Reborn As A Villainous Cannon Fodder - Chapter 403 - 403: Ch 403 - Your Highness, the boy has already been taken by the Princess!

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Sorry for not posting the past few days. Don’t worry, I’ll publish five more chapters today! 🙂

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Yino had temporarily sent Yuyan away. After that, he didn’t linger long in Jin City. With his aunt accompanying him, he took a carriage back toward Luo City.

During the ride, Yino suggested it would be faster if he flew them both home on his sword.

But Xinyao just shook her head meaningfully.

Inside the swaying carriage, the girl sat across from Yino, one hand twirling a strand of pale gold hair from her ponytail. Her left leg crossed over her right beneath her red dress, and her lovely phoenix eyes were filled with pure possessiveness as she watched him.

“You’ve been gone half a year without even sending a single letter. Don’t you miss your aunt at all?”

As the sun set, the girl leaned against the carriage window, putting on an obviously fake pout.

Yino quickly shook his head. “That’s not true! I’ve been thinking about you constantly… I even had the Hundred Spirits Pavilion master send you some of the rare treasures I brought back from Azure Forest!”

“Oh… right, that…”

Xinyao blinked, remembering their conversation at the pavilion, and smiled sheepishly.

She laughed awkwardly and turned to look out at the evening cityscape. “It’s just… we haven’t seen each other in so long. If we rushed back home, you’d immediately get caught up dealing with all sorts of people… This way, taking the carriage might be a longer journey, but I can just quietly watch you without anyone else around. Just the two of us enjoying a few peaceful days…”

The more she spoke, the redder her face became, but her phoenix eyes grew more entranced as they fixed on Yino.

Night fell, and the temperature outside Jin City dropped sharply. With Xinyao’s cultivation level, she wasn’t actually cold, but sitting across from Yino, she gradually began hugging herself and curling up in the corner.

Xinyao never liked wearing shoes anyway. Now alone with Yino in the carriage, she kicked off her sandals and tucked her small feet with their golden markings under herself, her petite body looking fragile.

“Aunty, if you’re cold, come sit over here. My coat’s pretty big.”

Yino picked up on her signal. Years of living with his aunt had taught him to read these moments.

“I’m not cold…”

Xinyao puffed out her cheeks, at least willing to go through the motions of playing hard to get.

But rather than just talk, Yino preferred action. He simply ignored her protest, stood up, and plopped down on her side of the bench, pulling off his coat to drape over her like a blanket.

His coat was quite warm. Since he’d planned to visit the Western Region which was notorious for its desert cold, he’d prepared a coat that was not only warm but also loose-fitting to help conceal his identity and hide things underneath. Perfect for nighttime mischief.

Now, though the coat fit Yino perfectly, on Xinyao’s small body it looked rather oversized.

The clothes… they have Yino’s warmth and scent…

Wrapped in the coat, the girl not only felt warmer but instinctively buried her face in the fabric, breathing in softly. The familiar scent made her entire face flush like she was drunk.

Yino naturally noticed these little details. Though they were different species, when it came to blushing, Xinyao wasn’t much different from Yunjin or Yuyan.

Scent really did carry a lot of information for any living being. Yino understood the feeling perfectly.

Like how his senior sister’s blankets always smelled nice. How her Frost Chant sword, which she often held close, carried a faint comforting milky fragrance.

Of course, Xinyao left similar traces. Growing up, Yino had been thoroughly pampered by his aunt’s soft fragrant little phoenix claws.

Now… the roles were just reversed.

At that thought, Yino felt a cold breeze through the carriage window. He hadn’t minded it before, but seeing Xinyao bury her face in his coat and curl up tight, he suddenly remembered to act cold himself, hugging his arms.

As a guy, his acting wasn’t nearly as deliberate as Xinyao’s. But the moment he shivered twice, Xinyao couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Yino, come closer…”

Her face still held traces of her earlier blush, but thinking that her nephew might actually be cold after giving up his coat for her, she felt guilty.

She was just acting, but she was afraid Yino might actually catch a cold trying to take care of her.

“Like this?”

Yino scooted toward where his aunt was curled against the wall.

But Xinyao wasn’t satisfied. Seeing Yino play a bit dumb, she huffed and stood up, opening the coat draped over her and grabbing his arm.

Yino found himself pulled directly to her window seat. She had him sit by the window, and just as Yino wondered what she was planning, the petite girl plopped down cross-legged right in his lap.

“This way one coat can cover both of us~”

Xinyao didn’t seem bothered at all, her small bottom settling against Yino’s groin as she shifted to find a more comfortable position.

Gradually, Yino’s legs were pushed apart as Xinyao nestled deeper, getting more snugly wrapped.

