SGT CH221

Inside the dark, pitch-black disciplinary chamber, X woke in a daze.

He seemed to have experienced an endless, despairing dream.

Even after waking, his body still remembered that agony—the sensation of his heart being torn to shreds piece by piece, his mental realm collapsing again and again.

Yet strangely, he could not recall a single detail from the dream.

It was as if covered by an impenetrable fog, defying all scrutiny.

No matter how hard he strained to remember, his mind remained completely hollow.

Perhaps his mental condition had deteriorated once more, X thought indifferently.

Ever since he had forcefully weathered the assault of a high-tier star beast to retrieve a source crystal back then—sustaining severe damage to his mental realm—compounded by the crushing blow of losing the little male, more than half of his mental realm had collapsed…

X’s memory had frequently suffered minor lapses, occasionally forgetting various things.

Fortunately, they were all inconsequential details; he still remembered the little male.

He would replay every bit and piece of their past together in his mind over and over, continually etching the impressions deeper.

This had been his sole spiritual solace across all these years.

Only, when he began reminiscing about those moments with the little male now, an ache deeper than usual flared within his heart.

X could not fathom the reason.

Suddenly, footsteps resonated.

The door to the disciplinary chamber slid open.

Lights snapped on all at once.

X instinctively looked over.

When he caught sight of the noble, platinum-blond male standing at the threshold, the heart beneath his ribs seized sharply once again, followed by a dull, aching throb he could not comprehend.

The Prince had the sub-female physician examine him, arriving at the conclusion that he was three months pregnant.

X was somewhat surprised, yet… not entirely surprised.

Only… three months?

The physician said the insect egg had fallen into a deep dormancy due to a lack of pheromones, yet it clung stubbornly to life, still harboring a glimmer of hope.

Hearing this prognosis, X nearly wept.

Not from regret or resentment, but… sheer gratitude and relief.

Perhaps his reaction was too peculiar, drawing a sideways glance from the Prince.

The Prince asked the sub-female physician how to preserve the egg.

“Tenfold for every one lost.”

To make up for one missing portion of pheromones, tenfold must be replenished.

This was excruciatingly difficult.

Even an exceptionally favored female would struggle to extract such a massive volume of pheromones from a male, let alone him.

Yet X faintly felt that the Prince might truly give him pheromones, because he was a very, very good bug.

X was horrified by his own thought.

The Prince had drugged him, taken him by force, imprisoned him in the disciplinary chamber, and stripped him of everything.

Why on earth would he think the Prince was a good bug?

X could not understand where such thoughts originated, yet for the sake of his cub, he still pleaded with the Prince humbly, lowering his stance to the absolute dust.

Had he not been bound by chains, unable to bend his waist, he might have bowed down to kiss the toe of the Prince’s boots.

The Prince looked at him with an odd expression, the corners of his lips twitching as if wanting to utter some mockery.

In the end, however, he agreed.

He is always so soft-hearted.

Yet another untimely notion surfaced in X’s mind.

X did not understand what was wrong with himself.

When had the Prince ever been soft-hearted?

He submissively allowed the Prince to fasten another inhibitor onto him.

In truth, it made little difference to him.

An S-grade female could not break an S-grade inhibitor, whether one or two.

If he broke through to SS-rank, any number of inhibitors would be mere ornaments.

When that time came, he…

X froze for a second, his brain going blank for a brief moment.

Immediately after, he thought: even if he broke through to SS-grade, he would obediently wear the inhibitor the Prince bestowed upon him.

His subconscious warned him that he must never remove the inhibitor—that something catastrophically terrible, something unspeakably grave, would happen if he did.

Though ignorant of the reason, this warning—akin to honed combat instinct—was something X took with utmost seriousness.

The Prince unlocked his chains and told him to go clean himself up in the adjoining room.

X did as instructed, and after washing thoroughly, he knelt at the doorway to welcome the Prince, awaiting the Prince’s use.

At the thought of being used by the Prince, he actually felt extraordinarily nervous, alongside an unspeakable bashfulness.

Yet what was distinctly absent were negative emotions like humiliation or disgust.

Arriving at the room and seeing him kneeling by the door, the Prince paused for a moment before coldly commanding him to kneel on the bed.

He is quite considerate.

X knelt on the bed, dipping his waist and raising his hips toward the Prince, being used by the Prince as desired.

Sweet pheromones carrying the scent of floral blossoms and wood fruit enveloped the entire chamber.

