MCDWTBS Chapter 78

Chapter 78 “…I love you too.” …

Serra left the frontier star garrisoned by the Fourth Army; a desolate planet where acid rain began to fall.

With the technological level of the insectoids, harmful climatic phenomena such as acid rain could be completely eliminated through various means. Even without the exorbitant emitters that could change localized climate, they could erect protective shields to prevent any drop of corrosive liquid from splashing onto the land.

However, the frontier planets were perpetually garrisoned by thick-skinned, hardy female insectoids. The female insectoids who entered the army had a physical strength no lower than B-. They simulated combat on the training grounds as usual, repaired old strategic materials, and at most, only raised their hands to wipe away the acid rain when it flowed into their eyes.

The harsh weather turned the sky scarlet. Edwin held up an umbrella, shielding the male insectoid who already had an energy shield protecting him – unfortunately, rarity couldn’t save the male insectoid’s fragile physique. Serra was fortunate enough to be the only humanoid creature on this desolate frontier planet likely to be corroded by acid rain.

“Male parent, you hold it yourself.”

Serra pushed the umbrella back into Edwin’s hand, even though he knew that acid rain of this concentration couldn’t even harm Edwin’s hair. The adult male insectoid was wearing a pure white Dress, particularly dazzling under the scarlet sky, but his shoulders were drooping, and even the stubborn little curls on the top of his head were listless.

He didn’t want to leave Edwin. Last night, he had stayed by Edwin’s bedside like an owl again, rambling on and on about all sorts of things – he had to leave this frontier star to deal with more pressing matters and cope with the imminent revolution. But the thought of leaving Edwin gnawed at his heart at all times. He wanted to open his mouth countless times, to say what he really wanted to say, such as issuing orders to Edwin as a male insectoid, forcing them not to separate.

Perhaps he was thinking too hard. His hoarse voice couldn’t utter a word, as if a mouthful of dry military solid nutrient injection was stuck in his throat, forming a suffocatingly large lump. Edwin, who had been lying on his side on the bed, as quiet as a cat, raised his eyes and silently looked at the male insectoid. An invisible string was stretched taut in the silence, and Serra’s dark tail hook extended from his tailbone, waiting for an opportunity to move in the dark like a venomous snake.

Edwin seemed not to notice, not even a tremor in his gaze. He gently opened his arms to Serra. The loose neckline revealed a patch of lustrous skin. The collision of light and shadow at the undulating areas instantly suppressed the noisy tension in the air as the male insectoid was embraced.

The black-haired army female didn’t speak, and the male insectoid who buried his sharply angled handsome face in his chest also had nothing to say as his cheeks warmed up.

He was doing the right thing because he was doing what Edwin wanted him to do… He was giving his beloved female insectoid freedom. Serra thought through gritted teeth, forcing himself to leave only this one voice in his mind, no longer hearing the endless murmur of selfish desires. He listened to Edwin’s heartbeat, thump, thump, thump, until the rhythm matched his breathing.

“Ed, don’t get hurt, don’t abandon me.”

The male insectoid’s voice became muffled, and the bourbon-flavored pheromones bared their fangs and claws in the air, relentlessly approaching and strangling Edwin’s original aura. But the male insectoid’s body was as docile and harmless as a cub, burying himself in the female insectoid’s chest in an almost pious posture.

“As long as I have a breath left, I will return to your side.”

This was the only promise Edwin gave on the last night. The army female was not good at lying, and they both knew that it was almost an unrealistic fantasy not to get hurt on the battlefield. And Edwin was never a female insectoid who was afraid of bloodshed and cowered in a safe fortress.

He was worthy of the general’s star on his shoulder, even if it meant he couldn’t take care of his cub’s wishes.

In the darkness where Serra couldn’t see, the female insectoid slightly lowered his head, his gaze lingering for a long time on Serra’s unruly curls, his fingers virtually running through them. Some words were not spoken, but the female insectoid’s heart was firm.

His male insectoid cub had embarked on a path against the church and even the royal family, something no insectoid had dared to do since ancient times. But his insectoid cub did it, resolutely, and they both knew that the insectoid cub wasn’t doing it for himself.

Serra was a powerful male insectoid deeply loved by the Mother Goddess. His existence itself represented glory and power, something other insectoids could hardly achieve. His abilities were naturally endowed. He had no reason to put himself in danger. The insectoid race was a race that advocated power. Most of them had severed their kinship, let alone love and friendship. Serra’s purely altruistic behavior was simply a fantasy in the eyes of the insectoids.

But he did it anyway, even at the cost of his life for a revolution that would not benefit him in any way.

