Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 88: Good Luck And Bad Luck (2)

As Kenji’s tension increased, his expression grew colder. He stared at Yuka, his palms sweating, eager to hear her response.

After pondering, Yuka reasoned she didn’t have to do anything on the training planet ayway; Kenji wouldn’t scold her anyway, and staying alone in Capital Octoxis seemed dull. So she agreed, "Okay, I’ll go."

Kenji quietly relaxed his hands, replying, "Okay."

They faced each other, falling into silence again.

Yuka pointed towards the exit of the field, "Then I’ll just..."

"Wait!" Kenji blurted out.

Yuka looked at him curiously, her eyes asking if he had something more to say. But Kenji’s reaction was purely instinctive; he just didn’t want her to leave.

As the mood around was about to become awkward again, Kenji’s mind raced before he composed himself and said to Yuka, "There’s an update on the insectoid incident that first appeared in the school’s theater."

"Do you remember the forelimbs of the bugs you saw in the theater? Are they different from the parasite insectoids?" Kenji asked.

There was no need for secrecy now, so Yuka nodded, "I remember."

"That indeed wasn’t a parasite, nor was it the human bombs as claimed by the Alliance’s security department. It was the larval form of the Queen Insectoid," Kenji said seriously to Yuka.

Although Yuka already knew this, she acted surprised, covering her mouth with her hand, her beautiful eyes widening.

She leaned closer to Kenji and whispered, "Really?"

"It’s true. But one thing the security department said was correct," Kenji said as he looked into Yuka’s eyes. "This incident is indeed connected to space pirates. The student who was parasitized by the Queen had family ties with space pirates."

"The Queen’s eggs and the parasite eggs are very similar, almost indistinguishable. The parasitized student mistakenly consumed the Queen’s eggs brought by the space pirates, bringing the Queen into the school. Not only him, but quite a few families also have connections with space pirates. We’re currently investigating these families’ newly hired servants over the past five years and have found many such eggs."

Kenji continued, "In fact, right after the incident, we raided that student’s house, only to find that his family had already been killed. That’s why the investigation took so long to yield results."

"How could this happen?" Yuka frowned, then asked, "How did you find out about this?"

Kenji suddenly fell silent.

He had extracted this information from Rabies just yesterday. Rabies and his contact, Rat, had been in Capital Octoxis for several years, and they knew about most of the space pirates’ activities in the city.

Moreover, Rabies had divulged the identities of other space pirates who were hidden and scattered around, without holding anything back.

Kenji recalled how he had to pull out several of Rabies’ teeth, remove most of his fingernails, apply layers of wet paper on his face causing near suffocation, and repeatedly wake him with cold water during the interrogation to extract this information. He didn’t want Yuka to know he could resort to such cold-blooded and brutal methods. He found himself in a dilemma, maintaining silence.

Yuka, who had casually asked the question, didn’t know why Kenji was sharing such sensitive information and didn’t pay much attention to his silence.

She smoothly changed the subject, "With so many eggs from the space pirates, aren’t we in danger now?"

"The situation is under control," Kenji reassured her. "Don’t worry too much. The eggs we found are all dead and pose no threat. Even if there were any danger, the Alliance Army would handle it."

"The incident at the masked prom was an exception," he added.

"I understand. Thank you, Admiral Kuba." Yuka nodded, then waved at Kenji. "I should get going, see you."

Kenji, knowing their meeting time had ended, gave a slight smile. "See you next week."

After saying this, he quickly turned and left, not daring to look at Yuka’s reaction.

Yuka, watching his reddening ears from behind, felt like she understood something but couldn’t be certain. She bit her lip, hands in her pockets, playing uneasily with the round head of the butler, and left the training field.

The butler: ?

That afternoon, Yuka went to the underground arena as planned with Ayoi and Alex. freёnovelkiss.com

The air at the arena felt different today; everyone seemed in high spirit, even the usually foul-mouthed gamblers were smiling.

Approaching Mr. Bald’s betting place, Yuka asked, "Mr. Bald, why is everyone so happy today?"

"Ah, here you are," Mr. Bald glanced at them, then said, "You guys are really out of the loop. Such a big thing happened, and you don’t know?"

Mr. Bald, initially intending to tease them with suspense, quickly spilled the news upon seeing Yuka’s half-amused gaze. "Rabies is a space pirate! He’s been banned from the races! And his commentator Alfie lost his commentary license; even his live stream channel got shut down."

"The air in the underground arena feels so much fresher now," Mr. Bald said cheerfully. "And you know, the former first ranker, the ex-commander of the Tenth Legion, also withdrew from the race after his identity exposed. He said it was just for fun and he didn’t want to bully these youngsters. He wants to give the young ones a chance to shine."

Yuka and her friends exchanged glances, and Ayoi and Alex immediately turned to check theranking board.

Alex said, "So, does that mean the four players behind... ’Lady’ are not competing anymore?" It included a former commander, a space pirate, and Ayoi’s two brothers...

Ayoi continued to scan the board, noting the points of the sixth-ranked player. She compared them to Yuka’s nearly doubled points and then fell silent.

Ayoi and Alex suddenly realized that Yuka might not even need to join them in the team competition to stay in the first place.

Mr. Bald, noticing them checking the board, remarked, "I tell you, ’Lady’s’ luck is something else. In all my years of running this betting place, I’ve never seen someone both so lucky and unlucky at the same time."

"Her first place is pretty much secured," Mr. Bald added. "Now, let’s see if ’Lady’s’ team can win the first place in the team race. If she manages to win both the individual and team races, she’ll be the first in the history of the underground arena to achieve that... Oh, I need to open a betting pool for this!"

Hearing Mr. Bald’s words, Ayoi and Alex were suddenly filled with renewed determination.

They each grabbed one of Yuka’s arms excitedly, "Let’s go, Yuka, we’re off to the team race!"

They were resolved to help Yuka become the champion of both the individual and team races.

"Okay," Yuka agreed, her voice a mix of calm and resolve.