Word had it that the Diamond Capsule had sparked new life in the Frontier Star Systems, but research into the diamonds themselves had hit a dead end.
Even though Sid had bought plenty of research equipment out of his own pocket, without researchers of sufficient caliber there was still no real progress to show for it.
Though lately, thanks to my intense daily exposure to the diamonds, my heart had gone perfectly calm.
Diamonds. What real difference was there between them and roadside pebbles?
That day, as I was picking out seed pumpkins in my little vegetable garden, a whooping alarm echoed across the planet, and a brilliant-blue Protective Barrier rose up right after it.
I straightened up and looked at the sky.
Were more military Zerg coming to join us?
The Star Pirate Contestant said, “Don’t go outside. They’re here to rescue Payne. Don’t worry, nothing will happen to you.”
The actual military is attacking?
So suddenly! I hadn’t even prepared for a new script yet!
Hurriedly grabbing his Mecha key, the Star Pirate Contestant led the Crooked Melons and Cracked Dates off to the front line.
Honestly, who could resist seeing a real interstellar battle with their own eyes? I certainly couldn’t.
So while the Star Pirate Contestant was boarding, I snuck into his Mecha.
He didn’t seem to have a custom Mecha of his own, so he was using one of the standard bulk models from the warehouse. Sneaking one extra me inside was easy.
Blades have no eyes, but heaven has a heart. With me, the protagonist, around, surely nothing would happen to the Star Pirate Contestant…
The Star Pirate Contestant’s Mecha crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar.
No way! You’re way too bad at this!
The enemy hasn’t even used their ultimate yet. How did you already go down!
You act like you’re the best under heaven every single day, and this is all you’ve got? Even I could do better!
Oh, right. I could jump in too.
Before the enemy Zerg could hit the Mecha with heavy weapons and inflict irreversible damage, I charged into the cockpit.
When he saw me, the Star Pirate Contestant’s face filled with shock, his easygoing expression vanishing completely. “Why are you in here?”
You’re surrounded. How are you still so relaxed?
The next second, the enemy stripped the Mecha of its weapons with laser fire, and the sliced-up frame instantly fell apart.
The Star Pirate Contestant only had time to pull me protectively into his arms before the two of us dropped to the ground along with the shattered metal plating.
I did try to contest who should be protecting whom. Since when does the top get cradled safely in someone’s arms!
But given that this was a Zerg novel, and given that while struggling I accidentally pressed against the Star Pirate Contestant’s nicely firm chest, I could only… put up a token struggle.
The enemy broadcast: “Capture complete. Enemy Leader Female Insect… and a Male Insect?!”
The voice sounded utterly astonished. Apparently the Empire had special laws about this, and they had no idea what to do with me.
Sure enough, the next moment several of the enemy Mechas glanced at one another, seemingly conferring. “Forget it. Proceed as planned. Take all of them to Thebes Prison.”
Prison?!
Had the heavens finally noticed their protagonist, transmigrated into the Zerg for so long and still painfully single?!
I had grasped the main plotline of this story!
A noble Female Insect locked away in a Zerg prison for harming a Male Insect while protecting his loved ones. And one day, a Male Insect arrives at the prison…
Or perhaps the cold and cruel prison Commander finds himself helplessly drawn to the new Male Insect who looks so well-behaved?
Which storyline awaited me? And would the Star Pirate Contestant get a part in it?
But…
“Thebes Prison. That sounds familiar.” I was sure I’d heard it somewhere before.
“That’s the prison Payne mentioned earlier, the one holding most of the researchers.”
So that’s how it was.
Seriously, you Zerg can throw someone in prison without even a formal verdict?!
Straight to jail, no trial? Your Zerg lawyers’ employment rate must be terrible.
The Star Pirate Contestant looked extremely troubled. “So why did you suddenly show up?”
I couldn’t exactly admit I’d gotten myself captured by accident because I wanted in on the excitement!
How humiliating would that be!
I chose to dodge the question and started studying my surroundings instead.
There were fewer than ten Female Insects aboard this transport ship. If we could subdue them and seize control of the vessel, things weren’t beyond salvaging.
