MCDWTBS Chapter 34
by VolareSerra put down the sample report in his hand, his tired dark circles showing as he looked at Ilia’s holographic image.
These days, Edwin had been unconscious for too long, and Serra’s anxiety had reached its peak. Without Edwin’s care, his working hours had multiplied, and he barely slept.
Krison’s laboratory expanded rapidly, quietly recruiting many female and sub-male Chong researchers, almost draining all the funds that the Duke’s Mansion had accumulated over thousands of years. All the families on the Capital Star felt that the newly appointed Duke Noah was a fool, not only distributing bracelets to tens of billions of worthless female and sub-male Chong for free but also paying out of his own pocket to join the royal family’s battle against the church, to the point where his family’s fortune was about to be squandered.
Serra couldn’t care less about the image he had in the eyes of other families and male Chong. After the farce at the palace, he refused all visits from nobles or the church, unilaterally contacting Colean, the heir to the royal family, disguising himself as Colean’s direct subordinate, but actually focusing all his energy on the research in the laboratory.
He didn’t have much time left. Edwin was gradually withering in his mental tendrils, and Serra felt like his heart was being cut when he looked at him. Losing Edwin had become his greatest nightmare. He kept the old Duke’s pheromones close to his body and even secretly looked for some young male Chong from humble backgrounds but with decent abilities.
Using the old Duke’s pheromones was like drinking poison to quench thirst. Being truly marked by a male Chong would make Edwin unconditionally obey that male Chong’s will, which was not the result Serra wanted. However, in the face of keeping Edwin alive, his thoughts were not important.
Even if Edwin would suffer or even blame him for Serra’s actions in the future.
“Ilia, don’t call me Young Male Master, call me brother. Also, are you safe?”
Serra tried to make his exhausted voice sound as gentle as possible. Facing this sub-male younger brother who looked like a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, he really didn’t want the other party to get into trouble for probing the church’s internal information. He hoped Ilia was safe more than he wanted that information.
“It’s okay… brother.” Ilia’s blue eyes were soft, but his face had lost the baby fat he had in the Duke’s Mansion, showing some of the firmness and decisiveness of an adult. He was growing up fast in the outside world, and Serra didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“What about the Holy Son? Why doesn’t he tell me these things himself?”
Serra asked. He was busy with the laboratory and taking care of Edwin, but he had neglected the situation of the Holy Son – his fellow Earthling. The other party rarely contacted him, and only now did Serra realize that something was wrong.
Even if the Holy Son—that rich second-generation student from Earth—had psychological barriers to contacting people, he wasn’t someone who wallowed in his own wounds. Under these circumstances, the Holy Son should have contacted him or other classmates who might have been stranded in the Chong race.
“Are you very familiar with Holy Son Francis, brother?”
Ilia visibly tensed up, his face also turning pale. Serra realized that his relationship with the Holy Son was indeed not something that could be explained clearly to other Chong, so he softened his voice:
“We have some contact, so I think he can protect you. Does he want to tell me anything else through you, Ilia?”
“No, brother, he—” Ilia looked hesitant, as if he was guarding against something, but not against Serra. He looked around before carefully lowering his voice:
“He’s not doing well, he can’t tell you himself. But don’t worry, we’ll figure out a way. The church… reached some agreement with His Highness Colean. The royal family has given in. His Holiness the Pope has a divine artifact in his hands. It’s said to be… a part of the Mother Goddess’s remains. He’s using it to control the Holy Son.”
Ilia said quickly, “I can’t tell you more, brother, you must be careful. Can I trouble you… can you take care of my male parent and other female Chong brothers, okay? I’ll bring back more news from the church for you, brother, I’m not afraid anymore, I also want to help you.”
Serra was so shocked by these words that his eyes widened. He wanted to ask more questions, but he knew he couldn’t get more information from the skittish little sub-male. He was more worried about the situation of his former student and his current sub-male brother.
“Ilia, calm down, listen to me. You don’t need to find out any more information, you’ve done very well, you know? I let you go with the Holy Son to protect you, not to make you do these dangerous things. Your male parent wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger either—”
“No, brother, male parent would be proud of me. He used to be a hero on the battlefield, but my physique is not as good as male parent, and my appearance causes trouble for all Chong, but I don’t want to be a vase hiding behind male parent and brother anymore.”
“I’m doing the right thing, I know. I remember everything brother taught us. The church is a very scary place, the Pope’s ambitions are extremely inflated, they must be stopped… I know I can’t help much, but brother, this is what I want to do. I’ll definitely be useful, brother—”
“Ilia, I don’t need you to be useful! Sison doesn’t need you to be useful! You need to be safe—”
“I have to go, brother.”
Ilia said quickly and calmly. There was a slight glimmer of tears in his eyes. He lowered his head to look at his short and chubby male Chong brother, his pair of extremely beautiful eyes seemed to convey thousands of words of gratitude, but his face was still firm. Except for those overly delicate features, he had almost no resemblance to the sub-male boy who was forced by his male parent and cried incessantly.
