Chapter 341: The Whole Zerg Federation Knows the Marshal Is Pregnant: Who’s pregnant? The Marshal? Ulysses??? My hatchling!?

The Ninth Military Region had arranged accommodations for the Marshal and An-shen well in advance.

It was a three-story house in the officers’ residential area. Xi’an and Claire’s officer villas were right next door, very close by.

The location had been chosen specifically at Ulysses’s request.

He thought his God would like it here.

An Ruo was indeed very satisfied.

He had previously written about Xi’an and Claire’s lives in the Ninth Military Region. Now that he was experiencing it personally, everything he saw felt novel.

And Xi’an and Claire lived right next door to them, which basically made them neighbors.

Oh! And Uriel too!

After An Ruo was released from prison, this former warden had transferred to the Ninth Military Region. His glorious service record at the First Military Region Prison had earned him another promotion, and he was already a Lieutenant General now.

Besides wanting to experience Xi’an and Claire’s military life for himself, one of An Ruo’s reasons for coming to the Ninth Military Region was to meet this old friend and congratulate him on his promotion.

Come to think of it, An Ruo had contributed to Uriel’s promotion too.

As a prisoner and Psychic Soother, he had diligently worked away and completed 999 years’ worth of assignments within a single year. Naturally, the warden responsible for managing the prison had earned outstanding achievements along with him.

Thinking about it that way, An Ruo felt he was actually pretty impressive.

As expected of “the most expensive piece of equipment in the entire prison.”

Uriel was currently away on a mission and wouldn’t return until later, so today An Ruo had only seen Xi’an and Claire.

But there was no hurry.

He and Ulysses would be staying here for several days.

There should still be enough time to see both Uriel and Eugene after he returned from Tianjia.

While An Ruo looked around the house, Ulysses was observing him too.

The curious way An Ruo looked everywhere after entering was enough to tell Ulysses that he liked the place.

His arrangements hadn’t gone to waste.

An was difficult to please, but also very easy to please.

As long as something could be connected to the content of his novels, it wouldn’t go wrong with him. Even if it didn’t earn extra points, at least it wouldn’t lose any.

Ulysses still hoped to earn extra points.

But he couldn’t train his Male Lord half to death like a new recruit the way Claire did, nor could he “promote” his Male Lord like Lucas.

That made things rather difficult.

Ulysses recalled the two pairs of protagonists living military life in An’s books and genuinely couldn’t understand how there could be so many bizarre Zerg couples in the Federation.

There wasn’t even just one pair.

And somehow, all of them had appeared in An’s novels.

Could it be that An liked this sort of thing?

The more Ulysses thought about it, the more troubled he became.

Whether it was training recruits or promoting officers, both were effortless for him.

But if the other person was An...

He truly couldn’t bring himself to do it.

An was too fragile.

A light squeeze could hurt him, and even the brush of a finger could leave an obvious red mark on his skin.

When Ulysses interacted with him, he had to carefully control his strength at all times.

He genuinely couldn’t understand how those two Major Generals managed to lay hands on their Male Lords.

Even General Cyril, who held a very high and stable position within his family, wasn’t nearly as lacking in restraint as they were.

Cyril had always treated his Male Lord with great respect, which was exactly how he had created such a harmonious, united, model family that every Zerg envied.

Those two youngsters, on the other hand, really didn’t know how to hold back...

Ulysses thought about it over and over but couldn’t find anything useful he could borrow from them.

For now, he could only secure some guaranteed points through the housing arrangements.

As for the rest, he would have to take things one step at a time.

An Ruo admired the room’s furnishings and casually picked up a flower-shaped cup that was obviously meant for Male Zergs.

Suddenly, he felt an inexplicable pull of intention somewhere in the unseen, and an image of Eugene praying appeared in his mind.

Why had he suddenly thought of Eugene?

He should still be in Tianjia, right?

Though he would probably be coming back soon.

That fleeting image in An Ruo’s mind left him confused.

It felt a little like the state he used to enter when inspiration struck while writing a novel.

But he had already finished this book!

Even if inspiration came now, there was no way he was going to write an extra chapter.

He was on vacation.

Although that was what he told himself, An Ruo still couldn’t help following the “inspiration” that had appeared in his mind.

Eugene was about to return from Tianjia.

Would he bring something back with him this time...?

The plotline in the novel where “Carl” signed an agreement with the Tianjia Emperor surfaced in An Ruo’s mind, and he immediately felt like he had grasped something.

