Chapter 218: Tianjia Prince × Mixed-Blood Military Female (5): "If You Like a Tianjia, You Would Care."

[Even when he got up the next day and dressed, the Prince was still bewildered.

His brain felt overheated and overloaded, and so did his face.

He had absolutely no idea what had happened. It was completely different from what he had imagined.

He had no energy to think about whether it had been painful, humiliating, or disgusting. The sudden loss of control had left him too flustered to care about anything else, yet somehow he hadn't resisted it that much.

Caleb had been mindful of his feelings. The way he had looked up at him from below was like placing the reins around his neck into the Prince's hands. With a single tug, the Prince could pull him back and return to the territory where he felt comfortable and safe.

The Prince had spent the entire night hesitating between pulling the reins tight and loosening them. The scorching pheromones and the female had burned his brain into a daze, leaving him incapable of making a decision.

It was terrifying.

The Prince had never experienced anything like that before. It made him feel unlike himself.

He wanted to escape.

The Prince hurriedly put on his clothes. Caleb came over to help him dress, and when the female's hand brushed against his, the Prince felt as though he'd been burned.

He raised his eyes toward Caleb. The usually silent, cold black-haired military female fastened his buttons, straightened his collar, then crouched halfway down to put on his shoes.

The moment Caleb lifted his foot, the Prince almost instinctively tried to pull it back.

Caleb looked up at him, silently seeking his permission.

Seeing that the Prince didn't refuse any further, he respectfully and meticulously put the shoe on him.

The female took care of everything.

The Prince didn't like females coming close to serve him, much less being cared for like this. He wasn't accustomed to it.

He was silent for a moment before taking the initiative to tell Caleb, "You... don't have to do these things."

A Female Lord had no obligation to take such meticulous care of his male husband.

Even a male husband with terrible self-care abilities could simply leave such things to robotic Tianjia.

He could tell that Caleb still retained the respect he had always shown him as an Imperial Prince. That was a good thing. It meant their married life probably wouldn't be too difficult.

But Caleb lowering himself like this despite being his Female Lord made the Prince uncomfortable.

It felt more like a disguise of deliberate submissiveness.

Caleb really didn't have to go this far.

They were already married. As long as Caleb didn't behave too tyrannically, the Prince could tolerate it.

Caleb stood up and remained respectfully at his side. Hearing the Prince's refusal, his gaze flickered. He looked at the Prince, with many questions he wanted to ask, but ultimately suppressed them all.

He merely responded quietly and said nothing more.

His lowered hand curled uneasily into a tight fist.

He actually wanted to ask whether the Prince had been satisfied with his service last night, but the Prince seemed to be in a hurry and apparently had no interest in giving him an evaluation.

The Prince left.

On the second day of their marriage.

...

The Prince entered the palace, shut himself inside his study, and handled government affairs, refusing to see anyone.

Even the Tianjia Emperor was turned away at the door.

His Imperial Brother seemed to be in a strange mood, so Ares didn't dare provoke him.

Ares had originally thought that since his Imperial Brother had gotten married, he should at least take a week or half a month of marriage leave. Ares had been prepared to endure the boredom and headaches and handle government affairs for a few days himself.

Instead, the Prince returned on the very next day.

The speed of his return left Ares baffled.

He suspected Caleb hadn't performed properly and had displeased the Prince.

But judging from the Prince's attitude, that didn't seem to be the case either.

Had he really come back just to work?

Ares couldn't understand it.

But seeing the Prince work so diligently made Ares feel both guilty and deeply impressed. He opened his light screen, carefully picked through various things, and bestowed a huge pile of rewards upon him.

Although all of it belonged to their own family anyway, making it somewhat like moving things from the left hand to the right, what mattered was the admiration and thought behind it.

Ares even sent over the bones, pelts, and crystal cores of cosmic beasts he'd hunted in his earlier years, feeling extremely pleased with himself.

The wedding celebrations were still ongoing.

The festivities would continue for seven days and seven nights. It was a major social event among the upper classes, and all of it was handled by the females. It actually had very little to do with the males.

Imperial gifts poured endlessly into the estate. Lieutenant General Caleb became the envy of countless Tianjia, instantly turning into the hottest rising figure in the Imperial Capital.

Anyone could see just how satisfied His Majesty the Emperor was with this marriage, how much he doted on the Prince who shared his blood, and how much trust he placed in Lieutenant General Caleb.

Lieutenant General Caleb undoubtedly had a limitless future ahead of him.

There was a minor incident during the celebrations.

