Chapter 61: Do you like my gift?

As he spoke, he held the drink and gazed at it for a long time, as if fascinated by its colour.

The first prince leaned on the doorframe, not rushing him, only smiling. "Isn’t it beautiful? Do you like my gift?"

Lorcan smiled. "Of course I love it. Brother always knows what I want."

In the original story, the Third Prince wanted Oisín for his beauty but also feared his strength. While he tormented him, he worried that Oisín might suddenly strike back and hold a knife to his throat. Having this tool would be perfect.

Lorcan accepted it, but Tadhg showed no sign of leaving. He just smiled. "Aren’t you going to try it?"

Lorcan smiled back. "Of course I will."

He waved to a servant and said excitedly, "Call Major General Oisín over."

That was also part of the story.

The prince’s estate had many small guest rooms for resting, each with a big bed, soft bedding, and everything a guest might need.

Lorcan opened the bottle in front of the first prince, poured the liquid into a glass, and swirled it with interest. Tadhg gave a meaningful smile and shut the door behind him. "Tell me how it works."

Lorcan nodded with a smile. He had just sat down at the table when 016 suddenly warned him. "At six o’clock, above the painted glass vase, there’s a pinhole camera."

Lorcan glanced sideways and saw a lens the size of a grain of rice in the glass pattern, faintly shining with cold light.

He turned a little, pretending to play with an ornament on the table, so that it blocked half of the camera’s view. He ordered, "Bring in what I prepared."

Servants filed in.

*

Ten minutes later, Oisín followed a servant up the stairs.

He took a sapphire brooch from his chest and offered it to the servant with a smile. "Did His Highness say why he called me here?"

The banquet was nearly over. After being kicked down, Colm had behaved much better and no longer dared to look at Oisín improperly. Everything was calm, and then a servant suddenly summoned him upstairs.

The ground floor was the banquet hall, and the second floor was guest rooms.

The servant silently refused the jewel and said only, "His Highness didn’t say why."

After a moment, he lowered his eyes and added quietly, "The first prince has just left."

The Collins Family and the first prince had long-standing grudges, well known all over the capital planet.

Oisín paused, then smiled. "Thank you for telling me."

He smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. His brows were slightly drawn together and his face was as cold as a frozen mountain. But when the door opened and he saw the Third Prince’s delicate face, his expression changed at once. He bowed politely, his eyes full of deep affection, and said with a smile, "Good evening, my prince."

"Good evening, Oisín."

Lorcan pulled out a chair and nodded. "Come over. I have a new bottle of wine and I’d like you to try it."

Oisín: "It’s an honour to share this fine wine with Your Highness."

He sat down at the table. His blue eyes swept smilingly over the drink things on the table, but when he saw the liquid in Lorcan’s hand, his expression froze and his face went pale.

He knew the colour of that drink.

He had seen it in the 23rd District’s warehouses, in the black-market cabinets, and in the blood of his screaming Third Army comrades.

The cherry-pink liquid swirled into a clear glass, and Lorcan slid it toward Oisín, fully aware of the pinhole camera. "Try it."

"..."

If torture and humiliation were like sinking into quicksand, then drinking this would drop him into an endless pit.

Long before he shared the Third Prince’s bed, Oisín had thought of this possibility. That was why, at their first meeting, he had saved the gloves and coat soaked in pheromones and ordered Cathal to analyse and copy them.

But copying a high-ranking male’s pheromones wasn’t easy. They had even turned to black-market methods, which had terrible side effects. The serum would wreck the body within two years, until even getting out of bed was a struggle. Many Third Army comrades had died from it.

Still, they had made almost no progress.

Lorcan nudged the glass closer, silently pressing him.

Before, Oisín might have weighed his choices and drunk it. But the Third Prince’s strange behaviour gave him hope. He thought, What if I plead softly...

What if I plead softly? Would the Third Prince give way? Could I avoid this?

He pressed his lips together, forced a faint smile, and asked softly, "Why would Your Highness want to use something like this?"

