Chapter 88: The Marshal and That Lord: Who Exactly Is "That Lord"?

Both the Zerg and the Heavenly Garuda communities exploded.

[What do you mean Heavenly Garuda Embassy? What do you mean Heavenly Garuda Embassy?! Why is something like that inside Zerg territory!?? (No offense to the male diplomats and male commissioners.)]

[Heavenly Garuda can go die!!!]

The Heavenly Garuda side exploded even harder.

At this point, the embassy wasn't even the biggest issue anymore.

What was this about male diplomats and male commissioners?

[How can males go out and show themselves in public?!]

[Since when do males go out to work?! Does the author have {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} even the slightest understanding of Heavenly Garuda common sense?!]

[Heavenly Garuda males can't go outside alone! What do males know about diplomacy? They should just stay safely at home!]

[Are all the Heavenly Garuda females dead? Has it really come to the point where males have to become diplomats?]

The moment that last comment appeared, the Zerg readers actually found it much easier to accept.

[Sure. As long as all the Heavenly Garuda females are dead, we'd be delighted to welcome their males.]

The Heavenly Garuda side: Furious!

[It's just a science fiction novel. You think just because your race established diplomatic relations with Heavenly Garuda in a novel you've somehow won? In Heavenly Garuda novels, your race has already gone extinct ten thousand times, your nation has fallen a hundred million times, and you've been ruled by Heavenly Garuda hundreds of millions of times!]

The war escalated step by step until it finally reached the point of arranging real-life fights.

[Meet me in neutral space! Coordinates **. Don't chicken out!]

[Bring it on! Think I'm scared of you!?]

The battle-loving female Zergs and female Heavenly Garudas immediately switched into offline duel mode. Most participants were unmarried females. Married females usually limited themselves to arguing on StarNet...

Well, they couldn't really do even that anymore.

One married female Heavenly Garuda had been about to unleash a passionate rant when she lowered her head and looked at the male resting in her arms.

He was holding his terminal, reading attentively.

After a moment, he looked up and asked,

"Is this true? Male diplomats and commissioners?"

"Of course not."

The female Heavenly Garuda didn't have the heart to crush her Male Lord's hopes, but neither did he want him to be fooled by a fictional world on the internet.

"It's only a novel."

"Oh..."

The male lowered his gaze again, unable to hide his disappointment.

His eyes lingered on the final lines of the chapter.

The young male in the story was agonizing over his first job, unable to decide between joining the Zerg Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Heavenly Garuda Embassy.

To him...

It was a world impossibly far away.

A world that could only exist in dreams.

...

Late that night, Philor secretly continued reading the novel.

His Female Lord had already fallen asleep.

After finishing the latest chapter, however, Philor found himself completely awake, eagerly anticipating what would happen next.

An-shen's novels always had that kind of magic.

Everything he wrote felt astonishingly fresh, beyond anything ordinary Zergs could imagine, yet impossible to stop reading.

Back when Hill's story was being serialized, Philor had followed every update with immense enthusiasm.

Whether it was that unique concept of family or the brilliant twist of a hatchling traveling through time, every development fascinated him.

Now, seeing a collision between the worldview of Heavenly Garuda males and the future Zerg civilization was just as captivating.

Goodness...

The Zergs and Heavenly Garuda actually established diplomatic relations in the future.

How on earth had An-shen even come up with an idea like that?

It was completely impossible.

Hahaha.

Speaking of which...

The female Zerg protagonist this time was interesting too.

Enzo.

A General of the Seventh Legion.

He was also on fairly good terms with Philor's Female Lord.

If Enzo ever held a wedding, both Philor and his Female Lord would certainly be on the invitation list.

After all...

Even the Marshal was invited.

But...

"That Lord"...

Philor found himself growing curious.

Someone addressed as "Lord" sounded like a Male Zerg.

Yet he couldn't remember any male from the Federation's upper circles important enough to deserve a separate mention like that.

Philor exited the novel site and went to StarNet in search of analysis posts.

If he couldn't figure it out himself, that wasn't a problem.

Given how An-shen's readers loved digging into every detail of his novels—treating them like reading-comprehension exams—someone was bound to know who "That Lord" was.