He had become tenacious, as if a stubborn stone had finally been ground out with the sharpness of a sword. His beautiful appearance had become the most insignificant and insignificant part of him.
He hung up the communication. Serra’s brow furrowed again. He sent Ilia a comforting message, not waiting for the other party to reply before the robot delivered an invitation from the church to visit tonight.
They really wouldn’t wait a moment.
Serra’s face darkened. He waved for the robot Xiao An to come over, putting the prepared energy fluid and nutrient injection on the tray, along with a small note he had written himself, and sending it all to Edwin’s main bedroom where he was unconscious. He carefully set the medical bay’s healing spectrum and then raised the defense of the Duke’s Mansion’s west wing to the highest level, having all the modified robots guard Edwin’s bedroom.
He summoned Sison and explained the current situation to him:
“…I don’t know what the church intends to do, nor do I know what conditions they’ve agreed upon with the royal family, but I don’t think Colean would sacrifice me to the church. I’m still useful to him, unless—”
Unless he had found a new male Chong who could compete with the power of the church’s Holy Son.
Serra frowned at this thought, but he didn’t think too much about it: “That’s the situation, Sison. I hope I’m overthinking it, but I still hope that if things change, you must take Edwin and the other Chong in the Duke’s Mansion to a safe place. Professor Krison will help you. Back then, he also helped Marshal Ax.”
Serra said calmly, but Sison’s calm face suddenly cracked. He looked at the somewhat haggard chubby Chong cub in front of him, slowly squatted down, and looked directly into the Chong cub’s eyes:
“Young Male Master, what about you?”
The male Chong cub’s face was a little tired from days of busyness, and his chubby cheeks had also shrunk a little, but he was still pleasingly cute, but his eyes had the wisdom and composure that ordinary cubs didn’t have:
“This is all my worst-case scenario, Sison. We don’t fight unprepared battles.”
The male Chong cub grinned, revealing the sweet and soft smile of a cub, looking carefree, deliberately joking to dispel the heavy atmosphere just now, but Sison couldn’t laugh at all:
“Only you can protect Edwin, Young Male Master. If this is a life-and-death battle, we can’t lose you.”
The Chong cub’s forced calm smile faded. He slowly nodded and said after a moment of silence:
“I understand.”
He no longer spoke glibly, but handed the special bracelet to Sison—with this bracelet, Krison would contact them through the newly built encrypted dark web.
*
At night, the church’s male Chong arrived outside the Duke’s Mansion in several airships. Serra stood at the entrance of the Duke’s Mansion’s main hall, coldly watching the church’s swarming male Chong and robots.
Leading the way was Bishop Sandersfi, whom he had seen before, accompanied by a red-robed bishop with slender limbs and a lean figure. His face had a corpse-like cyan-black color. Even if his features were not ugly, even considered handsome, he still gave people an indescribable sense of strangeness and revulsion.
Serra saw that Sandersfi, who had represented the church in discussing matters at the royal celebration, was half a step behind this Chong, so he knew that this male Chong bishop’s status was higher than his. Judging from his figure, he was probably the Pope’s number one archbishop, the only bishop among the seven bishops who came from a noble family, Sass Reckter.
The Reckter family was one of the four families that guarded the royal family back then, and it was also the family with the most male Chong branches among the four families today, which showed that the Chong population was thriving. This Reckter family heir, who had the highest qualifications back then, had deviated from the family’s ancestral teachings and became the most mysterious bishop under the Pope, and no Chong knew the reason until now.
However, according to rumors, this archbishop lived in seclusion and, like the Pope, was very old, said to be about several hundred years old, which showed the strength of his male Chong God strength.
The corner of Serra’s eye twitched slightly, thinking that no wonder Sass looked like a vampire who had just crawled out of a coffin. These demons and monsters pressing on the heads of civilians should have been extinguished by the light long ago.
“Bishop Sandersfi, long time no see. I wonder what is the reason for this visit, allowing the Duke’s Mansion to receive such great hospitality?”
Serra spoke first, but he didn’t intend to welcome these damned Chong into the Duke’s Mansion, speaking across half of the main courtyard, and there was not even the Duke’s Mansion’s honor guard behind him, completely disregarding the Chong race’s etiquette for treating guests.
Bishop Sass remained silent, like a tall and thin ghostly figure, his face not even clearly visible, while Sandersfi squeezed out an ugly smile with his old face:
“Duke, I’m disturbing you this time. However, the church is here with sincerity to discuss matters with the Duke. The honorable Bishop Sass has come on behalf of the Pope, so why doesn’t the Duke summon the female and sub-male Chong of the Duke’s Mansion to respectfully welcome His Holiness? The nobility’s way of treating guests is not like this.”
“Treating guests?”
Serra was nonchalant, but his gaze didn’t fall on Sandersfi or any other Chong, but on Sass.
Strange, he didn’t feel that Sass had very strong mental energy, unlike when he faced the Holy Son, but…
Sass’s aura was very strange, almost making Serra feel creeped out. Recalling the warning that Ilia had sent…
Serra’s guard against the church’s party reached its peak.