Chapter 41: Aphrodite
Half a month ago, the aliens invaded the capital of Imperial Star One and kidnapped the current emperor of the Empire, Charlemagne VII.
On the starship the aliens used to leave Imperial space, Felix, using Iskan’s stealth equipment that could conceal mental power, successfully infiltrated the starship’s central layer.
An extremely familiar mental energy came from the center of the central layer. Felix unconsciously drew closer to the source of that mental energy.
Only when he reached a place not far from a huge energy furnace did Felix force himself to control his breathing and carefully hide behind a giant container tank.
Around that energy furnace, countless first-stage aberrants were protecting the furnace and the experimental personnel.
Surrounded by that mass of writhing tentacles, a human guide was recording the changes in the mental energy inside the furnace with an instrument.
As the concentration of that energy increased, Felix finally detected the aura within it. It came from the treasure of Hundred-Bird City—the heartwood of the Quetzal divine tree.
“004, are the experimental humans ready?”
Carrying the unconscious Charlemagne VII, 002 walked out of a spatial teleportation device and asked the experimental personnel in front of him.
004 removed his protective mask, stopped the operation of the furnace, and answered 002, who was walking toward him.
“Of the ten captured sentinels, five have already been injected with Quetzal energy extract. The experiment can begin at any time.”
“Prepare the experimental body immediately,” the black-cloaked figure who had followed 002 out of the teleporter ordered. Then he took a complete head from beneath his cloak and gently placed it on the nearby operating table.
That head, separated from its body, was still functioning on its own. Its expression was twisted in agony, its mouth open in a strange shape, yet because it had lost a complete set of vocal cords, it could not make a sound.
“Don’t be anxious, 001. We’ll prepare an even more perfect body for you.”
The man removed the black cloak on his body, revealing beast-like fur, the tentacles wrapped around his body, and a face no different from a human’s. He turned and patted Charlemagne VII’s head.
“Have 005 take him back and break down his consciousness cloud. At the very least, we need to separate out the imperial family’s mental pathways.”
Once the order was given, 002 nodded to him, then headed into another laboratory and handed over the Charlemagne VII he was carrying to a zerg draped in the body of a human guide.
“000 said to break down his consciousness cloud,” 002 instructed the guide, who was lazily slumped in a swivel chair.
005 did not even blink. Relaxed, he spun the chair and answered perfunctorily, “Put him on the table. I’ll look at him later.”
“Then I’ll trouble you.”
After saying that, 002 left the laboratory, leaving only Felix, who had secretly infiltrated, and the guide who was about to fall asleep.
While 005 narrowed his eyes and was completely unguarded, Felix found a dose of hallucinogen in the laboratory and injected it into 005’s brain.
005’s main body was affected by it and uncontrollably fell asleep. Even that powerful main-body mental power could not forcibly boot up someone who genuinely wanted to sleep.
“Charlemagne VII. I know you’re awake.”
Felix grabbed him by the neck, his gaze ruthless as he interrogated him.
“Were you the first one to lure them here?”
Charlemagne VII, whose throat was being squeezed, coughed with difficulty, only to be roughly held down by Felix again. Only after he had recovered from coughing up blood uncontrollably did Felix release the hand covering his mouth.
“Looks like you haven’t completely cured your mental illness. The Empire’s people really do love exaggerating.”
Charlemagne VII choked painfully. The wound in his abdomen made his coughing hurt even worse. His eyes reddened as he looked into Felix’s pupils.
“Oh, so you’re the little tiger cub Aphrodite raised. You don’t even greet your uncle when you see him. How rude.”
Charlemagne VII held his abdomen, his voice hoarse.
“I advise you to leave this place as soon as possible. Don’t have too much contact with those monsters from another star. Their plan isn’t something a single beastman like you can control.”
“What do you mean…”
Before Felix could finish, 005, lying in the chair, opened his eyes and looked strangely at Charlemagne VII on the operating table, somewhat confused.
“Did I fall asleep?”
Unable to figure it out, 005 shook this body’s head and moved Charlemagne VII on the operating table into a huge medical instrument.
As the instrument’s simulated mental tendrils slowly began operating, Charlemagne VII’s consciousness cloud gradually formed a physical projection inside the generator within the instrument. The filtered-out memory trash was transmitted into the system’s junk files.
Felix, hiding behind a control console, transferred the extracted memories into his optical brain and suspiciously opened that segment belonging to the emperor of the Empire.
…
With the birth of Charlemagne VI’s triplets, the middle child became the candidate for the next crown prince.
