Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Tyron, who had been hunting outside that day, suddenly wanted to go back early. By the time he was rushing back to the base, it was already midnight.

When he saw that Victor was sleeping soundly, seeming to be dreaming of something, he was unwilling to wake him up.

So, Tyron took a bath on his own and carefully laid down next to Victor. He tucked himself in, then placed an arm over the quilt as though he was holding someone…He soon fell asleep himself.

While he was sleeping, he suddenly heard Victor start crying.

Tyron woke up instantly, his eyes opening suddenly in the night as he stared at Victor--he felt that Victor must have had a nightmare.

He was just preparing to hug and coax him a bit when he was suddenly hit head-on with a pillow!

The old antique's face was filled with confusion as he changed to hugging the pillow instead. He asked, "Are you awake? Are you okay? Did you have a bad nightmare?"

Victor woke up crying, then grabbed a pillow, and smashed it over. Then, he wrapped his arm around Tyron's neck and pressed against him as though worried that he was going to fly away.

Tyron could hear that he was really sad and was instantly a little flustered. He fumbled to turn on the light, stroking Victor's back with his other hand, as he coaxed, "What's the matter, tell me about it? Do you want to drink water?"

Victor said, "You… you left me."

Tyron: "Darling, I didn't, I won't."

Victor: "How could you leave first? Ahhhh, my heart hurts so much! I'm dying!"

He didn't know why, but when Victor had said these words, Tyron could also feel his heart stuttering a little.

Now, things were great. Both people were feeling heartache together.

The husband-and-husband pair held each other for a while. Victor eventually woke up fully, but he still held onto Tyron, speaking in a low voice that held many grievances, "You're too ruthless, you actually called me 'human being' and took a girlfriend home to stimulate me. You even told me to 'shut up', 'stop making noise', and 'get lost'…"

"……"

Help! The old antique felt that he should be the one who was more aggrieved! When had he done these bad things?!

Tyron said, "You… I clearly didn't."

Victor finally calmed down but continued to straddle Tyron. He looked carefully into Tyron's young, beautiful eyes, then reached out to pinch the other's chest muscles. After a while, he bowed his head and curled up in Tyron's arms.

Tyron hugged him tighter, "Darling, want chocolate? In the future, I'll let you eat walnuts, okay? Don't have nightmares in the middle of the night. I've seen all sorts of storms but was almost scared to death by the crying near my pillow…"

Victor: "I know that you didn't do those things, and I know that you're doing well, but…. it's just…. my mood hasn't recovered. You don't know how scared I was. I'm still… scared. I can't control it, what should I do?"

Tyron: "Come here."

The two of them intertwined their fingers, and Victor sat onto his lap. They gently exchanged a kiss, an indescribable tenderness flowing between them.

Tyron said, "If I bully you again in your dreams, beat me up until you wake up. If you can't wake up, then I'll definitely go in to save you. Just wait for a while and look to see if there are five colored auspicious clouds in the sky."

Victor burst out laughing, "That's a very old meme, old antique. If others know about this, they'll laugh at you."

"Ignore them." Tyron said, "Whether or not the meme is out of date or whether or not I'm an old antique, what does that have to do with them? No matter how old of an antique I am, I'm still yours."

Victor nearly broke down into tears again, hugging and kissing him.

Then, the two of them didn’t do anything else all night. They kissed like two clumsy fish in a fish tank, kissing and parting, then kissing each other again.

A small fish was frightened and had to have another fish kiss it better.

After they had finished kissing, all the wounds were instantly healed. All the helplessness and sadness were silently eliminated. The next day, the sun came up again, and they began another pillow fight.

Oh, it was too terrible.

Once they had started fighting, Victor forgot how tragically he'd cried, and Tyron forgot how frightened he'd been. They picked up their 28th set of pillows and continued to fight all the way from the living room to the kitchen.

When Vantico and Old Friend came in with their key, they couldn't believe the scene in front of them!!!

This, this, this was the legendary place where the great demon king and the political crown prince lived in this A2-level outside world--the outside carried a very high-end atmosphere and was filled with ancient style and charm! So, why were they seeing a floor covered with feathers as soon as they went inside?!

