After Transmigrating, I Raised Cubs in the Insectoid Clan - Chapter 32

After handling Lucian’s affairs, Samuel quickly returned home.

The first thing he did was unpack all the kitchen supplies he had ordered that afternoon, wash them, and study the instructions. The overhead light suddenly flickered and then returned to normal. Samuel set down the manual and looked up at the light. At that moment, he felt a gaze as heavy as a physical weight fixed on his back.

He turned around slowly.

“Your Excellency, please allow me to introduce myself.”

A man was sitting silently directly beneath the living room light. His crossed legs cast intersecting shadows on the floor. His pale fingers were interlaced over his chest, and he wore a slight smile, though his eyes looked at Samuel with a chilling coldness as if viewing a dead object.

He leaned forward slightly, the light casting eerie shadows across his face.

“Bohr. That is my name.”

Samuel did not move. The two of them stared at each other across the long expanse of the room.

“Fang Ye sent you,” Samuel said slowly after a long silence.

Bohr’s smile widened. This expression, which should have indicated friendliness, appeared horribly unnatural on his face, like a gap splitting open a meticulously painted porcelain mask. He finally began to study Samuel with slow, deliberate intensity.

“I seem to have underestimated you, Your Excellency.”

Samuel gently set down the instruction manual. “You chose to come while Suter is away. Or perhaps the banquet itself was a setup created by your people.”

Bohr stood up suddenly, an exaggerated look of pleasant surprise appearing on his face. He began to clap enthusiastically, the sound echoing through the empty living room.

“Excellent judgment, Your Excellency!” His voice suddenly spiked with uncomfortable excitement. “But you chose your words poorly.”

His expression darkened the instant the words left his mouth. He walked slowly toward Samuel, leaning in until his pale face was inches away.

“How could you call it a ‘setup’?”

Bohr’s hand clamped onto Samuel’s wrist like an iron shackle, forcing him to bring the hand hidden behind his back to the front, as if adjusting the angle of an exhibit. Samuel felt his wrist bones groan under the pressure; his blood throbbed painfully against the restriction. He could not resist; he could not even move.

Bohr enjoyed the sight of Samuel’s fingers trembling from the pain, as if playing with a delicate toy. One by one, he slowly pried open Samuel’s clenched fist to reveal the sweat-dampened optical computer. Its metal casing glinted coldly under the lights.

Bohr’s long, elegant fingers closed around the device. His knuckles looked a stark, cold white as he applied pressure, making the metal casing of the optical computer emit a faint creaking sound.

“If we are talking about experts at setting traps, that title belongs to Admiral Suter,” he whispered, his voice as gentle as if he were soothing a child to sleep. “Suter is always like this. He always keeps a trump card hidden. We have fought him for so many years, and several times we were nearly overturned by him.”

As the last syllable fell, his palm suddenly tightened. After a gut-wrenching sound of metal deforming, metal powder as fine as dust drifted from between his fingers, shimmering like silver light.

“Fortunately, after all these years, we have learned that trick as well.”

Bohr opened his palm slightly, letting the powder spill out like sand from an hourglass. Amidst the silver-gray dust, a chip as thin as a cicada’s wing fluttered down, which he caught precisely with his fingertips.

“Ah,” Bohr let out an exaggerated sigh. His grayish-green pupils contracted to the size of pinpoints. He tilted his head, holding the chip up to his eyes to examine it closely, a terrifying smile hanging on his lips. “Heavens, how did a listening device get in here?”

He looked at Samuel as if afraid the man had not heard him clearly.

“In here,” he repeated slowly, each syllable landing like a heavy hammer. “How could there be a listening device in here?”

His fingers suddenly gripped Samuel’s chin with enough force to crush the bone.

“Guess,” Bohr’s voice dropped to a whisper, soft as a lover’s murmur yet causing the room’s temperature to plummet, “who installed this on you?”

The final word was a mere breath, filled with chilling anticipation, as if waiting for a show to begin.

