“Tell me, what has made you so happy?”
Infected by his companion’s mood, Sarkdi gave his tail a gentle flick. He scooped the male up with one hand, pulling him into a firm embrace.
Gera let out a small gasp at the sudden movement, instinctively wrapping his arms around Sarkdi’s neck. As the Core-type settled him into the nest, the white insectoid released his hold, instead rubbing against his mate, attempting to mingle their pheromones.
“After Xiao returned from the Pedipalp-type’s core planet, he changed his flight path and went straight back to the Energy Star.”
Sarkdi already knew this.
Upon hearing the news, Serlin had nearly broken into a fit of tearless wailing. The solitary, dark-brown mid-tier insectoid had been guarding their empty nest for more than a full cycle, encouraging his beloved to travel the world while secretly hiding away to whimper the moment his back was turned.
When he learned that Xiao was finally returning to Ja for a visit, the short-wing administrator had spent ages sighing and lamenting to his cold-blooded boss, nearly annoying the Core-type to death.
“He said he gathered his courage and courted Serlin.”
Recalling something amusing, Gera couldn’t help but let out a soft, chirping laugh.
“Everyone was shocked!”
Sarkdi’s mind filled with little question marks. “Who courted whom? Xiao?”
“Unexpected, right?”
Gera chuckled, hugging his mate’s waist and burrowing deeper into his chest. “He didn’t give Serlin the chance; he chose to take the initiative himself. I heard the one being courted turned red all over.”
*Ah, speaking of which...*
Sarkdi suddenly remembered that a long time ago, when they were drafting management regulations, the dark-brown short-wing would indeed turn red instantly whenever his partner showed a hint of dominance.
“And then they got together,” Gera whispered, his tail curling and pressing tightly against Sarkdi’s whip-like tail. “It’s so wonderful.”
The black insectoid fell silent for a moment.
He was thinking about something else.
His relationship with Gera was very stable, and they certainly weren’t lacking in bedtime intimacy, yet they had never actually reached "home base." On one hand, he worried that the shadows of the past would cause his mate fear and pain; on the other... he actually still owed him a formal courtship.
At the very beginning of their relationship, the words he had used were actually, “Let’s give it a try”... Such a ridiculous statement, worthy of being recorded as a moment of ultimate social death.
Only Gera, whose eyes and heart were clouded by love, would think there was nothing wrong with that process.
Gera had been the one chasing him, while he had only leaked a few vague attitudes and responses based on his own whims.
“Do you like that?” Sarkdi asked in a low, probing voice, scratching the small, fluttering white wings, making them curl up and then relax.
He wanted to make up for what had been missing.
“I mean... that kind of ritual.”
“I feel very happy,” Gera’s voice was soft, like the morning mist over a river. “This is incredible to us. I still remember the first time I saw Xiao; he was covered in blood and seemed completely unconscious.”
“When I tried to protect his shattered spirit, I tasted only fear and panic, like an insect sinking into sludge, about to suffocate, unable to crawl out no matter what. His mind fractured because of it; only self-destruction could erase that terrible past. He wanted to die.”
“Even after you and Kata rescued him from Katra’s hands, he still wanted to die.”
“And so did I.”
Feeling his partner’s hand gently stroking him, the male slowly opened his body, kicking away the obstructive fabrics to lie completely against his mate’s chest without any barrier.
With the passage of time and the acquisition of power, those pale eyes no longer showed fear or helplessness, but at this moment, he quietly gripped the Core-type’s hand, hiding a trace of imperceptible cowardice.
“I’ve read in stories that most humans prefer to celebrate flawless love rather than the prosperity of their species.”
“The Swarm prioritizes reproduction above all else; they never care about such things. But I know some humans would feel... repulsed by this...”
“Roxanne.”
This time, Sarkdi’s voice became solemn.
He sat up, shifting into a half-kneeling posture. This was a forbidden zone they had never discussed, or rather, one they usually bypassed with unspoken understanding.
“There is no logic in this world that requires a victim to reflect on their own 'faults.'”
