Silent Crown

“Hehe, come chase me!” It was as if a psycho was screaming while playing a game. In the deep night, some people crazily ran over, squirming strangely on the moonlit street.

Ye Qingxuan swore that he had never seen a sight so hectic before in his entire seventeen years.

Under the silver moonlight, a man with a hair like a bird’s nest laughed maniacally. His butt was shaking as he raced down the street. A breeze blew by in the night, lifting the thin shirt on his body, revealing a pair of bold underwear.

As he ran barefoot, the aether ball would flash in accordance with his laughter.

“Hoho!” His laughter was like a broken drumroll littered onto the ground. He continued running around like a psycho.

Ye Qingxuan gaped at the aether ball, “This works too?!” Before he could even finish his question, the crazy bird nest guy was back with his high pitched laughter, scaring Ye Qingxuan. He raced in the wind, stopping without warning in front of the youth. Bending down, he pointed at his bruised face, radiating the smell of alcohol.

“You. Tell me!” With a face of seriousness, he asked, “Am I hot?” His voice was deep but clear, gentle with just a tinge of roughness. It could be described as a nice voice, but Ye Qingxuan was still stuck on the image of him running nude and could not reply. The aether ball in his hand continued to flashed.

“Do you think I’m hot?” the nude man asked again.

“…Yes.” Ye Qingxuan complimented the man against his conscience, “Very, very hot.” He felt like his conscience had shattered into a million pieces after replying. But if one looked carefully, it was clear that if the man had not been beat up earlier, he would be pretty attractive. He seemed pretty young too.

“Haha, of course!” The drunken man let out a thigh-slapping laugh. When a breeze blew past, he fell cleanly onto the floor and passed out.

Only Ye Qingxuan was rooted in the wind. “Hey, are you okay?” He kicked the young man, but there was no response.

After a long time, Ye Qingxian was finally able to breathe easily. Settling into a chair, he decided to ignore everything and continue practicing scales.

“La! La! La! Lalala!” The nude man on the floor suddenly flipped over, let out a disgusting drunken burp, and started singing while slapping his stomach. “There was rain tonight! Whoosh and all the flowers fell to the ground! Ah, but what’s the matter? We’re happily together.” He paused with the last note. Unsatisfied, he added another sentence. “We’re happily together!”

“Who would want to be with you…” Ye Qingxuan thought to himself.

The aether ball in his hand was as bright and happy as a dog that had seen a sausage. Ye Qingxuan felt like he was going crazy. What was going on? Was the crazy man’s voice communicating with aether?!

Suddenly the naked man scrambled onto his feet and grabbed Ye Qingxuan’s hand. The man forced his eyes open, but his vision was blurry and he could not see anything.

Ye Qingxuan was shocked.

“Kid, don’t be scared. The most important thing for a family is to be organized. With Brother here, no one will beat you up!” Still holding Ye Qingxuan’s hand, he cried hoarsely, “What’s the most precious thing in the world? It’s love! It’s love! Doesn’t Brother’s love make you feel warm inside?”

“Yes, warm!” Ye Qingxuan nodded against his conscience.

“Ahaha,” the nude man laughed dumbly. And then he bent over and puked his guts out. But even as this psycho was throwing up, Ye Qingxuan’s aether ball was still shining!

“What is this?!” Close to tears, Ye Qingxuan took out his aether ball. “I was just practicing my chants. What did I do wrong? Nothing happened except attracting this crazy thing!”

“Huh, nothing happened? Do you want to know why?” The nude man finished vomiting and stood up on his wobbly legs, wiping the saliva from the corner of his mouth.

Ye Qingxuan nodded lifelessly.

Immediately, the man pointed his finger at the tip of Ye Qingxuan’s nose. The nude man yelled seriously, “Just give up! You can’t sense the aether!”

As Ye Qingxuan was trying to make sense of those words, the man grabbed the small pamphlet in Ye Qingxuan’s hands. Pointing at a standard syllable, he said, “And Extraction’s range goes up to E2. High notes! You can’t sing up there! Choose another, choose, choose this one!” He flipped through the pages like the drunkard he was. When he saw the messy notations of Wolf Flute, his eyes brightened. “Practice this one! This one! Do you understand? This is the best for you.”

Ye Qingxuan’s mind was blank. Glancing at the messy scrawls, he did not know what to think.

