.16 - The entire star galaxy will know that I am yours
Just as Xue Ling was about to dismember the system, the door opened to reveal an Augustine who was in great spirits. Looking at his lively appearance, Xue Ling's lips twitched.
He subconsciously reached back to touch the glands at the back of his neck. They had been entangled together for five days,completely absorbed in their desire. By the time they had remembered that marking required biting at the glands, it had already been the fifth day. Xue Ling felt that he would remember that kind of feeling even when he went to the next world.
After all, it was too stimulating. Even more intense than simply having his brain go blank.
Xue Ling hunched his neck and waved his hand as he said, "You came at just the right time. Someone just gave me some information. We can take a look at it together."
Augustine brought food with him. He was fine even after five days of activity, but he knew that Xue Ling would definitely be unable to bear it, so he had ordered people to prepare nutrients after he woke up, and had left just now to bring everything over.
Xue Ling ignored those things, opened up the information from Antalya, and was deeply shocked by the stories hidden within this plot.
If this was all caused by the world's own ability to auto correct and fill in the plotlines, then he could only praise it for being reasonable and irrefutable.
It was not easy to investigate an orphan, let alone one who had a clear story from childhood up till adulthood, and who seemed to be extremely diligent, brave and patriotic. So, Antalya stopped looking into Russell and started investigating the people around him, and found some clues.
Russell's life went a bit too smoothly.
When he was young, he met a kind retiree in the mecha factory who helped him study and gave him pointers. When he couldn't afford the tuition fee, he suddenly discovered a valuable item thing in a stall and successfully scraped together the money. Looking at his life for over the past decade, one would find that whenever he met an obstacle that he would not be able to resolve himself, he would ultimately make it through thanks to his good luck.
Xue Ling felt that this was the protagonist's halo in play, but Antalya did not know that. She felt that such a person was too deliberate and therefore suspicious. It would be difficult to find one or two such strong people amongst the common people, let alone in the slums.
Fortunately, as long as one put in the effort, even the smallest trail could be traced. Coupled with the various reports from the battlefield where Russel was born, Antalya reached a fantastic conclusion.
Russell was the only remaining son of Arthur Green, a powerful man and a five star General from the same era as the King. Because his wife and child had died in the war more than a decade ago, he had no desire for fame and fortune, and no interest in the Alliance or the Empire.
Yes, he was the child who had supposedly died on the battlefield.
Over the years, the Alliance's civil strife had been very serious. Five-star generals all plotted and colluded against each other, and all kinds of tricks were used. If the child had been raised in the Alliance, he would either have been married off, or been unable to make it to his current age. Arthur has already lost the love of his life, and he couldn't bear to have his child, a delicate baby who should have been pampered and spoiled growing up, be destroyed in the Alliance.
So he steeled his heart and set up a ploy, deceiving everyone in both the Alliance and the Empire.
He registered this child that was born as an omega as a beta infant and sent him into an orphanage in the Empire as an orphan from the battlefield so that he would be given the best care before he became old enough to take care of himself.
Since then, he had constantly been planting various kinds of people around Russell in order to cultivate his positive personality and guide him along the path he wished him to follow.
But there was one step where General Arthur fell short. He did not expect the Empire's Prince to fall onto the planet where Russell lived due to a Zerg attack, nor did he expect that Russell, who had been trained by him from childhood to have a strong sense of justice, would pick him up and ultimately lead to the two of them developing feelings for each other.
His plan had originally been for Russell to study in the Empire, and when he grew up to the point where nobody could move him, the General would acknowledge him and bring him back to the Alliance.
For this reason, he even sent his most trusted alpha to the Empire with orders to pursue him after Russell had entered school and mark him when his heat arrived.
But in the end, fate made fools of them all. Xue Ling looked through the information and imagined General Arthur's angry appearance. He couldn't help laughing out loud.
"So happy?" Augustine stretched out his hand and rubbed his head. The man who has had his appetite satisfied was particularly easy to deal with. His gaze was tender, and even if Xue Ling said he wanted to go to fly up into the sky, the man would not hesitate at all before bringing him up.
"As long as they are unhappy, I will be happy." Xue Ling shook his nano-computer and suddenly remembered something. "What happened to His Highness the Prince?"
"He's imprisoned in the dungeon." As soon as that man was brought up, Augustine's tone turned murderous.
Xue Ling laughed cheekily and said, "He can't die for the time being. Let's just keep him locked up for now. We can show him what prosperity looks really looks like. By the way, what happened to his little lover?"
"On the third day of his disappearance, he sent himself to our door and was also locked up in the dungeon."
Xue Ling clapped his hands. Since the two protagonists were so close, then it would be wrong not to put them together.~
The system wanted to comment on his bad taste, but Augustine was standing next to him, and it finally chose to keep its mouth shut and not speak up.
The underground area under the palace had been a very expansive project back then, and the designers who worked on it never left the palace. In a sense, they were imprisoned here, but they were obsessed about the whole thing.
It was also after Augustine woke up that Xue Ling learned that there were so many secrets to the underground palace. He had people bring Russell along, and then slowly made his way to Luther's cell.
In order not to make sure the Empress wouldn't be disgusted, the disdainful guards first gave Luther a rinse, which made His Highness Prince feel humiliated and angry all over again. However, his original strength and power had been locked away somehow by these people, and could not be used at all. Otherwise, he would have fought against them a long time ago.
Just as he was in the middle of entertaining more evil thoughts, the door opened again, and Luther looked up with a dark, ferocious light in his eyes. His line of sight fell on a youth with an alluring face and eyes.
As soon as Luther saw him appear, he knew that he had completed his heat. He sneeringly said, "Your Highness the Princess has had enough fun and has finally remembered me. Should I be honored?"
