Sacre-D: Reborn as the Swarm's Apex | Chapter 91 | Echoes of History | Novela.app

"Is there anything you need me to explain?" Having finished cleaning himself, the black-winged female sat by the nest, watching the male who had just put away his light screen. They hadn't seen each other for nearly a small cycle. Gela naturally opened his arms, embracing the Core Species whose scent of blood had not yet fully dissipated. "No need. You look very tired." His slender white scaled tail swayed back and forth, filled with joy at his partner's return to the nest. "You need rest." "In a moment." Sakdi shook his wings, flicking away every drop of water clinging to the hard chitin. Over the past few days, he had been pushing through the campaign maps like a madman. He had seen too many things that offended the eyes, and his mind felt clouded by blood; upon landing, he hadn't quite managed to switch back to his daily persona. Clark had left the Broad-winged species to him while he went to suppress the Legged species, with Kleiman providing support to both sides as needed. The territories of their two unfortunate neighbors were shrinking continuously. The Grey-wings had mobilized in full force, conducting a pincer movement with lightning speed, striving to make this counter-offensive an irreversible fait accompli before the other Core Species lineages could react. "You aren't very happy." Gela touched the other's brow. Sakdi had developed the habit of keeping his emotions hidden, but a male's spiritual perception was far too keen; he could capture even the most infinitesimal fluctuations. "Did you encounter some difficulty?" "Is the plan not going smoothly?" "It's going very smoothly." Sakdi scooped up the white insectoid, circling him in his arms. For the first time in a long while, the Core Species entwined his tail with the male's. "It's just some messy trifles." The situation was farcical. For the prime-age females of the Broad-winged and Legged species, this was a serious war of aggression; but for the males, the larvae, and the elderly females, it had turned into something akin to a free-for-all charity. Even a writer of satirical plays couldn't have scripted such a ridiculous plot. The male Kleiman had taken for treatment had survived and laid a small clutch of eggs. However, due to extreme weakness, those greyish-white eggs were all hollow. In most species, there is no such thing as a grand, poetic bond between the mother and offspring; it is merely a relationship of parasitism and plunder. Before birth, eggs and embryos find every possible way to extract nutrients from the mother. Conversely, when many female animals lack sufficient energy, they reabsorb the embryos within their bodies, killing their offspring to reduce energy consumption. But the Zerg were a special case that had pioneered a biological version of Keynesian economics, deeply understanding the essence of ensuring war was never fought on one's own soil. The females bore none of the corresponding consumption. Other unfortunate species—or the males—were responsible for providing the energy. If a male became weak to a certain point, he simply could not hatch healthy larvae. Sakdi had watched as the Armored leader, whose leg was being timidly hugged by that muddled male, had the scales on his entire tail stand on end in tufts. The male's grasp of the Common Tongue was a disaster; he could only produce sobbing buzzes, shivering as he prostrated his emaciated body before Kleiman in a fawning manner. Due to the lack of food and the wretched living conditions, the Broad-winged male looked like a wobbling head stuck on a bamboo pole, his shriveled abdomen sunken inward. For a moment, the Core Species suspected that the tail-flicking fellow, suffering a flare-up of his male-phobia, was considering performing an amputation on himself. The cold-faced Kleiman had turned his head stiffly, and Sakdi read the sentiment of "save me, save me" from his wooden expression. If one didn't consider the males being gnawed to pieces in the treatment pods or those grey, ruined dead eggs, the Core Species would have found the scene highly comedic. The entire dark joke was simply too nauseating. "Don't rush, we'll take it slow." Gela gently kissed the other's jaw, trying his best to comfort his partner. "You can't shoulder all the responsibility... it's not right." A hint of sorrow touched his pale eyes, as if he didn't know how to make his significant other truly happy. "You mustn't keep pushing yourself like this, holding things that don't belong to you in your arms at every moment." "The one I'm holding in my arms right now is you." Sakdi laughed, catching the male's tail and stroking it carefully. "And you belong to me." During this period, he had seen too many low-to-mid-tier females and males who lived like corpses. By comparison, one could see how well Gela had been fed and cared for. This prompted the Core Species to lower his head and take a deep breath of him, as if huffing a cat. His scent gland perceived the other's sweet aroma—it was refreshing and soul-cleansing, washing away the smell of blood and gangrene from the battlefield. "Tell me about you. What were you looking at just now? Human history again?" A smile finally touched his golden-brown eyes. "Nothing you want to ask me?" As he spoke, he gently squeezed the small white tail-hook. The male was like a squeaky toy; every time he squeezed, Gela let out a soft whimper. God, this was adorable. The other truly fit his aesthetic preferences perfectly... or rather, his aesthetics had veered off course to follow the other eight hundred years ago. "It is human history." Gela's tail wanted to flee but also didn't; in the end, it remained hesitantly in the other's hand, allowing his partner to tease him. "You... if you aren't ready to rest yet, there are indeed some parts I don't quite understand." He pulled a hand out from the female's tight embrace and reopened the light screen he had been halfway through. Sakdi noticed that many words had been annotated with marks. "I saw in the book that in the year 48 of the Old Federation Calendar, a large-scale protest and riot broke out on the human mining planet 1917 because of the introduction of the Li... Liam Act." The male held his partner's hand, leaning his head against the other's shoulder as he spoke softly of the parts he didn't understand. "I don't understand. This act looks good; it allows humans to exchange their contributions for the things they need. Why did it lead to such a consequence?" The Core Species hadn't expected the first question to be about