CH 54

TL: Hua

After walking out of the basement floor, the group paused, and Ji Mingjiang looked in the direction of the window where he came in.

“Is there someone over there…” He seemed to hear some quarrels and footsteps.

Ji Mingjiang spoke hesitantly with a guilty conscience.

After listening carefully, Rowlett said, “I’ll go and talk to them, Your Highness; you go first.”

Leiden took the drooping Zhang Cheng from him, and after explaining a couple of things, he led Ji Mingjiang to the door. When he was about to reach the door, Ji Mingjiang suddenly remembered something and quickly pulled the hood of his cloak over his head again.

The registration officer guarding the door stood up and bowed his head when he saw Clarice. After the figures of the three gradually disappeared, he looked up at the empty door and scratched his head in doubt.

His Majesty’s manic period has passed so quickly? And… Why does it seem like there’s suddenly an extra person?

…

When they came, the hover car was parked behind the protection station. Zhang Cheng, an unscrupulous mercenary, who trembled with fear every time he saw the hover car marked with the royal family emblem, strangely let out a sigh of relief.

He really didn’t want to experience the violent exercise that almost shook his brains out.

Ji Mingjiang hadn’t realized the psychological shadow he had left on others, so he pushed Zhang Cheng into the back seat of the hover car. In the dark night, while waiting for Rowlett to clean up the mess for them, Leiden finally found the opportunity to ask the question that troubled him all the way: “Did you mutate again, or can all mermaids transform into two legs like you?”

With his fingers resting on Zhang Cheng’s stiff neck, he felt his blood vessels pulsing fiercely. Ji Mingjiang gave him a strange look, then quickly pinched the person unconscious before answering Clarice’s question.

To be precise, he returned the question.

“Of course I have accumulated enough energy to transform into human legs. As for the other mermaids… I don’t have any inheritance memories or anything like that. Shouldn’t you ask yourself if there’s a related historical record?”

Feeling that what he said was a bit vague, Ji Mingjiang paused and added, “Simply speaking, I can become like this after eating enough. I don’t know about other mermaids.”

Both of them understood the implication.

After all, no matter how you look at it, those few small whitebaits don’t seem to be able to feed the mermaid and accumulate energy at the same time.

“There have been no similar records in the Empire and the Federation for hundreds of years.” After thinking for a while, Leiden said with certainty, “If there is, at least my parents will tell me when they are still alive and let me take care of the food supply problem at Mermaid Center.”

The two looked at each other for a while, and finally, Rowlett, who suddenly opened the door, broke the somewhat silent atmosphere in the hover car by saying, “The monitoring and glass have been dealt with. I will make a report on some of the content that Zhang Cheng just explained to you. Of course, there won’t be anything to dig up in such a short time. I still suggest you personally review it.”

What happened tonight was beyond his imagination. After finishing speaking, Rowlett took off his glasses tiredly, and then he noticed Zhang Cheng, who was limp in the back seat, when he turned his head.

“…Why did he faint again?”

Hearing Rowlett’s surprised words, Ji Mingjiang blinked at the old gentleman innocently.

…

The hover car drove all the way back to the palace at high speed, and after checking his identity and entering the palace, Leiden’s eyes grew cold as he looked at the patrol teams that were obviously under martial law and some of the groups that shouldn’t be here.

Mfn: the control of a city, country, etc. by an army instead of by its usual leaders.

Rowlett also turned on his communicator again and shook his head after flipping through everything, saying, “I haven’t received any request or report from the chief of the security department.”

Ji Mingjiang looked out the window, and most of the guards heaved a sigh of relief after seeing Clarice’s hover car, as if they had found the backbone. But among the multiple patrols along the way, there were always a few whose demeanor seemed out of place with the surroundings.

Those subtle unnaturalities blended well into the night. Other people may not be able to see clearly, but in Ji Mingjiang’s eyes, there is nothing to hide.

