Chapter 202: The Stranded Male Zerg × The Heavenly Garuda Emperor (End): Willing to Be a Pair of Birds Taking Turns Incubating Eggs

[The Tianjia Emperor... double eggs?! He really got pregnant?!!]

[He actually got pregnant with odds that low, after just that one time...]

[Be precise. It was one week. A one-week courtship period.]

[That's still not long! With ranks involved, and a rank difference on top of that, it should take at least a few decades or a century to make sense!]

[No! I'm genuinely jealous of this!]

[How could you let a Tianjia sneak into His Excellency's room? (angry) Where's Claire? What are you doing?! Hurry up and kick the door down! I'll count one, two, three, and you kick! Three three three three three!!!]

[No way, His Excellency is still inside, isn't he? How could you kick down His Excellency's door? That's far too disrespectful.]

[There's no time to worry about that in an emergency. Right now, a Tianjia criminal has broken into His Excellency's room and taken him hostage! For His Excellency's safety, extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. We can apologize to His Excellency afterward.]

[The Tianjia went through all these twists and turns just because the Tianjia Emperor wanted Lord Carl's pheromones, right? Despicable, as expected!]

[No, this really is happening. The Tianjia Empire really is conducting an exchange and cooperation program on Psychic Soothing with us. And the one in charge of this operation just happens to be Major General Claire.]

[?!!]

[My entire family is shocked. Sure enough, when a Zerg lives long enough, he'll eventually see everything.]

[I'm actually starting to worry about the Lords' safety. How about... @Claire, Major General, could you go kick down every door and take a look? Ah, no, knock on every door. Just do it for me (crying).]

[The Major General is on a mission. He's using a military terminal, so he can't see private messages.]

...

[When it was time for the shift change, Claire handed things over to his deputy captain and went to rest first.

After all, they were aboard a Tianjia starship and responsible for the safety of so many Lords. His nerves had been stretched taut the entire time, and he didn't dare relax.

He opened his terminal and contacted Xi'an, who was aboard another Zerg starship.

Xi'an had come along this time as well, accompanying the group of Male Zergs.

Of the ten Male Zergs participating in the exchange, every other Military Region had sent one Male Zerg, while the Ninth Military Region had sent two.

As the commander-in-chief, Claire was protecting five Male Zerg Lords who had boarded the Tianjia starship.

Xi'an, meanwhile, was on the other side, personally protecting the remaining Male Zergs.

Claire asked Xi'an whether anything unexpected had happened.

Xi'an said everything was normal. Those Tianjia really did seem to have come purely for the Psychic Soothing exchange. Even the Tianjia military females assigned as guards were behaving themselves and hadn't tried anything underhanded. Their commander was the same, properly carrying out his duties.

It was so normal that it seemed abnormal instead.

But Claire couldn't think of what could possibly go wrong under these circumstances.

Inside an opulently decorated, palace-style room.

Carl sank into the soft mattress, kissed until he could barely breathe.

The Tianjia above him greedily demanded his pheromones.

Just now, Carl had used his Psychic Power to investigate and discovered two embryos inside the Tianjia Emperor's gestational sac, two hatchlings that had yet to take shape.

With odds that low, they had actually managed to hit the jackpot.

It had already been a month since their last separation.

According to the minimum pheromone requirements of a pregnant female, a Male Zerg had to irrigate the pregnant female with pheromones once every month.

Ares was pregnant with double eggs, so his needs were even greater.

He had probably truly been starving this past month and had suffered terribly.

Even while being pressed into the mattress, Carl was still making excuses for the Tianjia on top of him.

He didn't refuse his demands for the pheromones in his mouth, nor did he refuse him anywhere else.

Carl carefully suppressed his voice, afraid the Zergs outside would discover them.

The soft bed, padded with more than ten layers of mattresses, did an excellent job of reducing the sounds of movement, but the faint sounds of limbs rubbing against soft fabric were still clearly audible. Against Carl's ear, pressed close to the mattress, those sounds were magnified many times over and became exceptionally obvious.

And yet the Tianjia above him had no intention of restraining himself.

Considering that Ares was a pregnant female, and also afraid that fighting would make even more noise, Carl didn't dare fight him for the dominant position. He could only be pushed down into the mattress again and again while listening to the sounds of friction.

Looking at the Tianjia above him who was deliberately provoking him, Carl gritted his teeth in fury.

Damn it. From now on, he was sleeping on a hard bed. He hated soft beds!

