Unlike his former steady and majestic presence, this body was indeed... quite young. It made Sakti’s age look like a clearance sale item, with the price plummeting straight down.
Otherwise, the Grey Wing sub-kings wouldn't have inexplicably developed the illusion that they were looking after a newly matured cub during their interactions.
However, having this situation pointed out to his face by an old friend and his own successor was, in a sense, quite damaging.
To make matters worse, Evelyn had other finishing moves, landing a direct critical hit with a follow-up combo.
"I heard your partner... just reached maturity."
"..."
Fine. The moral boomerang might have been late, but it had finally struck him right in the head.
When it came to bickering, Sakti understood the principle that the brave prevail when meeting on a narrow path. As long as he was thick-skinned enough, his opponent couldn't do anything to him.
"That’s right."
Taking a deep breath, the Core Seed smiled, his tail-whip swaying leisurely behind him.
"He matured not long ago, and he is very cute. It’s a pity he isn't here right now; otherwise, I would have introduced you two immediately."
"I told you he wouldn't feel any psychological burden."
The current Empress sighed and cast a glance behind her. "Come out, stop hiding. His skin has always been thicker than the steel fortresses of a sentry planet. The only ones who will feel awkward are others."
Sakti heard a rustling sound. Evelyn reached out a hand as if grabbing something and dragged the person into view.
This unconventional, cross-border communication was strictly limited; they were only looking at each other through an image screen rather than tangible light-particle projections. With a stumbling motion, a man crashed into the frame.
The man didn't look at the camera, his gaze lowered. The Core Seed wanted to whistle and throw out a few quips, but before he could make a sound, the person opposite bumped into Evelyn’s chair with a loud *thud*. The sound made Sakti’s ear-bones soften and his teeth ache in sympathy.
Despite this, the man remained silent, half-bent over, without saying a word.
Klein Yang’s temples had already turned grey. By the standards of interstellar life expectancy, which exceeded a hundred and twenty years, the Imperial Secretary—who had just turned fifty-one—should have looked younger and more high-spirited.
However, when their eyes met, there was a momentary flash of trepidation in the other man's gaze.
This caused Sakti to swallow all his sarcasm and teasing.
"Your legs."
Evelyn casually pulled over a chair, letting her minister sit down.
The seat’s cushion seemed to hide needles, making the man who had served as Secretary twice sit uneasily. His hands were placed on his knees, as if he had returned to the days when the three-man team stayed up all night to finish reports.
The difference was that back then, the star student had a rigid, strict expression, and when he urged his two unreliable companions, he carried the unique vitality of youth. Now, that vitality had almost completely dissipated.
"I’ll leave him to you."
Glancing at Sakti, those green eyes held no superfluous emotion.
"For other matters, I could just beat him until he’s clear-headed, but you have to resolve this one yourself."
"Are you sure I’m the right person for this?"
Sakti asked sincerely, then instinctively shut his mouth when he saw the whip hanging at her waist.
Even after all these years, his psychological trauma hadn't diminished one bit.
Of the former trio, one was now weather-beaten, one was sharp and formidable, and one... had ceased to be human.
Not only had he ceased to be human, but he also looked as tender as a young sprout.
The Core Seed observed his old friend, who had changed so much. The first half of his life had been almost entirely bound to Klein and Klein’s family. In their youth, when they knew no fear, they never imagined a scene like today would occur.
"Klein."
Calling his old friend’s name for the first time since their reunion, he watched him quietly.
Whether the other was willing to look up or not, there were things he had to say.
"I cannot decide whether to forgive your actions on behalf of the human Sakti Saliban; after all, he and I are likely already different individuals."
"But as the one who inherited his memories, I can confirm that I have never harbored resentment because of it."
His golden-brown eyes, just like in the past, were gently watching his former friend, partner, and comrade-in-arms.
"I am doing very well now. I have sole possession of an energy planet, I’ve picked up a decent ally, and I have a partner who loves me very much—and whom I love dearly in return."
"This is already much better than the best ending I could have imagined."
"Before I was thirty-five, I thought I would turn into cosmic dust. After thirty-five, I realized I was more likely to die in bed, unable to move or care for myself, with every extra day of life becoming sharp and bitter due to anger."
"I have never hated you for it," he said.
"You are my most important companion and a very significant part of my life."
"Aren't you... coming back?"
The man who had been silent finally spoke, asking a question that had escaped the control of logic.
His voice was like the autumn wind blowing through withered reeds, carrying a slight rasp.
"You always hated the Zerg. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be forced to stay there."
Sakti did not answer.
Imperial green eyes looked at him.
