Prince, I remembered everything. Can you look at me?
Between the Butterfly Cloud star system and the main Empire lies a natural, giant asteroid belt. In the past, this beautiful yet desolate galaxy served as a place of exile, housing countless insane geniuses. Before it was thoroughly cleaned up, it was a trading ground for alien races and star pirates.
Here, in the Butterfly Cloud, you could buy anything you wanted, as long as you could pay the price.
Dispersed spiritual power swept across the scattered, fallen planets. Even now, the ruins of bizarre factories remained: shattered test tubes, strange armors, and incomplete mechanical limbs.
Just by looking at the scattered debris, one could glimpse the madness and grotesquerie of the past.
It was not until a silvery-white mechanical planet appeared in his mental sea that Leslie broke free from that inexplicable, absurd, and grotesque feeling.
Ripples faintly stirred in his mental sea. An unspeakable, heavy premonition weighed on his heart, like thick clouds pressing down before a mountain storm, not knowing when the torrential rain would fall to destroy the branches and leaves.
Half of the Fourth Legion’s troops withdrew from the Butterfly Cloud star system after their rotation, while the remaining half were scattered among the various station planets, distributed in an interleaved pattern with the replacement troops.
Senville Mattia submitted his application the moment he received the rotation notice and returned to the Imperial Capital. Leslie could not guarantee that all members of the Mattia family would survive this battle, but at least the Empire would not lose an experienced Marshal, which could be considered a fortunate thing.
Leslie did not have the authority to arrange a military position for Casper, so he could only let him act as an instructor for the time being, responsible for the daily training of the vanguard squad.
Casper, having become busy, no longer had plenty of time to accompany Leslie. Leslie also utilized his remaining time to tighten his search of areas where alien races might land, as well as searching for the secret weapon capable of striking the Mattia bloodline with precision.
Whenever Casper finished his night training and returned to the bedroom, Leslie had already fallen into a deep sleep due to the massive consumption of his mental power.
He did not know what Leslie was worried about; even in his sleep, his brow remained furrowed. All he could do was complete the tasks his Xiongzhǔ had entrusted to him, take the restless male bug into his arms in the dead of night, and soothe him carefully.
What shattered the heavy, silent night was the fire that exploded in his mental sea.
Countless miserable screams kicked up huge waves in his mental sea. Dangerous red flames rose from the crests of the waves, the scorching temperature instantly twisting the calm mental threads on the surface of the sea, carrying with it a madness that would burn everything to ashes.
In that instant, intense pain jolted Leslie awake. His vocal cords, hijacked by shock and agony, could not even emit a cry for help.
The pathological trembling and disordered breathing of the bug in his arms synchronously awakened Casper. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a pale cheek drenched in cold sweat and golden pupils filled with terror.
“Your Highness, what is wrong?”
The anxious inquiry was interrupted before it could leave his lips.
Leslie struggled to force a command out of his throat. It was hoarse and dry, as if sandpaper had rubbed across rough wood, dropping broken dust with every sound.
“Enemy attack. Go and intercept.”
Shaking, he took the key to Frost Shadow from his space ring, pressed it against Casper’s chest to activate it, and pushed him away with his last ounce of strength.
“Go and win.”
“Yes.”
Obeying a superior’s order is an instinct engraved in the genes of a military female bug. Casper quickly stood up and dressed neatly, ready for battle within seconds.
He finally picked up the hand of his Xiongzhǔ, who had already closed his eyes, and left a kiss.
The sound of the door closing echoed. Leslie tiredly opened his eyes. The pain spreading from his head forced him to curl up, subconsciously leaning toward the area that still retained the scent of mint.
He truly had not expected that the alien race’s attack would start from the mental domain.
Specific frequency bands acted directly on the nervous system, attempting to place a mark to manipulate the selected bugs and dismantle their combat effectiveness from the roots.
This was truly unheard of.
Even he had barely managed to hold on, let alone the military female bugs who had been on the battlefield for a long time and whose mental states were already worrying.
