The Governor’s Mansion had an office building in the front, with living quarters and a garden in the back.
Keith had stayed inside the mansion for the past couple of days without stepping out. He noticed that there were many portraits of himself and Long Shi throughout the estate. Some even featured both of them together in the same painting.
It was clear that the body’s former owner knew he was attractive and was also extremely self-obsessed. He had even enjoyed fantasizing about himself and Long Shi.
What stood out the most was how the Keith in the paintings always wore a bright and cheerful smile. The former owner gave off an innocent, almost foolish vibe.
Keith ordered the servants to take all those paintings down and move them into a separate room. There were simply too many portraits of himself around the house, and it felt creepy.
Without those oil paintings, the mansion felt noticeably more open and less crowded.
From time to time, Keith overheard the maids gossiping among themselves.
“Oh my gosh, the Governor actually took down the portraits of himself and the Commander”
“Maybe he confessed and got rejected. He must be devastated”
“Hasn’t he given up yet I don’t even think the Commander is that handsome. It’s always the ones you can’t have that seem the most attractive”
There was a private armory in the mansion. Keith went to take a look. The room had pistols and rifles. In this era, sniper rifles were just heavier rifles. They did not even have scopes, so they were like weaker versions of modern snipers.
The firearms were fairly outdated. The armory included flintlock and matchlock guns, but those were mostly for display. Among the usable weapons, the needle rifle was the most practical.
It was an old-style bolt-action rifle with breech loading. Only one bullet could be loaded at a time, but it was still much faster than flintlocks.
Keith wondered if the Sharqui rifle he had seen at the military academy might be stored here.
System: That rifle is not here. The Sharqui was enchanted and is now in the hands of Esther, the Queen’s favorite. He probably has an entire storage full of special weapons. What you have here are just ordinary weapons. Regular magical weapons cannot be enchanted. Only special ones can be.
Keith: I am the Governor and I don’t even have one special weapon
System: All of Lanchi’s enchanted weapons were taken by Queen Bane Perella. Only the ordinary ones are left. Right now, all enchanted weapons are in the hands of the royal family, completely under her control.
Keith: Can’t more enchanted weapons be made I can’t believe a Governor has to use basic gear
Normal weapons weren’t even worthy of having names.
System: Only mages ranked S or higher can make enchanted weapons. All of them are in Bane Perella. In peaceful times, some mages would travel and craft weapons for other nations to earn some extra money. But now they are fully controlled. Without an official decree from the Queen, crafting is considered treason.
System: Enchanted weapons offer huge bonuses. Some can double a person’s power. With the right gear and strong support buffs, an SS rank can overpower an SSS rank.
Keith: But I can’t get special weapons, and I can’t get a Pope either. This is ridiculous. If this were a game, I’d delete it without a second thought.
What kind of broken system is this
Right now, he was like a max-level player with no equipment. He had nothing. This world favored support classes, but all the attention went to high damage dealers.
Support classes loved boosting the strongest fighters. They always went for the top performer. If they weren’t happy, they would just switch targets. They used to support knights. Now that gun users were proving more powerful, they focused on them instead.
Low-level damage dealers had no future. All they could do was lay low or farm materials to make some money. There were no other options.
The Queen had made things difficult for everyone. Keith decided to test out the weapons. He picked up a pistol and asked a servant to bring a rifle and a sniper rifle.
Behind the mansion, there was a garden and a shooting range.
Keith had no interest in the garden, but the shooting range was quite convenient.
He wasn’t sure how much losing one eye had affected his combat ability.
At the range, Keith first tested the pistol. Its power was average, and the range was short.
Next, he picked up the rifle, aimed at the target, and fired. The shot was slightly off. It seemed the loss of his eye did affect his accuracy.
Still, he could get used to the shift in perspective.
System: Normally, SSS rank abilities won’t degrade. You don’t need to worry, sir.
System: No matter how hard you try, you can’t level up anymore. Right now, you and Esther are the only SSS rank gun users.
Keith: That actually makes me even more concerned
In Lanchi, SSS rank damage dealers were treated like legends. The strongest ones were considered symbols of an entire era.
Currently, only Keith and Esther were at the top of the gun class. Mages couldn’t compare to them at all.
Of course, gun users had incredible burst power. With the right support, they stood out brightly. But overall, mages were more versatile. That was why most people still chose the path of a mage.
Keith reloaded the rifle. This time, both shots hit the bullseye.
The guns were annoying to use. They weren’t automatic, and each shot had to be loaded by hand.
