Chapter 347: Extra — The Marshal and An from the Original Ending (3): Marshal Ulysses’ Funeral and the 'Funeral Flowers'

Ulysses settled down in the underground cell the Male Zerg had prepared for him.

The Male Zerg did not restrict his access to outside information. After realizing that Ulysses had no intention of going out, he even returned his terminal and spatial button to him, arranged a home holographic theater so he could watch movies, and seemingly worried that he might get bored, even prepared a gym for him.

In this place far removed from the center of the storm, Ulysses finally obtained a peaceful life he had not experienced in a very long time.

But he was not the type who could remain idle.

Suddenly being free of all the complicated military and political affairs made him extremely uncomfortable, and in the end, he still could not stop worrying.

Even after setting down the heavy responsibilities he had carried and leaving the road ahead for other Zergs to walk, he still needed to keep an eye on the progress and direction at all times.

Every day, Ulysses kept his terminal open, checking the news and information from all sectors.

For the sake of hiding his identity, the accounts belonging to “Marshal Ulysses” naturally could no longer be used.

Through gray-market channels, he arranged a new identity for himself.

This was not difficult for him.

Anywhere StarNet existed, what he could accomplish far exceeded what any Zerg could imagine.

This kind of life was not exactly bad.

The only trouble was that the Male Zerg came every day.

At least three times.

Sometimes five or six times.

Each visit lasted anywhere from a few minutes to several star-hours, as though he would feel miserable if he did not see Ulysses.

Ulysses thought that even the most favored Female Zerg in a Zerg household would never receive this much time with a Male Zerg.

But this “Male Zerg” was not coming to sleep with him either.

Most of the time, the Male Zerg came to bring him food.

Three meals a day were fixed, and occasionally he would also bring fruit, biscuits, or drinks.

Sometimes he merely came to sit for a while and talk to him.

Or simply to see what he was doing.

This was a very strange Male Zerg.

The way he paid attention to Ulysses did not resemble the attention a Male Zerg gave a Female Zerg.

If Ulysses absolutely had to find a similar kind of relationship, it was more like a Female Zerg who had only just become a Female Father fussing over a newly hatched little hatchling.

Only a Female Father would go check on a tiny hatchling this frequently, constantly unable to stop worrying about what it was doing.

A Male Zerg would never do such a thing.

Sure enough, he was terrible even at pretending to be a Male Zerg.

Ulysses was no hatchling either, so he found such frequent visits very difficult to get used to.

But this was ultimately the other party’s territory.

He had no reason to stop the other party’s exuberant curiosity.

It was not as though Ulysses had never considered leaving.

He simply had never truly made up his mind.

First, this really was an excellent hiding place, completely unknown to the outside world.

It was not that he could not find somewhere else himself, but that would simply add unnecessary steps and be troublesome for no reason.

Second, he could not feel at ease leaving such an unknown creature who had appeared among the Zerg race unattended.

By staying here, at least he could constantly monitor the other party’s movements and keep a close eye on him.

And finally...

This unknown creature had saved him.

If not for the other party, he would already be dead.

He owed him his life.

That was also the core reason why, after waking, Ulysses had not attacked such an unknown creature and had been willing to communicate with him properly.

...

When An Ruo came to see Ulysses carrying fruit, Ulysses had just finished working out, taken a shower, and was sitting on the sofa watching the news.

An Ruo’s gaze fell on the half-damp ends of his hair.

He set down the fruit platter, picked up a towel, and began drying his hair for him.

Ulysses stiffened again and had no choice but to remind him,

“Male Zergs don’t do these things.”

He was far too bad at playing the role of a Male Zerg.

Although Ulysses did not know why the other party was pretending to be one, he still gave him a hint to help him improve.

The main reason was that Ulysses truly was not accustomed to this kind of service.

Especially when the other party had a face considered incomparably beautiful by Zerg standards.

He was so beautiful that he was enough to unify the aesthetic standards of the entire universe.

It was almost like a kind of psychic erosion...

Even Ulysses, who had no particular feelings toward Male Zergs, found it difficult to remain entirely unmoved.