Oisín rose and leaned close to Lorcan. His fingers touched the metal buttons of his uniform and casually undid the top two, baring his slim neck and collarbone. His pale skin prickled with goosebumps in the cool air.

He sat beside Lorcan, with his skin within easy reach of the Third Prince. With just a stretch of his hand, Lorcan could slide into the gaps of the uniform and touch whatever he liked.

"Things like that are so dull. Is Oisín not obedient enough?"

Oisín’s blue eyes were fixed on him, with an unmistakable sadness deep inside. "Your Highness, if I am obedient enough, could I be spared this cup?"

Lorcan’s thumb twitched on the glass as the pressure grew.

The drink was fake, because he had switched it. But even so, faced with Oisín’s pleading eyes, Lorcan couldn’t bring himself to tell him to drink.

The Major General was truly distressed and truly afraid.

This was part of the original plot, and the lines were from the original text. The novel described it like this: "From the camera feed, one could clearly see Oisín drinking the cherry-pink liquid. He squeezed his eyes shut, and his throat trembled in agony, as if he were swallowing not wine but burning lava."

"When the cup was empty, two drops of liquid rolled down his throat. His silver hair was already damp with sweat. He staggered as he pushed the cup away, dropped to his knees, and silently retched."

The original hero’s actions were cruel and shameful. Lorcan had felt deeply uneasy reading it, and now, having to act it out in person, he wished he could simply grab Oisín and leave, throw the drink in the first prince’s face, call him an idiot, and storm off.

But he couldn’t.

Lorcan had been here only two months, but he had already sensed the hidden currents under Zerg society. Oisín was clearly being framed, and as a major general of the nation, he could only cut his losses to survive.

Lorcan was still under the Admiral’s protection and hadn’t faced much hardship. But with a little thought, he knew that a prince’s position was the eye of the storm. One wrong step could lead to disaster, and if his character broke too badly, the Admiral would be the first to come after him.

At this moment, going off the plot wouldn’t help Oisín. It would push them both into a corner.

Lorcan glanced at the script and said coldly, "Drink it."

"..."

The light in Oisín’s eyes slowly faded. He silently formed a mocking smile, not knowing whether it was meant for Lorcan or for himself. The smile grew wider and wider until Oisín had to lower his head to hide it.

In the heavy silence, he seemed to finally accept his fate, and he reached for the cherry-pink liquid. His fingertips trembled and made the glass shake too. But halfway there, his hand was caught.

With his back to the camera, Lorcan mouthed, "Don’t worry, it’s fine."

He sighed, trying to stay in character. "Don’t be afraid. I went too far. It was only a joke."

Before Oisín could react, Lorcan finished speaking, picked up the glass, and took a sip himself. Then, while Oisín stared in shock, he pulled him close and kissed him hard. From the camera’s angle, it looked as if he were forcing Oisín to swallow the liquid.

The cherry-pink liquid spilled from where their lips met and ran down their throats. Most of it was swallowed by Lorcan, and Oisín tasted only a faint trace on his tongue.

It was sweet, with just a hint of alcohol.

It was white peach sweet wine, coloured pink.

The scent of citrus pheromones quietly filled the air and wrapped around Oisín. His throat trembled silently, and cold sweat appeared on his forehead. Then Lorcan pressed his shoulders to signal him to kneel and fake a retch. At the same time, in a spot hidden from the camera, Lorcan gently stroked Oisín’s trembling back and kept repeating softly, "Don’t be afraid."

When he had finished all the actions the novel required, Lorcan pulled the general into his arms. He was a little smaller than Oisín, but the pose fitted together oddly well. Lorcan ran his hand along Oisín’s back, as if calming a restless big animal. The metal badge on Oisín’s chest pressed uncomfortably against him, but Lorcan didn’t let go.

Lorcan whispered, "Don’t worry. I never meant to make you drink that stuff."

Oisín shut his eyes tightly and breathed hard for a long time before he finally opened them. His gaze swept over one spot, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

He had spotted the tiny camera, the size of a grain of rice, hidden behind the glass screen, shining faintly with cold light.