SGT CH205

205 The Little Cakes’ Tea Party

◎Prince: X has lost his passion for me QAQ◎

In the seventh year of his marriage to X, His Imperial Highness the Prince successfully packed off their cub, who had entered the third stage, to a full-boarding school, monopolizing his Female Monarch from then on.

A new problem arose, however.

The Prince felt that X had been lacking in passion toward him lately.

X still looked after him quite attentively—caring whether he was cold or hungry, sleeping in the same bed with him—yet that spark of lovers whose physical contact sent fireworks flying was distinctly missing.

Could it be… the legendary “seven-year itch”?!

The Prince was horrified.

The Zerg originally possessed no concept of a “seven-year itch.”

It was a term borrowed from an alien civilization, introduced to the Zerg through cultural exchanges such as films.

Because it aligned so well with a male’s fickle tendency to tire of the old and yearn for the new, it gradually spread far and wide.

Females unanimously agreed that no matter how much a male fancied a bug, his affection would last seven years at most.

After seven years, the passion faded, and the male would cast his gaze toward other females, picking out fresh female consorts.

At this juncture, if the female was sensible, magnanimous, and cooperative, all remained well; if he presumed upon past doting favor to interfere with the male’s decisions, he would be completely cast aside in disgust.

The Prince had always sneered at such notions.

When one truly loved a bug, the passage of time only brewed a more mellow, fragrant, and sweet wine; how could the lengthening years ever cause aversion?

Mu Si never imagined such a disaster would fall upon his own head one day.

X had lost his passion for him.

At a court banquet, when another female invited him to dance, X didn’t even step up to stake his claim after seeing it; he simply backed away into the distance.

Heavens, X didn’t love him anymore!

Just as Mu Si kept an elegant, haughty facade while crumbling in panicked despair internally, a voice sounded inside his mental landscape:

“Aren’t you a Male Zerg? Why would you worry about your Female Monarch falling out of love with you?”

The Prince paused, examining his own mental landscape, only to discover an entirely different consciousness within.

“Who are you? Why are you inside my mental landscape?”

“I am the Imperial Consort of the Tianjia Empire, and… this should be my mental landscape,” that consciousness replied.

Mental telepathy carried no audible tone, yet the other party’s psychic presence felt gentle and serene, making one remarkably comfortable.

Like an exceptionally dependable physician.

Still, the Prince would not be easily deceived.

“Nonsense! This is clearly my mental landscape!”

The other was actually a Tianjia.

Could it be mental espionage from an enemy empire?

Did the Tianjia race possess such capability?

Mu Si mobilized his psychic power, wanting to expel this foreign consciousness.

Yet he failed.

His psychic power recognized that consciousness as himself.

Prince: “???”

Imperial Consort: “I am equally astonished. I never imagined there would be another consciousness in this world so similar to mine, so alike that… it feels like two sides of the same coin.”

Dressed in simple imperial attire with an exquisitely woven hair braid, a male Tianjia coalesced into form within the mental landscape.

The Prince’s own mental avatar manifested alongside him.

Two males with similar facial features yet completely contrasting auras stared at each other.

“It feels like looking into a mirror,” the Imperial Consort marveled.

Strictly speaking, their facial features weren’t entirely identical.

Most noticeably, their eye colors differed: the Prince possessed heterochromatic eyes, while the Imperial Consort had emerald-green eyes.

Their temperaments were polar opposites as well.

One was haughty, noble, and blazing like a flame.

The other was cool, gentle, and quiet like still water.

High-ranking males, however, never perceived the world through superficial appearances.

They judged through the essence of the soul.

The Prince was equally shaken by the psychic kinship between them.

“Fine, I believe now that there is another ‘me’ in the world, or perhaps… another universe.”

At least, from what the Prince knew of the Tianjia Empire, there had never been such an Imperial Consort.

The Tianjia Emperor was three hundred years old this year, a pure, ruthless war machine.

Unmarried to this day.

Without a single male at his side.

Perhaps through the vast workings of the multiverse, two similar yet distinct space-time continuum coordinates resonated, causing their consciousnesses to project into each other’s mental domains, allowing two kindred souls to meet briefly.

Or perhaps… there were more than two.

The Prince stared blankly as one, two, three, and four more bugs materialized in his mental domain one after another.

No, they weren’t Zergs at all.

“Who are you all again?” The Prince’s head throbbed.

When had his mental landscape ever accommodated so many souls?

“That is a question We should be asking you.”

Dressed in an imperial dragon robe, Emperor Mu Si was filled with bewilderment.

He had just been dressed under Shadow One’s service, preparing to hold the morning court.

Before he could even step through the bedchamber door, he ended up here.

“I don’t know either, I’m just a little tentacle monster.”

Tentacle Monster Mu Si, large enough to take up half a bedroom, squirmed his tentacles in a daze, attempting to search for his sole incubator and Female Master, yet finding nothing.

“Awoo?“

Little Zombie Mu Si tilted his head in confusion.

He knew nothing either; he was merely a little zombie.

Today his food source and caretaker had gone out, saying he needed to hunt an S-tier zombie, and hadn’t returned yet.

Among the strange creatures, the only relatively normal psychic ability user, Mu Si, spoke up:

“My name is Mu Si, a psychic ability user.”

“What a coincidence, my name is Mu Si too,” the Prince raised an eyebrow.

“Mine as well,” the Imperial Consort smiled.

“Is that not true for all of us?” the Emperor mused.

“Awoo!” The little zombie cheered excitedly.

“Oh? You all share the same name as me, and you feel so similar to me too. Could you be tentacles that fell off my body?”

