The light of his youth, running toward him; the remaining road, he will walk it
The manor’s mechanical servants were incredibly stiff and dull.
Casper never imagined that there would come a day when he would despise advanced insectoid AI. In the past, he was quite satisfied with the efficiency of AI that strictly followed orders without the slightest error, like Frostshadow. But now, he deeply felt that they perhaps could not even be called intelligent.
Mentally handicapped would be more accurate.
Every time he asked where Leslie was, the mechanical servant would say in a soothing, gentle tone: “Please rest assured, Your Highness the Prince is in a very distant star system and will not appear before you again.”
Casper: “…”
Was that what he meant?!!
After being shut down by the mechanical servant yet again, Casper sighed heavily and leaned back onto the sofa.
When he had awakened, his claws had already sliced open his chest. He had only managed to stop the next movement of crushing his heart, and before he could clean up the bloody, gore-filled scene, Leslie had pushed the door open and walked in. This was his master’s dream. Perhaps influenced by memories deep within his consciousness, Leslie had returned home far earlier than in reality, running right into this scene.
In reality, the moment he saw his cold corpse, had Leslie also thought, “If only I had come back a little earlier,” or “If only I could have stopped it”?
On his pale skin, which had not seen light for so long, there seemed to be traces of dried blood. This time, it was not the blood of a fallen opponent, but his own. For a male insectoid, what a terrifying sight that must have been. How could he not have nightmares? It was only because the fear was so intense that his consciousness had suppressed it to the very bottom of the sea, revealing it only when his mental sea churned violently. Stripped of the ocean’s veil, the blood-red marks deeply branded on the seabed were incredibly jarring.
The female insectoid body, leaning against the soft fabric sofa, was extremely frail, making Casper, who was accustomed to a strong body brimming with energy, feel deeply uncomfortable.
Had he been this weak before? Even an F-rank male insectoid would not gasp for air every few steps like him, would he?
Casper’s expression turned peculiar. Could it be that Leslie actually liked the weak type?
Standing over 190 cm tall, with a broad chest, sturdy abdominal muscles, and having just been promoted to SS-rank, the military female felt a sudden, profound suspicion of the strong physique he had previously been so proud of. If his master really liked that type, then he would just beat up every weak female insectoid or sub-insectoid who dared to get close. Among competitors, mating was a contest of martial power. Weak insectoids simply had no qualifications to enter his master’s field of vision.
Secretive data streams flowed over the mechanical servant’s eye membranes, silently transmitting information to the distant manor. Even in a state of daze and stillness identical to usual, one could see from the subtle expressions on his face that Casper’s spirit had become active. This was entirely different from his situation at the Prince’s residence.
Leslie wearily closed his eyes, sinking completely into the repair fluid, no longer watching the screen. Sure enough, away from him, Casper’s condition had improved quickly. If he had let go sooner and allowed Casper to recuperate in a natural environment far from the Imperial Capital, perhaps even the previous attempts to seek death would not have happened. His own willfulness was eroding the life of the insectoid he held in his heart.
With a splash, the male insectoid, pushed to the limit of holding his breath, broke the surface of the repair fluid under the drive of survival instinct, gasping for fresh air. Peach-pink repair fluid slid down his forehead and cheeks. Repair factors entered the lower layers of his skin, supplementing and repairing it bit by bit. Drop by drop, the lotus-pink solution dripped from his pointed chin, sending circles of ripples across the surface of the fluid.
The turbulent, distorted, yet now calm and smooth liquid surface reflected an exquisite face, without sorrow or joy, like an inanimate insectoid doll. The faint crimson blood color on his face could only be stained from the outside, while his inner core remained hollow.
He had used too much medicine, which ultimately had an impact on his body.
His silver-white eyelashes trembled slightly. A drop of faded repair fluid detached from the tips of his lashes and fell.
Oh. Perhaps not just his body; more likely, it was his spirit.
Controlling his mental tentacles to cut off all channels of external communication, the entire castle fell into a state of isolation. Fluffy, soft clouds wrapped around the weary male insectoid, becoming a healing cradle in the darkness.
“Just let it be…”
Leslie sank deeply into a state of pure, black tranquility.
