Chapter 183: The Stranded Male Zerg × The Heavenly Garuda Emperor (5): Even If He Became a Wild Bug, He Would Never Lay an Egg with a Wild Heavenly Garuda!

The Prince slowly looked up in a daze.

He could hardly believe that the Heavenly Garuda in the novel—the one using his own energy to heat bathwater for another bug—was really based on his younger brother, the battle fanatic whose mind contained nothing but conquest and slaughter.

Whenever he faced this Male Zerg, he always looked impatient.

Yet every single time...

He endured it.

Every threat he made toward the Male Zerg remained nothing more than a verbal threat.

He had never actually laid a hand on him.

If he truly wanted to...

There were countless ways to make a Male Zerg shut up forever.

Whether he intended to leave him alive or not.

An A-rank Male Zerg was precious, yes.

But when had the Heavenly Garuda Emperor—who always acted entirely according to his own whims—ever carefully weighed pros and cons like this?

The Prince's complicated gaze lingered on the text.

It seemed...

This Male Zerg really suited Ares' tastes.

At the very least...

He fit his aesthetic preferences.

When facing this Male Zerg, Ares had even remembered the Prince's instruction—

Find a male and have an egg.

Heaven knew...

The Heavenly Garuda Emperor had stayed on the Imperial Capital Star for so long before this, yet hadn't taken a liking to a single male.

According to the bad custom passed down through generations of the Heavenly Garuda royal family...

The Heavenly Garuda Emperor possessed the right of first choice when selecting a male.

Whenever the Emperor decided he wanted one, every unmarried adult male in the Empire would first be presented before His Majesty for selection.

Ares could fall asleep reading male profiles.

Faced with lists filled with beautiful males of every type...

His mind would go completely blank.

Afterward, he couldn't even remember what he'd looked at.

Whenever he attended gatherings arranged for males...

Either he frightened them into tears...

Or he slipped away himself.

For a Heavenly Garuda Emperor like that...

To spend this long with a single Male Zerg...

To even remember his duty to produce an egg while facing him...

That truly wasn't easy.

Perhaps...

There really might be an egg after all.

The Prince was lost in thought for a second.

Then he abruptly came back to his senses.

This was only a novel.

He'd become so absorbed in it that he'd unconsciously begun treating it as reality.

But...

Was it really only a novel?

The Prince's eyes filled with vigilance and suspicion.

Putting aside how accurately the author understood Ares' personality...

That line—

"My elder brother's task. Find a male and have an egg."

Was difficult to explain.

It sounded...

As though the author had personally heard it.

Personally witnessed it.

If there truly existed someone who knew details this precise...

Then that person's network of informants had to span the entire Heavenly Garuda Empire...

Perhaps even extend deep into the Imperial Palace itself.

His expression turned grave.

He continued reading.

...

【Ares was gone for a very long time.

Carl squatted at the cave entrance.

Even as the sky gradually darkened...

The Heavenly Garuda still hadn't returned.

His legs had gone numb from squatting.

He changed positions and sat on a nearby rock, lightly pounding his sore legs.

Just as he was beginning to nod off...

A brilliant white beam suddenly shot into the sky in the distance.

The dazzling pillar of energy pierced the clouds, tore through the atmosphere, blasted apart layer after layer of airwaves, continued climbing toward the stars...

Until it finally became a tiny white point before disappearing into the heavens.

Carl stared blankly at the concentric rings of crimson clouds left behind.

He suddenly slapped his thigh and jumped to his feet.

"Holy crap! That's definitely an artificial weapon! There are other bugs on this planet?!"

No...

That looked like the direction the Heavenly Garuda Emperor had flown.

Some time later...

Using the last traces of sunlight remaining after sunset...

Carl spotted the Emperor returning.

The towering black Heavenly Garuda slowed as he approached, folded his wings, and landed lightly outside the cave.

Carl hurriedly asked,

"What was that just now..."

"A signal."

Ares answered.

Why fly so far away just to send a signal?

Carl was puzzled.

As he lowered his head, he noticed dirt clinging to Ares' hands, which were gradually returning from their clawed form.

"What were you doing?"

he asked instinctively.

Ares glanced at his own hands.

"Mining."

