HSB Chapter 7

Julius stared at the object, long and hard, before realizing it was a human body underneath the blanket. So did a dead body drop in front of his daughter?

Julius looked at it for a while, only to find that a human figure came out under the blanket, so the baby daughter lay down in front of someone?!

After Bambi finished covering up the aforementioned corpse, the sky began to turn gloomy, so Bambi took her dress off from the clothesline and returned inside. This was when Julius realized the area he was standing at was the balcony outside.

What puzzled Julius was why the “person” appeared on the balcony. Or better yet, how did the other party come up here? Was he dead?

He assumed the person was dead. Otherwise, his daughter wouldn’t pull a blanket to cover it.

It gave Julius a headache regretting he didn’t see what happened before he came, nor did the game have a rewind function, so he had no clue about the current situation. Fortunately, his daughter was fine, and seeing how Bambi cautiously locked the door of the balcony, his old fatherly heart sighed in relief.

At the same time, a megaphone icon appeared atop Bambi’s head, indicating that his daughter had spoken.

Julius lounged in the car driving to the palace. Not wanting any strangers—the driver who came to pick him up—to hear Bambi’s voice, so when he clicked on the megaphone, he chose the [Text] option.

His daughter’s words were displayed in a dialogue text:

[“Winnie, if I let that dead mister lay there forever, he will start to stink. How am I to dry my clothes then?”]

Bambi looked distressed, but she couldn’t think of a better way. With her little arms, she couldn’t even budge the dead body, much less move it off the balcony.

The thought of not being able to go visit the balcony in the future made Bambi’s lips tremble into a sad pout. It meant there was one less play area for her.

From Bambi’s words, Julius determined that the person was dead, so that gave rise to a bigger question—how did a dead person appear on the balcony?

Could it have fallen from the floor above? Were there other people living in the same apartment as Bambi?

The System probably couldn’t stand Julius’ various nonsensical speculations, or maybe he just “took pity” on the first-time father, and a prompt popped up on the screen generously: [Ivan Young was injured by his teammate’s sneak attack. Just as he was losing all hope, he discovered Bambi. As a final act of desperation, he flew onto the balcony with the lift from his wind-type powers. Ivan wanted to ask Bambi for help, but he fainted from his injuries. Bambi mistakenly thought he was dead and laid him to rest.]

Julius: “…”

Should he praise his precious daughter’s kindness?

So, the person on the balcony wasn’t dead? Was he still alive?

Then after the other party wakes up, wouldn’t he pose a threat to his baby girl?

“Your Highness, we’ve arrived.”

However, no matter how worried Daddy Xander was about his baby girl, the driver’s reminder forced him to reluctantly disconnect from the game.

Baby girl, wait for Daddy to be done with this business. Daddy will be right back.

Before he came of age, Prince Julius had been living in the royal palace. After he came of age, he moved out and was very proud of himself when he bought a house with the first pot of gold he earned, rather than relying on the royal family. Hence, Julius was very familiar with the palace.

On the way to the grand foyer, Julius met up with a young man who was also there to see the emperor.

Seeing him, Julius rolled his eyes without a word.

The man was ornately clothed and the feathers crowning his head signified his identity—an Avis. His facial features were dazzlingly beautiful, like the most perfect creation of the gods, without the slightest flaw, and the area between his eyebrows was embellished with an iridescent aeris diamond, which set off his beautiful facial features with unparalleled charm, but wasn’t feminine in the slightest.

So devastatingly beautiful, noble, and magnificent.

The Aeris diamond at the center of his forehead was a symbol of status, and this young and beautiful man was the new leader of the Avis, Phoenix King Tristan Hargreaves.

“Prince Julius, good morning.” Tristan smiled, and everything around him was eclipsed by this smile.

Julius: “…”

Damned peacock, damned sissy.

Julius discreetly studied Tristian’s face and then thought of his own face. After last night’s meticulous skin care, his face was certainly not a bit inferior to this jerk’s.

The rivalry between Julius and Tristan could be traced all the way back ten years ago. The two of them could be perfectly described by the words “mortal enemies.” The former Phoenix King and the emperor were friends, but the former Phoenix King suffered life-threatening injuries while helping the emperor in his campaign to unify the empire, and died leaving behind young Tristan.

The emperor brought Tristan to the palace to take care of him, and when Tristan came of age, he was awarded the title of Phoenix King.

So Julius and Tristan practically grew up together.

Normally, two people of the same age should become the best of friends, but in reality, the relationship between them was like fire and water. Julius hated Tristan very, very much.

