Right now, Miao Te felt utterly humiliated.
Yes, incredibly humiliated.
As a grown man—well, according to the United Nations of Earth’s legal system, he was considered an adult—anyway, as an adult, he had been forced into doing something he didn’t want to do.
Thinking back to how he had been dragged into that small room and stripped naked, enduring the ultimate embarrassment…
“This outfit looks good on you. You’ll wear this from now on.”
The blonde young lady gazed at the teenager who had returned to her with a satisfied look in her eyes. She seemed very pleased with his current appearance, and even her tone of voice became noticeably lighter.
Miao Te: “…”
Can I refuse?
Miao Te, who had been dragged into the small room and stripped by the attendants, was forced to put on an outfit that he found deeply humiliating.
It was a loose off-shoulder garment that extended to his thighs, cinched at the waist with a blue belt.
The style resembled ancient Greek attire from Earth… the kind with a loose, draped skirt that looked suspiciously like a mini-skirt no matter how he looked at it.
His thighs were bare, exposed, and cold—it was uncomfortable…
Even if he tried to see it as shorts… he hadn’t worn shorts since he was ten years old! Sure, young teenagers on Earth wore shorts all the time, but for a grown man like him, wearing them now would be laughable!
…No, this is unbearable!
Miao Te gritted his teeth, deciding to voice his discomfort.
“I don’t think this suits me very well.”
He pointed at a male servant nearby, dressed in a black butler’s uniform with a sharp black bowtie.
“I think I’d look better in something like that—”
The beautiful blonde lady lay lazily on her soft bed, propping her head up with her pale arm, her golden hair cascading like a waterfall over her delicate wrist and spilling onto the downy covers.
She glanced up at the teenager in front of her and, after a brief look, curled her lip.
“You’re too short.”
One-hit KO.
Miao Te clutched his chest, feeling as if he had been struck right in the heart, too stunned to reply.
Indeed, tailcoats and formal wear looked best on tall, well-built men, but did she have to be so brutally honest? Poison-tongued beauties like her weren’t even popular anymore!
“Do you dislike this outfit? I think it looks much cuter than before.”
“No, please, allow me to refuse.”
“Alright, you don’t like it? Let’s change it then.”
The blonde lady casually lifted her hand and snapped her fingers.
In no time, a maid entered carrying a new set of clothes. Miao Te, who had just let out a sigh of relief, froze the moment he saw what the maid was holding.
Before she could even get close, he turned his head with a resolute expression.
“I trust your judgment, Lady! This outfit suits me perfectly!”
He declared with righteous conviction.
“I didn’t force you, you know. You chose it yourself~”
“Of course! I love this outfit!”
Miao Te said, looking determined.
Even if the Greek-style outfit resembled a mini-skirt, at least it had shorts underneath—far better than wearing that lacy, frilly, puffed-up dress the maid had just brought in!
Seeing the teenager’s determined expression despite his obvious reluctance, the blonde lady couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
She reached out and pinched his cheeks.
Miao Te’s cheeks were soft, not as pale as her fingers, but smooth and tender like the surface of a freshly peeled egg. The feeling was so pleasant that she couldn’t resist pinching him again.
On closer inspection, the teenager was quite cute.
The corners of the blonde lady’s peach-blossom eyes lifted slightly, curving into a shallow arc.
Miao Te didn’t dare move as she pinched his cheeks. His dark eyes shone brightly, gazing up at her with a pleading look.
It was strange, but for some reason, seeing him like that made her want to pinch his cheeks again, to tease him a bit more.
After squeezing his cheeks several more times, she finally withdrew her hand. The golden-haired young lady lay lazily on the soft down bed, her slender legs kicked up, bare feet dangling in the air as if carefree.
The teenager, who was kneeling on the same soft bed, just inches away from her, glanced at her snow-white legs right in front of him, and his face flushed with heat.
He quickly averted his gaze, looking elsewhere in the room.
As he turned his head, the cold sensation of the metal collar around his neck became more apparent. Miao Te reached up and touched the metal band on his neck, then looked around at the others in the room.
He noticed that everyone—whether maid or servant—had the same metal collar around their necks as he did.
…Also, everyone in the room, without exception, was incredibly attractive. It was a gathering of beautiful people with high standards of appearance.
“What exactly is this metal collar?”
He asked, tugging at the collar, wondering if it could be removed.
