In the end, Ross was the first to raise his head. Catching sight of the Admiral, he started slightly and hurried forward.
“Admiral, may I turn on the projection during the daytime?”
Emotion was entirely absent from Keo’s face as he asked, “Why?”
Lowering his gaze, Ross deliberated. “There is nothing inside the room. If this continues, I am concerned the captive’s mental state will deteriorate.”
Keo stared at him in silence for a moment.
“So what? Compared to his mental state, I care more about why Paz has yet to contact us.”
The Paz royal family had no reason to take the loss of a prince without panicking.
Keo had even begun considering whether he had accidentally captured a counterfeit prince.
Regrettably, Eugene’s physical attributes were so exceptionally superior that searching the entire star system would likely yield no substitute capable of passing for Eugene, making it impossible to doubt his identity.
With a male growing up looking like this, it was hardly surprising he was such a magnet for trouble; he was presumably long accustomed to being surrounded by female Zergs.
Although Admiral Keo’s expression appeared no different from usual, Ross had served him long enough to distinctly sense the Admiral’s displeasure.
Shame instantly flickered across Ross’s face. “I apologize, Admiral. I will investigate immediately.”
Knowing the true reason was that Special Security had intentionally suppressed the news, Eugene remained aware that Hashu had yet to receive any word.
With that, Ross took his leave. Keo marched straight into the opposite suite, slammed the door shut, and did not emerge again.
The matter of the projection thus fell through.
Eugene sighed inwardly.
Keo seemed angry. Rules here were evidently ironclad, and no one dared defy Keo’s commands.
If he wished to escape this place, he still needed Keo to lower his guard against him, though that appeared utterly impossible.
That very night, an even worse development occurred.
Amidst Eugene’s slumber, the starship gave a slight shudder and came to a halt, signaling their arrival at Hashu’s central satellite cluster.
In the morning, Keo entered his room and directly operated the wall console, installing an extra refrigerator inside. Opening it revealed that the interior was packed entirely with sealed liquid sustenance.
After hesitating for a long time, Ross followed behind the Admiral and whispered, “Locking him away in here alone, is that truly alright?”
Keo’s expression was exceptionally cold. “Do not lock him alone, and trouble will follow.”
Eugene did not quite understand, yet a wave of panic washed over him. He poked his head out past the refrigerator door.
“Are you leaving somewhere?”
Keo ignored him once more after a cold inspection of the food supply.
Watching Keo turn to leave, Eugene feigned anxiety and reached out to catch him. Keo sidestepped to avoid his touch, leaving Eugene to watch helplessly as he walked away.
In truth, Eugene knew precisely what Keo was going to do.
Now that the starship had reached Hashu’s stationed satellite colony, he naturally had to descend and report the situation to the cabinet members, a process that would take at least several days.
If possible, Eugene truly wished to avoid being locked away here, forced to let the plot unfold entirely outside his control.
Alas, he remained utterly powerless against it.
He estimated Keo might be gone for a week, yet even Keo himself had not anticipated that a full fifteen days would pass before he returned to the starship.
Throughout that span, the starship maintained standard operations and underwent routine maintenance, though the personnel on board were reduced to a third of their flight complement.
Keo’s face bore little expression, yet the oppressive aura radiating around him remained distinctly heavy, making it obvious his mood was foul. Clearly, his negotiations with headquarters had failed to yield the desired outcome.
Soldiers along the way bowed their heads in greeting, but Keo abruptly halted upon passing a female Zerg soldier and seized him by the arm.
“You entered my room.”
The soldier froze initially before shaking his head frantically, his face blanching with terror.
“No, Admiral. I did not, I merely passed by.”
With a piercing scrutiny in his gaze, Keo forcibly pried the soldier’s arm open.
“Hand it out!”
Daring not disobey, the soldier opened his trembling, clenched fist with clear reluctance. Resting in his palm was a slender, luminous shard resembling crystal or a dragonfly’s wing, radiating a distinct pheromone scent.
It was the scent of Eugene’s pheromones.
Staring down at it, Keo’s complexion darkened further. “What is this?”
Cold sweat streamed down the soldier’s face. “I do not know. It has been there these past few days, right by the doorway. Everyone has been picking them up. Forgive me, Admiral.”