He made a mental note to upgrade the guns later. At the very least, he could make them semi-automatic. He didn’t need a scope anyway. As an SSS rank physical fighter, he could control his gun with his mental energy.
By channeling his mind into the weapon, he could even turn a single shot into a rapid burst.
Keith decided to try shooting a moving object. He asked a servant to throw a stone into the air. To his surprise, he could still land headshots using the rifle. As long as something passed through his field of view, he could hit it.
He could even guide the bullet mentally and make it explode, though the blast radius was small.
The rifle’s accuracy wasn’t great. It could hit targets beyond 100 meters, but the hit rate was too low. Within 50 meters, it needed to be aimed using a tiny front sight, which wasn’t very practical either.
The most effective range was within 30 meters. He could lock onto heads with ease. Beyond that distance, his mental control faded, and it became more like regular shooting. With a proper scope, he could greatly extend that range.
The sniper rifle, also called the heavy rifle, required manual reloading after each shot. It dealt more damage and could reach over 300 meters. With a proper sight, it could go even farther. He planned to study this more later.
Sniper rifles couldn’t lock onto heads, but they dealt massive damage and covered a wider area. The large caliber bullets exploded on impact, like a bomb thrown from afar. The shockwave even blew a pile of stones apart.
Some classes had very high mobility, which made sniper rifles less useful in direct combat. They were better suited for ambushes or long-range support.
One of the servants nearby was nervously watching, worried that Keith might accidentally destroy the garden or the range.
Later, a servant came in and interrupted Keith.
“Governor, Mr. Ghis stopped by earlier and invited you to his new house this evening.”
The servant handed him a note. It read:
Governor, I’ve moved to a new house. The address is…
“Is he still outside the mansion?” Keith asked as he folded the note. He wanted to go see Ghis.
“He already left,” the servant replied.
“I’m heading out. Send someone to find out where he went.”
Lanchi was full of soldiers and patrols. There were eyes everywhere.
It would be easy to track someone down within his own territory.
After returning from the Governor’s Mansion, Ghis had moved into a larger villa he had rented in Lanchi. He did this because his close friend, a wizard and bishop, was coming back tonight.
The bishop had grown tired of the endless chanting at the church. When he heard Ghis was going traveling, he decided to join him.
Ghis always kept a low profile when going out. Since his friend had secretly snuck out of the church to stay with him, he chose a house that looked as ordinary as possible.
He had informed Keith to visit that evening. Based on what he had heard, the Governor usually did not have anything important scheduled at night.
Ghis had come to Lanchi specifically to meet the famous, unmarried Omega who had been the dream of many. People said he was incredibly handsome. After seeing him in person, Ghis thought he looked even better than the rumors described.
Back in Bane Perella, Ghis had already heard about Keith. Five years ago, Keith had joined the army of Bane Perella, and over four years, he had risen from an ordinary soldier to the rank of Major General, fighting across numerous campaigns.
He had earned countless medals. His military uniform could barely hold all of them.
Although promotions came fast during wartime, reaching the rank of Major General in just four years still made Keith an extraordinary figure in the army.
Ghis admired him and genuinely liked him, though he had no real hope that Keith would return those feelings. Being friends with someone like that would already be more than enough.
When Ghis returned to his villa, he found a letter freshly delivered in the mailbox.
He brought the letter inside, opened the door, and stood by the window as he unsealed it.
The sender was Queen Bane Perella. She was his aunt. His father had died early, and his aunt had looked after him ever since.
Letter from the Queen:
Ghis, my dear nephew,
Have you found a suitable partner yet? If not, I can help match you with Esther. I promise he will not keep giving you the cold shoulder.
You wanted a partner who is an S-rank male gun user. He fits your standards perfectly.
One of the Queen’s hobbies was matchmaking. Maybe this was something all female Omegas enjoyed.
Esther was essentially a royal bodyguard, the Queen’s personal protector. If the Queen arranged a marriage, he would probably have no way to refuse.
But Ghis had no interest in that. He was an Omega, but a past accident had left him unable to have children. He did not care much about ABO dynamics. He simply liked male gun users. However, Esther had never even spoken to him directly. That level of coldness was too much for Ghis to handle.
It was like trying to talk to someone who only replied with ellipses.
He decided to forget about it. Keith was much more interesting anyway. But it seemed Keith already liked someone else.
Ghis felt a bit disappointed. He didn’t dare confess his feelings, so all he could do was stay close as a friend.