An Ruo muttered inwardly, I’m not a Male Zerg to begin with.

But what actually came out of his mouth was,

“That’s because your understanding of Male Zergs is too narrow! There are so many Male Zergs in the universe, all kinds of them. There are always some who would do this.”

He mentally went through the Male Zerg protagonists he had written and thought that even the most awkward “Carl” would still awkwardly dry the Tianjia Emperor’s hair.

At most, his expression would look a little ugly and his words would be a little rude.

Ulysses did not want to discuss what Male Zergs would or would not do with him.

He rescued his hair from the other party’s hands, used a little energy, and directly dried it himself.

An Ruo regretfully withdrew his hands.

He casually folded the towel he had used on Ulysses’ hair and put it into his spatial button.

Ulysses gave him another look.

His gaze was strange.

But in the end, he said nothing.

An Ruo walked past him, his gaze lingering on Ulysses’ hair for a long time.

Only after sitting down beside him on the sofa did he finally look away, unable to stop himself from remembering the past.

Ulysses was always busy with official duties, so in daily life, he would become lazy about some less important matters.

For example, he would often dry his hair only halfway.

An Ruo thought Ulysses looked very sexy with his long hair half damp.

And drying his hair also gave An Ruo a perfect excuse to get close to him.

It was a very good way for them to interact in everyday life.

Of course, such opportunities were not easy to come by.

Whenever Ulysses came to see him or sleep with him, he always made himself impeccably neat.

If An Ruo wanted to see Ulysses with half-damp hair, he needed a very coincidental opportunity to “run into” him.

The news footage brought An Ruo back to his senses.

On the screen was...

Ulysses’ funeral.

It was the first week after the Federation restored order, as well as the beginning of a new month.

The Federal Government formally held a funeral for former Marshal Ulysses.

The funeral was extremely grand.

In the live broadcast, countless Zergs had taken to the streets.

Dense crowds filled the streets and plazas, holding flowers in their hands and mourning solemnly.

Ulysses’ reputation had not been good during the later period of his rule.

He had been highly controversial.

But the Zerg citizens’ reverence and love for him had also been genuine.

Especially at this moment, now that he was “dead,” all those emotions had reached their peak.

An Ruo secretly glanced at Ulysses beside him.

He found that Ulysses was staring heavily at the live broadcast.

His lips were slightly pursed.

His face was expressionless.

He said nothing.

Then suddenly, his brows drew together.

An Ruo turned to look at the live broadcast, which had become noisy.

Some groups who were extremely dissatisfied with the new government because of Ulysses’ death were holding demonstrations.

Given the Zerg race’s martial and combative nature, physical conflicts were unavoidable as well.

The law enforcement teams were under enormous pressure maintaining order.

Similar scenes were taking place on many, many planets.

Perhaps even the military was far from peaceful.

After all, that was the heartland of Ulysses’ influence.

It was easy to predict that this chaos would continue for some time, while its hidden effects would last even longer.

It would not be easy for the new government to suppress all of it.

Even so, they had still held this funeral for Ulysses in an official capacity.

He was being buried with the identity and honors of a Marshal rather than being simply defined as a “criminal Zerg.”

Ulysses was probably the entire Zerg race’s black moonlight and white moonlight rolled into one.

An Ruo wanted to hug him.

But he was afraid that, given their current relationship, it would be too offensive.

So in the end, he merely asked,

“Do you want to go out for a walk?”

An Ruo had never intended to keep Ulysses locked up forever.

He still needed to go out for fresh air and to relax.

Even prisoners got yard time.

And there were gardens too...

The moment An Ruo thought about it, he felt that he was treating Ulysses terribly.

Compared to the treatment he had once received in the Military Region Prison, this was not even comparable.

So he felt rather guilty.

And today happened to be Ulysses’ “funeral.”

Leaving him shut up alone at such a special moment could not be good for his physical or mental health.

It would be better to go out for a walk.

Ulysses turned his attention toward him and looked him over in confusion.

“Weren’t you the one who didn’t want me appearing before other Zergs?”

“We can just disguise you. There are always more solutions than problems.”

An Ruo smiled.

Ulysses: “...”

