SGT CH224

Inside the small room adjacent to the disciplinary chamber.

The Prince sat on the only sofa.

Wearing merely a single inhibitor, X knelt silently at his feet.

Mu Si kicked him impatiently, his boot landing against his thigh.

“Haven’t you knelt enough?”

Translator: [His heart aches for you.]

“Your Highness…” X spoke with difficulty. “Please hand me over to the tribunal.”

He had originally intended to gouge out his own heart—blood for blood, a heart for a heart—to atone for his sins.

Yet the translation orb had stated that if he did so, the Prince would only become more furious and heartbroken.

If he obstinately sought death, the Prince would even die right alongside him.

Though he did not understand why such a consequence would be triggered, he could only shelve the method of gouging out his heart for now, choosing another way to atone.

The translator continued translating his words:

[He feels profound guilt and self-reproach, unable to forgive himself; he wants to accept the judgment of the law, even if sentenced to death.]

The more Mu Si listened, the angrier he became.

“Your life is mine! I am your Male Master, and only I can deal with you! You cannot go anywhere; you can only stay by my side to be tormented by me!”

The translator summarized simply:

[He loves you, and wants you to stay by his side forever.]

Mu Si choked into silence, momentarily unsure whether he should dismantle the mechanical ball first or continue snapping at X.

X looked up blankly, gazing at the male who remained dazzlingly gorgeous even in anger.

The eldest son of the Zerg Emperor and the Marshal, the imperial heir, one of the most noble males in the entire Empire.

Completely unacquainted with him…

Even including today’s encounter in the disciplinary chamber, they had met merely twice.

“Your Highness, I don’t understand…” X murmured in bewilderment.

[He doesn’t understand why such an exalted male would fancy him.]

[In his eyes, you are total strangers, and this is merely your second meeting.]

[The first time was the day he awoke aboard the shuttle, naked in an embrace, when he gouged out your heart.]

Truly bringing up whatever pot wasn’t boiling.

Mu Si gritted his teeth in fury, glaring at X.

“Total strangers? Second meeting? Ha?!”

Mu Si let out a laugh that was half mocking and half self-deprecating.

[Brother, you’re in danger,] the translator whispered to X.

[He loved you for three years, hated you for fourteen years, and loved you even longer amidst that hatred, yet you forgot him completely.]

This time, X was thoroughly stunned.

Three years, fourteen years—either duration was unbearably long.

Yet he held no recollection of the Prince whatsoever.

Even scouring every corner of his memory, he could not find the Prince’s likeness.

If such a dazzling male as the Prince had appeared in his life, it was impossible for him to forget.

Fourteen years ago, in the Dark Star Region.

How could he and the Prince have known each other?

The bewilderment and panic in X’s eyes carried not the slightest pretense, making Mu Si’s eye rims redden with fury.

“You actually forgot me completely, forgot me so thoroughly! X, you’re really something else!”

The translator whispered:

[He feels aggrieved and heartbroken. You’d better hurry up and do something, or you’re dead meat.]

“Your Highness, I apologize, but I… I never had the opportunity to make the acquaintance of such an exalted male as you. Could you perhaps… be mistaken?” X asked cautiously.

The translator said pityingly to Mu Si:

[He thinks you’ve mistaken him for someone else, that the bug you love is actually another.]

Mu Si was so enraged he yanked X up from the floor and shoved him onto the bed.

“X, I really should bite you to death.”

Mu Si gritted his teeth, leaning down to cover him.

[He wants to bleep you to death.]

[Oh, it’s started! Wishing you a fierce and pleasant night. Please call on me anytime if needed.]

The mechanical ball dimmed its brightness, floating in midair, perceiving the intense commotion at close range.

Pheromones flooded the entire chamber.

The sweet scent of fruit and blossoms blended with the crisp, cool frosty fragrance, brewing into a distinct, singular aroma.

X was a pregnant female; the insect egg in his womb had been starved of pheromones for so long that it urgently needed a male’s pheromones to survive.

He could not refuse the Prince’s pheromones.

Even knowing full well the Prince might have mistaken him, that the bug the Prince loved was not him at all.

He clung to the Prince, despicably stealing pheromones that did not belong to him.

Floating in midair, the translator hesitated, wanting to speak.

It wanted to help translate some body language, but the scene was simply too fierce and chaotic.

It couldn’t keep up with the rhythm at all, nor could it find a single opening to chime in.