Carl: "?"

It sounded exactly like a joke.

Yet the Heavenly Garuda Emperor's expression remained perfectly serious.

"You really went mining?"

Carl looked utterly bewildered.

Ares: ?

Could that possibly be fake?

Too lazy to waste words explaining things to this Male Zerg...

Ares turned toward the cave.

Then he remembered how this Male Zerg had been waiting pitifully at the entrance through the darkness.

He paused.

Turning back, he looked Carl over before asking,

"Hungry?"

Only then did Carl realize how hungry he was.

He obediently nodded.

Ares turned and started walking away.

Carl hurriedly grabbed his arm.

"Hey, hey, hey! No need! I still have food in my space button."

It was already dark.

The forest echoed with countless strange sounds.

He really didn't want to stay here alone.

Ares lowered his eyes toward the hand clutching his arm.

After a moment of silence...

He gave up on leaving.

Carl finally relaxed.

Letting go, he headed back into the cave, glancing behind him every so often to make sure Ares was following.

Ares walked behind him.

Deep inside the cave was pitch black.

Visibility was poor even during the day.

At night...

It was even worse.

The Male Zerg couldn't see.

He slowly felt his way forward.

Ever since Ares had scolded him that first time...

He no longer dared switch on his terminal light.

The habit had remained ever since.

Silently...

Ares took polished glowstones from his space button.

Using only hand strength, he embedded them into the cave walls one by one, continuing deeper inside.

Each spherical glowstone was about the size of a fist.

In the darkness, they emitted bright blue-green light.

Enough to illuminate the outlines of everything nearby.

Carl noticed the cave gradually brightening.

He stared in surprise at the Heavenly Garuda Emperor...

And the glowing stones he kept pressing into the walls.

"So those are the ores you mined?"

"Mm."

Ares responded before adding,

"And energy ore for my mech."

That had been the main objective.

The glowstones...

He'd merely picked them up along the way.

He absolutely had not gone mining specifically for the Male Zerg.

Carl was delighted.

Wonderful.

With these glowstones...

He wouldn't have to constantly worry about not being able to see or accidentally angering this moody Heavenly Garuda.

Ares embedded several more glowstones deep inside the cave.

Glowstones emitted a small amount of radiation.

But the level was extremely low.

Before bringing them back, Ares had performed a simple inspection.

Their radiation was even lower than that of ordinary household appliances.

Completely harmless to Male Zergs.

Carl returned to the little nest he'd made from piles of clothes.

To make it more comfortable...

He'd removed every button and every hard decorative piece from his clothing.

The fashionable designs had been completely ruined.

At this point...

He no longer cared.

The Heavenly Garuda's military greatcoat still served as his blanket.

It was wonderfully warm.

As for dinner...

He took out two tubes of nutritional solution he'd never particularly liked before.

One for himself.

One for the Heavenly Garuda.

After all...

He'd been the one who stopped Ares from hunting tonight.

Naturally...

He ought to be responsible for the Heavenly Garuda's dinner.

Ares looked at the fruit-flavored Male Zerg nutritional solution in his own hand.

Then at the Male Zerg sitting atop his mountain of clothes, quietly sipping through a straw.

Suddenly he spoke.

"Get up."

Carl: "?"

What was wrong with this Heavenly Garuda now?

"Move. Stand over there."

Ares repeated.

When trapped inside someone else's cave...

A bug had no choice but to bow his head.

Carl reluctantly climbed out of his little nest and stepped aside onto the tarp.

Then...

He watched Ares casually grab all of his carefully arranged clothes...

And dismantle the entire nest.

Carl's eyes instantly widened.

"??!"

"What are you doing?! You bandit Heavenly Garuda! I even shared my nutritional solution with you! I'll fu—"

Ares pulled a folding military cot from his space button.

He tossed it onto the spot where the Male Zerg had been sleeping.

Then threw Carl's clothes on top.

Turning back, he stared coldly at him.

"Say that again."

"I fu... fo... lo... lo-love you so much~"

Carl threw himself onto the cot, hugging it tightly.

Turning back, he flashed Ares an idiotically cheerful grin.

He knew perfectly well when to bend.

Ares snorted coldly.