They shared a tacit understanding forged in battle; they didn't need words to understand each other's meaning.
If the participants in this conversation were anyone other than Evelyn or Klein, this question would have become quite deadly.
Klein’s scholarly nature showed here, or rather, urgency had made him lose the composure he had cultivated over the years.
"I don't plan on coming back in the short term."
With a lazy smile, Sakti shifted into a more comfortable sitting position, his tail forming a shape of refusal.
"Don't flatter yourself. The only reason I’m staying in Zerg space is because I chose to do so."
"There is nothing in this world that can trap me."
"Now I have my own partner, and he needs me very much."
Saying this with great satisfaction, the Core Seed suddenly understood why humans liked to show off photos, pets, and children. Sometimes it was truly difficult to suppress the urge to boast.
"If I’m away on business for too long, he’ll be sad. People without partners wouldn't understand."
"You’re both still single, right?" he asked with total sincerity.
The words "utterly shameless" were practically written across his face.
"..."
Klein looked as if he were choking, the air of sorrow fading slightly from him.
Evelyn let out a very soft laugh.
The poised Empress also adjusted her posture, no longer appearing so dauntingly majestic. She looked at her friend, who was talking nonsense, without looking away.
"Have you made up your mind?"
It was a question without context.
Yet Sakti understood her unspoken words.
In reality, compared to Klein, Evelyn and he were the same kind of people. Equally ambitious, equally harsh in their methods, but while his toughness was overt, she was skilled at suppressing all conflict in a gentler way.
But it was precisely because of this that Klein became the best neutralizer, mediating and buffering between the two successive superiors.
"You probably still remember the Battle of Delanta. The Zerg tide spread directly to the habitable Little Rose Star Sector, and the First Legion was almost entirely replaced," she said.
"Are you certain that the decision you are making now is out of your personal will, and not other considerations?"
Her green eyes watched him without a ripple.
She didn't ask how many memories Sakti had left, nor did she ask why he wouldn't return to the human race. This was almost a touch of tenderness unique to the new Empress when facing an old friend.
Without needing to meet, they both already knew that this was the destined conclusion.
"I can't help it. I have a family now."
The Core Seed also began to laugh.
He looked at his former friend—face changed, age increased; just as they looked at him—covered in scales, wings and tail trailing.
"I’ve finally made it this far. I’m not going to give up the energy planet I’ve secured and run away. You still need the approval of those old men to deploy the starships *Trident* and *Gungnir*, and you have to rely on fiscal appropriations and energy stone allocations. I can sleep on a bed of Star Core energy now, and no one can criticize me."
"Hong Tai-Sui should have told you how well it’s eating."
"Speaking of that," Evelyn shook her head, "its independent cruising status is currently under indefinite suspension."
"I thought as much."
Sakti couldn't help but sigh, understanding her difficulty. "What does it say?"
"It’s fine. The joy of seeing you is enough to make up for the regret of temporarily being unable to conduct deep-space voyages."
Her olive-green eyes revealed a gentle emotion.
"It frequently loops the video of its reunion with you. Rationally, it understands that you and the previous... controller are not entirely the same individual, but even for an artificial intelligence that pursues logic, there are moments when emotion takes the upper hand."
"Charging into a King Zerg’s nest was too serious an incident."
Years had allowed her once sharp voice to settle into a soothing calm. The new Empress showed her more stable side. "Once the follow-up issues of this matter are handled, I will request to restore its functions."
"It won't be too long."
"Once it can move freely, you can let it come to my side for a while."
The Core Seed tried to keep the topic from sounding too serious, offering some preposterous suggestions in a tone as if talking about fairy tales.
"By then, I’ll likely have cleared all the obstacles in the Zerg race."
"Alright."
However, the proposal he hadn't expected her to take seriously received a reply.
Evelyn’s expression looked blurred for a moment, possibly due to the long communication distance and the connection through the Data Firmament to the Great Information Nest. She gave her promise in a flat tone.
"When that time comes, send a formal invitation. I will approve it."
There was a chance.
Her attitude was a bit more agreeable than expected.
This immediately energized the side that liked to take an inch and ask for a mile. Sakti sat up straight, with just the right amount of sincerity. "Besides that, I have some difficulties in supporting my family. Did Hong Tai-Sui convey the matter of Camlann to you?"
"If you’ve seen my report, you should be able to reach a reasonable conclusion. The sub-king of the Grey Wing tribe is seeking cooperation; his history with Camlann runs quite deep."
He spoke clearly and fluently.
"What do you think about using that place as a trade zone?"
"Not much."