“When a malicious strongman bullies a vulnerable being, I choose to twist the strongman’s head off, rather than force the injured party to admit to a mistake that doesn't exist.”
His golden-brown eyes looked directly at Gera, his stern expression making the male tremble slightly.
“It doesn't matter what others think. Even if a thousand or ten thousand people say the wrong things and do the wrong deeds, they cannot paint hypocrisy over the truth. A perpetrator is always a perpetrator, no matter what high-sounding reasons they find, or what exquisite and beautiful power they use to decorate their oppression.”
“They mock the injured party for not being strong enough, delivering speeches from a condescending height. This only proves they are bastards just like the criminals. Using Social Darwinism as a fig leaf for their unbridled behavior does not fundamentally distinguish them from a puddle of incompetent filth.”
“I didn't overturn the entire table just to see the same things happen again.”
“You are not wrong,” he said. “Do not carry any burden of a mistake that does not belong to you.”
“The Roxanne I love is a very formidable insect. He crawled up from desperation, from the mire, and grew bit by bit into the master of a Great Information Nest, the coordinator of regional arrangements for annexed planets, the leader of all males. He is powerful and never fears the storms of fate.”
“You are a star that crashed into my life in a burning state, possessing a blazing and stable core.”
“All the spoiled behavior, weakness, unseemliness, and crying between mates are acceptable. We are not saints sitting upon the clouds—but you cannot use the logic of some humans, which is as absurd as toilet paper, to harm yourself. Tell me who gave you such thoughts, and I will go shove his head into the latrine immediately.”
The first half of the speech was like a poetic recitation, while the second half took a sharp turn into coarseness, making the white male, who had been feeling apprehensive, unable to suppress a laugh.
The faint sound of laughter gradually grew louder. Gera’s entire body shook as he buried himself once more in his partner’s arms.
So, the literary works written by humans weren't all correct either.
The male hugged him tightly, inhaling the scent that brought him joy.
“You’re right,” Gera said in a tiny voice. He felt Sarkdi trying to curl him up again; his own habits had eventually influenced his partner in small details, and this gave him an immense sense of security.
They were no longer like two distinct black sheep from different flocks, but instead formed a tender little family.
“Did some of my words or actions make you feel uneasy?” the Core-type asked softly, his wings spreading to shroud his revitalized mate. The male had grown much larger than when they first met, making their once-perfect nest feel a bit cramped, but they both loved the feeling of being squeezed together, so neither of them mentioned it. “Or did I unintentionally do something that caused a misunderstanding?”
“It’s not like that.”
Filled with warm emotions, his few worries gradually dissipated. The male’s tail gave a soft *thwack-thwack* against the bedding. “I just... thought about how we are about to go to Kamlan.”
“You said your friends and your teacher want to meet me... perhaps in their eyes, I’m not as good as you praise me to be...”
Gera always remembered that a part of his partner’s core deeply loved the human race. He had once worried that his partner’s old acquaintances wouldn't be able to accept him as a member of the Swarm, and feared that his own difficult past might become a joke for others to use against Sarkdi.
“The feelings between us have nothing to do with any other person or any other insect.”
When those golden-brown eyes looked over, the voice still carried a serious tone.
“If any of my actions caused you to misunderstand, it doesn't mean you need to self-reflect; it means I’m a bastard who didn't do well enough, understand?”
Sarkdi began to tickle him vengefully, stroking from the tips of his wings to the base of his tail, shamelessly singing his own praises.
“Besides, bastards only make friends with other bastards. My friends are all wonderful people; they will like you.”
Holding onto the squirming, ticklish insect, he really wanted to force him to beg for mercy.
“Because I am just that good, and I found a partner who is just as good.”
“Help! Help!”
The male, tickled in his most sensitive spots, finally couldn't take it anymore. His whole body curled and uncurled as he tried to escape that wicked hand.
Gera surrendered on the spot with a lightning-fast "sliding kneel," but even as he begged for mercy, his tail was hooking around his partner’s arm, refusing to let him actually leave.
It had to be said that lately, the male’s acting skills had improved significantly; he no longer delivered his lines like a wooden board.
