While pondering the answer, Rahotep was momentarily dazed. This caused his unconsciously moving hand to slow its action slightly. Therefore, before he could touch that long, thin fabric reaching to the knee as he wished, a nimble black figure had already charged towards him.
Or, more accurately, “pounced”.
It was like a jackal or a lion leaving its den for a moment, returning to find an unwelcome intruder, and this intruder was attempting to lay hands on the one treasure within the den.
So, the fierce beast whose territory had been invaded, acting on instinct, pounced on the enemy immediately, fully prepared to tear into them.
But in fact, this was the royal palace, not the territory of a jackal or a lion.
Even the young man resting on the bed amidst the gold-leaf adornments was certainly not the other person’s possession.
When Rahotep caught sight of the black figure in his peripheral vision, he came back to his senses and barely managed to dodge.
He drew the short sword at his waist. The veins on the hand gripping the hilt bulged like a net. His usually gentle and kindly voice was now cold as quenched ice. “Seto!”
The sword’s edge, reflecting a cold gleam, pointed directly at the opponent.
The Egyptian royal addressed by his mortal name by Rahotep showed none of the courteous manners that human society deemed civilized. He was just like when he first emerged from the bronze cage years ago. His golden-brown eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty, intense aggressiveness. His nimble limbs gripped the ground with explosive power, his back arched, teeth bared, and a threatening growl rumbled instinctively in his throat.
It seemed like he would pounce on the enemy and kill them in the next instant, biting through the human blood vessels.
Anyone who saw this would be horrified and think this was merely a beast wearing human skin.
This was the scene Xin Hexue saw when he was awakened by the commotion.
The servant who had been waiting outside to avoid disturbing the Divine Envoy’s rest hurried over on hearing the noise. He was still carrying the Divine Envoy’s dinner, but after seeing the situation inside the palace clearly…
“Crash!”
The bowls and plates shattered into pieces, and the ground became a mess of mushed grain porridge.
A few more similar incidents, and the palace would unknowingly incur many unnecessary expenses for tableware.
“Pharaoh… Lord Anubis…”
The servant trembled with fear, finally casting a pleading look towards the Divine Envoy on the bed.
Seto obviously also noticed that Xin Hexue had woken up. He subconsciously looked towards him, but had not yet retracted his threatening posture.
The ferocious aura belonging to a beast assailed the senses, and Xin Hexue’s pupils contracted sharply, turning into vertical slits. Due to his cat-like transformation, his body interpreted the other party’s actions as a provocation.
His right hand pulled over the woven blanket and covered half of his body.
However, Seto mistakenly misinterpreted the vertical pink pupils and the meaning behind the action.
Mother Goddess…
Did he scare Mother Goddess…?
And made Mother Goddess see…his ugly and wretched appearance.
Under the cold sword’s edge, the previously wolf-like, untamed royal gradually retracted his arched back and bared teeth. Instead, he seemed to have suffered a fatal blow, slowly curling up as if powerless, and becoming an unborn young beast, merely a lump of flesh, crawling back into Mother Goddess’s warm abdomen to recuperate.
However, Mother Goddess did not choose to comfort him, only sitting on the bed.
Finally, Seto let out a painful whimper.
Xin Hexue’s hand clutching the woven blanket did not loosen.
Rahotep’s gaze swept over him and Seto, the expression in his eyes shifting subtly. Without revealing anything, he sheathed the short sword. “I heard from the Vizier that Iah is not feeling well. Has the physician been called to examine you?”
Xin Hexue’s eyelashes did not lift. Rahotep noticed that his lashes, like his long hair, were fine, long, and moon-white, resembling the down feathers of a newborn chick, fluttering lightly without weight, unable to stir even the slightest ripple on the river’s surface.
Even his speech was soft. “The physician has already seen me. It’s nothing serious.”
Rahotep felt an inexplicable softening in his heart, and there was a faint, tingling sensation, as if such feathers had tickled along the direction of the pumping blood in his heart.