He withdrew his gaze and wasn’t affected by the obviously problematic, tense atmosphere. He still leaned back very relaxedly, looked at Clarice, whose expression remained unchanged, and said in a teasing tone, “Your palace is about to be taken over by some, Your Majesty.”

Leiden glanced at him and didn’t say anything. He parked the hover car at the entrance of the bedchamber and opened the door, saying, “You go back and check the situation first. If there are no abnormalities, go to the study and wait for me.”

Ji Mingjiang gestured OK to him and was about to open the door and get out of the car. When he was about to step out, he leaned back into the car again, stretched out his arms, and pulled out Zhang Cheng, who had passed out in the back seat.

“I’ll take him with me first, so you can handle your matter at ease and won’t have to worry about another sneak attack.”

Before Clarice could react, like a gust of wind, Ji Mingjiang almost flashed right under the ventilation window of their bedroom.

Instead of going through the main entrance, he walked under the window…

Leighton couldn’t help but feel the corners of his forehead jump, and then his ominous premonition was verified.

The mermaid, who had suddenly grown legs today, swung himself straight up on a branch, then, with two taps of his toes on the outer wall, swung himself into the bedroom with one hand on the window ledge.

It’s worth mentioning that during this smooth movement, Ji Mingjiang was still holding Zhang Cheng in the other hand, and because of the bumpy movement, the other party woke up from the coma and then let out a miserable scream very much like a normal person.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, why is this happening again? Ahhhhh! Is there any justice? Can anyone in the palace control you? Where is Clarice? Where are the patrol guards?!!”

The wailing sound finally ended with a cry of pain, and Leiden’s face was a little puzzled.

What exactly did Ji Mingjiang do before? Also….his room is on the fourth floor, right?

Rowlett, who was also shocked by this amazing stunt performed by Ji Mingjiang, wiped his glasses silently, and comforted: “His Highness’s legs have grown out; it’s normal to be able to go up to the fourth floor directly, and it’s not like he flew up there without any support.”

“…” Leiden incredulously looks at Rowlett and says, “Take off your rose-tinted filter.”

After finishing speaking, probably because Zhang Cheng made too much noise just now, a burst of orderly and hurried footsteps was approaching, and at the same time, there was a shout: “Who’s there!”

Chen Man, who had just led the team for the handover, had just counted the number of people in front of him when he heard a strange scream coming from a road outside, hidden by layers of grass and trees.

After realizing where the sound came from, Chen Man’s face, which was already a little anxious because of the various sudden transfers tonight, became even more focused, and he quickly led the team to rush over.

As she advanced, her hand reached for the laser gun pinned to her waist, and then, after a sprint to the floor of His Majesty’s bedchamber, her hand with the gun raised froze in place. She was stunned for a few seconds, then quickly dropped it.

“Your Majesty Clarice, greeting.” Chen Man, who rushed over one step ahead of her team members, saluted and groaned secretly in her heart.

Help! Will she still survive tonight after pointing a laser gun at His Majesty?

But to her surprise, Clarice didn’t care about her offense just now. He just waved his hand and asked about Yang Weiguang, the chief of the palace security department.

While muttering about what her immediate superior was guilty of, Chen Man honestly recounted as much as she could about the irrationalities she had detected tonight.

In the end, she hesitated for a moment but still said something that might affect Yang Weiguang’s future: “Although tonight’s transfer orders are very out of the ordinary, none of them were given directly by Director Yang. The one who handed them over to us was a person who usually follows the director, and I think…there’s a great possibility that these orders were not issued by the director himself.”

After finishing speaking, Chen Man lowered her head nervously, waiting for Clarice’s next arrangement.

Although she got this job not long ago, she was naturally not a fool to be promoted to patrol team leader in such a short period of time.

According to Clarice’s expression without a smile and the question just now, Chen Man already had an idea for the inexplicable orders and tense atmosphere tonight.

