The Military Female Mistook Me for Her White Moonlight

This is a fictional setting unrelated to reality. Please do not draw parallels to the real world.

[Countdown to the November finale. I'm not very good at plot-driven stories, so I'm writing slowly. My apologies to everyone who's been waiting.]

The military male assigned to marry Aisari is a survivor of an undercover operation. His physical injuries and mental collapse forced him out of the power struggles and sent him from the Central Star System to a backward little planet, bringing with him an astronomical fortune.

Aisari, whose family has fallen on hard times, is uneasy. Before their meeting, he studies a hundred hours of mental comfort techniques, day and night.

He never expects the military male to kneel on one knee and pin the medals symbolizing his glory onto Aisari's lapel, one after another.

With a devout expression, he kisses Aisari's fingertips.

"Do you remember? We met before, didn't we?"

Among the insectoid race, mental collapse manifests as hallucinations, delusions, emotional instability, and unusual behavior.

But the military male is as docile as a lamb around Aisari, and every mental comfort session goes smoothly. Aisari begins to wonder whether the diagnosis is even reliable.

That is, until Xerus repeatedly says things Aisari doesn't understand:

"I've admired you ever since I was in school. I never imagined a day would come when I could stay by your side."

At last, Aisari slowly realizes that perhaps Xerus's symptoms make him mistake Aisari for another male.

It's all right. Aisari can weave lie after lie, using tenderness and intimacy to distract Xerus and put off setting him straight.

He deliberately ignores the fact that this is also the best way to treat mental collapse.

Perhaps one day, the military male will glare at him with a fierce look and spread his sharp bone wings between them.

"...You deceived me, Aisari."

The sensitive male insect has worried about countless things. This is the one thing that never happens.

Aisari realizes too late...

He and Xerus really have met before, many, many times.

Reader's note:

1. This is not a typical insectoid-race story, and it has plenty of original worldbuilding. This silly author tends to wander off toward strange topics while writing.

2. This is not typical hurt/comfort. I'm writing what I want to read.

3. After his cover was blown, the military male was tortured until his reproductive tract was damaged, but there is no sexual assault.

4. Neither protagonist is especially mature or perfect. If you don't like them, feel free to complain about the author.

5. Thank you for reading! I hope everyone finds stories they love.

Also serializing a short story about redemption: The Early-Deceased Wife of a Healing-Type Villain [GB]

Wan Sui, a psychic ability user, suffers a backlash after concentrating her power to attack a seventh-rank aberrant beast. She doesn't have long to live.

Just as she prepares to wait quietly for death, the base buys a healing-type ability user and brings him back for her.

The slender young man has a pair of timid eyes. It seems his healing ability is unusual, and he was often bullied at other bases.

Wan Sui reproaches the base for giving her more work right before she's about to die. She foresees that after her death, the young man, whose abilities are weak, will be seized by force and passed around among the leaders of several bases like an object, used for their amusement. Meanwhile, the base she built will be besieged from all sides and eventually crumble amid a tide of aberrant beasts.

All of this is because she dies too soon.

Helpless, Wan Sui does what she can in the little time she has left to help the base strengthen its defenses. She also teaches the young man, not expecting him to become an asset to the base, but at least hoping he'll be able to protect himself.

On the day she dies, Wan Sui, her consciousness fading, sees him looking distraught as he tremblingly climbs into her coffin and takes her fingertip into his mouth.

The young man's face is flushed with heat. When he glances up, he sees Wan Sui, wide-eyed with shock in her spirit form.

Wan Sui: Wait... Lan Mu, what are you doing?

Lan Mu: I'm sorry. You never used me when you were alive...

Wan Sui: You can hear me?

She starts wondering whether she's actually dead or not.

--

In the future Wan Sui never saw, there is a great villain who has endured endless hardship and become world-weary and pessimistic.

He slaughters the people who once humiliated him and collects their abilities, all in the hope of bringing his wife back to life.

Theme: Love keeps you from being alone.