They didn't stop until they had messed around for the entire night. Pregnant females had high requirements, and Carl didn't know exactly how high they were or how many pheromones it would take to satisfy him, so he simply let Ares keep taking what he wanted.

It was only when they were genuinely running out of time that Carl finally pressed him down and made him stop, laid him flat, and quickly rushed to give him his pheromones.

Carl got up to clean everything. He used a pheromone collector to clear the pheromones out of the room, then went into the bathroom to wash up and clean himself.

By the time he changed clothes and came out of the bathroom, Ares was still sprawled lazily on the bed, looking thoroughly satisfied after indulging himself, with a trace of sleepiness about him.

When a body that had been empty for so long was suddenly nourished with pheromones, drowsiness was inevitable, leaving one so comfortable that all they wanted was to sink into a deep sleep.

Carl saw that Ares could barely keep his eyes open, yet his attention remained fixed on him, following his movements.

For a moment, Carl didn't know what to do with him. He walked over and tucked the blanket around him.

Logically, he should make Ares leave immediately, but there really wasn't much he could do under the current circumstances.

He might as well let him stay here. The Zergs probably wouldn't enter the inner bedroom to inspect it anyway.

"Get some proper rest. Find a chance to leave after you wake up. I'll tell them not to enter the room," Carl said.

Suddenly giving such an instruction would seem strange, but Male Zergs had the privilege of being willful.

All he had to do was say he was a clean freak and didn't like other Zergs entering his room or touching his belongings, and the military females standing guard wouldn't go against him.

"Mm." Ares responded quietly. Now that the Male Zerg had said that, he had no intention of leaving anymore.

The Male Zerg's body was completely clean, smelling fresh and refreshing, with every trace of pheromones washed away.

The secret-rendezvous, illicit-affair-like feeling last night had been very thrilling, but when Ares smelled first thing in the morning that Carl had washed away all of his pheromones, he still felt somewhat displeased.

It was just like their relationship, which couldn't be brought into the light.

It wasn't time yet.

They still couldn't stand together openly.

But one day, they would.

...]

Ulysses looked at the update and considered whether he should have Claire go "offer his regards" to the Tianjia Emperor.

In the end, however, he abandoned this immature idea.

He didn't mind playing the villain, but God would surely know everything he did.

The Tianjia Emperor Ares had no intention of taking the Male Zerg away. Therefore, for the sake of his image in God's heart, Ulysses could turn a blind eye to this.

...

[Carl returned after finishing today's exchange and discussion session. Seeing Ares still inside the room, he was somewhat surprised, but not particularly surprised.

He knew this Tianjia wouldn't obediently listen and leave.

"Have you eaten?" Carl asked. As he spoke, he took a box from his spatial button. "I brought some pastries."

Ares looked at what he was holding.

They were Tianjia pastries, taken directly from the restaurant aboard the Tianjia starship. Obviously, Carl had deliberately brought them back for him.

A smile entered Ares's eyes. He followed Carl over to the sofa and sat down, eating the exquisite desserts prepared aboard the ship for males and Male Zergs, even though he didn't particularly like them.

Carl propped his chin on his hand and watched him. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Shouldn't a pregnant female be eating special meals for pregnant females?"

He still hadn't fully processed the fact that Ares was pregnant. All he really remembered was that Ares had squeezed pheromones out of him for an entire night.

Ares raised his eyes and looked at the bewildered Male Zerg who had only just become a novice male parent. After swallowing the pastry in his mouth, he said:

"Don't worry. I won't lack nutrition. If there's really anything I'm lacking, it's only that thing of yours."

As Ares spoke, his gaze drifted downward toward the Male Zerg's lower body across from him.

Carl angrily pulled his clothes closed and stood up, the tips of his ears burning.

This Tianjia had become more and more unrestrained and shameless after getting pregnant!

But when Carl thought about how Ares might have acted like this because he'd been starving from a lack of pheromones for an entire month, he couldn't bring himself to stay angry.

Strictly speaking, he'd been deprived of pheromones for more than a month.

Before that, because of his courtship period, he'd constantly suffered from a lack of Male Zerg pheromones. He'd finally gotten his fill once and successfully made it through the courtship period, only to become pregnant and need Male Zerg pheromones all over again.

Ares really had it pretty miserable.

Thinking about all this, Carl felt a little pity and guilt, and perhaps even heartache.

He was Ares's Male Zerg. He was the male parent of the eggs inside Ares's gestational sac, yet he couldn't remain at his side and provide him with a stable supply of pheromones.

Ares might often have to endure days like these, suffering from pheromone deprivation.

Just thinking about it made Carl feel distressed and irritable.

