Chapter 206: Are You and the Marshal Together?: The Cunning Ulysses, Holding the Bed Hostage to Command the Duck

That bed of his—the bed Ulysses had taken away the first time he came for Psychic Soothing—he had actually kept it?!

An Ruo was shocked.

He had assumed Ulysses would dispose of the bed, throw it away, burn it, or simply have it broken down as garbage. But judging from what he had just said, he had actually kept the bed in his residence.

What was he trying to do?

Was he planning to clean it and return it?

But he did not look like he had any intention of returning it. Instead, he seemed to want to lure An Ruo over there too.

The cunning Ulysses, holding the bed hostage to command the duck.

“All right, I’ll consider it,” An Ruo finally said.

For someone with social anxiety, “I’ll consider it” was generally just an excuse to deal with the situation for the moment. Maybe the other person would forget about it later.

But if Ulysses really invited him someday, An Ruo thought... he would probably go with him, regardless of whether his bed was there.

That answer made Ulysses very happy.

If he had not known that An Ruo disliked going out too frequently, he would have wanted to take him away again tonight.

In the end, he could only restrain his reluctance and say goodbye.

An Ruo, on the other hand, did not feel particularly reluctant to part. It was very convenient for Ulysses to come see him. He could simply take a spatial passage, basically the equivalent of an elevator going directly to his floor.

As for now, it was time for him to work.

It was almost time, and An Ruo could not be bothered to change clothes again, so he went to perform Psychic Soothing without putting on his uniform.

Uriel was waiting outside. When he saw An Ruo, he froze slightly and looked him over a few more times before politely greeting him. Even on the way to the treatment room, his gaze kept drifting toward An Ruo.

Feeling guilty, An Ruo asked, “Is there something wrong with what I’m wearing?”

Uriel realized that his attention had been too obvious and hurriedly straightened his gaze. “Not at all. You may wear whatever you like.”

The prison had never been particularly strict about what male Zergs wore in the first place.

Besides, the entire Military Region Prison now operated around this Lord alone, with his wishes taking priority over everything else.

Never mind something as trivial as not wearing his uniform. Even if he wanted the entire prison to play cosplay with him, that would not be a problem.

Since there was nothing wrong with his clothes, An Ruo could not understand why Uriel kept staring at him.

Uriel hesitated for a while before finally asking, “Are you and the Marshal... together now?”

Strictly speaking, he probably should have used the word “reconciled,” but for some reason, Uriel did not want to phrase it that way.

Perhaps the difference between before and after the trial was simply too great, and the Lord he knew was the one standing before him now.

This Lord frequently carried traces of the Marshal’s pheromones on him, but today seemed somewhat different.

Combined with the fact that the Marshal had taken him away last night and he had not returned all night, plus the intense female Zerg pheromones clinging to him now, Uriel guessed that they had spent a rather enjoyable night together.

An Ruo was stunned.

How had he figured that out?

He and Ulysses had never acted intimately in front of other Zergs.

The few times Ulysses had kissed him had all happened in private, and the surveillance cameras in his cell had been removed long ago.

How had Uriel discovered it?

An Ruo, who had always been rather insensitive to pheromones, was utterly astonished. He looked at Uriel with awe, as though the female Zerg beside him were some kind of great detective Sherlock Holmes.

Eventually, he answered vaguely, “I guess... you could say that...”

There had not been any formal confession, nor had either of them declared that from now on one was the other’s boyfriend—or female Zerg friend? But things had already become this ambiguous between them.

Many of the things Ulysses did for him were things only a female Zerg actively courting a male Zerg would do, and An Ruo had accepted them.

An Ruo himself could not quite explain what their relationship was now, but at the very least, it was special.

Uriel understood.

Under circumstances like these, perhaps he should say “Congratulations” and “May you have eggs soon,” but those were generally things said to female Zergs.

Uriel did not know what he was supposed to say to a male Zerg.

In the end, Uriel could only say, “If there is anything you need me to accommodate, please feel free to ask. Whether it is adjusting your working hours, arranging leave, expanding or renovating your rooms, or anything else.”

An Ruo stared at him, dumbfounded.

Surely none of that would be necessary?

What would he need his working hours adjusted for? Dates?

Hmm... the Marshal was extremely busy with military affairs and his schedule was unpredictable. Maybe that one really could come in handy.

He did not need leave for now. With Ulysses’ spatial ability, traveling back and forth was easy enough that he could return in time.

As for expanding and renovating his rooms... ???

Was Uriel suggesting that Ulysses move in too?

No matter how you looked at it, having the Marshal live in a prison was hardly appropriate, right? Spending one night there temporarily was another matter.

His room was already very large and more than sufficient. There was enough space even if Ulysses stayed overnight.

Uriel saw what he was thinking and explained that the rooms needed by a Zerg living alone and those needed by a male and female Zerg living together were different. At the very least, they needed two bathrooms, and preferably two beds as well, with a master bedroom and a secondary bedroom. Even if they slept together, this could save them the trouble of cleaning up during the night.

Besides, this entire floor belonged to him. The only distinction was between the parts he was using and the parts he was not. If he needed them, they could furnish dozens more rooms.

An Ruo only half understood, but when he remembered Ulysses’ habit of taking away his bed the moment it became covered in his pheromone scent, he agreed anyway.

Having an entire floor to himself sounded outrageous.

But when he remembered that this floor had originally been the prison’s residential area for male Zergs, it made sense.

He was now the only “male Zerg” Psychic Soothing specialist in the entire prison.

