellish abyss. The torment of married life gradually made her neurotic, domineering, and harsh.

When they first got married, Jorah didn’t love her. After marriage, he disliked Caroline’s personality even more. “Incompatible” was a more appropriate way to describe their relationship than “a couple who only appear united.”

His father told Caroline that her marriage was a sacred mission, that her effort and sacrifices were all meaningful, for the sake of her family and the entire Oz Empire—the country she loved deeply.

But the most ironic thing was that this man, whom Caroline hated so much and who brought her all her misfortune, was the king of the country she loved so much and the object of her devotion.

The source of the tragedy came from the contradictions that things themselves couldn’t reconcile, and Caroline was one such person, full of contradictions.

Such pain caused her to become mentally ill several times.

Finally, in the second year of their marriage, Caroline found her spiritual solace; her child, the future crown prince of the Oz Empire. Her sacrifices and devotion now held meaning once more.

From that moment onward, she placed all the expectations she had for herself all on Light.

Caroline firmly believed she would raise an outstanding crown prince, and in the future, he would be an even greater king than Jorah. She won’t let her father down, nor would she let her country down.

Ever since Light could remember, his mother had always looked at him with a smiling expression. Her lips were obviously stretched wide, yet the smile had never reached her eyes.

His mother had never cried in front of him, and he was also not allowed to cry.

She told him, “Crying is a sign of weakness; you can’t become a weak person.”

At that ignorant age, some children were afraid of the dark, some children were afraid of ghosts, while Light was afraid of crying.

One time, perhaps when he fell off his horse during a horseback riding lesson, he shed some reflexive tears due to the pain. Although Light immediately wiped away the tears with his hand, Caroline, who was standing outside the fence, still witnessed everything.

What was more terrifying than the pain was his mother’s sad and disappointed gaze.

Could you imagine that you have just fallen off a horse, and the moment you turn around, you see a pair of dark eyes staring at you with disappointment? The woman’s pale face showed no trace of a smile, and her eyes were completely devoid of light, like two enormous black holes hanging on her cheeks.

In the next second, Caroline rushed to Light’s side and repeated with a shrill voice, “Don’t cry. Have you forgotten your identity? You are the future crown prince, don’t cry!”

Under Caroline’s “training,” crying became the thing that Light feared the most.

Light still remembered the sentence his mother often said to him, her tone was always solemn and heavy, “You must remember that everything I do today, including living with your father, is all for you.”

At the time, Light was less than eight years old, and the heavy burden on his shoulders made it hard for him to breathe.

He naturally became taciturn, and no one was better at suppressing their emotions than Light.

While Jorah and Caroline would always silently scrutinize everything he did, giving it an “affirmative” or “negative” attitude.

They pay enough attention to the “crown prince,” yet they forgot that he was also a child.

Light didn’t resent Caroline. She had lived her whole life for her father, her husband, her son, but had never lived for herself. She undoubtedly loved him, like a “teacher” loves a “student.”

He blamed Jorah, but rather than “hatred,” it was more like an “indifferent disappointment.”

What Light really hated was the marriage that tied the two of them together. There were endless complaints and arguments every day; no one was happy in this marriage.

And the most terrifying aspect of a toxic family environment was that it molded children into the very person they least want to become, leaving them powerless to change it.

Light was that child.

When he was still young, he had raised a pet dog. It was a chubby yellow puppy, very cute, and always hung around him and Lance. At the time, Lance would sleep with the puppy every night.

Whenever Jorah saw the puppy, he would always smile and say that it would become an excellent hunting dog when it grew up.

But one day, half a year after the puppy was brought into the palace, when Light was taking it out for a walk in the palace, he encountered a team of hounds returning from hunting.

The newborn puppy had the same ignorant and reckless nature as a teen. The moment the puppy turned around and charged at the hunting dogs, Light didn’t make it in time to tug at the leash.

In the next second, there was a horrific scream coming from in front of him. One of the big hounds bit the puppy’s windpipe, its sharp fangs puncturing an artery.

When Light ran over and held the puppy, it was almost out of breath. The warm blood spurting out of its carotid artery splattered on Light’s face.

At that moment, he was almost engulfed by guilt and self-blame. He wondered if he hadn’t been lost in thought just now, if he had tightly held the puppy’s leash, would this not have happened?

He was also very sad. It was the first time he saw the passing of a life, and his heart trembled with pain. However, Light was used to being the “strong and sensible” eldest prince. Some things would become a conditioned reflex if they were suppressed for too long.