Bearing the excruciating pain of his mental threads snapping, Leslie quickly spread his mental network to intercept and counter the attack frequency.
He could not let this thing completely invade; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The powerful mental power belonging to the SS-grade male bug spread out rapidly, establishing a mental defense network in the Butterfly Cloud star system at a speed far exceeding the speed of light, placing a defensive mark on every Mattia bloodline.
Fortunately, the direct bloodline of the Mattias had already withdrawn from the Butterfly Cloud star system, and the remaining ones with less concentrated bloodlines were protected by him before they could be affected.
The second layer of the mental power network launched a counterattack along the source of the attacking energy wave, crushing it with the force of a decaying force.
There were two sources. They were located at the position of the butterfly’s tail protrusions. If they had not been interrupted, they could have covered the entire Butterfly Cloud star system.
He could not keep intercepting them forever.
A battle lasts too long. At his current rate of mental power consumption, he would not last until the end of the battle.
His sweat-drenched hand took out an injection. The needle tip, flashing with cold light, trembled and paused for a few seconds less than a centimeter from the skin of his neck, before plunging into the delicate, white-glaze-like skin.
Crimson blood streaks meandered down from the wound, staining his pure white collar.
Casper had just linked up with Frost Shadow when he received authorization information sent by Frost Shadow.
“Respected General, you currently possess the highest authority for the entire garrison of the Butterfly Cloud star system. Please issue your instructions.”
The calm, cold electronic voice sounded; Frost Shadow did not show any enthusiasm toward the master bug he had not seen in a long time.
And the master bug, who always prioritized military affairs, had his first act upon receiving authority be to notify the nearest military doctor to provide treatment for his Xiongzhǔ.
Frost Shadow: “Are you confused?”
The highly obedient bug-artificial intelligence did not ask questions even though it felt confused, and immediately issued the order.
“Notification has been sent to the nearest sub-female military doctor and male bug mental groomer; they are expected to arrive within ten minutes.”
Only then did Casper let out a sigh of relief.
Although Leslie’s reaction just now looked a lot like he had been woken up from a nightmare, it was better to let a doctor check him.
A male bug with a delicate and sensitive mind might have sensed something and predicted an enemy attack in advance, even before the alarms sounded.
He could not help much in terms of mental power, but on the external battlefield, he would definitely be able to win the victory for his Xiongzhǔ and guard the Prince’s territory.
Leslie just had to wait patiently.
“Frost Shadow, notify all units to prepare and meet the enemy.”
“Yes.”
The cold electronic voice contained a trace of a metallic, rusty fishy smell.
Dozens of light-years away, the alien army was advancing at full speed toward the central area of the Butterfly Cloud star system.
The alien race, whose bodies were covered in bone-white exoskeletons, hissed sharply and excitedly.
They seemed to have already foreseen the scenario of the bug army’s crushing defeat. Relying on the things created by that group of crazy bugs, they would surely take the Butterfly Cloud star system this time and return to their heavenly homeland.
“How could the bug race ever imagine that they would die at the hands of their own bugs?”
“The bug race’s madmen are truly quite crazy. It is not enough that they made a machine capable of manipulating the mental state of male bugs; there are even bugs who would steal their own clan’s genes.”
“Gray is his name. It is not important. That group of madmen actually took their own clan’s genes and did genetic experiments with alien races. Are their brains only filled with money and power, with absolutely no intelligence?”
“Hee hee hee! If it were not for that group of idiots, how could we have taken the Butterfly Cloud star system so easily? Once the Mattia bloodline dies, the bug empire will only have those few cats and dogs left; they are not to be feared at all.”
“Hee hee hee!”
Waves of hissing sounds echoed throughout the spaceship. The blood-red vertical pupils beneath the bone-white skeletons trembled with excitement, revealing a bloodthirsty, murderous stench.
Not a single alien race noticed that a pitch-black wormhole had opened silently, and a strand of silvery-white long hair drifted out gently.
