Eugene finally regained consciousness when they went through the trouble of fetching a stretcher.
Lying on the stretcher and feeling thoroughly miserable all over, he nevertheless breathed a slight sigh of relief in his heart as he watched the surrounding people escort him toward the infirmary.
His constitution had been delicate since childhood, prone to illness at the slightest negligence.
The detention area from the previous night was inherently chilly, and after shedding his outer garment and dampening his clothes with water, he had deliberately sought out a spot directly facing the ventilation duct to lie down. Naturally, a fever flared up throughout the night just as he anticipated.
Although he was weak at the moment, successfully compelling them to voluntarily escort him out of the heavily guarded detention zone counted as a triumph.
Unlike the dim hallways, the perimeter of the infirmary shimmered with blue and white lights, and the automatic doors slid open to reveal a spacious and brightly lit interior.
The starship had not been subjected to recent attacks, leaving the infirmary sparsely populated; the figures moving to and fro were predominantly medical personnel clad in white uniforms.
Standing out among them most prominently was a tall man with disheveled long hair, rugged facial features, and a sturdy build.
“General Joe…” A nursing orderly instinctively bowed respectfully upon walking up to him, lowering his voice to deliver a report. “The schedule on the reservation list for today was Admiral Keo’s physical examination…”
The orderly did not finish the sentence, but it was abundantly clear that the Admiral, as expected, had failed to show up.
“Tch.” The military Zerg named Joe looked somewhat impatient, but before he could reply, he was interrupted by soldiers who had suddenly entered carrying a stretcher.
“General Joe!”
Without even lifting his head, Joe simply took the tablet handed over by the orderly to check it. “Did you make an appointment?”
“No, this is someone from the Paz clan…”
“I asked if you made an appointment. If not, get lost…”
Frowning, Joe’s tone carried a cold edge, yet before he could finish speaking, he caught sight of Eugene trailing behind them.
Raising an eyebrow, Joe tossed the tablet aside directly and reached out to pat the examining table before him.
“Get in here. Put him down.”
The other soldiers: “…”
They proceeded to place Eugene onto the bed regardless. Joe strode directly forward without any concealment, propping his hands on the examination table to inspect Eugene meticulously from head to toe while clicking his tongue in marvel.
Eugene remained silent, casting a single glance at him before shifting his gaze away.
The man possessed black hair and golden eyes, with pronounced muscle contours and an arc-shaped black Zerg marking on his face near his left eye that extended down to his chin, the hallmark of a high-ranking Zerg of the Hashu race.
Judging by appearances, he was likely a formidable adversary.
“What did you just call him? A male of the Paz?”
“So yesterday’s captive was actually a male…”
After examining Eugene’s face repeatedly and thoroughly, Joe finally began checking his health as if still unsatisfied, and upon rolling up the sleeve of Eugene’s garment, he nearly bit his tongue.
Bruises covered Eugene entirely due to the bumps and collisions inside the spacecraft yesterday. Because his skin was exceptionally fair, the injuries appeared far more severe than they actually were.
Joe could not help but raise an eyebrow. “What on earth did you people do to him?”
Did they actually resort to beating a male?
The soldiers shook their heads frantically, a baby-faced soldier attempting an explanation. “No, yesterday it was the Admiral…”
Before he could finish, Joe wore an expression of sudden realization. “Oh! Keo.”
As if beating a male would be completely unsurprising if the perpetrator was Admiral Keo.
Eugene: “Was he truly going to escape this place alive?”
“Tch, a prisoner. I will have to consult that fellow about this.”
Although Joe seemed somewhat unreliable, he still administered a fever-reducing injection to Eugene first, pulled the blanket over him, wheeled him into a private ward, and promptly began chasing people out.
“Alright, clear out. This male is staying with me.”
The soldiers from the detention area had no choice but to depart with visible reluctance.
Lying on the hospital bed and feeling drowsily inclined to close his eyes, Eugene suddenly sensed someone approaching.
He snapped his eyes open to find Joe’s face hovering right before him.
The tall, high-ranking female Zerg leaned in without the slightest restraint, staring at him with inscrutable eyes while lifting his bangs with a finger.
