Chapter 90: Flowers and Little Flower Buds: Philor Looked at the Words from That Distant Foreign Land as His Heavenly Garuda Friend Told Him About His Life

[There really are Heavenly Garuda male diplomats.]

[Pink-and-white hair, blooming like a flower in the wind, radiant with life. An-shen's descriptions are incredible. I could practically see a male like that walking toward me. He's so beautiful, so full of vitality.]

[Damn Zergs. Stop fantasizing about our males.]

They cursed all they wanted, but after reading those words...

The Heavenly Garuda found themselves feeling strangely conflicted.

They had never seen such a radiant male before.

Heavenly Garuda had no soil where flowers could truly bloom.

Their males often withered before they ever had the chance to blossom.

No matter how carefully they were cherished...

It never made a difference.

Sometimes...

They couldn't help envying the Zerg males.

Yes, Zerg males had countless flaws.

Arrogant.

Overbearing.

Wild.

Unfaithful.

Aggressive.

Greedy.

Vain...

No matter how often the Empire emphasized those shortcomings, insisting that Heavenly Garuda males represented what males should be...

It still couldn't overshadow the dazzling brilliance of a life allowed to bloom freely.

Like the Zergs, Heavenly Garuda were, by nature, drawn toward strength.

On the battlefield...

They followed the strongest females.

During courtship...

Their instincts likewise pushed them toward stronger partners.

With their own hands...

They had severed every possibility their males possessed.

Suppressing a male's nature.

And in return...

The only thing left was suppressing the females' nature as well.

After so many years...

They had grown accustomed to males quietly remaining at home, patiently waiting for females.

To them, that was simply what was normal.

What was reasonable.

Female Heavenly Garuda were also far better at seizing and possessing...

Than protecting and nurturing.

Whenever they saw the Zergs' radiant males...

Their first thought was never to let Heavenly Garuda males shine in the same way.

Instead...

They wanted to seize the Zerg males...

And make them their own.

...

Philor unexpectedly discovered his new friend's name inside the novel.

Delighted, he took a screenshot and immediately messaged him.

[Philor]: Little Flower Bud, look! Look! This Heavenly Garuda male diplomat has the exact same name as you~~

[Little Flower Bud]: He does~

[Philor]: What an amazing coincidence! An-shen wrote about me before, but I didn't even have a name in his novel.

[Little Flower Bud]: I'll work hard! I'll become someone worthy of this name!

Philor found his new friend unbelievably adorable.

[Philor]: Work hard at what? Becoming a diplomat?

[Little Flower Bud]: Yes!

[Philor]: That's so cool! I love watching diplomats argue with Heavenly Garuda. They're all incredibly good at insulting them.

The young male paused.

He wanted to ask whether his new friend disliked Heavenly Garuda.

But...

He already knew the answer.

There was no point asking.

He was the one who had deceived him.

[Little Flower Bud]: I'm sorry.

[Philor]: Why are you apologizing? It's not like you're... huh?

[Little Flower Bud]: I'm Heavenly Garuda.

Philor threw himself backward so violently that he slammed into the headboard.

Fortunately...

Neither his Female Lord nor his Female Attendants were nearby.

No one witnessed his embarrassing reaction.

[Philor]: Y-you-you-you're... a f-f-female?!

[Little Flower Bud]: No.

I'm male.

Nocas felt a little sad.

Now that everything had been revealed...

He would surely be disliked.

Looked down upon.

But...

He could no longer continue deceiving Philor with a clear conscience.

Philor let out an enormous sigh of relief.

Thank goodness...

He immediately realized that thinking this way wasn't very kind.

Judging someone differently based solely on sex was wrong.

Still...

If the close online friend he'd been chatting with all this time had actually turned out to be female...

He genuinely would have been terrified.

It would have been like discovering a female Heavenly Garuda hiding under his blankets.

[Philor]: Thank goodness you're male. I thought you'd lied about your sex before. You scared me to death.

[Philor]: So Heavenly Garuda males really sneak onto StarNet °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° too? This is my first time meeting one! It's so fascinating!

