After the Zerg General Was Accidentally Marked - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Culprit

“What’s your name?”

“Bigu.”

“How old are you?”

“Ten. I’m about to undergo my second differentiation.”

Ten years old? His height was barely over a meter he was already ten? Everett couldn’t help but size up the washed-up little insect cub, only to be met with a glare.

Why is he so well-behaved in front of the female, but so hostile toward me? Talk about double standards.

“Besides the tail hook, are there any other obvious regression characteristics?”

The little cub thought for a moment and blinked. His eyelids didn’t move; instead, a layer of white hard membrane slid horizontally from both sides, covering his pupils. This was a nictitating membrane, also known as a third eyelid, which protects and moistens the eyeball. It can also block light in advance to improve night vision.

“You’re already ten, why do you look only five?” Everett chimed in curiously.

Unexpectedly, Bigu used his nictitating membrane to give the little male a “white-eyed” look of disdain.

“Gugu, tell him.”

Only then did the cub say reluctantly, “I have an atavistic genetic defect. I can’t grow tall…”

So I accidentally poked a sore spot.

“Did you take the cans because you were hungry?” Sears asked. He used to leave a few cans and two bottles of water in the corner every day, but he had stopped these past two days because of his heat period. Logically, the food he had left before should have been enough, but he knew Bigu’s appetite was much larger than that of an average insect.

Despite his thin, small frame, he consumed more energy. In exchange, however, he gained faster speed, explosive power, and that tail hook… which was essentially a poisoned blade.

The cub nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Then why don’t you live with me?” Sears thought for a moment. “If you don’t mind, you can treat me as your female father.”

Wait? Wait!!

Everett realized the female was actually serious. Why was he being so friendly to an insect he just met? Just because he was a disabled female and a cub?

Well, thinking about it that way, it wasn’t entirely without logic.

But Sears’ kindness wasn’t without reason. He knew Gugu—or rather, he knew the Gugu from several years into the future of his previous life.

Regressive females with defects like this would be sent directly to the biochemical scrapyard if discovered by patrol robots. In his previous life, they had met there and survived together for a time. He hadn’t expected to encounter him on this starship in this life.

All in all, he was a good cub and an excellent warrior.

The little cub was quite happy. He had been marginalized many times in the past due to his genetic defects, but Sears didn’t give off any of that uncomfortable feeling.

“I lived with my sub-female father before; I didn’t have a female father. Can I treat you as a big brother?”

Bigu proactively moved closer to Solas, his tail hook swaying gently behind him. “Can I have just you, and not your male master?”

Excuse me? Everett frowned upon hearing this. “I’m still right here!”

“He didn’t mean to get flour all over you; don’t hold a grudge.” Sears felt like he was dealing with two small cubs. “And you stole his cans and messed up his things. Shall we call it even?”

“I’m not the type to hold a grudge against a cub!” Everett quickly stated his position.

The female’s heat period wasn’t over yet. Although Solas looked much better than before, one could still occasionally sense a hint of sluggishness and fatigue in his movements.

Once the matter was settled, he immediately began shooing the cub away. “Bigu, go play on the third level by yourself. I need to do some ‘adult insect things’ with your female brother!”

“I’m not going to stoop to a male’s level!” Bigu made a face and darted out.

Everett quickly closed the door.

The first thing he said after turning around was an apology. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

But Sears shook his head. “Thank you for being willing to help me.”

An hour ago.

After Everett learned that the female’s heat would be very painful, he had been trying to get into the breakroom. At first, he banged on the door, then it turned into trying to force his way in.

To avoid the cub seeing anything, he had given him a few bottles of water and told him to go back to the third level to bathe.

But even though this door couldn’t be locked, it was blocked by something, and Everett couldn’t push it open.

Finally, he used his mental power to reach through the crack in the door, fiddling around inside for a long time before finally nudging aside the iron bolt blocking the door.

When he rushed in, he immediately discovered that the female on the bed… was trembling.

It wasn’t the shivering of cold or fear, but the kind of tremors where muscles spasm.

The female was covered in cold sweat. The single vest on his upper body was soaked through, clearly revealing two points as well as the wing-sheath locking device on his back.

Sears wasn’t wearing his bite-inhibitor, nor did he have the energy to reach for the translator. He could only ask in a hoarse voice using his barely recovered throat: “What are you… coming in for?”

The moment he saw the female’s terrible condition, Everett forgot his previous hesitation. What did morality or love matter when a life was on the line?

“I’ve decided to help you,” he said.

Sears didn’t know what had made the little male suddenly change his mind, but not being in pain was certainly better than being in pain. “Okay… thank you.”

Then he saw the little male, looking as if he had made a solemn resolution, begin to take off his clothes.

Taking off his shirt wasn’t enough; he moved to take off his pants as well.

“Wait…” Sears quickly stopped him. “What are you… doing…”

“Doing…” He was certain the little male said two words, “Ahem, helping you through your heat.”

Sears knew the little male had completely misunderstood. “No, I just need… mental power… and pheromones.”

“Just give me… your blood.” Sears emphasized, “Just like during the marking.”

Everett froze. “But in the videos…”

“…Oh.” He suddenly realized.

Those videos were for males, so they only considered the male’s needs. They never considered what the female actually needed.

Solas had never liked him.

He just needed him. Because of the marking, he had to need him.

In the end, Everett still gave the female a vial of blood.

The effect was instantaneous. An hour later, the female could sit here and discuss where the cub would go.

And then, Solas said thank you to him.

Even though he misunderstood everything, even though he let him suffer in agony, even though he had thought about doing that to him…

Everett didn’t know what to say. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Do you still need my blood?”