Because Julius firmly believed that Tristan was an absolute hypocrite with way too many eccentricities. It might be perfectly fine for a man to be even more beautiful than a woman, but when the same man dressed up so queerly like a woman, it was really painful for Julius to watch.

Mer-people were stunning as well, but you didn’t see them dressed that like.

Of course, if it was just a different way of dressing, it wouldn’t make the relationship between the two so tense. The main reason was—

“Your Highness’s skin is particularly moist today. I passed through a planet that didn’t have such good conditions two days ago, which gave my face an allergic reaction…what skin care products does Your Highness use? Can you recommend some to me?” Tristan asked sincerely as if he and Julius were good friends.

Julius: ”…”

This was exactly what he hated about Tristan. Because the other’s existence was a constant reminder to him that he was “ugly,” which gave birth to the rivalry mentally since he was a child, sending him further and further on the road of becoming a “delicate boy,” until he was obsessed with it.

But he was a man!

Julius forced a smile through gritted teeth as he responded, “Why would I, a man, use skin care products? I’m not like you, pampering my own skin…but if you’re allergic, you should see a doctor.”

Allergies? Where are the signs of an allergic reaction on that smooth and beautiful face? Dammit! This peacock was deliberately pointing out the fact he, Julius, uses skin care products to maintain his healthy skin in front of all these people!

Tristan smiled regretfully, then walked side by side with Julius, and casually changed the subject. “Does His Highness know why His Majesty has summoned us today?”

Julius thought to himself, “How would I know? Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you!”

“We’ll know when we see Father,” Julius answered.

“I do know a little bit,” Tristan said in a tone that wasn’t even a bit boastful, but Julius just knew that the other person was preening.

See? I know why His Majesty summoned us, while you, the son, don’t know anything!

Julius: “…”

He wanted to hammer this man to death.

Tristan stopped talking after saying this as if deliberately waiting for Julius to ask him the question.

Just then, there was a flurry of hurried footsteps ahead, and then a figure turned around the corner—it was Ian Xander, the fifth prince.

“Tristan, Julius.” Seeing the two of them, Ian was overjoyed. “Father is already waiting for the two of you. Hurry up!”

After greeting the emperor, Julius finally learned why the emperor summoned him and Tristan to the palace—the emperor wanted him and Tristan to do charity work together and set up a charitable foundation to help the people of planets that were practically barren of livable resources by meeting their most basic survival needs.

Julius: “…”

Julius was perfectly fine with setting up a charitable foundation to do good, for Julius donated often, but why did he have to partner with Tristan?

“Because this proposal was made by Tristan,” the emperor said kindly.

Julius: “?”

The emperor continued, “Julius, Tristian has the dedication and you have the money. With the two of you working together, this matter will be carried out beautifully. This will let the refugees of other planets know that the royal family of the Astra Empire hasn’t forgotten them, and the Astra Empire loves every citizen equally.”

~*~

Only after they departed from the palace did Julius glare at the man beside him and didn’t hold back the full brunt of his wrath as he spat through gritted teeth, “You did this on purpose!”

Fucking tricking me out of my money!

Tristan was puzzled for a moment as those deep and beautiful eyes peered at Julius before he suddenly understood what Julius was referring to, and he explained, “Please don’t misunderstand Your Highness. Weren’t you already planning to do charity for some time? It just so happens that I also have the same idea. Some time ago, the Star News has been talking about the royal family’s inaction. Several planets have joined forces to demand questions from His Majesty…now that we’re taking the lead with our partnership, isn’t that right on time?”

Julius gritted his teeth. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

If this bastard had just told him in advance, with an open discussion between them, he wouldn’t have been so pissed off.

Tristan sighed, logged into his LUX, and transmitted an image to Julius. “I know Your Highness has some misunderstandings about me, and I fear if I mention this matter to you, you will think I have ulterior motives, so I sent my proposal to His Majesty instead. I hope Your Highness doesn’t mind.”

Julius: “…”

Julius looked down at the hologram which showed a clip of the refugees trying to survive on a barren planet.

After watching the whole thing, he shot Tristan a blank look, saying nothing else, and got into his car.

“Sir.” Tristan’s personal assistant stepped forward. “His Highness seems reluctant. He won’t get in the way, will he?”

The smile on Tristan’s face faded a little and he shook his head nonchalantly.

The assistant was puzzled. “I don’t understand. You can choose to partner with the other princes—the eldest prince is an especially good candidate. Why did you pick Prince Julius?”

It was clear that he and Prince Julius didn’t get along.

Although the emperor was in the prime of life, he would eventually abdicate in the future, and the position of emperor was selected according to strengths. Whichever prince had the strongest ability was to be crowned the next emperor.

