EnCoffin Me Chapter 105
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 105
His expression was too certain, yet it wasn't the arrogance of someone who looked down on others. Instead, it was a rational judgment made after carefully weighing the strengths of both sides. This kind of expression was undoubtedly more convincing to Brendan than any solemn promise. He even felt a bit apologetic that he didn't know much and couldn't be of any help.
“There's something I need you to do.” The vampire's voice rang out again. Brendan quickly looked up, even feeling happy that he could be of some use.
“What… what can I do?”
“Stay quiet, stay friendly. Like… a night mare raised in a conservation center,” Alexio said. Brendan blinked twice, then twice more. When he suddenly turned his head, Alexio caught his horn precisely.
“This is too hard! I can't do it!” The night mare tried to shake his head in refusal. “Be friendly to those humans and light creatures? Ha! No way!”
Alexio held his horn firmly and spoke with precision.
“Don't you want to free your own kind?”
The night mare stopped struggling immediately.
“This isn’t a task where you have to compromise or endure hardship. To be precise, it's a high-risk mission,” Alexio shared the plan he had devised, “Those people haven’t stopped their propaganda. They need dark creatures to appear even more violent and threatening in the eyes of the public. The way you’re acting now fits that perfectly, so they won’t even think about replacing you.”
Brendan seemed to understand something.
“Yes, I assume the night mare from the breeding farm is just like you, full of hatred toward others. Once you become docile and can no longer create propaganda value for them, they'll replace you just as they did with the original night mare,” he said, breaking into a slight smile. “But don't worry, I'll go with you, and then we'll naturally find the breeding farm's location.”
Essentially, it was letting the enemy to deliver him straight into their own base.
Brendan stopped resisting. He was clearly intrigued by the plan.
“I can try…” he said with some difficulty. “But I don't know how to act cute…”
“That's fine. The one you'll interact with most will be Lun… Lucius. You'll look cute by comparison.”
“……”
Alexio glanced at the time. Even with the assistance of Pupil's clone, he couldn't linger any longer. He said goodbye to the night mare.
“You should see results in a few days, at most a week. They won't be able to hold back. But you can't just go back like nothing happened. It's too dangerous. I'll come by at night to tell you how to use your powers.”
Night mares possessed a unique ability to traverse dreams, which could help Alexio hide within the dream and enter the breeding farm alongside him. After ten thousand years of lost legacies, the public assumed night mares' abilities were limited to their horns and black flames. Even Delvie herself never gained their dreamwalking ability, yet Alexio clearly remembered how night mares once ran through dreams ten thousand years ago.
It was a fantastical, magnificent sight, unlike werewolves. At the edge of fire and dreams, solemn-looking, single-horned beasts galloped. Legend said anyone who heard their hoofbeats would be plagued by nightmares at night. The night mares fed on that fear and brewed new nightmares before the next night fell.
After finishing his meeting with the night mare, the surveillance in the corridor returned to normal. He quickly went back to his room and used Pupil's clone to unlock the door, leaving no trace of a visitor. However, the screen next to the door showed that someone had just come by. He didn't know who.
The door opened, and Alexio hid in the shadows. Only after recognizing the visitor did he relax and plop onto the table.
His wings were too small. Flying was exhausting.
The visitor was Zhen. It was obvious he had come for Alexio, but since Alexio wasn't there, Zhen silently sat across from the saint. Usually, Zhen could liven up any room, but in front of the saint, he really couldn't squeeze out any words. He felt that unless absolutely necessary, the other person completely didn't want to communicate with anyone else, so he just quietly waited.
Yet the saint spoke first.
“What do you think of the southeast branch?”
For a moment, Zhen almost thought the saint knew his purpose. He had indeed come here to talk about the southeast branch. He had discovered something terrible and wanted to find Alexio immediately. But since Alexio was absent and the saint asked, Zhen lowered his eyes and prepared to speak.
“At first, I held a very positive view of the southeast branch, which is almost entirely comprised of people from the eastern faction. I was also confident because I could eliminate those worms,” his voice grew heavy, “But I… discovered a terrible truth. It was so terrifying that I confirmed it many times before finally despairing. I… might not be able to save these people.”
