Chapter 43 Part 2

Mental shackles designed for Female Insects needed constant updates based on the strongest spirit sea at the time. The previous test subject had been Ludwig’s Female Father, Eres.

Though Ludwig’s Male Father was an enemy spy, he was also a rare SS-rank Male Insect. With that dual bloodline, Ludwig’s talent far surpassed Eres’s, so he wasn’t restricted by the mental shackles.

Once he fully recovered, these things would just be scrap metal.

Then—

Ludwig’s gaze darkened.

…

On the tenth day, after the routine basic treatment for Ludwig, Shen Yu withdrew his pheromone. The naked-bodied Female Insect leaning against the wall trembled violently. His broad, sturdy arms tensed, and his hands clenched into fists.

After his chest heaved dramatically, the Female Insect’s breathing calmed.

Shen Yu noticed that the Female Insect had become very quiet lately. His long, agile limbs were bound. He had been locked up for a full ten days and was almost like a fixture in the residence.

Over those ten days, the Female Insect hadn’t changed position or posture. The corner where he was isolated from the view was always brightly lit, making it impossible to count time—it felt like perpetual daylight. The space seemed larger, the view brighter. Apart from Shen Yu, no one interacted with him.

Ludwig relied entirely on Shen Yu’s appearances to gauge time. Even their interactions were filled with humiliation, torment, and pain.

Most of the time, he stayed alone in the empty room. At first, it was fine, but as time dragged on, loneliness piled up layer by layer, gnawing at his brain like countless ants.

Lack of activity, lack of interaction, mental power decay—it led to extreme boredom and distorted time perception.

Depression, boredom, anger, insomnia—

Ludwig acutely felt his mental exhaustion. Sometimes, he felt like an observer detached from his body, watching his own extreme emptiness and dullness.

Over a dozen years ago, when Ludwig was still serving in the Military Department, he had been swallowed into the abdomen by a giant alien insect. The creature was enormous and ate slowly. Ludwig had been trapped inside the monster’s body for a full month.

The endless darkness and solitude nearly drove him mad. Back then, Ludwig could only judge time by the light streaming in when the alien insect opened its mouth to feed.

He ate whatever the alien insect ate—disgusting garbage. He preferred slicing meat from the beast’s abdomen. Each time he did, the alien insect would contract its body, spewing foul stomach acid. Those disgusting bubbles nearly corroded him.

After seeing light for the ninety-third time, his injuries finally healed on their own. In that month-long ordeal, he had fully mapped the monster’s internals. The Female Insect summoned his bone wings and pierced the alien insect’s heart completely.

When Ludwig carried this bloody alien insect heart back to the empire, the Faen Family had produced another marshal.

This time was no different from the last, except that he might have been driven mad by the endless brightness and emptiness—especially during the long, boring wait when he even began to faintly anticipate the male insect’s arrival, even though that arrival came accompanied by mental pain.

Ludwig’s heart chilled.

Thus, the female insect gritted his teeth and began simulating 108 ways to torment the male insect in his mind.

Shen Yu stared at the big villain who hung his head in silence and spoke up to ask: 【…Is this really okay? Won’t it cause any psychological problems?】

007 suggested: 【Perhaps you can have the villain find something to do.】

Shen Yu thought for a moment before extending his foot and kicking the female insect. “Hey?”

Ludwig kept his head lowered, sweat beading on his forehead. After the pain receded like a tide, his chaotic vision gradually cleared. In his field of view was a straight, long leg wrapped in black suit pants.

This male insect was pretty tall.

But compared to a female insect, he didn’t hold up under close scrutiny.

“Hey, you dead?”

The voice rose slightly at the end, the tail end dragging out lazily.

It was the male insect’s voice.

Hearing the sound, Ludwig’s dark red eyes slowly rolled upward.

The male insect wore a white shirt fastened with black suspenders that hugged his muscle contours. His waist was cinched thin by the black straps holding the shirt in place, and his silver hair was tied up high behind his head, giving him a sharp, aggressively beautiful look.

Their gazes met—like blazing flames crashing into cold, unyielding ice.

Shen Yu arched one pale eyebrow. He bent down slightly, and with gloved fingers, he lifted the female insect’s jaw, staring fearlessly into his ferocious eyes. After confirming the man was still alive, Shen Yu snorted coldly from his nose. “See? He’s not dead.”

Ludwig lifted his own jaw and broke free from those two slender fingers. “Don’t worry. Even after you’re dead, I’ll still be living just fine.”

The words seemed laden with hidden meaning. Did he want to kill him?

Yet Shen Yu wasn’t annoyed. For the outcome the female insect described, he actually felt a trace of anticipation.

Vidonien had always wondered: once he found the answers he sought in this incredibly tough and ferocious body, where would his next step take him?

Perhaps ending his life in death would be a pretty good conclusion.

With that thought, Shen Yu’s mood brightened considerably. He no longer minded the female insect’s insolence. He placed his fingers on his own chin and narrowed his pretty ice-blue eyes as he examined his injuries.

