TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 111

Albin looked nervous. “Why is Dad coming here?”

Larimar’s eyes flickered. “That’s something you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

Little Black was here, and now Father was coming too?

Albin bit his lower lip. He had a bad feeling about this.

He needed to give Little Black a warning. If Little Black saw his father tomorrow and rushed straight at him, things would be disastrous.

With that thought, Albin immediately stood up from the sofa.

“I’m not staying here tonight. I’m going back.”

Larimar’s expression changed, and he quickly got to his feet. “Where are you going?”

“Back to the inn to find Little Black and the others,” Albin answered honestly.

“No!” Larimar stepped in front of him, his face dark. “You can’t go near that boy again!”

A puzzled look appeared on Albin’s face. “If you mean what happened before, I already know that was wrong. I’ll explain everything to Little Black.”

The latter half of his sentence came out somewhat reluctant and mumbled.

He had just promised Little Black that he could kiss him whenever he wanted without asking permission first. And Little Black like that had been incredibly adorable…

But no.

Albin clenched his fists, suppressing those selfish thoughts and forcing reason to prevail.

Friends couldn’t do things like that.

Some expressions on Little Black’s face weren’t meant for him to see. They were reserved for lovers alone, meant to be shown only to that special person.

He couldn’t deceive Little Black. He should tell him the truth.

Maybe once Little Black learned the truth, he would even regret kissing him before…

Something seemed lodged in Albin’s throat, making it hard even to breathe.

“That’s one reason,” Larimar said through gritted teeth, once again planning how to get revenge on the other party. “But more importantly, being near him puts you in danger.”

Albin froze. Of all the reasons he had expected, this wasn’t one of them.

“Why?” he asked, unable to understand. “Little Black would never hurt me.”

“Whether he would hurt you or not isn’t the point. As long as you’re near him, you’ll be in danger.”

Larimar’s serious expression didn’t look like an excuse, and Albin didn’t think he would lie about something like this.

But why?

Larimar shook his head. “Zeman instructed us not to tell you the specific reason.”

Dad’s orders?

Albin became even more confused.

“What about Little Black?” he asked hurriedly. “Will he be in danger?”

Larimar thought for a moment. “I don’t think so. Zeman said he would make sure that boy comes out of this unharmed in the end. Because…”

“He’s your good friend,” Larimar emphasized heavily, his expression twisting.

So was Little Black the one bringing danger to him, or was he the one bringing danger to Little Black?

Albin fell silent.

He didn’t understand what was happening. Just as he had originally suspected, the adults were hiding something important from him!

“So you actually found Little Black a long time ago, didn’t you?”

If today had really been their first meeting with Little Black, Larimar wouldn’t have been so unsurprised. He hadn’t even asked Albin for any information about Little Black, which meant he had already known.

They had some kind of plan involving Little Black, yet they had excluded him from it.

Larimar silently admitted it.

Albin recalled his earlier suspicions.

At first, he had thought the people interacting with Little Black were impostors. But judging from Larimar’s reaction now, it might actually have been them all along.

The Lord of Greed, Gold, who fought Little Black.

The Lord of Wrath, Sutanlai.

And the Lord of Pride, Zeman, who had severely injured Little Black…

Albin’s face turned pale.

Even so, he still trusted his family.

Larimar had said that Father had never actually intended to kill Little Black. In that case, his actions seemed more like some sort of expedient measure.

That made sense. With his father’s strength, if he truly wanted Little Black dead, Little Black wouldn’t still be alive.

As for the first two battles, since Little Black had won, Albin couldn’t be sure what Gold and Sutanlai had originally intended.

The real question was: what exactly was his father planning?

His family always shared the good news and hid the bad, and Albin deeply disliked that habit of concealment.

If not for the comic, he never would have known that Gold and Sutanlai had once suffered near-fatal injuries. They had hidden all of that from him!

At that moment, Albin actually found himself looking forward to Zeman’s arrival.

He wanted to know the truth.

With obvious dissatisfaction, he complained, “This is ridiculous! I’m closer to all of you than Dad is. Why do you listen to him? Why won’t you tell me?”

“It’s not because we listen to him,” Larimar replied.

