Prince Seville
Seville Knox was still asleep when he received the handwritten letter with the long-legged spider stamped on the wax seal.
It was already past lunchtime. His father, Barryn Knox, the head of the Knox family, stood by his bed, looking at his good-for-nothing son. He wanted to lose his temper, but thinking of the delicate letter still scented with flowers, he suppressed the urge to strike him down.
The butler walked forward very tactfully and ordered the servants to draw open the curtains to disperse the lingering smell of wine in the room. He then personally wrung out a clean towel and wiped the face of young Master Seville.
The towel was dipped in the iced patchouli water, and Seville was so stimulated that tears and snot flowed, and he finally regained some of his brain power from the hangover.
"Good morning, father." Sewell sniffed and greeted. "What's going on?"
Balin tried his best to relax his tense facial muscles and make his expression look gentler: "Sevier, there's a letter for you. Open it and take a look."
"A letter?" Seville couldn't believe there were still such old-fashioned methods of communication. "Who is it? Can't you just send a message to my AI? Why go through so much trouble..."
"Shut up!" Balin said to his youngest son, almost losing his temper after only three sentences. "Just open the letter and tell me what it says."
Seville was about to start working, but the butler handed him a letter opener. "Master Seville, please use this. Try to keep the spider pattern intact."
When Sewell finished reading the contents of the letter, which was very wordy, the room fell into an eerie silence.
This was a call to arms for Seville to the Palace of Saint Joseph. Although the wording was euphemistic and official, the message conveyed an unusual urgency. It was essentially a call to hurry, the sooner the better, so we can send a motor ship to pick you up.
No Zerg would be unaware of the symbolic significance of the Palace of Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph's Palace, a habitable planet orbiting 13 moons, is the residence of Her Majesty the Zerg Queen, the highest seat of power within the Zerg, the guardian of the Zerg's strongest forces, and the gathering place of the elite, to whom all Zerg races desperately strive to gain access.
How could such a place send a conscription order to their Knox family, the lowest among the upper-class families; and to Seville, the recognized playboy in the lowest-class upper-class family who was laughed at by all the insects?
"This...is this a joke?"
"No." Patriarch Balin's black compound eyes shone startlingly. "This was just delivered by the Tiger Guards of Saint Hobel Palace! Get ready! As soon as the motor ship arrives, set off immediately!"
His large palm slammed down hard on Seville's shoulder, pushing him down slightly. The tentacles on Balin's head twitched. Sometimes, he couldn't quite grasp the right balance in his interactions with his slender young son. "Seville, listen! No matter what the Palace of Saint Joseph has summoned you to do, you must perform well. This is a golden opportunity for our Knox family to rise to the upper class! Remember! You are a member of the Knox family! You represent the family!"
Seville curled his lips almost imperceptibly. At this time, he actually became the face of the family. He thought he had always been the shame of the family. At least in many public occasions, his parents, brothers and sisters were ashamed to mention him.
But Barin's fervent and intimidating pheromones pressed forward, leaving Sewell with no way of saying no to his father. But he was puzzled: "Why did the Saint Joseph Palace recruit me? What qualifications do I have to deserve their attention?"
Even as a dandy, he was quite self-aware. Something went wrong when Seville hatched, and he had always been very thin and frail, his mimicry almost completely human, only 190 centimeters tall. Any female insect that was pulled out in mimicry would be half a head taller than him.
The Zerg are a race that values force and power. Early on, driven by a desire to keep pace with interstellar humans, the Zerg evolved from their insect form to a humanoid form, facilitating their learning and crafting of human tools. Now, due to the conflict between the two races, and the fact that the Zerg have learned from their past and developed numerous convenient tools that adapt to their original form, the Zerg are now striving to preserve as much of their own robustness as possible. For example, almost all of Seville's relatives possess a pair of beautiful butterfly wings and mouthparts hidden beneath their mandibles. Seville, however, only retains a distinctive feature of his Knox family: a pair of chromatic butterfly antennae on his head. He suspects it was these curled, shimmering antennae that convinced his father to accept his lineage.
But his weak mimicry was practically useless. Luckily, the Knox Family had plenty of money, and their monopoly on nearly all of the Zerg's star network business was almost entirely theirs. After the Knox Family finally broke into the ranks of the elite families, Sewell, uninstructed, learned to use money to keep friends and become a hedonistic, indulgent dandy.
Balin signaled the butler to take the servants down, then whispered to Seville, "Remember how the Saint Hobel Palace has been planning to rescue Her Majesty the Worm Mother, who fell into another dimension? I heard a top-secret tip a while ago. Her Majesty the Worm Mother has most likely fallen into human territory."
Taking public sentiment into consideration, the Palace of Saint Joseph only revealed that it would rescue the Worm Mother, but did not say that the task of rescuing the Worm Mother was to cooperate with humans, and of course it would not mention that the Worm Mother was left behind in the star field controlled by humans.
Balin put his arm around Seville and said, "Do you understand what this means? Her Majesty the Worm Queen has most likely been raised by humans all these years. Perhaps she isn't so averse to human culture."
Seville's shoulders were pinched painfully by Balin. He watched helplessly as his father's face edged closer, his bewildered expression reflected in his black compound eyes. "Seville! All those years of studying human culture may finally come in handy! The call from Saint Joseph's Palace is very likely related to Her Majesty the Worm Queen! Whatever they want you to do, whether it's being a jester to entertain Her Majesty or helping the servants of Saint Joseph's Palace understand human culture, in short, do your best!"