Although this was precisely what he yearned for, feeling the Prince behind him, his face burned so fiercely he wished he could dig a hole and bury himself in it.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that such a relationship shouldn’t exist between him and the Prince—that this was wrong.

Yet he needed the Prince’s pheromones.

The Prince was the xiongfu of the insect egg in his womb.

There was no status more legitimate or natural than that.

Yet the more this was so, the more X felt ashamed beyond measure.

His body had been starved for far too long; suddenly inundated with a massive volume of male pheromones, the assault nearly made him lose consciousness.

Even with X straining to hold out under the Prince’s demands, he still collapsed before the dawn.

The sensation of being nourished by male pheromones was intoxicatingly comfortable, making a bug’s soul swoon.

In the days that followed, X took up residence in this small underground room across from the disciplinary chamber.

The Prince visited frequently, even arranging service droids to deliver nutritional meals for pregnant females to nurse his health back to form.

The Prince truly is a very good bug.

X could sense that his perception of the Prince had shifted too rapidly, unnatural in its speed.

Yet he could not change it, nor did he even want to.

So, was this what a female became after being marked by a male?

With only his male filling his mind, believing everything his male did was wonderful, relishing whatever treatment his male dished out without complaint.

Even willing to brave hellfire and water, casting his life aside for his male.

X had once felt such females were pitiful.

Entirely dominated by a male, stripped of self-awareness, reduced to mere appendages of another.

He had vowed never to become like that.

Yet when all of this truly befell him, transpiring between himself and the Prince—

He discovered he was merely an ordinary, mortal bug after all, helpless against a female’s primal nature.

He didn’t even… want to resist.

He only wanted to stay beside the Prince, accompanying the Prince, safeguarding the Prince.

If his body could satisfy the Prince, if it could bring pleasure to the Prince, he was more than willing to kneel beneath the Prince, wagging his tail to beg for scraps, bordering on shameless fawning and subservience.

Perhaps his conduct appeared far too degraded; the Prince perpetually eyed him with suspicion and bewilderment.

At times, he would sneer, taunting and ridiculing him.

X, however, never took offense.

He felt the Prince was entirely correct.

He was indeed such a contemptible, lowly bug.

Having once gouged out the Prince’s heart, critically wounding the Prince.

Now kneeling submissively beneath him, wagging his tail to beg for pity.

If that wasn’t contemptible, what was?

X parted his lips as wide as possible, taking the Prince into his mouth.

Although the Prince mocked him from time to time, the pheromones he granted were never lacking; he would even perform mental soothing for him.

After concluding a comprehensive mental soothing session, the Prince looked at him with an even more tangled expression.

X knew his mental realm was a chaotic wreckage; he genuinely did not wish to trouble the Prince, repeatedly telling him there was no need to perform mental soothing for him.

The Prince reached up to stroke his head, sighing softly as he murmured, “Go to sleep.”

That night, the Prince stayed over, and didn’t even put handcuffs on him.

This made X feel slightly unaccustomed.

Yet the Prince slept in his embrace, resting lightly against his chest, right at the position closest to his heart.

Gently wrapping his arms around the Prince in return, he felt an extraordinary sense of contentment.

Waking the following morning, the Prince removed all his inhibitors.

This frightened X out of his wits.

He felt an unshakable dread that something horrific, bloody, and catastrophic would happen.

He pleaded with the Prince to put the inhibitors back on.

The Prince refused.

Instead, he handed him a military uniform, sending him off to the military district.

X had never imagined he would ever return to the military district.

Confronted with the Prince’s sudden arrangement, he was apprehensive and anxious, terrified the Prince intended to discard him from then on.

In the past, aside from searching for the little male, his military career was the endeavor he held most vital.

He needed to climb higher, amassing greater resources and authority, to stand a better chance of finding the little male.

Yet now, he seemed to have suddenly stopped caring about those things.

Naturally, that didn’t mean he stopped caring about the little male.

He still vividly remembered their past, often reminiscing about the little male.

It was just that whenever he missed the little male, he would subconsciously seek out the Prince.

Once he saw the Prince, his heart would settle into peace.

Military commissions and ranks seemed to matter far less now.

Sensing his unease, the Prince personally escorted him to the military headquarters and spent the entire day accompanying him in his office.

Watching the Prince seated upon his office sofa, X’s restless, tangled heart settled into calm.