The Tianjia Emperor’s eggs had already been laid.

Given “Carl’s” personality, he really might insist on raising the eggs himself according to their agreement.

If they were going to separate and each become a single parent, Ares wouldn’t agree.

But temporarily entrusting an egg to “Carl” would also give Ares a reason to contact “Carl” again in the future.

Based on that, Ares might allow Carl to take care of one of the eggs temporarily.

Which meant...

Once An Ruo started thinking along the logic of the novel, his thoughts suddenly became crystal clear.

He realized what kind of enormous “surprise” Eugene might be bringing back.

That was the Tianjia Emperor’s egg!

An Ruo instinctively glanced at Ulysses from the corner of his eye.

This was the Tianjia Emperor’s lifelong nemesis in the novel.

He needed to test Ulysses’s attitude first.

With that thought, An Ruo took a deep breath, turned around to face Ulysses, and asked as casually as he could,

“Can a mixed-blood egg be registered as a Federation citizen?”

The male’s acting was atrocious.

The way he was clearly trying to fish for information was painfully stiff.

Ulysses saw through him instantly.

“Do you mean citizenship registration?”

Ulysses considered it, trying to interpret his God’s intentions before proactively answering,

“Of course. Forget mixed-blood eggs. Even if we picked up a Tianjia egg from a battlefield, it could still become a citizen of the Zerg Federation.”

An Ruo already knew that, but hearing Ulysses confirm it personally still made him breathe a sigh of relief.

He relaxed.

If mixed-blood eggs could be registered in the Federation, then there was no problem.

Even if that egg belonged to the Tianjia Emperor...

Mm.

It should be fine, right?

Ulysses observed his expression, took An Ruo by the hand, and led him over to sit on the sofa.

Then Ulysses rested a hand on his own abdomen, glanced at An Ruo, and asked meaningfully,

“Would you say our egg counts as a mixed-blood egg or a Zerg egg?”

“Huh?”

An Ruo hadn’t expected that question at all and was startled.

Right.

Did the egg he and Ulysses were having count as mixed-blood or Zerg?

An Ruo carefully thought it over.

At his core, he was obviously human, but his current body...

He couldn’t really say whether it counted as human or Zerg.

But he had wings now.

So it should probably count as Zerg, right?

Thinking that, An Ruo told Ulysses,

“Our hatchling is obviously a pure-blood Zerg egg.”

At least genetic testing showed 100% Zerg bloodline.

After being raised beside the two of them, though, the hatchling might inevitably pick up some “human” ways of thinking and seem a little less Zerg-like.

An Ruo thought back to Uromia from the dream world.

He had been an outstanding female Zerg from every possible perspective.

Under An Ruo’s male-parent filter, his baby was perfect in every way.

Some things about him had even been so mature and sensible that they made An Ruo’s heart ache.

But he was also proud and dazzling, a rising supernova in Zerg history.

An Ruo was proud of him.

The Zerg Federation was enormous.

Not every Zerg mechanically played the standardized role of cog and screw.

There would always be some Zergs who were more “unconventional.”

Ulysses himself wasn’t very “Zerg-like” in certain matters.

Some of the ways he acted even carried a faintly “Tianjia” flavor.

So it was perfectly normal if their hatchling wasn’t entirely “Zerg-like” either.

An Ruo firmly believed their baby had no problems whatsoever.

He was a good baby.

Naturally, Ulysses thought the same.

He didn’t actually care whether the hatchling was mixed-blood or pure Zerg.

Either way, it was the hatchling belonging to him and his God.

That alone was enough to make him feel incredibly fortunate and happy.

To be able to conceive a hatchling with the God he worshiped—

How could the word “fortunate” possibly encompass something like that?

Ulysses wanted to kiss him again.

Even when Ulysses leaned in with a smile and kissed him, An Ruo was still slightly dazed.

He responded to Ulysses’s sudden affection, only belatedly realizing something.

He had asked Ulysses whether mixed-blood eggs could be registered.

Ulysses couldn’t possibly have thought he was talking about their egg, right?

If so, that was bad.

He had meant the Tianjia Emperor’s egg.

It... probably didn’t make much difference, right?

...

Since An Ruo wanted to experience military life, they also ate lunch in the military cafeteria.

Ulysses had already eaten his fill and mainly came to the cafeteria to accompany the male.

