Chapter 349: Extra — The Marshal and An from the Original Ending (5): Ulysses Found His Current State Unfamiliar

News concerning Male Zergs always spread extraordinarily fast.

In only a single day, every Zerg working in the government complex on Capital Star knew that a high-ranking Male Zerg Lord had arrived among them. Rumor had it that he was even better-looking than the Archon, and that his beauty and bearing were unforgettable once seen.

There was also another piece of gossip.

Apparently, this Lord was currently dating a newly hired government employee named “Yulises.”

There was nothing particularly unusual about a Male Zerg Lord dating a Female Zerg. At most, everyone would envy the lucky bastard who had caught the Lord’s eye.

But when they discovered that the Lord went to work together with that Female Zerg every single day, and that even after work, the Lord would arrive outside the office right on time to pick “Yulises” up—and that this continued for months without a single interruption—the Female Zergs could no longer hold themselves together.

This Female Zerg called “Yulises” had an utterly standard, ordinary appearance. There was nothing stunning about him at all.

He had also come from some small, insignificant place and had neither assets nor fame to speak of.

At most, his bearing was a little better than average, his presence was powerful, and his working ability was excellent.

Female Zergs liked working with Zergs like that, but none of those things counted for much with Male Zergs. Being too imposing could even count against him.

And yet it was precisely this kind of Female Zerg who occupied all of the Male Zerg Lord’s attention, leaving every other pursuer without the slightest opportunity to approach.

How could the others not be so jealous their teeth itched?

When a Male Zerg dated the same Female Zerg for several months straight, even if he didn’t especially like him, the Female Zerg was at minimum a regular sexual partner.

Countless Female Zergs were so green with envy their faces nearly twisted.

Months of nourishment from a Male Zerg Lord...

How blissful did that have to be?

And yet that Female Zerg normally wore an aloof, unsmiling expression. No one ever saw him being particularly attentive or enthusiastic toward the Male Zerg Lord.

He was always calm, steady, and acted as though everything were perfectly natural.

He was damn good at putting on airs.

It made the others want to throw a sack over his head and beat him senseless.

Actually doing it, however?

No Zerg dared.

There was something strangely unsettling about this Female Zerg.

His records clearly said he was merely an ordinary A-rank, but the moment anyone met his eyes, they inexplicably became frightened.

Even standing straight in front of him came with pressure, never mind trying to attack him.

They would die, wouldn’t they?

No one dared confront him directly, but there were plenty of sour remarks and petty tricks behind his back.

Some also tried taking the alliance route, attempting to build a good relationship with “Yulises” so they could gain an opportunity to spend time with the Male Zerg.

None succeeded.

“Yulises” normally appeared neither warm nor cold, but he guarded the Male Zerg tightly and was especially ruthless toward any Female Zerg who approached with ulterior motives.

He showed absolutely no intention of sharing.

“How long does he think he can monopolize a Male Zerg?” the disgruntled pursuers whispered behind his back.

“It’s already been three months, and that Lord still hasn’t married him. He’s nothing more than a regular sex partner and a masturbation cup!”

If an ordinary Female Zerg had ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) been seeing a Male Zerg for this long, they should have started discussing marriage long ago.

Or rather, “dating” itself was already an unusually rare relationship among the Zerg.

Normally, after one date and one night in bed, if the Male Zerg was satisfied and willing to marry, he would simply propose marriage.

Dragging things out for this long really meant nothing more than...

He didn’t want to give him any official status.

The Female Zergs gossiped behind his back, but no one actually went in front of “Yulises” and said anything cruel.

Deep down, quite a few of them even felt sorry for him.

“Yulises’” looks really were ordinary among high-ranking Female Zergs.

He barely reached the passing standard for an A-rank Female Zerg, without any especially memorable features. He couldn’t provide the stunning first impression Male Zerg Lords usually wanted.

It wasn’t difficult to understand why that Lord had kept dragging things out.

Male Zerg Lords were always extremely careful when choosing their Female Lords and wouldn’t casually give that position away.

But not even giving him the position of Female Attendant really was a little cold.

The Female Zergs sighed privately.