It seemed to be the notes that Wolf Flute took during his father’s class, but even he did not know what he wrote. How could Ye practice it?

“Remember! The voice is just an appearance!” The nude man held down Ye Qingxuan’s shoulder. His hoarse voice suddenly became serious and cold, like transient thunder in the clouds, “Aether is the controller of all, but it is also the servant of will!”

Before Ye Qingxuan could react, he started singing once again and ran off as the aether ball’s continued to glow.

He came like wind and he left like wind, only leaving behind a pile of vomit.

After a long time, Ye Qingxuan finally processed everything that had just happened. Furious, he shouted, “You psycho! Give me back my book!”

But the only reply was a faint “hoho” echoing in the night sky from an obnoxious idiot!

—

The next day, Ye Qingxuan woke early in the morning to the sound of his alarm. His throat felt like he had swallowed charcoal. It was a pain that threatened to tear him apart. He had practiced the entire night, using only his memory.

But the only result was that his vocal chords were swollen and he could not even say a complete sentence, and he was starving.

With a long face, he pulled out his wallet. All he had left were a couple of tens. This was half a month’s salary in Lute. But in Avalon, with its high living costs, this bit of money could barely last him three to four days. But ten days? He couldn’t even imagine it.

“Must I revert to my old lifestyle and beg?” He mumbled to himself, his throat burning, “I can’t even find a faucet in Avalon?”

As soon as he uttered those words, a bottle of milk appeared by his side.

Old Phil strolled back leisurely, half a wheat cake hanging from its mouth. It generously split its bounty with its top follower. Seeing that Old Phil had not forgotten him after finding food, Ye Qingxuan was touched to the point of tears.

But there was not any time to cry now. Everything could wait until he was full.

After devouring the bottle of milk and half a wheat cake, Ye Qingxuan patted his stomach. It had been empty the entire night, and it was still grumbling. He was still a bit hungry.

Old Phil yawned and ran off from the chair after hitting Ye in the face with his tail. After a bit, he reappeared with a new bottle of milk and wheat cake.

Old Phil pushed it towards Ye Qingxuan with his paw, as if saying, “Hurry and eat. There’s more if it’s not enough.”

“Where do you get all this?” Ye Qingxuan picked up Old Phil and flipped him around, searching. Was there a hidden treasure chest inside of him? A little pissed, Old Phil bit down and slapped him with its tail. He jumped off the chair and motioned for Ye to follow.

Although it was early in the morning, many stores were already open. The amount of people multiplied gradually as well. Few people paid attention to the white-haired boy and old golden dog running through the streets.

Taking twists and turns, and going through two alleys filled with trash, they arrived at a small alley. It seemed to be the backdoor of a store.

Old Phil ran to a small drawer beside the backdoor. Jumping, it opened the drawer with its mouth. Proud, it turned towards Ye Qingxuan to show off the milk it had brought back…

“Ah, I knew you stole it!” Facial muscles twitching, Ye Qingxuan stared at the drawer that was almost empty, thanks to Old Phil.

Old Phil barked, filled with pride.

“Stop barking!” Ye Qingxuan hurriedly put a hand over Old Phil’s mouth. “Didn’t I tell you to stop stealing? We still have some money left! What if they find out and beat you up?”

Before he could finish, a voice sounded behind him, rooting Ye to his spot.

“Oh, so it’s your dog?” A giant shadow fell over him.

—

In the shadow, Ye Qingxuan turned around with difficulty. He stayed silent.

A hulking man lowered his head and said in a cold voice, “It’s not even noon and it already came three times.” The man looked a bit old. He was probably around forty-years-old with salt and pepper hair, but his body was terrifyingly burly. His pectoral muscles seemed ready to burst from his shirt, and his arm was thicker than Ye Qingxuan’s thigh. He was around two meters tall and his body two meters wide. He was a monster!

The scariest was the iron poker in his hands. The red hot poker was covered in charcoal dust, as if it was fresh out of the oven.

Yes, it was probably enough to kill ten thieves and their dogs.

“Uh, please let me explain.” Ye Qingxuan shoved Old Phil and forced out a smile. “Umm, I’m really sorry. The dog is a little pesky. I’ll pay you back for the milk, but please don’t get angry at him.”

