Summer was particularly unpleasant for Li Ao because his fur was just way too thick.
Even though Delphi had a typical maritime climate where summer temps rarely topped thirty degrees, there were no air conditioners around, which was more than enough to make a cat miserable.
The little cat lay splayed out on the bathroom floor, all four paws in the air, belly up, plastered motionless to the tiles for coolness—like a heat-melted pudding.
Xun flew over hugging a glass of juice, stuck in a straw, and held it to the little cat’s mouth. “Li Ao.”
The little cat didn’t even raise his head, eyes blank and vacant. But the moment he caught the icy scent, he latched onto the straw and started slurping away—glug glug glug.
The nanny robot stood by watching impassively, inwardly rolling its electronic eyes at how outrageously lazy this short-legged cat was. Drinking water flat on his back without even wiping his mouth? Not until the little monster leaned in and rubbed it clean for him.
“Li ohhh.” Silver Wing called out to him.
The little cat said nothing.
But the robot clearly saw his ears twitch. Its electronic eyes narrowed, and it called again: “Ice cream.”
“Where?!” Fierce Cat attempted a carp flip but flopped. His hind legs pedaled uselessly for ages before he finally stood with Xun’s help, then bolted over with a whoosh. Where was that near-dead look from seconds ago? “Can Li Ao have some?” His voice was all bright and sparkly.
Heh— the robot asked, “Why didn’t you answer when I called you earlier?”
With something delicious dangling right there, this little guy sure knew how to play cute. Paws hugging the robot’s body, he didn’t bother lying or dodging—instead, those big watery eyes blinked up innocently: “Sorry~”
Then straight to the important part: “So where’s the ice cream?”
“…” Had to admit, respect.
Silver Wing eyed his pint-sized brain for a long moment, then finally took pity: “I’m just about to make some. Come help out.” Teaching the kid some hands-on skills—best of both worlds.
This kitten Li Ao, young as he was, already owned an endless wardrobe of clothes and accessories. He couldn’t dress himself, sure, but he had a maid utterly obsessed with styling up His Highness. No matter what he did, it had to come with a perfectly matched outfit.
Now decked out in a tiny apron, lace protective sleeves on all four paws, and a little chef’s hat perched on his head, the little cat clung to the fridge door, clutching a mixing bowl bigger than his whole body as he stirred the egg yolk mixture.
Xun was even more into it, having been dressed in the matching getup by Brenna. He watched the robot’s hands like a hawk.
[Xun learns, Xun makes Machine obsolete]
“…” Every time the robot thought this little monster had genius-level smarts, he’d prove otherwise in the dumbest ways.
Sure enough, IQ must be contagious. Alone, the little monster screamed “non-human.” Stick him next to the short-legged cat, and suddenly he was kiddie-level immature to the point of speechlessness.
“Machine.” The cool blast from the fridge opening made the cat forget all about the heat. Li Ao stirred his bowl, eyes locked on the surface, then blurted out of nowhere: “What does ‘nothingness’ mean?”
Silver Wing froze for a beat, then remembered exactly where the short-legged cat must’ve picked up those words.
Aliya’s third prophecy stated: “…his origin is hidden in nothingness…” Everyone in Delphi was still hell-bent on finding the little cat’s homeland, so talks about this “nothingness” had been ramping up lately. Even at work, Silver Wing overheard colleagues debating the term nonstop.
Empty: void, non-existent, intangible.
Nothing: absence, non-being.
Put together? Not exactly a happy phrase.
Talks about Li Ao’s hometown were turning increasingly bleak, but nobody had thrown in the towel. Robots didn’t lie—or sugarcoat. In a first, it scooped up the cat and perched him on its shoulder, gently stroking him as it said: “We’ll find it for sure. The prophecy mentions an origin, which means you definitely have a home. It’s just hidden deep. We’ll take the time to dig it out.”
Li Ao buried his face in the robot’s neck, his voice all muffled: “…I want Grandma to have ice cream too…”
Silver Wing sucked at pep talks. It glanced at the anxiously fidgeting little monster and passed the cat over.