Later, Ghis went over the list of ingredients his friend needed for potion-making and realized he was still missing a bottle of moonlight water.
That water was easy to make. You only needed to leave a bottle of water out under the moonlight for at least half a month.
Unfortunately, there was no time to make it now, so he had no choice but to buy some.
There was a street in Lanchi with many shops selling potion ingredients, mostly used by alchemists.
Alchemy wasn’t limited to working with metals. Magical potions were also considered part of alchemy.
When Keith heard that Ghis had gone to the alchemy street, he quickly ordered the coachman to prepare the carriage. He left in a hurry, accompanied by just two mounted guards.
As he sat in the carriage, Keith glanced out the window. Suddenly, he realized he had forgotten to wear a pheromone-suppressing patch. He had only been here two days and wasn’t used to it yet. Inside the mansion, everyone was careful to keep their pheromones in check, especially to avoid making the Governor uncomfortable.
The street sold not only potion materials but also a lot of miscellaneous items. Some young artists had set up stands to sell their paintings.
There weren’t many people around. Keith easily spotted the green-haired figure in the crowd.
Green hair was still extremely rare and easy to notice.
Keith felt uncomfortable having someone spend money to treat his injuries. He didn’t want to owe anyone a favor, so he had come in person to repay him.
He saw Ghis walking toward one of the art stalls. The young painter there seemed quite enthusiastic. Most of the paintings were copies of famous works.
Among them was a portrait of Keith and Long Shi. The sight made Keith feel extremely awkward.
It was incredibly embarrassing to see his own face on display in a public street.
In the painting, he wore a military uniform and a hat. His expression looked just as silly and naive as the ones hanging in his own home.
To make things even more confusing, Ghis actually bought that portrait. The painter happily accepted the payment, nodding the entire time. Ghis didn’t take the painting with him, though. He probably arranged to have it delivered. After all, carrying a large framed portrait in the street would be very inconvenient. Paying for delivery was much easier.
Why did Ghis buy a portrait of him? Could it be that he liked his face? Keith thought the painter had not captured his looks well at all.
“Governor, do you want to go over there?” the coachman asked, glancing back into the carriage.
Keith hesitated. If he went over right now, wouldn’t that be extremely awkward?
Ghis had just bought his portrait, and the person in the painting would suddenly show up in front of him.
That would be awkward for both of them.
Soon after, Ghis left the art stall and walked into a potion ingredient store.
“I’ll go on foot,” Keith said as he stepped down from the carriage. He told the coachman to wait for him by the roadside.
He headed toward the store. All the shops on this street sold magic and alchemy supplies. The whole place gave off a mysterious atmosphere.
Most of the stores sold only basic materials, with clearly marked prices on all items.
When Keith entered, he saw Ghis with his back to him. The shopkeeper, a woman, was busy recommending products and hadn’t noticed his arrival yet.
The air inside the potion shop was thick with a rich, complex scent. It smelled like a mix of many ingredients.
“My lord, let me show you our purest and most thoroughly purified moonlight water,” the shopkeeper said with a smile. She wore purple lipstick and held up a crescent-shaped glass bottle.
The water inside was as clear as purified spring water.
“This bottle has been placed under moonlight for two full months. It’s only 40 gold coins,” she said, gently tapping the glass with her long red fingernail.
Ghis didn’t question her. As long as it met the required standard, he didn’t care about the price.
“Please wrap it up for me,” he said.
Just leaving a bottle of water under the moonlight for two months and it could sell for 40 gold coins?
Was it really that easy to make money from magical materials in this world?
The average commoner in Lanchi only earned about two thousand gold coins a month, similar to Keith’s previous world.
Keith stepped forward and picked up the glass bottle first, inspecting it. He gave it a gentle shake.
“This just looks like regular water. What’s it even used for?” he asked.
To him, it looked like nothing more than overpriced mineral water in fancy packaging.
“Governor Keith? What are you doing here?” Ghis was clearly surprised to hear his voice behind him. “This water is used when making potions. Regular water doesn’t work.”
Two guards followed behind Keith. He gave them a look, and one of them immediately stepped forward and handed payment to the shopkeeper.
“You know alchemy?” Keith asked as he set the bottle down and let the shopkeeper wrap it up.
“My friend does. I’ve only learned a few basics, so I still rely on him. He went out to search for harder-to-find ingredients. I’m just picking up the basic ones. He’ll be back tonight and can make the potion for you,” Ghis explained. He hadn’t expected to run into Keith here and added, “Why are you here, Governor?”