Countless brilliant sparks exploded on the pink-purple butterfly wings. Charred and blackened spaceship debris floated in the desolate space, shattered by the oncoming meteorites.
Amidst the crisscrossing laser beams and nuclear energy shells, a silver-blue mecha shuttled freely, penetrating deep into the enemy’s rear alone, charging seven times in and seven times out. Beneath the ice-blue light blade lay countless shattered mecha debris and bone-white remains.
Relying on Frost Shadow’s top-tier calculation power and the combat intuition Casper had honed in countless battles, they were like death gods reaping white bones, playing a dance with sharp blades.
The death god waved his scythe calmly, stepping closer to the core command cabin. The moment the cabin door was split open, the blade paused. The bug-vein energy attached to it fluctuated violently, dancing frost-blue waves upon the light blade, faithfully reacting to the agitation of the master bug’s mood.
Leslie…
Casper’s hand, resting flat on the chair back, trembled uncontrollably. His gaze was fixed, as if possessed, on the male bug amidst the shattered bones.
On the front of his pure white, soft sleeping robe was a large patch of crimson blood. The shattered glass test tube of the injection had fallen beside him, its sharp edges stained with dried, dull bloodstains. His silky, silvery-white long hair seemed to have lost its luster, becoming pale, dry, and brittle, with patches of blood congealed and attached to the ends of his hair.
“Vital signs are too low, immediate rescue suggested! Immediate rescue suggested!”
Frost Shadow’s detection system began to sound crazy alarms. The mecha arm reached out, gently lifting the male bug who had already fallen into a coma while leaning against the control console, and quickly sent him into the repair pod inside the mecha.
Casper, having come to his senses, ordered Frost Shadow to send Leslie back to the main station planet for treatment immediately, while he disconnected the link and jumped off the mecha.
Frost Shadow: “General, what are you doing?”
Under the action of the riotous bug-vein energy, his five fingers transformed into sharp claws, embedding themselves deeply into the metal wall, tearing off a piece of it.
“My Xiongzhǔ’s command has not yet been completed. I will go and win this battle.”
And by the way, tear apart those alien races who caused his Xiongzhǔ to be injured and comatose.
The scent of mint grew colder and colder, yet gradually wound itself around a spicy heat, just like a volcano beneath the icy sea surface, gradually approaching the critical point of eruption under high pressure.
Finally, it erupted completely.
The beautiful ice-blue butterfly wings sliced through the bone-white exoskeletons. The phosphorus powder that shook off attached itself to the shattered white bones, igniting an ice-blue fire that burned everything to ashes.
The wildly skyrocketing, out-of-control bug-vein energy swept through all the surrounding alien armies with a posture even more violent and insane than the master bug’s own will, exploding fireworks in the desolate space, extremely gorgeous and beautiful.
Amidst the ruins and wreckage everywhere, Casper stumbled, kneeling on one knee, sparks bursting from his emerald pupils. Complicated and chaotic memories broke free from their shackles, rolling and playing in his mental domain.
Every frame was the bug he loved the most.
The one with tear-filled eyes, the one pleading in sorrow, the one gently comforting, the one sitting alone in the courtyard drinking heavily, the one with an uneasy frown even in his dreams.
Finally, it froze on the image of him in white clothes stained with blood, his breath barely continuing.
The butterfly wings, tougher and stronger after the second growth, vibrated violently, flying at top speed toward the main planet.
He remembered everything.
His heart pumped blood outward with every beat, replacing his tear glands to vent.
At this very moment, Casper, more urgently than ever, wanted to see Leslie.
I was careless.
When Leslie went head-to-head with the signal source, this thought flashed through his mind.
The consequence of closing the distance directly through a wormhole jump was being almost knocked to his knees by the instantly enhanced energy.
Another injection went in, and Leslie barely managed to regain his sanity, quickly unfolding a wormhole to evacuate.
No.
He had no way to destroy the device directly.
His mental sea was turbulent. The rolling, uneasy mental power bared its fangs and brandished its claws, demonstrating against the energy wave, tearing it to pieces.
