Ultimately, Keo abandoned the strategy of keeping Eugene locked away.
He loosened the handcuffs on Eugene’s wrist, leaving only the right hand bound with an attached chain intended to secure him to a designated spot at a moment’s notice.
For the most part, however, Keo simply clutched the chain in his hand throughout the day.
Whenever Eugene felt his wrist gently pulled upward, it meant Keo wanted him to follow along.
After gazing down at their linked hands for a moment, Eugene found himself thinking that Keo might as well have just handcuffed the two of them together.
“Ha!” Upon catching sight of the chain, Joe brazenly broke into sarcastic applause.
“True to forced romance. The internet never deceives me.”
“Am I part of your play as well?”
Keo’s expression darkened. “Shut your mouth.”
“Admiral,” Ross suddenly burst over. “The cabinet’s communication channel just came through. They want you to head down there again immediately.”
Displeasure flickered across Keo’s face. “Tell them I am occupied.”
“It is not that. It is because…” Glancing sideways at Eugene, Ross continued, “Paz has contacted us.”
Keo paused. He cast a glance at Eugene as well before stepping away briefly from the office to take the communication call.
Eugene attempted to follow Keo, but an arm abruptly thrust out to block his path.
Frowning slightly, Eugene turned his gaze toward Joe.
Joe possessed a sturdy, muscular build with pronounced definition, standing slightly taller than him and wearing his clothes somewhat loosely to reveal a patch of his chest.
His eyes, unlike Keo’s pure gold, resembled an opaque yellowish-brown, and the gaze he fixed on Eugene stirred deep aversion within him.
The two were already standing close enough when Joe suddenly took another step forward, prompting Eugene to instantly retreat a large step in vigilance.
Instead of backing off, Joe burst into a fit of belly laughter. “I give up.”
He flashed a flirtatious wink at Eugene. “Actions like that only make me more excited.”
Eugene: “”
With Keo already out of the room, Eugene had no alternative but to walk over to the sofa and sit down.
He assumed the encounter had concluded, but after observing him with amusement for a moment, Joe strode over once more, propping his hand against the armrest beside Eugene’s face.
“Why bother trying to please Keo? If you devoted even a tenth of that effort toward pleasing me, I might have already let you walk free.”
Eugene stiffened, yet remained silent.
“What, you do not believe me?”
“If I cannot do it alone, joining forces with this fellow certainly will.”
Joe abruptly shifted his gaze to Ross, who was busy organizing documents nearby. “How about it, Ross? Tonight, help me unlock the door to Keo’s quarters. I will slip in, steal this stunning prince, and split him fifty-fifty with you.”
Startled, Ross frowned. “Please do not jest about such matters.”
“What, are you hoping to monopolize him? You need to consider whether you are worthy. A male like this is someone ordinary people cannot even hope to share a cup of tea with. If you miss an opportunity like this, you will never find another chance.”
Joe spoke with absolute ease, his expression making it virtually impossible to decipher whether he was joking or in earnest.
Ross pressed his lips together, scattering the papers in his hands before hurriedly gathering them up again.
“I have no intention of seeking out a male. I do not need…”
“Oh, give it a rest,” Joe laughed heartily.
“When you collected those wing fragments last time, did you secretly hoard one for yourself?”
“What?” Ross’s eyes widened.
“Did you spend last night fantasizing about him—”
“I certainly did not!” Ross’s neck flushed crimson once more.
Snorting softly, Joe suddenly hauled Ross upward and shoved him toward Eugene’s direction. “Truly not?”
“Then why do you keep stealing glances at him?”
Ross’s face grew even redder. “I do not!”
“What is there to fear? It is completely natural. Everyone appreciates beauty. Pay no attention to Keo’s nonsense; he is absolute madness. The side effects of suppressants only grow more severe over time.”
“Why subject yourself to that misery?”
While speaking, Joe forcefully hauled Ross closer, pinning his hand down and pressing it directly toward Eugene’s lap.
“?” Eugene moved to stand up and evade the contact, but Joe gave a sudden shove, sending Ross stumbling directly onto his lap.
At that exact moment, the door clicked open as Keo returned.
“Admiral!” Panic-stricken, Ross scrambled up from the sofa, his face scarlet and utterly flustered.
Keo swept a cold gaze over Eugene before shifting his focus to the other two. “What are you doing?”
When expressionless, Keo naturally radiated an aura of lethal suppression and absolute authority.
Clenching his sweat-dampened palms, Ross found himself completely incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together. “I apologize, Admiral. It was General Joe…”
With an awkward, nervous chuckle, Joe attempted to brush it off. “What is wrong? Ross was simply helping you inspect the merchandise. What if this male turns out to be defective? Your forced romance would go to waste.”
Joe tried to laugh it off, but before he could finish, Keo’s expression had already turned frigid. “Get out.”
While fearful of him, Joe wore a displeased expression of his own.
“Why so serious? Jealous? I knew it, finding a fool like this—”
“Joe, if you were not my brother, you would likely be dead a hundred times over,” Keo interrupted coldly. “Now, do not make me repeat my command.”
Gritting his teeth, Joe dared not push further and departed with his head lowered.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Eugene stood up of his own accord and moved to Keo’s side.
He harbored no trust in Joe whatsoever.
Joe was inherently selfish and ruthless, and his underlying motive was glaringly transparent—he simply wanted a male he could completely dominate to supply him with pheromones, which was why he kept calling him a fool.
The moment Eugene agreed to his terms would be the exact moment Joe poisoned him to ensure he remained a fool, followed by permanent imprisonment.
After all, in the original narrative, Joe proved to be the very first person to betray Keo for the benefits dangled by Special Security.
Yet even subjected to such a vicious backstabbing, Keo remained undefeated, driving Special Security’s forces into continuous retreat.
