Chapter 34: District One Military Headquarters
“You smell like him, and you also smell like that Siberian wolf.”
Edwin sniffed Xi Lian’s scent in confusion and questioned him, “Three people? We wolves don’t share mates with others.”
“What are you talking about?”
Xi Lian grabbed the fur under the silver wolf’s chin and explained impatiently, “That’s his damn mental body, you stupid dog.”
“Mental body?”
Edwin tilted his head, puzzlement coloring his eyes as he looked at Xi Lian.
“You stayed in the Allied Forces for so long. Don’t tell me you don’t know that every human sentinel and guide has a mental body.”
“Isn’t that a beastman bonded to them?”
“Damn it, you dead stupid dog. You might as well go back to your District Six and sell shaved ice.”
Xi Lian let go of the fur under his chin and shook off the wolf hair stuck to his hand in disgust.
“Use that dog nose of yours and smell properly. The scents of the two of them are exactly the same.”
“Then according to what you’re saying, does brother-in-law also have a… mental body?”
Facing Edwin’s blank expression, Xi Lian tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Mm.”
“And his mental body is a cream-colored Maine Coon?”
“Yes.”
“So it really was sir!”
After learning the truth, Edwin felt his worldview slowly collapsing. His mind was full of the scene from back then when he had identified the Maine Coon as Jin Chi’an’s bonded beastman, and the look of frustration on his marshal’s face.
“It’s over…”
The Qin family estate in District One of the empire.
“Young Master, Sir is waiting for you in the study.”
Qin Hua walked past the butler waiting at the entrance and went straight to the study on the second floor.
At this moment, outside the study door, a female Siberian wolf was lying at the entrance. The moment she saw Qin Hua, she familiarly opened the door and led him inside.
Inside the study, tens of thousands of ancient Earth books were arranged inside mahogany bookcases. A young woman in a black long dress sat behind the desk, calmly looking at Qin Hua as he entered.
“Mom,” Qin Hua called.
“Sit.”
Mother Qin looked at the chair opposite the desk and gestured for Qin Hua to sit.
“Mom, you called me here because…”
Before Qin Hua could finish his question, Mother Qin interrupted him.
“I arranged a meeting for you with the third young lady of the Su family. Meet her another day and discuss the engagement.”
“Mom!”
Qin Hua shot to his feet.
“I’m not getting engaged.”
“Sit down.”
Mother Qin looked at the youngest son she usually doted on most. No longer as gentle as usual, she scolded him instead.
“Do you understand the current situation? This isn’t something you can refuse, Qin Hua.”
“What situation? Isn’t it just the royal family’s problem? What does that have to do with our family? I won’t enter a marriage alliance.”
“Qin Hua, can’t you be a little sensible? Charlemagne VII’s life and death are currently unknown, and one banquet dealt a heavy blow to many nobles in District One.”
Mother Qin slapped the ancient Earth fountain pen in her hand onto the desk.
“Now everyone is watching that position.”
“If you all want to fight for that position, then go fight for it yourselves. What does it have to do with me?”
After Qin Hua said this, he turned to leave, but the female Siberian wolf leaped in front of him and blocked his path.
“Stand right there.”
A cold aura appeared in Mother Qin’s eyes, instantly causing the temperature in the room to drop by several degrees.
The pile of complicated official affairs had already made her feel overwhelmed, and Qin Hua’s refusal to cooperate only added fuel to the fire.
For a moment, because the mental body’s chaotic consciousness cloud could not be soothed, a red tint appeared in the female wolf’s eyes, and she bared her teeth at Qin Hua in front of her.
“Mom?”
Qin Hua had never seen the female wolf like this before. Panic immediately rose in his heart. He turned to look at Mother Qin, who was standing with one hand braced on the desk and the other supporting her forehead.
“Mom? What’s wrong?”
Faced with the situation, Qin Hua instantly panicked. He jogged back to Mother Qin and lowered his head, trying to check her complexion.
“I’m fine. Go call your father.”
“I’ll do it right away.”
Qin Hua opened the communication link on his optical computer and urgently dialed Father Qin.
Before long, a man dressed in noble attire walked in, his cold eyes falling on the two Siberian wolves pressed together in front of him.
The female wolf lay tiredly on the ground, while the slightly smaller male wolf circled around her helplessly, occasionally rubbing his head against her neck.
“Dad.”
Seeing his father walk straight toward him, Qin Hua immediately became at a loss. He squeezed out a sentence in a small voice.
“I’m sorry. I made Mom angry.”
“At least you know.”
