Chapter 39: Arrival at Delphi [A VLOG of a high-energy, self-disciplined day for a 5.5-year-old kitten with slightly short legs and a few missing teeth] Part 1

As soon as he opened his eyes early in the morning, Li Ao held the small mirror the maid had given him and bared his teeth seriously at the reflection, examining it closely.

“It’s coming in.” A tiny white dot the size of a grain of rice had sprouted where his canine tooth had been missing.

“Don’t lick there.” The robot recalled the contents of Kitten Rearing Guide and reminded him. “Licking too much will make your teeth grow crooked.”

Li Ao flicked his ears and quietly withdrew his restless little tongue from the tooth gap.

“Come brush your teeth.” The robot held a toothbrush cup in each hand and handed them to the short-legged kitten and the little monster respectively.

Li Ao stood on the washstand, gripping the little toothbrush tightly with both paws and brushing back and forth diligently. His mouth was puffed up, toothpaste foam spilling over the corners and dripping onto his fluffy chin, but he still insisted on speaking to the little monster: “Brush teeth clean!”

The little monster nodded. His pitch-black form made the brushing even more obvious, his two short tentacles scrubbing back and forth at lightning speed, foam splattering everywhere like snow. The washstand after these two foam machines finished was a total disaster zone.

The robot wrung out a towel and said to the short-legged kitten, “Wash up and go eat breakfast. After that, you still have to come back for class.”

Li Ao froze for a moment, then replied, “But this morning we’re supposed to go plant crops.”

He counted on his paws every day. Every three days, the ship would stop, and then Xixi would take him and Xun back to Aiai’ang’ang. Today was the third day.

“No planting today.” Silver Wing wiped his face clean, then wrung out the towel again to wipe the little monster. “We’re about to arrive at Delphi.”

Li Ao heard that and his tail drooped to the ground. He silently went off to eat breakfast with the little monster.

“Li Ao.” Xun, acutely sensitive to the kitten’s emotions, nuzzled him. “Why aren’t you happy?”

Li Ao held his hand and asked with his head down, “What if everyone doesn’t like me?”

Xun was tormented every day by how many people liked the kitten, suppressing his desire to devour them all. How could anyone not like the kitten?

“Ryan.” Reniya bent down and kissed her son’s forehead. “Little kitten brother is coming back. Happy or not?”

Delphi was in springtime. Ryan wore thin clothes, his exposed wrists and ankles showing swollen joints. His snow-white lashes trembled lightly as the youth coughed. “I prepared a gift for him.”

Reniya loved her child dearly, but she wasn’t the meticulous type. Hearing Ryan cough, she thought he’d caught a chill. “Mom will get you a coat. Perfect timing—we’ll need formal attire to welcome Isiris back anyway.”

Ryan swallowed the sickly sweet blood rising in his throat and hummed in response.

His birth had been a mistake from the start.

He had no father. His mother had stubbornly wanted a child and used technology to bring him into the world.

There was a problem with Regalis’s lineage. Everyone opposed Reniya’s reckless decision to have an offspring. But she pressed on regardless. And reality proved their concerns right—he was a defective product.

Congenitally frail, plagued by illness. Even with the power of the entire nation, he couldn’t grow like a normal cub. His life was like a fragile candle wick, liable to snuff out at any moment.

“Highness Reniya is so reckless.”

“How could she bear this child?”

He’d heard those words from childhood to now. He couldn’t inherit Regalis’s glory; he was just clinging to life.

He was a Highness they hadn’t expected, but now they were getting another one.

A healthy, lively cub favored by fate.

Li Ao squatted in front of the conference room door, his tail coming around from behind to rest on his paws. Xun was in some human anatomy class. Machine said kittens didn’t need to learn that, so he came to wait for Xixi.

The guarding soldier stood ramrod straight at the door, military posture impeccable, gaze fixed firmly ahead. However, his uncontrollable eyes kept drifting downward just a bit—

The little Highness must have gotten tired of waiting. His originally proper sitting posture slowly slumped, until he was fully sprawled on the ground. All four paws tucked into his fluff, tail curled at his side, the whole cat balled up—round and fluffy, just like a freshly baked golden loaf of soft bread, with the black-brown tips of his fur like a dusting of caramel.

The soldier swallowed hard, forcing his attention back to duty, but his gaze kept slipping down uncontrollably. He wasn’t trying to sneak a peek… but who could resist such a cute little Highness?

“After the Spring Festival, dispatch a legion for support.” With the emperor’s decision, the doors boomed open. The soldier snapped to attention, and the kitten shot upright with a whoosh.

“Xixi!”

Isiris spotted the cub sitting outside the door. Clearly a kitten, yet wagging his tail and lolling his tongue like a puppy.

The golden-haired monarch bent slightly, picking up the kitten by the scruff with one hand and drawing him into his arms. “Next time, you can come right in.” He was the empire’s little sun; no place under the territory was off-limits to him.

Isiris carried a faint amber-musk scent. Of course, Li Ao didn’t know how to describe it that way—he just found it pleasant. Deep and safe, making the kitten happily knead the man’s arm.

“Ready?” Isiris strode forward with him. “Time to settle Aiai’ang’ang down.”

