He and It Chapter 100: Dark Sky Sanctuary (35)

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Chapter 100: Dark Sky Sanctuary (35)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

From that day on, Yu Mengzhou hugged his pillow and ran off to sleep alone in an unoccupied room, despite Falchion’s pitiful entreaties.

He was ready to sort out his thoughts, but in the meantime, it would be best to stay away from that large source of distraction.

However, even as he thought that, the others refused to leave him alone.

“Hey!” Striker opened the door with his head, and looked at Yu Mengzhou warily, “Did you really promise the chief?”

Yu Mengzhou looked at him helplessly.

“First.” He walked over and knocked Striker on the head. “You have to say hello before entering the door!”

“Ouch!”

“Second,” Yu Mengzhou sighed. “I made my choice based on my feelings at that moment. Just because I’m willing to live with him, doesn’t mean I can forgive him. Are you done asking?”

Striker stammered, “Finished, finished. But you must not forget that he lied to you! You mustn’t forget!”

Yu Mengzhou, “?”

This little wallflower, who had turned against Falchion last time, didn’t hesitate to come over and badmouth him this time, so who knew what the rationale was?

“I know.” He patted Striker’s head. “I’m going to sleep. You should go rest too.”

After he sent Striker away, Yu Mengzhou hugged his pillow and fell back to the bed in a crooked manner. Compared to the Emperor’s chambers, the size of that bedroom was much smaller, and although the bed was soft and smooth, when he slept on it, he felt that his body could flow to the ground at any time. In that regard, it was far worse than a bird’s nest…

Okay, stop! Stop thinking about the benefits of sleeping with Falchion! It’s hard to get a chance to be alone. You should think about more important things.

Yu Mengzhou put his hands behind his head and stared at the gorgeous bed canopy, on which swirling nebulae were woven with gold threads, while diamonds rolled brilliantly between them like bright and dark teardrops.

Falchion said he loved me, so when did he have these feelings for me, and had he ever shown them before?

Hmm…I can’t tell. He’s always been pretty nice to me except for being mean when we first met. He said before that he never objected to any of my opinions, and come to think of it, that’s true…Whether he’s a Demon Horse or a centaur, he just nods his head and says yes to everything I say, without disagreement.

So when did he fall in love with me?

I remember a long time ago, when he was still a Demon Horse, he licked me and complimented me on my scent. Could it be since then…?

Stop, stop, stop! Don’t go any deeper into this. Even if I’m not gay, straight, bisexual, or asexual, I won’t be a horse lover!

Yu Mengzhou shook his head as if to shake the question out of his ears. He rolled over and continued to think.

Then why would he fall in love with me?

I mean, what kind of object does the Emperor want to find that he doesn’t have? What virtue or ability do I have that can make him crazy like that and still miss me after hundreds of years…

Could it be because I have excellent hoof trimming skills, and I am kind and generous? I made such a mess of that first meeting, but I was still willing to cut off their shackles regardless of previous suspicions, and in the end, I even risked my life to get everyone out of Angola’s clutches. Also, I’m smooth and good-looking?

…Wait. When I think about it, I think it’s too much to say that I don’t love myself, haha!

Yu Mengzhou bragged to himself in his mind for a while, and then joyfully rolled over to the other side of the bed.

Well, Falchion’s reasons for loving me are good enough, so the key question is still there – do I love him?

Sometimes people were like that. They analyzed other people’s affairs. Even those who had never been in love could be a master psychoanalyst for their best friend who was having relationship problems; but once things fell on their own head, they were immediately blind, felt that their heart was a mess, and that their brain was also a muddle.

The authority was confused, while the bystander was clear. At that moment, Yu Mengzhou was the authority, not the clear bystander.

Generally speaking, love is a mixture of happiness, joy, pain, possessiveness…etc.  After so many years, through the trials and tribulations of death and parting, Falchion’s feelings for him had long been tangled into a mess. It was wrong to simply say that they loved, but even more wrong to simply say that they didn’t love.

While Yu Mengzhou was meditating and trying to analyze himself with the half-baked psychological knowledge he learned in his university courses a few hundred years ago, the darkness of the night was like sweetness, except in the dark shadows behind him, where mud-like, sticky bubbles gradually boiled up.

Inside each bubble, countless scarlet pupils darted around until they found their target. Then they fixed themselves intently, and gazed single-mindedly at the human’s back buried between the covers.

Yu Mengzhou suddenly frowned.

The sensing ability of a spirit body could be so many times stronger than that of a physical body, and on several occasions, he could accurately spot from which direction Falchion was peeping at him from. Just a moment ago, a cold current jolted through his spine, and caused his entire body to jolt.