A Tianjia from the political sphere used drunkenness as an excuse to privately ask Lieutenant General Caleb what color the Prince's wings were.

Caleb's expression instantly turned icy, and he beat the Tianjia half to death.

Given the Tianjia females' constitution—they could eat practically anything and were nearly immune to all poisons—what kind of alcohol could possibly make a Tianjia female lose his senses?

Claiming to be "drunk" was nothing more than an excuse.

One punch from Caleb was enough to sober that Tianjia right up.

It happened in private, and few Tianjia knew about it. The incident was quickly suppressed.

The Tianjia in question knew he was in the wrong and didn't dare make a fuss about it either.

But the matter was still reported to the Tianjia Emperor.

Ares might have been terrible at handling government affairs, but he was very good at handling garbage.

Both females deliberately concealed what had happened and suppressed the incident, but the Prince still learned about it by noon that very day.

To avoid causing any more concern, he pretended to know nothing. He finished work normally that evening and returned to the estate.

Caleb personally came to pick him up.

The Prince couldn't see anything unusual on his face. There was no dissatisfaction or resentment.

He rested his hand on Caleb's and stepped down from the aircraft. First, he went to meet the males who had been brought to the banquet by their Female Lords and attended a brief gathering among males. Afterward, he went to have dinner with Caleb.

There were only the two of them in the highly private little dining room.

The Prince sat in the seat of honor, while Caleb naturally took the secondary seat.

Whenever they encountered food that was troublesome to eat, Caleb would first ask the Prince's permission and then prepare it for him.

Everything seemed far too peaceful and tranquil.

Like the oppressive stillness before a storm.

Tianjia females cared greatly about whether a male released his wings for them during their first time together.

It represented the male's affection and fidelity.

Though the word "fidelity" was rather ridiculous in Tianjia society, where both gender and class were so imbalanced and unequal.

That night, the Prince stood before the mirror with his sleeping robe wrapped around him, waiting for Caleb to erupt.

Instead, Caleb merely lingered outside the room for a while, as though hesitating or waiting for instructions. When no order came, he finally left, looking back every few steps.

He left?

The Prince turned around in astonishment.

His spreading Psychic Power allowed him to sense that Caleb had gone to the secondary bedroom to rest.

What kind of arrangement had the male sleeping in the master bedroom while his Female Lord went to sleep in the secondary bedroom?

His Psychic Power transmitted all the information back to him. The Prince instinctively raised a hand to touch his neck.

Only then did he remember.

Caleb hadn't even put a collar on him to restrict his Psychic Power and pheromones.

During the time the Prince had been imprisoned inside the golden birdcage, he had always worn a collar. It wasn't removed until Ares ascended the throne.

Logically speaking, after his marriage, his Female Lord should also have put a collar on him—one of those collars that were exquisite and magnificent like jewelry, yet whose beautiful appearance did nothing to change their fundamental nature as instruments of imprisonment.

But Caleb hadn't done so.

Just as he hadn't forced the Prince to reveal his wings on their wedding night.

This marriage left the Prince bewildered.

So many things were completely different from what he had expected.

They didn't even match the best-case scenario he'd imagined.

He couldn't understand what Caleb was thinking.

Caleb seemed to still respect him as His Highness the Prince. That was good. It would save him a great deal of trouble.

But Caleb also seemed to not treat him as his "male husband" at all.

Perhaps they needed to talk.

The Prince thought so.

But perhaps maintaining the current situation would be better.

Change represented the unknown and instability. No one knew where it might lead.

He tightened his grip on the front of his robe, unable to make up his mind.

Marriage and feelings had always been difficult matters he didn't know how to handle.

And so he continued putting it off until the seven days of wedding celebrations ended, after which they had more opportunities to spend time together.

Though "more time" really only meant Caleb taking him to the palace, picking him up after work, sharing breakfast and dinner with him, and then separating again at night to sleep.

They had already slept in separate rooms for six days.

The Prince sat inside the aircraft, staring absently out the window.

After the wedding, Ares had slipped away again, leaving the Imperial Capital Star—or perhaps even leaving the Tianjia Empire—to meet his Male Zerg.

Calculating the time, the eggs in his belly were almost three months along.

He would soon begin to show, and since there were two eggs, it would be even more obvious.

The next time he returned, there would be no hiding it.

Not that there was any need to hide it.

Tianjia females had always been able to live extremely freely.

And Ares had the combined buffs of both class and gender stacked on top of each other.

There were many times when the Prince envied this female younger brother who shared his blood.