In the end, Keo fell only because his male brothers, terrified that Keo would actually seize the royal throne, hastily declared succession in their palace while holding zero military authority.
Those cowardly male siblings ultimately surrendered prematurely to Special Security, brokering an agreement that compelled the Hashu royal family to suddenly announce that his maternal parent was gravely ill, urgently summoning Keo back.
Hashu culture leaned far more traditional than Paz, practicing a system of one male with multiple female consorts. Keo’s maternal parent had originated as a female attendant, perpetually submissive to the monarch, and carried one supreme grievance: failing to produce a male child for his lord.
Consequently, he showed zero affection toward the female offspring he birthed, lavishing favoritism instead upon the male children born to other primary consorts.
Among all his children, the one he detested most was naturally Keo, for Keo utterly defied the behavioral standards expected of a virtuous female, proved incorrigible, and ultimately harbored ambitions for the throne, bringing shame upon him.
Within the storyline, when Keo labored back to visit this “gravely ill” parent, the parent yielded entirely to the male siblings’ counsel and personally administered the poison that killed Keo.
A generation of formidable warlord thus perished in obscurity, his eyes forever open in lingering resentment.
Perhaps because of that tragic fate, Eugene felt no animosity toward the man destined in the original plot to destroy him.
If possible, he hoped such an end could be averted.
“Admiral.” Ross was still bowing in apology, attempting to explain the sequence of events, but Keo cut him off. He could easily guess Joe’s intentions.
“Were you swayed by his proposal?”
Ross shook his head frantically. “Absolutely not! Admiral, not for a single second.”
“Because I know he favors you!”
As Ross uttered those words, Keo raised his gaze just in time to catch Eugene staring at him.
Startled, Keo hurriedly averted his eyes.
Eugene: “”
Wait, what did Ross just say? His mind had drifted to the plotline.
Keo was required to return to headquarters.
Likely mindful of Joe’s outrageous behavior earlier and the incident with Eugene’s wings, Keo ultimately brought him along to the transport vessel heading toward the satellite cluster, though he seated him at a distance.
A compact transport shuttle lifted off from the starship, soaring toward the satellite cluster.
Looking out through the window, one could perceive a massive, funnel-shaped satellite in a state of perpetual self-rotation. Its interior had already been retrofitted into a habitable environment.
Regions distant from the primary star of the Zerg territory were predominantly composed of such immigrant satellites.
Upon the shuttle’s descent, the headquarters building loomed into view.
“You must keep your eyes on him at all times.”
The moment Keo brought Eugene inside, countless female Zergs were spotted stealing glances at him. One individual was so engrossed in gawking that he nearly walked straight into a wall.
Helplessness washed over him, leaving Keo with no choice but to usher Eugene into a private chamber first and leave him to wait.
Turning to depart, Keo paused, retrieved a mask to secure over Eugene’s face, deemed it insufficient, added a cap, and instructed Ross.
“Do not let anyone else see his face.”
“Understood, Admiral.”
Eugene found himself entirely powerless to object, though he hardly expected Keo’s absence to stretch on for so long.
When the door finally swung open again, Eugene rose to his feet, only to find Ross standing alone.
“Where is Keo?”
Ignoring him initially, Ross merely reached out to take hold of his security chain.
“Where is Keo?” Eugene pinned his hand down.
Startled, Ross replied, “The Admiral is temporarily unable to come. He instructed me to escort you back.”
Frowning, Eugene sensed an instinctive wrongness. “No, I refuse to be locked away.”
If his memory served correctly, a crucial plot event was scheduled to take place right here.
Prior to the commencement of formal negotiations, the ideologically feudal Hashu royal family had intended to forcibly assign a matrimonial engagement to Keo. While Eugene remained uncertain of the exact fallout, that maneuver unquestionably served as a catalyst for escalating warfare. If only that event could be averted.
Perhaps due to Keo’s absence, Eugene subconsciously slackened his performance of feigned idiocy.
At that moment, his expression sank, his tone lowered, and his golden eyes radiated a natural deterrent aura accompanied by bloodline suppression, commanding with effortless authority, “Take me to him.”
For reasons unknown, a primal urge to drop to his knees washed over Ross.
“But the Admiral…”
“Take me to him.”
In that fraction of a second, Ross felt as though those golden eyes had pierced straight through his skin, chilling the sweat down his spine and setting his scalp tingling. He spoke without volition, “…I will take you to him.”
With the Admiral absent, he apparently possessed zero capacity to guard this male. Once that thought crossed his mind, Ross abruptly concluded that the safer course of action was indeed to locate the Admiral.
Without further hesitation, he immediately set off with Eugene in tow. Rather than heading toward the towering headquarters building, however, the pair veered toward a massive semi-circular structure.
Eugene frowned. This was a simulated combat arena?
Numerous flying vehicles were already parked around the perimeter of the arena. Among the sea of black, grey, and white vessels, one particular crimson flyer stood out with extravagant luxury, visible even from a distance.
Another vehicle even executed a sharp, abrupt swerve upon spotting it before coming to a halt.
“Could a male duke be in there?”
“It is Duke Max!” The responder’s voice carried intense eagerness as they hurried inside the entrance, where a substantial crowd had already gathered.
“I never imagined I would actually have the opportunity to lay eyes on a duke in the flesh.”
“If only we could secure a seat close to the duke.”
“Ha, you are dreaming too wildly. Do you think a male lord is someone you can encounter so easily?”
Just as the two accompanying military Zergs finished speaking, Eugene removed his cap to alleviate the stifling heat and strode straight past them.
The female Zerg who had been speaking froze dead in his tracks, his eyes bulging wide and his jaw dropping open.
Wait, hold on!?