A captor saying “there are always more solutions than problems” from the captive’s point of view was also quite bizarre.

Whose side was he even on?

In the end, Ulysses did not reject the suggestion to go outside.

He took a simulation disguise device out of his spatial button, put it behind his ear, and changed his appearance.

An Ruo had originally planned to disguise him using his own psychic power.

Seeing that Ulysses had already handled it himself, he could only silently withdraw his psychic power.

Then he reached out to hold Ulysses’ hand.

Ulysses paused slightly.

While he was still hesitating between shaking An Ruo’s hand off and simply letting him do as he pleased, the Male Zerg had already taken his hand and led him out the door.

Since he had failed to refuse at the beginning, it became even harder to find a reason to pull his hand away afterward.

An Ruo took Ulysses aboard a flying vehicle and set their destination as the busiest district on this border planet.

When they got out of the flying vehicle, An Ruo habitually took Ulysses’ hand again.

The Zergs by the roadside could not help turning their heads to look at them.

A young Male Zerg and Female Zerg.

They looked exactly like a couple out on a date.

It was just that Ulysses’ ordinary appearance after disguising himself did not match the Male Zerg’s overwhelmingly beautiful looks, drawing countless covert glances.

But the aura around Ulysses was simply too powerful.

No Zerg dared come forward to disturb them.

An Ruo took Ulysses shopping.

He noticed that there were especially many flowers on the street today.

When they passed a flower shop and he gave it a couple of extra glances, a Zerg immediately came forward to sell flowers to them.

“Honored Sir, would you like a bouquet? Our shop has flowers of every color and variety.”

An Ruo thought that dates really did require flowers.

Ulysses was right beside him.

Even if this was not a date, it counted as one now.

That realization made the tips of his ears heat up slightly.

He lifted a hand and brushed his hair aside to hide it, then went into the shop and selected some fresh, beautiful flowers to match together.

A worker arranged them into a bouquet for him.

An Ruo came out of the shop with light steps, holding the flowers.

He handed the bouquet to Ulysses, who had been waiting outside, and smiled shyly.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. These are for you.”

Ulysses met his expectant gaze, then looked at the bouquet he was holding.

After a long moment, he still reached out and accepted it.

An Ruo’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest.

His face filled with delight.

Ulysses actually accepted the flowers he gave him.

Did this mean...

Ulysses had at least a tiny bit of affection for him too?

That he was gradually accepting him?

For the rest of their shopping trip, An Ruo’s steps were so light he practically floated.

He also became increasingly natural and bold about reaching out to hold Ulysses’ hand.

But gradually, he began to realize something was wrong.

Were there not a little too many flowers on this street?

Every shop had flowers placed outside its entrance.

Even the middle of the street had been divided with arrangements of fresh flowers.

And almost every passing Zerg was holding a bouquet.

Did the Zergs on this planet really love flowers this much?

And why did the sight of all of them carrying flowers in the same direction look so familiar?

And why did every single one of them look so solemn...?

The funeral procession from the live broadcast flashed through An Ruo’s mind.

The two scenes lined up perfectly.

His expression instantly froze.

It nearly cracked apart.

What love of flowers?

They were seeing Ulysses off and mourning him.

There was no body belonging to Ulysses.

So every planet held its own farewell and memorial activities, usually on the streets and in military plazas.

The Zerg race had always had a tradition of bringing flowers to funerals.

All kinds of fresh flowers were used, regardless of color.

In ancient times, when a Female Zerg as powerful as an S-rank died naturally, his body could remain undecayed for a thousand years.

Countless Zergs who admired him would line up to offer flowers.

Innumerable blossoms would surround the body, like a sea of flowers embracing him.

That tradition had been passed down all the way to the present.

Only the form had changed slightly.

So when An Ruo passed the flower shop and the clerk saw that they did not have flowers in their hands, that was why the clerk had recommended buying some.

So that was why Ulysses had accepted the flowers An Ruo gave him after only a brief hesitation.

Could Ulysses have mistaken those flowers for “funeral flowers” An Ruo was giving him for his own memorial?

An Ruo’s expression cracked.