SGT CH81: I am that egg

◎ Many years ago, he picked up an egg on the battlefield ◎

Linking to so many Tianjia at once and maintaining the stability of their minds was far too heavy a burden on Mousse.

As soon as the mental link snapped, Mousse fell into a faint.

In a daze, he sensed the emotions of countless Tianjia and heard their inner voices.

The attendants were worrying about him.

The court physicians were pondering treatment plans and feeling puzzled.

The captain of the royal guard was busy imagining himself being torn apart by the Tianjia Emperor, terrified out of his mind.

The Tianjia in the plaza were panicking about the coming mental plague, anxious and ill at ease.

And Tianjia even farther away…

The mental link had clearly been severed, yet Mousse could still perceive the emotions and inner voices of all the Tianjia with perfect clarity.

Those voices clamored noisily in his mind, not letting Mousse sleep in peace, making his head feel like it was about to explode.

Mousse kept trying to dodge the cacophony of thoughts.

Suddenly, he fell into a place of absolute purity.

So quiet.

Where was this?

Mousse looked around and saw a mental domain that, though shattered, was still magnificent.

Like an ancient battlefield left behind from ages past.

There were no thoughts here, only a sound carried by the wind…a kind of white noise–like hum.

If one listened carefully, one could vaguely make out the sounds of artillery bombardment and weapons clashing.

But the sounds were very faint.

As if they came from very far away, or as if something lay between as a barrier; they did not feel noisy at all, but instead formed just the right sort of background sound.

It actually seemed very suitable for sleeping.

Mousse wanted to sink into slumber here.

Sleeping inside someone else’s mental domain was really not very polite.

But Mousse was already so tired, his consciousness groggy.

The powerful drowsiness urged him to find a safe place to sleep.

Mousse drifted through this battlefield‑like mental domain and, following his instincts, found a place fit for rest.

Beneath the wings of a Tianjia in its original form, there was a newly laid, still‑warm egg.

Mousse burrowed into the egg, curled himself up into a ball, and fell asleep.

…

“Si‑si…”

He did not know how long he had slept when a blurry voice calling him came from the distant sky.

Mousse turned over, not wanting to wake up.

Suddenly, the wings shielding the Tianjia egg were lifted.

The wind outside howled; the sky was dark.

Many strange steel tentacles writhed through the air, destroying everything.

The scene in a mental domain was the concrete manifestation of a Tianjia’s mind.

Yet after just one nap, the state of this mental domain had become even worse.

As Mousse was thinking this, a pair of black military boots appeared before him.

A Tianjia officer in a black‑and‑gold uniform half‑knelt down and picked him up.

The officer cupped the egg, carefully brushing away the dirt and blood on its shell, revealing a smooth surface without any markings.

“So it’s actually a male egg…”

The black‑haired, red‑eyed Tianjia officer frowned a little, worry showing in his expression.

Mousse clearly saw the officer’s face.

Aix…

“It’s already gone cold. Male eggs are fragile. Could it be dead already?”

This Aix in front of him murmured, unfastened his uniform jacket with one hand, and tucked him into his arms.

Warmth seeped through the eggshell.

Mousse had been held by Aix many times, but this was the first time he had been held like this. For a moment he was stunned and forgot to react.

“…Si‑si.”

The calling voice came again, faintly trembling.

Something cold and wet fell onto his face.

Was it raining?

But he was inside the shell, and Aix had drawn his coat around to shield him; the rain should not have been able to reach him.

Yet the icy feeling on his face made Mousse inexplicably anxious, restless, and eager to do something.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Soft bedding lay beneath him; he had returned to the bed in his sleeping chamber.

Something heavy pressed on his body.

A strong female Tianjia lay over him, holding him tightly as if wanting to fuse him into her flesh and blood.

“Your Majesty, you’re so heavy.”

Mousse spoke, only to realize his voice was extremely hoarse and dry, as if he had not drunk water in a very long time.

The Tianjia on top of him suddenly stiffened, lifted her head from the crook of his neck to look at him, and her dark‑red eyes shimmered with a joy tinged by disbelief.

“Si‑si, you’re awake… Thank goodness, thank goodness.”

Slightly trembling hands cupped his face, cherishing and fearful all at once.

Mousse caught a faint whiff of gunpowder and tilted his head slightly, asking:

“When did Your Majesty return?”

“Half an hour ago.”

The Tianjia Emperor rose, took the water from the bedside, helped Mousse sit up, and held the cup to his lips, eyes full of heartache and worry.

“You slept for a whole week.”

So that much time had passed?

Mousse had not felt the passage of time at all.

Since the Tianjia Emperor had returned, was the war over?

Mousse sipped at the water the Emperor held to his lips, drinking in small mouthfuls.

He lifted his gaze to observe the Emperor’s expression.

The Tianjia Emperor’s face looked terrible. The red of his eyes was nearly black, and within his gaze something savage and deranged was being forcibly suppressed.

Mousse frowned in concern.

The Emperor’s mental state was even worse than before.

Just like what he had seen in the mental domain.

A cold touch came from his waist; something snakelike wrapped around him.

Mousse jumped in fright and almost choked, looking down in alarm.

He saw a black, metallic‑looking tentacle slowly withdrawing.

