SZAR Chapter 119

Night fell. Following the instructions, Qu Xia headed to the tribunal. At the entrance, a servant handed him a medicine box that looked like a container for incense.

Seeing Qu Xia look at him in confusion, the servant seemed slightly embarrassed and said cautiously, “Please take it with you. The environment inside… is a bit chaotic. You might need this.”

Qu Xia didn’t quite understand, but he still took the box. He looked toward the council hall and, through a transparent glass door, saw Erwen.

The admiral wore an elaborate silver-white formal uniform, pure white gloves, and his hair tied in a low ponytail. Unusually, he was also wearing a pair of gemstone hair ornaments. His expression was solemn as he read a document that looked like a case file.

Qu Xia hurried over to his side. Before he could even speak, a thick fragrance in the air suddenly rushed straight to his head. His mind went blank, and he almost collapsed onto Erwen.

Erwen reached out and caught him, then held the box under his nose. “Quick, take a sniff.”

A smell similar to Liushen Floral Water or Tiger Balm drifted from the box, cutting through the scent in the air. Qu Xia sneezed while holding the box, rubbed his nose, casually picked up a glass of juice from a tray, and asked:

“Did someone’s pheromones go out of control?”

This kind of gas that strongly affects male zergs is, in most cases, caused by a female zerg’s pheromones going out of control.

Erwen’s expression turned strange. “It’s the Prince.”

“Pff—”

Orange juice sprayed out. Qu Xia grabbed a towel from a servant while coughing softly. Erwen patted his back and sighed. “I didn’t expect it either.”

Who would have thought? The Prince of the Empire, arrogant and overbearing, acting as if no one could rival him, turned out to be a pitiful bug on the verge of a pheromone breakdown.

Qu Xia finally managed to stop coughing and looked up. “What exactly is going on?”

Erwen handed him the dossier. “We don’t know yet. He hasn’t explained the details, those will have to wait for the trial. But given the Prince’s current condition, he probably can’t withstand a public hearing.”

At the moment, the Prince was being held in an isolation chmaber. Even after passing through two layers of filtration, his pheromones were already causing discomfort and rejection among many people. If he were brought before a public trial, leaving aside whether his body could endure it, the other zergs present would also be affected and chaos could break out.

Erwen said, “The Elders Council has decided to hold the trial directly in the isolation chamber. It’s a small place and can’t fit many people. If you want to watch, you can go to the observation room next door.”

Between the observation room and the isolation chamber was a one-way glass wall, allowing them to see every move inside clearly.

Qu Xia hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly.

The Prince held a prestigious status. Even if he had done nothing, he could have enjoyed a lifetime of wealth and privilege. Qu Xia could not understand why he had chosen to take such a desperate risk, pushing things to this point.

They entered the observation room and watched the Prince through the glass. In just a few days, the once arrogant and willful young man had become utterly disheveled. He wore a long prison uniform and sat casually on the floor, sleeves rolled up to his upper arms, exposing a thin, bony forearm.

Qu Xia’s gaze fell on that patch of skin. A row of needle marks covered the Prince’s forearm, each one bruised purple and blue, an unsettling sight.

The elders listed the charges one by one: establishing the D767 laboratory, colluding with foreign factions, framing the Admiral, and finally poisoning the Emperor. Each crime was shocking and more than enough to warrant the death penalty.

The Prince leaned casually against the wall of the cell. He offered no defense at all, admitting every charge cleanly. The entire process went unbelievably smoothly, without any argument or dispute, and in less than an hour, the whole procedure was finished.

The elders exchanged glances and asked him to sign and seal the confession. The Prince picked up the pen and signed it immediately, his attitude relaxed and casual, as if what he was signing was not a confession, but a ticket for a vacation cruise.

One of the elders saw his completely indifferent expression, and his brows jumped sharply. He rebuked him, “You poisoned your father and drugged your younger brother into stupidity. Even now, you still feel no remorse?”

Only then did the Prince raise his head and glance at the elder. His gaze was dark and heavy, his emotions impossible to read.

After a moment, he suddenly burst into wild laughter. His shoulders shook as he laughed, tears even spilling from his eyes. Then he wiped his cheeks with his fingertips, raised the forearm covered with needle marks, and stared fiercely at the elder. With a vicious expression, he asked abruptly, “Who do you think turned me into this? And who do you think all this was paving the way for?”

Qu Xia still did not understand, but Erwen sighed softly. “So that’s how it is.”

He wrapped an arm around Qu Xia’s shoulders. “Let’s go. The charges have already been confirmed. There’s nothing more to see here.”

Qu Xia obediently followed him out, still confused. He glanced back at the Prince, who was laughing wildly behind the glass wall, and asked, “What did he mean by that last sentence?”

Erwen paused, seeming to hesitate over whether he should explain it to the young male zerg. After a moment, he said, “Before Emperor Glore ascended the throne, the Prince’s father also had the right to inherit the throne. Later, when Emperor Glore married and had children, the first child he had was a male zerg.”

He tapped Qu Xia lightly on the shoulder. “That was you.”

“With you, Emperor Glore’s position became unshakable. Not long afterward, the Prince’s father brought back the Prince from outside, claiming he was an illegitimate child he had left out there, and that he was also a male zerg.”

Erwen sighed. “The Prince’s father was a well-known playboy among the zergs, always fooling around outside. No one was surprised that he had an illegitimate child. After genetic testing confirmed he had royal blood, the Prince was added to the family register.”

“Only, none of us expected that the child was actually a female zerg.”

Qu Xia fell silent for a moment.

To alter sexual characteristics, hormones had to be injected from a young age, somewhat similar to the human practice of feminizing hormone therapy. These hormones would cause bone pain and slow muscle development, and they would also seriously shorten a person’s lifespan. If injected for a long time, the individual might not even live past 30.

