Unedited chapter
35. Leaving for the Capital Star
Staring blankly at Edgar who just stood there and spoke in such an imposing manner while wearing the cheapest-in-the-entire-supermarket nightwear Shu Shu had bought, Shu Shu’s whole person was somewhat in shock.
Was this man truly his own disciple? How did his disciple look so ruthless and cool? Clearly, he was more like an overbearing president!
"Shu Shu?" Slightly nervous, Edgar turned towards the little sub-beastman. He had never told the little sub-beastman his true identity. Would the little sub-beastman get angry? Would he feel that Edgar had deceived him? Would he stop paying attention to Edgar because he got angry?
Edgar suddenly remembered a movie he had once seen.
That year, his father was very busy and not even able to go home on his birth father's birthday. His birth father then dragged him out to watch a movie, calling him his little sweetheart and making him his companion to celebrate his birthday in absence of his old sweetheart.
That movie really impressed Edgar.
The movie told the story of a crown prince of a fictional empire who concealed his identity and went out to work. He liked a common-born, beautiful sub-beastman, and soon they were in love with each other. The first half of the movie was a source of constant laughter and very sweet, but after the crown prince’s identity was known to the sub-beastman, the situation quickly turned around for the worse.
The sub-beastman thought that the crown prince had deceived him and thus was unwilling to be in relationship with the crown prince anymore. The crown prince’s various appeals could not make him change his mind.
All along, the second half of the movie was about the two of them entangled in a misunderstanding. Afterwards, if it were not for the crown prince getting injured in order to save the sub-beastman, perhaps the sub-beastman would never forgive him.
After a certain sentence in the movie, the words "crown prince" and seeing his own birth father’s incessant laugh at this scenario had left a deep psychological shadow in Edgar, who, at that time, was only ten-year-old but had already been conferred the title of Crown Prince. At one time, he was even unwilling to step into the cinema again and also got slightly afraid of the sub-beastmen around him. After he grew up a little, all of this was hidden away in the depth of his mind. But now, he remembered it again.
Edgar suddenly detested his outstanding memory.
His experience was very similar to that of the crown prince; would he also come across such a situation?
However, he really did not know how he was going to coax the sub-beastman!
Edgar stood straight as a ramrod with a blank face, but in his heart, he couldn’t help but start to worry.
"Who the heck are you, ah?" Shu Shu asked while staring at Edgar for a long time.
"I am . . ." Edgar didn't know how to say the words "crown prince" in Chinese. He also didn't want to be condemned as a cheat by the little sub-beastman in front of so many people. In the end, he sounded the little sub-beastman out by saying: "Let's go back first."
The little sub-beastman should be willing to go back with him and would not start yelling at him on the spot, right?
"Ah, OK! I’m hungry!" Shu Shu immediately replied. He was very curious about Edgar's identity, but this curiosity was definitely not as big an attraction as food for him. Moreover, seeing Edgar's tangled look, maybe his identity was difficult to explain. In that case, just leave it until they go back home.
As a mythical animal, Edgar actually fell to the point where he was thrown away into the forest to fend for himself . . . . According to the numerous TV dramas Shu Shu had watched, his disciple definitely had a very miserable past.
Shu Shu glanced at Edgar with sympathy and then touched his own stomach with quite a pitiful expression. "Those delicious foods that I brought back for you before, you haven’t eaten them yet, and you already encountered the heavenly tribulation. It’s really a pity that they’re wasted now.”
Edgar also thought it was a pity that he actually didn’t get to eat the things that the little sub-beastman had specially brought back for him because of jealousy . . . . Turning towards Justin, Edgar said: “Your Excellency Justin, do you have a free assistant? I need someone to help me with something."
"Of course." Justin hauled out the secretary behind him. "This is my secretary, very capable. I believe he surely can help Your Imperial Highness to handle some things.”
“Many thanks.” Edgar replied and then made the secretary help him with the most important thing, which was buying snacks: “Buy some snacks with various kinds of flavors, and if they’re some kinds of nuts, you can buy more.” Shu Shu seemed to be quite fond of nibbling on nuts, but unfortunately, there were not many nuts that could be eaten in the forest.
"Your Imperial Highness, I will buy them right away." The secretary responded at once and then ran out to buy snacks.
Shu Shu understood the word "snacks" and asked Edgar delightedly: "Are you buying them for me? Are you rich?"
"Yes, that’s right. I’m rich." Edgar answered.
"You’re really great!" The more Shu Shu looked, the more satisfied he was with the disciple in front of him.
