Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

The last scene Victor saw was of Tyron standing quietly on a corner of a long street, watching as the teacher he cared about finally left him.

The him of that time had clearly reached adulthood long ago, but when he looked at the back of this person, he suddenly turned back into the youngest version of himself, the little Tyron with the sharp tiger teeth.

This little Tyron didn't cry, didn't speak, and didn't have any expression on his face at all.

After watching the scene quietly, he went home and sat on a swing.

Perhaps Tyron didn't realize, but Victor suddenly realized that this scene was very similar to scenes of Tyron's mother. He sat on the swing, silent, neither angry nor sad, and it was as though he had lost some sort of strength.

After that, Tyron's memories stopped. That had been his entire childhood.

The years when he'd been naive only added up to a few years in total, less than a thousandth of his whole life.

……

After coming out of the ultra-light speed channel, the medical ship made its way straight to the general hospital, where intense preparations were made for the operation.

Victor was tossed out once the initial phase was complete.

The doctors expressed: "This operation will last several days during which there can be no interference. Family members should go home to prepare and wait. Don't worry too much, and don't remain in the hospital like an ornament."

Victor, of course, was worried to death, but he didn't want to be a disturbance, so he kept an eye on the family-only information-update device and went home first.

As mentioned before, Victor's father was from the Phoenix Empire, but his mother was not. The two of them actually lived on a planet not far away.

This time when Victor came back, he had no way to avoid being called in for questioning by his mother.

.

Mother Vic was a career-oriented woman who had been born in the Chaoyang Alliance. She climbed up to her present position, then married Father Vic. Yes.

The married couple sat opposite Victor, and Mother Vic spoke first, "You're finally willing to come back?"

Victor pursed his lips.

Mother Vic continued, "You went so far to hide from me and even went and took three degrees. Do you finally understand that you want money? You made a poor little company, then cheated the Murphys' son into working for you--and yet you were forced to fight a lawsuit as soon as you met a small livestream anchor?"

Victor said, "I didn't start that company for money…"

"Lawsuits are for the sake of money." Mother Vic crossed her legs and spoke with cold dignity, "Now, tell me again, is knowledge more important, or is wealth more important?"

Little Vic stubbornly insisted, “Knowledge is more important!”

Mother Vic picked up her coffee and spoke coolly, “Oh, so you quit the position of president in order to do what? Open a coffee shop or flower shop? Go back to Earth or some other corner for low-budget travel? Read and recite poems every day, or write some sentimental nonsense, doing nothing of consequence and rely on your lover to support you?”

Little Vic: "… I'm not eating off him for nothing! I came back this time for the sake of my male god--"

Mother Vic interrupted indifferently, "Come back when you've thought things through. I'm not even going to lend you tuition fees this time, what will you do?"

Victor replied, "Mommy, if you keep bullying me, I"ll go and cry to Dad."

Mother Vic: "……"

Mother Vic silently set down her coffee and repositioned her legs.

.

A while later, Father Vic came out in an apron, set down a plate of egg tarts, and smiled as he said, "What's going on, what's going on? Is Little Vic getting bullied again?"

Mother Vic pretended that nothing had happened and said, "Oh, I'm talking to Little Vic about his lover."

Father Vic pinched Victor's cheek in pity and said, "How come you lost some of your baby fat again? The feeling's not as good anymore. Little Vic, were you suffering outside? Was there nothing good to eat on Earth? Nothing fun? It's cold here, did you bring extra clothing?"

Victor was so moved that he hugged his father and said, "Dad! I have something important to ask you!"

Father Vic sat down next to him, stroked Victor's hair, and said, "Alright, alright. It must be an emotional problem. Looking at your sad face, it must be that you're secretly in love with someone."

Victor: "……"

Father Vic was someone who had grown up in the Phoenix Empire, and he had also studied psychology.

Every time he saw a person, he could judge how that person's family was, his emotional state, and whether or not his sex life was harmonious just by the shape of his eyebrows.

Victor squirmed awkwardly, not wanting to talk about it in front of his mother.

Mother Vic snorted, picked up a newspaper, and collapsed onto the sofa nearby. She crossed her legs again, appearing completely unconcerned about this problem.

Father Vic turned his head and reprimanded, "Look at how you're sitting, Little Vic is still here."

Mother Vic coughed and sat down again properly while muttering, "You're just like a shrewish wife."

.

Victor leaned on his father's not-so-sturdy but comfortable shoulder and muttered quietly that he'd fallen in love.

Father Vic said, "I could tell. You found yourself a gong."

Little Vic: "……"

Father Vic: "You went after him, right? How long did you have a crush on him for?"

Little Vic: "One… one month."

Father Vic: "Oh, so it's about three months total. Looking at your current appearance, is the other party not very interested? Or are they too busy, and you don't feel secure? Let your dad tell you, in order to deal with tsundere people like your mother, you can't be tough. You should be gentle and encourage him to come home often to eat."