Father Qin glanced sideways at him, then turned and extended mental tendrils into Mother Qin’s consciousness cloud.
Facing the chaotic mental pathways, Father Qin exhaled and helplessly asked, “How long has it been since your last guidance?”
“Only three months. It’s nothing.”
Faced with Mother Qin’s stubbornness, Father Qin did not respond. As if he had long since gotten used to it, he began soothing that chaotic consciousness cloud.
For a moment, the originally spacious study somehow seemed to grow narrow. The surroundings were filled with the scent of combined sentinel-guide mental power.
Throughout the entire guidance process, Qin Hua sat silently to one side, lowering his head as though avoiding suspicion, not looking at his parents in front of him.
Only after the guidance ended did Mother Qin, who had finally relaxed from her earlier agitation, notice her youngest son sitting nearby with his head lowered. She said helplessly, “Qin Hua, the marriage alliance with the Su family was decided by the family long ago. As a guide and sentinel of suitable age from the two families, this is your duty.”
“I know.”
Qin Hua unwillingly squeezed out a sentence.
“But I already have a bonded partner.”
“What did you say?”
Shocked by this, Father Qin instantly stood up and looked at his obedient son in disbelief. After a trace of suspicion flashed through his eyes, he extended mental tendrils into Qin Hua’s consciousness cloud.
Only when an unfamiliar mental energy transmitted back into his consciousness cloud did he confirm that Qin Hua had not been joking.
“How is it?”
Mother Qin instinctively grabbed Father Qin’s wrist, looking worriedly at his troubled expression.
“There are indeed traces of a mental bond. But it’s different from normal circumstances.”
“How is it different?”
Mother Qin anxiously questioned him loudly.
“Qin Hua, explain this clearly.”
“It’s just as Dad said. I already have a mental bond with someone. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“He’s a beastman.”
Mother Qin, shocked by these words, almost blacked out and fell back into the office chair behind her.
The atmosphere in the room gradually became subtle. His father, who had always raised him loosely, also grew serious.
“Qin Hua, do you know what you’re doing?”
“I know.”
“You don’t.”
Father Qin scolded him, walking up to him and looking down at Qin Hua, who was sitting in the chair with his head lowered.
“I can see that you don’t understand your mental illness at all.”
Father Qin controlled his mental tendrils and withdrew them from Qin Hua’s consciousness cloud, then sternly asked, “Why haven’t you accepted mental guidance from a guide?”
Qin Hua awkwardly touched the slightly warm mental brand on the back of his neck.
“I don’t like it.”
“You should be very clear about the consequences for a sentinel who goes a long time without mental guidance.”
“I’m clear, Father.”
The corners of Qin Hua’s eyes turned slightly red as he looked up at his father with grievance.
“Then are you clear on what bonding with a beastman means?”
A trace of reluctance crossed Father Qin’s face.
“It means your consciousness cloud will never receive guidance, and your children will also develop hereditary illnesses like the royal family.”
“There won’t be children.”
Reacting immediately, Qin Hua said with certainty, “Please don’t worry. I’m a male sentinel, and he’s a male beastman. We won’t have children.”
Faced with his son, who seemed to have completely grabbed the wrong key point, Mother Qin, who had just recovered from her shock, suddenly felt her consciousness cloud begin to grow chaotic again. At a loss, she looked at her husband standing in front of their son.
“Is there another way? To dissolve their mental bond?”
Father Qin shook his head and explained to Mother Qin, “I don’t understand the mental bond between humans and beastmen.”
“Then Xiao Hua…”
“Mom, a beastman’s mental bond can’t be dissolved.”
Qin Hua cut off their conversation and looked firmly at his mother beside his father.
“A beastman’s mental brand cannot be dissolved unless I die.”
“What did you say?”
“It means that only when one of the two parties dies will the mental brand disappear, and the other party will also die with them. It’s the same as a sentinel-guide bond. You know that.”
Mother Qin swayed, feeling a headache as she looked at her determined son. In the end, she compromised.
“Our alliance with Iskan has been interrupted, and the empire has strictly forbidden beastmen without imperial status from entering imperial star regions. What do you plan to do about this relationship of yours?”
Hearing what sounded like Mother Qin relenting, Qin Hua’s eyes lit up. The mental body sharing his senses also raised its lowered head and affectionately rubbed against the female wolf beside it.
“He’s in our District One right now!”
“You say he’s in District One?”
Mother Qin looked suspiciously at her son, who had instantly perked up.
“Mm. In District One military headquarters’ high-security prison.”
As Qin Hua’s words fell, the surrounding atmosphere instantly turned cold.
