TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 109

TN: Sorry everyone, I accidentally reuploaded Ch 108 as 109. This chapter has now been fixed!!

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Albin knew he might be getting a little greedy.

Ever since he realized he enjoyed secretly listening in on Xiao Hei, he had known there was something a bit twisted about him. He really did have a possessive streak, and people outside weren’t entirely wrong when they said everyone from the Sun Temple was a control freak.

Could Xiao Hei accept that?

Noticing Blake’s gaze tremble slightly, Albin worried that he had frightened him. He immediately adjusted his tone and added casually, almost cheerfully:

“If it’s a secret, or something that’s inconvenient to talk about right now, that’s okay. You don’t have to tell me. But if something happened that made you unhappy, and you’re willing to tell me about it, I’d be very happy.”

“Mm, no, that’s not right… That makes me sound like some huge pervert who takes pleasure in other people’s suffering.”

He muttered to himself. The suffocating atmosphere from before instantly vanished thanks to his interruption.

Albin blinked innocently and hurried to correct himself.

“What I mean is, I’d be happy if Xiao Hei is willing to share his feelings with me!”

“I understand.”

Blake didn’t sense anything strange at all and took hold of his hand.

His thoughts were the same as Xiao Bai’s.

In fact, when he heard Xiao Bai say that he wanted to know everything about him, a surge of joy filled his chest. His heart leaped wildly, as though it had lost control.

He liked Xiao Bai’s concern and attention toward him just as much.

The moment that thought surfaced, even his breathing became faster.

He couldn’t help wondering:

Had Xiao Bai noticed these feelings?

Did he know that a single sentence, a single gesture from him was enough to make Blake’s heart race?

Would he find him annoying?

Blake tried not to appear too delighted. Suppressing his breathing, he averted his eyes and asked:

“If I had a lot of friends around me, what would Xiao Bai think?”

He was afraid Albin would find his thoughts too dark. He needed to test the waters.

“Hm?”

Albin found the question strange but answered honestly.

“I’d be happy!”

His eyes sparkled as he said:

“I’ve always hoped Xiao Hei could make more friends.”

When he learned from comics and from others that Xiao Hei had spent all these years isolated from the world, training alone, barely knowing anyone, never attending festivals, and being completely ignorant of many ordinary things because he had immersed himself entirely in thoughts of revenge, Albin had deeply regretted it.

He regretted not finding Xiao Hei sooner.

Not showing him the colorful world earlier.

So when he saw Xiao Hei become friends with Arthur, Lina, and others, he felt incredibly relieved.

Wonderful.

At last, Xiao Hei could experience things beyond revenge.

Blake’s face paled slightly.

“Any other thoughts?”

“I’d also like to meet those friends of yours, because I want to know everything you’ve experienced.”

Albin looked back at him.

“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly asking this?”

Blake asked quietly:

“What if I had many close friends… friends even closer to me than you are?”

Albin froze.

“That is absolutely not allowed.”

His tone suddenly became serious. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and that faintly domineering aura from before surfaced again.

“The place that belongs to me can’t be given to anyone else!”

Just imagining such a situation made him feel terrible.

How could Xiao Hei let others eavesdrop on him?

How could Xiao Hei’s gaze fall on someone else instead of him?

“Having new good friends is normal, but if you dare leave me off to the side, I’ll be angry. I’ll be super, super angry!”

Puffing up his cheeks, he emphasized it repeatedly, practically demanding an immediate promise that such a thing would never happen.

If it actually did happen, Albin honestly didn’t know what he might do.

“Why bring this up all of a sudden? Could it be…”

His expression became wary.

“You already have some super-close friend you’re planning to choose over me?”

“Of course not!”

Blake hurriedly denied it.

But Albin noticed the faint smile that rarely appeared on Blake’s face.

Furious, he stomped his foot and suddenly bit Blake on the shoulder.

“You actually laughed! Seriously, what’s so funny? I’m about to die of anger here! Tell me who it is!”

“Because I realized Xiao Bai thinks the same way I do.”

Blake wrapped his arms around him and glanced at the shallow bite mark on his shoulder.

So… so cute…

Albin finally understood.

“Huh? Xiao Hei, this was the stupid thing you’ve been worrying about?”

He burst out laughing.

The oppressive feeling in his chest immediately dissipated.

“What are you even worried about? Xiao Hei and I are such good friends that we even discuss kissing together. I wouldn’t do something like that with anyone else.”

“But you’ve lost your memory. Everything about the past is what I’ve told you. What if you regret it after your memories return? What if you actually have other close friends?”

Blake couldn’t be certain whether he himself had influenced the amnesiac Albin, causing him to regard him as a friend.

“You idiot, Xiao Hei!”

Albin pinched his nose.

His eyes, made even brighter by his earlier anger, glared at him like shining pigeon-blood rubies.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot! Do you think I’m the kind of fool who just believes whatever people tell me?”