His disciple had become a human and even had money that could get him all kinds of foods . . . . As a matter of fact, was this the owner, no . . . the disciple he had longed for day and night?
As for the other matter . . . Shu Shu had no time to be concerned about anything else now. "When will the purchased food arrive, ah?"
"It should be delivered to our home soon." Edgar answered again.
"Then let's go back quickly!" Shu Shu instantly replied.
As expected, Justin’s secretary was very capable. When Edgar and Shu Shu were sitting in the aircraft to return to their residence, they saw him coming down from another aircraft with several bags of snacks on his hands.
Panting towards Edgar and Shu, Mr. Secretary soon came to a halt and showed a formulaic smile. "Your Imperial Highness, the snacks you want have been bought. Since the time was quite short, I could only get a few kinds . . . "
"Thanks a lot." Edgar said and took the snacks.
"No need, no need." Mr. Secretary quickly replied. After watching the two men enter the house, he continued to collect snacks. He had just asked someone to help him get some commonly eaten snacks. Next, he himself should go find some more special ones . . . .
As soon as Shu Shu entered the house, he started to tear at the bag of snacks on Edgar’s hand and take out some things to eat. While eating, he also stuffed some into his food pouches.
After eating for a while, Shu Shu then turned towards Edgar: "Right, you said you’d tell me who you are. Who the heck are you, ah?"
Still couldn't dodge past it . . . Edgar was a bit sullen.
Although Edgar had learned so many languages on the star system, but the communication between him and Shu Shu was still problematic. Thinking about it, Edgar then directly went online and searched for some videos. He arranged them on the TV one after another, so Shu Shu could watch them individually.
These videos comprised a documentary film about the Imperial family, video records of Edgar’s previous activities, and an educational film about the state system for children . . . . Shu Shu was very smart; Edgar believed that so long as Shu Shu watched them, he would certainly become aware of Edgar identity .
As for himself . . . .
"Shu Shu, I want to go back to the forest and return to our cave to take a look." Edgar said.
"Oh." Shu Shu answered with a single sound, a little puzzled. Hadn’t they already taken out all the stuffs in the forest? Still going back to look, what for? Yet Edgar . . . . Right, Edgar could provide a lighter at that time; it was possible that there was also other things in his hands.
Waving his hand, Shu Shu expressed to his disciple, you can go on, I’ll continue watching TV and eating snacks—these two things were indeed what he most loved to do!
Edgar’s heart was rather stuffy.
Edgar was really going to get his own stuff. He had been wearing his own mech when he had plunged to Gass planet. Although the mech was in tatters and due to be scrapped entirely, but its raw material was the best after all and completely recyclable.
In order to prevent his identity from being discovered by people, he had not taken the mech out before. The situation was different now, and he definitely had to take the mech away. In addition to this, there were still a lot of things in the cave he and Shu Shu had shared, and he wanted to take them away as well.
Sitting in a helicopter and coming to the place where he had lived for half a year, Edgar felt like it all had happened a lifetime ago. He had thought that he would spend the rest of his life here after sending the sub-beastman off. He hadn’t expected that he was also going to leave now . . . .
"Have you always been here for the past six months?" Jones looked around, his mood somewhat complicated. He knew about Edgar’s disappearance, but he had not expected Edgar actually lived in the forest here.
"Yes, that’s right." Edgar nodded faintly. He got into the cave where he had lived together with Shu Shu and then put the wooden bowl, the wooden chopsticks, the stone Shu Shu had used for cooking, and so on into the space button, leaving nothing.
Watching Edgar pack up the stuff in the cave with a blank face, Jones invariably felt very awkward.
Done packing up the stuff in Shu Shu’s cave, Edgar conveniently went to the cave where he had lived to take a look at it.
The little sub-beastman had not allowed him to return there, so he had not returned. But now that he was going to leave, he suddenly wanted to take a look at that damp cave where he had once lived for quite a long time.
In that cave, he had spent his darkest and most painful days. He considered it a memorable place.
Edgar alone arrived outside of the cave. He crouched down and was about to go in when he found that . . . the cave was full of the little sub-beastman’s smell.
No wonder the little sub-beastman had not let him come back here. No wonder when the little sub-beastman had wanted to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, he had not stepped on him anymore.
The corner of Edgar's mouth unconsciously hooked up. Then he went to the lakeside and jumped directly into the water.
There were a lot of tiny fishes swimming in the small lake, and a worn mech was lying right at the bottom of the small lake.
After fishing up the mech from the lake-bed, Edgar wiped it dry very carefully before stowing it in the space button.
