*Bang**Thud*
"What did you say to me?!"
"I-I just-!"
*Bang*
"Shut your mouth!"
Inside a decorated bedroom, a gaudily dressed man was beating a silver-haired woman in a nightgown. She had just said one word of disagreement, and he had thrown her against the wall, before continuing to kick her while she was on the floor.
"Have you forgotten?! I own you!"
*Bang*
"Without me, you would be dead!"
*Bang*
"How dare you-!"
"STOP IT!"
Interrupting the beatdown, a white-haired little girl came stumbling into the room, grabbing on to the man's leg, screaming and crying for him to stop the abuse. She was still just a toddler but even so, she was exceptionally cute for her age. Soft, chubby cheeks just begging to be pinched, innocent watery blue eyes glistening like gemstones, her skin, smooth like porcelain, and silk-like hair, white as freshly laid snow. Most people's hearts would melt just at the sight of her. Most people that is.
"YOU CREEPY LITTLE BRAT! DON'T TOUCH ME!" He shouted as he threw the toddler into a wall.
*Bang**Thud*
The little girl was lying slumped up against the wall, blood running down her face. In spite of her being such a young child, the man had not held back. He had thrown her so hard her head nearly cracked wide open.
"A-Alice?" The badly beaten woman on the floor stuttered out as she looked towards her daughter with blurry eyes.
"What are you looking at!" The man spoke as he grabbed her by the hair to make her look him in the eye.
"Ngh!"
*Trickle*
"St-op… Hu-rting… Mo-mmy!" The bloody little figure behind him said.
Despite her serious head injury, the little girl had gotten back on her feet. Dazed and off balance, she stumbled over her own feet as she unsteadily walked towards them, her face covered in her own blood, and her eyes glowing in an eerie blue light.
"You want to die you little-! Ugh!"
*Thud*
Panicked, the woman had rushed towards the stumbling girl, ripping out the hair clutched in the man's hand as she pushed him aside to catch her daughter when she fell forwards, having finally lost consciousness.
Hurriedly, she started applying pressure to the wound on her head to stop the bleeding. Tears dotting her eyes as genuine terror filled her body at the thought of losing the only thing she had left.
"Hehe! I get it now!" An ominous voice spoke behind her.
Turning to look, the man was nowhere to be seen, but standing right in front of her with a monstrous grin was a large black figure of a man, standing hunched over her and the child in her arms. It was pitch black, as if a shadow had come to life, except, upon his face, there was a large red smile, grinning ear to ear.
As she looked at him, she could hear her own heart beating louder and louder with every moment that passed.
"There it is! That is the expression I have been looking for!"
Just as he finished those words, her heartbeat halted, and as if they had always been there, the shadow opened his eyes.
*Gasp**Squelch*
Sitting up in his bed with a jolt as he awoke from his nightmare while drenched in sweat. Xing took heavy breaths while trying to calm his racing heart.
'Ngh? Good morning! *Yawn* Wow, what happened to you?' Chrystalla asked.
"Nothing! I just had a nightmare is all!"
'…?'
"What?" Xing asked, as he saw his beloved's specter tilt her head in confusion.
'Nothing. *Yawn* So, will you tell me about this nightmare or can I go back to sleep!'
"Do ghosts need to sleep too?"
'We do not need to sleep like you do, but a good night's rest is good for the soul!' She said, floating on to his lap while leaning her translucent head on his shoulder.
"So, do you still have dreams when you fall asleep?"
'Yes!'
"So, what did you dream about?"
'…? I was dreaming about our daughter being uncharacteristically clingy with you!' She said, after manifesting a question mark above her head.
"Okay, so what is it?"
'…? Why don't you tell me about this nightmare of yours?' Chrystalla said, trying to distract him.
"No! You've been looking confused about something since the moment I woke up, and I want to know what?"
'…? You haven't noticed yet?'
"Noticed what?"
'There is a person impaled on your horn, stupid.'
"Huh?"
"Ugh!"
"HOLY SHIT! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!"
Upon Xing's draconic horn, a dark clad figure unsteadily clutching a dagger was impaled through the chest. Right before Xing woke up, an assassin had snuck into his room planning to kill him. However, just as he stood over the dragonewts sleeping form preparing to plunge his dagger into Xing's throat, his target suddenly sat up, accidentally impaling him in the process.
In spite of his injuries, the man still struggled to lift his weapon as he prepared to stab his target, only to flinch and drop his blade from the pain of Xing trying to pull his horn out of his chest cavity.