Like an angry little lamb, he bumped his head against Blake’s shoulder.

“Xiao Hei is so cute that as long as I’m not blind, I’d have noticed long ago! Besides, whether before losing my memory or after, I’ve written you letters every day. I’d never do something like that for anyone else! How can you doubt that I consider you my best friend?”

He had thought Xiao Hei’s crocodile-faced portrait was adorable at first sight.

Even when Xiao Hei was unconscious, he had stared at him like some kind of creep.

Even now, his head was full of thoughts twisted enough that they might scare Xiao Hei away.

Albin said aggrievedly:

“Was I really that terrible in Xiao Hei’s eyes before?”

“No!”

Blake hurriedly explained.

“I was afraid you’d regret it.”

“Regret what?”

Albin looked puzzled.

“Even if, for the sake of argument, we weren’t best friends before, we can become best friends from now on.”

Blake hesitated.

“But you’re the Holy Son. I’m not qualified to stand beside you. I might not even be able to protect you.”

Albin flicked him on the forehead.

“Xiao Hei, are you misunderstanding something?”

Tilting his head, he continued:

“If we’re friends, why do you have to be the one standing beside me? I can come find you too. And in the future, you might become someone even more amazing than I am. Would that mean you’d abandon me?”

“Besides…”

Albin lowered his eyes.

“It’s because of my identity as the Holy Son that I can’t form too many deep friendships. I don’t want Xiao Hei to be the same. I’d be lonely.”

Albin was greedy.

He needed love.

Family could provide one kind of love, but he also wanted other kinds.

He didn’t regret becoming the Holy Son.

The position allowed him to accomplish many things he otherwise couldn’t.

But neither did he want the title of Holy Son to become a tower-like prison separating him from everyone else.

He hoped someone could peer through the peephole and see the real him.

He hoped someone could find a hidden passage and come to him.

And when such a person appeared, of course he would hold on tightly and never let them escape.

“I’m sorry.”

Blake hugged him tightly.

“I was too afraid. I was afraid I’d end up too far away from you and failed to notice how you felt.”

So Xiao Bai was afraid too.

Just like him.

“It’s okay, because Xiao Hei is an idiot!”

Albin beamed.

“In the future, if something makes you happy or sad, you have to tell me. Even fears like this. Knowing about them would make me happy too, because they’re feelings that Xiao Hei has because of me!”

The innocent Xiao Hei was just too adorable.

His gaze drifted to the faint bite mark on Blake’s shoulder, and a sense of guilt arose from having bullied him.

“Sorry. I bit you just now. Why don’t you bite me back?”

“It’s fine.”

Blake answered vaguely.

Then, remembering what Albin had just said, he hesitated before adding:

“Very cute.”

Albin froze.

“Huh?”

Blake elaborated:

“When Albin bit me, it was very cute.”

An angry Albin was cute.

An Albin who became flustered and upset because he cared about him was cute.

An accidentally domineering Albin was cute.

Even a lonely-looking Albin was cute.

Inside his heart, it felt as though molten lava was bubbling and overflowing with warmth.

Happy emotions kept rising one after another.

“How is that cute?”

Albin couldn’t understand it at all.

Could Xiao Hei be a masochist like Larimar?

Then how was he supposed to treat Xiao Hei in the future?

He couldn’t bear to hurt him.

“It’s just very cute!”

Blake insisted firmly.

“Then try biting me back.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Albin brushed aside his hair and tugged open his collar.

Unlike Blake’s sleeveless high-collared shirt, exposing his shoulder took a little more effort.

“Just bite my neck.”

He tilted his head back.

Blake stared at the exposed neck for a moment.

Then, obediently lowering his head, he carefully parted his lips.

---

His teeth were much sharper than Albin’s. They were sharp enough to tear enemies apart and kill them, yet at this moment his movements were incredibly gentle, as light as a feather brushing against skin, afraid of hurting Albin in the slightest.

Albin could hear Blake’s breathing beside his ear.

He even heard him swallow.

Unable to lower his head, Albin could only imagine what expression Blake was wearing right now.

So obedient…

It felt as if Blake’s fangs had lightly brushed across Albin’s heart as well, leaving behind a faint ticklish sensation.

Because his older brother resembled a vampire and liked sleeping in coffins, Albin would sometimes play vampire games with him when waking him up, helping chase away his drowsiness.

But being bitten on the neck by his brother felt completely different from being bitten on the neck by Xiao Hei.

A strange sense of danger washed over Albin.

It was as if he were being watched by a wolf.

For some reason, his heartbeat sped up, accompanied by a thrilling shiver of excitement.

After only lightly biting him, Blake lifted his head again.

Albin immediately looked over.

Blake hadn’t closed his mouth yet. His gleaming fangs were especially conspicuous, and his eyes seemed to contain a trace of reluctance and restraint.

Like a cold, intimidating dog staring longingly at a bone.

Unable to resist, Albin reached out and touched Blake’s teeth.

