In the next morning, the sun was starting to rise in the cold ice desert around the mountain when Hai opened his eyes.
Looking at the dim lit room, he was confused for a brief second before remembering what happened.
He looked around and saw Kryn and Chilly sound asleep on his chest.
However, everyone else was gone from the room.
Hai looked back at Kryn and Chilly before using his magic to try to get out without waking them up.
"Dad…" However, Kryn suddenly grabbed his shirt when he was going to get away and muttered this single word while sleeping.
Hai stopped using his magic and looked at Kryn with a strange face. He was surprised, stupefied and amused at her calling him dad.
Kryn's eyelashes started trembling before they started opening.
It seems that Hai's small movements ended up waking her up.
Kryn put her small hands on Hai's chest and raised her upper-body.
*YAWN*
With a cute yawn, she rubbed her eyes before looking around.
Chilly feeling her movements, also woke up and stretched her body.
Looking at those two, Hai felt this scene pretty funny and unconsciously, a smile appeared on his face.
Kryn felt someone's gaze on her and turned to see Hai looking at them with an amused gaze.
"Morning, Hai." She said in a low voice while still rubbing her eyes.
Hai smiled mischievously when he heard her words.
"Oyah? Wasn't it dad a few seconds ago?" He asked in a playful tone.
Kryn stopped rubbing her eyes and looked at him in slight confusion.
[Kryn, a few moments ago he was just going to get out of the bed, but then you grabbed his shirt and called him "dad".] Laila flashed a message before Kryn's eyes.
Kryn read the message and her cheeks got a bit red, but she looked into Hai's eyes.
"Sorry." She said while embarrassed.
Hai narrowed his eyes as he picked something deep inside her eyes.
"Hey, wanna talk?" He questioned her while patting her head.
Kryn looked at Hai and he saw something that a child shouldn't have flashing through her eyes: complex emotions.
Hai felt that Kryn might not be as innocent as she shows herself as, but his attention wasn't on it.
Kryn on the other hand was going through several emotions and thoughts.
Even though she just woke up, her mind went back to dark memories which she had asked Laila to seal away.
'You can count on me to whatever you may need!' A youthful woman exclaimed while flashing a bright smile.
Kryn felt her little heart tightening and small tears threatened to form at the corner of her eyes.
[Kryn…]
Seeing Laila's message, Kryn regained herself and held her tears in.
[You should open yourself with him. With the way you are going, you might destroy yourself from inside out before you even accomplish anything. You need someone, Kryn. Dark secrets are poison. The more you hold it in, the more it kills you.]
Laila's message contained a heavy feeling of worry.
No matter how much of a system she is now, she was human once.
She liked to party, to go out with her friends, to read novels and mangas and even sports.
She can't remain indifferent to her friend's suffering.
Kryn is just a 6-year-old child, but she has gone through so much already.
From being expelled from her family to being hunted down.
No child should go through it.
Laila did her best to show Kryn the bright side of the world, but there is a limit to how much she can do, mainly without a body.
But now, Laila was more assured.
It might not be the exactly same one as she read once, but she knows Hai.
Although he is aloof and calm most of the time, once you make your way into his heart, he will do whatever it takes to give you happiness and safety.
Laila wants Kryn to be open with him because Laila knows that if Kryn doesn't open herself now, she probably won't last much longer. She will break and Laila is sure that Kryn wouldn't be able to return to her previous self.
"…" Kryn read Laila's message and she felt her worry in it. She knows Laila long enough to understand more or less what she is thinking.
Tightening her little fists, Kryn raised her head to answer Hai's question.
However…
Kryn suddenly felt herself being raised in the air.
Hai got up from the bed and picked her in his arms while letting Chilly rest on his neck.
"Hai?" Kryn muttered in confusion at his sudden action.
Hai smiled at her.
He would be lying if he said he loves Kryn as someone dear to him.
However, not even him can be indifferent to this child's suffering.
He has gone through much, literally too much and he should have broken.
In truth, he is broken, just not apart.
And now, he is trying to change because of the ones he loves. They knew he was broken and are actively trying to fix him.
He has marvelous people in his life for whom he would give his life without batting an eye or thinking twice.
However, what about Kryn?
Hai knows despair better than most people, if not better than anyone.
And right here and now, he has seen a 6-year-old child in despair.
Would he even be someone with a heart if he simply ignored such thing?
He has his loved ones who are with him and even his staff.
But who does Kryn have?
As far as he saw, no one.
Although she has been behaving like a child, Hai has picked several times some small things that a child should not show.
A clear sign of having to mature early and suffering from the cold reality that is this shit world.
"Now, now, your face isn't pretty like that. Since you are having difficult, let me help you. How about having fun for a day?" He asked while going towards the dinning room where he felt that everyone was.
"…" Kryn stood silent and looked at Hai's expression.
Seeing that he wasn't going to change his mind, she nodded before making herself comfortable on his arms.
The corners of Hai's lips arced upwards.
They arrived at the dinning room and Hai opened the door with magic.
When he entered, he saw the interesting situation of Elena coldly looking at a struggling Stella serving tea to his aunt while Hong Li-Wei just looked at them and Bing Qing seemed to be on another world.
"…" Holding the laugher that tried to escape his mouth at the back of his throat, Hai made his way to an empty seat.
"Good morning to you all, ladies." He greeted before sitting down.
They all greeted him too in their own ways before their eyes landed on Kryn who was in his arms.
The moment they saw her slightly complex expression, they understood that something was amiss.
However, they didn't comment on it as they know that Hai is taking care of it right now.
