Some old new books: Royal Beast, Gong Hua, and a Sunken Moon doujinshi
Some new stuff I got last year and took pics of last year... but never posted here, I think? :'D (If I did, then eh, here's a second post about this stuff) I have a lot of photos like these around, whoops. Anyway, after I read ILTv5, I was in the mood to read/reread some Yu Wo stuff and remembered that I never did get around to reading this one. Was going to take pics of the cover but went digging through my files instead and found these that I already took. XD;;
Bought these last year. Pictured above:
*Royal Beast (王獸), a self published BL novel by Yu Wo from last August
*A Gong Hua illustrated storybook
*Sunken Moon doujinshi featuring Naerxi/Yui Tui
I've been accumulating several Sunken Moon doujinshi that I haven't read lately, now that Shui Quan has moved on from Jin Shi. I want more Jin Shi. :3;; But I never know if I'll end up liking another character a lot, so I've still been buying some Sunken Moon doujinshi here and there. Didn't buy the latest one though. Bit behind on S2, so I don't know those characters much at all...
Close up of Royal Beast and the Gong Hua storybook.
The Gong Hua storybook is pretty cute! This is what it looks like on the inside. So far, this was the second one and seems to be covering one book each. So we should get two more? (But it's been a year since v2 and v3 hasn't happened yet) This is like a summary of Gong Hua with pictures added. XD;;
Back cover of Royal Beast. Apparently, some people thought this was two books instead of the front and back covers. :3;; Front cover features Lanya, the summoner prince. Back cover features Zhuojiu, an assassin summoned from a different world. Although marketed as BL, the story so far doesn't feel all that romantic, and it's very similar to Yu Wo's other works. (Hello, assassin from a different world. Hello adventurer team. Hello elf teammate who has to hide.) So I'm thinking that this is probably going to turn out similar to a typical Yu Wo story, just that we know the main pairing right off the bat. This volume was very much setup... so not a single volume series, nope. The main duo so far feels more familial than romantic. :x
The main duo, Lanya to the left (His name basically uses the same characters as Alan from GOD but flipped around. Yu Wo must like these Chinese characters a lot) and Zhuojiu to the right.
Color insert~. Art for this book is by Wu Ling.
Here's the cover of the Sunken Moon doujinshi. It was actually printed wrong! The name of the previous doujinshi was accidentally printed on this one too, so there are two titles on it... Shui Quan later sent out a replacement cover to everyone who ordered a book.
And now for a summary of Royal Beast~
Lanya is the first prince born to two powerful summoners who married and united their kingdoms. His mother, who sports a head of beautiful silver hair, dies in childbirth. His father takes his wife's younger sister as his second wife to maintain peaceful relationships between their two kingdoms, and to provide his son a loving mother. He felt that the younger sister of his wife would not treat Lanya badly, as she always idolized her sister.
What the king doesn't know is that Lanya can see spirits, and the stepmother is afraid that Lanya will be known as a crazy boy, thus besmirching her sister's name. So she sends Lanya off to a remote palace where his mother is buried and tells the king that Lanya has a weak constitution and needs to rest. The king doesn't think anything of it. Lanya is sent there when he is ten, accompanied by deaf, mute, and otherwise sickly servants who can't let slip that he seems "crazy."
Lanya's little brother, Lanli, sneaks to visit Lanya two times, but otherwise no one visits Lanya. He is pretty much forgotten. A war breaks out that pulls the king away for many years. The stepmother gives birth to two twins and is busy with running the kingdom.
Lanya's servants dwindle over the years. A maid steals a lot of stuff before running away. A guard steals stuff too and runs away, angering the old servant so much that he dies from old age and exhaustion from being the only servant left looking after the whole palace. Lanya cries over the old man's death and buries him with his own hands. He is then left by himself. He doesn't ask for more servants, as he believes that he is cursed. Anyone who gets close to him will die. He doesn't realize until later that many of his servants died because they were sickly in the first place, chosen so they wouldn't let slip his "craziness."
The only people he ever sees are three servant girls who deliver food. He asks them to deliver bread and fruit, since he can't cook. And like so, until age 15, Lanya is all by himself.
When he turns 15, Lanya sneaks to the summoning circle. The guards almost stop him, but Lanya declares who he is and that he's 15 already, well past time to summon something. He wears a crown on his head to identify himself, one of the few things that hasn't been stolen.
He has been alone for so long. He wishes for a companion.
He chips off materials from his mother's tomb to use in the summoning.
Usually, summoners who summon their main beast require other people with them to complete the summoning, but Lanya only has himself. He wishes for a wolf, since his mother had a wolf as her summoned beast. It doesn't matter if it's just a tiny pup and not some super strong creature. Lanya doesn't have a teacher, only his mother's journals. With his self taught knowledge, he draws the summoning circle and pretty much cripples his magic trying to summon. It almost fails... until a voice answers ("Do you still want me if I'm broken?" Lanya answers YES!) and a hand reaches out.
He doesn't summon a wolf. He summons a human from a different world.
Zhuojiu is the one who answers his call, on the run from people after his life. He was an assassin in his world, from a world where children are rare. The AI raven he has with him, Lanmeijiu, identifies that Lanya is a child, and thus needs protection. They have a law in their world that all children must be protected. Punishment will be dealt to those who don't try to help a child!
Zhuojiu figures his way around the world, learning that Lanya is by himself. He passes himself off as a new servant to the three delivery girls, the only ones who know of his existence. Lanmeijiu advises Zhuojiu to just stay in this world instead of going back, as he would surely die if he goes back, as he is too heavily injured. Why not just remain here, retire, and raise the kid? Kids are so rare, and if you go back, it's not like the government would give a kid to someone like you!
