Chapter 352: Extra — The Marshal and An from the Original Ending (8): His Past Was All Buried Here, While His Future Was at the Foot of the Mountain

They nearly went for a second round in the movie theater. It was only when An Ruo came back to his senses and hurriedly called a stop that Ulysses, much to his regret, finally stopped.

An Ruo sat up, his face flushed, and pulled his clothes together to cover the marks Ulysses had left on his collarbone.

The movie was already over. It was time to leave.

But after doing something like that, he was simply too embarrassed to walk out like this.

Whether they ran into Zergs who had finished watching the movie and were preparing to leave, or encountered movie theater staff, either possibility would make him die of shame.

Knowing that this sort of thing was normal among Zergs did absolutely nothing to help.

In the end, he still had Ulysses use his spatial ability to take him away.

Ulysses was naturally more than happy to do so.

Pheromones could never be completely collected and purified. There would always be a trace left behind. He did not want other Zergs smelling it, and even less did he want other Zergs seeing the lingering look around An Ruo’s eyes and brows.

That would drive him insane.

They returned home directly through a spatial passage, and Ulysses cunningly chose the bed as their landing point.

The moment their embracing bodies fell into the bedding, the lovemaking that had been interrupted earlier found every reason to continue amid the friction of fabric and limbs.

This time, An Ruo did not refuse.

They were not in a movie theater.

They were in the home he knew, and it was him and his Ulysses.

There was nothing they could not do.

This time, Ulysses even had the good fortune of hearing his voice.

It sounded especially good.

Sexy.

Soft and tingling, making a Zerg’s ears itch and his blood surge.

Ulysses had never imagined that one day, he would find even a male’s quiet moans and panting pleasant to hear.

His ears felt like they were about to get pregnant.

Even his brood sac felt like it might conceive.

Could a Zerg female and a male of an unknown species actually have an egg?

Ulysses did not think too much about it.

The fleeting thought flashed through his mind and was immediately thrown aside.

The most important thing right now was to devour the male completely.

After that day, Ulysses officially moved into the master bedroom where the male stayed.

He did not deliberately say or do anything.

When An Ruo was about to return to his room to rest, Ulysses simply stopped outside his door and silently stared at his retreating figure.

An Ruo then took the initiative to grab his hand and pull him inside.

Once there had been a first time, his presence afterward became only natural.

Ulysses never returned to his original room again.

Ulysses’s skill at serving him also began improving at a terrifying pace.

To make up for what he lacked, he studied a great many things.

Sometimes, he even managed to startle An Ruo.

“You don’t need to learn this one. Or this one. And this one either.”

After being frightened several times by the simple and brutally straightforward style favored by Zergs, An Ruo had no choice but to personally streamline Ulysses’s learning material.

“Actually, you don’t need to deliberately study these things...”

An Ruo turned off the light screen, furrowing his brows in thought before saying to Ulysses,

“Just treat me as your living textbook. Practice a few more times and you’ll naturally learn everything.”

He did not want Ulysses forcing himself to study things he disliked just for his sake.

He knew Ulysses did not like those things, and An Ruo himself had no fetish for humiliating his partner.

On the other hand, there was also a bit of selfishness involved.

Privately, he did not want Ulysses to improve too quickly.

This time, Ulysses had clearly never gone through specialized cherry-stem-tying training, yet his progress was still absurdly fast.

An Ruo was already close to no longer being his match.

A female Zerg’s lung capacity was already something he could not compare to, and Ulysses’s learning ability was terrifyingly good.

An Ruo had only kissed him a few times, yet Ulysses had already figured out the principles involved, could draw inferences from one example, and even turn around and use those discoveries against him.

At this rate, An Ruo would once again end up getting kissed until he lost all his defenses and could only disarm and surrender.

Ulysses sat on the bed with him, holding him from behind.

Hearing An Ruo’s words, the corner of his mouth curved faintly.

“Living textbook.”

“Practice.”

Every single word made his heart itch.

But when An Ruo said that he did not need to study these things, Ulysses still explained quietly,

“These are Female Lord courses.”

An Ruo opened his mouth in surprise.

He genuinely had not known there were courses like that.

Perhaps he could have guessed.

He vaguely knew such things existed, but he had not expected Ulysses to take them seriously enough to actually go study them.

He did not know whether the Ulysses from the other timelines had ever studied such things.

Perhaps he had.

He had simply never shown it much in front of An Ruo.

Because the circumstances had been different.

In those timelines, he and Ulysses had either already become extremely intimate before marriage, with Ulysses knowing what An Ruo liked and even having been personally taught by him how to kiss, so there had naturally been no need to mechanically follow instructional material.

Or else they had practically jumped straight into married life, only gradually becoming familiar with each other after a long time, leaving no occasion to make use of such things.

Only the current Ulysses was different.

They were not married yet, and Ulysses still believed An Ruo thought his technique was terrible—

Although that was not what An Ruo meant, Ulysses absolutely believed it was.

So he was urgently trying to make up for it.

Perhaps Ulysses still felt insecure.

An Ruo did not want him sinking into emotions like that, so he wanted to fix it.