For the sake of the “male Zerg’s” safety, even though the other areas had already been vacated, there was no possibility of arranging for other Zergs to move in.

Thinking back on it now, An Ruo realized that until all the male Zergs had moved away, he had never actually seen any of the prison’s other male Zergs.

At first, that was because he was a homebody, while every male Zerg lived in a different area with some distance between them. Besides, the male Zergs who ended up in prison were all criminals. There might have been some truly vicious and dangerous individuals among them. He had been afraid and had not wanted to interact with them, especially because he feared encountering the legendary phenomenon of prison bullying.

But no male Zerg had ever taken the initiative to visit his area either, which was somewhat strange.

The prison did not impose particularly strict restrictions on male Zergs. They were free to take walks and visit each other, yet not a single Zerg had ever come to his area.

Later, An Ruo thought about it.

Oh.

He had been sentenced to 999 years, probably the longest prison sentence in history.

In the eyes of the other male Zergs, he was the most “vicious and dangerous” one of them all.

The male Zergs had been afraid that he would bully them.

Case solved.

The answer was somewhat embarrassing.

But unexpectedly, it had preserved both his safety and his peace and quiet.

...

Uriel submitted the blueprints, and after An Ruo gave his approval, his residence was expanded and renovated once again.

The original dining room, bedroom, and study remained unchanged, but another bedroom was added, along with a large bathroom with a bathtub, a walk-in closet, a living room, a reception room, a recreation lounge...

The place suddenly became much larger.

The blueprints Uriel originally submitted had even included a “nursery,” frightening An Ruo so badly that he hurriedly deleted it.

Raising a hatchling in prison—what kind of genius came up with that idea?

Never mind that he and Ulysses had not progressed that far yet. Even if they really did, An Ruo did not think they would have a hatchling.

Giving birth to a hatchling in prison made its future seem bleak just thinking about it.

That would be far too terrifying for the hatchling.

Better give the nursery to Enzo.

Although he would not be living in prison much longer either.

Axel should be hatching soon too, right?

An Ruo thought absentmindedly.

Meanwhile, Ulysses received the news and looked over the final design.

The nursery had been removed.

That was not particularly unexpected.

But it had been given to Enzo...

Tsk. Rooms in the prison were tight enough that even Cyril had only been given a single room when he came to stay, yet Enzo wanted special treatment?

It was also inappropriate for a sickly male egg to hatch inside a prison.

Ulysses gave Enzo an order to make preparations early, move out, and prepare in advance for the male egg’s hatching. Someone else would come to replace him afterward.

Enzo had not expected the Marshal to care so much about his egg.

One moment, the male Lord had been planning to arrange a nursery for him on the male Zerg floor, leaving him deeply grateful, and the next, the Marshal had simply given him leave.

There was still almost half a month until the scheduled rotation date, and the Seventh Legion remained responsible for guarding the prison.

Ulysses was busy with official duties and could not stay at the prison all day to protect it.

The S-rank female Zerg Iso, who was currently on leave, caught his attention.

Forced to choose between the nursery and Iso, Ulysses held his nose and transferred Iso over.

An Ruo still knew nothing about all these changes at the prison.

He was in his study preparing his new book.

What should he write next?

Several ideas were floating around in his mind, and for the moment, he did not know which one he should start writing.

He opened StarNet to search for reference materials. As he browsed, he ended up coming across news about Ulysses.

Ulysses was currently promoting an exchange in Psychic Soothing between the Zergs and the Tianjia. If it succeeded, it would become a major political achievement for him apart from his military accomplishments.

An Ruo got a few ideas and casually saved several handsome pictures of Ulysses.

Then he came across some edited videos of Ulysses, and astonishingly, some of them even included An Ruo himself.

He could not resist watching.

There had only been that tiny amount of footage from the Legion Ceremony, yet Zerg netizens had somehow managed to creatively edit it into countless different videos.

Most of them were CP edits.

Even passages An Ruo had written in his novels had been clipped and inserted into the videos.

Of course, the scene used most frequently was still the one on the second-floor balcony of the bookstore.

He had appeared before the Zergs and greeted the readers below, after which Ulysses had stepped in front of him and spread open his military cloak to shield him from view.

It had clearly been nothing more than the Marshal kindly helping someone with social anxiety out of an uncomfortable situation, yet after the Zerg netizens were done editing it, Ulysses looked overwhelmingly possessive. Under the dark filter, his gaze was directed toward the “love rival” beyond the screen, carrying a faint murderous aura.

An Ruo was so embarrassed that his toes practically curled into the floor, yet at the same time, he thought Ulysses looked extremely handsome under this filter. There was something about him that resembled the darkened version of Ulysses from the later parts of the original novel.

After watching for a while, An Ruo actually started shipping it a little himself.

He secretly liked and saved the video, then continued scrolling through the ones below.

Besides edits focused on their looks and sweet romance, there was also the tragic-romance genre most popular among the Zergs.

An Ruo could not understand how Zerg netizens could invent an entire tragic romance drama from such a tiny amount of footage.

In one, Ulysses imprisoned him. In another, An Ruo escaped from a ball. There were even plots where An Ruo loved him but could never have him, or Ulysses loved An Ruo but could never have him, and they tortured each other endlessly.

The one thing they all had in common was that they were extremely violent and horny.

What did the Zergs do when there was no real footage of that sort?

They made their own models and drew it themselves.

An Ruo was profoundly shocked. He pulled the Ulysses plushie into his arms and kneaded it, soothing his frightened little heart.