Chapter 303: What If An Had Been the One Who Married Ulysses (9): His Male Lord from the Future, Waiting for Him There

Selerus woke up.

An Ruo took the initiative to leave, giving them some space.

Under the prison warden's guidance, he went to a reception room on the first floor to rest for a while. Sitting on the soft sofa and eating the refreshments the prison had specially prepared to suit a male Zerg's tastes, he eventually grew bored and quietly extended his Psychic Power underground.

The Psychic Power carrying his will bypassed Cell No. 1 and headed toward the other rooms.

Ulysses and Selerus were both reuniting after a long separation and meeting as father and son for the first time. They surely had a great deal to say to each other, so An Ruo didn't disturb them. His targets were the other female Zergs who needed soothing.

With An Ruo at its center, his Psychic Power seeped downward, enveloping almost every room except Cell No. 1 as immense mental energy flowed through them.

After clearing the same "dungeon" again and again, An Ruo had become increasingly proficient at Psychic Soothing. In the beginning, he'd needed to face each individual patient and slowly soothe them one at a time. Now, he could sit in the reception room upstairs and get the job done from there.

Neither the number of Zergs, the distance, nor the barriers surrounding the cells could restrict him anymore.

The prison's instruments constantly monitored the female Zergs' conditions. Whenever they detected violent energy approaching the critical threshold, they automatically increased the dosage of injected medication and strengthened the energy suppression. Conversely, when the energy subsided, the dosage would be reduced and the suppression relaxed.

This also prevented the awkward situation of a cured female Zerg waking up only to discover that he was still being electrocuted.

But when reports began arriving one after another from the various cells that the female Zergs' energy had stabilized and that they appeared to have regained consciousness, the prison was still thrown into chaos.

Not only were the military female guards and the prison warden utterly stunned, even Ulysses was alerted.

Unlike the others, Ulysses knew exactly who had saved these Zergs and created the miracle unfolding before him.

He said goodbye to his female parent, arranged the necessary matters, and went upstairs to find the male.

He couldn't wait to see him.

An Ruo heard a knock on the door and said, "Come in." When he saw that it was Ulysses, he was somewhat surprised.

"Why did you come up here?"

He'd thought Ulysses would spend more time talking with Selerus.

"I wanted to see you," Ulysses said as he walked toward him.

Affection between female Zergs tended to be more restrained. There weren't that many verbal exchanges or physical displays of emotion. He had briefly told his female parent what had happened over the years and had also spoken about his marriage and his male...

There was no hurry to say everything else at once.

Selerus had only just awakened. More importantly, he needed proper rest so his mind and damaged body could recover.

Everything was moving in a better direction.

At this moment, Ulysses only wanted to come before the male and seek an answer from him.

Perhaps today he could finally receive an answer to the question he had kept buried in his heart for so long, the question he had never dared ask because of all his misgivings.

He slowly walked up to the male and crouched beside his legs.

An Ruo froze slightly and instinctively reached out to help him up, only for Ulysses to take his outstretched hand.

Maintaining that position, Ulysses raised his head and gazed at him, An Ruo's face reflected in his silver eyes.

An Ruo could tell that Ulysses had a lot he wanted to say to him.

But did he really have to say it like this?

Wasn't crouching on the floor tiring?

Wouldn't his legs go numb?

Then again, considering the ridiculous physical constitution of female Zergs, perhaps his legs genuinely wouldn't go numb.

Deciding not to judge the Zerg race's formidable physique by human standards, An Ruo silently shut his mouth and waited for Ulysses to continue.

"You saved my female parent, as well as every female Zerg suffering from Psychic Riot in the Military Region Prison," Ulysses said.

"This is barely anything yet... There are still lots of Zergs I haven't soothed," An Ruo muttered quietly.

This was only the First Military Region Prison.

There were female Zergs suffering from Psychic Riot imprisoned in many other Military Region Prisons, not to mention the many other military females who required Psychic Soothing.

Based on An Ruo's experience, it would take at least another year to finish soothing all of them completely.

After all, he'd originally spent an entire year living in the Military Region Prison before being released, so he had a fairly accurate idea of the workload involved.

