But now, the light of the hexagram blazed brilliantly, burning the cub’s cocoon silk and the old Count’s physical shell! He screamed in the flames, his voice sounding like a demon’s:
“Are you insane? Do you want to die, actually feeding your own energy to the hexagram array? If your metamorphosis fails, you will definitely die! Stop it right now!”
“Die?” Inside the giant cocoon, the cub’s voice could barely be distinguished. He was vomiting large mouthfuls of blood, yet a bright, sunny smile spread across his face, looking incredibly eerie. “It’s not like I haven’t died before. It’s better than becoming your fertilizer. Did you want to use my shell to go find Eliotte and defile his eyes? In your dreams.”
The cub spoke almost cheerfully. He forcibly channeled a portion of his own power into the hexagram array beneath his feet, using a method that dealt a small blow to the enemy while inflicting ten thousand times the damage on himself to burn the covetous attacker to death. However, he suffered from this burning as well, and his metamorphosis would fail due to his injuries and lack of energy.
But he did not care much. To put it plainly, the sunny male college student was a bit crazy at his core; otherwise, he would not hate evil so fiercely, risk his life so readily, or possess such an obsessive pursuit of the truth.
The old Count had been constantly guessing his thoughts, trying to make him submit. The man might have been entirely calculating, but he was wrong about one thing.
Maurice had never intended to personally mark Eliotte. Perhaps the notion had flashed through his mind briefly like a passing shadow, but he had never held onto it, even if the thought of Eliotte belonging to another male Zerg made him turn cold and feel a tearing pain in his heart.
But love never equated to possession and defilement.
Perhaps in the old Count’s world, such a pure emotion had never existed, which was why he naturally assumed Eliotte would become the target of the cub’s metamorphosis, making him eager to grow scent glands and a tail-hook just to make Eliotte his own. But no, his feelings for Eliotte were absolutely not a filthy desire for possession; it was far more than a shallow emotion.
He looked up at him because he was the moon.
The cub with difficulty raised his chubby little hand, which was tangled in cocoon silk, roughly wiped the blood from his mouth, and then clenched his fist. More power that should have been used for cocooning forcibly surged into the hexagram array.
The light flared brilliantly, and before the Count could even scream, he was instantly vaporized into ashes, just like the innocent female and sub-Zergs he had sacrificed.
The cub’s soft, chubby little hand dropped limply as he lost his strength. The cocoon silk began to grow slowly once more, covering the ashes and the light of the hexagram, enveloping the entire hall.
An unknown amount of time passed before Maurice woke up amidst a wave of numbness.
He opened his eyes blankly, locking right onto Adam’s glare of blatant hostility and Lim’s subtly guarded gaze. Maurice ached all over, and his mind was a complete blank. He moved his limbs, enduring the sharp pain as he looked down at his hand.
It was a fair, slender hand belonging to a youth.
Suddenly, Lim spoke, his voice carrying a hint of a smile and joy:
“Your Eminence Maurice, it is wonderful that you are awake. We are currently en route to the Imperial Capital. You see, the former Count Schmidt met with an unfortunate demise, so my male master is to be crowned on the Imperial Capital Star. Furthermore, both of you have been included in the Royal Family’s marriage alliance list this time. Congratulations, Your Eminence.”
“Sister-in-law, I…”
“The title of Count belongs to me! You bringer of disaster, if it weren’t for you, my female-father wouldn’t have died!” Adam suddenly screamed, knocking over the ornaments on the table. Priceless energy stones rolled across the cabin floor. Lim’s expression also shifted slightly, showing a look other than respect toward Adam for the first time, one that seemed to be guilt and heartbreak. Maurice blinked slowly, enduring a wave of sharp pain, and said:
“I am sorry. I couldn’t save them.”
“Them” naturally referred to the female and sub-Zergs sacrificed by the old Count. Maurice had not known that Adam’s female-father was among them.
Surprisingly, Adam actually quieted down, merely breathing heavily. Maurice was somewhat astonished; he had assumed Adam would unleash his malice upon him without reservation, or perhaps he simply had not realized that Adam could also possess feelings for his own female-father. In this absurd world, too many male Zergs showed no respect even to their own female-fathers, treating them as tools and vessels just as their male-fathers did.