But if he were given a chance to choose, he would probably still choose to be male.

He liked his body, his Psychic Power, everything about himself.

What needed to change was this world, not his gender.

Besides... Caleb was heterosexual in the end, wasn't he?

There was no way he could possibly like the same sex.

If the Prince changed sex and became female, then he'd truly be finished.

Caleb sat opposite him, arranging the refreshments.

Seeing the Prince staring out the window in a daze, seemingly lost in memories or deep thought, he couldn't resist asking:

"Are you missing His Majesty the Emperor?"

"Hm?" The Prince turned back in confusion. "What?"

Missing Ares?

Now that was certainly an unusual choice of words.

As long as Ares didn't court death hard enough to actually die somewhere outside, there was no possibility of the Prince missing him.

Caleb also realized he shouldn't have asked and immediately regretted blurting it out.

But seeing the Prince looking so distracted, he truly couldn't hold himself back.

Gritting his teeth, he finally said:

"His Majesty the Emperor sometimes carries... another male's pheromones."

Although this was extremely common among upper-class Tianjia females, Caleb still felt it was unfair to the Prince.

The Prince stared at him in astonishment.

When it came to certain things, he was still extremely perceptive.

And a male whose Psychic Power wasn't restricted had always been particularly adept at sensing emotions.

Of course Ares carried a male's pheromones.

More precisely, Male Zerg pheromones.

That Male Zerg had given them to him to stabilize the eggs in his belly.

Aside from meeting once every month, the Male Zerg had also given him many doses of collected pheromones.

Once Ares started using them, to any other Tianjia who came into contact with him, it smelled as though the Tianjia Emperor was frequently indulging himself with some high-ranking male.

And yet the Tianjia Emperor hadn't married a male, and his harem remained empty.

Who exactly this male was and where he'd come from had practically become a mystery of the Imperial Court.

Among unmarried males, there were also no recent records of the Tianjia Emperor meeting or dating anyone.

That seemed to leave only married males.

During this period, the upper-class females of the Imperial Capital had been keeping an extremely close watch over their males, their nerves stretched taut and their hearts filled with fear, terrified that His Majesty might secretly have taken possession of their male husbands or Male Attendants.

The Prince wasn't surprised that Caleb had noticed the pheromones.

What was strange was the way he had brought it up now.

The Prince watched him for a while.

Caleb remained silent, his body tense, lips pressed together as he lowered his head without looking at the Prince, not daring to meet his eyes. His entire body radiated a complicated, restless agitation.

Caleb had always been quiet and secretive, burying his emotions deeply. The Prince rarely sensed such complicated and obvious emotional fluctuations from him.

He thought for a moment, then followed Caleb's line of thought and said:

"Yes. Because His Majesty is pregnant and needs... a male's pheromones."

Caleb abruptly raised his eyes and stared at him in astonishment.

Thinking back to the last time he'd sparred with the Tianjia Emperor, he really had sensed that His Majesty's body felt slightly heavier than before.

But what concerned Caleb most was the Prince's attitude toward it.

"Then you... you don't care?" he asked.

Females needed pheromones during pregnancy, and pheromones from the eggs' biological male father were somewhat more effective.

However, most upper-class females didn't care much about that. As long as they received enough pheromones, it was fine. If the effectiveness wasn't sufficient, increasing the quantity could compensate for it. Either way, there wasn't much difference in the final result.

But there were also a small number of more traditional females who cared about such things. They would accept only the biological father's °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° pheromones and allow only the biological father to incubate the eggs.

Instead, it was the Prince who found Caleb's question confusing.

"Why should I care?"

If this were another species or another country, perhaps he would have needed to worry that Ares's children might threaten his inheritance rights after birth and push him farther down the line of succession.

But this was Tianjia.

They could discuss that once males actually had inheritance rights.

"Because..."

Caleb didn't know how to explain it either.

In Tianjia, it was completely normal for a female with abundant resources to possess multiple males.

Males often had no choice at all.

When survival itself was at stake, expecting males to care about such things seemed almost laughable.

But...

"If you like a Tianjia, you would care," Caleb said quietly.

The Prince stared at him in astonishment for a long moment.

His suspicious, bewildered gaze traveled to the empty space above Caleb's head, then returned to his face.

After hesitating, he asked:

"Is it because I didn't show you my wings? Did that make you think..."

The Prince's expression became strange, and he couldn't finish the sentence.

If he'd known this would happen, then that night he should simply have taken off his sleeping robe and let the female touch his back.

...]