Victor pretended to talk about his family as though nothing had happened while pushing Vantico and Old Friend outside of the gate at the same time. He slammed the door behind him, "Hahaha, you guys are here, it's rare for us to have guests. The sun is so nice today, why don't we camp outside?"

Before they could answer, a lazy great demon king also came out--

Tyron looked a little like he hadn't slept enough as he yawned and walked straight past the three of them, heading towards the canteen.

Vantico: "……"

Old Friend: "……"

This year's National Championships were to be held soon. Vantico was taking advantage of this time before then to take a holiday and ask Odin about whether or not he would be participating in the competition.

Victor replied, "He doesn't seem to want to participate. He said that Crimson isn't playing anymore, so it's particularly boring."

Vantico: "……" He suddenly felt like his teeth were aching.

Victor continued, "Also, didn't the two apprentices who Tyron had accepted last year make it through the provincial competition? Looking at the time, they should be playing ranked games following the end of the National Championships. My old antique said that it's enough to watch his apprentices play."

Speaking of this made Vantico angry again!

The great demon king, Odin, had decided not to participate in this competition, but the five assassin cubs he'd trained up were now in full flight!

This was a bizarre situation in the e-sports circle. Seniority was never determined by the players' age. As long as it was a retired contestant, they would be considered a 'senior', and their reputation would go up another level.

So, the great demon king, who was no longer participating in the competition arena, now had a higher status and had directly become the belief of all assassins. There were all kinds of 'gods' in other professions such as the Mage God, War God, Sword God, and so on, but the great demon king was at the very top of the pyramid for the assassin profession--the little assassin cubs didn't allow any other player to use this title. It was really the only one in the entire e-sports circle.

A new batch of e-sports players looked up to the great demon king: He was amazing. The great demon king had come out of nowhere and killed his way across the world, all the way up, directly destroying his opponents and taking the highest championship trophy all in one go. It was bad enough that his strength was number one, but his beauty was also number one… He had only appeared for those three years, and after that, they could only hear about him but not see him. It was really a pity.

The great demon king's disciples became famous as soon as they had made their debut. The five of them had entered the provincial competition, and two of them made it into the National Championships. It was said that one of them had a fighting style very similar to Odin's from back then, and he had a good chance of getting into the top 20.

So, the great demon king's fans were getting excited again. They always remembered that Vantico had stood up and took the initiative to provoke the great demon king. This time, he was bullying others by comparing himself to the great demon king's disciples one after another.

Vantico had a belly full of anger. He felt like he was a ball on the verge of exploding, so full of anger that he could roll directly across the road and into the door.

Vantico was no match for Odin!

Vantico's teacher was also no match for Odin!

Now, Vantico was being compared to Odin's disciples, who'd only been trained for a few months!

Even a real Buddha would be so angry that they exploded.

So, Vantico had come for revenge. He spoke encouragingly to Victor, "Your great demon king is so beautiful. Don't you want to counterattack?"

Victor trembled for a moment.

Vantico thought that he was afraid of the great demon king's evil power and said, "What are you afraid of?! You guys are already official husbands! If he doesn't allow it, it means that he doesn't love you enough."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just got triggered with goosebumps." Victor looked at Vantico sympathetically, "Is it that your Old Friend… are his skills not very good?"

Vantico: "???" How was this related!?

Victor: "You don't feel very good down there every time, so you want to change it around. I understand you completely."

"……"

Two seconds later, Vantico yelled, "Ha, hahahaha, are you kidding!? I'm the one who is on top! I… My wifey is satisfied every time!"

Victor: "……"

Vantico: "……"

They were the most afraid of the air around them suddenly growing quiet.

So, half a beat later, Victor said, "Vanvan, does your organization not teach acting skills?"

"… They do," Vantico spoke dejectedly, "I… I failed it."

Victor laughed so hard that he became dizzy and fell onto the sofa.

.

.

.

That evening, Victor helped Tyron clip his nails and said, "Vanvan is such a lively kid. He even involves himself in other people's sex positions."

He'd been with the old antique for such a long time by now, and for some reason, his mentality had also gone up in seniority. Nowadays, he always felt that he was old antique number two, and when he looked at Vantico, his gaze and thoughts were filled with kindness.

