Hovering on the sky, Lixue watched the chaotic scene below him with the boy in his arms. Because he spent extra time in the Science R&D facility, when he came out dawn already arrived.
The boy was clutching his clothes tightly and his tense body was slightly trembling. Although the boy couldn't see, he could clearly feel the weightlessness when Lixue stopped flying up. And from the stronger air current, he guessed that they were currently very high up in the sky.
He has never been this high in the sky and was very afraid that he would fall.
Lixue felt his trembling and thought the boy was cold because of his body temperature. He released his hold and wanted to use his demonic energy to keep the boy floating next to him.
When the boy felt Lixue released his hand, he thought the big brother didn't want him anymore and wanted to throw him down. He was so scared that he directly bit down Lixue's shoulder to hold on to his body. His legs also quickly wrapped around Lixue's body.
Thus, when Lixue released his arms, the boy hung on his shoulder like a koala.
"…" Lixue was speechless, "What are you doing? Aren't you cold because of me? Let go. You won't fall."
The boy shook his head with his teeth still stuck on Lixue's shoulder. Lixue sighed and let him hang there. He held the boy back with one of his arms.
"Look at me."
Feeling the big brother's arms around him, he let go of Lixue's shoulder and looked up. Lixue used his free hand to touch the boy's forehead, sending his demonic energy into the boy's mind. The boy slightly shivered from the sudden coldness entering his head.
"Now, we can communicate. Tell me your name. Just say it in your head."
There was no reply after waiting for a while. Just as Lixue wanted to speak again, he heard a faint voice in his head.
"I… don't have a name."
"You don't have a name? Then what do those scientists called you?"
The boy was surprised that Lixue could really hear him. His eyes opened wide as he thought how amazing Lixue was. Because he couldn't talk and couldn't see, nobody spoke to him, nobody could or tried to understand him. Every day, he would be stabbed with needles, put into cold machines, dumped into cold water, but nobody ever told him what they were doing to him. Then, one day, he was put into a room and locked inside. Even after waiting for a long time, nobody came to get him out.
Lixue could clearly hear his thought. He paused for a moment before he said, "Little boy, I'll say it straight. I'm not a good person. I killed people and will continue to kill more in the future. It can reach thousands, millions, and even billions of people regardless they are good or evil. Just like how I burned all of your… peers down there. I'm not even a human. There might be a day where I would not hesitate to kill or sacrifice you. This is your last chance to not get involved with me."
The boy listened to Lixue's words and shook his head.
"I'm… also not good. I… kill someone and… eat them." the boy timidly confessed.
Lixue stroked the boy's head and hummed in agreement, "Right. Both of us are not good people. No, both of us are not even people anymore. We are both abandoned by our creator. Starting from now, we will live together and share the same fate."
The boy nodded happily. He liked how Lixue stroke his head and leaned on his shoulder comfortably. The low body temperature didn't bother him at all.
If he was a cat, he would already purr.
"My name is Lixue. If it's too hard for you to say my name, you can call me Lili or Brother Li. As for your name… what do you want me to call you?"
"Lili can call me anything."
"Then… Jixue. I'll call you Little Ji. You are now my little brother," Lixue quickly decided, "Now, before we leave, there is one last place we need to visit."
---
After finishing all his business, Lixue landed on a secluded empty field far away from the civilization. He clicked the button on his metal bracelet, which was a space storage, and took out a storage button. He clicked it, and a small spaceship appeared in front of him.
He took Jixue with him and entered the spaceship. There were 2 seats for the pilot and co-pilot with decent space between the hatch and the cockpit.
Lixue put Jixue on the co-pilot seat and buckled up the seatbelt. He went out and took off the royal family insignia from the spaceship before going back inside. He sat down on the pilot seat and looked at the complicated command panel.
He started the engine and fluently operated the command panel. He couldn't help but reminiscence when his mentor taught him how to operate any kind of vehicle including spaceships in his last life.
"We're going to my home planet first to take a few things before going to the Federation's capital planet where we're going to start our new life. Are you ready?" Lixue looked at Jixue.
Jixue nodded his head excitedly, "Ready!"
Lixue rubbed Jixue's head before grabbing the steering wheel. The spaceship smoothly lifted up from the ground and left the planet's atmosphere. He enveloped the spaceship with his demonic energy to avoid being caught by the Aerial Border Control.
The journey to his Home Planet would only take 1 day by using this small spaceship. Its speed was faster than the large spaceship the convoy used before to brought him back to Thesia Empire.
When he arrived at his home, he was relieved that those people didn't mess with it. Although it was a bit dusty, its condition was still the same as when he left. He was filled with nostalgia and sadness welled up in his heart. Counting from his past life, he finally came back here after more than 7 years.
Although the warmth was gone, he could still see many traces of his family in every corner of the house. The table where they ate together, the sofa where they chatted idly without any specific topic, the front garden where his mother tended her plants every morning, the kitchen where his father would cook every once in a while when they have enough credit to buy natural ingredients, the room where he often played with his brother every evening after he came home from school, his bedroom full of his collection of dragon toys.
He was reminiscing through his memory when he felt a weak tug on his sleeves. He looked down and saw Jixue looking up at him in question. Lixue patted his head.
"Go seat on the sofa and wait for me."
Jixue nodded his head and walked with small steps to the sofa. Lixue guessed before that although Jixue couldn't see, he could somewhat sense and locate his surroundings. He couldn't tell whether Jixue was using sound, vibration, or something else.
Lixue took some clothes from his closet. He also changed into men's clothing and burned the clothes he was wearing. He touched the photo frame on his desk, but he didn't take it with him. He took out the photo and burned it with the fire enveloping his hand.
He was aware of what plan he was going to do in the future. He couldn't have risked having his identity exposed. He needed to get rid of every trace of him in this house. It was enough for him to reminiscence for a moment.
He didn't know whether his parents were disappointed with him, but he would still continue on this dark, bloody path of revenge. He wouldn't say selfishly that he was doing this for their sake, for his family's sake, or for his friend and mentor's sake. He was doing this for his own sake.
He burned every picture in the house. Although it was unseen that people would print out their photos in this era, his mother really loved this primitive method of keeping memories. She said it gave a certain warmth by looking at it that way.
Other than that, he also burned all of his personal belongings including his dragon toys. When he was about to burn the last one, he hesitated. It was a small figure of a silver dragon with blue eyes. It was made out of solid material, some type of metal. It was the most expensive out of his collections.
His father gave it to him on his 15th birthday and told him to cherish it well because he drained his personal savings just for this figure. It was personally designed by his father and crafted by a famous engraver.