Chapter 300: What If An Had Been the One Who Married Ulysses (6): His Appearance Out of Nowhere Seemed to Be... Just to Marry Him

After their relationship became physical, they kept sleeping together and were almost never apart.

Originally, without being summoned by the Male Lord to serve him, a Female Zerg had no right to enter the master bedroom. But every night when it was time to return to their rooms, the male Zerg would look at him with those beautiful eyes, as though extending an invitation, and Ulysses couldn't refuse.

Once, the male Zerg even hugged his arm while laughing and chatting with him, unconsciously following Ulysses into his room. After noticing that the furnishings were different, the male Zerg merely showed a little surprise. He had no intention of leaving and simply slept in Ulysses's room.

Every day, Ulysses told himself that this couldn't continue. Once a Female Zerg was completely marked by a male Zerg, there would be no possibility of breaking free.

But he couldn't find a suitable reason to refuse.

As a Female Lord, he couldn't refuse his Male Lord's reasonable requests for intimacy.

The male Zerg was merely sleeping with him in their bedroom at home. It wasn't as though he were taking Ulysses somewhere that would damage his dignity, nor was he using any highly damaging toys on him.

He didn't even... sleep with him every day.

Sometimes, when the male Zerg noticed that Ulysses was too tense and stiff, he would merely soothe him, talk and chat with him, and in the end they would simply lie under the same blanket and sleep.

Being treated this way instead left Ulysses at a loss.

Logically, he should have been happy that he didn't have to serve the male Zerg.

But that wasn't how he actually felt. Instead, his mood became exceptionally heavy and complicated.

A Male Lord being unwilling to take his Female Zerg was ultimately not a good thing for a married Female Zerg.

Ulysses knew perfectly well that a stiff and boring Female Zerg couldn't attract a male Zerg's interest.

In his spare time, he began trying to watch courses on how Female Zergs should serve male Zergs.

They were courses he had completely given up on taking as electives while at school, yet now, for reasons like these, he was voluntarily making up for them. There was something almost ironic about it.

The instructional content often made him frown. He frequently had to turn off the light screen several times to calm himself before he could continue watching.

Even then, there were certain things in the lessons that he simply couldn't accept. He had to imagine the face of the male Zerg at home before he could barely manage to keep watching.

The first time he used some of what he'd learned in front of the male Zerg, the male Zerg was startled into freezing like a machine before cautiously asking whether he had hurt Ulysses too badly.

Ulysses fell silent for a while and quietly shut his mouth.

Apparently, his ability to learn in this area really wasn't very good.

The lessons had clearly said that male Zergs liked hearing Female Zergs say such things while being thoroughly taken, but when Ulysses forced himself through the embarrassment and actually did it, he only seemed to diminish the male Zerg's interest.

Ulysses pressed his lips together and refused to make sounds carelessly anymore.

Afterward, however, An Ruo realized what Ulysses had been trying to do.

It was an awkward attempt to please him.

An Ruo took the initiative to teach him.

"You don't need to say those things. If you want to say something, you can call me 'Male Lord,' or you can call my name, 'An.'"

A name was the shortest incantation, yet it was enough to bind a Zerg for a lifetime.

With every repetition of that name, his heart was unknowingly filled to the brim until it was completely occupied.

Ulysses tried calling his name.

The short name rolled across the tip of his tongue, and when it finally fell from his lips, it somehow carried a hint of pleading.

He prayed that this beautiful dream could last a little longer.

The kiss the male Zerg placed at the corner of his eye was like a flower drifting gently down on a spring day, landing perfectly upon his face.

Everything was so beautiful that it seemed like a dream.

Every night before they went to sleep, An would perform Psychic Soothing for him.

Ulysses's rank wasn't the publicly known SS-rank. His Psychic Domain was far more vast and chaotic than any Zerg imagined.

He didn't want An to enter it.

He was afraid An would become lost inside his Psychic Domain, and he was also afraid that his own violent energy would hurt him.

At that moment, the first thing Ulysses thought about wasn't even the possibility of his true rank being exposed.

He was worried about this male Zerg.

Worried about An.

But An was very insistent.

And very skilled.

He easily broke through Ulysses's psychic barrier and entered.

To directly enter an SSS-rank Psychic Domain so effortlessly...

Ulysses didn't know whether it was because of his trust in An or because An himself possessed extraordinarily powerful Psychic Force.

Whichever the reason, Ulysses didn't know how to face it.