The current Empress’s smile was like the stern stone carvings in the courtyard of the Red Deer Palace, making Sakti and Klein recoil simultaneously.
Evelyn hadn't shown this kind of expression in a long time. Most of the time, both the former and current rulers were very adept at expression management.
But some people could make her temporarily abandon her poised stance.
"What gave you such a preposterous flash of inspiration?"
"My flexible brain."
The Core Seed answered rapidly.
"Don't you want to shut those finance ministers up the next time you deploy a starship? You open the trade routes, and we’ll talk about Star Core energy transactions."
The Secretary on the side closed his eyes, unable to watch.
When he and the superior beside him made eye contact, the same thought was revealed in both their gazes:
This guy is definitely the real Sakti.
*********
Kleman read the materials in the Common Tongue bit by bit.
Although the leader of the Martial Species wasn't very quick-witted, he had recently developed a good new habit: taking advice.
Gera had suggested he find time for literacy tutoring, and he actually did it.
Outside of shift hours, managing the Grey Wing tribe’s habitat wasn't difficult. The affairs of the Information Nest were handled by the males, and production and technical work were undertaken by dedicated technical insects. The Martial Species was essentially a machine of violence meant to maintain stability.
And in times of peace, this machine didn't need to run too fast.
Thus, Kleman often took a detour to the Great Information Nest after handing over his daily duties to spend some time teaching the Broad Wing male how to write and read the Common Tongue.
Though to this day, he still hadn't figured out what potential connection this had to answering his doubts.
The thin male lay prone nearby, listening carefully with a serious expression.
Every time the day’s lesson ended, this Zerg would stutteringly try to repeat the words he had just learned. Kara, who had never received systematic learning, found the starting phase quite difficult. The memory of a low-grade gene was also not as good as a Core Seed’s; he needed Kleman to teach him many times before he could remember.
At first, the female accustomed to a fast-paced work rhythm felt somewhat troubled.
The other’s performance only further corroborated his thoughts: not every male was as unconventional as En, or as talented as Gera.
A male who couldn't even speak the Common Tongue fluently would, to a large extent, be unable to shoulder the heavy burden of managing the Information Nest later.
This batch of males needed a more stable, comfortable living space, rather than being forced into labor.
"Do you like working? Do you want to work?" the Martial Species asked slowly.
His communication skills were as abysmal as Kara’s Common Tongue; it was like two novices stumbling through a conversation.
The other only looked at him with blank eyes and let out a soft chirp.
Clearly, Kara didn't fully understand the question. He had already learned what "work" was from the busy males around him, but whether he *liked* it was something he couldn't answer, only responding based on instinct.
So Kleman changed his phrasing.
"If you are unwilling to stay here, I will suggest that the males be arranged to live in the nest area together."
"There is plenty of food there and a safe living environment. You can choose to form a new small family group with a powerful female and hatch some vibrant eggs."
His expression looked very serious as he tried to overcome his phobia and reach out to pat the other’s head.
"It won't be hard. You’ll only be responsible for taking care of the cubs, and you will be under protection."
"No Zerg will be able to hurt you."
Now he agreed with the statement that "males are companions," and he also agreed with the proposal that the living conditions of males needed to be improved.
However, regarding *how* to improve them, the conclusion he reached was not quite the same as the manager of the Great Information Nest.
Gera seemed to think that bringing all the Zerg out to work was a good thing, but Kleman felt that the weak should receive more cautious protection.
The Broad Wing sharply caught the keywords "female," "hatching," and "taking care of cubs."
In the nests where hybrids were bred, the words they heard most were "hatching" and "cubs." All males were concentrated in the nests to be used as distributable goods and consumables.
Thus, he understood the other’s meaning.
The Broad Wing was simple, but not *that* simple. This Zerg had never specifically learned anything useful and didn't understand basic common sense, but experience made him understand one thing: if a female asked if he was willing to hatch and care for cubs and used physical touch, no matter how tactful the attitude, it likely meant the other was making a request for mating.
Kara actually didn't like hatching eggs very much.
Hatching eggs meant pain.
But the tall female before him had brought him out of the hatching nest and fed him sweet honeydew—he now knew that the magical sweet syrup he had never experienced before was called honeydew—and the other was so powerful he couldn't refuse. He needed to comply with this request.
The male submissively prostrated his body without a second’s hesitation. Before Kleman could make any reaction, Kara removed most of the fabric covering his body, naturally opened his limbs, and assumed a posture to receive mating.
From beginning to end, the Broad Wing made no sound, as if this were as normal as breathing. He only lowered his head, letting his tattered little tail wag to send out a courtship signal, though he could release no pheromones due to his body’s desiccation.