Why? Many times in the dead of night, Edwin asked himself silently in his heart. Rationally, he knew that everything Serra did brought precious hope to the female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids, but selfishness always suddenly invaded in the silence – he repeatedly asked himself, why did Serra become like this, disregarding life and death and not considering himself?

If he hadn’t suddenly appeared in Serra’s life, if he hadn’t had an unethical relationship with Serra, would Serra’s provocations against the church and the royal family be more subtle? Would he still be so headstrong, and would his situation be safer?

Putting aside all the rights and wrongs, putting aside the battle situation and responsibilities, Edwin’s most instinctive logic as a male parent was still to ensure his cub’s safety at all costs.

And now, surrounded by wolves, the most Edwin could do within his power was to control the Fourth Army and make a quarter of the Empire’s army Serra’s backing.

He grew the wings on his back not to hide under Serra’s wings. He had to be a useful male parent who could truly protect the insectoid cub.

At this moment, Edwin looked at Serra’s sticky, languid, and eager gaze, and finally hardened his heart, secretly pushing the male insectoid’s chest.

“Don’t delay the time to go through the wormhole.”

The male insectoid grunted and walked towards the airship, turning back with every step. The mental tendrils behind him were almost drawn into thin threads, trying to stick to Edwin, but they were gently but firmly removed by Edwin.

It wasn’t until Serra’s gaze finally passed through the closed metal door frame and looked at Edwin that he discovered the black-haired female insectoid’s light-colored lips moving silently:

“…I love you too.”

In an instant, Serra thought his vision was blurred. His hands slapped onto the completely closed door frame, his eyes fixed on the pale metal, his mind was silent with shock. He wanted to shout, but the airship had already taken off with ten escort ships under the set program, and he ultimately failed to jump off the airship to hug Edwin.

This was the last time they met for a long time.

*

At the end of the month when Serra returned to the Capital Star, protests broke out on several affiliated planets of Heavenly Palace Star, where the Pope was located. Most of the initiators were male insectoids who had lost their property due to the royal family’s blockade. Many of the Empire’s mineral productions also stopped mining due to the blockade of the church. A large number of miners lost their jobs and went missing one after another on the border stars and mineral stars.

After many years, the Rebel army once again entered the Empire’s field of vision. The hand-ring network became their weapon for recruiting and propaganda. The church and the royal family focused their attention on the “trouble” created by Duke Noah.

Edwin’s inaugural speech in the Fourth Army and the Mother Goddess’s blessing had long disappeared from the Star Network, and even from the insectoid’s communication. However, a melody of lovesickness was passed down from mouth to mouth among the female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids:

“The long night is endless, the lone star is hard to see”

“We are in the dark mine stars, in the silent cemeteries, in the smoky battlefields, in the simple shacks”

“We look up at the stars in the dust and blood”

“There, we were once illuminated by the Mother Goddess”

“There, we have the right to live”

“There, the Mother Goddess made a promise to us”

“When the stars line up in a row”

“That is the signal the Mother Goddess gives us”

“We will set off for the final battlefield”

“There, life and death are both answers”

“There, we wait for dawn to come”

“My compatriots, look up at the stars, don’t look down again, let the tears and blood fall into the male insectoid’s cups”

…

This melody spread like spring rain in the major planets of the insectoid race. Even though some alert male insectoids had forced their female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids to take off their hand-rings, even though the use of the network by Sub-male insectoids and female insectoids had become the Empire’s greatest taboo and the source of punishment for female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids, everything was too late.

After losing all networks and signals, this song actually lived in the mouths of female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids. Male parent sang it to their cubs, and servants sang it to their young female insectoid and Sub-male insectoid masters. It didn’t need musical instruments or grand production. It was just composed of dry but unwilling to be extinguished voices. It was just like blood, passed down from mouth to mouth among compatriots.

During this period, many voices were erased. Many insectoids were beheaded in the male insectoid’s beautiful gardens, hung in the church’s preaching squares. The Empire incorporated the prohibition of singing by female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids into the legal clauses of female insectoid and Sub-male insectoid death sentences. The male insectoid played death and blood on the news, trying to spread plague-like fear, but they didn’t strangle the song.

They failed to strangle the dry, unextinguished voice.

The hand-ring network base station originally located on the Capital Star was destroyed by the royal family. Colean didn’t summon Serra to Sky City, nor did he give Serra any explanation. Although the royal family didn’t slap themselves in the face on the surface, ordering all female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids to take off their hand-rings, it was obvious that they also realized the harmfulness of Serra’s hand-rings – it was just that they were embarrassed to tear their faces with Serra immediately due to their reputation and the threat of the church.