*Clang*
"Damn it! Its stuck!"
*Bleurgh**Splash*
"Eww!"
Unfortunately for Xing, in his attempt to remove his antler from the man's torso, he only ended up worsening the injuries of the assassin, resulting in the dark clad figure vomiting up a bunch of blood alongside his breakfast, giving the dragonewt a very, very gross morning shower.
"Okay, it's not coming off!"
Giving up on trying to get his antler loose, Xing just channeled his aura into his horn as he started blasting his radiance in every direction, intending to widen the wounds to see if that would help get him loose.
"Die!" The assassin said, as he covered his hand in dark qi to strike at his neck.
*Splat**Sizzle*
"Oops!"
Unfortunately, Xing forgot to hold back and now the entire room is covered in bloodstains and scorch marks, with some chunks of sizzling flesh littered here and there.
"Crap! I destroyed the core again!"
'You really are bad at this!'
Ever since that UFO incident on Christmas when he woke up inside a sea serpent's stomach, he has been receiving regular assassination attempts on a nearly weekly basis. At first, they thought it was just some town's folk who blamed them for a past conflict who snuck into their estate. Between the giant moving fortress pulled by a colossal multiheaded serpent, and the giant flying mountain, it wouldn't be strange for someone to have spotted the location of the hidden Yang estate.
However, there was something that struck Xing as strange. The two individuals he had grabbed while bursting out of that snake had been found dead the next day, allegedly by their own hands. Same for the next assassins they had managed to capture alive. Some were hanged, some were poisoned, some had their throats slit and their cultivation core always broken. Even when they had someone watch them to prevent this pattern of suicide, the guards stationed to keep watch either went missing or nodded off on duty only to wake up with a dead prisoner.
Sneaking into their estate, the dedication needed to take their secrets to the grave, this isn't something you see in your everyday assassin that just anybody could hire. Additionally, nobody had actually seen any of them kill themselves after being captured, only the corpses after it was all over. The whole thing reeks of suspicion.
"Gross! He's everywhere!"
'Well, at least it did not happen in the art room again! You sulked for days last time!' Chrystalla said, referring to when Xing accidentally destroyed his art gallery in a blind rage when an assassin stabbed through a painting of Nox.
"I poured my heart and soul into those paintings! Damn them! I swear, I'll make whoever is responsible pay!"
'Responsible for what? The paintings or the numerous attempts on your life?'
"Both!"
'…! I do not see that happening!'
"Can't you at least pretend to believe in me?"
'What good would that do? So far, you have accidentally killed about half the assassins, and the few you do capture, die while you are not paying attention.'
*Knock*
"Hey! It's been a while, so I'm a bit rusty, and it's not my fault that stuff keeps distracting us every time we catch somebody."
*Knock*
'You mean like the time you sat down to start questioning immediately after capture, only to run off moments later, because somebody lied about our daughter being home?'
*Knock*
"Can't a father hope!"
*Knock*
'Not if that hope is for his daughter's divorce!'
*Knock*
"I still don't like that guy!"
'Hey, stupid!'
"Wha-?"
*Bang*
"HEY, XING! YA IN HERE OR NOT!" Ning shouted as she slammed open the door in her brother's face.
'Someone's at the door.'
"Ugh! HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF KNOCKING?!" Xing shouted with a crooked nose.
"I DID! YA DIDN'T ANSWER!!!"
"Ugh! Well, that hurt!" Xing muttered as he pushed his sideways nose back into the right position.
"Yuck! It reeks in here! Anyways! Ya got a visitor!" Ning said, as a familiar city lord followed by a tiny girl with a paper talisman taped on her forehead came in behind her.
"Xing… You're-!"
"Hm? Sorry! I got another night visitor just now and haven't had time to clean up!"
"Another one?" Ning asked.
"Yeah! Anyways, things should start speeding up with you here Takeru, you were always better at this stuff than me!"
"…! I-!"
"Oh! And who is this little cutey? Hello there! What's your name?" Xing said, bending down to talk with the small green haired girl hiding behind Takeru's leg.
"Gross! You're smelly!"
"Hi there gross, I'm Uncle Xing! *Sniff**Sniff* Yuck! Right, I'm covered in vomit! I'm gonna go take a bath real quick! Feel free to poke around if you want in the meantime! If you need anything, you can ask Ning!"
"Huh? Why me? I don't want to-!"
"Thanks, big sis! I knew I could count on you, bye!"
"What!? Hey! Tsk! Fine!"