“I know you think I’m stupid,” Adam suddenly said, his expression dimming. “In your eyes, I’m a worm who understands nothing and can be fooled at will. Someone who doesn’t even know the truth behind his own female-father’s passing and can only throw tantrums. But I’m not that stupid! I know it was Male-Father who killed him. I know Male-Father didn’t actually think highly of you; he wanted to kill you. It’s just that I realized it too late, my female-father…”
Adam slumped down onto the carpet of the luxurious cabin, his curly brown hair obscuring his face; it was the exact same hair color as his female-father’s.
Maurice suddenly did not know what to say. He had indeed always looked down on Adam and taken advantage of his stupidity. But the ridiculous thing about humans and Zergs alike was that they always attributed abnormal things to pure evil, when in reality, the collective evil of a system was what was truly massive and irresistible.
He had ignored Adam’s individual differences and emotions. At the end of the day, no matter how outrageous the male Zergs of this world were, some of them still understood that their lives were not some gift from a Mother Goddess, but came from a more concrete, flesh-and-blood female or sub-Zerg. That was their true mother deity, the one stepped upon by their male-fathers and even by themselves.
A despicable world forced them to complete an act of deicide, becoming rootless canflies while still branding themselves as so-called sons of God; that was the most ridiculous part.
“I am stupid,” Adam suddenly admitted. “I can’t understand your insinuations, and I couldn’t guess Male-Father’s plans, your plans, or what you wanted to do. But I also want my female-father and my female monarch to live well, and I can feel pain too. It’s not like I don’t have a heart.”
“You killed Male-Father, and I’m actually very glad,” he said to Maurice.
Maurice felt a rare pang of sympathy for him. Lim suddenly stepped across and wrapped Adam in an embrace, letting him bury his face into his chest:
“I am right here, my male master. Shh… the old Count is dead, you will become the new Count, and everything will be fine.”
The college student who had never been in a relationship looked left and right, feeling so awkward his hands and feet moved restlessly, but he did not utter any mocking words. Adam was no saint, and Lim could hardly be called kind or righteous, but they had each other and were both becoming better. This was a rare stroke of luck in a desolate world.
After quite a while, Maurice suddenly noticed a change in his field of vision. Staring in terror at his shrunken hand, he yelled:
“Adam, Sister-in-law, why have I shrunk?”
“My apologies, Your Eminence,” Lim’s voice carried a hint of regret and pity. “When we finally dared to enter the parlor, your cocooning had already failed. Your form is unstable and will fluctuate along with your mental state. But even when you are in your youth form, your… tail-hook is not fully developed, so…”
“So you are impotent,” Adam suddenly chimed in, his tear-streaked face twisting into a malicious sneer. That voice gradually overlapped with the system’s previous curse.
Maurice rolled his eyes and fainted once more.
When the earldom’s airship arrived at the Imperial Capital Star, major politicians and nobles of the Empire had already gathered.
Maurice had finally adapted to his new form, a youth male Zerg, but a failed metamorphosis version. In short, he possessed a youth form that looked no different from any other Imperial male Zerg, with fair skin, though his features were more exquisite and his limbs long and slender. He possessed glands that could produce pheromones and powerful psychic tentacles, capable of curing any female or sub-Zerg’s pheromone deficiency syndrome.
But regrettably, he was indeed impotent, lacking the capability to mark female and sub-Zergs or share a bed with them.
In reality, he was still essentially a cub. Whenever something went wrong with his psychic power, he would uncontrollably regress into a round, chubby four-head-tall body, revealing the characteristic gray skin of his maternal lineage.
One could say he was quite fortunate. Let alone surviving the roasting of the hexagram array, an ordinary male Zerg whose metamorphosis was interrupted would have simply had his soul return to the heavens. Furthermore, Adam and Lim had stepped in in a timely manner after the old Count’s death. Adam’s intellect and kindness had uniquely managed to take the high ground, allowing Maurice to be saved and granted an Imperial identity. Now, he was legitimately the second male son of the Count’s manor, Adam’s younger brother.
To say Maurice was not depressed would be a bit of an exaggeration. Although a young man might not necessarily use his tool, lacking one altogether felt incredibly embarrassing. Moreover, in a society that worshiped sex and marking, coupled with a wicked Adam who mocked him every few days, it was annoying to the extreme. However, this minor grievance was quickly tossed to the back of Maurice’s mind.