[Little Flower Bud]: You're not angry?

[Little Flower Bud]: I deceived you.

[Philor]: Oh, that's hardly deception. I just assumed from the start that you were a Zerg. I'm really happy to have made a friend from another race.

[Little Flower Bud]: That's wonderful. I am too~

[Philor]: A Heavenly Garuda male... A real, living male! No wonder you said your marriage system is completely normal where you live. Tell me more about your people! I'm so curious. How did you get married? Do those females bully you? Oh no... what if they do? And you said you want to become a diplomat. I can teach you the Zerg language! Although... you're already incredibly fluent. That's amazing. Males really do learn quickly with psychic power.

Philor sent an entire stream of messages in one breath.

The young Heavenly Garuda, who had only recently started learning the Zerg language, couldn't process everything at once.

So he replied one message at a time.

[Little Flower Bud]: My Female Lords applied for me. Once they accumulated enough military merit, they could apply to receive a male. There's a genetic screening process. Before marriage, there's one opportunity to meet the male. If they aren't satisfied, they can wait for another one, but then they'll have to queue again.

[Little Flower Bud]: All of my Female Lords were comrades-in-arms. They chose me together. After marriage, they don't all stay in the same legion. Each follows his own assignments and plans. That way their leave schedules can be staggered so they can take turns coming home to sleep beside me. It also greatly reduces the chance of all of them dying together on the battlefield and leaving no Female Lord to care for the male at home. If every Female Lord dies, the Empire takes the male back and arranges another marriage.

[Little Flower Bud]: My Female Lords don't bully me. They care very much about my health. They constantly monitor my medical data. Whenever I feel unwell, they all take care of me. Ah, they also bought me an account that lets me access the Zerg StarNet, and they read novels to me. When the weather is nice, they take me to the park. Other females bring their males there too, so we can all spend time together.

Philor quietly stared at the words arriving from that distant foreign nation.

His Heavenly Garuda friend was telling him about his life.

About everything he'd experienced.

Philor had always imagined that their large families...

Their lives...

Were fundamentally the same.

At first glance...

Perhaps they were.

But the details were completely different.

The young male happily described his daily life.

It was obvious he was genuinely satisfied with his Female Lords.

Yet...

Throughout the entire conversation...

He mostly talked about what the females could do.

Rarely...

Did he mention what he himself could do.

Even the care he described...

Felt strangely uncomfortable once examined closely.

Both of them were married.

Yet the young male had possessed almost no freedom of choice whatsoever.

Philor, meanwhile...

Had personally chosen his own Female Lord.

Although the Female Attendants had been selected and brought home by his Female Lord...

The final decision had still belonged to him.

If he disliked someone...

His Female Lord would simply send that person away.

There was no possibility of a forced marriage.

And that line...

"If every Female Lord dies, the Empire takes the male back..."

That was simply horrific.

Philor's heart ached terribly for the young male.

He wished he could have his Female Lord lead an entire legion to rescue him.

But...

He also knew it was impossible.

In fact...

Nocas himself might not even want to leave.

Doing something like that...

Would become a matter of national hatred and blood feuds.

He couldn't slaughter the young male's own people under the banner of saving him.

Those female Heavenly Garuda whom Philor considered unimaginably cruel...

Were Nocas's own people.

His own family.

The only thing Philor could do...

Was help him in other ways.

Since Nocas wanted to become a diplomat...

Philor would teach him the Zerg language.

He would explain Zerg culture.

A diplomat needed more than language skills and negotiation techniques.

They also needed to understand another nation's culture.

Its values.

Many of those things couldn't be learned simply by browsing StarNet.

The Heavenly Garuda internet presented a deeply distorted picture of the Zergs, and reliable information was scarce.

He would introduce Nocas to real Zergs.

And to every other race he himself knew.

Because of that...

Philor suddenly found himself filled with the pride of becoming a teacher.

He immediately began researching different races, studying their cultures, and preparing lessons to enrich his own knowledge.