His eyes swept over the woven blanket covering Xin Hexue’s lower body before he regretfully withdrew his gaze, pretending that his earlier intention to investigate while the other party slept had never happened. “Then, rest well after having your dinner, Iah.”
“Bring new food for the Divine Envoy,” Rahotep ordered with a frown. As he turned, his hair that was tightly bound with gold rings swung in an arc. His tall shadow fell over his curled up royal brother on the ground, and he said majestically, “As for you, Seto.”
“It seems you have forgotten the sincere teachings of the etiquette scribes. Go receive your punishment. If there is a next time…”
“You do not want to know the consequences.”
Seto lowered his eyes. Rahotep’s decision felt like a cold silver ear pick passing through his ear canal and sliding out the other end. But he did not receive Mother Goddess’s gaze. This made him hang his head lower, digging his nails into his flesh.
“Drip!”
A bead of blood bloomed on the carpet.
………
Only after Rahotep left and Seto was escorted away by the palace guards did Xin Hexue lift the woven blanket covering his lower body.
A soft, furry sensation brushed against his inner thigh, coiled within the loincloth. It was an organ that should not belong to a human, growing from the last section of the tailbone. This organ had already degenerated in humans, but it was very useful for cats to maintain their walking balance.
‘Finally retracted!’
He had been solely focused on hiding the tail’s existence earlier, so he was distracted throughout and did not pay much attention to Seto or Rahotep.
This organ was not so easily controlled by its owner. Often, it had a strong will of its own.
Xin Hexue frowned and got out of bed.
The previous mess of food had been cleaned up thoroughly. The servants had replaced the entrance of the palace with a new, thick carpet, its embroidery patterns exquisite, like the spread-out blue Nile. Xin Hexue sat down on the pearl-and-gem-inlaid chair before the carved wooden table.
When Seto carried him back to the palace in the afternoon, Xin Hexue had felt nauseous and vomited. However, as he hadn’t eaten much, he only brought up some sour fluid.
He had not taken the so-called medicine prescribed by the physician. The physicians here worked within both the medical and religious systems. For internal diseases, the prescriptions they gave were like some kind of witch doctor’s potion, which Xin Hexue wasn’t very willing to try. His gastrointestinal function wasn’t very good to begin with, so he needed to be extra careful even with food, let alone unknown medicines.
Xin Hexue had suddenly fallen ill, not just due to heatstroke, but also due to accumulated acclimatization issues that had erupted only now.
This caused him to vomit two more times later. Seto had been running around in circles anxiously, but Xin Hexue had no mind to manage him. He simply rinsed his mouth and, accompanied by a headache, fell into a deep sleep until he woke up just now.
But after waking up from this sleep, he felt refreshed and clear-headed, as if the sickness surrounding him had been swept away entirely.
During gaps in his sleep, Xin Hexue had sensed someone feeding him medicine. It was a mature capsule formulation from a later era, not something that should exist here.
While eating the soft, well-cooked porridge that was easy to digest, he asked.
[Did you feed me medicine?]
K: [Yes.]
He was too exhausted at the time, and had habitually endured the pain brought by illness, so he had not thought of the relief avenue of asking K to buy medicine from the mall.
He checked the point balance in the system backend. Not a single point was missing, ruling out the possibility that K had spent his points to buy medicine from the mall. So where did K’s medicine come from?
K seemed to see through his confusion.
[The Big World has a system oriented points mall.]
The system could connect to two malls: one for the hosts, and another for the systems themselves.
Even though system positions were filled by bionic people, the Big World couldn’t not provide them with compensation.
[You never mentioned this. I thought there were no secrets between us.] Xin Hexue said slowly, his tone very gentle. [Gege… have you been hiding private money?]
It really was unfair. K knew his point balance very clearly, but he didn’t even know that K had a system-oriented mall.
Somehow, the matter of hiding private money didn’t quite match the useless husband persona he had always maintained, and K paused for a moment. Then a notification sound rang out.
[Transfer of 1507 points from system “K” successful. Converted at a 10:1 ratio, 150.7 points have been added to employee “Xin Hexue’s” balance.]