He held Ulysses’s hand and said,

“Since they’re Female Lord courses, doesn’t the Male Lord get to decide what exactly you should learn?”

Hearing An call himself “Male Lord” made Ulysses happy too.

The corner of his lips lifted slightly, and he gave a quiet “Mm” beside An Ruo’s ear.

An accepted the relationship between them even more easily than Ulysses had expected.

The moment he mentioned “Female Lord courses,” An naturally followed with the title “Male Lord,” without any resistance at all.

It had been the same before.

They had merely developed some simple physical intimacy, and An had already allowed him to move into his room and had never once made him leave.

An’s acceptance of him had actually always been very high.

This intimacy almost felt like they had simply pierced through some transparent membrane and naturally moved closer afterward.

An Ruo opened the terminal’s light screen and personally began writing the Female Lord curriculum he had decided on.

He entered text with Psychic Power, occasionally tapping with one hand.

Meanwhile, Ulysses stroked his other wrist, his thoughts drifting.

If he traced An’s unusual treatment of him backward, it could be traced all the way back to their first meeting...

To the very beginning, when An had saved him.

As a member of another species, An had had neither need nor reason to save him.

But he had acted anyway.

He had saved him.

His mouth had spoken of imprisoning him, yet in practice he had allowed Ulysses to change identities and return to Capital Star, permitted him to enter the Federal Government, and let him come into contact with power again.

He cared about the stability of the Zerg race.

He cared about Ulysses.

None of these were concerns an outsider should have had.

Yet An cared about all of it.

Ulysses knew perfectly well that An definitely had an even greater secret.

A secret connected to the entire Zerg race.

And to him.

If he were still Ulysses the Marshal, he would undoubtedly have done everything possible to uncover the truth.

He would have treated it as the Zerg race’s highest priority, investigated it, and guarded against it.

But perhaps because he had already put down the Marshal’s responsibilities, Ulysses discovered that he did not actually care that much anymore.

Nor did he possess such an intense desire to investigate.

Compared with those secrets, Ulysses found himself caring more about whether the male would wake up in his arms tomorrow.

Whether he would still be allowed to stay here tonight as usual.

Whether his male could be happy...

And also...

Marriage.

Ulysses lowered his eyes and looked at the Female Lord curriculum the male was writing for him.

There had to be a good-morning kiss and a good-night kiss.

Even after arguing, they were not allowed to sleep in separate rooms.

A cold war could not last longer than one minute.

If there was a problem, they had to think of a solution together.

Morning exercise also had to be done together.

What they exercised did not matter. What mattered was keeping each other company.

They also had to eat all three meals together.

They had to hold hands while walking.

Go to work together.

Leave work together...

Kissing was not allowed to suffocate the Male Lord. The Male Lord had the right to breathe.

Normally, they needed moderation and could not indulge too excessively, but if they wanted it, they did not need to force themselves to endure...

Do not demand too much of yourself in anything. You are already doing very well...

If anything feels uncomfortable, tell me immediately, whether physically or psychologically...

Your psychic value must remain at full capacity. The moment it drops below 100, you have to immediately find the Male Lord for Psychic Soothing...

Ulysses: “...”

What kind of Female Lord curriculum was this?

Ulysses finally understood why An had been dissatisfied with the Female Lord courses he had been reading.

If this was what An expected from his Female Lord, then the standard Zerg curriculum truly could not satisfy him.

And Ulysses really did need to start learning from scratch.

Keep the psychic value permanently at maximum.

If it drops below 100, immediately undergo soothing...

Ulysses stared at the newest rule the male had just written.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

For a moment, he felt a kind of speechlessness that was difficult to describe.

Who had a standard for female Zergs that required their mental state to remain permanently at full value?

The essence of this rule was not even a requirement the male was setting for Ulysses.

It was a requirement he was setting for himself.

After all, the one who had to actually perform the Psychic Soothing was the male.

Ulysses thought of how the male had cared for him these days.

Almost every night before bed, he would perform Psychic Soothing once.

Even though Ulysses’s mental condition had already been completely repaired several days ago, An continued tirelessly.

It had practically become a fixed part of their nightly routine.

Ulysses had never slept this well in his life.

All the lingering illnesses and hidden injuries that had plagued him were swept away during this period.

His entire body felt light and comfortable...

His strength and condition had returned to their peak.

In fact, he had even surpassed himself at his absolute best.

No normal male Zerg would treat a female Zerg according to this standard.

It was excessive.

Far, far beyond the threshold required merely to keep a female Zerg’s mental state stable.

It created a large amount of completely unnecessary work.

Yet An was perfectly willing to do it.

That was because he was not a male Zerg.

Ulysses held his treasure close, feeling him fill his embrace.

It almost felt as though his heart had been filled along with it.

He was incomparably grateful that he had met him.

Grateful that he had seized the chance to be with him.

“Male Lord.”

Ulysses kissed the male’s ear and called him softly.

At this moment, regardless of whether they had a marriage in fact, regardless of whether they were even members of the same species, he acknowledged An as his Male Lord.

An Ruo was thinking about what else he could add when Ulysses kissed him like that.

