Kane shrugged his single shoulder, indicating his helplessness.
“You also know that my spiritual power is unstable. Usually, I can’t control them.”
Nonsense, you were just using them to fight a moment ago.
Xavier was dissatisfied, but the feedback of resonance became increasingly obvious. Before he could point out Kane’s obvious verbal loophole, he quickly withdrew his spiritual tentacles.
Having lost their target, the black vines paused in place blankly for a moment, then chased after the lingering breath, directly probing toward Xavier with eager hesitation.
Xavier’s back tightened, “Enough!”
Thinking of the scene where his spiritual tentacles had been tightly wrapped just moments before, Xavier tightened his face, glared fiercely at Kane, and shouted away these wildly dancing, excited spiritual powers.
“Get away, you rude fellows!”
The cutting gaze swept over by the small intelligent entity was like a knife. Kane, who was targeted, raised one eyebrow and asked knowingly, “Who are you scolding?”
Xavier stared at Kane’s feigned ignorance for a long time, thinking to himself that this person before him was indeed putting on an act.
He gave a cold snort, lowered his voice, and imitated someone’s tone from just a moment ago.
“Trading rule number two, don’t touch me casually.”
“Returning these words to you, along with your manifested spiritual power—that pitch-black, out-of-bounds, stinky vine doesn’t understand the slightest bit of social etiquette, exactly like its master.”
“Ha.”
Kane was amused by Xavier’s deliberate imitation, and his laughter echoed in the empty mine tunnel.
He put away his manifested spiritual power, lit his portable lighting equipment, and stepped deeper into the mine tunnel, teasing as he walked.
“So holding a grudge. Don’t you want to find the ore?”
Xavier couldn’t help complaining, “Isn’t it because you keep delaying things?”
Under the artificial light, his delicate, pale face revealed a hint of gloom. Since he no longer had the opportunity to admire the pretty fluorescent jellyfish, Kane kept staring at his face. After looking for too long, his heart began to itch, and without warning, he reached out and gently poked Xavier’s slightly taut cheek.
That touch was fleeting, neither light nor heavy, but the rough feeling of the thin calluses on the fingertips brushing against the delicate skin was impossible to ignore.
His Highness the Prince widened his eyes slightly. By the time he reacted, Kane had already pulled his hand back.
He hadn’t expected to be easily ambushed and approached by a mere human, let alone have his cheek poked in such an intimate manner. A look of disbelief also surfaced in Xavier’s pale gold eyes.
“I said not to touch me casually.”
Since Kane initiated the prank first, Xavier decided not to leave him any face. With a hint of annoyance, he patted the man’s neck. Using his exceptionally mini hands due to his reduced size, he put in all his effort, slapping the firm flesh with loud, crisp smacks, determined to get back at him.
Kane was forced to take a few hits before successfully scooping Xavier up like a misbehaving cat.
—A nearly extinct kind of pet.
It is said to be finicky, impatient, low in domestication, and always maintaining a proud attitude of bestowing favors upon its master. Yet, space-faring humans who were fortunate enough to own a pet cat gladly accepted this.
Kane had always been a man of his word; external factors could never shake his thoughts. At this moment, however, he somewhat understood the mental journey of those “cat lovers.”
In his eyes, Xavier was merely an unknown intelligent entity, yet he possessed an inexplicable pride and sense of superiority. His natural attitude of ordering others around repeatedly crossed his own bottom line, testing it over and over.
Yet facing Xavier’s “offense,” not only did Kane not self-doubt like before, but instead felt that the little fellow’s annoyed appearance was exceptionally real, not looking like an intelligent entity at all.
Keeping him around might also be quite interesting.
“Be patient, little fellow. Did I ever say to never hold expectations of moral standards for ‘Mr. Bandit’? Alright, now the bandit manager has decided to execute his double standards.”
“His Highness here has no need to listen…”
Xavier’s voice abruptly cut off.
During their conversation, they had already entered the depths of the mine tunnel, arriving at the old mining area.
Artificial lighting illuminated the place almost like daylight, and the massive, emptied veins of ore now held only coldness and desolation.
Dust fog floated in the air, and the stale, moldy smell mixed with the stench of demonized creatures, making Xavier instinctively cover his nose.
He swept his gaze over those rugged cave walls, seeing quite a few remaining minerals left upon them.
Kane moved and walked near the cave wall, carrying the silent Xavier closer to those minerals, and asked, “Are these the types of ore you are looking for?”
The remaining elements on these were all unrefined mixed-element magic ores, which Xavier recognized at a glance.
Judging by this volume, RX-2 should have had a powerful self-cycling magic field. It was just a pity that this place had been mined empty, leaving no possibility for sustainable development, and the magic field had naturally been completely destroyed, leaving only some杂 (jumbled/駁雜) magical powers behind, which was why it bred demonized creatures.
Xavier’s expression looked somewhat solemn, losing the mood to argue with Zavier—ah, with Kane.
He nodded and whispered, “Excuse me, help me take all these minerals down.”
Accumulating them should be enough for Celin to use for a period of time.
The little fellow’s rare “friendly” attitude somewhat surprised Kane, and even made him feel quite pleased. He put Xavier back on his shoulder and was about to move, but saw the little intelligent entity that had already settled down stand up again.
Kane thought Xavier wanted to help.
Yet who would have known that Xavier merely adjusted his standing position, and then with a sliu (slip/slide), expressionlessly slid down along the man’s plump pectoral muscles, grabbed the outer collar halfway down, and nimbly burrowed into the inner pocket, hiding himself completely.
Not long after, a muffled voice came from inside.
“It’s too dirty in the mine. Call me when you’re done digging.”
Kane: ……
That’s right, how could Xavier possibly change his nature.