Kara had hatched many, many eggs for the females of the Broad Wing tribe. The one before him was not the first to make such a request, but he carefully hoped this one would be the last.
At least this Zerg had always been very gentle to him.
If it wasn't so rough during the mating process, that would be even better. He would try his best to hold back sounds of pain so as not to spoil the other’s mood.
The thin body looked quite gruesome, the mimicry wasn't very successful, and it was covered in scars. This made the male feel a bit sad.
He was sad for himself, yet he couldn't distinguish where this sadness came from.
The Martial Species leader was stunned for nearly ten seconds.
Then Kleman scrambled to his feet, knocking over all the chairs and objects around him. The stacked books and light-screens, along with the food in containers, all spilled across the floor with a clatter.
Fortunately, this was a lesson after work hours, and they were inside a small cubicle in the Great Information Nest, so it didn't attract the attention of other Zerg.
The female, who had retreated to the door and had nowhere else to go, slammed his head against the doorframe. With a loud bang, the entire space vibrated; the force was so violent that even a direct-line Zerg would be dizzy for two seconds.
The door was instantly left with a pit in the shape of a skull.
This collision brought the Zerg, whose brain had stalled, back to his senses. He rushed back, feet slipping, trying to pull over the discarded fabric to wrap the Broad Wing up again.
As a result of his shaking hands and panicked heart, the Core-gene female’s strength was absurdly high. He directly tore a gash in the soft covering, making a piercing *skree* sound.
Kleman’s head was practically bursting with blood, and he was lightheaded. Like he’d lost his mind, he stood there trying to piece the two scraps of cloth back together.
"Why... why won't it install back on?"
The Martial Species muttered to himself, his tail spinning like a windmill behind him.
Kara stared at him blankly, gradually becoming afraid.
He had misunderstood the other’s meaning.
Failing to meet expectations would lead to a beating.
The male quietly curled up in a small corner, maintaining that posture, motionless.
In his perception, the female before him was already a very, very good one.
Whether it was mating or a beating, he accepted it all with resignation.
However, in the next second, the dark grey Zerg yanked off his own tactical belt and shrugged off his coat in a few quick motions.
Kleman hadn't even noticed that his body had entered a semi-alienated state, with large areas of scales covering the surface. He picked up the weightless Broad Wing, stuffed him into his own coat, and wrapped him up tightly.
A total mess.
Kara was too light.
Even though the abundant food recently had made his body less skeletal and terrifying, he was still unhealthily thin.
The Martial Species’ coat completely buried him inside. Kleman’s strength was a bit too much, and through the thick, heavy material, he pressed out a soft *crick* from the male.
Immediately, those arms relaxed their force, carefully placing the wrapped Broad Wing beside him.
Pain did not arrive.
The exhausted female sat amidst the mess on the floor.
His current state was as if he had just spent an entire day brawling with a pack of Xenobeasts.
The tiny male clutched the oversized Martial Species uniform tightly, looking over in bewilderment.
"Sorry."
After a long while, the tall Grey Wing suddenly spoke. His voice sounded muffled and dry, like it was being rubbed out over coarse sand and gravel.
Kleman slowly reached out and once again, very, very gently, patted the male’s head.
And so, the foolish Broad Wing forgot his fear. Like a kitten that remembers the food but not the beating, trust took the upper hand again, and he proactively arched his head under that powerful palm. He understood that the other was not seeking mating.
A simple pat felt very good. A pat wouldn't bring harm.
In the silence, the frail, low-grade male let out a tiny hum.
It was a tone slightly different from the Grey Wing tribe’s, just as there were more obscure communication languages among high-ranking species; different tribes had their own unique ways of expressing emotional language.
The male’s respiratory slits flickered, and his tail slowly tapped. Long, trembling notes dissipated in the small cubicle.
It was like a faint plea calling for a tribe to return to the nest, or like the silent sound of waves breaking under the pull of the tide.
Even though, from the day he was born, he had never had a single place he could return to.
When the Martial Species leader’s hand stroked him so softly, bringing him some novel contact experiences he’d never had before, he suddenly and intuitively learned how to make such a sound, such a language.
It was a low cry of longing to return to a non-existent homeland, to companions who had passed away.
Dark grey eyes watched the male whose tail was slowly swaying, and he did not move his scale-covered arm away. This was the first time the arrogant and self-important direct-line high-ranking Zerg understood and tasted the bitterness brought by his own conceit.
This was why Gera would smile helplessly at his words.
This was why he had felt his thoughts from a moment ago were a practical and good thing.
"Sorry," Kleman said.
"I won't ask you such bad questions again."
***