So, Zhuojiu decides to remain and raise Lanya, but only to remain in the palace for five years. Any longer, and the royal family would come seek Lanya out.
For the longest time, Lanya mistakenly thinks that Zhuojiu means he will leave in five years, when Zhuojiu means they will leave together. These "five years" hang over Lanya the entire time. Lanya is utterly devastated by this. He doesn't want to be alone again. He would rather die.
Meanwhile, Lanmeijiu devises a 5 year training plan to get Lanya in better physical condition and learn all the stuff a prince should know. Lanya almost faints from his first day of running, but he is determined to complete all the training, if that will get Zhuojiu to stay.
Lanmeijiu also advises Zhuojiu in how to raise Lanya, like reading him a bedtime story, giving him a goodnight kiss, etc.
They also discover that Lanya can see traces of different planes. He isn't seeing spirits. He's seeing people from different time periods. It's quite a coveted talent. Lanya is so happy to learn that he's not crazy. What he was seeing was actually real. Someone out there actually believes him. Lanmeijiu helps by creating a device that will block the waves.
Five years pass. Lanya grows up. His beautiful silver hair grows long too. He shares a bed with Zhuojiu, as he can heal Zhuojiu's internal injuries while he sleeps. Zhuojiu thinks Lanya grew his hair long as a nod to his deceased mother.
They get into an argument about "leaving," with Lanya still thinking that Zhuojiu means to leave on his own. Zhuojiu gets a bit angry, thinking that Lanya doesn't want to leave with him. Lanya disappears for a full day, skipping all his training, worrying Zhuojiu. Lanmeijiu asks to replay what happened and then scolds Zhuojiu for the misunderstanding. They find Lanya at his mother's tomb, completely distressed. But all is well when the misunderstanding is explained. Lanya wishes to leave with Zhuojiu with no second thoughts. He also says that he might as well cut his hair, as he left it long to alert him if Zhuojiu leaves, but Zhuojiu stops him. He has helped comb that hair too many times for it to be cut off just like that.
Faraway, the king has gotten tired of the war. His advisor asks him if he has decided on which prince would succeed him. The king isn't sure yet, as his eldest has a "weak" constitution. His advisor then lets him know that if he doesn't care for his eldest, then he should let people know about the succession sooner. This shocks the king, as when has he ever not cared for his eldest? He is the only child he has with his first wife!
However, the public has always thought that he doesn't care for his eldest son, and there have been rumors that he is crazy. Angry, the king rushes back and interrogates his second wife, only to find out that his eldest has pretty much been exiled to a side palace, with no one but the second son sneaking to visit him twice in ten years.
The king drags his entire family there to search for his eldest, only to find the palace completely empty. There is a grave in the back, erected for the loyal old servant. The tomb of his first wife has pretty much been ransacked. There is not a single servant in sight.
The three delivery girls show up and get interrogated, revealing the presence of a "Zhuojiu." Before his arrival five years ago, the prince only asked for fruit and bread. After Zhuojiu, they began delivering other ingredients instead.
The king puts everything together. The materials taken from the tomb are materials for summoning. He rushes to the summoning circle and interrogates the guards, who did see the prince 5 years ago. Thus, the king believes that this "Zhuojiu" must have been summoned by his son.
Relieved, the king decides right then and there that his eldest will be his successor. He is proud of how powerful he was to summon a "humanoid" beast all by himself. The only reason the first prince wasn't considered before was because of his weak constitution, but that had never been real in the first place. So, now there is nothing holding the king's decision back.
He orders a search for the prince.
Meanwhile, Lanya and Zhuojiu reach a town. They stop to have a meal at a tavern. Lanya keeps his hood on, but a servant boy marvels at his beauty and wonders if he's an elf. A fight breaks out over it, and Zhuojiu orders Lanya to fight. Lanya fights beautifully with a sword and easily wins against the thug.
As they leave, they are followed by a hooded figure who corners them. The hooded figure is an actual elf who has been looking for the descendant of the princess. She had a child with a human long, long ago, and Lanya could very well be that descendant.
Lanya and Zhuojiu don't believe the elf at first, until they see the elf and his similarities with Lanya. Lanya could truly be part elf. The elf wishes to bring Lanya back with him, but they don't wish to go. Instead, they convince the elf to join their adventurer party instead, which they decide to name "Lanmeijiu," just like the raven's name.
Lanya likes the name, as it has his name and Zhuojiu's name in it.
And thus concludes book 1.
(Was going to include some thoughts here, but ran out of time~. So short thoughts: Thought it was amusing that elves/dark elves were brought up again. Despite the initial setting, they still ended up in an adventurer team, with an elf to boot. Lanya and Zhuojiu so far feel more like family to me instead of lovers, especially with how Zhuojiu thinks of Lanya as a kid and Zhuojiu wants to be his father... Their actual age difference isn't big, but with Zhuojiu raising Lanya, it still feels weird. Would have liked it better if they were the same age or we followed Lanya when he was already 20. (This is how I’m gonna feel about the romance in Three Houses too isn’t it ahaha) I guess I would be sold on the romance more if we saw 20 year old Lanya for more than a few pages. They are pretty comfortable with each other, so there’s that.
Feel this book was mostly setup, but it could also end here I guess, since Lanya does manage to leave his family that has always treated him unfairly. Also, my favorite character was the bird. XD;;;)
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