Only after a very long time did this fierce battle conclude.

X’s body had been starved for too long; suddenly inundated with a massive influx of pheromones, he fell unconscious under the onslaught.

Mu Si clamped his teeth onto his shoulder without letting go, leaving one prominent, deep bite mark after another on his frame until drawing blood.

Yet the moment his tongue tasted the metallic blood, he released his bite.

[His heart ached for you,] the translator affirmed.

Mu Si cast a flat glance at it.

This thing is still here?

Even the livestream light screen had dimmed while he was bedding X, yet this mechanical orb had lingered the entire time.

Right now, he held no energy to bother with the mechanical ball; burying his face in X’s chest, he petulantly nipped at a point, grinding his teeth against it with moderate pressure.

Until the next morning when X awoke, Mu Si had still not let go.

Feeling the throbbing ache at his chest amidst the saturation of pheromones, X looked down at the male in his arms, stunned for several seconds before recalling everything from yesterday.

For a moment, he froze in place, not knowing how to move.

An ache of sour remorse flared in his chest, his heart brimming with guilt.

If the Prince had been sufficiently brutal toward him, tormenting him mercilessly, he might have felt somewhat better.

Yet the Prince had merely granted him an immense bounty of pheromones.

As for those nibbles and bites from the male, they fell entirely within the realm of foreplay and intimacy; the harm dealt to a female was practically zero, serving only to stimulate the female further and heighten arousal, bearing zero relation to actual torment.

Sensing the movement of the person beside him, the sleeping Mu Si woke as well.

Falling asleep beside a female who had once gouged out his heart was unbelievable, yet he had truly done so, and slept exceptionally soundly.

Feeling the strange sensation on his tongue, Mu Si parted his lips in his haze, letting it go.

Leaving the warm interior of the male’s mouth and exposed to the air once more, X actually felt somewhat unaccustomed.

In merely a single night, his body had already begun clinging to the Prince.

“Your Highness,” X murmured softly, not even knowing why he called out.

Translation orb: [He craves you.]

X’s face paled in an instant; he wanted to explain, yet felt a guilty conscience, unsure how to defend himself.

Mu Si swept a glance over him, tinged with suspicion and scrutiny.

Ultimately retracting his gaze, he sat up, speaking with apparent coldness:

“Get up, eat.”

The translator translated for X:

[You are carrying an insect egg and need to replenish energy and nutrition; you need to eat the gestational meals for pregnant females.]

[So, eat food first, then eat you.]

Mu Si: “…”

Seriously, does this sort of thing need to be translated so crystal clear?

With a dark face, Mu Si draped a robe over himself, angrily getting up to wash, grabbing that damned translation orb along with him.

Inside the washroom, Mu Si attempted to dismantle the translation ball using psychic power.

The translation ball looked like an ordinary mechanical sphere, yet its internal architecture was completely foreign to Zerg technology.

As he probed deeper, the orb shrieked [Indecent assault!], vanishing in a flash—phasing straight through the wall.

Seeing that the orb shared a similar origin with the livestream screen—both hailing from a dimension and energy system distinct from the Zerg—Mu Si could only drop the matter for now.

Mu Si was furious at X’s complete oblivion of him.

As revenge, he personally customized the foulest-tasting nutritional meal for him.

Absolutely complete in nutrients and meeting every standard for pregnant females, but blended entirely into a mush that looked thoroughly unappetizing to any bug.

He waited to watch X make a fool of himself, but X ate every single bite.

Not once did his expression falter, eating rapidly, as though savoring a gourmet feast.

Mu Si truly couldn’t fathom it.

“You can stomach that?”

Translator: [He used this to mess with you, but failed; he feels somewhat disappointed, and even more astonished. He now suspects your sense of taste is broken, that you could actually swallow something so dreadful.]

X paused, looking at the spotless plate before him, feeling at a loss.

The Prince had wanted to mess with him, yet he hadn’t produced the desired effect for the Prince.

It was his dereliction of duty.

But…

“It is not unpalatable,” X murmured softly. “Compared to those common, cheap nutrient solutions with no flavor choices, this is far more wonderful food.”

Even cheap nutrient solutions like that were precious sustenance exceedingly difficult for bugs in the Dark Star Region to acquire.

Even back then, he had only purchased a few tubes specifically to care for the little male.

But the little male wouldn’t eat them, giving them all to him instead.