His ear immediately grew hot, burning until he felt flushed all over.

All right.

The current Ulysses had changed the way he allocated points to his kissing skill.

He no longer kissed An Ruo until he nearly suffocated, but he had developed a fondness for eating his ears.

That should at least be safer than losing access to oxygen.

An Ruo covered his overheated ear, his heart pounding violently.

For one instant, he thought of the powerful bite strength that allowed female Zergs to treat mineral ore like casual snacks...

But he knew Ulysses would never truly bite him.

Their tongues had tangled before.

Ulysses had even eaten his little An Ruo.

This was merely an ear.

An Ruo trusted him beyond even his instinctive fear of danger.

That trust made him willing to hand over every part of his body to Ulysses.

He leaned against Ulysses’s chest, protecting his heated ear while waiting for it to cool a little.

His head was hot as well.

And without thinking, he said,

“Let’s register our marriage this weekend, then hold a wedding.”

If he had been even slightly more clearheaded, he would never have blurted that out directly.

He had not even formally proposed yet.

It was simply that he had been thinking about marriage constantly these past few days.

He and Ulysses were supposed to have a marital relationship in the first place, so the words had slipped out naturally.

Only after saying them did An Ruo realize he had said it too early.

His eyes immediately widened in panic as he looked at Ulysses, desperately racking his brain for a way to take it back.

But Ulysses was not about to give him that chance.

He tightened the arms around the male and forcefully suppressed the excitement surging through him.

“All right. This weekend, we’ll register our marriage.”

In truth, Ulysses wanted to register it right now.

They did not even need to go to the Marriage Office.

They could simply register through StarNet.

He did not care about so-called rituals, nor about the idea that registering in person represented greater respect toward a female Zerg.

He only wanted to confirm their relationship as soon as possible.

But reason ultimately made him restrain himself.

He chose to follow the male’s arrangement.

...

There were still two days until the weekend.

Ulysses took half a day off and went to the military female cemetery on Capital Star.

He placed a bouquet of flowers before a gravestone at the top of the mountain.

He was getting married.

He ought to come tell his Female Father.

Ulysses stared at the gravestone for a long time, then brushed away the fine dust resting on it.

Afterward, his gaze moved past it and toward a spot one level higher.

There stood a larger gravestone.

His name was carved upon it, and beside it stood a black-and-gold statue of him dressed in military uniform.

—The Tomb of Marshal Ulysses.

This was the grave the Federation had built for him.

The location was actually quite fitting.

It happened to stand beside his Female Father’s grave.

At least Selerus would not be too lonely.

Ulysses gazed into the distance.

It was almost as though, through the endless stretches of space, he could see something.

His entire past was buried here.

And his future...

Was at the foot of the mountain.

Ulysses abruptly turned around and looked downhill.

He had sensed the male appearing at the entrance to the cemetery.

He had not told the male that he was coming to pay respects to his Female Father.

Yet the male had somehow known enough to find his way here.

Ulysses lowered his eyes toward the gravestone beside him.

This could probably count as letting his Female Father meet, from afar, the Male Lord he was about to marry...

Ulysses did not believe in ghosts or gods.

Most Zergs did not.

But at this moment, he could not help wondering—

If his Female Father’s consciousness still remained somewhere, and he knew what kind of Zerg Ulysses had chosen as his Male Lord, surely he would be very satisfied.

And reassured.

Ulysses said his final farewell to his Female Father and began walking down the mountain.

Toward his new family.

His pace gradually quickened.

Only when he finally saw the male did he slow down again and return to his usual composure.

He saw the worry and concern in the male’s eyes.

And of course, he also saw the flowers held in his arms.

A trace of confusion flashed through Ulysses’s eyes.

He walked over and asked softly,

“Why did you come?”

“To keep you company. And also...”

To see Selerus.

An Ruo looked toward the graves farther up the mountain, sadness and reminiscence in his eyes.

He already knew that Selerus had passed away.

Even if he did not know the exact circumstances, he could guess part of it.

So when he discovered that Ulysses had gone to the cemetery, he immediately guessed what he was going there to do.

Technically, An Ruo should not have come.

Because this was information that “Male Zerg An Ruo” was not supposed to know.

But he was worried that Ulysses might become too sad after seeing a place tied to old memories, so he still followed him here.

Seeing that Ulysses seemed to be doing all right, he relaxed a little.

But since he was already here, he still said,

“Let me go up and leave some flowers too?”

“All right...”

Ulysses agreed and led the way.

But when An Ruo reached the top and saw the two graves standing there, he froze completely.

Wait.

Why was there also a “Tomb of Marshal Ulysses” up there?

An Ruo looked at the grave marked “Ulysses” higher up.

Then he looked at Selerus’s grave in front of him.

Then he blankly lowered his head to stare at the single lonely bouquet in his arms.

Had he brought too few flowers?

What kind of life-or-death, century-defining dilemma was this...

Question:

If my wife is still alive, am I supposed to leave flowers at my wife’s grave?

Waiting online.

Urgent.

And there was only one bouquet.

How was he supposed to split it with his father-in-law?