Over these past few days, Number Two had regularly changed Ludwig’s bandages and fed him nutrient fluids—just enough to sustain basic life signs. According to Number Two, Ludwig ignored it at first, but after being locked up for so long, on the fourth day, he began proactively trying to talk to it.

Number Two stayed firm and didn’t respond with a single word.

Ludwig flew into a rage, mocking it both openly and subtly as a lifeless pile of scrap metal. Talking to it was a complete waste of time.

Number Two’s processor quickly identified this as a slick attempt at reverse psychology and ignored it entirely. The next day, it deducted some of the scheduled nutrient fluid dosage and even secretly added bitter snake grass for flavor.

Ludwig noticed the second he drank it and laughed angrily at this dog relying on its master.

The swords-drawn tension between Ludwig and the housekeeper robot seemed even more irreconcilable than it was with Shen Yu.

Shen Yu: “…”

Shen Yu pulled back his thoughts. These past few days, he’d been busy handling date applications. Aside from the daily routine treatments, he hadn’t spent much time on this female insect he’d brought back. Today, with a bit of free time, he finally spared him some attention.

He focused his gaze on the muscles wrapped in bandages, judging Ludwig’s recovery from the amount of blood seeping through.

Shen Yu remembered that at first, these bandages couldn’t staunch the female insect’s bleeding at all. Every time he got close, the air converter processed it immediately, but he could still faintly smell that rusty blood scent.

The situation had improved now, at least. There was no blood smell anymore.

Shen Yu had looked up relevant information these past few days and had a rough idea that this female insect’s slow healing was related to his spirit sea. He lowered his pale lashes—each one distinct and clear—half-covering his ice-blue pupils, which held a misty thoughtfulness.

But it was still too slow.

How long would it take to heal?

Impatience stirred in the male insect’s heart. His red lips parted slightly. “Your injuries are healing too slowly.”

The voice rolled into his ears like glistening pearls, cold and crisp. Ludwig frowned. From experience, whenever the male insect wore this thoughtful expression, he was definitely scheming up some new way to torment him.

Ludwig took a deep breath and kept telling himself to endure, suppressing the impulse to lash out and kill the insect. Then he heard the male insect say abruptly:

“Before your injuries heal completely, you’ll need to work.”

Ludwig slowly formed a question mark in his mind. “?”

Shen Yu shot him a cold glance. “Drop that incredulous look. Until you’re fully healed, you have zero value to me. You’re a total waste right now, just mooching off my nutrient fluid for free.”

The male insect extended one finger and pointed at the floor. Ludwig subconsciously followed his gesture.

“And mooching off my floor to sleep on.”

The male insect’s finger swept horizontally toward the living room.

“And mooching off my space.”

Shen Yu’s gaze shifted sideways, like silent, icy moonlight falling over Ludwig. He continued:

“I may not have charged you for it, but that doesn’t mean you get to freeload everything you’ve got now. So starting today, you’ll take over some of Number Two’s responsibilities. Pay for it all with labor. If you have any questions, ask Number Two.”

Ludwig was pissed off by his logic once again. “Then I’ll leave?”

Shen Yu rejected him coldly. “In your dreams.”

Suddenly, there was a “clank.”

Shen Yu leaned down abruptly.

Ludwig’s body went rigid. The male insect’s cold breath brushed past a small tuft of hair on his ear, the chill tingling his skin. The distance was so close that Ludwig could smell the sharp, crisp fragrance of the male insect’s hair.

Once it detected the male insect’s iris unlock command, the chain linking the female insect’s mental shackle bracelet to the wall automatically disconnected and slammed into the wall with a heavy thud.

The hand that had been suspended by the heavy chain suddenly loosened.

Ludwig’s brows furrowed. He grew suspicious—what game was the male insect playing now? He wasn’t dumb enough to buy Shen Yu’s bullshit. He lowered his arm warily. The muscles that had been tense ever since Shen Yu came downstairs showed no sign of relaxing.

Shen Yu straightened up.

He turned his head slightly. Beneath his fan-shaped pale lashes, his ice-blue pupils shifted as he scanned the hall.

The air hung quiet.

Ludwig’s dark red eyes peered through the cover of his own lashes, silently observing Shen Yu’s every move like a cheetah poised to strike.

The male insect’s cold voice drifted down:

“First task: take good care of Lily.”

Lily?

Ludwig froze. Back then, in that dim rainy alley, right before that cold mechanical thing appeared and severed his arm, he seemed to recall hearing that pronunciation.

Shen Yu left those words behind and strode away. Today’s date wasn’t simple. He was Vidonien’s 146th date partner—the only SS-rank female zerg among them, and one of the people who’d thrown him into the Imperial Prison.

His fiancé, the empire’s cold-blooded young general Fred.

That’s right. Fred was his prospective fiancé.

After the big villain healed up and left, Vidonien had decisively switched targets. He’d used spirit sea repair as leverage to coerce Fred into signing an engagement agreement.