The military headquarters had a separate officers’ dining hall, but to strengthen communication and cohesion between officers and soldiers, most officers ate together with the troops under their command.

Ulysses normally did the same.

However, considering there was a “Male Zerg” with him this time, he still chose a relatively secluded area.

There weren’t many Zergs in the cafeteria yet.

Ulysses found a seat by the window, had the male sit down, then went to get their food.

An Ruo sat obediently and curiously looked around.

He noticed that quite a few Zergs in the cafeteria were secretly looking at him.

None of them stared openly.

Their movements were extremely discreet.

Unfortunately, under the Male Zerg’s powerful Psychic Power, all of that attention was impossible to hide.

In terms of layout, the military cafeteria wasn’t much different from restaurants outside.

It was just that the Zergs inside were far too quiet.

There wasn’t any conversation at all, and even the sounds of chewing were almost inaudible.

An Ruo couldn’t tell whether military females were naturally quiet and reserved or whether everyone was tense because Ulysses was here.

Surely it couldn’t be because of him?

Completely lacking self-awareness, An Ruo propped his chin on one hand and pondered.

Then he saw Xi’an and Claire walk in.

Xi’an’s bright hair color added a splash of light to the subdued cafeteria.

Just looking at him made An Ruo happy.

He suddenly understood a little better why military females liked the Male Zergs serving among them so much.

They were a completely different kind of color.

An exception within a standardized life.

Irresistibly eye-catching.

Xi’an saw him too and greeted him.

Seeing that the seat across from An Ruo was empty, he initially seemed about to pull Claire over.

Then he apparently realized something.

He glanced not far away, smiled, exchanged a few more words with An Ruo, and finally took Claire to sit at another table beside his.

Ulysses returned soon afterward carrying two meals.

One had been ordered from the Male Zerg counter.

He had selected dishes according to An Ruo’s tastes, including plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables, fragrant roasted meat, and even decorative plating.

It looked exceptionally refined.

The other was a nutritional meal for pregnant females.

It included a soup specifically prepared for pregnant females, while the rest consisted mostly of simply cooked, minimally processed meats.

An Ruo was somewhat surprised that the military cafeteria actually provided specialized pregnancy meals.

But then he remembered that pregnant female Zergs continued working and decided that having a dedicated counter like this made perfect sense.

Even military females continued reporting for duty during pregnancy and only took leave to return home once they were close to laying.

The military also tracked their conditions, transferred them away from dangerous front lines, and assigned them relatively light work and training.

This was even more common in Tianjia.

They even established specialized incubator rooms inside military bases, allowing soldiers to lay and incubate eggs directly at the base.

After training, they could even go visit their eggs.

Tianjia were very fond of this arrangement.

Not every Tianjia military female had a reliable male at home who could incubate eggs.

If there was no male at home, or if they didn’t trust the male to incubate them, they would simply keep the eggs nearby.

Leaving them for the base or the state to incubate was also a perfectly good option.

During wartime, Tianjia bases prioritized evacuating the eggs from their incubator rooms.

If evacuation failed, enemy forces occupying the base could end up finding an entire room full of eggs.

When the Zerg Federation won surprise assaults, they often picked up quite a number of Tianjia eggs.

It wasn’t as though they particularly wanted to raise Tianjia eggs.

After all, Tianjia were their mortal enemies.

But when a pile of eggs was right in front of them, they couldn’t simply ignore them.

They were all females.

Females had an instinctive compassion toward hatchlings and eggs.

And the two species had shared common origins billions of years ago.

That genetic and bloodline connection ran even deeper, making it even harder to subject those eggs to inhumane destruction.

So they could only bring them back and raise them uniformly as Zerg hatchlings.

An Ruo had already spun out an entire train of thought just from seeing the military pregnancy meal.

Meanwhile, the other military females were far more shocked by the fact that Marshal Ulysses had taken one.

That was definitely a pregnancy meal, right?

Most females didn’t enjoy soup.

Even pre-pregnancy nutrition meals didn’t include such a large serving of nutritional soup.

Only pregnancy meals came with that distinctive soup.

The military females in the cafeteria rapidly exchanged glances.

Every one of them saw the same shock reflected in the others’ eyes.

Marshal Ulysses...

Was pregnant?

The Marshal and An-shen had only been married for a few months.

At the Marshal’s extraordinarily high rank, it would have been perfectly normal if he failed to conceive even after several hundred years.

