“Do you have anything to say?”

  Inside the interrogation room at the 9th Fleet Base of the Tahi Imperial Navy, Juliana sat across from Director of Intelligence Adetch, separated by an iron table. On the table, a lamp cast a sickly, weak yellow light directly into the Director's face; he was bound tightly to the interrogation chair.

  Sam stood in the corner of the room behind Juliana, silently watching Adetch and observing the proceedings.

  After arresting the Director of Intelligence, Juliana had brought him straight to the 9th Fleet base, a place she trusted to be secure.

  “I know the Princess is very angry about the recent incident, but I am innocent.”

  Adetch spoke in the lowest voice possible, just loud enough for Juliana to hear.

  “Nonsense!”

  Juliana slammed the table with such force that both the Director and Sam, standing behind her, jumped.

  “Not a single shred of intelligence was forwarded to the fleet before the attack occurred. Thousands of fighters bombarded the fleet simultaneously; thousands of soldiers fell. Tell me, where exactly is your innocence in that?”

  Adetch remained silent, staring down at the tabletop.

  “Look up and answer me, you bastard!”

  Juliana’s voice rasped with suppressed rage; she had suddenly become terrifying. Adetch slowly raised his head, peering into the darkness in front of him where he knew Juliana sat.

  “I am innocent!” Adetch said slowly, with extreme deliberation, as if challenging her.

  “Sea God!”

  Juliana looked at Adetch and called the name softly. Standing in the corner, Sam heard her call him and knew exactly what he had to do.

  Sam took light, measured steps toward Adetch, like a cat stalking a mouse that was bound hand and foot, waiting for death.

  “Princess! I am a General of the Empire; you cannot treat me like this. I am innocent! I demand to see the Queen!”

  Adetch sensed the approaching danger. His heart hammered and his body trembled, but he tried to regain his composure. After all, he was a General; he could not collapse or appear cowardly.

  “I am a General! You cannot let this piece of trash touch me!”

  As Sam stepped out of the shadows, Adetch lost his cool. Before the General stood a human—a low, inferior species, fit only for pig feed. Yet now, this human stood before him, preparing to interrogate a powerful General of the Tahi Imperial War Institute. It was a monumental insult.

  “You damn human! Get away! Do you know who I am? Get out!”

  Adetch became agitated, his pride as a General trampled. He was facing a human from a position of weakness, and he could not accept it.

  “It would be best if you told us everything you know,” Juliana said gently.

  “I… I am innocent!” Adetch screamed.

  “What a pity,” Juliana sighed, turning to walk out of the room.

  “Princess! You… you can’t do this to me!”

  His plea was answered only by the sound of the door closing. Inside the room, only Sam and the pig-General remained. Adetch’s body shook as he strained his eyes toward the door, hoping someone would come to save him. But no one would.

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  Sam approached the General. The man was large and sturdy in his military uniform, but he looked pathetic facing the human.

  “You damn human! You… get away… don't touch me… you animal!”

  Sam remained silent. Images of the people hanging in the galley of the Fury made his blood begin to boil. The memory of the trainer grabbing him made him shudder. The image of himself looking down at that trainer lying in the mud, yet not daring to strike, made Sam feel like he was about to explode.

  The pig before him was a vessel—a place where he could vent all the suppressed hatred and resentment he had carried until now.

  “Master is agitated. Shall I calibrate?”

  “No! Leave it. I want to enjoy this,” Sam commanded.

  Sam’s hand reached out. Adetch struggled violently. Sam grabbed the Director by the throat and slowly squeezed. The pig let out a squeal, his long snout hanging open to reveal jagged, sharp teeth.

  “You animal!” Adetch continued to curse.

  Sam only grew more exhilarated, his grip tightening. A sense of dominance flooded his senses.

  “You… you can’t do this to me!” the Director tried to howl. For an inferior species to torture a noble and powerful pig-General caused Adetch’s self-esteem to crumble.

  Slap!