“I already know.”

Samuel’s voice was broken by the grip on his jaw, yet it carried a terrifying calmness.

Bohr froze. His pupils widened as he stared at Samuel in disbelief. “You know?” His voice spiked, as if he had heard a ridiculous joke. “What do you know?”

He released Samuel’s chin, only to seize his throat the next second, pinning him violently against the wall. The cold surface pressed against Samuel’s back, while Bohr’s face twisted hideously in the shadows.

“You know he installed a monitor in your optical computer?” Bohr’s voice was low and dangerous. “Monitoring every program, every conversation, every character. You think you are his savior, but in reality, you are nothing more than a canary he keeps in a cage.”

“He drugs your milk every night,” Bohr laughed, revealing bone-white teeth. “Those hallucinogens bought from the dark web. I personally packaged them and delivered them to his hands.”

“That is why you are always groggy and get tired so easily.”

Samuel’s pupils contracted slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

Bohr watched his reaction with fascination and continued. “And those energy stones.” His lips were almost touching Samuel’s earlobe. “Precious military supplies. You worked very hard to find them, did you not?”

His fingers gripped Samuel’s chin again, forcing him to look directly into his eyes. “But they were actually hollowed out from your mine long ago.” Bohr’s mouth twisted into an exaggerated arc. “Suter sent people to buy them all at three times the market price. He even meticulously fabricated the lie that the mine had run dry.”

“A man as calculating as he is,” he whispered with a haunting intimacy, “how could he allow his partner to control weapons resources capable of overturning a government?”

“Furthermore, his partner has a mysterious origin and a blank identity. On the day of the explosion, only he and Seren were present. Yet after the explosion, you—Seren’s brother—appeared out of thin air and even used Seren’s death to force a match. If it were you, what would you do?” Bohr’s finger traced Samuel’s carotid artery, his voice soft as a sigh. “Would you be foolish enough to love him, or would you wait for the right moment to kill him?”

Samuel’s body trembled slightly—not out of fear, but from a deeper, instinctive resistance. His fingertips dug into his palms, leaving four crescent-shaped blood marks, yet he felt no pain.

“No.”

The word escaped through his clenched teeth with a barely perceptible tremor.

“You are just trying to drive a wedge between us.”

But Bohr’s words were like a viper’s fangs, injecting the most malicious suspicion into his blood. The words swirled in his mind, fitting perfectly with the details in his memory.

“There is no evidence. It is just your word. I will not believe a single thing you say.”

He spoke with such force, as if by denying it strongly enough, the suspicions buried in his flesh would fall away and the everything Bohr said would be overturned. But in reality, Samuel’s fingertips were trembling uncontrollably, exposing the fragility of his declaration.

He was like a flickering lamp in a blizzard. Even knowing that the darkness would eventually swallow everything, he stubbornly continued to burn, waiting until the very last drop of oil was gone.

Driving a wedge?

Bohr watched the struggle and pain in Samuel’s eyes with satisfaction. Once the seed of doubt is planted, it will eventually take root and grow. He dropped his manic demeanor, released Samuel’s chin, and began to adjust his cuffs with the slow grace of a gentleman.

“Whether you believe it or not is your own affair, Your Excellency.”

The next second, a silver tube resembling a reagent vial appeared in Bohr’s hand. Its metal casing glinted with an ominous light.

“I did not go to all this trouble today just to chat.” Bohr flipped the tube skillfully between his fingers, the reflected light dancing across Samuel’s face. “I want you to take a vial of blood from Suter.”

Bohr chuckled, sliding the cold metal vial across Samuel’s cheek, from the cheekbone to the jaw, stopping finally at Samuel’s trembling lips. “Not much, just this one small vial. It will not cause any harm to his body.”

Bohr leaned in close to his ear. “You will do it, right? After all, you also want to know the truth.”