The technological industry related to Duke Noah’s mansion’s hand-rings was quickly investigated. Most of the female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids with male masters were forcibly removed their hand-rings. However, what angered the royal family was that the hand-ring network’s signal was always there.

At this time, Serra was grateful for Clissen’s foresight, turning the backup of the hand-ring network into a shadow network of the Empire’s Star Network. As long as the Empire didn’t cut off the network for the male insectoids, turning the insectoid race completely into primitive tribes without communication and exchanges, the hand-ring network would never be extinguished.

It would be like a lighthouse, eternally summoning the female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids who wanted to go home.

Late at night, Serra, who had put down his work, rubbed his eyebrows wearily. His spirit was still excited, but his fragile male insectoid body couldn’t stand not closing his eyes for five days and five nights. He sent a series of harassing messages to Edwin, and a couple of short replies made him bend his eyes in satisfaction and sighed deeply as he lay in the medical treatment facility.

He and Clissen commanded the Rebel army to seize several energy mines and transported some of Duke Noah’s weapons to the front lines of the Resistance army. They planned several battles of all sizes, not enough to make the Empire send troops to suppress them on a large scale, but enough to let the Empire’s female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids know in a few words of information that the Resistance army was still active.

At the same time, with the system’s cold words and help, Serra also knew some information about the “Fallen Species”. The last group of the Fallen Species was slaughtered by the royal family’s special forces around the time Marshal Ax died. Only scattered tribesmen and mixed-bloods joined the space pirates, mingling on the Empire’s borders, on the unattended garbage planets. Clissen sent some of the Resistance army’s forces to search for them, but there was no definite news yet.

As for the Imperial Research Institute, it was the biggest reason Serra still stayed on the Capital Star. He tried his best to inquire about the Research Institute in the Capital Star, and also monitored Colean’s damn plan to “brainwash female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids”, but so far he hasn’t gained anything – even Ilot, who was around Colean, didn’t know the exact location of the Imperial Research Institute.

The only thing he was sure of to Serra was that the research on “brainwashing female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids” was indeed being carried out secretly in the Imperial Research Institute. Colean was very proud of the research results, but as for other more anti-life research, it was unknown.

Just when Serra felt at a loss, an abandoned mineral planet very far from the Capital Star suddenly exploded. Along with it, the hand-ring network and the Empire’s Star Network were invaded at the same time. Several state-level classified research reports suddenly invaded the network, and no matter how the Star Network tried to delete them, they couldn’t be deleted.

On the front page of that research report, a female insectoid with a face as cold as snow and as delicate as a doll quietly looked at every insectoid who read this report with a pair of smoky eyes. On his snow-white neck was branded the mark of a test subject 010, and on his nameplate was clearly marked a name that was almost a household name among the insectoid race.

– Ax.

Serra’s vigilant eyes trembled for a moment, and he almost immediately wanted to dial Edwin’s communication – he knew what Marshal Ax meant to Edwin, which was far more than a superior, but more like a guide and a relationship similar to a male parent – he restrained himself for a long time before holding back this impulse, frowned and looked at the experimental report about Ax, and flipped to the last page of the time.

Star calendar xxxx year xx month xx day, 19:03.

That was yesterday. So Ax was very likely still alive – even if he was in the Imperial Laboratory that had been bombed into ruins.

Yes, although the royal family blocked the news quickly, the media had already exposed that the secret laboratory of the royal family was hidden on the abandoned mineral planet where the explosion occurred. Among them, the most detailed experiment was the brainwashing of female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids, turning them into soulless and thoughtless war machines. The shocking facts were nakedly placed in front of every insectoid.

Among the female insectoids and Sub-male insectoids, the biggest panic in history broke out – no soul, no thought – was this what the male insectoid rulers were preparing to do to them? Why? Were they not obedient enough, not enough to be used by the male insectoids? They were born when the male insectoids needed them, they undertook almost all the work that the male insectoids were unwilling to do or unprofitable, they endured the male insectoids’ tyranny and ridicule, just to make the male insectoids’ experience better. They used the least resources and created the greatest value. Most of them had not tasted the deliciousness of food, had not seen the scenery outside the workplace, and had not felt anything other than pain and numbness.

They even died without complaint when the male insectoids needed them, for a promise about the Hall of Glory – and in this promise, what they got was nothing more than being able to serve the male insectoids in the Hall of Glory forever.

Even so, their feelings, their existence, were to be deprived?

Why – by what?