There was no time to hesitate. Leslie decided in an instant to break into the alien core ship. Such an important piece of equipment had to be controlled by the leader; closing the release of the energy wave from the main control and then destroying the machine was clearly more feasible.
He succeeded.
But he was also discovered.
The delicate male bug, with no strength to truss a chicken, was never good at fighting. Even though he had received combat training, he could not escape in front of an enemy army properly at war.
The only chance of winning was to bet on mental power.
The mental power, which was bottoming out after resisting the energy wave and opening wormholes many times, grew rapidly under the impetus of the drug, seizing the initiative and successfully helping the master bug subdue the alien race.
The cost was that the surging mental power was completely incompatible with his weak body. The out-of-control mental power tore the inside of his body apart bit by bit, forcing the body to undergo metamorphosis.
Even though his body was already in enough pain to have fallen into a coma, the out-of-control mental power was still transforming his body, forcing it to develop in a direction capable of accommodating mental power.
The milky-white repair serum gently wrapped around his shattered body. Repair factors flooded into his blood vessels, racing against the raging mental power.
The spontaneous protective mechanism was activated, gently wrapping around his core consciousness and dragging it into a black, sweet dream.
The moment the fierce and robust military female bug stepped into the medical room, the whole room fell silent. An invisible aura pressed down on the heart of every bug, bringing a suffocating sense of repression.
It was as if they were facing a top-tier predator; they would be torn to pieces if they moved even slightly.
The pure white medical pod was filled with top-tier milky-white repair serum, yet the male bug sleeping inside showed no signs of waking up.
Beside him, the silver-blue thin diamond-shaped key flickered a few times. Frost Shadow linked to the master bug’s spirit; as soon as it connected, its data was disordered for a moment by the violent mental domain.
Struggling to maintain stability in the mental torrent, Frost Shadow reported calmly: “At 23:13 on the night of December 24, 4038, Star Calendar, the medical bug sent a message stating that the Prince was missing. But the space environment was complex and the signal was poor at that time, so I did not receive it in time.”
“Sorry, Master Bug, this is my dereliction of duty.”
Frost Shadow’s calm, waveless electronic voice read ruthlessly. The work-oriented bug-artificial intelligence could not really understand the complex emotions of life forms; it just followed common logic to make a statement and an apology.
There was not necessarily much apology.
Frost Shadow was far more indifferent than his master bug; he could not understand the escalating whirlpool in the master bug’s mental domain.
They clearly had not cared much before.
The sub-female military doctor, who was finally able to move, pressed the start button, and the mental soothing device began to silently release soothing factors.
Mimicry factors would be interfered with by the recipient’s spirit, simulating the most reassuring scent, which had miraculous effects on military female bugs on the verge of frenzy.
The scent of fresh, slightly sweet wild roses brought a spring drizzle to the mental domain filled with electric flashes and scorched flames. The rain and mist of late spring wet the butterfly’s wings, but would not stop it from soaring.
The butterfly is forever free, but he is willing to stay for this pure white flower, the only one of its kind in the world.
He traced the pale, weak face through the glass of the medical pod. Crystal-clear water drops fell beneath his eyes, hitting the cabin lid, then meandered down after shattering, as if they were the embodiment of the countless miseries of the bug in the cabin.
“Your Highness, I remembered everything. Can you look at me?”
A lump of silvery-white light curled up in the void, dark space.
“It seems there is someone calling me.”
“Who is it?”
“Leslie, Leslie.”
The silvery-white lashes fluttered and slowly opened. The luxurious red velvet drapes were reflected in his brilliant, bright golden pupils.
Leslie reacted for a while before breaking free from the sluggish ignorance and realizing where he was.
Oh, it was a bar.
Carlos, as the only sober bug present, had the duty to send his older brother and younger brother back.
“It is not early, Leslie; it is time to go back. Sleeping here will not be comfortable.”