A thick, strange fragrance began to fill the air, like rotting roses mixed with honey. It was sickeningly sweet. Samuel’s pupils began to lose focus. In his vision, only the silver tube remained, glowing eerily as if it were alive.

“Finish it. Fill it up.” Bohr’s voice seemed to drift, carrying a seductive rhythm. “And you will get everything you want.”

Samuel’s hand rose uncontrollably, his trembling fingers reaching toward the tube. Bohr watched him and finally revealed a genuine smile.

Just as Samuel’s fingertips were about to touch the vial, a flash of silver-white light burst from the shadows. A dagger, condensed from countless points of mental energy, pierced toward Bohr’s neck with a sharp whistle.

At the critical moment, Bohr twisted his body at an impossible angle. The dagger grazed his cheek, tearing a gash across his cheekbone. Blood poured out. The moment he saw the dagger, he grabbed the blade with his bare hand.

“I did not know,” Bohr said, licking the blood from his lip. His fingers were sliced open by the blade, yet he gripped it tighter. “That aside from the Insect Emperor and that Councilor, there was a male insect who could manifest mental power to this extent.”

With a sharp crack, the dagger snapped into two pieces. The silver light from the break scattered like stardust. The wound on Bohr’s face pulsed strangely, and the blood flowed even faster.

“However,” he tossed the broken blade aside, his eyes swirling with a black vortex, “you are still far from enough.”

The moment Bohr was injured, Samuel felt the power restraining him suddenly vanish. Without hesitation, he lunged for the door and pushed the handle with all his might.

But the lock did not budge.

“Where are you running?”

Samuel’s body froze, his hand still on the cold metal handle. The next second, a sharp pain pierced through his back and out of his chest.

Samuel shuddered. He looked down slowly to see a silver-white dagger, nearly identical to the one from before, buried in his left shoulder. He heard the sickening sound of flesh being torn. Intense pain swept over him like a tide.

Blood instantly soaked his white shirt at the wound site. The scarlet stain expanded until it covered his entire chest. Samuel’s breathing became ragged. His fingers spasmed as he gripped the fabric of his shirt, his knuckles turning white as he tried to stop his body from shaking. A suppressed cry of pain escaped his teeth.

Bohr narrowed his grayish-green eyes and slowly wiped the blood from his cheek. He knelt down with a cruel smile and forced Samuel’s trembling hand against the gruesome wound.

“Feel it.” Bohr’s voice was as soft as a lover’s whisper, but his hand pressed down ruthlessly. “This is the price. The price for playing with me.”

“Ah!”

Samuel’s fingertips were forced into his own bloody wound. Warm blood soaked through the gaps of his fingers. The pain was overwhelming, and his vision spun. Cold sweat rolled down his forehead, mixing with the blood to form dark red droplets on his chin. Bohr’s distorted face split into multiple images in his vision, each one wearing a terrifying smile.

The dagger remained in the wound, refusing to disappear.

“I will give you one more chance. Complete the task, or die. But there are many ways to die. Rather than a quick death, I prefer to let you suffer a little. You can choose to die from blood loss, feeling your body temperature fade until you turn cold and sink into eternal darkness. Or, you could be burned alive in a fire, listening to your own flesh sizzle. Like a wonderful symphony.”

He raised his hand elegantly and snapped his fingers.

A deafening explosion erupted from the second floor, making the entire building shake violently. The crystal chandelier on the ceiling swayed wildly, and glass fragments fell like rain. Hot flames burst from the stairwell, instantly swallowing the second-floor corridor.

The shockwave from the explosion threw Samuel against the wall, tearing the wound in his shoulder even further.

“Surprised?” Bohr laughed in the firelight like a child with a new toy. “As long as you agree to cooperate, everything that happened today will be just a small accident, and Your Excellency will even receive a generous compensation. If you do not agree, then this house and you along with it will turn to ash.”

He shoved the silver vial into Samuel’s blood-stained hand once more. “A very simple choice, is it not?”

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