Evelyn’s vigorous and resolute nature meant she would never linger in one place for long.
After signing the trade agreement, the Emperor swiftly divided her entourage, departing immediately for the return journey with her personal guard and several ministers.
"Farewell, my friend."
As their private gathering concluded, she stood tall. Standing together, the current Emperor was nearly as tall as Sakdi.
She embraced her old friend for the first and final time. "May your future be smooth, and may victory always be at your side."
"Goodbye. Thank you... for my teacher," Sakdi said.
On the other side of the active gateway lay the Human Capital Star and the Red Deer Palace—places the Core Species could never return to.
They stood in a corner of the steel fortress, a vast and empty space, watching their former friends part ways and head in different directions. The male insect held his partner's hand, refusing to let go.
"Don't be sad," Ge La whispered.
"It’s only a temporary farewell. We will meet again."
Sakdi’s tail-whip entwined with Ge La’s, and his heart gradually settled back into a warm embrace.
" I’m not as sad as you think," he explained with a smile, reaching up to pat the male insect’s head. "I’m happy. Happy to have seen them again."
The Secretary, who remained temporarily on Kamlan to handle a new batch of affairs, returned to their side after finishing his work, gazing at the scene of departure.
"Please do not be angry at Evelyn’s perceived coldness." The man who had once wailed loudly in a mecha cockpit had grown steady, his voice carrying a slight rasp. "Beyond being a friend, she carries the burden of her position as Emperor."
"I understand."
Sakdi’s tail, which had been retracted at some point, suddenly poked Klein, nearly knocking him off balance. "She will be an excellent ruler. Also, that old-fashioned tone doesn't suit you."
"We have all made mistakes, more or less."
The refined man pushed up the glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. Though there were countless optimization surgeries and invisible nano-correction technologies available, the meticulous Secretary still chose the most ancient style.
He didn't get angry at his friend’s habitual mischief—in fact, in earlier times, Sakdi and Evelyn had practically plucked the feathers off the good-natured Secretary whenever they could.
"Perhaps you have already heard the full story from Red Tai Sui. Because of me... the personality upload of Sakdi Saliban failed."
This was the first time they had spoken of this face-to-face; Klein finally stopped avoiding it.
"Evelyn arrived at the scene, wanting to stop my foolish self from doing the most foolish thing. She witnessed the transcription failure alarm from the Data Canopy and the sight of consciousness fragments dissipating."
"That was the only time she ever issued three consecutive Imperial Decrees."
Before completely sealing away the personality upload technology and equipment, and before making emergency arrangements for the collapsing situation, the ever-composed and calm new Emperor had shoved aside the blank-faced Secretary. She rushed to the Data Canopy terminal and, using her highest-level clearance, issued three commands in rapid succession.
She had tried to retain a soul that would not return, seeking a cold and hopeless miracle.
"I’m sorry. I am so sorry."
These were words six years late, accompanied by the man’s falling tears.
"I went against your wishes and made an unforgivable, wrong choice."
All the polished pretenses were torn away. He looked like the young man who had once sat in the cockpit clutching that white cat, still weeping miserably before his old friend.
Sakdi was actually very poor at dealing with a friend's tears.
He was like this in the past, and he was still like this now.
"You're about to blow a snot bubble," he said. "Look on the bright side: I’ve successfully regained my youth. All those old geezer ministers must be going mad with envy."
It was a very sorrowful scent.
Ge La often tasted it on humans—or rather, on his partner who possessed a human soul.
This was also his initial impression of the human race—before understanding love and hope, he always learned the meaning of bitterness first.
The male insect gently touched the Secretary’s arm.
The distraught man did not react. Thus, mental filaments gently wrapped around those painful, sharp edges, offering a tender comfort in return.
The blunt and straightforward Core Species looked at them and finally reached out again, patting his old partner on the shoulder.
"Stop crying. Get up and get to work."
He took a deep breath, quickly suppressing all emotional fluctuations.
His words were outrageous and biting, focused on not letting himself suffer internally, nor allowing those around him to do so excessively.
"Evelyn has temporarily dumped you on me. You’d better start praying for your future fate."
"We can talk things through, bit by bit."
He couldn't out-work Evelyn, who used to drive him into the ground, but he could certainly out-work the honest Klein.
*********
"Sa is still talking with the humans from the Empire."
Passing through the empty corridor, the youth greeted the Sub-King who was staring out the window alone with a smile.
This was a passage rarely frequented by others, close to the temporary resting area Kamlan had arranged for the Grey Wing tribe.
"Are you alright?"
"They are not 'humans from the Empire'."
The silver-grey female insect did not turn his head, still gazing at the quiet night sky. "They are his companions."
Clark looked slightly weary, his meticulously styled hair partially disheveled.
"No matter how much he wishes to hide their relationship, true emotion and care can never be concealed. When the Human Emperor looks at us, she judges and analyzes with the gaze one uses for an insect swarm. But when she looks at Sa, even though that ruler controls her emotions well, a subtle smile still escapes."
"That is the concern and trust found only between members of the same kin."
The overly sharp insight caused the youth to fall silent for a moment.
Then Arthur stepped closer, standing beside Clark, within arm's reach.
"Does that make you sad?" the human asked softly. "Or are you angry that your ally hid certain important facts?"
"I don't know."
The Sub-King’s words were calm. There was no obvious anger, nor was there any resentful indignation; he simply seemed a bit tired.