On one side was his own trust in An and the complete absence of defenses against him.

On the other was a top-ranking male Zerg who had never been officially registered...

An's rank was absolutely not the A-rank Ulysses had previously guessed.

He was above even super-A, entering the ranks that began with S—a top-ranking male Zerg the Zerg race hadn't seen in thousands of years.

For such a male Zerg to appear beside him and become his Male Lord looked, from any perspective, as though there had to be deliberate manipulation and some enormous conspiracy behind it.

Yet no matter how hard Ulysses searched, he couldn't find the slightest clue.

It wasn't that he hadn't investigated.

He had.

But he found nothing.

His appearance out of nowhere seemed to be... just to marry him.

Ulysses had long since passed the age of dreaming.

Besides, even a little hatchling wouldn't believe a fairy-tale dream like this.

He continued going to Military Headquarters every day.

And every day, he came home.

He could feel the male Zerg's influence over him deepening continuously, like a funeral bell on the verge of tolling for him.

But he could no longer turn back.

...

Ulysses wasn't a Zerg who became discouraged easily, and he was very good at learning from failure.

The same applied to learning how to please a male Zerg.

After the previous experience of mechanically applying what he'd learned and frightening the male Zerg, he began selectively using the material from his lessons, revealing only a little at appropriate moments and combining different things as needed.

With this more critical approach to learning and application, the male Zerg became much more receptive.

Although he would still sometimes look surprised, he didn't resist. Occasionally, he would even curiously explore things together with Ulysses.

Besides that, Ulysses diligently studied everything the male Zerg taught him as well.

From calling him "Male Lord" and saying his name in bed, to more advanced things like kissing and embracing, Ulysses learned them all very quickly.

The only thing he remained stuck on was openly revealing his own thoughts and desires.

Ulysses couldn't be completely honest.

His thoughts ran too deep. Too many things had accumulated inside him, and he wasn't sufficiently confident in the male Zerg's feelings toward him. He worried that behaving too boldly would lower the male Zerg's opinion of him.

But he still tried to reveal some things.

Just a small portion.

For example, asking the male Zerg to do it one more time after they finished.

Or, when the male Zerg hadn't summoned him to serve, taking the initiative to go to the male Zerg's room, knock on the door, and ask whether he could stay the night.

These requests were usually granted.

And every morning when he left home for Military Headquarters, he would tentatively ask the male Zerg whether he could have a goodbye kiss.

He had learned that from the male Zerg's book.

The male Zerg was happy to indulge him.

Before Ulysses went out, the male Zerg would usually tie a scarf around his neck and prepare an umbrella for him. Even on bright, sunny days, he would straighten Ulysses's collar and clothes.

It was almost like a farewell ritual.

And after Ulysses began taking the initiative to ask for a kiss, that ritual gained one more step.

A kiss.

He began giving the male Zerg gifts.

Some were gifts that male Zergs in general liked, while others were things he personally thought An would enjoy.

When a Female Lord married, half his assets would be divided with the male Zerg, but that didn't mean there would be no further expenses after marriage.

For a Female Zerg to maintain a male Zerg's favor required an enormous, long-term investment.

Marriage was merely the beginning.

Ulysses understood this very well and was never stingy when it came to spending money.

He gave An rare and precious books.

He gave him the newest models of aircraft and terminals, an entire set in every color.

He gave him jewelry, accessories, and clothes.

He gave him floating islands, mechanical planets...

When An finished serializing a novel, Ulysses would even specially order a cake and bring it home as a surprise, celebrating with him.

When An mentioned that he hadn't gotten to eat the barbecue he liked, Ulysses went looking for it.

He found every relevant recipe, roughly filtered them according to An's tastes, and then had all the top chefs prepare them.

Over the next several days, those dishes would quietly appear on An's dining table one after another until An showed that he liked one.

There were many, many similar things.

Some gifts expressed his feelings through money.

Others expressed his feelings through thoughtfulness.

He neglected neither.

If he truly pursued a male Zerg, he would use every means available to him.

Like a sponge, he absorbed every piece of knowledge he could find, explored An's preferences, and did everything within his power to do his best.

A male Zerg's feelings often didn't last long.

But Ulysses hoped that through his own efforts, he could make this one last a little longer.

He didn't dare hope for forever.

He only hoped for a little longer.

And then a little longer still.

...

Three months had passed since they got married.