Yet he had gotten pregnant not long after the wedding?

That speed was what wasn’t normal!

Xi’an and Claire also noticed the strange atmosphere.

As a Male Zerg, Xi’an didn’t know much about pregnancy meals.

He was still confused and nudged Claire lightly with his elbow, making expressive faces at him and asking what was going on.

Claire...

Claire was extremely envious right now.

There were still tons of people online asking him when he was going to have “Little Strawberry” or “Little Ice Cream.”

His own egg wasn’t even on the horizon.

Meanwhile, even the Marshal, who had married so much later than him and was also higher-ranked than him, already had an egg.

Comparisons between Zergs could drive a Zerg to death.

The thing any Zerg feared most was comparison.

Originally, Claire hadn’t been in a hurry either.

He knew high-ranking Zergs had low fertility, so he had remained calm.

Then one day, Xi’an had been reading novels and suddenly realized that among the protagonists in An-shen’s books, there were very few couples left who still had no eggs.

There were only the two of them, the virtual Male Zerg couple, and Shamir and Ravens from the novel that had just ended.

The virtual Male Zerg couldn’t reproduce in the first place, so they could be excluded.

Shamir’s book had only just ended.

They still had plenty of time and didn’t need to rush.

That left only Claire and Xi’an.

They had already been married for a year and still had no egg.

And now even the Marshal had one...

Since when had it become so easy for high-ranking females to conceive?

Claire was depressed.

His emotions were complicated, a mixture of envy and existential doubt.

Seeing that Xi’an still didn’t understand what was happening, Claire mouthed an explanation to him.

Egg.

But there was no need for Claire to explain anymore, because General Muir had already asked directly.

“Marshal, you’re carrying an egg??!”

The General of the Ninth Military Region’s eyes were practically as wide as bronze bells.

The fact that he had blurted the question out regardless of the setting was enough to show just how shocked he was.

Ulysses remained perfectly unhurried.

He adjusted his utensils, calmly raised his eyes to meet General Muir’s astonished gaze, gave a slight nod, and replied,

“Yes. I’m two weeks pregnant.”

An Ruo felt that every movement, every bit of Ulysses’s aura, and even his posture was so precise that he could have immediately stepped onto a podium and delivered a speech.

He looked fully prepared to hold a press conference on the spot and withstand cameras filming him from every possible angle.

And his calm statement landed like a bomb in the cafeteria.

The military females who had originally been silent and restrained immediately stirred.

There were sharp intakes of breath and quiet exclamations.

The Marshal was pregnant.

He had gotten pregnant barely more than a month after getting married.

Marshal Ulysses and An-shen’s compatibility had to be extremely high.

And their ability in that regard had to be very strong too.

Every military female looked at them with burning envy.

General Muir repeatedly congratulated them as well.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the cafeteria became exceptionally warm and cheerful.

Watching from beside him, An Ruo couldn’t help feeling that Ulysses had chosen this pregnancy meal with ulterior motives from the start.

But how could he think of Ulysses that way?

Ulysses really was a pregnant female.

Of course he needed to eat a specific nutritional meal for pregnant females.

Mm.

The logic was flawless.

With loudmouth General Muir spreading the news, the fact that the Marshal was pregnant would soon become known to every Zerg.

...

[Muir] (Group Chat):

Hey, you all know, right? The Marshal’s carrying an egg! The Marshal and An-shen have only been married for a little over a month, and he’s already pregnant!

No wonder Claire went to An-shen before to ask for a blessing to have an egg. Turns out asking An-shen for an egg really works!

Though Claire still hasn’t gotten pregnant himself. Looks like this kind of thing really can’t be rushed.

The Generals of the various Military Regions: ???

[Muir] (Private Chat):

Selerus, you’re still off skiing? Something as huge as the Marshal carrying an egg, and you didn’t even tell me? That’s seriously disloyal! I didn’t even get the chance to prepare a congratulatory gift.

Who’s pregnant? The Marshal? Ulysses??? My hatchling!?

Selerus, who was still pitching a tent on top of a snowy mountain, stared blankly ahead.

Even Uriel, who had finished his mission and was picking Eugene up on the way back, received the news.

The Marshal and His Excellency were currently in the Ninth Military Region.

And the Marshal was carrying an egg.

Uriel instantly became desperate to return home.

He didn’t even have the attention to spare for the egg Eugene had brought back with him.

Oh.

He needed to prepare one more welcoming gift.