This mech had accompanied him for so many years, and he believed that it would continue accompanying him in the future.
Edgar, after taking all the stuffs he wanted to bring along, deliberated for a moment and then went to catch two pheasants . . . . The first prey he had given to the little sub-beastman was a pheasant, and the little sub-beastman also liked to eat pheasant. Using these pheasants to apologize should be good, right?
Handsome and tall His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince who tended toward grave and stern appearance got onto the helicopter while carrying two pheasants that kept flapping their wings and coldly ordered: "Return."
Jones was momentarily speechless and then said after a while: "You’re just like your emperor father!" Such a mēn sāo! At that time, hadn’t His Imperial Majesty the Emperor frequently sported such a face to attract Ian’s attention?
The helicopter stopped at the gate of Edgar and Shu Shu’s residence.
Edgar stepped down from the helicopter and felt slightly uneasy upon seeing the tightly closed door.
The helicopter sound was very loud; it was impossible for Shu Shu to not hear it, yet he did not come out . . . . Was Shu Shu angry?
Edgar thought of that movie again. Based on the situation in the movie . . . when he came back this time, it’s quite likely that he would be driven away, and then Shu Shu would shout: "Why didn't you tell me that you’re the crown prince? You deceived me, you bastard! Do you think I place a high value on a crown prince?"
Banishing the actor’s lines in the movie out of his mind, Edgar opened the door himself and went inside while carrying the pheasants.
Shu Shu was reclining on the sofa and stroking his own stomach. Several bags of snacks next to him were already empty. "You’re back?"
"I’m back." Edgar said.
"Pheasant! Are we eating fowl today?" Shu Shu’s eyes lit up and then dimmed. "Unfortunately, I ate too much and can’t eat anymore . . ." Not only had he eaten too much, he clearly had eaten to the point of being unable to move.
"Then we’ll eat it tomorrow." Edgar said.
"Ah, okay." Shu Shu nodded and suddenly thought of something: "Edgar, were you a human before?"
Edgar was rather taciturn, so he only nodded.
"Since you were a human, why did you go into the forest then?" Shu Shu asked. He had already watched all those videos, and he knew now that Edgar had been a person before, a very capable and very famous person with high status.
No wonder other people were extremely respectful toward him. But if he was so powerful, why would he live alone in the forest?
This question was not easy to answer; it was also very inconvenient to explain everything from the beginning. Edgar thought about it and then said: "At that time, I was injured and turned into a beast. I couldn’t turn back into a human, so I could only live in the forest."
"Because you couldn't become a human, they didn't want you?" Shu Shu looked at Edgar with sympathy. When he watched the video just now, he saw that Edgar had a father who looked very much like Edgar. So, because Edgar could not become a human, his father then did not want him?
It was more or less like that? Edgar nodded.
Seeing Edgar nod, Shu Shu sympathized even more with him. His brain instantly supplemented a palace infighting big drama with an illegitimate son plot.
Edgar used to be very powerful and could also become a human. Later, he was wounded and turned back into a beast, most likely harmed by some people . . . . His life was so miserable!
As Edgar’s master, Shu Shu had to help him ask for justice when there was an opportunity for it in the future! He also wanted to ask Edgar’s father why he would throw out such a good son.
As for Edgar not telling him about this matter before, he was a snake at that time and really couldn't speak . . . .
From the start, Shu Shu hadn't gotten angry over a little concealment. On the contrary, he immediately thought of something else.
For example, Edgar had been a human previously. In this case, he surely did not eat people, nor should he eat hamster. This was the most wonderful thing ever!
Again, for example, Edgar had been very powerful before. It was estimated that he was also very powerful now. He certainly had a lot of money, and there was no shortage of money to pay someone back . . . . Shu Shu had owed Jones money, but now he did not need to return the money and could directly have Edgar pay Jones back!
Furthermore . . . it’s all thanks to him that Edgar could cultivate into a human. He had helped Edgar in his most miserable time and let him regain everything back. Shouldn’t Edgar be grateful to him?
In this case, couldn’t Shu Shu follow this man to cadge a meal from him?
The more Shu Shu thought about it, the happier he was. He couldn't help but start smiling.
Shu Shu had looked at Edgar with sympathy earlier, but then he suddenly smiled. Edgar failed to understand the reason why.
Of course, this was a good thing for him . . . . As expected, the little sub-beastman he liked was different from the one in the movie. It simply couldn’t get any better than this.
While Edgar’s heart finally settled, the mood of the emperor and the empress in the capital star was still not pacified until now and remained extremely stirred up.