At a moment like this, I was grateful I’d kept my own body in this transmigration. With a native Male Insect’s puny frame, I doubted I could win a fight at all.
I attacked the Star Pirate Contestant head-on. Startled, he raised a hand and blocked my strike. “Why are you suddenly attacking me?”
To confirm how many you can actually take, obviously.
What if you brag you can handle ten and then get floored by a single one!
The Star Pirate Contestant didn’t fight back, but his blocks were clean and efficient.
His skills weren’t bad at all. He never should have lost to that pack of Military Female Insects.
Anyway, after personally verifying the Star Pirate Contestant’s combat strength, I released my hold on him. “The Military Female Insects outside. You take five.”
“Five? You really do underestimate me.”
The Star Pirate Contestant’s expression turned distinctly arrogant. Then he suddenly froze. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking…”
I confirmed his guess. “I’ll handle the other five.”
The Star Pirate Contestant hastily waved me down. “Wait, you’ve got it wrong.”
Got it wrong?
“I let myself get captured on purpose.”
What?
“Research on the diamonds has hit a dead end, hasn’t it? Payne asked if I remembered something you once said, that ‘the most cutting-edge researchers are probably all in prison.’ He said he could reach Zerg connected to the military and Thebes Prison. To avoid drawing anyone’s attention, we needed to act separately.
“The military is marching out under the pretext of hunting down the Star Pirates and rescuing Payne. Sid stays on Desolate Star to guard the Diamond Mine. And I’m getting arrested and taken to Thebes Prison to break some of the researchers out.”
“Payne can still fish you out of prison?” Seems Payne used to hold a very high rank in the military.
The Star Pirate Contestant looked awkward. “Getting out is something we’ll have to figure out on our own.”
So all that talk, and it’s a prison break!
“You were all Military Female Insects before, right?” How come you look bolder than pure-blooded Star Pirates!
The title of Military Female Insect seemed to be a heavy topic for the Star Pirate Contestant. He tried to look indifferent, forcing the corners of his mouth upward.
But the past pulled the other way, and those beautifully shaped lips tightened into a stiff, strained line.
I sentenced myself to three drinks in my heart for my slip of the tongue.
I was still racking my brain for how to comfort him and get that red hair perking up again, but the Star Pirate Contestant seemed to have coaxed himself back into good humor all on his own.
“Yes… For a long time, this really weighed on me. But the me of back then was me, and the me of now is still me. I am simply me. That’s what you taught me.”
He smiled and pointed at me, his smiling eyes like they were whispering a secret meant only for me.
To get back at him for whispering things I couldn’t hear, I blinked at him and whispered a secret of my own right back.
As for what I said, well, you guess.
The Star Pirate Contestant, inexplicably, turned poetic and began composing lines. “Amid all the acclaim, I thought the title was me, the power was me, the glory was me. I thought those things would follow me forever. So when they all vanished, I thought myself ridiculous and weak. Until you appeared.
“The me who commanded troops was me. The me who became a Star Pirate is me too.
“The me too proud to bow my head was me. The me just scraping by is me as well.”
Mm-hm, mm-hm. I nodded along, but the Star Pirate Contestant’s pace suddenly slowed.
He stopped right in front of me. “So in your eyes, what am I like?”
That gaze fixed straight on me was like a beautiful red maple leaf settling onto the lake of my heart.
A leaf torn from its branch by an unseasonably cold wind, yet still bearing the most brilliant color that life could give.
When I first saw the Star Pirate Contestant, I’d wondered: what kind of Star Pirate Crew would take in the old, the weak, the sick, and the wounded? What kind of Star Pirate Crew had discipline better than the military’s? And what kind of Star Pirate Crew had a Boss this gorgeous?
“You are simply you.”
Just as I am simply me.
He froze for a moment, then for some reason turned away. I heard him muttering that I was too sly.
What else was I supposed to say? That he looked like someone doomed to die alone?!
What kind of decent Female Insect gives a Male Insect an entire Star Pirate crew as a gift!
—