The small intelligent entity was so light that Kane could barely feel his weight, yet having such a small ball curled up against his chest felt completely different from sitting on his shoulder.
He pinched the little fellow through his jacket until he heard a disgruntled complaint, then contentedly started working.
Some scattered stones didn’t take much time.
Kane took down and stored away all the minerals of decent size, poked the small protruding lump on his chest, and said politely, “Alright, ‘excuse me,’ you can come out for inspection.”
“No need.” Xavier replied in a muffled voice from inside. Seeing that Kane had succeeded, he immediately urged him to walk out of the foul-smelling, breath-polluted mine tunnel.
Not until they returned to the empty, well-ventilated high ground on the surface did His Highness the Prince wrinkle his nose, drill out from Kane’s embrace, and look at those minerals.
“What do you guys use these minerals for?”
Kane took out a piece of mineral to play with in his palm. For him, it wasn’t unfamiliar, “These are uncommon minerals, not belonging to energy types, but they have another special purpose.”
Xavier was curious: “What purpose?”
In his ancient understanding, unrefined magic raw ores were generally used as energy sources. However, considering that the technology of the space age was vastly different from medieval alchemy, losing this function was forgivable.
As for refined magic stones, they had many uses. They could be enchanted and used as items like the purple-blue gemstone Celin gave him, or they could be directly absorbed and supplemented as external magic power by magical creatures.
However, Kane said, “Purification.”
The man’s voice was cold, his grey-blue eyes like a sea hiding undercurrents, “The Holy See uses these special minerals to judge those ‘magical creatures born with original sin.’ Different colors represent different sins. Hunters capture them, the Holy Court adjudicates them, and the Patriarch purifies them.”
“……Ah?”
Xavier listened in utter bewilderment.
From what he knew, Kane’s statement should actually be that magical creatures used their own magic power to dispel the jumbled impurities within the minerals, which would then cause the minerals to display the original colors of various elements.
Clearly it was the creature “purifying” the mineral, how could it be the mineral “purifying” the creature?
Moreover, basically no magical creature would voluntarily do this, because the magic power consumed in the process was far greater than the assistance brought by a single magic stone.
Unless encountering special circumstances, such as a close friend whose source magic was vastly different from their own urgently needing external magic power, then this uneconomical approach could become one of the emergency rescues.
He vaguely felt as though he had heard of this practice somewhere, but couldn’t recall it for the moment. He really wanted to find an opportunity to chat with Celin about it, when suddenly his body swayed and he was already sitting in Kane’s palm.
Kane’s other hand crushed that light-gray mineral with a Mohs hardness of over 10, and a rustling powder slid down between his fingers.
Immediately following, his questions came one after another.
“So your task is to find these special minerals?”
Kane looked down from above at the small intelligent entity that looked pretty and harmless in his palm, guessing Xavier’s relationship with the Holy See. A storm seemed to be brewing in the depths of his grey-blue eyes.
“Who sent you to my side?”
What on earth is all this? Why is the mount starting to talk nonsense again?
Out-of-the-loop Xavier couldn’t help tilting his head, looking with full perplexity at the solemnly-expressioned man.
Even knowing that the intelligent entity’s words and actions were pre-set by underlying code, seeing his innocent look, Kane couldn’t help adding, “You still please me, Xavier. No matter where you come from, even if it’s the Holy See, as long as you choose to turn to me, I have the ability to keep you safe.”
This time Xavier caught the keyword, his pupils constricting.
What on earth is this human thinking? Why would he think he’s in cahoots with the Holy See?!
Disregarding getting up first, Xavier immediately retorted, his brow furrowed tightly, difficult to conceal his disgust, “The Holy See? Who would willingly degrade themselves to associate with them… What kind of look is that? Could it be that in your eyes, His Highness the Prince is such a hypocritical person?”
Kane remained silent, his grey-blue eyes scanning Xavier’s tiny body inch by inch.
The disgusted look on the face of the silver-haired, golden-eyed little fellow didn’t look fake, but after all, he was just a pre-set intelligent entity—
A pretty and harmless-looking, unowned intelligent entity that could also alleviate spiritual sea disorder, arriving in his palm like a gift from heaven.
Was this really not a trap specially designed for him?
Kane sighed silently. The most terrifying thing was that he really liked the changes Xavier brought—whether it was the calmness after his spiritual sea was soothed, the tacit understanding when fighting together, or those everyday interactions where he was amused.
Knowing full well that there must be something strange about this, he still wanted to keep this little fellow who could soothe his spiritual restlessness by his side—at least for now.
The expression on this man before him was truly too bizarre: gloomy one second, sighing the next, yet after asking two baffling questions he stopped talking, leaving His Highness the Prince thoroughly displeased.
Xavier decided to prioritize his own needs, cutting straight to the point and asking, “Mr. Bandit, do you intend to betray our agreement?”
He pondered slightly, “Or are you afraid of the Holy See’s power, not daring to confront them head-on, not daring to touch these minerals monopolized by the Holy See?”
“No, neither.”
From beginning to end, all he considered was Xavier’s stance, and now there was no need to纠结 (struggle/agonize) over even that.
Kane put Xavier back on his shoulder, gazing into the distance at the faint light breaking through the horizon, his grey-blue eyes reflecting a complex color intertwining cold and warmth.
If Xavier was obedient, well-behaved, and honestly helped him alleviate his spiritual sea disorder, Kane would continue that cute “little trade” with him, finding minerals for him—anyway, robbing the Holy See wasn’t something he hadn’t done plenty of over the years.
If Xavier betrayed him……
The grey-blue eyes sank bit by bit.
Kane thought listlessly, then just like those star systems once visited by the Blood Blade, this pretty little thing and his creators would suffer the ruthless conquest of the “Tyrant.”
Ending with a bang, going off to keep space junk company.