“Kiss me,” he whispered, nuzzling against the other. “Kiss me, please.”
It was a request far too simple to refuse.
Sarkdi obeyed the soft command.
“You’re right, I’ve become much more formidable than before,” Gera said with a faint, blurred smile. He felt his heart land on solid ground, no longer occasionally feeling as if it were standing on the edge of an abyss. “I can also be the very, very best one.”
“You always have been,” his partner whispered back.
When the morning light of dawn brushed over the entire nesting area, driving away the heavy darkness, a distant communication broke the silent air.
The two insects, sleeping in a heap, were startled awake by the sound.
The consequence of talking for too long was that both mates had completely overslept.
This was a scenario that was almost impossible in Sarkdi’s disciplined life as a human.
Gera pulled his arm out from the tangled mess of black whip-tails, tugged the small blanket up, and then connected the information link.
“My apologies, I seem to have disturbed you.”
A voice tinged with a smile came through. The human’s voice sounded muffled, as if filtered through some heavy outer armor.
Sarkdi had to poke his head out from the fluffy blanket that almost entirely covered him to glance at the situation.
That one glance left him silent.
What a familiar sight.
Back when he and Arthur first met, the other had also been bundled up in a way that made his species unrecognizable.
The outer armor was as thick as could be, showing not a single human characteristic. Arthur Simmons was covered from head to toe in a pollution isolation suit, without a single gap exposed.
“Where have you run off to now?”
Lately, the human had been playing a game of guerrilla warfare with the Sub-King of the Gray-wing tribe. The young man, nearly ready to close the net, was unhurried. After explaining everything clearly, he would considerately withdraw, neither pushing too hard nor staying too far away.
He had truly mastered the essence of offensive and defensive maneuvers. Sarkdi couldn't help but marvel at how "black-hearted" kids were these days.
His trapped brother was stubbornly holding the line, refusing to soften.
It wasn't incomprehensible; the weight of morality always fell on the older party first. Unlike the reckless, hot-blooded youth, the silver-gray female had served as a nurturer for too long and fundamentally couldn't accept this role reversal.
Upon hearing the question, Arthur let out a muffled chuckle.
“I am following the roots of the model wreckage to explore all associated planets in Kamlan—please do not worry, I brought enough Devourer-class weapons on this return trip to clear out the pollution in half a star sector.”
“More will be brought by the Gray-wing relief warships later. After all, before the talks begin, we must ensure that the density of tides and pollutants is within a controllable range.”
When the other had boarded the Alpha warship to travel to the Gray-wing’s core star sector, he had still shown a trace of youthful greenness.
But now, in the human’s words and deeds, there was more of the gentle steadiness of an adult male.
“Don't put yourself in danger,” Sarkdi reminded him out of a sense of duty, already sitting up with a head full of messy hair. “We are very far from you now and cannot perform a rapid rescue. I don't want to see your nurturer go insane because his beloved son had an accident.”
“Thank you for your kindness.”
The blue-eyed human moved on to the main topic of the communication after thanking him. “Gera once asked me for assistance in a simple search. However, my negotiations with the Empire these days have left me with little time to spare.”
“Fortunately, there has been some progress now. I thought I should inform you as soon as possible.”
As the human stepped aside, the objects behind him were clearly exposed to Sarkdi and Gera’s view.
Arthur looked at the now fully awake white male, his blue eyes holding a clear and certain gaze in the dim light.
“Is this what you were looking for, Roxanne?” he asked softly.
It was a crashed circular spaceship, shattered upon the earth, broken atop a previously undiscovered Jinwu ruin.
Perhaps more than a dozen great cycles ago, this burning object had fallen from the sky, descending into dust and soil. As the long years passed, its hull became entwined with plant roots and hanging vines, and every fine crack weathered by wind and rain was now overgrown with moss.
It lay in eternal sleep amidst the graveyard of stars, covered by sources of pollution and blooming flowers.
***
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Sacre-D: Reborn as the Swarm's Apex | Chapter 144 | A Burning Heart | Novela.app | Novela.app
