CHAPTER 221: THE LOVE SONG

So he asked a question half idly: "Dominic, you’re a noble, right? Don’t nobles usually know how to play instruments or sing or something like that?"

There was no deeper reason behind it—just a passing thought inspired by the breathtaking sky.

Beside him, Dominic’s body twitched. He seemed startled by the question.

"Dominic?" Shiao Yi lifted his upper body and looked at him.

Dominic turned his face away and the tip of his left ear turned faintly red.

"I... I’m afraid I have no talent for that sort of thing," Dominic muttered. "Strings, flutes—none of them. My teachers gave up on me entirely."

Realizing he might have stumbled onto a sore subject, Shiao Yi felt a bit guilty.

"What about singing? You’ve got a really good voice, so maybe—"

"I’m tone-deaf," Dominic interrupted him quietly.

"..."

Shiao Yi didn’t know how to respond to that.

The silence returned, stretching out between them, but now it carried a hint of embarrassed warmth that made him smile faintly at the stars above.

Dominic turned his face even farther away.

By now, not only his ears but even his neck had turned red.

Shiao Yi was certain something deeply embarrassing must have happened in his past and something that had scarred him.

Dominic never seemed good at expressing emotions anyway.

If someone had forced him to sing with that flat, blunt tone of his, completely missing the melody while being made to do it against his will... the result must have been catastrophic.

Shiao Yi winced internally.

He really shouldn’t have brought it up.

Dominic had a deep baritone voice, the kind that sent a vibration right through a person’s chest.

It was natural to imagine that voice turned into song—rich, low, and mesmerizing.

However, if that same voice produced a painfully off-key tune, the awkwardness would be unbearable. And if that off-key singer happened to be from Dominic...

Yeah, whoever made him sing had to be a true hero.

Shiao Yi wondered who that brave soul was.

Probably someone from Dominic’s childhood.

Even then, it must have taken serious courage to make that quiet, serious boy sing in front of others.

While Shiao Yi drifted off into that thought, Dominic seemed to have forcibly shifted the mood and asked, "What about you, Shiao Yi? Do you play an instrument or sing?"

"Me?" Shiao Yi blinked.

Come to think of it, he never really had the chance. He remembered Susu—how she sometimes plucked at a small round harp called a Lyre. Its clear gentle chords filled their break room aboard B.O.W. with a calm, soothing air for a short while.

There had been someone who played the flute too. Many people used instruments to train their focus or calm their minds, it was even encouraged.

But Shiao Yi... he had never had the time.

Between battles, training, and piles of administrative work, his few free moments were spent reading in the library or, more often, making bombs.

He sighed. "It would’ve been nice if I could do something like that. Even singing would be fine. Nights like this... they feel too romantic to waste."

Then, suddenly, an idea struck him.

The Multi-Species Intercosmo System.

Someone had once said that it wasn’t really "language"—it was melody.

Meaning was carried not by the shape of words but by variations in frequency and rhythm.

The whale people of the ocean planets were the true masters of Intercosmo.

They would send messages to distant friends with their voices carried through the water—sometimes even across the equator—to deliver a love poem to a partner on the other side of the world.

There was no ocean here, but when Shiao Yi looked up at the night sky, he felt like he was floating in a sea of stars, surrounded by quiet infinity.

He leaned lightly against Dominic and Dominic gently wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

The darkness of night blurred the line between sky and earth and together, they seemed to float softly in a starry ocean.

"I’ll try reciting one of the whale people songs," Shiao Yi murmured. "It’s a love poem, I heard the whale people like to make a love poems and send it to their mates across the sea."

Yes—on a night like this, nothing could be more fitting than a whale people’s love song.

As Shiao Yi began to speak in Intercosmo, he sent the meaning of the words directly into Dominic’s mind through telepathy.

To Dominic, the sounds must have felt like a strange melodic rhythm rather than actual language.

Loo–aah... roo–naah... sooo–mee–naah~

(I drifted through the endless blue.)

Eee–yo... laa–ree–aah~

(Calling a name I did not know.)

Aaa–laa... roo–mee... soo–aah~

(Every tide and every dawn.)

Hmmm–shaah... voo–nooo... re–aah~

(Carried your scent, your sound, your glow.)

Aaa–laa–aah... sii–roo~

(Through years of storms and quiet moons.)

Mo–ree–naah... haa–laa... roo–sho~

(I followed echoes soft and far.)

Ooo–vaa... loo–naah–aii~

(Then I felt your voice in the deep.)

Sha–raa–oo... mee–noo–laah~

(Guiding me home like a falling star.)

Rii–soo... mee–laah... roo–naah–sha~

(Now every song the whales will sing.)

Haa–loo... eee–yaah~

(Carries your name within its ring.)

Loo–vaa–rei... sha–noo–mehh~

(No more calling to the far unknown.)

Aaa–aah... sii–loo... naah~

(For I have found my ocean, my home.)

Dominic listened, eyes reflecting the flicker of firelight, and murmured, "It’s a strange melody."

"It’s not made to be music," Shiao Yi replied softly. "This is actually a language."

"Teach me the poem," Dominic said.

"Sure," Shiao Yi smiled. "Let’s recite it together. Just follow my lead."

Dominic’s deep baritone followed his words.

The sound was warm and resonant, echoing quietly across the open wilderness.

The poem wasn’t long and by the second repetition, they were reciting it in harmony.

It was a love song—a whale people’s invitation to a distant mate to share the season of birth together.

Shiao Yi wondered if the whale people who had once sung it was now living that joyful season beside the one it loved.

"For I have found my ocean, my home."