Returning to his own side, he sat on the otherwise empty military tarp, still holding the nutritional solution.

Carl happily unfolded the military cot properly.

He stored away the extra clothes, leaving only the military coat as his blanket.

Then he lay down to test its flexibility.

Compared to the bed he'd slept in before...

It was nowhere close.

But after spending several nights sleeping on cave floors...

Carl could accept anything.

This bed was paradise!

It was unbelievably comfortable!

Carl was so happy he wanted to roll around.

He wanted to shout.

Ares watched coldly as the Male Zerg repeatedly tossed and turned across his bed.

This Male Zerg seemed to have forgotten all discipline.

He'd become unbelievably noisy.

His psychic power was so lively it was practically dancing at a nightclub.

Had Ares become too easygoing recently?

The Male Zerg continued fooling around for quite a while.

Only after exhausting himself did he finally stop.

Lying on the cot beneath his military coat, he turned his head toward Ares.

His eyes sparkled.

"If the signal's been sent... will someone come rescue us?"

"Bugs?"

The Heavenly Garuda Emperor let out a mocking laugh.

Carl immediately realized something was wrong.

Even if rescue arrived...

It would most likely be Heavenly Garuda rescuers.

Perhaps...

Even a Heavenly Garuda military fleet.

His expression instantly collapsed.

If the Heavenly Garuda military came...

His fate would already be decided.

He'd be taken back to the Heavenly Garuda Empire.

Abused.

Enslaved.

Occupied by countless lustful Heavenly Garuda females.

Or kept exclusively by some elderly noble female.

Rather than living like that...

He would rather die.

Here...

He was merely a wild bug.

If taken to the Heavenly Garuda Empire...

He would become a slave.

What difference was there between a Heavenly Garuda male...

And a slave?

Comparing the two...

Carl would much rather remain a wild bug.

Seeing the Male Zerg sink into despair, Ares remained silent for a while before saying,

"The Zerg military might also find us first."

Carl's eyes immediately lit up.

Hugging the military greatcoat over the lower half of his face, he asked with barely concealed excitement,

"Really?"

Ares: "...No."

Carl: "???"

Damn Heavenly Garuda!

Playing with his feelings!

If the Zerg came...

That would be perfect.

If the Heavenly Garuda came...

He'd blow up together with them!

Carl thought viciously, wearing an expression of terrifying ferocity.

Ares quietly sensed the Male Zerg's furious...

Yet somehow strangely passionate...

Psychic fluctuations.

Male Zerg emotions...

Really were complicated.

Truthfully...

Even Ares didn't know whether Heavenly Garuda rescuers would arrive first.

Or the Zerg.

Or perhaps...

No one at all.

He had called it a "signal."

But in the vastness of deep space...

Detecting such a burst of energy wasn't easy.

It depended less on technology...

And more on luck.

If luck favored them...

Rescuers would come.

Whether Heavenly Garuda or Zerg...

Either could take this Male Zerg away.

If luck failed them...

Ares turned to look at the sleeping Male Zerg on the military cot.

He wasn't sure whether he should abandon him.

Perhaps...

He could take the Male Zerg aboard his mech.

The mech couldn't perform ultra-long-distance travel.

Its energy reserves weren't sufficient.

But they could replenish energy continuously...

Landing on planets along the way to recharge.

It would simply take much longer to slowly make their way out.

Only...

Such a long, monotonous journey...

The Male Zerg might not be able to endure it.

He might lose his mind...

Harm himself...

Or even end his own life.

The Male Zerg had already fallen asleep.

Only steady breathing echoed through the cave.

Suddenly...

The Male Zerg frowned.

His sleep seemed restless.

His breathing gradually grew heavier.

...

Carl had a dream.

In the dream...

He was browsing the StarNet forums.

He saw a post asking a question.

——If there were only one Zerg and one Heavenly Garuda left in the entire universe, would you be willing to have an egg together?

Never!

Not even if you beat me to death!

Even if I became a wild bug...

I'd never lay an egg with a wild Heavenly Garuda!

"I don't want to lay an egg with a Heavenly Garuda..."

Carl mumbled in his sleep.

Turning over...

He sank into an even deeper slumber.

The only Heavenly Garuda present:

"?"

...】