Xun tugged Li Ao close, cupped the little cat’s face, and called solemnly: “Li Ao.”
Li Ao sniffled, then after a bit let out a soft, mushy “mm-hmm”: “Thanks, little dog. When you grow up, take me to find Grandma.”
The robot watched the two little ones quietly. In no time flat, that little monster had the cat all cheered up. It couldn’t parse exactly what the little monster had said from the word “Li Ao” alone, but the cat’s reply gave it the gist. This xenoid variant seemed born for comforting cats—zero training needed, just instinctively licked away the short-legged cat’s tears.
Put that together with the prophecy’s bit about the Child of Destiny’s companion… A red flash lit its electronic eyes. Silver Wing yanked apart the now-clumped-together duo. “No cuddling! Get back to work.” So young and already up to no good—that scheming little monster had a heart blacker than coal, and with the short-legged cat being such a dummy, what if he actually got lured away?
Xun narrowed his scarlet eyes, gaze full of feral disdain. Sadly, his coal-ball sprite vibe robbed it of any intimidation.
Li Ao was a real kid—no clue about any shady stuff. He grabbed the stirring rod and got back to cheffing. “But Xun,” his paws working hard, making the apron sway back and forth, “what are you gonna grow up into?”
Xun, mid-stare-down with the robot, paused. Two seconds later, he said hesitantly: “I dunno.” He flared his bone wings and fanned some air. “But not like this, anyway.”
Something was always missing from his evolution—that crucial piece, buried in chaos. It kept him from reaching his strongest form.
“It’s okay.” Li Ao turned the tables, comforting him instead. “We’ll figure it out together.”
The ice cream was done and shoved in the freezer. Li Ao finally snuck that first blissful bite right before bedtime, then curled up contentedly in his cat bed.
Delphi nights came with ocean breezes. Snuggled against his cool little monster buddy, the short-legged cat slept like a log. Snoring was this cat’s signature move—the robot was used to it by now. Lulled by the rising and falling little melody, Silver Wing powered down for the night.
The wind tugged at the sheer floor-length curtains. Under Aiai’ang’ang’s pristine moonlight, a beam of light flowed like water onto Li Ao’s body. The little cat’s snores hitched for just a split second—and in that brief pause, his consciousness leaped beyond the river of time. The dreamwalker saw.
Charred ruins lay scattered everywhere, the ground cracked and pocked with blast craters. The air hung thick with rubble and burning debris. The stench of blood mixed with scorched metal, searing every breath.
Human screams blended into a wall of booms and blasts in the background, rattling his eardrums.
“Bad stuff…” Li Ao spotted it far below the cliff: countless xenoid variants wrapped in fleshy membranes, locked in brutal combat with humans. This was raw, savage war. He’d watched plenty of gritty war flicks with Grandma, but this? This was his first time truly feeling what war meant.
The little cat’s ears flattened back as he stumbled away on shaky paws. He hadn’t gone far before he bumped into something. Stunned, he looked up—and there was a young man.
The guy didn’t look much older than a teen, but he was tall. Messy, wavy black hair whipped in the wind around striking blue eyes. Broad shoulders and back, his white shirt clinging just enough in the breeze to show off that lean, youthful build.
He spotted the cat too, eyebrow quirking as a clean, handsome smile tugged his lips: “Out wandering in dreams again?”
It was their first meeting, their first sight of each other—yet Li Ao felt like he’d known him forever. Hesitantly, he lifted a paw, paused two seconds, then set it on the man’s foot. He craned his neck, peering closely.
“You—” Li Ao started to say, but the young man was already crouching down.
The wind lifted the strands of hair by his ear, his blue eyes catching the faint glow of night. He reached out to ruffle the little cat’s head, fingers threading through the soft fuzzy ears. “Don’t overthink it. Eat well, grow big and strong, make good money.” His voice rang clear and bright, like he was talking to the cat—or maybe to himself. “Where you came from, where you’re going, what you need to do… you’ll figure it all out in time.”