Then, without any explanation, Seville was packed up and sent to the motor ship sent by the Palace of San Jose.
It can be seen that the Palace of Saint Joseph was really in a hurry. The motor ship jumped all the way without regard for its life, and almost made Seville vomit out his crop and foregut.
When he was finally able to straighten up and look out the porthole under the pitying and contemptuous gaze of the Tiger Guard piloting the motor ship, he was completely shocked.
At the San Jobel Palace, the Zerg Mother's dedicated starship, the Pompeii, drifted quietly through space. Sewell had seen images of this starship on the news, but the computer projection couldn't capture even a fraction of the Pompeii's grandeur. It was said that the Pompeii could accommodate 40,000 prototype Tiger Guards. Their small maneuverable ship, beside the Pompeii, looked as frail as a withered leaf next to a building.
At this point, Seville finally realized and felt a little nervous. Was he really going to get close to the center of power admired by all insects?
His father spent hundreds of millions of dollars to be able to buy a planet in the fifth star chain of the Saint Joseph Palace, allowing their family to squeeze into the social circle of high-ranking families; his second brother is also working hard to gain military merit in the Second Legion in order to win the qualification of a candidate for the crown husband of the Insect Queen for the family.
He spent his days eating, drinking, and having fun, living a life of drunkenness and dreams. When he was sober, his greatest hobby was reading human books. Yet, he, looked down upon by all the insects, was the first insect in his family to board the Pompeii!
Seville straightened his collar, tried to calm his rapidly pumping dorsal blood vessels, and stepped out of the reception cabin.
Uh, why does it look like... there's another mobile ship here?
Before Seville could even take in his surroundings, a thick cloud of anxiety and tyranny pheromones blanketed his face. The cabin was dimly lit, and a commanding yet hoarse voice softly called out to him, "Seville Knox?"
Unfortunately, the majestic voice was too quiet, its momentum much weaker. Seville looked in the direction of the voice and saw a tall, thin, dark figure approaching him.
It was Gabriel Thorne, the chief housekeeper at the Saint-Hobelu Palace. Sewell had seen her in a video of the previous Zerg Queen attending an event. Back then, her back was straight, her six arms folded in front of her abdomen, her face full of the solemnity and arrogance of a high-ranking Zerg. But now, her always exquisitely tailored black suit had a disheveled collar, and dark circles hung under her eight red eyes. She looked utterly haggard and exhausted.
Before Sevier could remember how to greet Gabriel, she approached the frail male insect, who was a whole head shorter than her.
"Sevier Knox." Gabriel lowered his voice. "Your father, as the head of the Knox family and CEO of the Star Core Cocoon Information Star Network Group, has assets in all six star chains. Of course, the largest concentration is in the fifth star chain. Your Knox family is eager to join the circle of high-ranking families, and has done quite well so far."
"Your older brother and sister are senior executives in the group, learning to take over your father's business."
"Your second brother is the brigade commander of the Second Legion. He has over 4,000 soldiers under his command. I heard he climbed the ladder step by step, without taking shortcuts. Compared to other young men from high-ranking families who easily ascend to high positions by relying on their family's protection, this is quite remarkable, isn't it?"
Seville didn't respond, but his tentacles betrayed his alertness and unease. The threat in Gabriel's words was obvious, not to mention the fact that she was recklessly emitting her intimidating pheromones.
"Your whole family has worked very hard, except for you," Gabriel said maliciously, "but your family's efforts may very well be wasted because of some of your mistakes."
"Master Gabriel, if you need me to do something, just tell me. There's no need for such a long introduction."
"You're smarter than I thought, Sevier Knox." Gabriel paused, as if making a firm decision. "There's a mission that concerns the honor of your entire Knox family... and even their lives. You need to complete it."
Sewell felt that all this was too unreal.
He could actually meet Her Majesty the Worm Queen alone and directly!!!
At this moment, he had an interpreter and a headset hanging on his ears, a visual camera on his chest, and a patch-type acupuncture box on his back, which contained needles soaked in black widow spider venom. If he said something wrong, Gabriel could immediately stab him through the heart through remote control.
If you ignore the hot milk, buns and honey pudding he is serving, he looks like he is going to defuse a bomb.
Oh my god. Seville didn't show it on his face, but his heart was in turmoil. This time, Her Majesty the Insect Queen was actually raised by humans!
Seville walked into the medical cabin carefully. As he stepped in, the induction ceiling light in the cabin began to emit warm yellow light.
Seville saw the cloud bed in the middle of the medical cabin at a glance. A sweet scent that attracted insects emanated from the cloud bed. As he approached, the soft quilt on the cloud bed shuddered noticeably.
"Your Majesty?" Sewell called out in the softest voice.
It was a distinctly different sound. Li'er pulled down a corner of the quilt and stole a peek. With just one glance, her tears streamed down.
"Young Master!"
This soft and trembling call was full of the grievances that Her Majesty Li'er Insect Mother felt when she left Planet 27 of the Ancient Blue Star. She was left alone in an unfamiliar environment and was forced to share a room with two monsters with sharp teeth and claws. She was hungry, sleepy, and tired, and wanted to go to the toilet but didn't dare.
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