He had arrived at the Imperial Capital Star, which meant he could see Eliotte. Except this time, their identities were reversed once more. He had become a second son of the earldom with no inheritance rights, an obscure male Zerg, while Eliotte had become a commodity displayed in a showcase.
How could he explain things to Eliotte? How could he explain his previous deception, and how could he make Eliotte believe him and accept his current identity? Could he find a sufficient justification for his prior lies and abandonment?
Maurice did not know. He had no time to think about so much; there was only one thought in his heart, and that was to gather news of Eliotte as quickly as possible, see him, and confirm he was safe and sound.
On the night they landed on the Imperial Capital Star, all politicians and nobles were invited into Sky City. That was the imperial city where the royal Golden Plume lived, the place where Eliotte had grown up.
The scene was filled with the rustle of fine clothes and the sound of music and dancing. An occasion where only male Zergs gathered displayed the absolute peak of the entire species’ culture. Maurice learned for the first time that the Zerg actually possessed music and art, though it was an exclusive privilege for male Zergs.
The pale-faced youth with green eyes moved through the crowd of Zergs, the magnificent surroundings completely failing to catch his eye. Relying on his journalistic instincts, he briefly scanned the environment, confirming Eliotte was not present, though several other princes waiting for a match were waiting behind the curtains. The anxiety in his heart grew increasingly loud, and his handsome, pale face clouded over slightly.
“I am going out for a bit. Watch your mouth and don’t make Sister-in-law worry,” he said, patting Adam’s shoulder before quickly vanishing into the crowd, heading toward the rear palace where he was not supposed to go, leaving Adam standing in place cursing with a sour expression.
The moon reached the center of the sky. The long-limbed youth male Zerg contemplated the information regarding Eliotte that he had gathered along the way, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter. He could no longer endure this period of separation, even though he had not thought of how to explain his past lies once they met. Using a highly primitive method, he scaled a high wall, gripped the window frame with both hands, and tumbled onto a spacious Baroque-style balcony, completely disregarding his image.
A male Zerg’s eyesight was not particularly sharp. He kept his bright green eyes wide open, taking a good while to clearly discern the situation inside the room.
A graceful figure was curled up on the other side of the curtains, dressed in an exquisite garment of ancient Greek style, one that left the graceful curves of the female Zerg half-revealed and half-concealed. Curly black hair cascaded like a waterfall, emitting a captivating, cold fragrance that spilled over the female Zerg’s shoulders and obscured his face.
Maurice froze slightly. His instincts picked up the scent of stone-calamus and fir belonging to Eliotte, yet he found himself somewhat daring not to recognize him; that fragrance was decadent, carrying a touch of desperate resolution as if fighting to the death, alongside a damp despair, as though something had been crushed from the inside out, reducing proud isolation to dust.
Something was wrong.
“What is wrong with you?” This was supposed to be followed by, I came to see you, but the words he originally intended to say failed to leave his mouth. The usually casual college student bristled his invisible hairs and suddenly turned self-conscious, approaching the female Zerg like a cat tip-toeing forward. Before he could speak, the female Zerg before him suddenly raised his face, which was entirely flushed, though his voice still carried a mocking edge:
“Trespassing into the palace at night, Your Eminence certainly has fine tastes.”
Eliotte struggled to stand up amidst Maurice’s bewildered expression. His robes were disheveled, revealing a firm, pale, long leg that appeared exceptionally crystalline and immensely alluring under the dim light. Maurice swallowed hard, his mind failing to process the situation. Part of him wanted to fling himself into Eliotte’s embrace just like a cub, while another part left him blushing and stiff as a board, as if rooted to the spot by magic, unable to utter a single word.
“But it matters not…” A smile tugged at Eliotte’s flushed lips. He took two steps forward barefoot, yet his legs seemed incapable of supporting his body, causing him to slide down to the floor, kneeling right in front of Maurice. This prompted the youth male Zerg, whose heart was hammering like a drum, to instinctively extend his hands to help him up, only to be forced back the very next moment by a pair of brilliant, red-gold eyes:
“Do whatever you wish. After all, it is the same regardless of which male Zerg it is. I am, in essence, merely the Zerg Emperor’s courtesan anyway. Your Eminence is well aware of that, are you not?”