Xue Ling spoke with some surprise, "We are already divorced. When you address me, you can add a 'former' before the word Princess, just like you will soon become a 'former' Prince." After the baptism of adulthood, the youth's face, which had not seemed to be untouched by earthly matters, now carried a trace of worldly charm. He had just finished his heat, and his scent still carried the trace of pheromones, but Luther could tell that the scent on him was not his own, and rather belonged to another man.
With this reminder, Luther cursed, "Ha. Stealing my nano-computer to forge my agreement to the divorce. I don't know if the citizens would still support you the way they do now if they knew the true face of their Princess."
"Why not?" Xue Ling laughed and said, "You marked another omega first, and I found another person to mark me after I had already requested a divorce from you. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Ha, there's nothing wrong." Luther clenched his fist. This kind of feeling where something that should have belonged to him had been stolen was really unacceptable, and he had no way to control his mood without lowering his head to look away. "You've already calculated everything, right? It's ridiculous that they call you Empress. Do you really think that there would a second person in the world who can be called Emperor?"
"I don't know if there's a second one, but I know the first one." Xue Ling dragged the man who had been guarding the door inside and spoke in a gloating tone, "Doesn't Your Highness the Prince recognize this face?" He reached up to Augustine's face and pinched it lightly. The man expressionlessly allowed him to do whatever he wanted. "He lived in the underground palace for so many years, we really need to thank the royal family for their care in making sure he didn't get stolen away by others."
When he mentioned it, Luther lifted his head up sharply to look at the man. Before, it had only been a rough glance, and he had not seen the man's face clearly at all due to his extreme pain. During these days of rumination, he had always felt that it was somewhat familiar, but he could not imagine who it could be…
Luther's face was full of shock. It was probably the first time that his emotions had been so exposed in front of Xue Ling, and it caused him to clap his hands with some satisfaction. "You recognize him now?"
"How can it be…" Luther whispered, "Isn't he already dead…"
"Even if he died, he can always come back to life." Xue Ling spoke lightly, "In fact, he was only sleeping, and there's no rule that he can't sleep for seven hundred years, and then get up and continue to rule."After showing off his man, Xue Ling then had Russell brought in. Although Russell had been imprisoned these past few days, he had been eating and drinking well, and did not suffer much. Tears filled his eyes when he saw the thin and haggard Luther.
He did not like to cry, but everything about the scene in front of him made him sad. His lover had clearly had an impressive presence when he left a few days ago, but now he had his head bowed in front of these two people, his expression ugly, and his original elegance was nowhere to be seen.
Russell was deeply distressed upon seeing Luther like this.
Luther shuddered under Russell's touch, and he stiffly wrapped his arms around Russell to hug him, his heart filled with endless grief. He had originally thought he could give Russell happiness and good fortune by restoring his memory, but now it seemed that they might have been better off staying on that poor planet.
At least they would still be able to live safely.
While these two men were busy being sentimental, Xue Ling looked down and asked the system, "Do I look like a big villain? The type who first tortures the protagonist's body, and then still insists on tormenting their spirit."
"As long as you don't lose your mind and let them out so that they have a chance to make a comeback," The system was already very certain that the plot had no chance of reversal, "Then you would be the most successful villain."
Xue Ling smiled and took out the information that he had ordered people to print out for him earlier and placed it in front of them. "I might be disturbing you two, but there is something I regrettably must inform you of."
"What else do you want to do?" Luther now had a certain feeling of despair. He was impotent, and in front of the once invincible Emperor of the galaxy, his little bit of power was useless. Other than being confined here for the next half of his life, Luther did not feel that he would have any other endings.
Fortunately, the other party let him see Russell. "These things have nothing to do with Russell. All you want is the royal family. Now that I'm in your hands, you should let him go."
"We don't plan to do anything to him either." Xue Ling squatted in front of him, and brought up the information in his hand. "But since he's not a person of the Empire, he shouldn't be staying in the Empire. So, we'll send Young Master Russell back."
"If General Arthur knew that he was in our hands, he would be happy to pay out something in order to facilitate his smooth return."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"Exactly what I said."
After tossing all the information to the two people inside, Xue Ling no longer cared about the protagonist gong and protagonist shou. They were no threat to him at all. As long as they were separated, their love and whatever else would be pointless. The Prince was left without his career and lover, not to mention his lower half had already been wasted and he could not have children. They were already no longer part of the game.
The only thing remaining was the Zerg.
Suddenly, Xue Ling stopped his steps. He turned around and grabbed the man's collar, to make him look down towards himself. "You promised me before that you would kill the Zerg?"
"Yes. I promised you."
Xue Ling curved his lips and kissed him in satisfaction, happily commanding him, "Go then, I'll agree to marry you on the day that you've killed them all and they've become extinct."
Augustine reached out and lifted him up by the waist. He lowered his head to press his forehead against his, and asked, "So, this doesn't count as us being married?"
"Well, we can consider this as a trial period." Xue Ling rubbed his fingertips across his lips, teasingly, and extremely fearlessly. "When the Zerg are destroyed, you can propose to me in front all the stars, and then I will agree. This way…" He dragged his words on for a little longer. "The entire star galaxy will know that I am yours."
And they will all know, that you are mine.
Augustine looked at the young man in his arms who willfully wanted to make a public display, laughed softly, and lowered his head to kiss him on the lips.
"Good, I promise."
alamerysl: Ahhhhh the end of this chap is so sweet I can't handle it! Hand holding papapa, face slapping, romance - can't ask for anything more.
BlueBug: Last chapter made me regret; this chapter restored my faith.
xiin: *still playing with bots on *