Chapter 295: What If An Had Been the One Who Married Ulysses (1): He Is Ulysses’ Male Lord—Past, Present, and Future

[January 14. I finally found a way to calm down and focus on writing—applications!

Ulysses and I agreed that while I’m writing my new book, if he wants to sleep with me or go on a date, he has to submit an application in advance. That way, I can arrange my time beforehand, and it won’t interfere with my writing progress.

Of course, once the book is finished, there’s no need for any of that. He can come find me whenever he wants. All my time belongs to him.

Clever me.]

[January 15. Ulysses submitted three applications in one day.]

[January 16. Same as above.]

[January 17. He even added another one!]

[Once again, even my lunch break wasn’t spared... How hard on the Marshal, having to squeeze time out of his impossibly busy schedule just to sleep with me. Isn’t this schedule a little too packed? A true master of time management.

Come to think of it, should I set an upper limit? But Ulysses seems to have already started preparing for pregnancy. I can’t discourage him.]

......

[January... Huh? Why is it suddenly September 10???

Did I transmigrate again?

I must be dreaming. No matter how little attention I paid to the passage of time, it shouldn’t have jumped straight to after the wedding, right? The wedding is in February. Ulysses and I chose the date together, but I have absolutely no memory of attending the wedding!

I checked my terminal notifications. The marriage registration is scheduled for noon today, and I’m being asked to submit my documents. Good news: I didn’t miss the wedding. Bad news: this timeline is still wrong... Didn’t Ulysses and I register our marriage ages ago? Why do we have to register again?]

While writing his diary with Psychic Power, An Ruo checked his terminal and discovered that the name on his personal information page was wrong.

Why did it say “Annor”?

Hadn’t he put away this terminal account and stopped using it a long time ago?

His notification bar even showed a StarNet notification he had just received, stating that his marriage registration with General Ulysses was scheduled for noon today. The registration would be conducted through StarNet, so neither party needed to appear in person, but he still needed to manually submit his personal information.

It was indeed a marriage to Ulysses, but... General Ulysses?

An Ruo immediately realized something was wrong. Just the day before, Ulysses had still been the Marshal. There was no way he could suddenly become a General. Who got promoted backward?

Either he was dreaming, or...

An Ruo looked at the name on his personal terminal and decided to change it first.

Regardless of whether his guess was correct, he had no intention of registering his marriage to Ulysses under that name.

......

First Military Region.

It was only when General Ulysses saw the reminder on his terminal that he remembered today was the day of his marriage registration.

He spent a minute filling out the information, submitted it, and the application entered the review process.

He glanced at the progress while he was at it and discovered that the Male Zerg had yet to fill out his side.

He soon stopped paying attention to it.

If a Female Zerg and Male Zerg were genuinely in love, then even if they did not register their marriage offline, they would at least meet each other, stay in the same room while filling out their information together, and take a photo to upload.

None of that had anything to do with Ulysses. His marriage had nothing to do with love. It was merely a coincidence.

It just so happened that being a married Female Zerg would help him cultivate his public image and gain support from public opinion.

It just so happened that after harassing one of his personal guards, that Male Zerg had come and proposed marriage to him.

Calling it harassment was putting it mildly. The Male Zerg had drugged a Female Zerg’s drink, summoned a group of friends, prepared recording equipment, and, judging from the cruel implements and elaborate preparations found at the scene, if Ulysses had not sent someone in time to rescue him, that military Female Zerg from an ordinary background would have been subjected to endless torment and had his reputation completely destroyed.

But even with conclusive evidence, simply because they had not gotten to the final step, simply because the perpetrator was a Male Zerg with some family background, the incident had ultimately been classified as nothing more than “harassment.”

The Male Zerg received a negligible fine and a perfunctory warning, and that was the end of it.

Not even a month had passed, yet the other party already dared to continue attending banquets and seeking pleasure. He had even stumbled across Ulysses and, taking advantage of his drunkenness, confessed his love to him.

Perhaps he thought Ulysses had no idea what he had done.

Or perhaps he believed it did not matter even if Ulysses knew.

Male Zergs always possessed extraordinary confidence.

Ulysses had left immediately, without even the slightest interest in giving him another glance.