Yu Mengzhou sat up and turned his head in disbelief to observe the situation, only to see that the darkness of the night there was quiet and, at a glance, there was nothing to see.

He sat like that, suspicious for a long time, then realized that there was indeed nothing. Only then did he lie back down on the bed. After a while, the eyeballs surfaced noiselessly and carefully from the shadows around the pillow, and turned to look at Yu Mengzhou’s condition.

Yu Mengzhou frowned a second time.

“I’m warning you, don’t disturb my rest,” he said unhappily. “No matter who you are, as long as you’re discovered by me, you’ll be served with a hammer right away, got it?”

When they heard his words, the eyes quivered sadly and sank into the darkness; drowning in self-loathing, never to float again.

Without the harassment of unknown prying eyes, Yu Mengzhou eventually stopped thinking about those messy things in his head. Sleep gradually came, and he peacefully closed his eyes.

The next morning, Yu Mengzhou slept until he woke up naturally. He was used to Falchion’s hairy horse’s belly being there as he would always sleep with him, but this time he turned in leg-stretching movement with an unnatural stretching laziness.

Get up.

And then…What was he supposed to do then?

In past mornings, he’d usually wander around in the warm fur of the centaur for a while, and then, after he’d slowly regained his senses, Falchion would carry him on his back and slowly wander off to breakfast. He wasn’t used to the spirit state yet, and needed to live like a human for a little while longer as a transition.

According to the flow, it was time for him to melt into a puddle on the Emperor’s broad horse’s back like a floppy little animal, ready to go and enjoy a delicious breakfast…

Geez, don’t think about it! However, once he thought of it, unknowingly, he actually developed a stupefied appearance!

That vigilant centaur had played the sugar-coated card big time!

However, after careful consideration, he still put a check mark in the “happy” criteria column in his heart.

Yu Mengzhou was determined not to let Falchion corrupt him with such tactics, so he got up, opened the door, and simply…

“…Good morning. You’re already awake.” Falchion stood in front of the door. He’d changed into a lighter corselet with silver threads laced between a quiet blue-black that effectively neutralized his overly sharp profile, and made him outrageously handsome. “Since I don’t know how many apologies I have to give you to show my remorse, I’m going to start from the beginning. I’m sorry I lied to you. I’m sorry.”

“Going to breakfast?” he then asked.

…Okay, I’ll learn from my mistakes tomorrow. I’ll take a ride today.

Yu Mengzhou climbed onto Falchion’s horse’s back and casually said, “I haven’t forgiven you yet.”

“I know,” said the centaur gently. “It’s okay.”

At the dining table, Yu Mengzhou likewise couldn’t help himself from looking at Falchion.

Perhaps there was a way to gauge how far my feelings for him have gotten…

He gazed at nothing while he thought.

Let’s use replenishing magic as an example. Imagine if the other centaurs gave…to someone else. If he replenished magical power for the attendant over there. How would I feel?

Okay, not very repulsive…But still a little repulsive. Can outsiders not touch my family’s horses? If you don’t have one, get one of your own.

Okay. Now, if Falchion were to replenish the magical power of that attendant over there…

–Yu Mengzhou took a deep breath, and the fire came up.

No! Just imagining it blinded him with ugly rage! At the mere thought of Falchion kissing and hugging a nameless man, or letting another man casually bite around on his body, Yu Mengzhou’s fists hardened and stiffened, while it felt like ants were crawling all over his body.

Falchion was lying next to him, so he keenly sensed the human’s steeply rising anger. His eyes were slightly alarmed, and he warily glanced at the other party.

Did he realize how I lied to him again? The emperor vainly self-corrected.

Yu Mengzhou didn’t notice the other party’s mental activities, and continued to deal with the example in his mind.

That’s fine, don’t get too angry. It’s just an unrealistic analogy. Think of something else. For example, let’s take the matter of my way of cuddling while sleeping, waking up from sleep and then being carried personally to the dining room. If the other centaurs did that to the waiter over there…

Okay. That’s okay. I’m still their keeper, still love them like family, and I’m sure that no one else can top the bond between us.

Then if Falchion slept close to the attendant, woke up and carried the other to the dining room…

Ugh, Yu Mengzhou was furious! Even though he knew that no one else could surpass the bond and ties between him and Falchion, the flames of jealousy still burned in his heart, unable to be extinguished or quenched.

Falchion had begun to sit straight and breathe deeply.

“I’m sorry?” he whispered tentatively. “Are you angry? I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Yu Mengzhou said hastily. “It’s not because of you.”

Rather, it’s because of my own brainstorming.

Yu Mengzhou came to his senses and put a check mark in the “Possessiveness” column of his heart.

