Two hours later.
Shen Que slowly woke.
It had been so long... since he had slept this well.
There was no stabbing pain, no nauseating dizziness.
His aching bones felt wrapped in cotton, his brain steeped in warm water.
All he felt was comfort.
Slowly sitting up, Shen Que stared blankly at the sunlight filtering through the window screen, waiting for his mind to clear.
How strange.
He had finally found the sleep he had longed for on an unfamiliar planet.
Last night...
He pressed his temples.
If he remembered correctly, he had meant to wait for Pei Ji to come home last night, but exhaustion had gotten the better of him.
Then the pain had flared, jolting him awake, and he had started showing signs of heat.
After that... he seemed to have gone looking for suppressants...
Although the doctor had stressed that his body could not withstand the strain of suppressants right now, he had had no choice at the time.
Those unfamiliar physical reactions had filled him with a panic unlike anything he had ever experienced.
The feeling of losing control of his body and even his mind.
It had been awful...
But he could not remember what had happened afterward.
Who had brought him back? A maid? The butler?
Had he used a suppressant?
What about... the general? Had he come home?
Looking at the undisturbed bedding beside him, Shen Que touched the gland at the back of his neck.
Smooth and intact.
No bite marks.
Suddenly, he caught a faint trace of lingering alpha pheromones in the air.
They were too faint for him to identify the scent.
But they were definitely new, something that had not been in the room yesterday... something like an alpha's scent.
Shen Que activated his terminal and called in a slightly hoarse voice, "Anya."
The young beta Little Maid pushed the door open almost immediately.
"Madam! You're awake!"
Madam...
Shen Que frowned slightly at the title, but said nothing.
"Did the general come home yesterday?" he asked, his voice heavy with fatigue he could not suppress.
Anya immediately lowered her voice.
Dr. Li had said that madam suffered from nervous exhaustion, so she had to keep her voice down.
She nodded. "Yes! The general came back not long after you fell asleep."
Shen Que froze.
He had come home.
But he had not stayed the night.
His fingers involuntarily tightened around the bedding. With an air of casual interest, Shen Que asked, "How did he come back?"
"Huh? What do you mean, how...? The general came back by himself."
Anya looked disgusted.
"He stank, like he'd crawled out of a sewer. He was covered in yellow gunk."
Little Maid stole a glance at Shen Que.
She did not dare tell him that Pei Ji had gotten it all over him, too.
Shen Que lowered his eyes.
Pei Ji's explanation for missing the wedding had been a Zerg attack.
The bodily fluids of low-level Zerg were foul-smelling and yellowish, but mechas usually provided protection in combat, keeping their pilots clean.
If he had been ambushed, though, he might have encountered a few head-on.
So he hadn't lied? Had there really been an insectoid attack, rather than... him doing it on purpose?
"Was he injured?" Shen Que asked with apparent nonchalance, watching Little Maid's expression.
"Of course not!" Anya said. "He could run and jump just fine when he got back, and he even stayed..."
She clamped her mouth shut.
Shen Que did not seem to look very happy...
"Stayed?"
"...Stayed up all night," Anya finished.
"Did he?" There was no discernible emotion in Shen Que's voice.
"I went into heat yesterday, didn't I?" he asked calmly, lowering his eyes.
Anya blushed. "Y-yes."
"Did the general see?"
Anya said, "Yes... but he... already took care of it for you."
With a Suppressant?
Shen Que sighed.
Unlike artificially synthesized suppressants, soothing agents were made from extracts of actual alpha pheromones.
They were gentler, and more expensive.
Though they could only delay a heat, they often served as an erotic stimulant because they triggered a stronger secondary reaction, making them very popular among the nobility.
Shen Que had never used such an expensive drug before, but it seemed that his pheromone disorder prevented the soothing agent from triggering a second heat. That made it just right for him.
Except...
Faced with an omega in heat, one who already belonged to him, an alpha had refused to give him even a temporary mark and had instead dealt with him impersonally using a Suppressant.
"He really does hate me."
But it did not matter anymore.
"Hate... madam, what do you mean?" Anya asked cautiously.
"Nothing," Shen Que said. "Where is the general?"
"At the Simulated Training Ground," Anya replied.
"Go outside for now," Shen Que said. "Once I've changed, take me to see him."
Anya was about to volunteer to help Shen Que dress, but one mild glance from him left her unable to utter a word.
Though Shen Que treated them gently, he occasionally exuded an air that brooked no argument.
It was different from Pei Ji's domineering, world-defying presence, but frightening all the same.
Perhaps that was a commander's aura.
Anya bowed and left.
Shen Que dressed very slowly.
He had only recently awakened, and his movements were still awkward.
But Shen Que would not let anyone help him.
His thin silk pajamas slipped off, exposing swathes of snow-white skin.
Little by little, he folded his pajamas, then slipped his hands into the soft shirt and smoothed it out.
Morning light shone through the shirt, tracing the hazy contours of the intimate places beneath.
Still unable to control his fingers properly, he fumbled several times without getting the button through its hole.
Shen Que slowly exhaled, staring at his trembling fingertips.
He waited for them to settle.
Then he tried again.
The white sheers before the floor-to-ceiling windows had been drawn aside, revealing an exquisite, luxuriant courtyard.
Everything in the Fallen Star Palace favored extravagance.
The inner courtyard was practically a miniature botanical garden.
Expensive plants had been transported from various planets and arranged into distinctive landscaped displays.
Fine white sand lay scattered beneath the trees, so soft that it would not feel rough even under bare feet.
Though he had been here only a day, Shen Que could easily tell-
Pei Ji had grown up in an environment of extreme extravagance.
White Sand Star possessed fifty percent of the Icarus Galaxy's mineral resources, and its lord, Pei Li, controlled almost a third of the galaxy's wealth.
The empress had once called this planet the brightest jewel in the Icarus Galaxy.
Born on that jewel, Pei Ji had been pampered from childhood. It was hardly surprising that he had grown into someone arrogant, conceited, and disdainful of everyone else.
In the past, Shen Que would not have spared an alpha like him a glance.
Reckless, arrogant, self-absorbed.
Even now, stories of his solo raid on a Hive during his graduation exam still circulated on the Star Network.
Apparently, he had made a bet with a classmate who had mocked him.
The Royal Military Academy's individual combat exams had always been monitored electronically.
With the entire exam streamed live across the network, Pei Ji had demonstrated a bug that let him pinpoint every surveillance drone, slip cleanly off the designated route, and charge straight into the Zerg brood nest—all without losing a single point.
The instructor in charge of safety had nearly fainted, convinced that his career was over.
Then Pei Ji had emerged from the nest with a rope strung with insectoid heads like grasshoppers.
The black-and-gold wings of his 3S-class high-attack mecha, Devour Heaven, had gleamed in the sunlight.
He had even raised his little finger at the classmate who looked down on him during the graduation ceremony.
Apparently, that meant "trash" in White Sand Star's local dialect.
Thousands more trending posts about his public insult had followed.
Later, the general had become a frequent fixture on the Star Network's trending lists.
He had berated an enemy soldier until they coughed up blood, defied orders and acted on his own, reduced an omega commander to tears in front of the empress and subsequently rejected every omega's application to join his unit...
And... the latest additions...
[Shocking! Demon king general gives newlywed wife the cold shoulder, repeatedly removes trending posts.]
[Just what kind of abuse has First Commander Shen Que suffered?!]
Before you continue