"Edgar is really all right?" Ian asked his partner for the hundredth time.
"He's fine." Chris said: "My son naturally won’t meet with a mishap so easily!"
The two of them left the press conference after Edgar closed the communication. After that, they didn't see anyone else—they were worried that they would say the wrong thing because they were too excited.
"Edgar is fine. That's really great . . ." Ian tried to wipe his tears, but he soon covered his own face and started to cry.
"Rest assured, he’ll be back in no time." Chris said. "I’ve already had some men pick him up." He didn’t go out himself but let his trusted aide send a message to those men to pick Edgar up to prevent anyone from playing dirty tricks.
Ian nodded, a smile showing up on his face. Afterwards, he even had time to go online to read the news.
Almost all of the online news had something to do with Edgar. A segment of the video where Edgar had appeared in the live broadcast was everywhere.
Edgar did not become a fallen beast at all. The previous vast majority of the accusations also did not exist. Further, the matter of the Imperial family harboring the fallen beast was a complete nonsense . . . .
"His Imperial Highness is so handsome!"
"His Imperial Highness still looks so good even in his nightwear!"
"I’ve only seen His Imperial Highness in his military uniform. I didn't expect that one day I would actually see His Imperial Highness in his nightwear."
"Don't know when His Imperial Highness will return . . ."
"Your Imperial Highness, I was wrong. I actually believed that you really became a fallen beast . . ."
Many people who were watching Edgar's video were smitten with him. All the comments vilifying Edgar before were actually not very visible now.
Things on the Internet always changed very fast.
So much that, in the end, everyone was talking and talking to the point of starting to discuss the clothes that Edgar wore.
"Which brand is the nightwear worn by His Imperial Highness? Why have I never seen that chest logo?"
"I went to Gass planet’s official website and searched it. Indeed, it’s a local brand of Gass Planet, and it seems to be well-known for its low price . . . ."
"Is this man really His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince? Why would he wear such cheap clothes? He’s not a fake, isn’t he?"
"Previous poster, if he’s a fake, he’ll not wear such cheap clothes while posing as His Imperial Highness. I think him wearing such cheap clothes can further prove that he is the real deal!"
"Speaking of cheap clothes, where the heck do I buy these clothes, ah? I can’t find them on the star network?"
"Of course you can’t find them on the star network. I think Gass planet won’t export this kind of cheap nightwear."
. . . . . .
Not long after.
"Everyone! I rummaged through the star network and found a shop selling Gass planet’s local products, including that nightwear! [link]"
. . . . . .
Ron was a very ordinary little businessman, opening his own grocery store, and business was so-so.
But today, he was eating when the sound of someone placing an order on the star network suddenly went off one after another.
How could that be? Was there a virus in his computer? Ron opened the computer in confusion and unexpectedly discovered that one section of goods on his shelves had been raided clean. Furthermore, people were raiding some other sections of goods.
The goods that were raided clean were the nightwears—they’re the local products of a remote planet he had travelled to, and he had bought them to gift others—and the rest of the raided goods were also those he got from that planet.
No one had ever wanted these things before; how come so many people suddenly rushed to buy them now? Ron was a bit dumbfounded.
Right at this moment, he saw his beastman son scampering downstairs. "Dad! Dad! Didn’t you buy some nightwears from Gass planet? Quick, give them to me!"
"The nightwears from Gass planet? All sold out . . ." Ron said.
"Dad!" Ron's son looked desperate.
"But I still keep a few pieces that I plan to wear myself. Although the price of this nightwear is cheap, but the material is pure and natural! If it’s not for the material used for making the nightwear is cotton, which is everywhere in Gass planet, such cheap price is impossible. In fact, you turned your back on this style before. You said it’s no good and didn’t want to wear it . . ."
"Dad, I want to wear it! I especially want to wear it now, so quickly give me the clothes!" Ron's son hurriedly exclaimed. In the end, he said again: "By the way, Dad, if you still have extra nightwears, you can marked them to sell for a super high price! A product similar to that used by the crown prince, ah!"
How did a nightwear become a product similar to that used by the crown prince? Looking at the sold out things in his store, Ron, who didn't pay much attention to gossip, somewhat came back down to earth.
Nowadays, many people thought that everything that had happened was Edgar having been framed by some ambitious people. However, there were also some people who thought that even if Edgar had not become a fallen beast, those things he had done before did exist. Certain people even still tirelessly threw mud at him.
At the press conference before, a tiger beastman had stood up and righteously said that Edgar, in the Imperial College, had wielded his status to snatch the tiger beastman’s opportunities and frame him as well. This tiger beastman was still online, clamoring for justice.