Ulysses gazed deeply at him.

Understanding what he meant, he asked,

"May I know why?"

"The reason you're saving these Zergs, and also... the reason you came to me."

This question had troubled Ulysses for a very long time.

He had once believed that the male had approached him because he intended to use Ulysses to act against the First Military Region, perhaps even against the Zerg Federation itself. But after the other party treated so many female Zergs suffering from Psychic Riot, Ulysses had discarded those suspicions on his own.

In the face of all those lives that had been saved, his previous thinking seemed far too narrow.

He had also once wondered whether the male's appearance was exactly like what had been written in that novel—

A Male Lord from the future who had fallen in love with his Female Lord when he was younger...

But was that even possible?

If he said such a thing aloud, other Zergs would only think he'd gone insane and perhaps recommend that he see a doctor. Or they might decide he'd read too many novels, become lost in fantasy, and could no longer distinguish reality from fiction.

Yet now that another impossible thing had appeared before his eyes, hope that the other possibility might also be true began to rise within him once again.

Saving female Zergs who had fallen into Psychic Riot was something universally acknowledged as impossible.

Yet the Zerg before him had done it.

Then what about crossing time and space?

Ulysses' question left An Ruo uncertain how to answer.

He didn't know how he had appeared here either. Although this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, it was almost like a passive ability. He didn't understand the mechanism behind it, nor was it under his control.

But when he met the hope in Ulysses' silver eyes, An Ruo felt as though he suddenly understood something.

He wanted to be part of every piece of Ulysses' past.

He wanted to erase the pain Ulysses had suffered.

Even if there was nothing he could do, he still wanted to stay beside him.

Perhaps that itself was the answer.

Just as what Ulysses wanted wasn't for An Ruo to hand him a copy of <Principles of Time-Space Traversal>.

What he wanted was the answer An Ruo himself could give him.

An Ruo pulled Ulysses up and had him sit beside him. Still holding his hand, he slowly began telling him a story.

"If we use the progression of eras as the timeline, then I actually come from the future..."

"You're my future Male Lord?"

He had barely begun when Ulysses finished the thought for him.

His eyes were shining as he stared at An Ruo, filled with hope.

An Ruo rarely saw such brightness in General Ulysses' eyes. He froze for a moment, then finally processed what Ulysses had said.

His eyes immediately widened in astonishment.

As expected of Ulysses, the Zerg capable of stripping away one secret identity after another.

No other Zerg could match this level of perceptiveness.

An Ruo couldn't even imagine how he'd managed to guess it.

Traveling through time and space?

A Male Lord from the future?

Was that really the sort of conclusion an ordinary Zerg could reach?

Yet Ulysses had spoken with absolute certainty. Clearly, he'd already developed this suspicion before An Ruo even said the word "timeline," which was why he'd been able to blurt it out instantly without hesitation.

Ulysses really was a great detective whose true calling had been delayed by his military career.

Facing Ulysses' expectant gaze after having yet another secret identity exposed, An Ruo gave a rueful smile and helplessly spread his hands.

"Yes."

Strangely, after the initial shock passed, his heart became completely calm.

Ah.

He'd been found out again.

He was used to it by now.

First Ulysses had exposed the fact that he wasn't the original male Zerg occupying this body. Then he'd uncovered his identity as the author of the original novel. And later, he'd gone straight to stripping off An Ruo's clothes...

They'd slept together so many times that Ulysses could practically claim to know him inside and out.

At this point, what was one more secret identity being stripped away?

Hardly worth mentioning.

Ulysses, meanwhile, didn't seem to realize just how astonishing the words he'd spoken were.

He only felt that he'd been far too slow.

Everything had been laid out right in front of him, yet only now had he finally dared believe it.

Why would a male Zerg treat a female Zerg with extraordinary kindness from their very first meeting?

Why would his eyes seem to contain such complicated emotions?

Because he was Ulysses' Male Lord from the future.

Because he already loved him.

The painting in the living room, the novel the male had written, his familiarity with Ulysses' body and habits, and all the countless oddities of their daily life had revealed the answer long ago.