And speaking to the boss in this situation, the good ones may leave the impression that she values her emotions and righteousness, and the bad ones… It’s not impossible to be treated as an accomplice.

Just when she was feeling uneasy, she heard Clarice hum without any emotion and then ordered her to patrol according to the original arrangement, then went straight back to the hover car, closed the door, and left…?

Chen Man inexplicably looked up, and the team members who had just rushed over from behind looked at her in confusion: “Captain, what’s going on with His Majesty?”

“I don’t know either; just do what His Majesty said.” Mistakingly scratching her helmet shell, Chen Man put down her hand embarrassingly, refocused her expression, and led the patrol back to the established route.

Those schemes and fights are not up to them to decide. They only need to do their job honestly.

“Your Majesty, what do you think?”

After listening to the captain’s words, Rowlett called Yang Weiguang a few times, but no one answered.

The hover car was heading towards Menguse Hollimawi’s residence at full speed. Leiden’s fingers lightly rubbed the smooth surface of the joystick. The light outside the window reflected a mix of light and shadow on his face.

“They’re not that stupid. They wouldn’t kill him directly.”

Yang Weiguang retired from the military headquarters and previously served as the principal of the First Military Academy. Although he had no real power, his influence still lay there.

There are a lot of current officers under his guidance and future officers who yearn for the military academy because of him. If they really get rid of him, it will take decades for the people who made today’s mess to gnaw down the power of the military headquarters.

“We’ll find out in a moment when we catch the man.”

After saying that, Leiden looked at the situation on the planned route and once again pushed the joystick forward by one frame.

Ji Mingjiang might already be waiting for him in the study at this time; it’s better not to waste time on the road.

“Who are you and what are you doing?!”

Menguse Holimavi had just finished returning the message, and the moment he shut down his computer, he heard a soft clatter of glass breaking. Before he could turn his head, he was strangled by the man who broke in through the window and threw him to the ground.

The dust on the ground was swept up by the airflow and drifted into his eyes. He closed his eyes in discomfort and asked in a low voice.

“Why come to you? You should know this in your heart, right?”

Behind him came a familiar voice that he had just heard this afternoon.

Menguse Holimavi’s closed eyes suddenly opened, and a tear flowed from the irritated eyes. He frantically struggled in fright to free himself from the man behind him, but Clarice held his neck in a suppressed posture and slowly pulled him up from the ground.

The evening wind in late autumn whistled into the house through the broken windows, making him feel chills in his heart.

“Squeak—”

The aged wooden door made an unwieldy sound as it was pushed open, and a momentary surge of hope erupted in Menguse Holimavi’s eyes at the sight of the first rays of light that filtered through. But the flame of hope was extinguished when he noticed Clarice’s nonchalant state.

Sure enough, in the next second, an elderly figure he had only seen in some reports appeared at the door against the light.

Rowlett took a disgusted look at Menguse Holimavi, who was as disgruntled and hateful as a mad, bereaved dog. He sidestepped so that the light from the doorway fully illuminated the darkened study and nodded his head: “There are no inhabitants active out there right now, so we can leave now.”

Leiden nodded and escorted Menguse Holimavi out of the residential building he was in.

Looking back at the somewhat dilapidated building walls, Leiden, who made small adjustments to the salaries of public servants every year, grimaced in mockery.

“With your salary level, even if you’re a big spender, you don’t have to live in this kind of residential building that’s about to be demolished, do you?”

There weren’t even a few homes in this residential building that had their lights on at night.

While there weren’t many occupants, along with the conversations with local accents that he heard on the way, Leiden could basically determine that this place was a place to stay during the transitional period for those who came to work on the capital star from other remote galaxies.

“It’s really the first time I’ve seen someone do things for others while messing up their own life.”

With a snort, he knocked Menguse Holimavi unconscious and pushed him into the hovercar.