The eldest prince was the best candidate and better than the other princes in all aspects. The eldest prince urgently needed some merits to prove his worth. Doing some charity would be something the eldest prince would certainly agree with.

“Because Julius has money,” Tristan said. It was just that simple.

The other princes were too poor.

Doing charity wasn’t a simple matter. It requires a steady stream of investment—that was a lot of money—and only Julius, who really had nothing but money, could afford it.

But today’s Julius was quite easy to talk to, especially after he showed Julius that video. Julius didn’t say anything and accepted the partnership with silent compliance.

This was a big surprise to Tristan. He showed Julius the video hoping to make him sympathetic to the refugees, but from what he knew about Julius, even if the video tugged at the pampered prince’s heartstrings, he wouldn’t be so quick to accept a partnership with him.

Julius’s heart seemed to have softened quite a bit.

Tristan raised his attractive eyebrows, keenly aware of the change about him.

Sitting in the car, Julius’s mind lingered on the images from the hologram—filthy environments, and emaciated refugees amongst whom he even saw little children.

At that moment, Bambi’s small figure appeared in Julius’s mind.

He couldn’t spoil his daughter in the game and improve her life, so it was a comfort to him that he could help refugees on barren planets through charity in reality.

This comfort washed away Julius’ anger at the peacock.

Anyway, the last thing he lacked was money.

Thinking of this, Julius couldn’t wait to open the game—the charity he desired to do most was to raise his baby girl.

Just thinking about how his daughter was worse off than a refugee—at least the refugees still had parents to take care of them, there were no monsters threatening them at every corner, while his daughter was all alone—Julius felt his heart ache for Bambi.

What did he have to do so he could start building up the intimacy between him and Bambi, quickly and harmoniously,

On the screen, Bambi laid a playmat on the kitchen floor with a set of Lego toys on it.

Bambi was building with Lego bricks.

She built it very quickly because she built it many times.

Bambi didn’t have many toys. Hugh happened to find this set of Lego toys in a store by chance, and Bambi loved playing with them.

It was raining heavily outside the window, accompanied by a clap of thunder occasionally, and whenever thunder sounded from the sky, Bambi’s small body would tremble unconsciously.

Back on the balcony, the icy rain quickly wet the blanket, and the drenched blanket became heavy and clung to Ivan’s face, making it hard for him to breathe.

Perhaps this severely injured C-class power user had such a strong will to live that he woke up from being nearly suffocated.

It was a good thing that he woke up when he did; otherwise, he would never wake up again.

Ivan lifted the heavy blanket off his body, and when he saw the door in the downpour of rain, he rolled over, struggling as he tried to crawl over, and then clenched his fists and started pounding at the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bambi’s hand shook, and the blocks she was playing with fell out of her hand.

The sound came from the kitchen. Bambi listened to it for a moment to make sure it was the sound of pounding on the door, not thunder.

Bambi hugged her teddy in fear, pretending not to hear it, but the sound kept on drumming.

“It’s the dead mister. He turned into a monster.” Bambi was scared and puzzled. Grandpa said that people who died didn’t become monsters. Only those who were bitten by monsters would become monsters.

“Little girl… please help me…” Ivan remembered seeing a little girl before he fell unconscious, and he was sure that the little girl must be in the house. He didn’t want to die; he had to call for help.

Monsters can’t talk.

“That mister is alive.” Bambi and Winnie silently shared a look and Bambi whispered, “Do you want to go and see?”

Winnie gave Bambi courage, and Bambi, with Winnie in her arms, crept into the kitchen. There was still pounding on the door, but it was much weaker.

After hesitating for a moment, the little girl finally plucked up her courage. “Mister, are you alive?”

“I-It’s—.” Every word Ivan uttered was like the sounds of a bellow. The sharp pain in his chest was already numb. He couldn’t even feel where his injury was. All he had left was instinct; he wanted to live; he must live to find Miles to take his revenge.

The mister was still alive, but he was injured, so she should let him in.

Helping the injured mister overcame Bambi’s fear, and after a few seconds, she finally twisted the doorknob

Bambi didn’t notice that behind her, a kitchen knife was silently suspected in the air.

Daddy Xander picked up the kitchen knife with two fingers. Once Bambi opened the door, if the person outside wanted to hurt her, he didn’t mind cutting him into pieces with the kitchen knife.

The door opened. Rain poured in. Bambi’s dress was drenched within seconds.

When Ivan saw the little girl, his eyes lit up with hope.

Suddenly, his pupils dilated sharply as he stared at the kitchen knife glinting menacingly behind the little girl, and he immediately tensed up.

Not only was the little girl a power user, but she possessed the most mysterious and rare psychic-type power!