Chapter 425: The Light In His Eyes
"Do you think I’m stupid?" Ethan continued, "Do you think I’d make something that could do anything to a human body? That would be my own skin too, wouldn’t it?"
Keres tilted her head, looking at him from top to bottom. "Your skin?"
"My skin."
"Oh, your glorious human skin," he said dryly. "Is your human skin that precious, beautiful, and rare to risk even a single accidental mutation?"
Keres laughed and then suddenly asked, "Tell me something, Ethan. Honestly. We’ve worked together long enough."
Ethan didn’t answer and looked at Keres.
"Why don’t you just convert already?"
Keres asked softly, teasing and tempting even.
"You cooperate with us. You take our master’s orders. You even heal us and upgrade us in that ugly little safehouse of yours from time to time."
"So why?" Keres asked, confused, "Why cling to the skin if you’ve already given up the soul?"
For a moment, Ethan’s expression did not change.
And then the light behind his eyes suddenly went out.
He might’ve looked like someone who just passed out standing for no reason. He looked normal and just needed to be awakened again.
But to Keres, Ethan stood suspiciously still.
So, he took a step back.
"Ethan?" Keres said, flailing his hands in front of Ethan’s face.
Then, he repeated even louder this time, "Ethan."
Nothing.
No reactions whatsoever.
Keres had no choice but to use this last resort. He grabbed both of Ethan’s shoulders and gripped tightly.
The pain didn’t even wake Ethan up for a second. Not even when Helena’s nail dug a little too hard through Ethan’s skin, letting him bleed a little.
So, Keres proceeded to shake Ethan as hard as he could. He didn’t stop even when Ethan’s body did not respond for a long time, making him tired.
Ethan’s head tipped to one side, like a doll whose neck joint had been given a love-tap.
"Ethan—" Keres shouted, hearing a little crack on Ethan’s neck.
Finally, he came back.
The light in his eyes came back as fast as it had disappeared earlier.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, lips tightened in displeasure. He even stretched his neck, feeling a little pain.
Feeling Keres’s hands holding him ’for no reason’, Ethan jerked his arms, checking for his injuries.
"What are you doing? Why are you holding me for? Are you out of your mind?" Ethan angrily said, "Even though you’re using a human female body and you’re a female zerg, it’s fundamentally different. You’re closer to a human male than a female! You can’t just touch me."
"Like I want to touch you either!" Keres complained, indignant but wary.
Secretly muttering in complaint, "You like male omegas anyway, how different was that to us female zerg, we bore eggs too."
When Ethan saw the blood dripping from the wounds on his arms, he scowled, scolding Keres with his eyes.
Keres secretly observed Ethan’s reactions.
Based on his attitude, Ethan didn’t seem to remember what had happened earlier.
Keres became curious. He let his hand drop, very slowly, putting both of them on the back.
"I was asking you a question," he said, carefully, cautiously observing Ethan’s reactions. "Why haven’t you converted, if you’re working with us anyway?"
Ethan was about to open his mouth to answer.
And the light in his eyes went out again.
This time, Keres was sure.
It happened because he asked Ethan something about converting into a zerg.
Keres looked at Ethan, standing still, like frozen in time. But he didn’t wake him up this time. He just looked at him, scanning from top to bottom.
Interesting.
But even if Keres did not reach out and do anything, the light in Ethan’s eyes came back a minute later.
Ethan blinked, oblivious and wary of why Keres was looking at him so intently.
"What?" he asked with dawning irritation. "What are you staring at me for?"
Just like before, it seemed that a few minutes of seconds before the question was asked disappeared from his memory.
This time, Keres did not repeat the question.
Ethan looked at her, waiting for Keres to say something. But there was nothing. So, he frowned and exercised his patience.
"Anyway, how much dose of that liquid did you give Salia again?" he asked, changing the topic.
"Not much. Just a little." Keres’s vague reply irritated Ethan.
Still, Ethan patiently asked, "How much exactly?"
Keres seemingly snapping back to reality, "Oh, oh, just a shot of glass of it. Give or take."
Ethan fell into deep contemplation and muttered, "It really wouldn’t take that long."
Keres couldn’t care less because his mind was somewhere else, but he still had to talk with Ethan.
"Well, Salia wasn’t exactly going to have an easy time overthrowing a crazy host." He said.
Ethan smirked and commented, "But yours didn’t take much of a fight, you said?"
Keres was smug but acted humble, saying, "I had good luck. She was pretty much damaged when I took over her body. She was probably still recovering inside, thinking that she was in a coma or something."
Then Keres turned his gaze to Ethan and asked, "What are you going to do now?"
Ethan said with a murderous glint in his eyes, "Find a way to kill Grayson, as planned."
Keres shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well then, I wish you luck with that. You know I will not be able to help you with that, right? I’m under strict orders."
Ethan looked at Keres, narrowing his eyes. "If he couldn’t survive this, there’s no need for him to be alive. I’m sure the master will understand."
"Suit yourself."
"Anyway," Ethan said, turning his back, "I should get going before someone notices you missing and ends up catching us here, together."
He looked at Keres one last time over the shoulder and asked, "You have everything you need?"
"Yes," Keres said a little too quietly, deep in his thoughts.
When he saw Ethan raise an eyebrow at him, he quickly said with his usual grin. "Yes, I have everything I need. Go on and save your little damsel in distress."
Ethan threw one last scowl before quickly disappearing into the shadows of the corridors.