In the days that followed, the Prince frequently dropped by the military district to visit him, or arrived right at his clock-out time to pick him up for home.

Every military female in the headquarters knew how devoted they were, and how deeply the Prince cherished him.

Turning thoroughly sour with envy over it.

The entire White Night Star military division reeked of the resentful, envious sorrow of single bugs.

Did the Prince love him?

X lacked confidence.

Yet recalling everything the Prince had done for him, he felt the Prince definitely cared for him—or at least cared for the insect egg in his womb.

The Prince was an exceptionally responsible male.

He truly was very, very good.

Better than the finest ideal he could ever envision.

More than once, X regretted the harm he had dealt the Prince on that shuttle.

Perhaps, from the very first instant the Prince appeared in the disciplinary chamber and met his eyes, he was already drowning in remorse.

The wound had been carved, impossible to undo.

He wished to offer up his own life.

If the Prince wanted him dead, he would end himself on the spot.

Yet the Prince wanted him to live.

So he lived, atoning beside the Prince.

He donned the formal suit tailored for him by the Prince and attended the Prince’s adulthood ceremony.

The Prince publicly proclaimed his status as cijun, sharing all authority with him.

Throughout the ball, he remained by the Prince’s side, dancing one dance after another with him.

The Prince was joyous the entire evening.

Following the adulthood ceremony, the Zerg Emperor assigned the Prince new administrative duties.

The Prince’s vacation drew to a close.

Previously, the Prince had come to pick him up from the military district.

Now it was his turn to pick up the Prince after work.

This was the true norm of Zerg society.

Zergs predominantly revered strength, females and males alike.

The Zerg Emperor encouraged males to take part in societal work; most males would step out to hold a sinecure, and those capable of holding substantive executive authority were envied by all males.

Working males in society were by no means rare, and females waiting to escort their xiongzhu home from work like X were a common sight.

Waiting beneath the tower where the Prince worked, welcoming the Prince into the shuttle, returning together to the Prince’s estate…

It truly carried the domestic warmth of an ordinary Zerg married couple.

The condition of the insect egg in his womb stabilized.

Two months later, he laid the egg.

After several more months of incubation, the egg hatched.

It was a little female cub with pale golden hair and heterochromatic eyes, bearing a striking resemblance to the Prince, as well as to the little male.

The Prince named him Miracle.

Meaning a miracle.

He was their miracle.

Hesitating for a long time, X ultimately resolved to confess to the Prince.

“Your Highness, in truth, before Miracle, I had another cub. His name was Si Si…”

The Prince looked at him with an expression reserved for an absolute idiot.

In the end, the Prince sighed softly, raising a hand to pat his head, ruffling his hair, his eyes brimming with fond pity toward a foolish bug.

Ever since performing that comprehensive mental soothing on him, the Prince frequently looked at him with this helpless, tenderly affectionate gaze.

Before that, the Prince would still utter occasional words of mockery.

Afterward, he never did so again.

Whether in words or daily life, he showed him boundless tolerance and pampering.

This left X inevitably bewildered.

Could his mental realm truly be damaged to such a catastrophic extent?

So damaged that the Prince deemed him an intellectually deficient idiot bug?

Yet the Prince had clearly repaired his mental realm already, hadn’t he?

Regardless, life carried on.

The Prince proved exceptionally accommodating toward the fact that he once had a cub.

He even shared the old plush toys and cub-sized clothes stored in the underground room with him, telling him that those had been left behind by the little male.

Cradling the small spider plushie, the faint suspicions that had once surfaced materialized into reality; X nearly wept.

“Is he doing well?” he asked in a soft murmur.

“Mm, quite well,” the Prince replied. “He is married, has a cijun, and has a cub. Although his cijun‘s brain isn’t working too well, they love each other deeply.”

“That is good, then…”

“Aren’t you curious where he is right now?” the Prince asked.

“Curious, but… he has his own life now; I shouldn’t disturb him. As a cifu, knowing one’s cub is happy is enough.”

Saying this, X suddenly felt somewhat awkward. Looking at the Prince subconsciously, he hesitated before adding:

“Besides, Your Highness does not seem inclined to tell me.”

“Correct,” Mu Si did not deny it. “My silly cijun with the faulty brain doesn’t need to know too much; as long as he is happy and joyful, that is enough.”

X still wanted to struggle a little:

“I… there is nothing wrong with my brain; it has completely healed.”

The Prince: “Heh.”