“Aunty… what kind of position is this…”

Yino’s face reddened slightly. It wasn’t that he felt they were crossing any lines, he was mainly worried about what might happen if Xinyao sat in that spot all night. He was afraid his little brother might accidentally… ARISE.

Theoretically, Yino should be able to keep himself under control.

But guys could be contrary creatures. Sometimes the more nervous they got, the more their bodies decided to rebel…

So who knew? If he couldn’t keep it down, he’d really die of embarrassment in front of his aunt.

“What’s wrong with this?”

“When you were little, you only came up to my thigh. Back then you couldn’t reach the tall chairs, so didn’t I hold you like this to feed you spoonful by spoonful?”

Xinyao sat cross-legged in Yino’s lap, reminiscing about childhood while swaying her head, making herself smile with the memories.

For some reason, watching the golden twin-tails of the girl in his arms sway back and forth stirred something indescribable in Yino’s heart.

When he was little… he really had acted spoiled like this, letting his aunt feed him.

Though what Yino found hard to admit was that his childhood affection for Xinyao hadn’t been purely familial. He’d simply thought his aunt was the prettiest and easiest to get along with. When he tried acting cute with the other beautiful women in the Grand Tutor’s mansion, they wouldn’t pay him any attention.

In a way, they really were kindred spirits. No wonder only Xinyao had been so gentle with Yino growing up, in the entire mansion, they were the only pair of outsiders with demon blood.

“What are you thinking about?”

The golden-haired girl in his lap slowly turned around, her pale gold phoenix eyes staring straight at him.

After a moment of silence, Yino smiled. “Just thinking about those interesting childhood memories with you…”

“I never imagined that after more than ten years, I’d one day be able to hold you like this… You feel like the little me from back then, a spoiled adorable little daughter…”

As he spoke, Yino felt awkward and shrugged slightly.

But when his words finished, Xinyao looking back at him froze in a daze. Her phoenix eyes reflected starlight as she blinked, her cute face quickly flushing red. Xinyao hurriedly turned around, leaning back against Yino without letting him see her face.

“Hmph… you sure have a way with words!”

“Calling your aunt a daughter, you have no respect for your elders!”

Though Xinyao’s back was to Yino and her cheeks were puffed out, he couldn’t hear any real anger in her voice.

After a moment of silence, he reached around to hug her waist.

“…”

“…”

Xinyao didn’t make a sound when he embraced her, and Yino simply felt the warmth of the girl in his arms.

The carriage fell into strange quiet. Outside, the night was cold, but inside, the girl and boy pressed together both felt their faces burning hot.

Xinyao shifted, snuggling deeper into Yino’s embrace, then snorted smugly. “You’ve grown up now, taller than me. I have to stand on my tiptoes just to touch your head… So since you’re all grown up, you should properly repay your aunt!”

“You should be grateful and filial to me, not spoil me like I’m your daughter!”

Maybe to hide her blushing cheeks, Xinyao’s voice carried its usual proud tone.

She’d always been like this, clever and a bit scheming on the surface, but fundamentally a tsundere at heart.

In terms of pure tsundere difficulty, Yino thought Xinyao was even tougher than Jinyue or Ruoning. With those two, he felt no psychological burden about training them, but when Xinyao got stubborn, he genuinely didn’t dare bully her.

She was his aunt, the only woman in the Grand Tutor’s mansion who’d been close to him and cared for him. She’d given him so much. Even if she really did become unreasonable, Yino would still want to humor and comfort her.

“I was just thinking…”

“If I ever have a little daughter in the future, when she sits in my lap, she’ll probably be just as adorable as you are today.”

At some point, caught up in the emotion, Yino let slip this wistful comment.

But this time, as soon as he finished speaking, the girl swaying happily in his lap suddenly trembled and froze in place.

The atmosphere plunged into awkward silence again.

Yino seemed to realize his mistake and sighed. “Sorry, I’m talking nonsense again…”

“Mm…”

Sitting in the boy’s lap, Xinyao just nodded silently.

She still felt a bit cold, so she turned around and straddled Yino’s lap properly, burying her face under the coat against his chest and closing her eyes.

“I’m… a little sleepy…”

“You should rest early too…”

“Good… goodnight.”

…

…

Western Province City

Several elderly ministers angrily pushed through the doors of the City Lord’s mansion, only to find a cold beauty with blue hair in a high ponytail standing with her hands behind her back, surveying them with regal authority.

“Your Highness, you’re a bit late.”

“That boy you mentioned in your letter was already taken by Princess Nina’s people yesterday!”

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Sorry for the delays.

I’ve noticed that many people are going to other websites to read the chapters.As I mentioned before, this ruins the daily release schedule and slows down the uploads.

From now on, we won’t be changing chapters after uploading them—we’ll just publish directly.

So please support us by only reading on Webnovel and not on any other sites.

Thank you again, and enjoy the mass release!