Mother Qin, seated opposite him, took a deep breath and instinctively raised a hand to cover her mouth, preventing herself from saying anything unbefitting a noble.
A moment later, Father Qin was the first to react. He hesitated to speak, then ultimately chose the most direct way to ask, “Who is he? A vicious criminal?”
“No, Dad.”
Qin Hua instantly became aggrieved. He got up and moved closer to Father Qin, acting spoiled.
“He missed me too much. As long as he couldn’t see me, his whole body would hurt, so he trespassed into District One on his own.”
“His whole body hurts if he can’t see you?”
Father Qin looked at the son in front of him with some disdain and made no comment on that overly sweet description.
Seeing that he clearly did not believe him, Qin Hua lifted the wolf tail of hair at the back of his neck, revealing the harpy eagle totem mental brand. He turned so it could enter the other party’s sight.
“This is our mental brand. It lets us sense each other’s condition.”
Qin Hua pursed his lips.
“It’s because you made me resign from the military a few days ago. He sensed that my condition was bad, so he entered District One on his own to find me.”
“Then you…”
Faced with this unclear situation, Father Qin was at a loss for words.
Qin Hua instantly saw the worry in his expression and deliberately made himself sound pitiful.
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking. He’s currently locked in prison and in very bad condition. And I share senses with him, so if he’s not well, I’m not well either. The brand on the back of my neck keeps hurting.”
“Look.”
Qin Hua pulled his collar down slightly, revealing the mental brand glowing red, and said pitifully, “Dad, for every day he stays in prison, I hurt for a day. I’m almost dying from the pain…”
Hearing this, Mother Qin finally gathered herself and walked behind Qin Hua, gently touching the harpy eagle totem glowing red.
Seeing that there was hope, Qin Hua pushed even further.
“Mom, if he dies in prison, I’ll die too. You know District One’s high-security prison isn’t a place for people to stay.”
Faced with Qin Hua acting spoiled and pitiful, Mother Qin no longer hesitated like before. Instead, she looked firmly at Father Qin.
“Arrange it. I’m going to District One military headquarters.”
“Thank you, Mom.”
Receiving a satisfactory reply, Qin Hua excitedly hugged Mother Qin. At the same time, his mental body bit toward the female wolf’s head, happily wagging its tail.
Only when Father Qin shot him a somewhat cold glare did Qin Hua slowly let go.
Early the next morning, District One military headquarters was in complete chaos because of the banquet incident.
Countless complaint letters from nobles flooded the military information system, demanding that the military provide a satisfactory explanation for the banquet incident.
Amelie, who had temporarily taken over District One military headquarters, had just finished dealing with the previous departing noble when she welcomed another uninvited guest.
“General Amelie, if you cannot properly handle District One military affairs, then you should leave as early as possible. After all, District One has no need for an official from an outer district to take charge of the military.”
Mother Qin, draped in a luxurious top-tier silk shawl and carrying an exquisite small handbag, slowly walked into Amelie’s office.
Amelie looked toward the door and saw Qin Hua following behind Mother Qin, silently lowering his head and deliberately avoiding the gaze she cast toward him.
“Madam Qin, may I ask how I can help you?”
Amelie pretended to calmly meet Mother Qin’s contemptuous gaze.
“I’m here to retrieve the information my son left in the military.”
“I’m sorry, Madam. According to military regulations, soldier information previously stored in the imperial military cannot be retrieved.”
“What kind of joke is that? Our Qin family is a high bloodline, different from you miscellaneous little soldiers and generals. Who knows what you intend to do with Xiao Hua’s bloodline?”
Mother Qin’s earlier dignified appearance vanished as she loudly questioned Amelie.
Amelie was clearly already used to the temper of nobles. Facing the other party’s unreasonable request, she did not grow angry and responded calmly, “We all act according to military regulations. I understand that you may not know the situation, but Qin Hua…”
“Xiao Hua, go outside first.”
Mother Qin interrupted what Amelie was about to say and turned to give Qin Hua a look.
Having received the signal, Qin Hua did not linger there. He turned, rushed out the door, and walked toward his destination.
Along the way, the soldiers passing by saw his noble attire. Although they did not understand why he was rampaging through the military headquarters, they did not stop him.
Before long, he successfully arrived at the guide command department on the thirty-second floor of the military headquarters.
Amid the messy information control consoles, Qin Hua spotted that familiar figure at a glance.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he abruptly pulled that person into the transporter and covered the mouth that was about to shout.
“It’s me, Qin Hua. Don’t make a sound.”