“Oh, that’s just something that certifies your identity,” the golden-haired young lady replied absentmindedly, playing with her fingers as she lay on the bed.
“With that, you’re permitted to come and go within my territory, and no one can touch you without my permission.”
It sounded like something similar to data bands.
Thinking this, Miao Te pulled at the collar again, still feeling uncomfortable with it.
“Why does it have to be around the neck?” he asked with a frown. “Couldn’t it be on the arm instead?”
The golden-haired young lady stopped fiddling with her fingers and slightly lifted her upper body, tilting her head to look at him. Her jade-green eyes gleamed with amusement, curving into a faint smile.
“Because losing an arm won’t kill you,” she said.
It was a face of angelic beauty, glowing as she smiled, but the words that came out of her mouth were far from innocent.
The seemingly light-hearted remark carried with it an undertone of cold, harsh reality.
Miao Te instantly grasped the implication behind her words, and his fingers froze on the metal collar. A chill ran down his spine.
Her delicate white fingers reached out and gently pinched his chin.
“My servants belong to me. If any of them ever betray me…”
Her pink fingertips lightly tapped the metal collar around his neck as she lay on the bed, resting her chin on her hand, her legs playfully swinging in the air. She glanced sideways at Miao Te.
“With a little boom, this will snap.”
She spoke softly.
“Lose a hand, and you can still live. But if this snaps…”
Miao Te didn’t dare move a muscle as her fingers kept prodding at the metal collar around his neck, terrified that one wrong move would—
Dying by drowning at least left the body intact. But dying here… it would be a much uglier fate, a gruesome scene of decapitation.
Seeing the young teenager frozen in fear, the golden-haired young lady couldn’t help but laugh again.
“Don’t be scared, the activation button isn’t on the collar itself,” she giggled, tilting her head. “And as long as you don’t do anything behind my back, there’s nothing to worry about.”
She removed her hand from his neck and ruffled the teenager’s tense, youthful face.
After spending so much time around her usual entourage of flawlessly polite and well-groomed servants, having a clean-cut, slightly naive young teenager around was quite refreshing. Plus, his face was delightfully soft to pinch.
“My people, I will protect. As long as you don’t do anything I dislike, you can act as recklessly as you want, and I’ll have your back.”
“…”
Miao Te was speechless, feeling as though he had heard similar words somewhere before.
…Oh, right, back when that female soldier had told him she was going to send him to the Major General’s home planet to “carry on the Uriel family name,” she had said something like that.
It seemed this young lady’s status wasn’t any lower than the Major General’s.
Perhaps even higher.
After all, anyone who possessed the last purebred creature in the universe had to hold a significant position.
While he was still pondering the true identity of this young lady, she had already returned to lying on the soft feather bed, resting her head on her arms as she squinted at him.
“You’re a local of Mia Star, right?”
“…Yes.”
After a brief hesitation, Miao Te decided to hide his real identity.
After all, his data band had been chewed to bits, and no one could verify if he lied.
“This planet is awful. It never gets dark at night, the constant brightness is so annoying.”
She complained as she hugged a pillow, rolling back and forth on the soft bed, her expression one of utter boredom.
Miao Te could only watch in silence as she rolled around.
“The Marquis of Mia… that old guy’s birthday banquet. If it weren’t for him coming, I wouldn’t have bothered to come to this annoying planet.”
After a few more rolls, she stopped and lay on her back, her golden hair spilling across the snow-white bedding. She clutched a pink pillow to her chest, her bright green eyes sparkling with excitement—she looked just like a lovestruck girl.
“It’s been over a year since I last saw him. Tomorrow, I’ll finally see him again~”
“…”
Miao Te remained silent.
He had always believed that in situations like this, silence is golden, and speaking too much would only lead to trouble.
But while he tried to play deaf and dumb, the golden-haired young lady, lost in thoughts of her beloved, grew displeased by the lack of response.
“Aren’t you going to ask me who he is? What is our relationship? Whether he’s the person I’m in love with?”
“…”
Lady, you’ve already said everything yourself. Do I need to ask?
Though he was mentally grumbling, when he saw her sharp green eyes glaring at him, Miao Te figured he should at least humour her.
“Oh, uh… who is he?”
Dissatisfied with Miao Te’s half-hearted response, the golden-haired young lady tossed aside her pink pillow, sat up, and suddenly leaned her face close to Mute, startling him so much that he shrank back.