“Don’t take too much at once, your body won’t be able to stand it,” the female said via the translator.

What about your body? Everett really wanted to ask, but the words didn’t come out.

In that moment, the male even felt that the distance between him and the female was further than the distance between the cub and the female.

He stood there, not knowing where to put his hands or feet. Just as he was about to turn and leave, the female called out to him: “Wait a moment.”

Sears handed the little male a notebook. “I told you, a male can pilot a ship just the same.”

Everett took it and flipped through, finding a bunch of diagrams that looked like control panels with some explanations attached. “What is this?”

“The main control panels for this cargo ship. Warp control, auto-navigation, warning panels. I’ve annotated them all. If you can understand these, you can pilot the ship.”

“But… I haven’t passed the third test yet.”

A hint of a smile appeared in the female’s blue eyes. “Actually, piloting a ship doesn’t require passing the third test. That’s for 100% synchronization with the ship. But you can also pilot manually; most starships operate that way. You just need to know which buttons to press.”

“Since you can’t use mental power for a while, use this to pass the time.”

“Consider it… my thank-you gift.”

“Thanks.” Before leaving, Everett couldn’t resist asking one more question, “Solas, once the ship reaches its destination, what is your plan?”

During this time, they seemed to have never discussed the future. It was as if the days on the ship would never end.

Sears hadn’t expected the male to ask such a question, or rather, he thought they both knew the answer.

“Aren’t you going back to the Capital?”

“As for me,” Sears said, “what I’m going to do, you don’t need to know.”

For the little male’s own safety.

Don’t need to know. So that was it.

Everett nodded and left.

In the following days, the female spent his heat period on the eighth level relying on the male’s blood, while Everett lived on the third level with Bigu.

The cub was naturally fond of eating and playing and didn’t really have any ill intent. After Everett proactively shared a can, he quickly became close to the male. Then, he sweetly called out:

“Male Papa!”

Everett was so startled he immediately covered the kid’s mouth. “You can’t just call people ‘Papa’!”

“Why?” The cub broke free nimbly. “Don’t all males like being called ‘Papa’?”

“I don’t like it!”

“Fine then, Male Uncle… Brother!”

“…Actually, just calling me Everett is fine.”

That day, Everett closed the notebook and looked at the cub next to him, who was chasing a ball back and forth, playing to his heart’s content. He suddenly asked, “Bigu, how do you ‘get’ a female?”

Bigu stopped, his tail hook extending from behind his back. “Sub-female father said! Bigu doesn’t sell his body!”

“I’m not talking about you. Wait, are there insects who buy and sell cubs?”

“Of course! Aren’t cubs just commodities? They’re just not as valuable as males!”

Everett felt Bigu’s outlook was extremely problematic. “Insects are not commodities, Bigu. Cubs aren’t, and males aren’t. Those who buy and sell insects are bad insects, you know?”

“But,” Bigu tilted his head with an innocent face, “wasn’t the female brother bought by you, too?”

Everett: “…”

“That was to save him, it’s different… no, I’m getting off topic.”

“You want to possess the female brother?”

‘Get’ and ‘possess’ clearly meant the same thing, but for some reason, the latter felt slightly more aggressive, which Everett didn’t quite like.

“You could say that.”

“Didn’t you mark him? Then he’s yours!” Bigu said as if it were a matter of course.

“But he said that when the ship lands, he will leave.”

“Just don’t let him leave?”

“I can’t win an argument with him,” the little male said dejectedly.

“You can just use force!” Bigu played with the ball using his tail hook. “Use the collar, use mental power, use robots. Female slaves can’t resist their male masters!”

Female slaves can’t resist their male masters. Everett had heard this phrase more than once. But the reality was that his slave, Solas, didn’t listen to him at all.

“But I hate robots. My sub-female father was killed by a robot.”

This was the first time he had heard Bigu mention the cause of his sub-female father’s death. Everett felt a bit sorry for him and comforted him, “It’s not your fault.”

“I know.” The cub nodded. For a moment, only the sound of the ball hitting the floor echoed through the third level.

“I just… really miss him.”

Everett patted the cub’s head. “Your sub-female father, what was his name? Let’s make something to remember him by together, okay?”

“Ollie,” Bigu said, “his name was Ollie!”

Everett froze. “Was your sub-female father the bartender at the Pamu Tavern?”

In the eighth-level breakroom, the three insects sat upright and formal.

“So, Ollie, your sub-female father, was killed by a robot?” When Sears left the Capital, he had already prepared to put the investigation on hold. He hadn’t expected to get an unexpected lead on the cargo ship.

Bigu nodded.

“What did the robot look like, can you tell me?”

“Square head, round body, it creaked when it walked like it hadn’t been repaired in forever!”

“Was there a bird-like pattern on its chest?” Sears asked.

Bigu nodded.

“You recognize it?” Everett asked curiously.

Recognize it? He had just dealt with it before leaving the Capital. The robot at the Pamu Tavern, Makka Pakka, was Ollie’s colleague. That bird pattern was the emblem of the Pamu Tavern.

But it didn’t make sense. Makka Pakka was Chris’s robot; Chris had no reason to kill Ollie, unless…

“Gugu, do you remember if the robot said anything strange the day it killed Ollie?”

“Um…” The cub tilted his head and thought for a long time. “It seemed to say something about ‘Kala’ or a ‘Magic Lamp’…”

“The Magic Lamp Company that manufactures Karatin reagent, F’s company,” Sears completed the thought. “The robot was hacked.”

“If F killed Ollie because of the Karatin reagent, then he might have made a move against Major General Sears as well,” Sears concluded.

On the other side, alarm bells rang in the little male’s mind. No, wait a minute?!

How did I become the murderer?!

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