SGT CH33: His Little Male Cub

◎”He’s the Zerg cub I picked up, he’s my cub.”◎

Marshal Shi’an convened all general-grade officers for a military conference to discuss the annual military rotation.

Although Aix and his Blood Blade unit had already received their transfer orders a month ago to station on White Night Star, the official rotation documents were only being supplemented today.

After the meeting, Marshal Shi’an asked Aix to stay behind.

“I heard from the Prince that you were injured yesterday. Was it serious? How is your recovery?”

The Marshal sat on the sofa in the reception room and had Aix sit opposite him, in a manner of making small talk.

Marshal Shi’an was a superior officer Aix was familiar with. Facing him, he was not as constrained as when facing the Prince.

However, having understood the truth of the night he was drugged yesterday, knowing that he had severely injured the Marshal’s beloved male cub due to a misunderstanding, and having given the Prince a huge fright last night by tearing out his heart, he felt guilty and was now unavoidably a little nervous.

The Prince had instructed him not to mention the events of the day of his physiological awakening, especially not in front of the Zerg Emperor and the Marshal.

Previously, he had only thought the Prince was afraid of the drugging incident being exposed. Now he knew the Prince was protecting him.

Aix placed his hands together on his knees, concealing his complex emotions, and spoke in a low voice:

“Reporting to the Marshal, it was just a minor injury. The Prince has personally healed me. It’s just that the scene was not pretty and it frightened the Prince.”

Personally healed…

The Prince was not a doctor. How could he personally heal an injury like a torn-out heart?

It couldn’t be that he personally put the heart back, could it?

Marshal Shi’an imagined the scene and could empathize with how much of a fright his Zerg cub must have received.

“That child of mine, although he can be a bit mischievous at times, is pure and kind-hearted by nature, and the most soft-hearted. He… probably wouldn’t do something like abusing a female Zerg, would he?”

As Shi’an spoke, he looked at Aix with some uncertainty.

After all, tearing out a heart was really too avant-garde.

Even in the Zerg race, where male Zerg generally had some S&M tendencies, it was among the most extreme.

“No, this matter has nothing to do with the Prince.”

Aix hurriedly said: “It was I who presumptuously guessed His Highness’s intentions, wanting to please His Highness with this, but it backfired and frightened His Highness instead.”

Marshal Shi’an let out a sigh of relief.

He knew it, his Zerg cub was a good child.

It was just that Lieutenant General Aix’s method of currying favor was indeed quite startling.

Marshal Shi’an said tactfully: “I know that female Zerg, in order to please the male Zerg they love, inevitably resort to some foolish measures. The Prince is a responsible male Zerg, and exceptionally stubborn. Since he has chosen you, he will not change his mind easily. You don’t need to be too nervous.”

“I understand. It won’t happen again in the future.”

Aix replied.

The Marshal thought the Prince had chosen him because he loved him.

But Aix knew very well that the Prince had chosen him and kept him by his side only for revenge and to vent his anger.

But he was very grateful that the Prince was willing to take revenge on him this way, and he was willing to accept all the revenge and torture the Prince gave him.

And just as the Marshal said, the Prince was truly a… supremely soft-hearted Zerg.

The Marshal nodded.

Remembering Aix’s hesitant look back at the palace, he took the initiative to say:

“I’m done with my business. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Aix did have one thing.

Something he had kept in his heart for many years.

His fingers, resting on his knees, unconsciously curled. Aix tightened his lips and asked:

“Does the Marshal still remember the matter of occupying the Dark Star Field 14 years ago?”

“Of course, I remember,” the Marshal said in a deep voice.

He would never forget the feeling of finding his lost cub, the heartache, and the self-blame when he saw the small, curled-up cub in that little room in the Dark Star Field.

“Then, back then, did the Zerg military bring back a little male cub? With golden hair, golden eyes, and his left eye was blind, appearing a sort of grayish-white, looking like heterochromia, but it actually wasn’t…”

“…”

The Marshal looked at him with a complicated expression.

Aix didn’t notice and raised a hand to gesture in front of him. “He was going through his second awakening at the time. Before the awakening, he was about this tall…”

He was sitting now. If the little male cub were standing, he would just reach his waist.

Sometimes, when he was sitting and assembling weapons, the bored little male cub would run over and hug him, burying his head in his waist to act cute.

If he was sitting on the bed mending clothes, the little male cub would hang on his arm like a pendant, watching him sew with clumsy stitches with unblinking eyes.

As if it were something particularly amazing.

“After awakening… he would probably grow to be this tall.”

Aix moved his hand up a bit, gesturing at his chest, but his movement was hesitant, uncertain.

He had imagined many times what the little male cub would look like after awakening, after growing up.

But the imagination of a female Zerg was truly lacking.

No matter how Aix imagined, he could not form a concrete image.

Not that tall, Marshal Shi’an said in his heart.

Because at that time, his Zerg cub had suffered too great a shock, had a mental breakdown, and his second awakening had failed.

It wasn’t until three years later, after he had recuperated and emerged from the shadows of the past, that he underwent the second awakening again and succeeded.

After that, the Prince grew much taller than Aix had indicated.

After all, with his and the Zerg Emperor’s height, the Prince, as their cub, would only have more superior genes.

Later, when the Prince underwent his third awakening, which was his physiological awakening, he became even taller. Standing next to the tall Aix, he looked particularly harmonious.

After Aix finished his description and saw the Marshal’s continued silence, his heart couldn’t help but rise in his throat.

Although he had already investigated everywhere after joining the Imperial military and didn’t hold much hope, he still came to ask the Marshal with a faint glimmer of possibility, ultimately hoping for an unexpected, surprising answer.

“Marshal… was there really no one?”