But the more he leaned back, the closer she moved, insisting on bringing her beautiful face right up to his.
“What do you think of me?” she asked.
“You’re… very pretty.”
With the most beautiful face he had ever seen suddenly inches from his own, Miao Te, who wasn’t used to being so close to girls, felt his cheeks warm slightly. His speech faltered for a moment.
“You’re definitely a beauty.”
“Hm?”
Her peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly, and a clear expression of dissatisfaction appeared on her face.
“…An absolute beauty!”
Miao Te’s quick reflexes saved him this time, as he promptly added the word “absolute” before “beauty.”
At last, the young lady seemed satisfied and nodded in approval.
“You see since I’m this beautiful, if I were to marry someone less attractive than me, wouldn’t that make my future children uglier than me? That’s something I can never allow.”
“Huh?”
“That’s why the man I like is even more beautiful than I am.”
“…”
Miao Te suddenly had a sinking feeling that he might have guessed who the golden-haired girl’s beloved was.
A man even more beautiful than this golden-haired lady—there was only one such person in the entire universe.
Of course, it had to be the universal heartthrob himself. Even an extraordinary beauty like this young lady had fallen head over heels for him.
“Although I’ve only met him a few times, the moment I saw him, I knew—he’s the one. There’s no one else for me but him,” she declared.
“…You seem to like him quite a lot,” Miao Te cautiously replied.
“Of course! I’m very dedicated!”
“Oh… So, what do you like about him?”
“His face.”
She answered in an instant.
Miao Te: “…”
This peerless beautiful sister is so straightforward and genuine, completely different from those girls with girlish hearts who believe that loving someone means loving their inner soul.
Wait, so this young lady was an admirer of the Major General?
If she was a fan, then she wasn’t an enemy, right? That meant if Miao Te revealed himself as one of the Major General’s soldiers, this young lady might unlock the collar around his neck. Heck, she might even help him leave the planet and reunite with the Major General.
—After all, this could be her chance to see the Major General again—she’d probably be thrilled to help.
Thinking this, Miao Te perked up and was about to reveal his true identity.
“But I’ve been hearing some rumours lately that Major General Taylor seems to be infatuated with some mysterious young youth.”
The golden-haired lady continued, glancing at Miao Te.
“Apparently, he’s about your age.”
“…”
Miao Te immediately shut his mouth. His sixth sense screamed that if he exposed his identity now, he was as good as dead.
That metal collar around his neck could go boom at any moment with just one stray thought from the golden-haired lady.
“It’s surprising. I didn’t know he liked that type… To be able to captivate him so completely, even making him whisper sweet nothings in public—if that teenager isn’t as beautiful as I am, he must be pretty close. I’m really curious to see what he looks like now.”
“…”
You’ve already seen him—the so-called ‘beauty’ is right in front of you.
Miao Te, now completely expressionless, couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of his eyes.
Major General, you really shouldn’t have left out the word “Earth” when you said, “Your Earth is more beautiful.” Look at the mess this misunderstanding has caused![T/N: Chapter 18]
Look at these wild rumours spreading—what’s with flirting in public?
“Speaking of which, if he likes young boys your age, should I send you to try and see if you can seduce him away from that other boy?”
As she spoke, the golden-haired lady propped her chin on her hand and looked Miao Te up and down, before bursting into laughter.
“Haha, never mind! With someone like you, he wouldn’t even give you a second glance! Hahaha~”
When she said “Never mind,” Miao Te sighed in relief. But after hearing the second half of her sentence, he felt offended.
“Why do you think he wouldn’t even glance at me?” he retorted indignantly.
“Maybe I could charm him!”
After all, hadn’t he already done so? He had even turned down the Major General’s offer to become his partner!
The look of defiance on Miao Te’s face only made the golden-haired lady laugh harder. She sat up and playfully patted his head.
“Ambition is a good thing, but with you… Hmm, but you are a good servant, knowing how to lighten your master’s burdens. So, I’ll give you a chance to prove it.”
Something in her tone made Miao Te uneasy.
But before he could say anything, the blonde young lady who was patting his head had already spoken with a cheerful smile.
“Go ahead. At tomorrow’s banquet, try to seduce Major General Taylor.”
Miao Te: “…”
Miao Te, now dubbed Miao ‘Digs his own grave for a thousand years’ Te, froze in horror.
***
Translated by NightOwll
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lololololololol, poor boy
thanks for the translation!