And the dangerous, cold Xiao Hei obediently kept his mouth open so he wouldn’t accidentally hurt him.

With his other hand, Albin touched the spot on his neck that had been bitten.

A strange feeling lingered there.

Suddenly, he understood why Xiao Hei had found him cute earlier.

“So cute~”

The words slipped softly from his lips.

Across from him, Blake’s face grew slightly warm. Seemingly at a loss for how to respond to such praise, he looked flustered and awkward.

Even cuter!

Smiling broadly, Albin straightened his collar and headed out with Blake for training.

Blake chose a secluded stretch of beach.

The shore there was littered with rocks, and even during the daytime there were very few tourists.

Albin exchanged a few moves with him to help him warm up. Then he used magic to spar with him and went through some routine training exercises.

Afterward, Blake practiced his new techniques on his own.

Albin also trained his magic while facing the sea, occasionally glancing over at Blake.

Facing those black flames, even the seawater constantly surging into the coastal caves was instantly vaporized.

Standing against the crashing waves, Blake swung his broken sword.

In an instant, the seawater split apart.

So cool!

Albin’s eyes lit up.

But he didn’t want to lose to Xiao Hei, so he trained even harder.

During a break, Albin lifted the jacket resting on a rock and searched for their water pouch.

Only then did he realize that, because both of them had been distracted when they left earlier, they had forgotten to bring any water.

He waved at Blake and hurried back to the inn to retrieve it.

Not long after Albin left, Blake entered his own break period.

Walking along the beach, he noticed that although the tide had risen, the water still hadn’t reached very high.

He started picking up pretty seashells, intending to give them to Albin later.

After collecting a handful, Blake looked up and spotted a white figure on a nearby stretch of beach.

It was Albin!

“Xiao Bai!”

He immediately went to greet him.

But the moment the figure turned around, Blake’s expression changed dramatically.

Drawing the broken sword from his waist, he unleashed a powerful strike.

“Who are you?! Why are you pretending to be Xiao Bai?!”

Even though the person before him looked exactly like Albin, Blake recognized at a glance that this was not the Albin he knew.

This was a fake.

The white-haired youth calmly sidestepped the attack and lazily looked him over.

Broken sword.

Black hair.

Blue eyes.

A beauty mark beneath the eye.

Tch.

So this was the guy Zeman had warned him about.

What a pain.

Larimar, currently disguised as Albin, immediately realized the situation was bad.

It wasn’t that he had intentionally appeared before Blake in Albin’s form.

He had simply been carrying out his usual plan to fish for the Sea God.

Since the Sea God coveted Albin, Larimar—who possessed the ability Mimicry—had decided to wander along the shore disguised as Albin and see if he could lure the Sea God out.

He had deliberately stayed away from crowds.

Who could have guessed he’d run into the vessel of the Sun God?

Troublesome.

Larimar absolutely did not want to meet him under these circumstances.

If they got entangled, things would become annoying.

Better to shake him off quickly.

Without hesitation, Larimar opened his mouth and released the song of a siren.

The siren’s song was a form of mental attack capable of throwing humans into confusion.

As expected, Blake was affected.

His eyes immediately became vacant and unfocused.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Larimar turned to leave the beach.

“Larimar?”

A familiar voice suddenly called out.

Looking toward the shore, Larimar saw someone approaching.

Albin was hurrying back with the water pouch in hand.

The moment he saw another version of himself, he immediately guessed that Larimar was out fishing for the Sea God again.

Larimar’s expression changed.

“Albin? Why are you here? Didn’t Moon say you ran away from home?”

Albin grew visibly guilty and scratched his cheek.

“About that… I’ll explain later.”

Then his expression shifted.

“What’s wrong with Xiao Hei? Why does he look like he’s in so much pain?”

Larimar glanced at Blake, who was struggling against the mental attack.

“Don’t get close to him. He’s been affected by a siren’s song. He’s temporarily confused.”

The siren’s mental attacks released and amplified the desires hidden deep within a person’s heart.

If someone was alone, they would usually just spend a while in emotional turmoil and eventually recover.

But when multiple people were together, it could easily escalate into mutual violence and bloodshed.

Albin relaxed slightly.

He knew how siren songs worked.

It only releases hidden desires.

For Xiao Hei, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Larimar’s gaze shifted back and forth between Albin and Blake.

His expression turned increasingly suspicious.

“Wait… don’t tell me you’ve been together with him this entire time?!”

“Well…”

Albin was still trying to figure out how to explain.

Suddenly, Blake moved.

He had heard Albin’s voice.

Like a hunting dog catching the scent of prey, he instantly rushed onto shore.

In a flash, he wrapped his arms around Albin.

Then—

His confused mind acting on pure instinct, he lowered his head and kissed Albin.

Albin’s eyes widened in shock.

At that exact moment, the sea erupted into towering waves.

Larimar: ?!!!

“You bastard!!! What do you think you’re doing?!!!”

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