Xin Hexue was slightly surprised. [Hmm? I didn’t mean for you to hand it over.]
K’s voice was, as usual, that inhuman mechanical tone, devoid of discernible emotion. [I took the initiative myself.]
[Before… it had no use.] K explained. [So I didn’t think of it.]
He was referring to the fact that before, after the small world settlements, the accumulated system points had no place where they could be used.
Xin Hexue didn’t really mind, but since K had already transferred them, [Is this all?]
K said honestly: [Yes.]
Xin Hexue suddenly laughed. [You had 1507? Shouldn’t you have transferred 1314 to me?]
K was puzzled: [?]
[And the remaining 185 is your height, and the 8 is your abs?]
Xin Hexue had just randomly associated this with a joke he saw while browsing the internet before.
It was not a very cold joke. He didn’t like it, but he remembered it.
K paused for a long time. Just as Xin Hexue thought the topic had been dropped and continued eating his dinner, he suddenly spoke up again. [189.]
Xin Hexue: [?]
K: […My height.]
Xin Hexue: […Okay.]
There was no rounding up. It sounded like a real data point.
Silence fell between the man and the system. Thanks to the special effect medicine that cured the illness immediately, Xin Hexue had a rare appetite after coming here. He finished a bowl of porridge and ate some fruit after dinner.
But his lost energy had not had time to recover yet, so he soon felt tired again. After simply cleaning his body, Xin Hexue returned to bed.
Before falling asleep, he thought of another question.
It’s not easy to feed medicine to an unconscious patient.
Xin Hexue brought it up lightly. [Did you take advantage of feeding me medicine to steal a kiss?]
K only felt a surge of pulse currents imitating neural activity rushing recklessly upwards. His simulated brain responsible for thinking functions crashed. But since his points were cleared out, he couldn’t choose to purchase expensive remote repair services until this world’s settlement.
K started thinking.
But before he could figure out how to change the subject, Xin Hexue seemed to no longer care that much and had fallen asleep.
………
When in an attacking state, Seto’s back muscles would tense and rise and fall in defined, textured curves. Sunlight spilling onto his bronze skin would look like honey soaking through the surface of amber.
But now, most of it was covered by gauze woven from linen fibers, and faint red bloodstains seeped through the white gauze from underneath.
He dragged his steps heavily, walking slowly from the execution ground towards the palace under the moon.
He happened to meet Ankhet on the way, but this area was clearly quite far from Ankhet’s palace. In other words, at this time, in this place, Ankhet shouldn’t be appearing here unless his purpose was to visit the sick Divine Envoy.
Seto’s keen gaze caught the other party.
Just as he thought Ankhet would, like before, swagger over upon seeing him covered in wounds, insulting him for being an uncivilized wild beast, the reality was that this time, Ankhet did not do so.
When Ankhet was spotted, he looked extremely unnatural, as if Seto had caught him by the pigtail and could easily mock him, and Ankhet would care deeply about such mockery.
Before Seto could confront him, Ankhet walked off on his own, shooting Seto an angry and resentful glare.
………
After receiving the increased punishment, Seto returned to the palace under the moon as he wished, instead of being locked in the water cell for three days of reflection. The price was fifty additional lashes with the thorny cane on top of the original one hundred lashes.
The executioner was trembling with fear, but because it was the Pharaoh’s direct order, he did not dare hold back his strength. By the time the punishment was over, the executioner’s arm muscles were spasming from exhaustion.
Therefore, when Seto approached the bedside, Xin Hexue smelled a strong smell of blood.
This roused him from his sleep immediately.
“Seto?”
He identified the figure by the firelight and the moonlight streaming through the window.
Seto crawled on his knees across the carpet on the floor all the way to the head of the bed. He did not dare touch Xin Hexue, only resting his head against the side of the bed.
Xin Hexue suddenly recalled how the other person had curled up in the palace today, like a dying beast. He lowered his hand, stroked Seto’s straight-cut short hair at the ends, then followed the edge of the jackal-head mask. His fingertips slipped under Seto’s jaw and gently scratched it a few times.