Translator: [He is grateful for the food you provided him.]

Reminded by X’s words of something even more foul, an expression of fleeting disgust surfaced on Mu Si’s face.

For once, he agreed with X:

“Indeed. Compared to the nauseating, bizarrely flavored nutrient solutions of the Dark Star Region, this gestational meal merely looks ugly; at least it falls within the realm of food.”

The translator said to X:

[The nutrient solution you gave him back then tasted so disgusting that he has remembered it for over a decade, feeling nauseated even now.]

…

The room fell dead silent, so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

X’s limbs turned ice-cold, his head buzzing violently, momentarily incapable of processing the meaning behind the translator’s words.

Nutrient solutions were rare in the Dark Star Region.

He had only ever provided nutrient solutions to a single bug.

Over a decade ago, the Dark Star Region, his little male…

Stiffly, X looked toward the male across from him.

Clearly a male completely different from the little male in his memory, yet for a fleeting instant, he felt they were alike.

X was practically in a daze, vertigo rushing through his brain.

Hearing the translation orb bring up the past of the Dark Star Region and directly expose his identity, Mu Si’s expression wasn’t pleasant either.

Especially when seeing X look as if he had seen a ghost.

“What? Disappointed?”

Mu Si glared coldly at the female across from him, his eyes fierce enough to drag him down into the hell he inhabited.

[He is angry that you failed to recognize him, and even more heartbroken by your current reaction.]

[After you left, he spent many years living a hellish existence in the dark. He wants to drag you into the hell he lived in, wanting you to keep him company forever.]

As the translator explained, it turned around to whisper a warning to X:

[This is a lethal trick question; answer with extreme caution.]

X could not absorb a single word.

“Si Si…? Is it you? Si Si?”

Staring intently at the platinum-blond male across from him, X rose unsteadily, rounded the small dining table, and stumbled before the Prince.

Crouching before the Prince, he grasped the male’s hand with trembling fingers, his eyes overflowing with panic and trepidation.

Translator: [He is thrilled, yet terrified—terrified that hope will turn to ash, terrified that this is merely your cruel prank. He suspects he has truly gone mad, yet cannot restrain the urge to seek an answer.]

Mu Si stared suspiciously at X.

His reaction exceeded his expectations; it was far too intense.

Looking ready to faint at any moment, or as if his sanity had fractured.

“Isn’t the answer right before your eyes? Isn’t everything clear enough?” Mu Si said coldly.

Translator: [He thinks you are blind. He is right before your eyes, no different from the past—or perhaps having changed merely a ‘tiny bit’—yet you couldn’t recognize him at all. He feels you never cared about him.]

Saying this, the translator quietly made excuses for X:

[It is like this, Your Highness: you might harbor a slight hundred-million-fold misunderstanding regarding the changes in your appearance.]

[Since back then, you underwent two physiological awakenings, and the changes are just a tiny bit colossal—colossal enough that even the Zerg identity verification system required you to reregister your biological data from scratch.]

“Hmph.” Mu Si let out a soft snort, paying it no mind.

[Oh, alright. You feel it is not your fault; if one truly cares about a bug, even if they turned to ashes, one should still be able to recognize them.]

[Uh… people say that, and novels always write it that way, but that is hyperbole. Putting it into reality is just a tiny bit difficult for a bug, you know.]

Mu Si remained silent.

He knew this full well, yet would never concede it.

Emotionally, he simply could not accept X forgetting him or failing to recognize him.

Just as he could never accept X abandoning him all those years ago.

X was already weeping uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face.

“Si Si, my Si Si, it really is you. I finally found you, I…”

X abruptly choked into silence.

He remembered everything he had done to the Prince.

The translator translated with earnest dedication:

[He searched for you for fourteen years, paying the price of more than half his mental realm collapsing, enduring countless days and nights of agony and despair, hovering on the brink of death time and again, holding on solely through the sheer will of finding you.]

[Now, he has finally found you.]

[Yet he discovered that he personally harmed the cherished little male he had searched for all along.]

[His hands are already drenched in the little male’s blood. His fingertips still seem to retain the sensation of hot blood flowing over them, as if he can still feel the little male’s heart beating feebly within his palm.]

[He nearly killed the little male who was more precious than his own life, whom he viewed as family. And even… their cub.]

[When delirious and devoid of clarity, he claimed the little male he treated as a cub, conceived his cub, and nearly brought death upon him.]