this. Mining Planet 1917, the home of the former commander of the Jinwu Fleet—the entire case was still widely cited to this day. "Because politicians will dress exploitation in a prettier coat." Slowly stroking those soft white wings, Sakdi explained the complex architecture of the human world to his partner bit by bit. "They sell dreams." He didn't blush at all when he said this. As a fellow expert at selling dreams, he considered himself to have maintained a basic level of morality when doing so, never resorting to bone-marrow-sucking operations. "The demand for Star-Core energy was increasing day by day, but the extraction process was too dangerous, so they needed more people to 'voluntarily' join the work." "It sounds very good. Work in the mines for a few years, earn enough contribution points, and residents of those low-tier planets would have the chance to get a ticket to the mid-to-high-tier habitable planets—an immigration opportunity to restart their lives." "But the people who signed those contracts were never able to successfully extricate themselves." Under the warm light, his golden-brown pupils were like a soft, quiet lake as he broke it down for Gela. "The Old Federation—I mean the Federation during the White Emperor's era—did not allow overt human trafficking. So, monopoly entrepreneurs came up with something new. They claimed their laborers signed contracts voluntarily, but they used loopholes to set ambiguous conditions that were nearly impossible to meet, creating obstacle after obstacle in the work. Then, they used massive compensation amounts to trap the unlucky souls who jumped into the pit." "Most of those willing to seek a chance at a turnaround through Star-Core mining were bottom-tier laborers. They couldn't pay the compensation, so they could only keep extending their work contracts—but at the same time, the interest they owed, or rather the late fees, continued to accumulate." The male listened intently, his eyes wide, even forgetting to wag his little tail. "...So they couldn't leave." "That's how it was." Stroking the other's head, Sakdi's movements were gentle. "They didn't just lose themselves; they lost their entire families." "And as the Xeno-contamination spread, the number of laborer casualties gradually grew to a terrifying level." "Humans from low-tier planets were like consumables; even children were forced into the trade. Humans are very shrewd when calculating interests. Children were clearly not legal commodities, so the mine owners would 'aid their laborers in arranging families.' In a situation where everyone was starving and couldn't survive, they would advance money in the form of living subsidies and educational funds. Once the children they 'invested' in grew up, they had to spend their entire lives paying back that so-called 'early assistance.'" "That's so bad," Gela whispered. The male didn't know any insults or curses; the most extreme word he could use was "bad." The Core Species couldn't help but kiss him. "What happened after that?" The other was busy responding to the kiss while still persistently asking. "It's not written in this book. Did they gain their freedom later?" "They did." Smiling slightly, Sakdi lowered his gaze. "Do you remember the man in the footage you saw at Camlann, the one with eyes similar to mine?" His past as a human, his entanglement with that man, and the even more distant history were somewhat complicated and rarely brought up. But since the one he was talking to was Gela, it didn't matter. "He was... the Commander-in-Chief of the Jinwu Fleet. Mining Planet 1917 was his home." History never stops for a single person, but every person leaves their mark on the long scroll of history. The high-ranking officials of the Federation never expected that a man who came out of a mining planet would become the youngest fleet commander in human history and, over the following twenty years, achieve victory in seventeen major defensive battles against Xeno-tides. "He proposed an amendment. Under his push, the notorious Liam system was finally abolished." Mentioning that man, Sakdi's mood was still somewhat complex. Bloodline was like a hidden bond that always popped up in unexpected places. "That's wonderful." Gela let out a soft exclamation of wonder. Then he gazed at his partner. "You and him... you two..." "From a biological perspective, I suppose we share a bloodline." The Core Species smiled. "Or rather, the 'me' that used to be probably shared a bloodline with him." That was why, when people faced the Empire rising from the ashes of the Federation, they called it a restoration. "In the era... before the history you're reading, an even earlier age—before the Old Federation appeared—the family of Griffin I of the Golden Canna Dynasty possessed golden pupils for generations." He spoke deliberately, telling his partner about those old matters that few people ever mentioned. "But in their descendants, it became rare to see such a pure gold." This wasn't a particularly happy topic. When Sakdi first learned of this, his mood had been similar to having swallowed a fly. Compared to the hardships and displacement he had experienced in his early years, this hidden "unlock condition" felt like a massive joke. He had always believed that lineage was something used to wipe one's shoes. Bringing it up served no purpose other than making one look ridiculous and flippantly devaluing the hard work, blood, and sweat he had put in. Everything he had was won through his own slaughter; it had nothing to do with bloodlines rotting in the dust of history. However, having woken up as an insectoid in a strange star region, Sakdi could now discuss these obscure past events with a calm mind. His cynicism was gradually dissipating; because of the male beside him, he was no longer so sharp and cold. "I'm happy." Emitting a light buzzing sound, Gela's arms wrapped around him, nuzzling his neck as if proactively seeking closeness. "Before, I didn't dare ask about your past. I was afraid you would leave me." Confessing his little worries made the male a bit embarrassed, and his tail wagged twice in a dissembling manner. "But after knowing some of your past, I'm even happier than I imagined." Sakdi laughed in spite of himself. "My fault." He said, grabbing that little scaled tail. "I can slowly chat with you about these things later." "Tell you the parts I... still remember." "Okay." Gela was very serious. "I will listen carefully." "Everything about you, I will remember firmly." The male made his promise. He once again kissed his partner's beautiful golden-brown eyes.