Following that thing forward with his eyes, Mousse finally saw that it extended from the Tianjia Emperor’s back.

Mousse was stunned.

He had only ever seen the Emperor’s wings and had always assumed the Emperor was a flying‑type Tianjia.

Yet these extra‑flexible, hard tentacles were clearly a special limb only crawling‑type Tianjia possessed.

There were six of these long‑whiplike black tentacles in all.

They sprawled across the bed, surrounding and clustering around him.

Every tentacle Mousse’s gaze passed over shrank back, as if trying to hide itself.

But there were too many, and too long; they had nowhere to hide.

One tentacle tried to climb onto Mousse’s leg.

The Tianjia Emperor suddenly reached out, pressed it down, and flung it behind him.

That tentacle swayed unhappily, wanting to approach again, but was suppressed by the Emperor.

The other tentacles that attempted to creep toward Mousse were all grabbed and tossed away as well.

For a moment the scene was like a mad dance of demons.

Mousse stared in astonishment at what was happening before him and swallowed.

“Don’t be afraid. They don’t mean any harm, it’s just that…”

The Emperor could not go on, bracing his head in pain as he got up, his steps staggering as he retreated.

“Your Majesty? Wait.”

Mousse pushed himself up, wanting to pull the Emperor back.

But the Emperor was too far away; he could not reach.

He could only change his target and reach for a tentacle that was slowly retreating from the bed.

That tentacle went rigid at once.

And with it, the Tianjia Emperor also froze.

The sensation felt strange—very hard, like gripping some kind of metal weapon.

But this “weapon” was alive.

Mousse grasped the tentacle and gave it a tug toward himself.

Following his pull, the Emperor’s stiff steps brought him back to Mousse’s side.

“Has Your Majesty already lost control of them?”

Many tentacles were climbing up onto Mousse.

Mousse knew that these steel‑monster‑like things could easily tear him to pieces.

But they seemed very well‑behaved.

Mousse did not feel any threat from them at all.

The Tianjia Emperor pressed his lips together, taking each tentacle that tried to crawl onto Mousse and pulling it away.

Being unable to control one’s original‑form traits was a sign of severe mental disorder.

The Emperor did not answer Mousse’s question directly, only said coldly:

“I can cut them all off.”

Was this something you could just cut off at a word?

After losing their wings or exoskeleton, a female’s combat power could no longer operate in original form or semi‑original form; her fighting ability would be greatly reduced.

Her mental state would not improve because of it, and might even worsen.

It would only be covering one’s ears while stealing a bell.

Mousse raised a hand to the Emperor’s face, gazing into those dark‑red eyes.

Even without doing anything, he could feel the agitated mental power overflowing around the Emperor.

He was clearly in great pain, yet said nothing, still trying hard to behave as usual in front of him.

Mousse sighed softly in his heart, then curved his lips in a soothing smile and said:

“Your Majesty, let me give you a mental combing.”

The Emperor looked up at him in astonishment and then hastily refused, withdrawing a little.

“No! No need.”

“You’re worried about the mental plague?” Mousse asked.

If they did a mental combing, when the mental plague arrived, the Emperor might very well die together with him.

But in his current state, if he did not receive mental combing, he might not even live to see the year the plague came.

“It’s not that.”

This had nothing to do with the mental plague.

Even if the Empress had never combed his mind, he would not have been able to live on after her passing.

The Emperor did not believe in tales of females dying for their marked mates after the males’ deaths.

Even if there really were such a mental mark, it only proved that the male was the female’s spiritual pillar.

Losing one’s spiritual pillar naturally made survival impossible.

The Emperor explained: “My mental domain is very dangerous. If you go in, Si‑si, you’ll get hurt.”

Mousse thought of the place where he had slept.

That battlefield‑like mental domain, the booming artillery, the giant tentacles wreaking havoc…

And the wings that had covered him, and the Tianjia officer who picked him up and held him in his arms.

“It is indeed very dangerous, but Your Majesty would not harm me.”

On the contrary, he would protect him.

“Si‑si, I’m grateful that you trust me, but…”

The Emperor showed a powerless, pale smile. “But I don’t have that confidence.”

His current condition was too terrible. His mental domain was in utter chaos, storms raging within.

The Emperor did not have the confidence to stay rational and not hurt his male.

“Actually… I just entered Your Majesty’s mental domain earlier and even slept there for a while.”

Mousse’s gaze drifted a little.

Sneaking into another Tianjia’s mental domain was a very offensive act among Tianjia.

The Emperor was taken aback.

He had not sensed anything at all.

“Have you ever seen an egg?”

Mousse described it to him: “White, unmarked, a male egg, on a battlefield.”

The Emperor’s eyes widened in shock.

When he had returned from the front lines and seen the slumbering Empress in the sleeping chamber, he had inexplicably recalled an egg he had picked up on the battlefield many years ago.

It had been a male egg, already cold when he found it.

Male eggs were fragile; the slightest wrongness in temperature or humidity would kill them.

When he carried that egg back in his arms, he had not held out much hope.

But life is sometimes extraordinarily tenacious.

That male egg had miraculously survived.

Mousse stared at the Emperor, tears glimmering in his eyes, yet a smile on his face.

“I am that egg.””

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