Stealing a glance at Keo’s countenance, Ross swallowed nervously.
The Admiral looked utterly furious.
Flinging the soldier’s arm aside, Keo strode rapidly toward his own living quarters, the pheromone scent growing stronger with every step.
Keo’s expression grew increasingly grim.
“What is he playing at now?”
He had known this male would refuse to behave. With a pheromone concentration this potent, how many individuals was he trying to seduce, or was he planning to incite a mutiny across the entire starship?
Reaching the doorway of his quarters, he found a crowd of soldiers clustered in the corridor. Some pressed close to the doorframe, others stared up at the ventilation ducts above, occasionally gesturing to one another before scanning their surroundings.
The scene looked lively enough to be a treasure hunt.
“What are you all doing gathered here?” Ross stepped forward, hastily dispersing the crowd for the visibly oppressive Admiral. “Return to your posts.”
Keo unlocked the door, only for an even denser wave of pheromones to rush over him. His expression turning utterly dreadful, he strode straight inside.
“What do you think you are doing?”
Keo had resolved to lose his temper, but upon entering, he found Eugene huddled in the corner of the bathroom.
He had draped himself in the shower curtain, the metal rod supporting it having collapsed and pinned down his pristine back.
The Paz race possessed a pair of silvery-white, cloud-shaped butterfly-like patterns on their backs, and unfurling from above those markings now was a pair of delicate wings.
Nearly transparent and exceedingly thin, the wings shimmered with five-colored reflections in the light, resembling a soft blend of a rainbow and cicada wings, exquisitely beautiful.
At present, however, those wings were shattered, shedding numerous delicate flakes that drifted down to scatter across the floor before being swept away by the room’s air circulation currents.
Keo’s heart jolted violently, driving every reprimand he had prepared back down his throat.
Lying on the cold floor curled into a ball, Eugene sensed Keo approaching and felt deeply apprehensive.
He had no inkling of how Keo might react.
Moments later, Keo crouched beside him and even extended a hand. Eugene flinched instinctively, yet to his surprise, Keo’s touch upon him was gentle.
“Retract your wings,” Keo instructed.
His tone remained steady, the cadence of his voice appearing uncharacteristically soft.
Startled, Eugene raised his head to look at him.
With a solemn expression, Keo helped him up, placed a hand on Eugene’s neck, and spoke with an urgency that verged on tension. “Relax. Focus, and draw your wings back first.”
Perhaps due to his own chill, Eugene felt Keo’s palm radiating intense heat.
An unexpectedly comforting sensation.
Stepping into the room, Ross was initially struck with a blush by the heavy pheromone scent and hastily covered his nose and mouth.
Raising his eyes a moment later, he froze as he saw the Admiral wrap the male in a bedsheet and lift him into his arms.
Ross stared in astonishment. “Admiral?”
“Go summon Joe.”
What, his wings are broken?
Joe’s voice boomed loud enough to echo down the corridor.
Frowning slightly, Keo replied, “Yes, his wings appear extremely fragile.”
“Damn, you scared the hell out of me. Suddenly seeing you carry someone in like that, I thought you two…”
Joe’s remaining words were instantly silenced by Keo’s warning glare.
“Cough, I told you not to lock him in there alone, but you wouldn’t listen. Unbelievable!”
“Let me examine him.”
Carrying Eugene forward a step, Keo placed him gently onto the examination table and made to withdraw his hand, but Eugene reached out and caught his sleeve.
Keo paused, lowering his gaze toward him.
Eugene’s eyes were remarkably clear.
“Hold?”
Keo fell silent for a fraction of a second. “No more holding.”
He had instructed Eugene to hold onto him earlier purely to carry him out of the room, and this foolish male was evidently still clinging to the directive.
Tch.
Lifting his eyes, Keo caught Joe looking at him with an amused smirk. “Turned over a new leaf?”
Looking impatient, Keo offered no response.
Joe closed in with a look of eager interest.
“Seeing his wings shattered, did you finally realize he was kicked stupid by you instead of playing tricks?”
When a male faced a crisis, he would instinctively release a certain degree of pheromones to entice female Zergs to protect him.
Hashu society possessed limited familiarity with Paz customs, but displaying wings and releasing pheromones essentially served the identical purpose.