Carlos supported Tapia, who was drunk and muddled, with one hand, and took Leslie’s hand with the other, leading the two bugs toward the exit.
Leslie, who was somewhat drunk, followed Carlos obediently, quiet all the way, until Carlos suddenly stopped and his hand holding Leslie’s tightened for a moment.
“What is wrong?”
Leslie asked aloud, looking in the direction of Carlos’s gaze, trying to find what had made his older brother stop.
The ever-changing colored lights greatly affected his vision. He had not seen clearly what was there before he was dragged away by Carlos.
“Nothing, I recognized the wrong thing.”
After dealing with Tapia first, Carlos put Leslie on the shuttle, set his route, and then said goodbye to him.
The moment the shuttle started, Leslie looked at Carlos through the porthole.
The pomelo-pink hair presented a grayish-white color under the bright moonlight, and the tea-brown pupils hidden in the shadows of his hair were indistinct. Leslie inexplicably felt that Carlos was very far away from him, as if he were on a lonely island, surrounded by sea cliffs on all sides.
Clearly, everyone had only come out to drink because they were in a bad mood, yet Carlos had been in a daze the whole time, only sending them home when the time came.
Like a mechanical bug with a set program, he would not do anything outside the program.
A bit familiar.
Leslie, who had a poor tolerance for alcohol, had only drunk one glass of sweet berry wine, but he still felt dizzy.
The bright male bug, propping his chin with one hand, stared blankly at the decorative patterns on the wall. His brain, which could not turn very well, thought for a long time before finally remembering that Carlos’s state was very similar to Casper’s.
Dazed.
Thinking of the female bug at home, Leslie had a headache.
He did not know what he had to do to make Casper better.
He could not let go, and he could not accept watching Casper become increasingly depressed.
He could feel that when facing him, Casper’s emotions were much more tense than the rest of the attendants in the mansion. Clearly, after getting along for so long, he could accept the existence of the attendants, yet he still could not get used to him.
The depressed mood did not disappear until he stepped into the hall, but it vanished the moment he opened the bedroom door.
Blood.
A large amount of blood was sprayed on the pure white plush carpet, wetting the fluffy fur into strands, with the tips clustered into hard thorns.
From the open chest, one could faintly see the beating bright red heart, which was becoming weaker bit by bit.
“Casper!”
Leslie threw himself on his knees on the floor. He poured milky-white repair serum onto him as if it were free, his trembling hands pressing down on the blood-stained claws to prevent another one.
The female bug suppressed beneath him struggled, and a few dry, hoarse hissing sounds were squeezed from his dry throat. His vocal cords, which had not spoken for a long time, were completely disobedient for a moment.
“Stop moving!”
If you move again, the wound will split again.
Leslie cried out in an almost breakdown state, tears falling uncontrollably, each one hitting his thoracic vertebrae.
The tears, which were less than 0.1 grams, felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. A single drop made the female bug lying on the ground stop all movement.
“I will let you go, okay? I will let you go; will you live, okay?”
He could not take it anymore.
If this happened again, he would definitely go crazy.
The pain carried in those golden pupils filled with tears made Casper freeze; he could not react for a moment.
And his silence was taken as default by Leslie.
A smile blossomed on his face, which was covered in mottled tear stains, but it was filled with bitterness, looking even uglier than crying.
The first kiss landed on his collarbone; that was the butterfly’s antenna.
“I set you free, please live.”
The next day, official Imperial reports stated that Casper Seville, the Ci Jun of Prince Leslie Clark, had unfortunately passed away due to illness, and the Prince, in excessive grief, had gone to an outer star system to clear his mind.
Except for Casper’s former trusted aides, no bug felt sorrow or regret for his death. The eyes of those in high positions had already turned to the position of Ci Jun left vacant by the Prince.
Also, no bug knew that in a medical pod on the spaceship the Prince was taking abroad, there was a female bug with frost-blue short hair who was deep in thought, pondering how to explain to his Xiongzhǔ that he had no intention of leaving.
As well as, how to declare his love.