At the very beginning of Charlemagne’s memories, the other two children born at the same time as him had disappeared without a trace.
Every time he heard rumors about the other two, it was from servants who had accidentally let something slip.
The young Charlemagne VII was extremely curious and always wanted to search every corner of the palace for the two other children.
Until one palace banquet, when he met Bai Ye for the first time.
The white-haired boy moved through the palace with practiced ease, as if he treated the palace as his own territory. Clearly, he was only an outsider being raised by his maternal family.
Charlemagne VII became increasingly curious about him and followed him for quite a while. Until one night, he followed the boy to a tower on the edge of the palace.
The white-haired boy rode his own secretary-bird mental body and came to the top of that tower with familiar ease, slipping inside without any obstruction.
That was the first time Charlemagne VII had approached the tower the servants called a forbidden place ever since he could remember.
When he approached the door on the first floor, the sound of snakes flicking their tongues echoed inside the tower. The entire building was wrapped in a strange chill.
Charlemagne VII’s heart trembled. A little frightened, he followed Bai Ye closely and arrived outside a room.
Because he was afraid of being discovered, Charlemagne VII only dared to stay far away on the lower level, secretly observing the other party’s movements.
He saw Bai Ye take a tiny white mouse from the bag in his hand and place it into a small hole beneath the wall.
Immediately afterward, he saw Bai Ye lower himself and gently coax the person in the room.
“This is all I can find for now. Eat these first. Later, I’ll see if I can find something better for you.”
Charlemagne watched Bai Ye lie beside the hole and speak for a long time. Only when the sky grew faintly bright did the other party finally leave.
Finding his chance, Charlemagne VII imitated Bai Ye and, with absolutely no imperial dignity, lay down in front of that man-made hole to observe what was happening inside the room.
He saw a thin golden-haired boy crouched beneath the bed, wolfing down the white mice as if he had not eaten in many days.
When the last mouse was swallowed, the sound of a snake flicking its tongue came. The boy inside the room turned into a cobra with a bulging belly.
This never-before-seen scene entered Charlemagne VII’s eyes at the same time, making him widen them uncontrollably as he stared in shock at the snake beastman who should not have appeared inside the imperial palace.
But before he could come back to himself and try to communicate with that snake beastman, a maid came upstairs, frightening him into hiding in a nearby room.
Through the crack in the door, he could see the maid place a plate of leftover bread and half-drunk milk outside the boy’s room. She did not care whether the boy inside could retrieve the food from behind that locked door and simply turned to leave.
Only after the maid’s figure completely vanished did the young Charlemagne VII poke his head out and return to the door.
The closed door remained still for a long time. The boy inside seemed unwilling to accept this secondhand food outside the door.
Faced with that half-eaten piece of bread, Charlemagne VII could not help crouching down, picking it up, and bringing it to his mouth for a small taste.
In an instant, nausea churned in his stomach and surged up toward his chest.
Charlemagne VII could not hold it back and vomited out everything he had just eaten. He stared blankly at the tightly shut door.
From then on, Charlemagne VII, famous throughout the Empire for his arrogance and tyranny, gained a new hobby: raising birds.
Some nobles, hoping to curry favor with him, would bring rare wild birds as gifts whenever they entered the palace for an audience.
But everyone outside knew that this young prince was no bird lover. After all, every bird sent to him would mysteriously disappear within the enormous palace after only a few days.
As for why he liked birds, it was because the always-noble Charlemagne VII felt that catching mice was rather disgusting.
…
Years later, Charlemagne VII finally saw the golden-haired boy without a door separating them.
By then, he himself had already grown into a mature young nobleman. Yet that boy was still just as he had been when they first met, like a malnourished stray.
The boy was bound by several chains and easily brought before him by his father.
From that day on, Charlemagne VII had a snake-shaped totem on his arm.
The older Charlemagne VII was no longer as foolish as he had been in childhood. The inheritance of his imperial identity gradually let him understand the imperial custom that had existed since the time of Charlemagne II.
Whenever a child was born into the Charlemagne bloodline, the child with the best genetic testing results would be chosen as the experimental subject of that generation. The child who inherited the beastman bloodline would be locked inside the lightless tower until the next heir came of age. Then the snake beastman would be forcibly branded with a one-way brand to the heir.
That was the first time Charlemagne VII met his younger brother of the same womb: a snake beastman, now kneeling without dignity at his feet. From this moment on, and for a long time afterward, he would be his most loyal slave.
“Nice to meet you, my younger brother. According to the Empire’s rules for bestowing names upon imperial beastmen, from now on, you will be called Aphrodite…”
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