"Until he truly does something harmful to the Grey Wing tribe, he remains an ally I acknowledge. Perhaps he has his reasons, but he has also secured enough benefits and fulfilled every promise he made to me—two Sub-King heads, a stable trade route, and... resolving your identity issue."
The youth’s fingers brushed against the wings folded behind Clark’s back, and Clark finally turned his head.
Those wings, their elegant patterns restored, hung low; no fine scales would rub off their surface.
"Then what was it that brought you to Kamlan once again?"
Lake-blue eyes met the gaze of the female insect who had shown a slight despondency during the day. As the human’s arm dropped, he took hold of the arm of his former nurturer.
"The trade zone? The meeting with the humans? Or my request?"
Clark’s body stiffened slightly.
"I wasn't avoiding you on purpose before. But I thought you wouldn't want any other person or insect to criticize our relationship because of this."
Speaking gentle words slowly, the human’s voice was tranquil, like the surface of a lake at night.
"If my behavior caused you any misunderstanding, please forgive my immature performance."
"I have never loved any other person or insect. Every step is entirely foreign to me, and thus I lack the correct understanding and methods."
"You have indeed mistaken things."
When the silver-grey female insect spoke again, his voice was calm, attempting to dispassionately explain a simple truth.
"I think humans who are too young always confuse their heart's desires."
"Your experiences have created a sort of imprinting effect, infinitely magnifying local details of emotion and causing you to fall into a quagmire of confusion."
Clark sighed, feeling the explanation was hopelessly pale.
The child he had raised was far too independent and did not lack the resolve to achieve his goals; his subtle "retreat to advance" tactics were difficult for an insect to refute.
"Perhaps you haven't clearly distinguished between familial affection and romantic love. We have spent too many years together, causing you to blur the line between the two. Once you return to human space and travel to other planets for a few—"
The unfinished words came to an abrupt halt.
Because the youth leaned in and kissed him.
The human gripped the silver-grey female insect’s arms tightly, his other hand pulling that rigid body toward himself, gently stroking the wings tensed at right angles.
"I have never mistaken it," Arthur Simmons said, his smiling words brushing against the other’s ear, causing the Sub-King’s eyes to widen.
"Before I relearned the human language, I had already learned your name. Familial affection would not make me kiss you, nor would it make my heart feel as if it were exploding. If you were willing to listen to my heartbeat, you would know that from beginning to end, I have loved you with an utterly direct passion."
"Even the collapse and destruction of a red giant would not bring a heat or pain deeper than this. My soul can no longer find any other home; it can only perch eternally by your side."
The other’s heart was just as he said—beating so fast and heavy it almost made the silver-grey female insect tremble.
The youth’s arms tightly held the body that tried to flee, letting his own love and his own stars go weak in the limbs from those fervent and unreserved words. When he kissed the corner of the other’s lips again, his lake-blue eyes were moist, like ripples on a lakeshore or a continuous tide.
"I could use ten thousand languages in this world to tell you I love you, yet I cannot stop a fate that insists on separation."
The human’s voice was very light; many words were blurred, difficult to read like a murmur.
"Nothing can make me hurt you. Everything I say is not coercion, nor is it a negotiation—it is merely a plea to stay, one with no chance of winning."
They were like two fools in the dark of night, clinging to each other.
"I want you to stay."
"Please love me."
Arthur said, his smile containing tears.
"Just a little bit is enough."
He was shaking himself, yet he wanted to use an embrace to stop the other’s trembling, though it seemed even his fear was transmitted along with it.
Clark remained silent, not saying a word, as if he had completely lost the ability to speak.
As the human repeated "just a little bit is enough" countless times, there was an undetectable helplessness in his voice. The child who had never known worry had learned fearlessness from love, and likewise, learned anxiety from love.
The Sub-King who had slaughtered the Hard Wing tribe to extinction and killed his own brothers slid down weakly against the wall behind him. The youth tenderly supported him, letting those magnificent silver-grey wings trail and fall.
Red Tai Sui was docked at the starport, watching the soul it loved from afar in the sleepless long night; the Human Emperor had come and gone in haste, returning to the Red Deer Palace with the signed agreement; the black Core Species, having finished his work, held his partner, lying on a human bed for the first time in his life; other Core Gene tribes in distant star systems were in an uproar due to the scheduled meeting between the two parties; the model wreckage of VX197 operated as usual, receiving information fragments spreading through the rift; on a strange planet, a Hard Wing transport ship sank into the night, and a sea of flowers, soaked in pollution, shimmered with a starlike glimmer.
This universe was too chaotic, too fickle.
All people and events were compressed into a glass cage, playing out in turns like a silent play.
When the youth whispered once more, scalding tears fell upon the other.
It was a bitter taste mixed with a tiny bit of sweetness.
In the darkness, Clark reached out.
He held the other’s shoulders.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 数据天穹 | Data Canopy | The system/interface used for personality/consciousness uploads. |
| 敕令 | Imperial Decree | Formal orders issued by the Emperor. |
| 印随效应 | Imprinting Effect | A psychological term (imprinting) used here to describe Arthur's attachment to Clark. |
| 灰翅族群 | Grey Wing tribe | The specific insect tribe Clark belongs to. |
| 硬翅族群 | Hard Wing tribe | A rival insect tribe mentioned in the context of Clark's past. |
| 亚瑟·西蒙斯 | Arthur Simmons | Full name of the human youth raised by Clark. |