Looking at them behaving like usual, Hai was once again amazed at their ability to pick things up so quickly.
A few seconds later, some maids came into the room and served breakfast before bowing and exiting the room.
"Let's eat." Chang Hua said and started to dig in without a care in the world.
Hai smiled innocently and repeatedly nodded his head when he saw her actions.
"And this is another reason why you didn't get a boyfriend that lasted." He commented before picking a smaller plate and cutting some food for Kryn.
*COUGH*
*COUGH*
Chang Hua choked on her food and started coughing while she picked a cup of water and hastily drank it.
*GULP*
With one last gulp, she let out a sigh of relief and looked at Hai with an annoyed expression.
"Did you really have to say that?" She questioned while picking her hashis and eating properly this time.
"Yes." Hai admitted and put the plate before Kryn.
Then, he picked an apple and started eat while giving some fried chicken to Chilly.
Nobody said anything and just stood in silence for a few minutes.
Hai was munching another apple when he finally got an idea of what to do today.
"Is everyone free today?" He asked out of blue.
Everyone looked at him and the first one to nod was Chang Hua.
"Yes, I should be free today. Why?" She asked while glaring at him as she saw his playful smile.
Hai held back the joke he was going to make and nodded.
"Yes, young master. Whatever you need me to do, I will do it." Elena commented while elegantly putting her hashis down.
Truth to be told, she was extremely uncomfortable in eating on the same table as everyone else while she should be doing a maid's duty, but Chang Hua banned her from doing any and said she was just going to have breakfast with them.
"Hum. I will just finish some small jobs on the Nexus Net and should be free in about 2 hours or so. Why?" Hong Li-Wei was the one who answered this time.
Stella looked at Hai with a complicated expression and wanted to say no, but she couldn't.
"Oh, by the way, Stella and Bing Qing, you two don't have any option. You two are too strange and out of your usual self, so you are going to participle in this." He commented when he saw Stella opening her mouth.
Stella closed her mouth in defeat and only nodded.
"Ok, I asked if you are free because I'm up for playing today." Hai opened his arms while a playful smirk adorned his face.
Everyone raised an eyebrow at his words and stole a peek at Kryn.
They understood more or less why he was doing it and felt that it might be a good change of airs after all the trouble they went through.
"Okay." Hong Li-Wei was the first one to agree. She felt worried when she saw Kryn showing that expression so she wanted to make sure that everything was okay.
Elena simply smiled. No answer is needed as she will do what he wants her to do.
"O..kay." Bing Qing reluctantly agreed.
She was still trying to understand and get over her behavior in the previous years, so her head was so full that she was absentmindedly most of the time.
Stella had no choice on this matter so she said nothing.
"What are you going to do?" Chang Hua suddenly asked with wariness in her eyes.
Hai smiled.
"How about a gaming day?" His question made everyone but Chang Hua smile.
Chang Hua looked at him and immediately wanted to say no. The last time she played something with him, she had the brilliant idea of making things more interesting with the classical "take a piece of cloth off every time you lose".
She wanted to tease him a little and maybe bully him by mentioning how small his thing was.
The result?
A butt-naked Chang Hua.
Ever since, Chang Hua has always been wary of games and Hai in the same sentence.
Hai of course understood his aunt's wariness, but couldn't care less.
"How about we start with something simple?" He asked playfully.
"Aunt, is there somewhere plain and more secluded we can use?" Chang Hua pondered a bit when she heard his question before remembering a place with those descriptions.
"There is. I have a smaller garden than the one from yesterday at the back of my mansion." She said after a moment of contemplation.
Hai finished eating his apple and looked at Kryn.
"Kryn, have you ever played any game?"
She shook her head.
Hong Li-Wei felt sad seeing this reply.
Elena was also affected by it and inwardly cursed whoever made this child suffer.
Chang Hua looked at Kryn and remembered hers and Hai's situation.
After seeing that everyone finished eating, Hai picked Kryn up and turned to his aunt.
"Well then aunt, please lead the way."
Chang Hua got up and nodded before walking towards a more distant part of her mansion.
Hai and everyone also got up and just followed her while having small talks along the way.
A few minutes of walk and they arrived at a small but nevertheless beautiful garden at the back of the mansion.
Hai looked around and nodded.
He turned back to the girls, especially Hong Li-Wei.
"Sweet, it's not that I don't want you here, but didn't you say you had jobs to finish first?" Hai asked with a bit of worry as he knows that she likes to do jobs well-done, so he was thinking if she felt obliged to participate in his idea.
Hong Li-Wei shook her head with a wry smile.
"Let them be. They were just small ones which should probably solve themselves at the end of the day anyway."
Hai nodded and then turned to look at the garden again.
*FUSH*
The garden was suddenly frozen.
However, the ice wasn't giving off a cold feeling like always, the temperature remained the same.
Hai froze the garden while making some constructs of ice.
He made a slight complex golf course out of ice.
There were the obstacles, the holes, the flags and even the golf clubs properly made of crystal clean ice.
He turned back and took out some bracelets from his storage ring while showing them to the girls.
"Is someone up to a game of golf?" He asked while putting a bracelet on his right arm.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
--------------
A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
So, what do you guys think about this chapter? I will be doing some slice of life while giving a focus on comedy (I will try) and on the girls' development before exploring the palace aka sect, more. You can also consider this as a special of sorts due to the World Cup which is currently ongoing.
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Another thing: Please give your feedbacks. I want to know what you guys think, if there are things that could be better or if I could have done something in a simpler manner. If you could also leave a review, that would help me to understand what you think about the novel in general, so it would be really helpful.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