Among monsters, the strong ruled the weak. Zeman’s power was obvious to everyone, and over the years he had brought the monsters of the Abyss under his control.

Starting from the age of eighteen, those monsters had been beaten by him again and again. After discovering that Zeman himself had become a monster, they had even begun praising the god they had always despised. Then they swiftly proclaimed Zeman the King of Monsters—the Demon King for short.

As the Demon King, Zeman naturally possessed immense influence among monsters, and they all willingly obeyed his commands.

It wasn’t that they obeyed him because he was the Demon King.

Rather, it was because the Demon King happened to be Zeman that they were so obedient.

Because even if they refused to listen, he could simply beat them until they did.

Titles such as Lord of Pride, Lord of Wrath, and Lord of Sloth had originally been honorifics given by monsters themselves before gradually spreading more widely.

“I’m acting according to my own judgment, which is why I can’t tell you. Zeman was worried we’d go soft-hearted, so from the very beginning he never told us the entire plan. We only know the parts we’re responsible for.”

Albin stared at him and said coldly, “I’m angry. From now on, I’m not talking to any of you.”

He couldn’t keep indulging them. This time, he was going to uncover the truth himself.

He turned and walked away.

But this time, he didn’t leave the residence.

He wasn’t sure whether he himself might be the source of danger to Little Black. Just in case, it was better not to appear before him for now.

Seriously, every single one of them was leaving him out!

Fine. If something happened to him, he wouldn’t tell them either!

He had originally wanted to share the joy of reuniting with Little Black.

Now he wouldn’t.

He wouldn’t tell them anything.

---

The next day, when Arthur and Lina saw Blake emerge from the room alone, they were both shocked.

“Where’s Ross?”

Blake shook his head and briefly explained that Albin had left because of something urgent and would come find them later that day.

But even after breakfast, Albin still hadn’t returned.

Since Lina had an appointment, they left a message at the inn and headed out first.

The person Lina was meeting was supposedly a relative who could provide them with assistance. Yet it wasn’t until they entered the Temple of the Sea God that Arthur finally realized something was off.

“Lina, is your relative a priest of the Sea God Temple?”

“No.”

Unexpectedly, Lina denied it.

Arthur scratched his head in curiosity and turned to ask Blake how he had guessed. Then he noticed Blake looked completely absent-minded, as though he hadn’t even realized they had arrived at the temple.

The attendants led them all the way to the ceremonial hall.

When Arthur heard Lina address the blue-haired man ahead of them as “Uncle,” it took him a moment to recover from the shock.

“A… a high priest?” he exclaimed.

Not a priest—a high priest!

Lina said, “This is my uncle. At present, he is indeed the High Priest of the Sea God Temple.”

Disguised as a high priest, Larimar swept his gaze over Blake at the back of the group and let out a cold snort.

“Well then, niece,” he said, “tell me. What do you need from me?”

Lina really was the niece of the true High Priest. However, the real High Priest had long ago been possessed by the Sea God and later ended up at the bottom of the sea.

“I hope Uncle can lend me his strength so I can take revenge on Leo, the new king of the Cuckoo Kingdom.”

The flames of vengeance burned in Lina’s eyes.

“All along this journey, people have been trying to kill me. The ones chasing me are the Cuckoo Knights, a force that only the king can command! We even pried information out of one of them, and the person behind it really was the ‘King.’”

Arthur nodded as well, confirming that it was true.

It was precisely because she had been hunted the entire way that Lina had hired him and Blake.

Lina continued, “Ever since my elder brother Leo ascended the throne, he’s been eliminating all of us half-siblings. In order to help me escape the Cuckoo Kingdom, even my twin sister was killed. I have to take revenge on him!”

This was the first time Arthur had learned Lina’s true identity, and he was stunned.

Lina was actually a princess?

Even Blake, who had been distracted and lost in thought, suddenly looked over.

He remembered that Albin had once told him that his mother had been one of the queens of the Cuckoo Kingdom, meaning he was very likely a child of the former king.

Then Lina was his half-sister?

Everyone’s attention focused on Lina.

At that moment, she revealed another piece of information.

“My royal brother is working together with the White Apostles. I saw it with my own eyes—my brother kneeling before a pink-haired man.”