Light had long since forgotten how to cry.

In fact, those trembling amber eyes were also filled with fear, sadness, and helplessness. However, for a child of seven or eight years old, such an expression was too calm, so it was easy to overlook.

So when the adults rushed to the scene, they saw Light’s calm face smeared with blood, saying, “It died.”

He was so indifferent that it was hard to believe he was a seven to eight-year-old child.

Later, at the puppy’s burial, Lance almost cried his heart out.

While Light just silently squatted on the ground, digging the soil again and again with a shovel.

Jorah comforted Lance, yet said to Light—

“After all, it was a life that has accompanied you, you should at least have some compassion for it.”

Light still hadn’t forgotten the way Jorah looked at him; Jorah’s eyes held reproach, as if looking at a “cold-blooded” machine.

Through that incident, everyone saw the cold-blooded eldest prince and his pet who died tragically, but no one noticed a wooden tablet carved on the hill behind the garden.

It was Light who made it. He carved the puppy’s name on the wooden tablet and placed its favorite snacks around it.

Light regularly sat here when no one was around and spaced out.

He knew his personality wasn’t well-liked, and even he himself didn’t like it, but he figured…the puppy wouldn’t mind. It wouldn’t mind whether he liked to cry, nor would it mind whether he liked to laugh or not.

At the age of twelve, Light experienced another major change in his life.

That year, Caroline passed away.

At his mother’s funeral, under the collective gaze of dozens of eyes, Light still didn’t cry.

When he saw Caroline’s face in the coffin, his mother’s advice would ring in his ears over and over again, as if she were chanting a mantra—

“Don’t cry.”

The priest chanted a requiem as cold gazes flashed across Light’s face one after another. Those gazes carried a familiar mix of astonishment and reproach, as if people were looking at a “demon.”

Even Jorah couldn’t stand it anymore and went to look for Light after the funeral. “She’s your mother, the one who gave you life in this world, don’t you feel even a bit sad?”

The young crown prince couldn’t shed tears, so how could he prove that he was sad?

It would be nice if he could dig his heart out to show it to everyone.

After Jorah left, Light looked in the mirror. When he saw his own expressionless face, at that moment, his disgust for himself reached its peak.

He hated himself for being like this, but he couldn’t even show his self-loathing clearly on his face.

Since then, Light insisted on applying for the military academy despite Jorah’s opposition.

The military might be the only place in the world where one did not have to show rich emotions to outsiders, because here, everyone was like a machine without emotions.

Beside feeling that the military academy was right for him, Light also wanted to be stronger.

There were previously two questions that always perplexed him, and those were:

If he hadn’t been a child who couldn’t hold the leash firmly, would the puppy have not died?

If he were good enough, would his mother not have died?

Light had always firmly believed that if he had the ability to protect the people around him, the tragedies wouldn’t have happened. Thus, he needed to become stronger, strong enough to control everything in his own hands.

At the age of twenty-six, he became the empire’s youngest general and the base’s highest commander, leading the Oz Empire to drive out the Zergs and unify the Blue Planet. This honor, which was enough to be recorded in history, was something that even his father Jorah could not compare to.

Light seemed to have accomplished all the goals he set for himself back then.

But he still loathed his personality, still unable to express his emotions. He was like a precision-operated yet cold machine, resisting the marriage arranged by Jorah for him from the inside out.

Life was like a stagnant pool of water, and Light thought he would continue to live like this. Perhaps he would compromise one day and marry someone he didn’t love at all, but that won’t change anything.

That was until Mu Chen appeared. The other party was like a splash of color in his black-and-white world. He tore through that invisible barrier and forcibly broke into Light’s originally dull and monotonous life, repeatedly telling Light, “I love Gege the most.”

That innocence, straightforwardness, and passionate feeling were something Light had never felt before.

Perhaps Mu Chen didn’t know, but the first time he heard the little merman hug him saying, “I love Gege the most,” Light was more deeply touched than he let on. The other party was like a fire that melted the icy shell covering him, and his long-silent heart began to beat again.

And Light was desperate to be a good “Gege,” treasuring Mu Chen like a pearl in his hand.

But now…

The last ember of the cigarette went out, and ashes fell to the ground. The sudden emptiness at his fingertips brought Light back from his memories.

He developed a different feeling toward Mu Chen.

A feeling that he had never experienced or could control.