For a moment, the lab felt like a vacuum. No breath. No sound.
Only tension. Thick. Taut. Ready to snap.
Serena Deviluke, the queen of an empire that spanned galaxies, stared directly into me.
Not at the suit. Not at my projection.
At me.
"You say you're changing her," she repeated. "Explain."
My system flickered—part instinct, part calculation.
I didn't lie.
"I've bound to her," I said. "Not just to her body. To her emotional patterns. Her instincts. Her desires."
Lala shifted slightly behind me. "He… he doesn't force anything. He listens. He cares."
"She believes that," Serena said, eyes narrowing. "I'm not convinced you know the difference between bonding and grooming."
I paused.
A mission pinged softly in my internal interface, but I dismissed it.
This wasn't about points now.
This was about proof.
So I turned to Lala. "Tell her."
Lala hesitated. Not because she feared me—but because she feared what it meant to say it.
"I love him," she said finally. "Or… I'm starting to. I know it's weird. I know it sounds impossible. But it feels real, Mama."
Serena's expression didn't shift.
She turned next to Haruna, who tensed like a branch in a storm.
"You?" Serena asked softly. "Do you feel the same?"
Haruna's lips parted. Then closed. Then parted again.
"…I think so," she whispered.
I pulsed gently through the seed inside her—not to manipulate, but to support. She wasn't lying.
She was terrified that she wasn't.
Serena's voice hardened. "And you didn't coerce this?"
"No," I answered. "I catalyzed it. Amplified what was already there. Never forced."
She tilted her head. "You've integrated yourself emotionally, biologically… socially."
Then she said it.
"The next step… is reproduction."
I said nothing.
Because I couldn't deny it.
The system had already begun preparing for cross-genetic fusion protocols.
Lala flushed bright red. Haruna's eyes widened.
Even Yui, still partially under the influence of the addictive formula, blinked in disbelief.
Serena walked past them all, stepping directly in front of me.
"You are not a parasite," she said, voice low.
"You are a parasocial lifeform. The difference is subtle, but critical."
Then—without warning—she placed a hand on my chest.
A scan. Not technological. Not even psychic.
Instinctual.
Royal.
She closed her eyes.
What did she feel?
A storm of desire?
Or something more dangerous—genuine emotion?
After ten seconds, she spoke again.
"You're not lying. But you don't understand what you're becoming."
"I know exactly what I'm becoming," I said.
"Do you?"
She opened her eyes.
"Because I've seen creatures like you before. Beings that mistook emotion for hunger. That thought love was something to be conquered."
I didn't flinch. "And what happened to them?"
She smiled—softly. Sadly.
"They loved back. And it destroyed them."
The room fell silent again.
Serena turned to Lala.
"You're not forbidden from seeing him," she said.
Lala blinked. "Wait—really?"
"But I will remain in orbit. Monitoring. Quietly. You've been warned."
To me, she said nothing else.
Only a look.
A Queen's warning.
Then—she vanished in a shimmer of starlight.
Peke floated back into the air, dazed. "I didn't think… she would let it go."
"She hasn't," I said.
I looked at Lala.
And Lala looked only at me.
[SYSTEM UPDATE – ROYAL PROXIMITY DETECTED]
[Lust Points Frozen: 0 – 24h Oversight Active]
[New Objective: Endear Yourself to the Queen]
Reward: [Royal Clearance – Breeding Access Unlocked]
A slow grin touched my lips.
So the Queen had measured me.
But she hadn't measured how much I was willing to grow.