Opening the door next to the driver’s seat, Leiden restarted the hovercar, and the silver-gray hovercar drew a silver line in the night sky as it sped off in the direction of the palace.

After returning to the palace, Leiden swiftly captured several individuals from the patrol team who were obviously harboring evil intentions, and then strode towards the study with a cold expression under the panic-stricken gaze.

In addition to being disgusted with these people who bite the hand that feeds them, he also has some anger towards himself.

If it weren’t for Ji Mingjiang being different from other mermaids and having strong mental power to detect something wrong while also being able to handle unexpected situations on his own, would he really have an accident tonight?

After he survived this sudden manic period again all by himself, would he come back to find the quiet, empty palace again? The exact same scenario as ten years ago would reappear because of his negligence.

When Zhang Cheng said that he was coming to kidnap Ji Mingjiang, if it wasn’t for the sake of his future usefulness, Leiden was really angry enough to kill him.

When he pushed open the door of the study room wrapped in cold air, Ji Mingjiang had been sitting behind the desk bored for a while.

The constant temperature device in the room keeps the room at a suitable temperature all the time. Without further covering his face, Ji Mingjiang took off the cloak he was originally wearing and hung it aside, with his hair casually draped over his white shirt.

The warm yellow light from the roof trickled down the mermaid’s silver hair. The line of his face, which hadn’t grown out yet, seemed softer. The shirt, embroidered with exquisite dark patterns, was unable to suppress the sharpness when worn by Leiden. It was only when Ji Mingjiang wore it that the original intention of the design was brought out, setting off his refined and noble manner.

The people who were ruthlessly thrown to the ground groaned in pain, pulling back the attention of the two people who were staring at each other in a daze.

Ji Mingjiang took a last look at Clarice, who looked like he was about to kill someone but now had a blank face. He withdrew his vigilant eyes and alert mental power, raised his hand, and pressed the button next to the wall. The warm yellow light instantly turned back into a big white light that could blind people.

“hiss……”

Not wanting to see Ji Mingjiang’s face, which made him want to vomit, and not daring to look at the emperor’s study indiscriminately, Zhang Cheng, who had only dared to look at the ceiling, painfully closed his eyes, but his movements were still one step slower.

While leaning peacefully against the corner of the wall and waiting for his eyes to recover, Zhang Cheng crazily cursed himself and Bisnar Orfeild in his heart.

Damn it, he figured it out. It’s this mermaid with whom he has a problem!

Not noticing Zhang Cheng, who was in pain, Ji Mingjiang looked at Clarice, who had turned to close the door, and curiously stepped out from behind the desk, lifting the faces of the people on the floor one by one to take a look.

A couple of them were the ones he’d just seen with the strange expressions, and the rest would be from a few other patrol teams.

“I don’t have any impressions of them. There shouldn’t be someone important, right?” After straightening up, Ji Mingjiang wiped his fingers and said so with concern.

“?”

“And who do you think you are? You’re just a pet that serves men!”

“I haven’t seen you before; I’m afraid the scope of your activities is not only in the palace, right?”

Upon hearing these seemingly thoughtless words of his, a few people in the row on the ground immediately broke into curses.

Ji Mingjiang didn’t react when he heard this; he just looked at Zhang Cheng, who shrank himself to the corner with a smile in his eyes, but Leiden’s expression, which had just calmed down, quickly sank again.

“Stop blabbering!” A person who had been keeping a watchful eye on Clarice’s reaction saw his expression and quickly kicked the person next to him who was still cussing madly.

At the same time, as the only beastman who often watched the live broadcast, the one on the far side of the room looked at Ji Mingjiang with an incredulous face for several moments before trembling and interrupting the several people who were vaguely about to get into a fight.

“You, aren’t you, the mermaid that appeared on that live broadcast platform recently?”

“Yeah, you also watch my live broadcast?” Ji Mingjiang turned his head to look at the person who made the sound with some surprise and then said with a smile, “That’s a pity. I will continue the live broadcast tomorrow, but you may not be able to watch it anymore.”