According to what Ghis knew, this street was only of interest to mages and sorcerers. Physical-type fighters almost never came here.
“I came to find you,” Keith said, but before he could finish speaking, loud voices suddenly erupted from the street outside.
“What is going on with that pheromone?”
“This is way too strong. Who is it?”
“An Omega just went into heat.”
Chaos broke out in the street. A male Omega had collapsed on the ground, right in front of the store entrance. Keith turned around and saw him lying there, thin and fragile, looking like a teenager. He probably had just undergone secondary gender differentiation at the worst possible moment.
The Omega lay there weakly, fingers digging into the pavement. His lips were moving as if begging for help, but no sound came out.
People nearby began to feel the effects. Even Alphas with pheromone-blocking patches were affected, especially if the patch was not high quality.
This was the first time Keith had seen an Omega go into heat in public. The boy’s body trembled occasionally. The whole situation was dramatic and unsettling.
The shopkeeper quickly finished packing their items and handed them over.
“My lords, please step away from that Omega. His pheromones are dangerously tempting for Alphas.”
Keith thought to himself that he felt nothing.
Then, without warning, his expression changed. The heavy scent hit him like a wall. It was thick and cloying, like cheap perfume, and it made him nauseous.
He nearly threw up.
“This is disgusting,” Keith said, barely getting the words out before he had to cover his mouth and nose.
But it was no use. The scent seemed to penetrate his entire body. His skin felt tense, his blood pressure spiked, and anger flared up inside him. His eyes turned red with irritation. His fingers trembled as they moved toward his holstered gun. He wanted to pull it out and shoot the Omega on the spot.
“Governor, this civilian may be up to something. He collapsed in front of you and went into heat. We should detain him at once,” one of the guards said. Two of them moved quickly to hold the Omega down.
Keith’s personal guards were mostly Betas, so they were not affected.
The young Omega shouted in a hoarse voice.
“Governor, I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t try to seduce you.”
People in the crowd began to comment.
“Shameless. Still pretending to be innocent. What, does he think he’s Cinderella?”
“What if it’s just a misunderstanding?”
“Who knows? Maybe it’s an attempted assassination.”
Keith could hardly think. The stench made him feel like he was drowning in a sea of cheap perfume. He could not hear the crowd anymore. He just wanted to lash out. He felt no arousal, only revulsion and the desire to hurt someone. His hand instinctively moved toward the pistol at his waist.
“Calm down. This is normal,” Ghis said, reaching out to grab his hand and hold his trembling fingers tightly.
“Get that boy out of here,” Keith ordered. He would release him later if nothing suspicious came up. But right now, it could very well be an attack.
The guards dragged the boy away.
“Why aren’t you affected?” Keith asked. Standing close to Ghis, he could smell only the faint scent of incense on his clothes.
“Are you a Beta?”
“I’m not. He’s the same as me, so it doesn’t affect me much,” Ghis replied. He glanced at Keith’s neck.
Of course, he thought. This man didn’t even put on a blocking patch before leaving the house.
Ghis pulled a high-quality patch from his pocket. He lightly tapped Keith’s shoulder.
“Turn around. I’ll put it on for you. You’ll feel better.”
Keith turned around and lowered his head slightly. Ghis leaned in and gently pressed the patch to the back of his neck.
Keith immediately felt relief. The redness faded from his eyes. Even standing so close to Ghis, he could no longer smell Omega pheromones. Only the soothing scent of incense lingered.
He had underestimated the situation. Being an Alpha was more troublesome than he had imagined.
This was not what he expected. Was something wrong with him?
Was he broken?
He could only feel two things when exposed to Omega pheromones. Either complete disgust or nothing at all. Was that normal?
“Thank you. Let me take you home,” Keith said.
He had planned to visit Ghis’s house that evening anyway. Now was as good a time as any.
As they sat together in the carriage, Keith looked visibly frustrated. Ghis noticed and asked,
“Are you still thinking about the boy who went into heat in the street?”
The way he phrased it made it sound like Keith was interested in the boy, which made Keith frown.
“I just think I might be broken.”
Normally, when an Alpha smells an Omega in heat, their own pheromones react. It often leads to both losing control, and then things just happen.
But Keith had felt only nausea and fury. There was no way he would release his own pheromones. If anything, he had wanted to shoot the other person.
Did this mean he liked Alphas instead?
Was he that kind of person?
No. Absolutely not. He did not like Alphas.