Frowning, Eugene disliked such abrupt contact and hurriedly averted his face, raising a vigilant gaze to look at him.
Yet Joe still caught sight of Eugene’s light golden eyes, his gaze narrowing slightly in admiration.
“That fellow fished such a stunning male out of the spacecraft and didn’t mention a single word of it to me.”
“I am going to have a proper talk with him about this…”
Eugene failed to grasp the other man’s intent, but fortunately, Joe merely observed him for a moment before letting out a laugh and turning to leave.
Lying in the hospital bed, Eugene waited until he regained a measure of strength before stealthily getting up and peering out through the door panel.
While the security here lacked the rigorous defense of the detention zone, a guard was still stationed outside Eugene’s ward, and the door remained locked.
Dropping his gaze in contemplation for a moment, Eugene returned to the bed.
Not long afterward, the female Zerg orderly on guard outside heard a muffled thud from within.
He hastily unlocked and pushed open the door, only to find the silver-haired, golden-eyed male sprawled on the floor having tumbled from the bed.
“Are you alright?”
He rushed over to help him up.
The face Eugene lifted was deathly pale, his temples damp with a thin sheen of cold sweat.
Viewing the other’s silvery-white eyelashes and golden eyes at such close range left the Zerg orderly momentarily dazed.
“My stomach hurts…”
The orderly snapped back to his senses, suddenly feeling an inexplicable sense of tension and even stammering slightly. “Have you not eaten anything yet?”
After supporting Eugene back onto the bed, the orderly hurried out and returned shortly with a glass of water and a packet of nutrient fluid.
Without speaking, Eugene tore open the packaging of the nutrient fluid and drank it down, only to vomit it all back up shortly after.
The orderly was startled. “How can it be this severe? Let me go call…”
Eugene waved a hand to stop him. “There is no need.”
“It has actually been hurting since last night. I simply have never consumed this kind of… this ordinary nutrient fluid before.”
Eugene’s words were not entirely false; his status as a member of the royal family had ensured he received the most exquisite care from childhood onward, and falling into enemy hands this time was undoubtedly the greatest physical hardship his body had ever endured.
His complexion at the moment was exceptionally pale, yet the corners of his eyes were faintly red, and paired with his silver hair, he resembled a stranded angel who could evoke not an ounce of guardredness in anyone.
“I wish to take a bath, if I may.”
Staring fixedly at Eugene with flushed cheeks and unconscious deference, the orderly shifted his mode of address without realizing it. “But you are still running a fever…”
Before he could finish, seeing Eugene display a look of disappointment, the orderly felt as though he had been pricked by a needle and immediately became restless.
“Then, in that case, I will go find another male to help you wipe down and change clothes. You should feel a bit more comfortable then.”
Many lower-ranking males still sought out employment. Even though they essentially performed no heavy labor, they could still command high salaries.
The female Zerg soldier hurried off immediately after speaking.
Before long, another male orderly arrived at Eugene’s ward, his attitude markedly more unpleasant.
“What a hassle…”
Complaining as he pushed open the door, the male lifted his gaze, only to freeze immediately.
The room contained nothing save for an empty hospital bed; there was no trace of the Paz prince whatsoever.
Filled with doubt and before he could react, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his neck and collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
Eugene hurriedly bent down to catch the male, preventing him from hitting the floor and making a sound, before exchanging his own clothes for those of the unconscious orderly.
Regrettably, the man was shorter than him. Once Eugene put the uniform on, a large section of his calves was exposed, yet the waistband hung exceedingly loose, and the upper garment proved equally ill-fitting.
Having no alternative, Eugene placed the unconscious male onto the hospital bed, pulled his hat down low to conceal his conspicuous silver hair as best as he could, and strode briskly outside.
Still running a fever and with an empty stomach, this exertion left Eugene bathed in cold sweat and breathing irregularly.
Yet according to the plot developments he had received, this starship was scheduled to make only a brief stopover at a transit station before resuming its voyage back toward the inner satellite cluster of Hashu territory.
