"Yan Yan! Yan Yan, what's wrong?"
"Jiang Yan? Jiang Yan! Are you alright? What happened?!"
"Yan Yan!"
Jiang Yan could clearly hear Yu Xiu and Jian Hou calling out anxiously. He could feel Yu Xiu's warm, firm embrace and the breeze stirred by the messenger bird flapping its wings in front of him.
But he couldn't respond at all.
Pain...
Jiang Yan bit his lip. A moan slipped out from between his teeth.
His vision was blurred. In front of him, lines of densely packed blue numbers and bizarre characters scrolled continuously.
The characters kept rising, endlessly flooding into his mind.
In an instant, countless fragmented images flashed across his consciousness. Jiang Yan tried to grasp something, anything, but he couldn't catch hold of anything. He could only endure the sudden influx of overwhelming information.
No one knew how long it lasted. Eventually, the golden-blue symbols transformed into a beam of golden light.
Jiang Yan had reached his limit. He let out another cry.
Before losing consciousness, he saw a translucent blue eye open within his mind.
"Yan Yan!"
_
When he woke again, it was already night. The sky outside was scattered with stars like fragments of diamond across a velvet canvas.
Jiang Yan lay on the giant crown prince's enormous, soft bed, his eyes full of exhaustion.
"You're awake, Yan Yan?"
His lover's voice came from behind. A pair of large hands wrapped around Jiang Yan's slender waist and pulled him into a warm embrace.
"I'm sorry," Yu Xiu whispered, his breath warm against Jiang Yan's ear. "The doctor said you're just too tired. I shouldn't have pulled you into messing around so long in the storage room today."
Storage room...
What happened there really had been too much for a delicate young elf prince.
Normally, if Jiang Yan had heard something like that, he'd be blushing uncontrollably by now, his face as red as a peach, shyly burying himself in Yu Xiu's chest.
But right now, Jiang Yan still hadn't fully recovered from that long dream.
Yes, a long dream.
So long he had thought he would never wake. Now awake, he tried to recall fragments of it, but nothing came. His mind remained foggy.
Yu Xiu's apology didn't seem strange at all to him. Nor did he find anything embarrassing about what had happened that afternoon in the storage room.
After all, they'd done even more outrageous things before.
Thinking that, Jiang Yan turned over, nestled into Yu Xiu's arms, found a comfortable position, and instinctively reached out to stroke Yu Xiu's cheek. He murmured,
"You're actually apologizing for something like that? I'm impressed, hubby."
At this point, Yu Xiu would usually tease him, lift his chin, and steal a lingering kiss. But today, he remained uncharacteristically silent.
Feeling something was off, Jiang Yan looked up.
He met Yu Xiu's eyes, green and visibly trembling with shock.
"Yan Yan, what did you just call me?" Yu Xiu asked, stunned.
Jiang Yan snapped back to reality.
He... what did he just call Yu Xiu?
Hubby?
Hubby?!
He had just called Yu Xiu... hubby?
How could that be?
They had just gotten together. He was a shy little elf. How could he say that...?
His pointed ears flushed red.
Although his heart was full of shock and confusion with no trace of shyness, his body was responding entirely in line with his usual demeanor.
Usual demeanor...
Suddenly, a sharp stabbing pain shot through his head. Strange fragments of the dream flickered through his mind like a skipping disc but left no clear memory.
Jiang Yan instinctively buried deeper into Yu Xiu's chest.
Yu Xiu, thinking Jiang Yan was just shy, hugged him excitedly and said,
"Yan Yan, let's get married!"
Still battling his headache and chaotic thoughts, Jiang Yan looked up, dazed.
"...Huh?"
—
The dormitories for each race at the academy were located in different regions of the forest. This was both to prevent conflicts between races and to ensure each group lived in a suitable environment.
Giants, for example, lived farthest away in castles on the western edge of the forest. Their towering legs made the long distance negligible.
The elves' dorms were to the east, among brilliant flower fields. Centaurs lived in the dense woods behind the school, and dwarves occupied caves in the northern hills.
This year, the academy welcomed a new race: humans.
Due to widespread prejudice and animosity toward humans from the other races, their dorms were placed inside the faculty housing to ensure safety and maintain alliance stability.
The curfew there was stricter than any other.
So when Jian Hou heard Jiang Yan scream and then saw the messenger bird circle in the air a few times before landing silently on his desk, he could only sit there, staring at the motionless paper bird, running his hands through his hair anxiously.
