Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

Chapter 97- Observing Law and Discipline Part 1

Translated by Snowfall77

That evening Xia Ge had a dream.

In the dream, she was in a very dark place, filled with thick, endless pitch-black mist.  Nothing else was there, not even the faintest light.

Walking alone in this place, with no known end, her thoughts were blank, and she didn’t know where to go.

“……little puppet?!”  She shouted uncertainly into the darkness, “Little puppet, where are you?”  Are you even here……

Her words faded away into the silence, and her pupils shrank as the black fog gradually parted to reveal a sharp arrow aimed directly at her!

Freezing in place, Xia Ge watched the arrow fly towards her.  Yet in the next second, as if space shifted around her, she was standing to the side, the arrow whooshing past the tip of her nose.

Thunk——

Like a play where the actors appear one after another, innumerable giant bats burst out of the black mist, and then a man dressed head to toe in black suddenly appeared!

Xia Ge’s eyes went wide——

The sharp arrow had pierced the man’s head precisely.

Crimson blood slowly dripped down between his eyebrows, soaking the black cloth over his mouth.

Exactly like that day!

The bats’ loud and incessant screams assaulting her ears, Xia Ge’s heart raced and her body dripped with cold sweat——it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s nothing but a dream……

Only, this person……she had, in fact, killed him.

“How does it feel……to have murdered someone?”

An eerie and sinister voice twisted through the air, its words tinged with brooding, “Isn’t it……very good?”

“Who are you?!”

Fiercely looking all around her, Xia Ge couldn’t see anything other than the multitude of bats and the corpse.  “I said, who are you?!  Come out!”

“Who am I?”

The creepy, high-pitched voice seemed to be coming from every direction, gloomy and dripping with mockery: “

“Who……I am, shouldn’t you be the one who……knows it best?”

Creak——

“Isn’t death a happy thing?  People everywhere are stupid and ignorant.  Only together, you and I……we can let them experience that freeing happiness.”

“But before that…..let me give you this happiness first.”

Demonic and enticing, the voice was obviously speaking nonsense, like a sing-song nursery rhyme chanted without a second thought.  And the instant its words fell, as if having received their orders, the countless giant bats all suddenly flew towards Xia Ge!

“Aaaaa——”

Xia Ge opened her eyes, gasping for air.  And when she put a hand to her forehead, she felt beads of cold sweat.

It truly was darkest before dawn.

She muttered to herself: “Shit, what the hell was that……”

The strong fear from dream lingered on.  Her being torn apart by the bats and powerless to stop it……it felt like it’d really happened,

System: [Is Something The Matter?  You Woke Up Very Early.]

Xia Ge took a deep breath: “Mmm.”

System: [Did You Have A Nightmare?]

Glancing out her window, Xia Ge saw a dark and dreary sky.  Senior Sister had probably long since departed.

“Yes……it was a nightmare.”

Xia Ge withdrew her gaze from the dusky sky, cupping her forehead with one hand.

She didn’t notice that the next second, a very small piece of blood-stained cloth, about the size of a fingernail, fell from the window sill and landed in the deep grass below.

System: [What Was The Nightmare About?]

Xia Ge felt exhausted: “The person I killed……”

System: [It Seems Your Psychological Quality Is Not Good, If It Is Still Troubling You.]

The corner of her mouth twitching, Xia Ge retorted: “This kind of thing……it’s because I’ve got good psychological quality that I find it so troubling.”

“I’m a good, law-abiding citizen.”

But, whatever the case——

The second the arrow was loosed from that bow——

Something had started changing.

= =

“The Demon Tide……Brother, are you going too?”

Chu Yi raised her eyes, carefully watching Ye Ze’s face.

“Mmm.”  A somewhat uncomfortable Ye Ze eventually managed to add, “I’m going too.”

Quiet for a long moment, Chu Yi finally whispered: “Then I want to go with you.”

Caught off guard, Ye Ze took a step back without thinking: “Miss Chu, you……”

Chu Yi laughed lightly: “Fooled you.”

Ye Ze: “……”

Chu Yi: “I was just joking.  I still have things to do in Jianfeng.”

“Last time you wondered who was in Jianfeng’s mountain prison,” Chu Yi peered into Ye Ze’s eyes, her voice very soft, “I found out.”

“It’s……”

Ye Ze suddenly interrupted: “Please don’t tell me.”

Chu Yi was rather startled.

Ye Ze: “It is my personal business, I don’t want others involved.”

Standing straight and tall, the young man gripped his sword to his chest and stared off into the distance with an obstinate expression, his lips slightly pursed.

Chu Yi: “Oh……I see.”

Ye Ze: “Mmm.  Thank you for trying to help me, but……”

“But I like you.”

Chu Yi’s gaze stayed fixed on Ye Ze, her eyes shining like stars in the night, tender and loving, “So everything about you is everything to me.”

Ye Ze froze.

“You don’t have to accept my olive branch, the clues I find for you, my affection……you don’t have to want everything I have,” Chu Yi’s voice was light, “But you can’t……not want me.”

She cautiously extended a hand to brush at the tips of Ye Ze’s black hair, her large round eyes watery in the soft moonlight.

“If you don’t want me……”

“I will die.”

Ye Ze was too stunned to speak.

“Before……I had nothing,” Chu Yi murmured, “You gave it to me, it’s mine.”

Coming back to his senses, Ye Ze pulled Chu Yi’s hand away and took another step back, gently saying: “I appreciate that you like me.”

“But I’m sorry, this kind of inexplicable affection, I can’t accept it.”

Done speaking, Ye Ze began to walk away.

‘I like you’ was too shallow, and his hatred was too heavy.

His vendetta was his alone.  He didn’t need someone uninvolved trying to stand alongside him.

Wouldn’t anyone else feel the same?