  Sam swung his hand, delivering a powerful blow to the Director's face. He felt his hand sting; the skin of this pig species was truly thick and tough.

  The slap drove Adetch into a frenzy. He thrashed wildly, but he was bolted to an iron chair welded to the floor.

  For the pig species, a slap to the face—especially the snout—was a profound humiliation. Adetch had just been struck on the nose, but the pain of the blow was eclipsed by the fact that a human had dealt it. The agony and shame were magnified ten-fold. Sam knew this; he had read it in the books in the Princess’s quarters.

  “You animal… you… you can’t… do this to me!” Despite being throttled, Adetch managed to cry out.

  Slap… slap… slap!

  A barrage of strikes followed, aimed squarely at Adetch’s face. The Director twitched and flopped but remained pinned to the chair. He was utterly hopeless.

  “Augment my strength!” Sam practically roared at the AI.

  Ade did not reply; the artificial intelligence silently increased its master’s physical power as he succumbed to bloodlust.

  Sam’s hand turned bright red and began to swell, but he felt no pain—only the exhilarating thrill of a victor.

  He was beating a pig, and a high-ranking one at that—something Sam had never thought possible. Everything bottled up inside him erupted like a volcano that had stored energy far beyond its limit.

  In the room, Adetch’s face was now swollen from the beating. He was in agony and shrouded in shame. A noble pig-General was being repeatedly insulted by a lowly human slapping his face. If word of this ever got out, his prestige would be vanished forever.

  Half an hour passed. Sam’s hand was swollen, and sweat poured off him as he panted from exhaustion.

  “You bitch! I will… not forgive… any of you! We will hang you… from the palace gates… Your mother, you, and your human…”

  Adetch wheezed. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth; his mind was dizzy and his face was puffed up like a hornet’s nest. Several teeth were loose, ready to fall out.

  “We?” Sam asked, catching his breath.

  “Yes… we… the ones who will save Tahi… from the filth that… damn Queen created… No… your master will never sit on the throne of the Tahi Empire… Never!”

  Sam fell silent. Were the things Adetch was saying in his dazed, concussed state the reason the 9th Fleet had been attacked?

  “So, you didn't report the attack because you wanted the Princess to die?” Sam leaned into Adetch’s ear and asked through gritted teeth.

  “That’s right… that bitch with the animal blood must die. She cannot become Queen…” Adetch muttered in his delirium, unable to tell reality from dreams.

  “You… you… just spoke to me?” Adetch suddenly regained a flash of lucidity. He remembered, and asked with a tremor.

  Sam looked at him and smirked.

  “No! How… how could I? I'm just a human…”

  “I am a human… but not the kind of human you know!”

  Sam stared intensely at Adetch, making the General flinch as if struck by lightning. A human who could converse and possessed the intellect of a pig! Adetch had never seen such a thing.

  Throughout history, even humans who could speak only reached the level of basic servitude; their logic and intelligence were supposedly inferior. The human standing before Adetch was something beyond the pig species' understanding.

  “No! I… I don't believe it!”

  “You’ve confessed to everything,” Sam said, letting go of Adetch and walking toward the door.

  “This… this is impossible!”

  Sam knocked a few times on the cell door. It opened, and Juliana stepped in slowly, her expression unreadable behind her mask. She walked toward Adetch, the rhythmic clicking of her boots on the floor sounding like a clock ticking down his final moments.

  “Glory to the Mother! Glory to Tahi!”

  Adetch suddenly burst into a loud laugh and screamed. Juliana paused for a beat, looking at the Director. He looked back at her and said slowly:

  “I curse the filthy blood flowing inside you. I will be there to witness the day you are hanged.”

  With that, he let out a sharp cry, his eyes rolling back. Adetch shrieked, spat something onto the ground, and then his eyes glazed over as his head slumped to the side.

  Juliana looked down at the pool of blood he had just spat out. Lying within it was a fresh tongue. She stood there, trembling, looking at Adetch. He was no longer breathing.

  Standing behind her, Sam watched Juliana’s back. He knew that a storm was gathering…