Ulysses stood in the first-floor living room, looking at the painting on the wall of a Female Zerg and a male Zerg standing side by side, his thoughts briefly going blank.

Only when he looked back on everything that had happened during this period did he realize just how far he had already strayed from his original plan.

Logically, even if he couldn't follow the plan he'd originally formulated, he should at least have used the media to create the image of a sweet and happy marriage, improving his public appeal and gaining more support from public opinion.

But he hadn't done anything.

Not only had he done nothing, he had intentionally or unintentionally concealed the male Zerg's existence.

Aside from the Zergs close to him who knew or suspected that he was already married, the outside public knew nothing.

Everything had completely deviated from his original intentions.

Yet he had done it instinctively.

Because he instinctively resisted using his male Zerg for a political performance.

Because he had possessed too few beautiful things and lost far too much.

Now that he had finally obtained a little happiness, his instinct was to hide it away and let no other Zerg know.

It was as though the moment Zergs outside learned about it, everything he possessed would be taken away.

He would lose it.

He would once again be left with nothing.

Even though everything about this male Zerg was unusual, Ulysses still wanted to keep him.

He was already Ulysses's only family.

His female parent was still in the Military Region Prison, without a single moment of lucidity, devoid of awareness and incapable of communication.

According to Zerg medicine, this was already considered "death."

It was only for humanitarian reasons, as well as according to the family's wishes and Federation law, that Zergs in such a state continued to be kept and restrained in prison until their energy was exhausted and their physical bodies completely perished.

So this male Zerg was the only family Ulysses had who was still normal and conscious.

At some point without realizing it, he seemed to have accepted the male Zerg as "family."

His consciousness seemed to have split into two parts.

The part called "reason" floated high above, watching him fall into the abyss.

At first, "reason" would still try to persuade him, laying out the advantages and disadvantages, analyzing everything and attempting to save him.

But by now, it had been a long time since Ulysses had heard "reason's" voice.

It no longer tried to persuade him.

It merely watched coldly.

Watched him fall.

Watched the two of them fall together.

...

After finishing his new novel, the male Zerg no longer spent long stretches of time in the study.

When Ulysses returned, An Ruo was sitting on the living room sofa, browsing a light screen and searching for something.

Ulysses walked over and familiarly called, "Male Lord."

"Mm-hmm."

An Ruo responded while pulling him down to sit and rest, telling him to have some of the fruit and refreshments he'd prepared. Yet his gaze remained glued to the light screen without moving away.

That was very unusual.

Ulysses wanted to know what could possibly be captivating the male Zerg's attention so completely.

The male Zerg usually stayed at home and rarely went out. He wasn't in the habit of enabling privacy mode on his terminal's light screen, so if Ulysses wanted to look, he could easily see what was displayed.

But that would, after all, carry the suspicion of snooping on the male Zerg's privacy.

Ulysses hesitated.

An Ruo was still scrolling through the First Military Region Prison's public recruitment notices, only to discover that they didn't recruit Psychic Soothing specialists from outside at all.

He had waited for several months without seeing any related recruitment announcement, and now he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

The current First Military Region was defended as tightly as an iron barrel and simply didn't accept outside male Zergs. Their only source of Psychic Soothing specialists was male Zergs serving sentences for crimes.

Surely he couldn't commit a crime first just so he could get into prison and work as a Psychic Soothing specialist.

Wouldn't that be completely putting the cart before the horse?

Besides, he was a law-abiding citizen!

An Ruo sighed in distress.

It had never been this difficult to get into a Military Region Prison in the previous worlds.

Especially in that dream world with the orphanage. As long as he wanted something, the world would automatically fill in the necessary setting for him.

Why was it so difficult here?

While An Ruo was worrying, he suddenly remembered something.

Wasn't Ulysses the current General of the First Military Region?

His mind instantly cleared.

He felt as though he'd spent the past several months trapped in a dead end for absolutely no reason.

Why bother waiting for the Military Region Prison to issue a recruitment notice?

He could go straight to the BOSS!

Mm...

Although that phrase sounded a little hellish in this context, it was still a possible solution.

But asking to use connections still made An Ruo extremely embarrassed.

He wanted to ask Ulysses what he thought first.

He clasped his hands together and looked at Ulysses with shining eyes, asking both expectantly and nervously,

"Ulysses, can I go work as a Psychic Soothing specialist in the First Military Region?"

He was certified!

He had specifically taken time out to get his certification recently.

He absolutely wasn't practicing without a license.