This beastman was called Geo. He had indeed studied at the same school with Edgar, but the incidents of Edgar robbing him of the opportunities and framing him out of jealousy of his innate skill had never happened.
As a member of the Imperial family, what opportunity did Edgar want but could not get? Why would he still rob other people’s? As for being jealous of Geo’s innate skill, this was even more laughable. Who did not know that the beastmen of the Imperial family had the most powerful innate skills?
Anyway, Geo having been expelled from the Imperial College was nevertheless a fact.
Geo’s family was commoners. After he was admitted to the Imperial College, he discovered that there was a very big difference between his life and the life of the Imperial College’s high-born students. In the beginning, this was nothing; there were also many commoners who studied in the Imperial College nowadays. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stand some things like the fact that others could go to an expensive restaurant to eat, but he could only eat at the dining hall.
He began to think of any means to demand money from home, and he also abused his own status as a student of the Imperial College. On the outside, he used introducing others to get acquainted with the high-born students in the school as an excuse to swindle money from them. Moreover, he also deceived a sub-beastman to spend money on him.
At first, the Imperial College did not notice these things, until the family of the sub-beastman who had been deceived by him came to the school. Only then did they know what he had done.
Later, a high-born student who once had a pretty good relationship with him found out that every time Geo invited him to eat, he was actually "pimping", which was even more disgusting.
The Imperial College always attached great importance to the moral education of students, so Geo was expelled right away.
However, his innate skill was indeed not bad, and his luck was also not bad. After being expelled, in addition to joining a pretty good adventure team, his strength also got a big upgrade.
Regarding the fact that he dropped out of the Imperial College, Geo had always told others that it was naturally because he was framed by his classmates who had both power and status. After Edgar’s affairs came out, he even suffered temporary insanity, saying that Edgar had framed him.
Now, it was already impossible for him to stop halfway.
On his social account, people who originally comforted him were now questioning him and making him come up with the evidence of Edgar framing him. Seeing this, Geo’s eyes flashed with anger.
Gritting his teeth, Geo posted a message on his social network: "Edgar isn’t a fallen beast, but him doing those things to me is true. I’ll wait for his return. At that time, I’ll confront him!"
Originally, before he was expelled, he was actually about to get a chance to compete. In the end, he let a great opportunity slip . . . . As for the matter of him swindling money, the college didn’t have any evidence of it.
"Is it necessary for His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince to be jealous of you? I feel that you lack presence, am I right?"
"What lack presence? Geo just said the truth!"
"Geo surely wouldn’t dare deceiving people at the risk of offending the Imperial family. I think Edgar was jealous of him!"
"Geo, I believe you’re telling the truth!"
. . . . . .
Looking at the messages that supported him, Geo breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking about it, he decided to wait for Edgar to come back. Then he would seek Edgar for a duel, thus solving this matter.
Edgar was an eight-star beastman, and he was stronger than Geo. But as a crown prince, this man maybe had never experienced a life-and-death fight, and if he was really going to fight, he was not necessarily the opponent of this adventurer who had adventured all over the place . . . . Even if Geo eventually lost, he could actually say that of course it’s because Edgar was in better condition and had surpassed him during these years.
Now that so many people knew Geo, Edgar ultimately wouldn’t be able to manipulate the situation after the duel.
The more Geo thought about it, the more he felt that it was a good plan. He finally wrote on his social account again: "When Edgar returns, I will pick him up at the spaceport! I’ll ask him for a duel!"
Edgar certainly didn’t know that someone in the capital star was already waiting for his return to ask him for a duel, and he also didn’t know that his emperor father had sent some men to pick him up. At this moment, he was planning to take a spaceship to return to the capital star as quickly as possible.
"Your Imperial Highness, except for a military spaceship, Gass planet only has one cargo spaceship." Justin looked at Edgar in deep embarrassment.
The military spacecraft couldn't be put to use as one wished, and the cargo spaceship . . . .
A seemingly cumbersome, pot-bellied cargo spaceship that generally would only appear in nostalgia movies now appeared in front of Edgar.
This spaceship was very well-maintained, but . . . could it really be used? Wasn’t this the outdated model of several hundred years ago?
"Although it’s a little old, but last year we still operated this spaceshift to go to Karl planet. We have also serviced it there, ensuring that this spaceship can still be used for another hundred years!" Justin wiped the sweat on his forehead.
TL’s note:
闷骚 (mēn sāo) = (coll.) outwardly cold or retiring but deep and passionate inside