Then, when they saw the Male Zerg Lord from two offices over coming to pick “Yulises” up again, they immediately broke down all over again.

What the hell was there to pity about “Yulises”?! 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

He went everywhere with the Male Zerg Lord every single day.

The Lord smiled at him like warm spring sunlight, as though one could almost smell some gentle, elegant floral fragrance, sunlight streaming through stained glass and dazzling every Zerg who looked.

They wanted to be regular sex partners like that too!

So what if it meant sleeping together without any official status?

They could do that!

...

An Ruo left side by side with Ulysses, still able to feel the intense gazes burning into his back.

It made every hair on his body stand on end.

His extremely powerful psychic force allowed him to easily sense other Zergs’ emotions, but it also frequently left him utterly confused.

An Ruo rubbed his arms, chilled by the creepy sensation crawling over him, and asked Ulysses,

“What’s wrong with them?”

Ulysses assumed he was cold and took off his coat, draping it over An Ruo’s shoulders.

As for the Male Zerg’s question, he found it difficult to answer.

An Ruo had only muttered it casually anyway and hadn’t really expected an answer.

Being wrapped in Ulysses’ coat, still carrying his body heat, made him feel warm and secretly delighted.

He held the coat in place with one hand, quietly buried the tip of his nose in the fabric, and took a little sniff.

There was a trace of warm, faint fragrance.

Yet the scent itself had a cool note, clear and crisp, and smelled exceptionally good.

It was still his favorite scent.

The corners of An Ruo’s lips curved upward, and his eyes bent happily.

Ulysses noticed every one of those tiny movements.

With his senses, it would have been difficult not to.

For some inexplicable reason, the tips of his ears grew hot.

If the other party had truly been a Male Zerg, such an action could easily be interpreted as wanting to sleep with him.

But he wasn’t.

That was precisely what made Ulysses’ feelings especially complicated.

His coworkers all assumed he and the Male Zerg had slept together countless times.

They believed the Male Zerg regularly slept with him every day, using him for release.

Only Ulysses himself knew that nothing had happened between them.

They merely lived in the same house.

They simply went to work and returned home together.

No Zerg would believe that if he said it aloud.

When a Male Zerg and Female Zerg lived together, there was no second explanation besides that kind of relationship.

One of their identities was fake, while the other wasn’t even a Zerg at all.

In order to maintain their disguises and avoid suspicion, Ulysses could only tacitly allow those rumors to spread and had never tried to explain them.

After hearing it repeated so many times, even Ulysses began feeling uncomfortable.

He had even, for the first time in his life, begun having certain dreams about Male and Female Zergs.

In those few hazy dreams, everything really was just as his coworkers rumored.

Every day, he was regularly used by this Male Zerg, yet was never granted any status.

The Male Zerg treated him merely as a bed partner.

Even as nothing more than a vessel for venting his lust.

Whenever Ulysses woke from one of those dreams, his eyes were red.

A sour, stifled emotion pressed heavily inside his chest, making him extraordinarily irritated and restless.

He knew those feelings had been carried over from the dream.

He could distinguish perfectly well between dreams and reality.

But what he found most impossible to face was his body’s reaction...

Ulysses had lived for more than a hundred years.

For the first time in his life, he found himself hurriedly and almost frantically cleaning the mess from his body and bed, his mind practically blank the entire time.

Because of that, every time he had one of those dreams, Ulysses would spend the entire following morning unable to give An Ruo a pleasant expression.

He knew perfectly well that the Male Zerg in reality wasn’t the one from his dream.

Those things had never happened.

The other wouldn’t use him without giving him status.

He wouldn’t use him at all.

But Ulysses simply couldn’t calm himself completely.

He couldn’t face An Ruo with his usual composure.

Rather than being angry at the Male Zerg, it would be more accurate to say he was angry with himself.

Angry at himself for being so pathetic.

Angry that he could be so easily influenced by emotions from a dream.

And even angrier that he had dreamed such things in the first place.

Ulysses had even suspected that this unknown creature with overwhelmingly powerful psychic force might have affected his mind, deliberately guiding him into dreams like that.

Once, after suddenly waking from such a dream in the middle of the night, he violently tore open a spatial passage and went straight to the Male Zerg’s room.