Ares had assumed the Male Zerg would become embarrassed and angry and throw a fit. Instead, after Carl stood up and pulled his clothes closed, nothing else happened.

"?"

Since when had the Male Zerg become so good-tempered?

Ares reached out and pulled him closer. He studied Carl's expressionless face in confusion and asked quietly:

"What's wrong? Have you switched to sulking now?"

"I'm not angry."

Carl looked at Ares, then at his stomach, his expression still somewhat grave.

"I can't provide you with pheromones consistently."

After all, they lived in two different places and couldn't see each other often.

Ares might frequently have to endure this kind of pheromone deprivation.

The thought alone made Carl feel awful and restless.

"It doesn't matter. Leave those things for me to arrange."

Ares held Carl's hand and said, "Just like this time, I'll find ways for us to meet. You can go on living your life normally. Maybe one day, you'll simply raise your eyes and see me standing there."

Ares made it sound easy, but actually carrying it out would inevitably involve all kinds of difficulties.

Carl knew perfectly well how difficult it would be.

After thinking for a moment, he still said, "I found some pheromone collection tubes. I'll collect {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} more pheromones for you to take back. And that method you Tianjia have for storing Psychic Power... I'm trying to do that too. Both the eggs and the pregnant female need the Male Zerg's Psychic Power to soothe them. I'll store some Psychic Power too, and you can keep it with you."

Ares stared at him in astonishment for a long time.

Pheromones were one thing, but Psychic Power... very few males would ever think that far.

He gazed at Carl with complicated emotions in his eyes and said:

"Do you know? Among the Tianjia, only a male who deeply loves his Female Lord would voluntarily do those things."

So that was why.

Carl hadn't heard about this method of separating and storing Psychic Power before.

So it wasn't something widely used.

He sighed inwardly, only afterward realizing the meaning behind what Ares had just said.

Love.

"I'm only... only doing it for the eggs. I have to take responsibility for the hatchlings."

Carl shrugged, shook off Ares's arm around him, and gave a soft snort before saying with some displeasure:

"And what's this about a 'Female Lord'? Don't think you can take advantage of me through titles. I don't acknowledge that."

Those words should have hurt a Tianjia deeply, yet Ares adored this bright, dazzling side of him.

He kissed him on the lips.

It was a little regrettable that he couldn't hear Carl call him "Female Lord," but as long as Carl was happy, that was enough. There were many things more important than titles.

For example, the fact that they were together right now.

"I'll work hard so that one day, we can be together openly," Ares said, holding the Male Zerg's hand.

"Mm. I believe that day will come."

In truth, Carl had believed in him for a long time already.

Otherwise, he would have repeatedly emphasized the issue of who the eggs belonged to ever since they reunited.

Of course, if things ultimately didn't work out, then the eggs he was supposed to care for would still have to be taken back to the Zergs for him to raise.

But there were two eggs. Could he really incubate both?

Carl began worrying about it in advance.

The Zergs didn't actually have a tradition of Male Zergs incubating eggs.

Usually, they were left to the female Zerg or placed in an incubator.

If the female Zerg stayed home, he incubated them himself. When he went to work, he put them in a temperature-controlled incubator.

Zerg eggs didn't require particularly strict temperatures to hatch in the first place.

Incubation was more like a form of emotional bonding between adults and hatchlings.

The Tianjia did have a tradition of males incubating eggs.

Their hatchlings would be hybrids of Zerg and Tianjia.

Carl was also willing to respect the child-rearing traditions inherited from the hatchlings' other bloodline.

"When you lay the eggs, I'll incubate them," Carl said.

"All right."

Ares agreed with a smile. He was also worried that a little Male Zerg like Carl wouldn't be able to handle two eggs alone, so he said:

"We'll take turns incubating them."

Carl stared at him speechlessly.

It sounded like some species of bird that took turns guarding the nest and incubating its eggs.

But if it was Ares... Carl was willing to be a pair of birds with him, taking turns incubating their eggs and guarding their little nest and eggs together.

Even though they still didn't have a "nest" of their own.

If he absolutely had to name one, that cave probably counted.

Thinking back on it now, it really did fit the concept of a nest rather well.

The two of them living together inside that cave had also looked very much like a pair of mates.

A wild Zerg and a wild Tianjia mate.

They had actually formed their bond long ago.

Looking back now, what he'd once thought was merely being stranded on a desolate planet had actually been the beginning of their fate together.

(End)]

After writing the final paragraph and marking the story complete, An Ruo added the same sentence as always:

"The novel ends here, but their story continues."