Yet two days later, Ulysses contacted him of his own accord and agreed to establish a marital relationship with him.

He needed a marriage to cultivate an approachable public image. This was precisely where Cyril, another candidate for the position of the next Marshal, had a tremendous advantage over him.

But that approachable image did not necessarily have to come from a loving marriage...

Since every Male Zerg he could see was rotten anyway.

He might as well choose the worst one.

Ulysses had his own plans.

Seeing that the other party still had not submitted his information on the progress screen, Ulysses felt somewhat puzzled, but he did not pay much attention to it.

He continued dealing with the military affairs in his hands, with no intention of returning home.

A house without family in it, no matter how large, was merely a house. It could not really be called a home.

Ulysses actually spent more time at the Military Region Prison than he did at that house.

It was only because he was getting married that the house was finally going to be put to use.

According to the usual division of assets for a Female Lord within a marriage, half of Ulysses’ assets now belonged to that Male Zerg, including the house.

Ulysses did not care about assets that existed merely as numbers on paper. But when he saw that the other party still had not submitted his information and thought of this matter, a thought flashed through his mind: could the Male Zerg possibly think 50% wasn’t enough?

His appetite was far too large. So greedy that he wasn’t even afraid of choking himself to death.

Ulysses thought coldly.

At ten minutes before midnight, just as the application was about to expire and become invalid, the other party finally submitted his information.

Still at the Military Region, Ulysses glanced at it without paying much attention.

Using his heavy military workload as an excuse, he spent the first night of his marriage in the military.

It was not until the next day that he checked his private terminal again.

It was completely empty.

The Male Zerg had not come looking for him, nor had he sent any messages urging him to come back. That surprised Ulysses somewhat.

After thinking for a moment, Ulysses ultimately decided to go back.

He could not completely stop returning to that “home” after getting married. It would give others something to criticize.

Calculating based on the usual waking time of Male Zergs, Ulysses arrived home at noon.

The sunlight outside was pleasant, while the villa was utterly silent.

Ulysses had originally assumed the Male Zerg was still asleep. He was just about to head upstairs to the study to retrieve a few things when he vaguely sensed something and abruptly turned his head toward the sofa in the first-floor living room.

Someone was sitting there.

A Male Zerg.

His hair was like moonlight, his features picturesque, so beautiful that he hardly seemed real.

The Male Zerg was browsing a light screen while eating snacks, a cup of hot tea still held in his hand. Tea and refreshments were arranged on the table before him, and he looked so relaxed that it was as though this were his own home.

Ulysses had entered without making a sound and was skilled at concealing his presence, so the Male Zerg did not notice him at first.

But the moment Ulysses’ gaze fell upon him, the Male Zerg seemed to sense it and raised his eyes.

Sensitive to being watched. Powerful Psychic Power.

Ulysses instinctively made the assessment in his mind. Just as he was considering what attitude he should adopt toward this Male Zerg, the other’s eyes suddenly lit up, revealing an expression of surprise and completely undisguised joy.

The Male Zerg hurriedly put down his teacup, closed his light screen, and walked quickly toward him.

Yet just as he was about to reach Ulysses, he abruptly stopped as though he had suddenly remembered something. An extremely conflicted and complicated expression appeared on his {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} face. He seemed to want to approach, yet did not know what attitude he should take toward Ulysses.

Ulysses faced a similar dilemma, though he was considerably more wary.

He looked at the beautiful Male Zerg before him, politely inclined his head, and said,

“Hello. Are you... his friend?”

Ulysses could not bring himself to say that form of address, and even directly saying the name seemed strange, so he simply substituted it with “him.”

Under these circumstances, anyone should have known whom that “him” referred to. Yet the Male Zerg tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

But he quickly gave Ulysses a shy smile and introduced himself.

“Hello, my name is An Ruo. I’m—I’m your... Male Lord.”

When he said the final two words, the Male Zerg’s voice lowered along with his head, a faint blush spreading across his face.

Ulysses stared at that breathtaking flush of color, his pupils contracting slightly at the words the Male Zerg had spoken.

But he quickly recovered, his expression darkening.

“Your Excellency, please don’t make jokes like that.”