The rehabilitation area of the ecological planet had very few traces of industry. Climate regulation devices were cast directly into the protective atmosphere layer on the outer edge of the planet to maintain stable climate conditions in each region. Large patches of sage swayed in this area, and the violet flowers enthusiastically embraced the sunlight, wantonly displaying their vigorous vitality.
Leslie lay in a semi-enclosed hammock, sniffing the calming fragrance drifting from afar, sleeping from the brilliant sunset until the stars and moon hung high.
An endless loneliness surged like a tide the moment he opened his eyes, pressing heavily against his heart. Strands of oxygen squeezed laboriously from his narrow trachea into his lungs, struggling to maintain his life. In his slightly blurred vision, a rare bright color appeared, one that was different from the simple, pastoral style of the primitive countryside.
“…” It was the unique aesthetic beauty forged by mechanical industry.
That silver-blue point gradually enlarged in his vision, reflecting the clear moonlight, galloping toward him, leaving a fragmented trail of light behind. The airflow stirred up by the mech’s landing awakened the sleeping sage. The moment they woke up, the leaves and flowers danced joyfully, and the violet flowers bloomed wantonly in the flowing silver brilliance.
The tall female insectoid ran toward him, riding the moonlight, his frost-colored hair flying, carrying a vitality that had not been seen for a long time. The brain that had just awakened could not process this scene, which was beautifully eerie, and could only vaguely produce one thought.
The light of his youth was running toward him.
“…” Only to be blocked outside the cold iron gate.
After the pharmacist sent by Chris produced the genetic repair serum in time, Leslie’s physical condition stabilized, and under the influence of the top-tier repair fluid, he began to recover. However, Leslie remained in a deep sleep, even though the threshold of his mental domain’s vitality remained above normal levels.
This indicated that Leslie had met the conditions for waking up but was trapped in a dream; his autonomous consciousness was unwilling to awaken. According to the medical insectoid’s plan, Casper connected to Leslie’s mental domain; his only task was to awaken the male insectoid who could not wake up on his own.
At the first encounter, he understood the reason why Leslie could not wake up. This was a very serious emotional knot, a wound that had been forcibly ignored and hidden by his surface consciousness. The pain was shielded, and even the wound had never healed, so he did not realize it was still bleeding.
After waiting for a few days, realizing that Leslie would not actively come to find him, Casper contacted the outside world and imported Frostshadow’s data. Going against the consciousness of the master of a mental world was an extremely dangerous thing to do; once rejected by the subject, entering again would be even more difficult. But now, if he did not increase the variables, Casper was deeply worried that Leslie would trap himself to death in his dreams without leaving a line of hope.
Frostshadow’s efficiency was extremely high, and within less than a quarter of an hour, it retrieved Leslie’s specific location. The power system was pushed to the maximum, flying rapidly toward the only red dot on the screen. The master insectoid’s anxiety puzzled Frostshadow; this was a fierce emotion that had not even existed when escaping from an explosion, but the efficiency module of the AI core quickly calculated a more efficient plan.
Master, do you need to initiate space migration?
Although the energy consumption was greater and it was truly a bit of a fuss for a journey, it was indeed the most efficient plan currently.
“No.”
?
Frostshadow hurriedly stopped the program that was about to initiate, falling into silence with extreme confusion and chaos.
Wasn’t he in quite a hurry…?
The projected route shrunk further. Casper’s originally anxious heart gradually cooled, and what filled him again was an indescribable, complex sourness.
They were separated by an entire planet.
They had the greatest ground distance.
There are some roads that you only know how long they are after walking them yourself.
He did not dare to use any method that would strongly disturb the mental environment, so he could only wait, waiting to coincide with the red dot on the screen. He still knew how far the distance to the destination was, and even that was so difficult to endure, so how hard must it have been for Leslie, who was always moving toward him, not knowing at all how far he had left to go…
They slept in each other’s arms, feeling each other’s heartbeats, yet their two hearts were separated by a distance even further than a star system.
He is too tired.
Casper suddenly realized this point.
Leslie had walked for too long, far too long, on a dark road with no end and no response. He was too tired. Once the tight string in his brain snapped, the repressed, heavy exhaustion surged up, dragging his primary consciousness into a deep sleep.
The projected route shrunk further. Casper raised his hand to trace the remaining path, his fingertips finally reaching the target red dot.
It does not matter.
The remaining road, he will walk it.