For the zergs, whose lifespans were long, 30 years was only a very short span of time.

Qu Xia could not help saying, “But once the Prince got married, this lie would eventually be exposed.”

Erwen patted his head. “That’s why, according to the Prince’s father’s plan, the Prince didn’t need to live long enough to marry.”

By the time the Prince reached adulthood, the late emperor would already have ascended the throne. The Glore family would all be dead, and he would no longer need a pawn pretending to be a male zerg. All he would need was to arrange a decent ending for the Prince and carry this shameful secret into the coffin. So if you look at the amount of hormones the Prince was injected with, it was never meant to let him live until his wedding.

Hormones are addictive and extremely hard to quit. The dosage can only keep increasing, it cannot be reduced. From the moment the first excessive injection was given, the Prince’s date of death could practically be calculated.

Qu Xia drew in a sharp breath.

Erwen shook his head. “I always wondered why, when there was clearly a healthy male zerg child, the late emperor instead chose a foolish female zerg as the crown prince. Now I understand.”

He continued, “In that case, it’s understandable why the Prince hates female zergs and also despises male zergs.”

Because of the excessive male hormones, he, like other male bugs in the world, did not like female zergs getting close. But because of the psychological identity of a female zerg, he also could not bring himself to treat those violent male zergs kindly.

The two walked through the long corridor in silence for a while. When they reached the end, Erwen glanced at the bright moon hanging high in the sky, estimated the time, and then made a courteous gesture to Qu Xia.

“Shall I escort you back to the palace?”

Qu Xia stiffened. Suddenly, he reached out and hugged Erwen’s arm, pulling the entire arm into his embrace and shaking his head desperately. “No! Absolutely not!”

His resistance was so obvious that Erwen was slightly startled. “What’s wrong?”

Qu Xia said, “I think the palace is terrifying!”

Back when he watched TV dramas, the palace wells were always filled with buried bodies, and in the middle of the night there would be shadows of palace maids reflected on the walls. Qu Xia had always felt such places were gloomy. The zerg palace was more Western in style, which had made it seem a little better at first, but after suddenly hearing this secret, he felt that this cursed place was no different from the human palaces. Who knew what wronged spirits might be buried beneath some willow tree? The thought made him strongly resist going back.

Erwen rubbed his hair helplessly. “Then where do you want to go?”

“Home, of course!” Qu Xia said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Back to the Admiral’s residence.”

Erwen carried an upright and righteous aura. With him nearby, Qu Xia felt like he wouldn’t even be afraid of ghosts anymore.

Erwen was a bit helpless, but he still couldn’t pull his arm free. So he sighed softly. “Come with me.”

After several months, Qu Xia finally returned to the familiar environment. The household robots diligently cleaned every corner of the villa. Everything was spotless, ready to be lived in at once.

Erwen remembered that he still owed the young male zerg many meals, so he tied on an apron and made a late-night snack for Qu Xia. The dessert was soft, warm, and pleasantly chewy. Once Qu Xia had eaten and drunk his fill, he wanted to sleep. He ran upstairs with quick steps. The room was still kept exactly the way it had been before, bright windows, spotless surfaces, and soft bedding. He cheered and dove straight into the bed.

The Admiral’s house was the best! He wished he could live here forever!

Compared to this, the palace was simply too cold.

It was easy to go from a simple life to a luxurious one, but hard to go from luxury back to simplicity. When Qu Xia thought that he might have to move back to the palace in the future, he felt like life as a zerg was hopeless.

Sighing again and again, he opened his light-brain. After confirming the door was locked, he sneakily clicked into a webpage he had long bookmarked.

— The Zerg dating match website.

During the past few months of intense dating with Sylph, Lin En, and others, Qu Xia had already figured out this website thoroughly. And one person’s photo was displayed openly on the homepage, making it impossible for Qu Xia not to see it.

It was Erwen’s matching profile.

On the screen, the Admiral’s eyes looked cold and distant, his whole presence filled with a chilling, murderous aura. Other male zergs would rather take a detour than approach him, but Qu Xia found him incredibly sexy and only wanted to pounce on him and take a couple of bites. However, he still had the heart of a thief but not the courage. After thinking it over again and again, he still didn’t dare. In the end, he could only angrily poke the [ Force Match ] button.

The Admiral’s rank was extremely high. Ordinary people had no way to force-match with him. Qu Xia had already figured out the rules, only male zergs ranked S or above could make that button work.

Right now, he was only a pitiful A-rank. If he pressed it, the system would automatically block it. So he pressed it without worry, treating it as a little stress-relief game.

However, this time, the moment his finger touched the button, a message popped up.

『 Dear A-rank male zerg Qu Xia, you have sent a Forced Match notification to the female zergErwen. The matching order has been delivered to the recipient’s mailbox. We wish you a happy marriage. 』

Qu Xia: “???”

He stared at the line of text in disbelief, feeling like his brain was about to split apart.

“Withdraw! Withdraw! Where’s the withdraw button?!”

Qu Xia fumbled in panic. Unfortunately, thanks to the zergs’ extremely low marriage rate, the matching interface did not have a withdraw option.

He was on the verge of tears. With trembling hands, he opened Sylph’s communication channel to ask his teacher for help.

【 Professor , an A-rank male zerg can’t force-match with an SS-rank, right? 】

The screen showed typing… on the other side. Qu Xia nervously gripped his light-brain.

Say yes! Just say yes! If that were true, he could file a complaint to the central system and ask them to withdraw it before Erwen saw it!

Sylph:【 Normally, that’s correct. 】

Qu Xia let out a breath of relief.

Another message slowly appeared:【 But there are exceptions.】

Qu Xia almost choked on that dramatic pause. A bad feeling flashed through his mind.