His voice became cold and courteous, and his form of address shifted to the much more distant and respectful “Your Excellency.”

Never mind that this was not that Male Zerg at all—their appearances and temperaments were worlds apart, and even their names were different.

Ulysses took this as some game played by the Male Zerg, its purpose no more than to toy with and ridicule him.

And Ulysses had no intention of participating.

Especially not with this Male Zerg.

The shyness and affection he displayed, so convincingly feigned that they seemed real, made Ulysses impatient, stirring an irritation from the depths of his heart.

He should not have been so easily affected.

He was already married.

There could be nothing between him and this Male Zerg.

A joke about being his “Male Lord” seemed particularly ironic at a time like this.

An Ruo realized Ulysses disliked him.

He was so stunned and flustered that he had no idea what to do with himself, nor did he know how he was supposed to explain.

Everything he had said was true.

The moment he opened his eyes, he had found himself here, faced with the prospect of marrying Ulysses. He had waited and waited, but Ulysses never came back. With the deadline rapidly approaching, he could only submit his information first.

By now, the application had passed review.

Their marriage was already a fact, protected by law.

He really was Ulysses’ Male Lord.

His Male Lord now, and his Male Lord in the future.

Whether now or in the future, they had proof of their marriage.

They had marriage certificates!

Two sets of them!

At that thought, An Ruo’s eyes lit up as an idea occurred to him, and he immediately said,

“I really am your Male Lord, the... ‘Zerg’ who married you. If you don’t believe me, look at the registration information page.”

As he spoke, he opened his terminal and showed Ulysses his personal information page.

Under the Female Lord field, Ulysses’ name was displayed prominently.

Tapping it even brought up Ulysses’ detailed information, including his military position and rank as “General of the First Military Region.”

Ulysses’ pupils abruptly contracted.

That really was his information page. There was no reason for the Male Zerg to fabricate something like this merely to deceive him.

But... how?

Frowning, Ulysses opened his own terminal information page to compare them.

And discovered that after the title “Male Lord,” the name displayed was indeed “An Ruo.”

Ulysses fell silent.

No matter how little attention he had paid to anything concerning that Male Zerg, he still knew that this name did not match.

But why?

Could the Federal Marriage Bureau make a mistake like this?

“See? I told you I wasn’t wrong, didn’t I?”

With his hands clasped behind his back, An Ruo leaned over to look, pleased to see his own name beside Ulysses’.

At the same time, he was glad he had changed his name in advance. He had no desire to see some other Zerg’s name sitting next to Ulysses’.

He felt no sympathy whatsoever for scum and had no psychological burden about doing something like this.

Especially when Ulysses was involved.

He wished he could stomp on that scumbag’s head a few more times, make him disappear completely, and ensure he would never appear before Ulysses again.

Ulysses could not understand where this Male Zerg’s delight was coming from.

He tapped the Male Zerg’s name and saw his detailed personal information.

Including his former name.

Ulysses: “......”

An Ruo’s expression stiffened. He hurriedly reached out to cover it so Ulysses could not see, desperately arguing,

“That’s not important!”

Sooner or later, he would find a way to delete that former name!

An Ruo secretly swore to himself.

He wondered if changing his name again and then changing it back might somehow make the former name disappear through this almost buff-stacking method.

Ulysses had no idea what childish nonsense the Male Zerg was thinking about. He looked at the information on the light screen, then examined the Male Zerg before him, unable to come up with any reasonable explanation.

Surely that Male Zerg couldn’t have originally been an A-rank—or perhaps even higher-ranking—Male Zerg who had deliberately disguised his identity and appearance just to approach Ulysses and amuse himself at his expense?

Ulysses instinctively did not believe the Male Zerg before him was such a Zerg.

Perhaps because the other’s presence seemed far too harmless.

But as soon as the thought occurred to him, Ulysses found it ridiculous.

He actually thought a Male Zerg was harmless?

How could any Male Zerg possibly be harmless?

He had never imagined that one day he, too, would become the kind of Zerg who judged others by their appearance.

This Male Zerg was simply better at pretending.

His methods were simply more sophisticated. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Ulysses thought coldly, his silver eyes utterly devoid of emotion, completely unmoved.