Seto’s throat thus emitted a low, hoarse sound, entirely different from the threatening growl of the daytime.
Xin Hexue asked him, “What was wrong with you during the day?”
“Elder Brother…” Seto obediently lifted his jaw, allowing that hand to slide down and even touch his neck. In response to Xin Hexue’s every stroke, he trembled silently, slowly forming words to explain. “…was close to you.”
Xin Hexue finally connected the cause and effect for the scene he saw upon waking.
Speaking of which, if Seto hadn’t suddenly attacked Rahotep, perhaps this Pharaoh would have discovered the secret the Divine Envoy was hiding beneath his clothes.
He had not had time to retract his tail in his sleep.
Although Seto’s actions were likely driven by instinctual protection and possessiveness, it was still a case of unintentionally yielding positive results.
Seto didn’t know what Xin Hexue was thinking. He greedily enjoyed Xin Hexue’s touch. The craving for contact and the trembling caused by every delicate stroke of the fingertips almost burned him up like fire, leaving only a devout, submissive soul.
“Nephthys…”
Seto’s voice was hoarse, warmth rising in his eye sockets as if squeezing tears of happiness from his body.
“Not afraid of me?”
Xin Hexue was somewhat drowsy, and his voice was even softer. “No, you did very well.”
His fingertips unintentionally rubbed over Seto’s Adam’s apple, and he lowered his eyes. “Good boy.”
Sure enough, a hot and wet liquid flowed down Seto’s cheeks from behind the gaps of the jackal-head mask and onto Xin Hexue’s palm.
This was the first time Seto had received genuine praise. There was no malice or sarcasm behind this praise, and it was not spoken out of fear against one’s true feelings.
“Am I your good child?”
Seto lowered his head, pressing tightly against Xin Hexue’s palm as if the warmth could transmit through the jackal-head mask. He closed his eyes contentedly.
But…
Not enough.
Still not enough.
Seto whispered, “Want… reward.”
He said this very quietly, and Xin Hexue didn’t hear it clearly. He just responded lazily and habitually, “Hmm.”
The firelight was dim, so he also failed to notice how those golden-brown eyes contracted excitedly in the deep night.
“I’m tired,” Xin Hexue said, lying back down on the bed. “Accompany me out tomorrow, Seto.”
………
The cool night wind swept fine dust across the unobstructed dunes.
The temperature in the deep desert night had dropped, becoming cooler compared to the day.
After a day of walking, Xin Hexue fell asleep again as soon as his head hit the pillow. He only covered half of himself with a thin blanket, his feet exposed to the air.
Like a snake slithering through the desert, Seto made no sound as he climbed onto the foot of the bed.
Nephthys…
Nephthys had permitted him to claim his reward.
Bony, distinct fingers closed around the slender ankles, and the contrast between the bronze and moon-white skin was striking.
Xin Hexue had a pair of beautiful feet, straight, slender and white.
In the silent palace under the moon, only the sound of breathing gradually grew heavier.
In his sleep, a scorching heat persistently entangled him.
Xin Hexue turned over unhappily and kicked his feet.
He couldn’t break free completely, and it was like stepping on a burning hot and hard rock. Xin Hexue frowned but still slept deeply, not waking up.
He could not disturb Mother Goddess’s rest. Seto gritted his teeth tightly.
With one last heavy pant, Seto knelt down devoutly. His back still wrapped in gauze arched like a bow, and he almost curled up on his knees.
Hot, wet tears and a kiss landed on Xin Hexue’s calf simultaneously.
Seto let out a whimper.
He had done a very despicable thing to Mother Goddess.
If Mother Goddess woke up and discovered it, he would surely punish him…
He could endure whipping until death, if the executioner was Mother Goddess.
After his death, his heart would be placed on one end of the scale for judgment. Due to the weight of his great sin, heavier than the Feather of Ma’at, he would slide into the abyss of the underworld, destroyed forever.
With this chaos, Seto continuously fell downward.