Shen Que, as Captain of the Guard, followed behind the father and son. Hearing the monarch say such cute words in a flat tone, he couldn’t help curving his eyes.

“Aiai’ang’ang doesn’t have to wander anymore?” The kitten’s tone was excited.

“Yes.” Isiris stood on the bridge and gestured for the cub to look ahead. In the pitch-black vastness of space, the gray-white planet was now dozens of thousands of kilometers behind them. “See that? That’s Aiai’ang’ang’s new home.”

At this distance, Li Ao could take in all of Aiai’ang’ang, including the five ring-shaped devices encircling the planet. The kitten’s eyes widened. “Aiai’ang’ang is gray.” In his view, it didn’t look good like this. “Needs to be colorful to be pretty.”

“Maybe once it’s planted full of greenery and its little ponds turn into big lakes, it’ll be all colorful.” Isiris patted his head. “Kitty god has to work hard.”

“Yes!” The kitten got fired up too. “Li Ao’s gonna live-stream to earn money and buy seeds!”

Even though he now had a dad, he’d never thought to rely on him. Instead, he used his paws to calculate how much money he’d need to buy seeds himself.

Isiris’s gaze darkened deeply. When they found Earth, he’d summon that man before him. In consideration of the negligible “bloodline” he’d provided the child, he could lop off his head with one sword stroke—a quick end.

But for now, the kitten had nothing to do with him. His body flowed with Regalis blood. Apart from those dark memories, he shared no ties with his former family.

“Sun.” A transmission came. “Planet at target position. Release migration?”

Isiris lowered his gaze to Li Ao. “What do you say?”

The kitten lifted his head, blue cat eyes meeting golden pupils. He suddenly clapped his paw, utterly serious: “Release!”

Well, maybe not that serious—at least Shen Que’s shaking shoulders as he turned away and the emperor’s crinkled eyes looked pretty relaxed.

With the gap-toothed one’s order, the ring devices disengaged one by one. Aiai’ang’ang was locked into Delphi’s gravity and settled into its eternal orbit.

“Once the orbit stabilizes, I’ll take you back. But for now, it’s time for Delphi.”

Even if Grandma’s Earth was home in the kitten’s heart, after this, Delphi would become another place he belonged.

“To Delphi!” The kitten waved his little paw to set off, but calming down, he got a bit scared. His ears drooped. “Can we pick up Machine and Little Doggy first?”

“Naturally.”

It was noon. The emperor’s warship materialized in the sky.

“It’s Mandjet!” Crowds gathered everywhere stood up, overcome with excitement, waving at the sky. “It’s the Sun—the Sun brought little kitten Highness back!”

Delphi, this world wrapped in endless ocean, had its sole vast continent at the center—the homeland of ninety thousand Delphians.

The majestic castle perched on the spine of the earth. Towns and villages layered out along the coastlines. Now, from commoners to warriors, adults to children, all Delphians looked up at the heavens, watching the warship tear through the sky.

Countless fireworks bloomed skyward amid rising cooking smoke. People gathered joyfully, eating delicious food, welcoming the cub’s return.

“Li Ao—”

“Leo—”

Tens of thousands of voices, two languages, all converging on one name. They raised their cups, eyes bright and fervent, smiles full of joy and anticipation. “To our empire’s little sun.”

Li Ao had been nervous at first, but with countless people calling his name—their voices brimming with warmth and love—even an illiterate cub could sense it. No education or interpretation needed; the kitten naturally absorbed this kindness.

Isiris carried the kitten down the sky stairs, with the robot holding the little monster close behind.

“Silver Wing—” Someone in the crowd actually called out the robot’s name. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for the little kitten!”

They knew its identity as an Alpha machine, yet they were cheering for it too…

“Xun—”

“Little coal ball—”

It seemed that as long as it was the little kitten’s companion, these people accepted them all.

What kind of nation was this? Its people were loyally devoted to their royal family almost to the point of foolishness, like believers worshiping gods.

“People of Delphi.” As they neared the surface, Isiris gripped Li Ao’s chest and lifted him toward the citizens. “This is my son. His name is Leo Regalis.”

“Waaah—” Deafening cheers shook the heavens and earth, countless gifts tossed toward the empire’s sun.

A faint smile touched Isiris’s cold face. He raised a hand to catch one and placed it into the little kitten’s arms.

Li Ao was already dumbfounded. He, he didn’t know what reaction he should have, but then he heard the man ask, “Want to say hello? To the people here, to the land here.”

The crowd was still cheering. The little kitten lay dazed in Isiris’s arm crook, looking around blankly. Their appearances were all different—black-haired, yellow-haired, brown-haired, red-haired, green-furred, purple-furred—yet all looked at him with fervent anticipation.

“Bi-, bi- big…” The little kitten suddenly raised his forepaws, lifted his head, and yelled at the top of his lungs: “Hewwo, evewyone! I am Li Ao!”

The crowd fell abruptly silent for a few seconds, then erupted into even louder cheers. Someone lifted their own child and shouted, “Li Ao, my name is John. This is my son, Little John!”

Sparkles lit up in the little kitten’s blue cat eyes. He turned from Isiris’s arms, picked up Xun, and showed him to the man. “This is Li Ao’s wittle doggy!”