Lina recalled the scene.

Not long after the king, her father, died suddenly of illness, she and her sister had been picking flowers in the palace garden. Hidden behind a tree, she happened to hear her brother’s voice and stopped to look out of curiosity.

She saw her usually arrogant elder brother kneeling on one knee before the back of a complete stranger.

“He called that person the Lord of Envy.”

Lina’s presence was quickly discovered by the two of them. Sensing danger, she immediately fled.

She never saw the true face of the pink-haired man with a ponytail, but she did notice the compass rose ornament hanging from his black ribbon. At the time, however, she had no idea what that symbol meant.

Her brother never realized that she had been the one eavesdropping that day. Soon afterward, a succession struggle threw the entire royal palace into chaos.

Neither Lina nor her sister took part in the conflict. Although their mother came from a divine-blooded family, she was from the southern Coral Kingdom and had no political foundation within the Cuckoo Kingdom. The sisters themselves held no noble titles.

They could only watch as their half-siblings fought one another.

In the end, Leo—the brother who had allied himself with the Lord of Envy—swept aside all opposition and claimed the throne.

After that, all that awaited them was endless pursuit.

Her sister died.

While fleeing, Lina gathered information about the White Apostles, all for the sake of one day taking revenge.

“Oh?” Larimar raised an eyebrow.

At last, he understood why Zeman had been so certain these people would eventually come to the Coral Kingdom.

“Of course, I can provide the strength you need…”

After a lengthy negotiation and exchange of interests, they finally reached an agreement.

Larimar would provide assistance, but defeating Leo and dealing with the Lord of Envy would have to be done by them personally.

What he could offer was special training.

His gaze fixed firmly on Blake.

“I’m willing to undergo the training,” Lina said immediately.

Larimar frowned. “What about those other two? They’re not participating?”

“They’re only bodyguards I hired to protect me,” Lina replied. “Revenge is something I have to accomplish myself.”

Arthur rested his hands behind his head and said, “Well, if there’s special training, of course I’m joining. Don’t forget—I’ve got a score to settle with the White Apostles too!”

Blake also spoke up.

“I’m in.”

Whether Lina was really his sister or not, he had no intention of passing up an opportunity to grow stronger.

Only then did Larimar’s expression soften into satisfaction.

After familiarizing himself with the fighting styles of the three of them, he quickly arranged suitable training programs.

As for Blake…

Larimar put him through quite an ordeal before taking him alone on a small wooden boat out to sea.

“Do you see what’s in front of you?” he asked.

Blake glanced down at the utterly ordinary ocean surface and hesitated.

“The sea?”

“That’s right.”

Splash—

Standing behind him, Larimar suddenly kicked Blake off the boat.

“Since you can use fire, try lighting your flames in the middle of the ocean. Once you can make it back to shore, your training will be considered complete.”

The instant Blake hit the water, the sea became turbulent, with winds and waves rising violently.

Looking toward the deep ocean, Larimar muttered,

“Looks like that guy doesn’t like him either.”

He frowned.

Although he had intentionally designed an extremely difficult training regimen to teach the brat a lesson and make him suffer a little, no matter what, Blake couldn’t be allowed to die.

Albin would be heartbroken.

Larimar waited on the rocking boat for a while, but Blake never surfaced.

“That idiot didn’t drown, did he…? Annoying little brat. Don’t tell me he can’t even swim.”

With an irritated expression, Larimar jumped into the sea and hauled Blake back up after he had swallowed half the ocean.

Unexpectedly, the moment Blake coughed up the seawater and regained consciousness, he immediately tried to jump back in.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” Larimar grabbed him by the collar.

If he wanted to die, fine—but not under Larimar’s watch.

What if Albin ended up hating him because of it?

Blake simply replied,

“I want to become stronger.”

Only by becoming stronger could he protect Albin.

He would never allow that nightmare to happen again.

He knew Larimar’s training was brutal.

That was exactly why it satisfied him.

Breaking free from Larimar’s grip, he leapt into the sea again without hesitation.

Larimar stood there in a daze.

Why did this kid seem even more of a masochist than he was?

---

Elsewhere in Pearl City.

Albin stepped forward to greet the stern man who had come to visit.

“Dad!”

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