With Eugene’s mental faculties currently impaired, Joe harbored minimal skepticism regarding how the incident transpired.
Naturally, Eugene had simply found the confinement in that room unbearable, driven his Zerg markings to manifest his wings, and subsequently damaged them by accident.
How pitiful.
“I told you from the start to hand him over to me.”
“Look at how you have raised him.”
While picking faults verbally, Joe efficiently proceeded with Eugene’s examination.
The male naturally possessed broad shoulders and a narrow waist, with fair skin, and the silvery-white Zerg markings accentuating a spine that carried the faintest hint of muscle definition, presenting a remarkably pleasing sight.
Only his waist looked starved down.
Fortunately, his body fat remained low, and his abdominal muscles were still intact.
“What exactly are you inspecting?”
With an impatient frown, Keo yanked the sheet wrapped around Eugene’s waist right back up.
Unfazed, Joe coughed lightly. “Cough, the Zerg markings look acceptable.”
Lowering his head in silence, Eugene released his wings once more.
In an instant, the Zerg markings flared to life, casting luminous, transparent, and ultra-thin feathered wings that claimed nearly a third of the room’s space.
Only, that iridescent, stunning pair of wings now bore a massive fracture right down the middle, rendering them utterly shattered.
Ross entered at that moment, wearing a protective mask and cradling a small cloth pouch with both hands, fragments he had gathered from other soldiers.
Contained now within that scrap of black cloth, they looked almost like a tiny handful of crushed diamonds.
“Yet they are indeed broken.”
Stunned for a moment, Joe stared at them with genuine admiration before shaking his head. “Well, that is beyond repair.”
Silence fell over the occupants of the room at those words. A single thought inevitably surfaced in each of their minds.
What a terrible waste.
They were exceptionally magnificent wings.
A Hashu Zerg’s markings could manifest hard armor in combat for defensive purposes, and the hardness and coverage area of that outer shell served as critical metrics for determining their rank.
Consequently, they placed immense value on those markings; if the shell cracked or the markings sustained damage, it equated to a severe disability akin to losing a limb.
Paz markings, by contrast, transformed into wings to aid in combat, a phenomenon they had witnessed on battlefields. They naturally assumed the two systems were equivalent.
“Move him into the medical pod.”
Breaking the silence, Keo ultimately made the decision.
Retracting his wings, Eugene watched as the medical pod was wheeled before him and its lid slid open.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he abruptly grew uncooperative, refusing to step inside and instead reaching out for Keo again to clutch his clothing.
Keo had no choice but to pull him into an embrace.
“What are you doing? Get inside.”
“No.”
“Obey!”
Tilting his head, Eugene asked, “Together?”
Keo’s expression soured instantly.
Realizing Keo would not comply, Eugene grew desperate and kicked weakly against the bedsheet.
Keo instinctively reached down to re-adjust the wrap, and Eugene seized the opening to wrap his arms around Keo’s waist.
Though sturdy, Keo’s waist was remarkably slender. The thought flitted unbidden through Eugene’s mind. For reasons unknown, Keo suddenly flared up, forcefully pinning Eugene’s hands against the examination table.
“Will you pull yourself together!”
The air remained thick with a distinct pheromone scent. Keo’s brow furrowed tightly, sweat beading on his skin while the tips of his ears turned a concealed shade of red as he reacted with uncharacteristic intensity.
“Do not touch me.”
Eugene opened his mouth, then closed it again. He had merely touched him by accident.
Peering over with a covered sheet still in hand, Joe wore an expression of profound regret.
“Why are you snapping at him?”
“Tch, his mental state right now is like that of a toddler. You locked him away in that room where the only person he ever saw was you, and then you vanished completely for over ten days. Won’t he develop PTSD and cling to you?”
“If I did not know you better, I would almost suspect you engineered this on purpose.”
“Isn’t this textbook psychological control?”
Knowing full well that Keo simply wished to prevent anyone from being charmed by the male, Joe made the remarks largely to needle Keo for his professed indifference toward males.
Ross looked as though he genuinely believed the talk about PTSD.
Having entered the room with his gaze rigidly averted from Eugene, he suddenly found a wellspring of courage.
“Admiral? Perhaps I should accompany him inside…”