Tyron stretched out a hand lazily and said, "Isn't it good that I rack my brains and serve you?"

Victor smiled and said, "Yeah, I can just lie there and enjoy. I'm so lucky."

Both of them laughed quietly at the same time, and their thoughts were also the same: Young people just liked to kick up a fuss. Vantico and his partner were very interesting because of how they fought and got back together over and over again.

At this time, they had selectively lost their memory. They didn't remember that they'd still been pillow fighting all over the room that morning, becoming figures covered in goose feathers.

After a while, Tyron saw with satisfaction that his nails were neat and tidy, then took over the nail clipper, held one of Victor's hands, and began to clip.

Victor continued, "However, if the little cubs don't suffer a bit, they won't know to be obedient. It wouldn't be good for them to come back and stir up trouble again next time."

Tyron felt that the first sentence was quite familiar--it sounded very much like what he'd said the other day when he was teaching his apprentice?

Victor laughed evilly, "So, the menu for Old Friend tonight is leeks! Oysters! Sheep kidney!" --These names were all for substitute foods that had similar effects in the outside world.

Tyron tsked but showed a happy expression, "Not bad, you've already gained my true inheritance."

The two of them looked at each other for a moment, their faces showing matching devilish smiles.

Tyron said, "I also did a bit of work. I took out the mattress from the guest room."

If there was no mattress, the alloy bed frame was as hard as diamond. It was scary to even just lie on it, and if they were to do some exercise in bed…

"……" Victor said, "Wow, Vanvan is going to die."

Vanvan was really dying.

The next day, Vantico was a salted fish who had to be carried directly into the return cabin by Old Friend.

There wasn't anything Old Friend could do either. They couldn't play in this outside world, so they might as well hurry back to the interstellar era and play on a moon.

Victor suggested, "Let's go back to play too. We haven't had a honeymoon this year! And, what about this year's wedding?"

Tyron replied, "We'll go straight to the Dead Sea. This attraction on Earth is quite interesting. We haven't tried a water wedding yet."

Victor was very excited and smiled as he spoke, "Alright, I'll be responsible for splashing water on you. We'll fulfill the rainy day cult's ultimate dream in a place where they can't see, muahahah."

"Don't forget the oath, because you're too nervous this year." Tyron added helplessly.

Victor said, "The Earth District is too far away. My mommy and daddy definitely won't come this year. They had almost beaten me to death last time when they had attended our third wedding last year. They had said that every time we want to have a wedding, it's extravagant, insane, and doesn't consider other people's feelings… In fact, I had wanted to say that they were the ones who had really wanted to come and play in the desert. I didn't even send them invitation cards. So what if we're happy playing around and having weddings?"

Tyron said, "Don't worry about them. I've also made a reservation for the next space wedding. It looks like a lot of fun."

"No matter how old the old antique is, you're all mine!" Victor cheered happily, "More honeymoons! They're all mine!"

The two of them laid down in the return cabin. They didn't know when they would come back to this outside world again, but it wouldn't be too long.

The ferocious cat gnawed on the bone toy that they'd left behind, looking at the departing figures reluctantly.

Victor waved his hand, "Goodbye, darling. We're going on our honeymoon. Don't miss us too much since we probably won't have time to think about you, hehehehe."

The cat: "Purr, purr."

Tyron's lips curved up slightly, and he leaned against the side of the cabin. His dark, golden eyes held a smile, "Darling, have fun and eat well by yourself. We'll see you later."

xiin: … anddd we're done! wow. i picked up this novel not long after i first started translating, and it's kinda just been slowly ongoing, chugging away for the past year and a half. but! our journey with Tyron & Little Vic comes to an end here~

a big thank you to all my editors who've helped with the project, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who followed the novel! i hope you enjoyed this fluffy read 🙂

if you enjoyed reading VEN, i hope you guys can consider supporting the author by actually purchasing the chapters on jjwxc. there are instructions on how you can do so here, and this is the link to the novel.

as for what's next - if you like interstellar novels with some gaming elements, go ahead and give Surprise! a try as it'll be wrapping up soon, too! you can also check out what i'm currently working on (or finished) by visiting my translator group page on NovelUpdates.