He blinked. There was a talisman paper blocking his face, but it felt like the saint could still see right through him. Along with a slight fear, Zhen felt a strange familiarity, as if he had once been stared at like this before. The owner of that gaze had placed a heavy decision before him and then turned away.
【You are the imperial son. How this kingdom fares depends entirely on you.】
【No matter what, my plan will not change.】
Pain surged in his chest. The decision once placed before him must have been incredibly harsh, and that pain still lingered now. Zhen looked up slightly, meeting the saint's seemingly gentle but emotionless eyes.
Suddenly, a small black shadow flickered in the saint's eyes.
As the door slid open and shut, Alexio landed precisely on the table. Perhaps due to his round shape or slippery fur, he rolled uncontrollably across the surface, almost going off the table. He knocked over the glass the saint had used, and then tumbled headfirst into it.
“……”
After a moment of silence came a clear—
“Pfft.”
Feeling the fur on his head was a bit wet, Alexio angrily transformed back into human form, shattering the glass, and stared at the two of them. Zhen quickly shook his head to show it wasn't him laughing.
“That was me,” the saint admitted calmly.
He actually dared to admit it?
Alexio almost got into a fight with him on the spot, but since Zhen was still in the room, he just gave the clearly smug lunatic a glare, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
“Is something wrong?” He had grown used to being the trusted advisor. These children always liked to consult or ask him for advice.
“…Mm.” Zhen lowered his head. After seeing Alexio, his eyes stung as if he was about to cry. “I might… not be able to save the people here.”
He spoke while holding back tears.
“Each person here has only one life force.”
One life force per person should be normal, but Alexio's expression gradually grew serious. He recalled those who had invaded the conservation center earlier. Each had worms and seemed to carry two life forces, which Zhen could perfectly suppress. Lucy's soul butterflies could also deal heavy damage to those worms. But now…
Perhaps the so-called ‘one life force’ belonged to the worms. That was why Zhen was so distressed.
So, among those wandering here, who counted as humans, and who as parasites?
“Alexi, I can't save those who've been completely devoured,” Zhen grabbed Alexio's sleeve, pleading. “Is there any way?”
The southeast branch was near several settlements of the eastern faction, so most members were Eastern descendants. To Zhen, this was his people suffering, and he had no way to help them.
Alexio was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head. His own abilities were mostly for offense. He instinctively looked at the lunatic, whose light magic specialized in healing and restoration, but the lunatic also shook his head. It seemed these people were truly beyond saving.
Zhen finally couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears, hugging Alexio tightly.
He hated the enemy's cruelty and coldness, and he hated his own helplessness even more. He cried until the talisman paper was soaked, burying his face in Alexio's chest, unwilling to look up. In the end, it was the saint who lifted him.
“We're still deep in enemy territory. He can't stay long, or the people in the branch will get suspicious.”
Alexio instinctively stood up. “Then I'll accompany him…”
“Alexi.” The saint called his name, and Alexio immediately stopped. He looked into the saint's clear sky-blue eyes.
“I'll send him back and talk with him. I'll be back soon.”
The saint took the barely composed Zhen away, leaving Alexio alone in the room. He activated the device, and Pupil's clone floated up, glowing softly with a gentle gaze.
“Pupil, Lucius said Zhen is a resurrected being. Do you know what happened to him ten thousand years ago?”
Pupil flickered, as if nodding.
“Can you tell me? What happened to Zhen? What happened in Beizhu City back then? And what was that lunatic… doing there?”
This time, Pupil moved gently from side to side.
“Not telling me now?”
Pupil moved up and down.
Alexio slumped over the table, yawning, ignoring Pupil and the lunatic. Soon after, he fell asleep.
Suddenly, the housekeeping robot in the corner activated. It swept up the broken glass at his feet and brought him a blanket. After finishing, Pupil quietly watched the sleeping Alexio, swaying slightly as if sighing.
A mystical scene unfolded. The floating eye projected an image of a white-feathered bird. The creature had three plumes and three long, phoenix-like tail feathers that now draped softly over Alexio's shoulders and back. Lost in dreams, Alexio remained unaware as the white bird nestled against him briefly before gradually fading away.
The white bird lifted its head, looking toward a certain direction, where its guardian was undergoing a painful transformation.
It could not intervene, nor could Alexio.
That was Zhen's battle.