Little Vic: "… No, it's not like that. It's not that he doesn't care, but I, I, I, just feel a little uneasy."

Father Vic suddenly understood, "Oh. It must be someone experienced. Say, how much older is he?"

--Was his father Sherlock Holmes or a god-level fortune-teller?

Little Vic shivered and said, "… Not, not that much."

Father Vic: "Oh, I get the picture: A mature older man, one who is very good at flirting, and is also very handsome. He should be the type who is very successful in his career. How did you catch him? This is a little strange--Oh! Right, was his family broken when he was a child?"

"……"

Victor felt that he hadn't even confessed but had already been seen through. He swallowed hard, then said tentatively, "I, I can only say that his parents weren't good to him, and he had a younger sister who was also very bad…"

"That's about right." Father Vic slapped his left fist against his right palm gently. "A person like this is lacking almost nothing in their life, but happiness and family are the only things he subconsciously can't obtain. My dear Vic, you are the kind of child who has had a happy childhood and family, so it's natural for you to attract his attention. This is very normal."

Mother Vic was still reading the newspaper, but she suddenly added in, "Look at your son's silly, innocent, and sweet appearance. Would people even be interested in him for his looks?"

Little Vic: "……"

.

Victor shifted away a little in anger, then continued to hug his gentle father as he said, "When he, he accepted me, he even said a sentence. He said that he wasn't the right person. What kind of psychological explanation is there for that?"

Father Vic fell into a rare moment of meditation. After a long time, he said, "Little Vic, you've met a tough one. That means that he's either self-loathing or cold-blooded--his parents weren't good to him, what kind of not good was it? Did they abandon him from an early age?"

Victor didn't reply.

Father Vic saw that he was trying to keep it a secret and didn't force him. He instead said, "He's expressing self-loathing and punishment. In particular, he wants to punish the ones who hurt him. These people should be blood-related, which leads him to detest even a part of himself--there's nothing that can be done about that. There will always be some personality traits that are connected between relatives."

Victor eagerly interjected, "But he's a very good person! He's actually very gentle…"

Father Vic: "It's precisely because he's punishing this family member and this part of his own character that shows that his inner nature is actually very gentle and that he's very clear about right and wrong. That's why he will tell you that he's not the right person, Little Vic. It's not that he's rejecting you, this is him saying, 'Don't get close to me, I'm afraid that I'll hurt you'."

Victor froze.

Father Vic: "This person's feelings will develop very slowly, but since he's already accepted you, that means he's already trying to carefully get closer to you. At the start, he won't express his love. This is normal, because he's waiting for you to stop liking him, waiting for you to abandon him--so that he can ensure that he won't abandon you the same way that family member of his had and make you as sad as he had been at that time."

A long time later, Victor suddenly said, "Daddy, can I leave first?"

.

Victor ran the whole way and once again arrived at the hospital entrance where he found a place to sit down and wait.

He suddenly understood many things.

For example, he understood why Tyron would ask: What kind of 'like' is this liking of yours? Is it the type where you see a puppy on the side of the road, or the type where you want some toy from a store's front window?

It wasn't that Tyron was questioning Victor's feelings. It had been Tyron questioning himself.

Tyron didn't believe in family, didn't believe that two lonely souls could snuggle up to each other until the end of their lives. He didn't even believe that he could give and keep a promise to the person he liked.

Because he had inherited a devil's blood.

.

The operation lasted for seven days, and Victor stayed outside for seven days.

During those seven days, he would occasionally stand up to move and eat some food. At night, he would spread out the blankets that the hospital provided for family and roll himself up in them to sleep.

After that, Victor slowly started to think through a lot of things.

So, when Mother Vic called to ask about him, Victor didn't try to squirm out of the situation in embarrassment and said, "Mommy, are you worried about me?"

Mother Vic was stunned for a moment, "…You still have your hands and feet. Could you have been snatched away by wolves?"

Victor continued, "Mommy, I love you. Thank you for looking out for me when I was so naughty as a child. I'm never going to run away from home again."

Mother Vic was really choked. She was silent for half a beat before calling Father Vic over to take over the phone.

Father Vic laughed and said, "Your mommy's face is red, and she wants to escape to the toilet to shed tears. Little Vic, she's particularly worried that you'll be scammed by bad people, which is why she always tells you to be more realistic…"

Victor said, "I'm realistic. Which one is more important, knowledge or wealth? They're both important. And since I'm this smart, why can't I have both?"

Father Vic: "……" This child must be more like his mother to be so shameless.

Victor continued, "I'm very, very clear on things now. Daddy, I will become stronger, and there will be nothing that can make me leave his side; I will become more affectionate and mature, so that the person I like can have a life without any regrets; If I have a firefly light, I will light up the path beneath his feet; If I have moonlight, I will light up his stage; If there is starlight, I will share with him the beauty of an entire galaxy; If one day, I can gather together all the light in the universe, then I will give him the best era."