EROS [Zerg]

Harris staggered to his feet, clutching his clothes nervously, his blood-red pupils reflecting Eros's image. "Thanks..."

Before I could even express my gratitude, I was interrupted by a cold shout.

“Eros, this is the only school uniform you have.” Alai looked at the ungrateful female slave in front of him with displeasure: “Take off your clothes now.”

Upon hearing this, Harris's paws trembled, his body shook, and he instinctively tried to take off his clothes.

Eros pressed down on his arm: "Wear these, they're my clothes, I'm giving them to you."

“Eros!” Alai disagreed.

“Alai, let’s go.” Eros grabbed Alai’s arm. “I’ve decided to give it to him.”

"A good worm is being treated like a good worm," Alai muttered to Eros, but didn't stop him any further.

Eros smiled helplessly: "I'll just go buy another one."

“School uniforms are earned by exchanging academic credits, and the points on your student ID can’t even buy you a piece of cloth right now,” Alai bluntly pointed out Eros’s predicament.

"There's always a way." Eros smiled helplessly.

Alai faced Eros, his beautiful silver eyes slightly narrowed: "Alright, then I'll see what your plan is."

“There are always more solutions than problems.” Eros looked down at Alai’s raised nose and suddenly realized that Alai, who was usually serious, could also throw a few unreasonable tantrums like a little insect.

"Thank you."

The words of thanks from behind made Eros turn his gaze back to Harris.

Harris stood motionless behind them, his clothes stained with blood.

Eros noticed that Harris was watching him, so he turned to the female insect and said, "My name is Eros, and this is Alai."

When Harris heard that Eros was willing to tell her his name, she also revealed her identity: "Hello, I am Harris, the female slave of the male Koss."

Alai disliked Harris. He frowned and said coldly:

“My name is Alex Dahonlik. My father had some connections with Lord Kos, so you must have met him.”

Harris could hear the disgust in Alai's voice and understood why Alai disliked him.

The bond between male insects often involves exchanging female slaves for play. As a noble female insect with pure blood, Alai felt utterly disgusted at the thought that the female slave in front of her might have slept with her male father.

A look of fear and panic flashed across Harris's eyes, and as if by reflex, his knees buckled as if he were about to kneel on the ground.

"Why are you kneeling again?" Eros reached out and helped Harris up.

"I..." Harris remained in a half-kneeling position, his knees bent in fear and confusion, unsure whether to kneel down or stand up.

“There are no insects here for you to kneel before.” Eros pulled Harris up, looked at the uneasy face before him, and reached out to tidy up Harris’s silver-gray hair, which was damp with cold sweat.

Harris instinctively flinched, but stopped himself when Eros touched his hair. His eyes were fixed on Eros's clean claws, the light in them gradually being overwhelmed by guilt: "Don't... it's too dirty..."

"It's ok."

Eros showed no disdain, but instead comforted Harris: "Don't underestimate yourself. Your status as a female slave is not a reason for other insects to look down on you."

Alai, who was standing to the side, felt increasingly uneasy as he listened: "Eros, are you implying that I'm belittling him?"

Eros couldn't help but chuckle at Alai's somewhat sour expression, but still nodded slightly: "Yeah, you didn't even realize it yourself, did you?"

"Eros!!!" Alai was furious. He didn't know what was wrong with Eros today. He argued with the teacher in class, was so nice to a female slave after class, and now he was saying that he was belittling other insects.

Alai knew he hated female slaves and prostitutes, those promiscuous women who would climb into anyone's bed. Eros's statement that he despised Harris was true, but having Eros expose this thought made him very sad.

Alai glared angrily at Harris, then turned and walked away.

Harris looked at Eros, who was still standing in the same spot, and asked blankly, "Why... are you telling me all this?"

Hearing Harris's question, Eros's eyes darkened slightly, and a gentle smile appeared on his lips: "I hope that one day you can truly understand that what I'm telling you is true, and then when you encounter a Queen of Insects in the same predicament, you can tell her the same thing."

Harris glanced at Eros with envy: "A female insect like me can only live like this for the rest of my life."

Eros disagreed, but didn't say anything more. Thinking of Alai's expression as he left, Eros sighed softly. Before leaving, he turned to Harris and reassured him, "Nothing in this world is absolute."

Harris watched Eros turn and leave, feeling utterly lost.

……

When Eros returned to the dormitory, it was already dark.

As he walked to the dormitory door, he could faintly hear Alai pacing back and forth inside.

"Why isn't Eros back yet?!"

Alai went straight back to his dormitory after leaving the classroom. Back in his dormitory, Alai angrily opened his terminal to browse the Star Network to distract himself. He couldn't understand why Eros was standing next to that female slave. He had been so good to her, how could she be inferior to a female slave who had only appeared for a few stars?