Yet all he saw was the Male Zerg sleeping peacefully in the darkness.

The moment Ulysses saw him, his furious, restless heart suddenly quieted.

Calm.

Peaceful.

All his anger and displeasure rapidly vanished.

Only that tiny, inappropriate sense of grievance carried over from the dream grew stronger.

Why did he keep using him again and again but refuse to marry him?

Why wouldn’t he give him even the slightest official status?

Ulysses wanted to ask on behalf of himself in the dream.

Then he realized just how foolish that would be.

His lips moved slightly.

In the end, he pressed them tightly together.

He stood beside the Male Zerg’s bed and watched him for the entire night.

Yet this unknown creature with such overwhelmingly powerful psychic force seemed completely unaware of his arrival.

It was almost as though he had long since grown accustomed to Ulysses’ presence and scent.

He continued sleeping soundly.

Only when morning approached did Ulysses hurriedly leave before the Male Zerg woke.

Once there was a first time, there naturally came a second.

Ulysses secretly came to watch him many times at night.

He knew all of An Ruo’s little sleeping habits.

An Ruo liked to lie obediently on one side of the bed, leaving a broad stretch of empty space on the other.

There was easily enough room there for another Zerg to lie down, almost as though it had been deliberately reserved for someone.

But once he was truly asleep, his face and body would unconsciously turn toward that empty side.

Especially when he buried his beautiful face between the pillow and blankets, it looked as though he were burying himself in the arms of another invisible Zerg.

Ulysses knew An Ruo liked holding something while he slept.

If there was no stuffed toy, he would embrace the blanket in his sleep.

Or another pillow.

Sometimes, he would mumble indistinctly in his dreams.

Usually it was only a short sound, almost like he was murmuring a name.

Ulysses heard his own name.

The hearing of an SSS-rank Female Zerg could not be mistaken.

That left Ulysses deeply unsettled and uncertain.

He also knew exactly how many marriage reminders from the Male Zerg Association and the Genetic Matching Center arrived on the Male Zerg’s terminal every night, along with lists of Female Zergs available for dates.

Ulysses coldly muted every single notification.

Disturbing a Male Zerg’s sleep in the middle of the night.

Those bastards from the Male Zerg Association really had no sense of timing.

Or perhaps they believed nighttime was precisely the right time for dating, mating, and making eggs.

After all, Zergs didn’t have particularly high sleep requirements.

The primary purpose of sleeping every day was reproduction and making eggs anyway.

He wasn’t a Male Zerg.

He wasn’t even a member of the Zerg race.

He had no obligation to shoulder the Zerg race’s reproductive duties.

Ulysses used that reasoning to convince himself to turn off the notification sounds.

He even switched off the terminal’s screen glow while he was at it.

Of course, Ulysses also understood that if An Ruo genuinely wanted to date or marry Female Zergs, these tiny actions of his wouldn’t hinder him in the slightest.

He wasn’t particularly worried that An, who wasn’t even a Zerg, would fall in love with a Female Zerg.

What worried him was that this unknown creature, who was wholeheartedly playing the role of a Male Zerg, might decide that in order to play the part better and integrate more thoroughly into Zerg society, he should follow the Male Zerg Association’s advice and marry one or several Female Zergs.

Fortunately, An had never shown any such intention.

No matter how many times the Zergs from the Male Zerg Association contacted him, and no matter how many powerful, influential Female Zergs found ways to add themselves to his dating lists, An never agreed.

Watching An behave this way, Ulysses didn’t know whether he should feel relieved or disappointed.

In Ulysses’ original vision of the future, he would remain beside this “Male Zerg” for the rest of his life.

He would always watch him.

Observe this unknown creature who had integrated into the Federation, preventing him from endangering the Zerg race while simultaneously repaying the kindness An Ruo had shown him...

If he had never heard those murmurs in An Ruo’s sleep.

If he had never heard An Ruo call his name.

Then that should have been all.

But because he had heard it, the heart that had remained cold and silent for countless years began to ripple.

The emotions he had deliberately suppressed ever since meeting this Male Zerg grew restless.

They no longer obeyed him.

Ulysses found his current state utterly unfamiliar.