#TheZergAndHeavenlyGarudaWillNeverEstablishDiplomaticRelations!#

#HeavenlyGarudaEmbassy#

#TheMinistryOfForeignAffairsCannotLose!#

#MaleDiplomat#

#Wedding#

Philor skimmed past one trending topic after another before finally finding the one he wanted.

#WeddingGuestList#

#ThatLord#

"In Enzo's planned wedding guest list, the phrase 'the Marshal and That Lord' appears, with the words 'the most important' used to describe them. This clearly suggests That Lord possesses extraordinary significance. So... who exactly is That Lord?"

First, the answer:

I have no idea.

Hey, hey, hey!

Don't click away yet.

At least listen to my nonsense—I mean, my analysis.

Here's what we know.

First.

The title "Lord" strongly suggests this individual is a Male Zerg.

Second.

He's mentioned alongside the Marshal, implying either that his importance rivals the Marshal's or that he shares some uniquely special relationship with the Marshal.

Third.

The novel deliberately says "That Lord" instead of using his actual name.

This likely means his identity is special enough that directly mentioning his name would be inappropriate.

Putting all that together, we arrive at the following possibilities.

First.

That Lord is the Marshal's future Male Lord.

His status would make him the Federation's "First Male Lord," so naturally his name shouldn't be casually spoken.

Second.

That Lord is...

...the Marshal's former Male Lord.

His identity would be rather awkward, making it inappropriate to mention him directly, especially alongside the Marshal.

Third.

Maybe it's neither of those.

Then who is it?

Like I said, I have no idea.

Maybe An-shen suddenly decided to write himself into the wedding.

Who knows?

Or there's a fourth possibility.

An-shen just threw that line in on impulse.

He never actually decided who this Lord was.

He simply wrote it down and planned to make something up later depending on where the story went.

Or maybe...

He doesn't even plan to make anything up at all.

He'll just leave it as a mystery forever and never resolve it.

...

An Ruo happened to see the post.

"..."

At first, he didn't think much of it.

As he continued reading the analysis, though, he found it surprisingly entertaining.

Then he suddenly saw himself mentioned.

He nearly jumped out of his skin.

And after reading that final possibility...

He sucked in a sharp breath.

No way.

They actually guessed it by accident???

When he'd written that line, it had simply been a flash of inspiration.

He himself had absolutely no idea who "That Lord" was supposed to be.

He really did want to attend Axel and Enzo's wedding.

But that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

He was in prison.

How was he supposed to attend?

A 999-year sentence.

Twenty years hadn't even finished the first digit.

There was no chance he'd ever be released.

Still...

That final theory—that he'd simply written it on a whim...

It genuinely startled him.

He felt incredibly guilty.

Because...

That was exactly what had happened.

It really had just been a sudden burst of inspiration.

Which counted as...

Writing it on a whim, didn't it?

And the worst part was...

He couldn't even think of a satisfying explanation now.

If he forced one, he could probably make it work.

But it would feel strange.

More importantly, this was Axel and Enzo's story.

There wasn't really any reason to waste pages explaining unrelated matters.

The more he expanded on them, the farther the story would drift from its main theme.

Wait...

Didn't that match the other half of the post exactly?

"Maybe he doesn't even plan to make anything up at all. He'll just leave it as a mystery forever."

That was way too savage.

How was an author supposed to survive criticism like that?

An Ruo clutched his head in despair.

Then quietly closed the post...

And went off to sulk by himself.

...

Ulysses had also read the newest chapter, along with the trending StarNet analysis.

He paid little attention to the theories in the post.

Judging from the "less-than-ideal ending" the deity had supposedly arranged for him...

Whether he would even still be the Marshal twenty years later remained an open question.

Everything else was even less worth discussing.

On the other hand...

The theory that An-shen had written himself into the wedding...

Actually sounded fairly believable.

That Lord had always shown obvious favoritism toward his protagonists.

And toward every protagonist besides himself.

Ulysses closed the post and looked again at the final section of the novel.

"The Zerg Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"The Heavenly Garuda Embassy."

"Heavenly Garuda male diplomats."

The world constructed by the deity was so inconceivable that it made him seriously question whether this novel might truly depict the future.

Yet...

He couldn't suppress his curiosity.

If such a future really did exist...

How, exactly, had everything been accomplished?