In the afternoon, he was sitting in the corridor reading a book when the familiar sound of horses’ hooves sounded behind him.

Yu Mengzhou turned his head. The one who came was the Emperor himself, who had been troubling him so much these days.

“As soon as I thought about it, I knew you were here.” Falchion smiled gently, one hand behind his back as he held out a handful of fragrant and charming flowers as beautiful as blood, giving them to Yu Mengzhou. “I’ve heard that human beings often have the habit of giving red flowers to their lovers. Do you like it?”

Yu Mengzhou thought deeply for a moment and deliberated, “…This flower is raised in blood, right?”

Falchion, “…”

Falchion was silent for a long time, then quickly threw the bouquet of flowers to the ground, and in a swift movement, pulled a long stemmed white flower out of a nearby golden vase. It was dripping with water and shaped like a magnolia. He handed it over to Yu Mengzhou.

“This isn’t,” he said sincerely.

Now, Yu Mengzhou truly smiled as he took the thick, large flower, admired it for a moment, and then reinserted it back into the one-man-high golden vase.

“I accept your flowers,” he said with feigned reserve. “So, what is it you want?”

Falchion reclined beside him, his eyes a mixture of love and laughter.

“Things are almost done,” he said. “Are you happy to be going to your homeland soon?”

“Really?” Yu Mengzhou closed the book as soon as he could. “Shit, then I’m definitely happy! How much longer?”

Falchion replied, “Less than a week if things go well.”

He took Yu Mengzhou’s hand. His eyes were bright as he gently rubbed the calluses on the youth’s hand.

“Can you forgive me before we return?” the Emperor asked quietly, pathetically. “Not at this moment, but you can’t still be cold to me when you get home, can you, love?”

Yu Mengzhou coughed. He didn’t pull his hand away, but he also didn’t immediately grant Falchion’s request.

He said rather bemusedly, “Well, that’s something to be said.”

“But, I just can’t take it anymore.” Falchion’s voice was both low and soft. With the breeze blowing softly around the flowering trees and the quiet afternoon, it was as if they were having the most intimate, charming little talk in the world.

“My bed and couch are as cold as ice. I wake up several times in the middle of the night, always subconsciously reaching out to find where you are. I miss you so much. I miss the way you look in my arms, I miss the way you cuddled against my stomach. You are so cruel to me, love.”

Yu Mengzhou blushed as he fully embraced Falchion’s frank words, at the cost of burning even his ears.

“This, this…well,” he stammered as his eyes wandered. “Since you have a previous record, I think it’s still necessary to observe you for a while longer…”

“So the magic?” Falchion looked at him with an eager expression. “I won’t try to change your mind again. I wouldn’t dare. But you…you’ll still feed from me, won’t you?”

Yu Mengzhou stared into his eyes, momentarily speechless.

He hadn’t seen Falchion beg before. The tall centaur was lying prone before him, his hand wrapped around Yu Mengzhou’s, while he looked at him pleadingly and sadly…Not to mention he had the eyes of a horse! The big, round, watery, tearful, talking-like eyes of a horse!

“…You really don’t dare?” Yu Mengzhou’s heart was already shaken, but on the surface he had to put on a skeptical attitude.

“Don’t dare anymore,” Falchion said. “I can swear.”

Yu Mengzhou coughed lightly, “Swearing is not necessary. I know you are true to your word.”

Falchion cast a longing glance at him. Yu Mengzhou thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled wryly.

He lowered his head, not quite skillfully, as he slowly got closer to Falchion. His breath and the centaur’s breath gradually mingled together.

As if he knew what he was about to do, the pupils of Falchion’s eyes suddenly contracted. He controlled himself fiercely, and forced himself to stay still.

It was a bruising kiss. Very clumsy and very rusty, yet it made the centaur shiver with excitement. There was a limit to the amount of sweetness a soul could take, while his heart was about to break into a million pieces.

Yu Mengzhou took Falchion’s lower lip in his mouth, and the magic surged from the bottom up. He sucked gently, while he rubbed the bridge of his nose against the other’s cheek. After an unknown amount of time, Falchion’s blazing palms came upwards and clasped his waist in a death grip.

The Emperor’s throat quivered and he gulped as he hesitated between melting and devouring; struggled fiercely between kneeling, and knocking the human over hard onto a bed. In the end, all he could do was give, so Falchion drowned the kiss with a torrent of magic, ready to drown his human as well.

The measurement of time was all but useless. In the dim light, they finally ended the kiss.

Yu Mengzhou was panting, but for some reason he couldn’t stop laughing. The young man’s face was red, his ears were red, and even his knuckles had a reddened tint.

 

However, once again, he put a check mark in the “Happiness” column of his heart.