Had something happened to Jiang Yan?
Wasn't he with his boyfriend?
There shouldn't have been any danger. And even if something had gone wrong, his boyfriend was the giant crown prince. He could handle anything.
Right? He had to.
But he had just heard that prince's panicked voice...
Could Jiang Yan be hurt?
Elves were fragile and easily injured. But that didn’t sound like a simple injury.
"Ahhhh!"
Jian Hou tugged at his hair in frustration.
His soft, slightly wavy brown hair was now a frizzy mess, resembling a poodle's fur.
"Ahhhhhh!"
A louder scream rang out from the doorway.
Before Jian Hou could react, his roommate Cao Youfeng burst in, threw himself on the bed, and began rolling and wailing.
"Ahhhhhh!"
"W-what happened?"
Jian Hou walked to the bed and turned to Tao Shi, who had entered behind Cao Youfeng.
Tao Shi glanced at the mess on the bed and chuckled. "Confession failed. Heartbroken."
Jian Hou's eyes lit up. "Confession? Who did he confess to?"
"Jiang Yan."
Jian Hou froze.
"That elf is really something," Tao Shi said. "Feels like every human in the school has a crush on him. Even if they don’t, they can’t help being drawn in."
He looked at Jian Hou meaningfully. "Including you, right, Teacher Jian?"
Jian Hou, who was now tutoring part-time to support himself after his hometown was destroyed by the evil god, replied calmly,
"I just want to be friends with him. But yes, he’s very charming. And beautiful, wouldn’t you agree?"
Then he started defending Jiang Yan.
"I don’t understand why the forest races, even the elves, dislike him. Some even bully him for being gentle. Just because he was tainted by an evil god before he was born?"
"That wasn’t his fault. And in the end, all it did was turn his hair black. He’s a kind, soft-spoken, shy little elf."
"That’s exactly why I don’t like him," Tao Shi replied.
Immediately, both Cao Youfeng and Jian Hou turned to stare at him.
Tao Shi quickly raised his hands in surrender.
"I don’t mean any harm. No offense."
The two looked away. Cao Youfeng resumed rolling in his blanket.
Tao Shi sighed. "To be honest, I feel it too. But..."
"But what?" Jian Hou asked.
"But I hate that kind of attraction."
Jian Hou tilted his head.
Tao Shi shrugged.
"You see it too. He's very beautiful. By any racial standard, he’s good-looking. But if you think about it, isn’t his appearance kind of average?"
Jian Hou didn’t argue.
Jiang Yan was attractive, but as Tao Shi said, not shockingly so. He wasn’t one-of-a-kind. There were elves in the academy who looked even more dazzling.
If there was anything unique, it was his crystal-clear eyes and porcelain skin. Still, that wasn’t exactly rare.
"So why does he have such a powerful hold on us?" Tao Shi continued. "He’s shy, never shown special talent or charisma. Why are we so obsessed?"
"And it only affects humans."
His tone grew serious.
"It’s like he was made by the gods to seduce humans into ruin. Like a succubus built just for us."
Silence filled the room.
After a moment, Tao Shi smiled again.
"Of course, maybe that’s just my bias."
Jian Hou ran a hand through his hair and said nothing.
In truth, Jiang Yan had once confided in him that he might carry succubus genes.
But of course, Jian Hou could never tell anyone. If word got out, the bullying and discrimination would only worsen.
Suddenly, Cao Youfeng sat up, eyes brimming with tears.
"If he’s a succubus made for humans, why can’t he like me? What’s so great about that oversized giant? There’s even species segregation! Humans and elves are obviously the perfect match!"
Tao Shi rubbed his temples. "You’re just reacting to the allure he subconsciously projects onto humans. Trust me. It’s not real love."
"It is!" Cao Youfeng cried.
He looked pitifully at Jian Hou.
"Tacher Jian, you’re close to Jiang Yan. Do you think I still have a chance?"
Jian Hou: ".........."
"N-no chance at all? But they just got together. It’s not deep yet. Their feelings aren’t stable. Maybe I still have a chance..."
Jian Hou smiled faintly.
Should he tell Cao Youfeng that the shy little elf had just done it with the giant prince in the school’s storage room?
He could not.
Knock knock knock.
Someone knocked at the door.
"Coming!"
Jian Hou turned to open it, using the chance to escape Cao Youfeng’s pleading gaze.
But the moment he opened the door, his eyes widened.
"Yan Yan?"