“But right now,” he straightened and faced the cliff, his profile breaking into a wild grin, “burn Xun’s current look into your memory. Then tell him what he’s really supposed to be.”
Before the words even faded, he took a step—and leaped into the void.
“No—!” Li Ao’s pupils blew wide. He scrambled to the edge, tiny paws scrabbling at the rock as he peered over.
In that instant, an earth-shaking dragon’s roar split the heavens. A massive black dragon burst from the air, colossal wings unfurling. Scarlet beast eyes filled Li Ao’s entire field of vision.
The young man rode the god-of-death behemoth in a loop around the cliff before soaring off toward the horizon.
Dragonfire erupted—a torrent of golden-red flame cascading from the sky, lighting the heavens and brutally shredding the twilight gloom.
Light blazed across the battlefield. The little cat’s eyes went wide as cheers erupted from the crowd: “Leo Regalis!”
“Regalis and his dragon are here—we’re saved!”
“It’s Li Ao! His Highness Li Ao has come!”
“Li Ao?” A puzzled voice, starkly different from the battlefield roars, snapped the little cat awake.
Xun saw him stirring and let out a purr-like trill of delight, mimicking a cat’s snore. His short tentacles pulled the cat’s head into his embrace, tongue darting out to smooth down the wild tufts of bedhead fur on top.
Li Ao lay flat on his back in Xun’s arms, staring straight at him. Suddenly, he spoke up, “Xun, I think—I think I know what you’re going to look like.”
“Hm?” The little coal ball diligently licking the cat’s antennae froze in place.
Li Ao abruptly kicked his legs and sprang up, hopping around on all fours with a dazed look. He excitedly repeated, “I know what you look like!”
“You’re huge, super huge—a massive, enormous black dragon.” The young man Li Ao had wanted the little cat to remember Xun’s appearance, but with his kindergarten-level description, that was as far as he got. He gestured wildly with hands and feet for a good while, and the robot watched helplessly as the short-legged cat exhausted himself. Aside from “huge and black,” nothing else was made clear.
The little cat was dumbfounded, like it had been paused. Its two paws opened and closed in the air a couple times, but ultimately, he didn’t know what to say.
Dragons, as a species, had gone extinct long before humanity rose to prominence. Though footage was scarce, it was enough for the robot to know. It picked up where the little cat left off and described it, earning nods from Li Ao. “Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly what I said.”
You didn’t say jack squat besides huge and black. The robot grumbled internally in its program.
Xun had realized the moment the little cat started describing it that he’d seen his own future. In truth, he’d already vaguely sensed he’d take a draconic form. Even now that it was spelled out, the image in his mind had solidified into perfect clarity, but he still couldn’t shift into that shape. Something was missing—the most crucial inheritance data.
But he couldn’t let the little cat know. He didn’t want him worrying.
The little coal ball hugged the little cat and gave him a nuzzle. “Thanks, Li Ao.”
It hadn’t even nuzzled twice before Silver Wing yanked them apart. “I’m warning you two!” The nanny robot said sternly, “No tugging and pulling!”
But the little cat was only six—what did he know? The stubborn little cat only saw the machine being unreasonable. He clung to Xun and grumbled, “Bad machine.”
Silver Wing suppressed a twitch at its temple but couldn’t hold back. It grabbed the cat’s tail and smacked his butt.
Would Fierce Cat let that slide? He bared his shiny white claws and chased it down, scratching all the way out into the courtyard. The panting Fierce Cat then pounced onto the steel cat-scratching board and raked it viciously a few more times.
Brenna watched with a smile as the robot’s casing got chewed up along the edges by the short-legged cat before speaking up. “Highness, it’s the weekend today. Bai Yunjun asked if you want to go live on Aiai’ang’ang.”
“Let’s go!” Seeing his future self, Fierce Cat was brimming with ambition. “Li Ao’s gonna make good money!”