From a young age, Alai hated female slaves who would do anything for males. He had personally witnessed those poor female slaves being tricked into going to the males' beds and being permanently marked, becoming victims of those despicable female slaves' attempts to curry favor.

Alai didn't want anything to happen, but as soon as she started thinking about it, she felt goosebumps rising on her back.

"No, I have to go out and look for it."

What if Eros gets tricked by that female slave?!

Alai picked up his coat from the stool and prepared to leave. He turned the doorknob and was just stepping out when he saw the bug he was looking for standing outside.

Alai paused, then slowly let out a soft sigh: "You're back."

Eros was wearing a thin undergarment and carrying a yellow cardboard bag.

"Why are you so late?" Alai could feel the chill emanating from Eros as soon as he opened the door.

The first star system has no stars. The insectoids rely on the heat generated by their insect-made sun to survive. At night, in order to conserve energy, the insect-made sun will enter a period of dormancy. During this time, the temperature on the surface of the insectoid planet can drop to minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius.

Eros could hear the worry in Alai's reproachful tone. He picked up the paper bag in his hand: "I found out that some students in the Star Class were wearing ill-fitting school uniforms, so I bought them back with Star Coins."

"You really do have a way." Alai sneered. He felt that his worries were unnecessary. With Eros being so resourceful, even if he was deceived by that female slave, it wouldn't matter, right?

"Still angry?" Eros placed the paper bag by the bedside, watching Alai throw his coat back onto the chair.

Allai glanced at Eros, then turned away and mocked, "What, after you finished appeasing that female slave, now you're trying to appease me?"

“You don’t need to coax me.” Eros pointed to his coat, which was carelessly tossed on the back of the chair. “You’re not really angry with me.”

"Tsk." Alai was clearly dissatisfied with this answer.

“I know you didn’t mean everything you said to Harris today,” Eros said, pulling Alai by the arm and leading him to his side. “But there are some things I think I need to be honest with you about.”

“If you still consider me a friend, just say so.” Alai snorted and turned to look at Eros.

“Actually, I only found out today that you hate female slaves.” Eros looked at Alai with an unexpectedly serious gaze.

Alai remained noncommittal: "There are very few female insects as non-annoying as you, aren't there?"

Eros's face remained expressionless as he looked directly into Aray's eyes and said, word by word:

"I used to be a prostitute."

"What did you say?!" Alai's eyes widened, thinking she had misheard.

"You know what prostitutes do, right? This joke isn't funny!"

“I’m not joking.” Eros’s expression remained perfectly calm.

Looking at Eros's face, which resembled Evanson's, Alai felt a surge of anger: "Why would someone so willingly degenerate?!"

Eros did not answer Alai's question, but instead asked in a very calm tone, "Willing yourself to the point of depravity? Are you asking Eros or Evanson?"

"What did you say?"

Eros's unusually calm reaction startled Alai: "I already told you, I don't treat you like Evanson..."

Eros looked intently at Allai: "But you're using the same standards you apply to Evanson to Eros."

He approached Alai step by step:

“If I were Evanson, with a respectable family background, to become a slave would be self-degradation.”

“But I am Eros. Eros was a slave girl from the beginning. Now, he has not only not fallen, but he has also crawled out of that hell.”

Alai stood there, looking at Eros who had already walked up to him, a bitter smile on his lips. He slowly squatted down and sat on the cold floor, lowering his head: "I'm sorry."

Eros crouched down to be at eye level with Alai, quietly waiting for Alai to say what he would say next.

Alai looked into Eros's eyes, as if remembering something funny, and chuckled softly: "Actually, I've never met Lieutenant General Evanson."

Alai rested his head on Eros's shoulder: "I was born a disabled female insect, unable to go to the battlefield to earn military income, and unable to do any other work... Originally, my male father was going to send me to be a female servant for the male son of Kos."

Eros placed his paw on Alai's shoulder and listened quietly to what Alai had to say.

"At that time, I felt that my life as a disabled female insect was coming to an end, and I thought about dying."

"Just as I was secretly climbing onto the windowsill, preparing to jump down, my father-in-law pushed open my door and pulled me back."

He held me very tightly, as if I could turn into a wisp of smoke and fly away.

"A few days later, I heard the usually taciturn female father and male father having a big argument, and then the female father brought me here with an application form."

"It was Lieutenant General Evanson who found my adoptive father and made me the first student in the Comet Class he founded."

"He saved me."

How could I not love him?

"I dreamed of thanking Lieutenant General Evanson in person, but I never got to meet him before he died."

Alai's tears soaked Eros's shoulder.

"I will never see him again."