If the spacecraft was still docked at the transit station at this moment, he merely needed to locate an exit promptly, slip out, and blend into the complex crowd within the space station, making it difficult for them to track him down.
However, should the delay stretch until the ship launched and returned to Hashu, any subsequent attempt to escape would inevitably become immensely arduous.
Consequently, Eugene dared not waste a single moment.
Clutching the unfamiliar passcard hidden inside his coat, Eugene drew a deep breath at the corner leading outward, intending to time his movement and slip away undetected when two figures abruptly turned the corner into the passage.
Damn it…
With no other choice, Eugene instantly pulled back, retreated down the corridor, and slipped into an unoccupied room.
Unfortunately, the two incoming individuals happened to head directly toward his location.
One of them spoke in a low baritone. Presumably wearing leather military boots, his footsteps struck the floor in a steady, disciplined rhythm.
As they drew closer, the sound of their conversation drifted over.
“I told you I do not need it. Just keep supplying me with suppressants.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Tell me, do you seriously possess no sense of pain whatsoever?”
Admiral Keo’s voice carried a trace of impatience. “What is there to feel?”
“Damn it,” Joe muttered softly. “You are truly a monster. Let us see if you can hold out for another decade.”
Passing the room where Eugene hid, Admiral Keo abruptly raised a hand, causing even the flippant Joe to fall silent instantly.
Keo turned his head sideways, his expression sinking.
“Who is there?”
Eugene: “…”
He never imagined that the passersby outside would detect him simply by walking past.
What terrifying perceptual acuity was this?
What should he do?
The primary reason Eugene had sent the previous female Zerg away under the guise of bathing was precisely out of concern that he might fail to overpower him.
Though he had acquired a fair amount of combat knowledge since childhood, physical limitations meant his greatest chance of success lay solely in catching an opponent off guard. He could match neither their sheer physical strength nor endurance.
Furthermore, there appeared to be two people outside right now.
Eugene had not yet formulated a solution.
Because no immediate response was forthcoming, the voice outside turned abruptly frigid.
“Come out!”
Eugene’s heart jolted as he heard the heavy footsteps of the other party striding inward.
Clenching his fists in secret, he had no choice but to stake everything on a desperate gamble.
Yet the moment he burst forward to launch an attack, he realized he had made a grave error.
It was that military Zerg!
The man standing before him possessed a gaze as sharp as a battle-hardened falcon. His slender frame, clad in a pure black military uniform, resembled a drawn bow, overflowing with strength, tension, and latent lethality in every movement.
His cropped jet-black hair was short, his eyes a dazzling gold, and his handsome, three-dimensional facial features were accented by a straight black Zerg marking extending from his eye down to his jaw. At a glance, he was unmistakably a veteran military commander of the highest bloodline rank within the Hashu race.
He was by no means an opponent he could defeat.
Almost concurrently with that realization, Admiral Keo delivered a kick directly to his head.
The impact sent Eugene hurtling straight into the wall; he even heard his own head strike with a resounding bang before he slumped down to the floor.
“Ugh…”
Before he could recover from the blinding agony, he was hoisted up by the collar by Keo.
The hat on Eugene’s head dislodged, revealing a cascade of moonlight-silver hair, blood-stained cheeks, and pale, delicate facial features.
Keo froze upon seeing his face, his brows lifting.
“It is you?”
With his vision blurred and utterly incapable of speech, Eugene lapsed rapidly into unconsciousness.
Before losing consciousness, he vaguely heard Joe’s incredulous gasp echoing from the doorway.
“What the hell, why did you strike his face?”
“Unbelievable.” Joe strode over, eyes wide with exaggerated shock as he cupped Eugene’s head in his hands. “You hit him way too hard. With a face like that, how could you bring yourself to kick him?”
For once, Keo fell silent for a brief moment without offering a reply.
In truth, he had never anticipated that the assailant who ambushed him moments ago would actually be a male.
Eugene’s sneak attack just now had been crisp and decisive, bearing all the hallmarks of professional training, entirely unlike the frail and useless males of common report. Driven by defensive instinct, his counterattack might have been slightly excessive.