Aix looked at the Marshal pleadingly, like a drowning Zerg hoping for a life-saving straw.

Marshal Shi’an looked at the Zerg opposite him with a complicated gaze and asked:

“What is that little male cub to you?”

“My cub…”

Aix paused, pursed his lips slightly, and then said with even more conviction:

“He is my cub.”

Shi’an: “???”

Shi’an subconsciously raised a hand to touch his ear, for the first time doubting his keen hearing as an S-class female Zerg.

“Say that again,” Shi’an said, his expression a mixture of a smile and anger.

Aix knew why the Marshal was angry.

Anyone would be angry to find out that their Zerg cub’s female consort had an unknown cub out there.

But he had long since regarded the little male cub as his own.

If at the beginning of their time together, it was like father and son, and also like brothers.

After so many years, the little male cub in his mind was still the same as he was at the beginning, never having grown up.

Aix had completely come to regard the little male cub as his own cub.

“He is a Zerg cub I picked up. We are family Zerg who accompanied and supported each other. He is the cub I have acknowledged,” Aix explained.

Shi’an: “…”

That’s still ridiculous!

“Does… the Prince know about this?” Shi’an asked, rubbing his forehead.

Aix shook his head in silence.

He had previously misunderstood the Prince and hurt the Prince.

After being released from the punishment chamber, he had only been trying to survive under the Prince’s hand for the sake of the Zerg egg in his belly.

Of course, he couldn’t have told the Prince these things.

Now, his perception and feelings for the Prince had changed.

But the relationship between them had not improved much.

It had only changed from him being forced to accept the Prince’s play and torture to him actively trying to please and gratify the Prince.

The Prince’s attitude towards him, in fact, had never changed.

Hearing the Marshal mention the Prince, Aix felt a rare sense of trouble.

Should he tell the Prince about this?

The Prince had a strange temperament. He was not sure how the Prince would react upon learning of this matter.

Would he be angry, or would he not care at all?

While Aix was struggling with his thoughts, Marshal Shi’an also felt a headache coming on.

He knew his own Zerg cub best.

Given the Prince’s unusual attention to Aix all this time, and all the events of the day of his physiological awakening, he was certain that the Prince was definitely aware of Aix’s past.

But the Prince had deliberately not told Aix his identity.

There must be an inside story to this.

Remembering his Zerg cub’s shocked, utterly crazed, and despondent state when he had just brought him back from the Dark Star Field, Shi’an sighed softly.

He didn’t know if his intervention in this matter was good or bad.

Ultimately, his heart was biased towards his own Zerg cub.

“The male Zerg brought back from the Dark Star Field by the Imperial military were all publicly announced in military reports. If you are looking for a male Zerg not on the list… I’m sorry, I cannot answer that.”

Back then, when the Prince was attacked and went missing, for the Prince’s safety, he and the Zerg Emperor had chosen to keep the Prince’s disappearance a secret, only using all their power to search for him privately.

After bringing the Prince back from the Dark Star Field, they naturally could not announce the Prince’s return with high profile.

Sometimes fate plays such tricks on Zerg. The Zerg one has been searching for so bitterly is right in front of them, yet they cannot know.

But at least, they have been reunited. And they are living together in the most intimate relationship besides blood ties.

Seeing the dejected and disappointed look on Aix’s face, Shi’an ultimately couldn’t bear it and offered a hint:

“Perhaps you can ask the Prince. He is the lord of White Night Star. There are some things he knows better than I do.”

“Thank you, Marshal. I will explain it to the Prince.”

Aix no longer held any expectation.

If even the Marshal didn’t know, what could the Prince, who only took over the Dark Star Field three years later, possibly know?

However, he really should inform the Prince.

Everything he had belonged to the Prince. He could not hide the thing he cared about most from the Prince.

“I’ve disturbed you, Marshal. To take up so much of your time for some private matter, I am truly ashamed.”

Aix stood up, bowed to the Marshal in apology, and prepared to take his leave.

Shi’an waved his hand. “It’s nothing. We are all family Zerg. Your private matter is our family’s private matter.”

That wasn’t wrong either, since the Zerg Aix was looking for was his Zerg cub.

His.

“Lieutenant General Aix, I have one more thing to remind you.”

Shi’an spoke seriously: “Your Zerg cub is the one in your belly, your and the Prince’s child. Not some little male cub from the Dark Star Field. Don’t get it wrong. This is for your own good.”

Aix’s body stiffened slightly.

He understood that he should obey the Marshal’s words.

Whether it was the instinct of a military female to obey a superior’s command, or the correct attitude when facing the teachings of a Male Master’s female father, everything was telling him to accept and obey.

But, that was the little male cub he cared about most.

A being he regarded as family.

The little male cub had never mentioned his former family.

Aix didn’t even know if they still existed.

Perhaps he was the last Zerg in the world who remembered the little male cub.

He could not forget, nor should he forget.

“I’m very sorry, Marshal, I cannot accept that.”

Aix respectfully lowered his eyes, but his back remained ramrod straight.

“No matter what, he is my cub. Even when my own biological Zerg cub is born, he will only be my second child.”

Hearing this, Marshal Shi’an felt a breath get stuck in his chest, unable to be released. He was so angry he wanted to spit blood.

“You mean to say that little male cub is your eldest son?” Shi’an gritted his teeth.

To say any more would be considered a provocation.

Aix stood with his head bowed and did not answer.

But his posture and expression clearly said, “Yes, that’s right.”

The little male cub was the first child he had raised.

That would never change.

Shi’an simply didn’t know what to say, so he decided out of sight, out of mind.

He waved his hand helplessly and said:

“Go back. If there’s anything, talk to your Male Master.”

He’d like to see if the Prince would acknowledge Aix as his “female father.”

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