Chapter 15
The scene was a nightmare.
Of course, as Hill's superior, Carlos had an unquestionable advantage in both strength and combat skills.
After an exceedingly vicious fight, Carlos, who still retained at least half of his human form, seized Hill by the throat with one hand and pinned him to the floor.
A string of curses burst from Hill's mouth. He slowly returned to human form beneath the cold, black insect limb, but even then, Carlos kept him pinned to the floor, unable to move.
The room was now a complete mess, apart from the small patch where a certain fragile larva stood. Thanks to some subtle mutual understanding, Carlos and Hill had both avoided Su Lin during the fight.
An eerie silence briefly settled over the three of them.
...Was it a little late to shout, "Stop fighting! If you want to fight, take it outside"?
Seeing the blood splattered across the walls and the numerous wounds covering the two males in the center of the room, Su Lin thought in despair.
It wasn't the first time two men... males had fought over him, but no matter how many times it happened, Su Lin still found it terribly awkward.
"Su Lin."
Then Su Lin heard Carlos's voice.
The man's voice sounded slightly deeper than before.
"Come here."
He said.
In fact, Carlos had seen through Hill's lie even before they started fighting.
Su Lin's scent was clean, untainted by any repulsive smell-which meant Hill hadn't done anything at all last night.
But even knowing that, Carlos still felt as though he were overflowing with strange emotions. It was as if his venom sac had accidentally ruptured inside him, burning his internal organs until they began to ache.
Carlos couldn't even stand to let Su Lin remain beside Hill any longer.
Hearing Carlos's request, Su Lin instinctively took two steps toward him.
"Don't you dare-"
But those two steps alone were enough to send Hill, who had already quieted down, into another rage. The wings on his back beat frantically. Su Lin swore he saw the edges of Hill's wings cut deep, thin marks into the metal floor.
A certain unlucky human froze in mid-step.
Su Lin swallowed and stood rooted to the spot, at a loss.
A pitiful, helpless scent wafted from the larva.
Carlos's antennae trembled slightly as he caught Su Lin's scent in the air. Just as before, the latter's pheromones were so sweet they left the coldhearted senior officer flustered.
But in any case, after sensing Su Lin's nervousness, Carlos, who had already grown somewhat angry, calmed down instead.
"Shut up, Hill."
He spoke in an irritated tone.
"The Security Committee has already sent someone to conduct a bloodline examination on Su Lin. Looking like that, are you trying to get him into trouble with those monsters?"
At the mention of the bloodline examination, Hill froze.
"Tsk, those guys sure move fast."
The Zerg were a society with an extraordinarily strict hierarchy. As a matter of policy, almost every Zerg brought back from the "outside" like Su Lin had to undergo the most rigorous examination.
The examinations were conducted by the Security Committee, a special group whose full name should have been the "Royal Court Security Committee," and whose members were beings even high-level Zerg wanted to avoid. Almost every one of these Zerg, who answered directly to the Zerg king, was a monster through and through, skilled at getting to the bottom of things, picking faults, torture, and every other repulsive thing. Worst of all, as a normal Zerg, there were times when you simply couldn't understand why these bugs went mad. Such madness included, but was not limited to, suddenly seizing a Zerg undergoing a bloodline examination and dissecting them alive, or shooting a high-ranking Zerg general dead during a routine physical...
"Don't be afraid. You'll be fine."
Carlos turned his head and saw Su Lin standing there, his face deathly pale and his eyes wide, looking thoroughly frightened.
He must have been scared by the Security Committee's name.
Carlos thought, feeling a little sorry for the young man.
"It's all right. The bloodline examination is just a procedure. You don't need to be afraid."
Carlos spoke calmly.
He wasn't lying to Su Lin. After all, no matter how mad the Security Committee got, there was no way they would go mad over a larva as low-level and heartbreakingly weak as Su Lin. Cruel as it was, that was the truth: in Zerg society, a low-level larva like Su Lin wasn't even worth the trouble of picking on.
After speaking, Carlos raised his hand. He had only meant to pat the pitiful young man on the shoulder to comfort him, but the moment he raised his hand, he saw Su Lin instinctively flinch away.
Hill witnessed the scene from beside them, and a gleeful smile appeared on his bloodied face.
"Hey, easy there, sir." He deliberately drew out his words, then cast a sidelong glance at Su Lin. "My little darling is in his development period. The wing buds on his back are very delicate. I barely touched them earlier, and his whole body started trembling."
Stroking wings was a rather... rather intimate act among the Zerg.
Even though he had only brushed against them accidentally, Hill was still happy to bring it up in front of Carlos.
Sure enough, he watched with delight as Carlos's gaze darkened.
At that moment, Hill even felt that the wounds Carlos had precisely pierced into him didn't hurt quite so much anymore.
"Oh, there's nothing to be done. I really didn't expect our little Su Lin to enter his development period either. Ah, wait, the reason we misjudged that... was probably because the treatment pod he used before was really low-grade."