It wasn't that Ulysses hadn't noticed.

He simply hadn't dared believe in something so wonderful.

How could he possibly dare imagine that his future would contain a Male Lord like this?

He had already destroyed his own marriage with his own hands. Even if everything proceeded according to his plans, once all the dust settled, every other male Zerg would avoid him like the plague.

Under such circumstances, how could he dare imagine that he would ever enter another marriage?

How could he imagine that an exceptional male Zerg would recklessly fall in love with him?

The path Ulysses walked had always been dark and narrow, overgrown with thorns.

How could there possibly be a bright moon shining down upon it?

And now, the male had personally confirmed his guess.

Those dreamlike speculations had become reality at this very moment.

They had become the future laid out before him.

Ulysses remained silent.

His silver-gray eyes gazed at An Ruo in a daze, as though he were trying to look through him and glimpse that impossible yet possible future.

An Ruo felt Ulysses' emotions and sensed the turbulence within his Psychic Domain.

He knew that what Ulysses needed right now wasn't another session of Psychic Soothing.

He needed an embrace.

A kiss.

And afterward, An Ruo would tell him their story.

An Ruo embraced Ulysses and kissed him.

They held each other and kissed on the sofa, not out of desire, but as an act of tentative exploration and acceptance, two hearts drawing closer together.

Out of a certain selfishness, when An Ruo described the future, he glossed over his own identity. He didn't mention the original body's owner or anything related to it.

But when it came to their ordinary life together, he described everything in minute detail.

"We go on dates pretty often, but I don't like going out too frequently, so you always keep the frequency of our outings under control. Usually we go out once every month or two. Most of the time, you come find me and use your spatial ability..."

"We went to an ocean planet together and searched for traces of merfolk. We kissed surrounded by schools of fish and rested on the huge bed in an underwater hotel. I'm a little afraid of the deep sea, but I'm not scared when you're beside me. You stayed with me every step of the way."

"We also went to a hillside to watch the stars and slept in a little wooden cabin at night. The bed inside was layered like a cake and so soft you could practically sink into it."

"We attended Legion celebrations together, wandered through night markets, took pictures... There was a period when I kept losing at games, so you carried me and even taught me how to use the male Zerg control mode..."

"And kissing. I was actually the one who taught you that. Your kissing technique was terrible at first. You just kept trying to go deeper, but you're an incredibly fast learner and improved a lot. I taught you three times, and you successfully graduated. Later, you even learned... uh, the cherry-stem thing... After that, I was completely no match for you."

When he mentioned the cherry stem, An Ruo felt extremely guilty.

He deliberately lowered his voice and glossed over that part, afraid that Ulysses might go learn it again.

He secretly glanced at Ulysses and saw that he was listening intently, a trace of contemplation and puzzlement between his brows.

An Ruo thought that since he'd already omitted the important details and only said the words "cherry stem," even someone as perceptive as Ulysses shouldn't be able to figure out what he was supposed to do with it, right?

At that thought, An Ruo breathed a sigh of relief.

Convinced that he'd escaped disaster, he continued.

"After Selerus was released from prison, he recuperated at the Marshal's residence. Whenever he had nothing else to do, he'd knit scarves and gloves. During the first winter, he only managed to finish one scarf in time. He gave it to you as a New Year's gift. The two of us wore it together, sharing the same scarf on a snowy night..."

Ulysses listened to him.

Those seemingly ordinary little moments were filled with warmth and love.

It was a future that a female Zerg could never have imagined no matter how hard he tried, yet through An Ruo's words, it gradually took shape before him.

How wonderful.

Ulysses thought.

He would no longer wander in uncertainty.

He would no longer be afraid.

Because the happiness he possessed wasn't a fragile dream that might shatter at any moment.

The male before him was his Male Lord from the future.

He was waiting for him there.

His future wasn't pitch-black.

A bright moon shone upon him, bathing him in its light.

Even if the road leading toward that future remained overgrown with thorns, he would walk it unwaveringly, his heart filled with hope.

Toward his male.

Toward his bright moon.