The monstrous man stared at him. Expressionlessly, he rotated his neck. The color from Ye Qingxuan’s face drained at the sound of his bones cracking.

Behind him, Old Phil suddenly started yowling, making him want to cry out, “Old Phil, it’s not the time to cause trouble. Yeah, we shouldn’t be cowards. But this guy’s arm is thicker than both our waists put together. Can’t you just shut up…”

“I gave it the milk,” the man said.

“What?!” In Ye Qingxuan’s opinion, today had been a little weird.

“Where else do you think it got the bread?” The old man threw away his poker and bent down, waving at Old Phil. The dog ran over, circled the man twice and raised his paw for a greeting. When Old Phil turned back towards Ye Qingxuan, its eyes were full of pride.

In this awkward silence, Ye Qingxuan’s stomach growled. “Uh…” The teen awkwardly looked to the side.

The monstrous man stood up and studied both the boy and the dog. Nodding slightly, he pushed open the back door. “I made some soup. Come in.”

—

—

Ye Qingxuan never thought that there would be such a large watch shop on this busy and congested business street.

Amidst the gentle tick-tocks, countless clocks and watches stood in every corner. There was a vintage clock two meters high, a complicated clock hanging from the wall, a pocket watch laid across the counter. These clocks and watches took up two-thirds of the store. The sound of hundreds of ticking minute hands hovered around the store, creating a type of serenity.

Holding a rag, Ye Qingxuan wiped away every speck of dust in the window facing the street. Stepping back, he admired his work. He was not a freeloader.

“Sir, I’m done,” Ye reported.

The monstrous man at the front counter looked up from the thin book he was reading. “Are you here for the exam?” He put down his book. Emotionless, he asked, “How did things turn into this? You can’t even take care of your dog.”

Old Phil barked in reply while sitting on the cushion.

“You think too highly of me. I’m not taking care of him. He’s the one taking care of me,” Ye Qingxuan muttered.

“What a good dog.” The man stood up and knelt before the sleeping dog, carefully smoothing down his messy fur. Burly as he was, his movements were gentle. His eyes were no longer numb either, but had a tinge of warmth and care.

“It looks just like my old dog. I dreamed of it last night and when I saw this guy this morning, I thought it was back…” He paused for a bit, then suddenly asked, “Will you sell?”

“No.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head without hesitation.

“You really need money, right?”

“I can always think of something for money.” Ye Qingxuan chuckled awkwardly. “If it comes to it, I can do some odd jobs. Whatever I do, I’ll have enough for food.”

The monstrous man shook his head. Walking over, he lowered his head, looming over Ye Qingxuan. His size had an ineffable pressure.

“Give me your hand,” he ordered.

Ye Qingxuan stretched out both hands. The man studied and smelled them. His pupils constricted like a beast, sending chills down Ye Qingxuan’s spine.

“Never held a sword and never touched blood. You’re a good person.” Letting go, the man shook his head coldly. “In Avalon, it’s the hardest for people like you. Where do you think you can go? Most stores won’t accept unknown men. You can’t even be a good thief in downtown. When you die, people will probably just sell your dog.”

“Uh.” He had aired out all of Ye Qingxuan’s insecurities. “There’s gotta be a solution, right?” Ye Qingxuan asked nervously.

“Your hands have calluses from copying. Can you read and write?” the man asked.

“Yes.” Ye Qingxuan replied honestly, “I can read and write the lingua franca, Runes, Eastern characters, and the Asgard Language…”

“Then go and clean up the attic.”

“Huh?”

“The last worker got sent to the hospital, and we’re missing an accountant right now. There’s no money, but I can give you breakfast and dinner. Get out after ten, got it?” The man continued coldly, “Also, I don’t like to be annoyed, so don’t do extra things. Any problems?”

“No, no. Free meals are okay. Free meals are great!” Ye Qingxuan could not help but start laughing, and rubbed his hands together in pure joy.

“Then don’t just stand there. Get to work.” The man’s features were still cold, but he seemed a little awkward as he continued, as if a bit embarrassed. After opening and closing his mouth, he finally raised the thin and tattered book. Pointing at the cover, he said, “You. Teach me how to read.”

“Uh…” Ye Qingxuan glanced at the cover and his jaw dropped

‘Anglo Fairy Tale Collection.’