After finishing speaking, Ji Mingjiang didn’t care about the group of people who were either staring at him blankly or begging for mercy when they suddenly realized their current situation. Instead, he walked up to Clarice and looked him up and down with a frown.

His mental power went all the way into the other party’s spiritual sea without any hindrance. Seeing the black dragon that was still very comfortable washing the tips of its wings by the stream, Ji Mingjiang was relieved.

Withdrawing his mental power from the black dragon’s reluctant claws, he stared at Clarice’s dark face with some doubt for a while.

Immediately, he suddenly realized and patted Clarice on the shoulder comfortingly: “It’s okay, it’s just staying up for a while; I’ll stay with you.”

“…”

Looking helplessly at Ji Mingjiang, whose emotions were not affected by the few people just now, Leiden chuckled before walking to the desk and taking out a recording pen.

Casually pointing the tip of his pen at the guards who were cursing and berating him for being a tyrant and ungrateful for his government, Leiden spoke in an indifferent tone, “In ten seconds, tell me who instructed your actions this evening.”

The person who was howling obviously didn’t expect that Clarice would ask the question directly. In a blink of an eye, he wanted to push all the responsibility directly to Yang Weiguang, but just as he was organizing his words, a familiar voice sounded from the top of his head.

“Take him away and dispose of him.”

He raised his head in panic and saw that Clarice’s eyes had already passed him, and the tip of the recording pen turned around lightly, pointing to the next person.

“Ten seconds to tell me where Yang Weiguang is.”

“No, wait!” Sweat continued to seep out from the corners of his forehead as he crawled forward while quickly shouting,

“Your Majesty, I just didn’t react! Give me another chance, sir! Tonight’s transfer orders were all given by Director Yang! Your Majesty!”

“In five seconds, tell me where Yang Weiguang is.” Clarice’s eyes were unmoved, still staring at the person he was questioning now.

Ji Mingjiang shrugged and grabbed the naughty student who was disturbing the “classroom discipline” and even wanted to attack the discipline supervisor with one hand. He gently closed his palm; a crunching sound suspended the trouble-making student’s defense and resistance and opened a new chapter of his struggling and crying out in pain.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect him to be so noisy…” After he stretched out his hand and knocked him unconscious, Ji Mingjiang felt the sudden quiet atmosphere in the study and said apologetically.

Of course, although the words seemed to be addressed to Clarice, his gaze was directed at the person who was being manhandled and about to be questioned.

“The patrol team is already waiting outside; you just hand him over.” Seeing his actions, Leiden raised the corner of his mouth slightly, before quickly pulling back flat and looking again at the now sweating and shivering man.

“By the way, you take this…”

“I don’t know!” Before the words were finished, they were interrupted by a voice suddenly raised from below, and the second person asked said in an urgent tone, “I really don’t know where Director Yang is. I really don’t know! Your Majesty, please ask me another question!”

Ji Mingjiang and Clarice exchanged a glance, and after quietly giving a thumbs up, he turned around and walked to the door of the study with the fainted person in his hand.

When he opened the door, he saw a somewhat familiar figure who seemed to be the patrol leader who had been lured over by Zhang Cheng after he had just gone up to the fourth floor.

The other party visibly froze when she saw him, perhaps not expecting anyone other than Rowlett to walk out of His Majesty’s study at this point in time. However, she quickly reacted and reached out to take over the traitor, who was huffing and puffing even while passing out.

“Your Highness, just leave it to me; we have trained before.”

The voice is also very familiar.

Ji Mingjiang nodded, once again confirming that the guy had fainted, before saying, “Thank you, Captain Chen.”

Working late at night and all that, if he was on patrol and knew who was up to no good tonight, even if he couldn’t do any physical damage to the other guy, he’d zap them with the baton.