Pet King

“Women?”

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At the mention of women, Zhang Zian immediately perked up, but he didn’t immediately understand what Richard meant, since he had clearly seen women at Cleopatra’s bath.
Or…what if Richard had seen the truth—that the few European tourists that he had seen earlier were actually crossdressers?

Richard nodded solemnly.
“Stop thinking of weird things, idiot! I meant local adult females.
Tourists and local girls don’t count!”

Well, if that was the case… Zhang Zian gave it a brief thought.
He hadn’t really paid attention to that yesterday when he’d passed by quickly, but it seemed they really had not seen a single local adult woman.
The local market was packed full of men, merchants and buyers alike.

“What’s so weird about that? This is the most conservative place in all of Egypt.
The local women must cover themselves from head to toe.
Even if you did see them, you wouldn’t know what they looked like anyway.
Besides, this is such a short road.
How can we treat what we see as standard?”

“You idiot! You still don’t understand what I mean!” Richard flapped its wing, making sure to hit Zhang Zian’s head on every downward swing.
“I have considered that situation.
But even if so, there are way too few women out here, and most of them are men! Especially young, strong men!”

Zhang Zian gave it a thought again.
That really did seem to be the case.
In a place where there was no Planned Parenthood, the ratio between the sexes should’ve been equal.
In other areas of Egypt, they also saw women walking by in their long robes.
Even if the women here didn’t like to show their faces, there were many situations where they still have to walk outside.
They couldn’t possibly stay indoors for their whole lives like the princesses of Ancient China.

Even though they had only walked for a short while within the city, it was clear from their short time out there that there were significantly more men in the city than women.

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“What are you trying to say? Even if there are more men than women, what’s wrong with that?” he asked.

Richard broke into a smile.
“It’s not just about the amount—when we were at the hot springs and you were eyeing the female tourists with abandon, I was watching the few young men.
There were locals and tourists.
From their eyes, words, and physical actions…they were definitely not just normal friends!”

Zhang Zian didn’t say anything.
This “not just normal friends” deserved more investigation.

He rejected thinking in the way that Richard was trying to guide him to and said instead, “You must have seen wrongly.”

“Definitely not! You have to believe in my intuition, idiot! My intuition is always right!” Richard said confidently.

“You mean only when it comes to ‘that,’ right? Why are you always talking about ‘strong young men,’ anyway?” Zhang Zian retorted.

“Gah gah! You idiot, you didn’t notice it at all! One of the really manly ones even smiled at you!” Richard squawked excitedly.

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Zhang Zian said nothing and thought, “Thank goodness I didn’t notice.”

He had a vague grasp of what Richard actually wanted to say.

In a town where there were more men than women and a few lads that had a deeper relationship than just friends… These relationships could be seen everywhere.
The time they had spent watching them was too short, but was it really just a coincidence?

He turned back to look at one of the few things left relatively unharmed.
It was the tip, tall and imposing, shrouded in the light from the sunset.

There had always been rumors that the famous Alexander the Great was bisexual.
It was actually pretty normal in Europe in the past and even now.
They had greater freedom in the expression of sexuality.

Alexander the Great’s right-hand man, Hephaestion, was also his lover.
Alexander the Great had done a strange thing back then.
Before he’d married his second wife, he had given his first wife’s sister to Hephaestion, a baffling move to get closer than ever before…

When Alexander the Great overcame all odds to reach the Siwa Oasis, no one knew that he had let the clergy of the Amun Temple trust an outsider, but he was undoubtedly successful.

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Alexander the Great had died young.
Before his death, word got out that he had left behind an extremely shocking will.
He didn’t ask for his body to be shipped back to his hometown to be buried, nor did he ask to be buried in the harbor city named after him.
He had instead asked to have his final resting place to be in Siwa Oasis.

Even now, some archaeologists were firm in their belief that the grave of Alexander the Great was somewhere in Siwa Oasis, waiting for the day that it would return to the eyes of the people.

This interesting history had now crossed paths with reality thousands of years later, and this led to Zhang Zian’s understanding that Richard’s question wasn’t without reason.
There was an actual reason why there were more men than women here.

“Gah gah! Understood? Of course, I wasn’t wrong.
You seem to be exceptionally sharp at things like this!” It flapped its wings on the back of his head approvingly.

“I don’t know! And I’m not sharp!” He pushed its wings to the side, having no interest in pursuing the topic any more.

Richard chuckled evilly.
“Back when we were at the hotel, you probably didn’t notice it either, but there was a European man living on the same floor as us.
He greeted us once, he’s a handsome chap, and he seems pretty interested in you, too!”

Zhang Zian said nothing.

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He couldn’t determine whether what Richard had said was true or false.
Due to the unique culture of this place, there were clearly a lot of tourists who had come looking for…a special encounter? European men had the advantage of being nearer than Chinese men, so they visited here more often.

“Gah gah! Listen to my well-intentioned words: make sure to lock the door properly before you sleep! If you want to be able to get out of bed tomorrow, consider applying some of the cooling oil to your backside! Protect its smile!”

It had finally reached the words it wanted to say the most, after beating around the bush.
Clearly, it was just taking revenge for the threat that he made towards it in the car.
Without waiting for Zhang Zian’s retort and revenge, it spread its wings and took to the sky, leaving the dangerous place.

Zhang Zian couldn’t be bothered to deal with it now.
He had to recall whether there really had been such a man who’d greeted him back at the hotel…

There could’ve been one, but there could’ve been none, too… Ah, forget it! He would just have to lock the door tightly tonight!

There wasn’t much to see in the midst of the ruins.
They could climb up to the peak, but that would be dangerous.
There was nothing interesting to see anyway.
It would be more useful to find a deserted spring and let Sihwa out.

He called out for the elfins, suggesting that they leave now.

When he’d been talking with Richard, the other elfins had been freely going around the rubble.
Now, they were back to his side, but he hadn’t seen Fina at all.

Where had Fina gone?