All the Mu Sis: “…”

When the tentacle monster thinks, God laughs.

“But my tentacles are inside X’s egg chamber right now.”

“Ah???”

“What?!”

“Say that again?!”

Grabbing the nearest tentacle, the Prince prepared to execute a humane extermination.

“Whimper… You’re all so mean.”

The little tentacle monster curled itself into a ball.

“Calm down,” the Imperial Consort, who had heard the Prince’s inner voice earlier, stepped in to soothe them. “He is only referring to the X of another world. Just as each world has one of us, having an X there is hardly surprising.”

Naturally, the gaze he directed at the tentacle monster was rather peculiar as well.

After all, putting tentacles inside an egg chamber was far beyond the threshold of acceptance for any ordinary Tianjia.

“Fine, then.”

For the sake of this big transparent jelly being another version of himself, the Prince let it off the hook for now.

Emperor Mu Si and Ability User Mu Si didn’t understand what an “egg chamber” was, remaining completely out of the loop.

As for Little Zombie Mu Si…

As an ordinary zombie lacking psychic abilities who had been fed purely on mutated animal meat, he showcased a brainless beauty at all times.

One couldn’t expect him to grasp the situation.

·

The Prince’s mental landscape was a mystical, splendid garden.

Planted with rare flora, a sea of vibrant blossoms, with vast swathes of pure-white evening primroses vying in bloom.

Two astonishingly massive moons hung high in the night sky, framed by brilliant stars.

Now, as the Mu Sis from different worlds arrived one by one, the mental landscape seemed to blend together, adding many elements.

There was a hot spring pool lined with gemstones, a transparent glass house, mutated plants sprouting from the earth, antique furniture and tea sets, and exceptionally savory roasted jerky…

The group of Mu Sis sat in the glass greenhouse covered in climbing mutated flora, sipping flower tea while snacking on fruit, cake, and jerky.

Jerky appearing amidst an afternoon tea setting was a bit odd.

Yet since it was supposedly grilled by X, every Mu Si was willing to give it a try.

“I truly never imagined that His Majesty… that X could make this.”

Looking at the jerky in his hand—sliced into bite-sized morsels and packed with flavor—the Imperial Consort was thoroughly amazed.

“That’s nothing,” the Prince said casually, unwilling to be outdone:

“X used to roast meat with fruit for me all the time.”

Back in the Dark Star Region, seasonings were scarce.

To coax the little male into eating more food, X had exhausted every method.

Including marinating meat with fresh fruit to make it sweeter and more tender before grilling it for the little male.

“All three of my daily meals are handled by X,” Ability User Mu Si chimed in.

“My meals during childhood were all prepared by Shadow One as well,” the Emperor added.

“Shadow One? Is that X’s code name?” the Prince remarked, “It suits his style quite well.”

Silently guarding like a shadow.

Recalling X’s recent coldness toward him, however, the Prince felt unhappy again.

“Me too, me too!” The little tentacle monster raised a tentacle to chime in: “I was fed and raised by X! Choosing the right caretaker is so important!”

“Awoo!” The little zombie agreed enthusiastically.

Only the Imperial Consort had never eaten food personally cooked by X.

Tianjia females and males had no habit of cooking; meals were handled by home intelligence droids, or they bought nutrient solutions, which was simple and convenient.

The Imperial Consort felt a tiny bit of regret, though he didn’t deem it a big deal.

He knew the Tianjia Emperor cherished him deeply.

For his sake, the Emperor had even transplanted a member of the Star Tree race who excelled at baking pastries.

Originally, the Tianjia Emperor wanted to plant the Star Tree chef in his bedchamber’s garden.

He enjoyed bathing in the hot spring pool in the garden, however.

The Tianjia Emperor couldn’t bear having any Tianjia or alien race lay eyes on his body, not even a tree.

He insisted on clearing an entirely separate plot of land, constructing an airtight greenhouse that simulated the native environment of the Star Tree planet just to cultivate that Star Tree chef.

Recalling all the over-the-top antics the Tianjia Emperor had pulled over the years, the Imperial Consort felt both exasperated and sweet.

He was not extreme by nature.

Back then, it was only due to consecutive upheavals and trauma that he had turned cynical and pessimistic.

Once the misunderstandings with the Tianjia Emperor dissolved, his desperate and anxious heart was completely soothed.

Walking side by side with the Tianjia Emperor over all these years, reforming the Tianjia and forging a new path.

Through long years of companionship, he had gained far more tolerance and understanding toward the Tianjia Emperor.

He was willing to embrace many of the things the Tianjia Emperor did.

Whether it was jealousy without reason, or overwhelming possessiveness.

Behind the reckless things the Tianjia Emperor did lay only a single meaning: his deep love and devotion.

Seeing the Prince’s downcast look now, he couldn’t help offering some comfort:

“Your Female Monarch loves you; perhaps he simply doesn’t know how to express it.”

“Of course he loves me!” the Prince asserted loudly.

He refused to show the slightest trace of insecurity or doubt.

“We have known each other for many years, since I wandered into the Dark Star Region at age five and was picked up and cared for by him… We were separated for a period due to certain events, but after our reunion, he passionately accompanied me through my physiological awakening and became my Female Monarch.”

The Prince deliberately glossed over the painful twists and turns, saying:

“Then, we had a cub, and we lived happily together for many years.”

Now, after finally managing to wait until their cub underwent his secondary awakening, entered the third stage, and could be packed off to boarding school so he wouldn’t disturb his romance with his Female Monarch…

His Female Monarch had hit the “seven-year itch,” slipping into an emotional slump and treating him without passion.