After washing up, Cassius sat on the edge of the bed. He couldn’t help but think about Keith again.
He wondered if someone had put a spell on him. Keith kept appearing in his mind no matter what he did. Without even thinking, he took out the small sample bottle of “perfume” Keith had given him. He opened it and took a light sniff of the floral scent.
He wasn’t sure what Keith’s actual pheromones smelled like, but he guessed it was probably some kind of floral fragrance.
If this world had cell phones, he might even be able to chat with Keith before bed.
Ten days passed since the letter was sent. The Queen hadn’t replied.
Those ten days were quiet and uneventful. Cassius handled his official duties during the day and sometimes visited Keith in the evening.
Long Shi had grown more withdrawn. He was not the type to argue endlessly. After a brief confrontation with Cassius, he had practically shut down.
He often sat alone by the sea, staring into the distance, thinking about the years they had shared. Just like that, everything was gone.
One day, Cassius finally received a message from the Queen. Surprisingly, she did not mention marriage again. Instead, she issued an order to replace the Inspector.
The new Inspector would be the Third Prince. The previous Inspector would leave on the day the prince arrived.
Cassius went to the shore to tell Long Shi in person.
Long Shi was sitting on a rock by the sea, his face pale. He had expected the Queen to reject the idea of Cassius being with Keith. He never imagined she would respond with a completely unrelated order.
“So the Queen is silently approving your relationship with Keith? Does Keith know about this?” he asked.
Cassius crossed his arms and looked out at the ocean. “Who knows if it counts as approval. I haven’t told Keith yet.”
He had briefly considered whether Keith would even agree. The Alpha blood in his body made him more dominant without meaning to.
But the bigger issue had always been the Queen’s approval.
He was a little surprised that Long Shi wasn’t throwing a fit. Maybe he had finally come to terms with it.
“Do you know anything about the Third Prince?” Cassius asked.
“I only know his name is Erland. He’s an Alpha and a mage. A strange one. There are rumors that he prefers Alphas and has many Alpha lovers.”
“What?”
That would make him the most Alpha-loving Alpha in existence.
Cassius suddenly remembered something. “Oh right. Erland is Keith’s cousin. I’ll ask him about it when I get the chance.”
Long Shi didn’t like the sound of that. Dealing with Keith was already hard enough. Adding a cousin into the mix would make things even more chaotic in Lanchi.
He stared at Cassius’s face. Deep down, he still felt that Cassius loved him, but circumstances had forced him into this. He pointed to a small boat by the dock.
“Cassius, want to come sit on the boat with me for a while?”
“Why would I do that?” Cassius glanced at the small fishing boat. It looked like it could only hold a few people.
Long Shi looked at him with a strange mix of familiarity and distance. “You used to love sitting on boats with me when we were kids.”
“I had that kind of strange hobby?” Cassius asked. That must have been the original Cassius’s personality. Who spent their childhood boating with a Beta just for fun?
Speaking of scenery, the dock at Lanchi was beautiful in the evening. If it were Keith asking, he might actually consider it.
Cassius turned and left. Long Shi watched him go, feeling a bit empty inside. Cassius had only come to deliver the message about the Inspector’s replacement. Telling him in person was already a kindness, for the sake of their past.
The Inspector’s residence was on the eastern side of Lanchi. Cassius visited and spoke briefly with the current Inspector.
The Inspector was a man in his late fifties with a round belly. During his term, he and Cassius had gotten along reasonably well. When he saw the Governor arrive, he welcomed him warmly.
Cassius told him that arrangements had already been made for the ship he would take when he stepped down.
The Inspector smiled and said he was getting too old for the job anyway. It was time to let the younger generation take over. He had been looking forward to retirement for a while.
The two of them exchanged formal pleasantries. Everything was said in official language. About half an hour later, Cassius left the Inspector’s residence.
On his way back to the Governor’s mansion, he passed near Keith’s home. Since it was along the way, he decided to stop by for a visit.
The carriage arrived at the back garden of Keith’s house. Cassius was about to tell the driver to go around to the front door when he noticed someone working behind the fence.
He told the driver to stop, then stepped out and stood outside the fence.
Inside, someone dressed in an elegant dark green mage’s robe was working quietly. Beneath the robe, they wore a white shirt. A hood covered their head, so their face was hard to see.
The person was crouched low to the ground. The bottom of the robe draped across the grass as they planted a strange flower. In one hand, they held a small shovel, carefully packing dirt around the roots. Ornamental pendants on the robe swayed with every movement.
“Cassius?” the person looked up after hearing the carriage stop.
The afternoon sunlight fell across the hood. The eyes remained hidden in shadow, but the lower half of the face was bathed in light, almost blending with the sun.
Cassius squinted. It took him a second to recognize Keith. The formal robe had transformed him completely. Cassius had never seen Keith dressed like this before.
“Where have you been?” Cassius asked, walking toward the garden gate.
“Come in,” Keith said with a cheerful smile. He brushed the dirt off his hands and quickly came over to open the gate. “I just returned from the Demon Forest. I haven’t even changed yet. Vincent will be back later.”
Cassius stepped into the garden. The two stood face to face. Cassius couldn’t help but look Keith over again.
He was stunned. “That robe really suits you. Was the trip smooth?”
“Thank you. It went well. We found a new formula. We only went into the safer parts of the forest,” Keith replied, rubbing the dirt off his hands. It seemed like Cassius was complimenting him, but Keith felt a little embarrassed. He had just returned from a long journey and felt dusty and tired.
They had been out monster hunting.
“What are you planting?” Cassius asked, looking at the small flower Keith had just finished putting into the ground.
It looked odd and small. Easy to miss, and even easier to step on.
“This is a third-tier magical flower. It’s one of the easier ones to find,” Keith explained, guiding him over so they could look at it together. “Once brought back, it needs to be planted and allowed to grow for a few days before it can be used in potions. I wanted to make sure it didn’t die, so I rushed home to plant it first.”
Cassius realized he hadn’t been out in the field much lately. Curious, he opened the intelligence network and started looking up more information.
Magical Plants and Beasts are divided into seven levels. Only A-rank and above wizards can use those materials to brew magic potions. The higher the wizard’s level, the higher the grade of ingredients they can handle.
The flower was white and shaped like a human face. At the moment, it looked completely dejected, drooping weakly.
“It doesn’t look very happy,” Cassius commented. “Do you two need help with anything? Just let me know.”
“Really? That would be great. We haven’t collected all the ingredients yet. Vincent said this time we might be able to cure it, but the materials are hard to find,” Keith replied. He hadn’t expected Cassius to offer his help, and he was pleasantly surprised.
“I’ll go get some water to water the flower,” Keith said as he turned and walked into the house.
Cassius nodded. He felt uneasy letting Keith and Vincent go out collecting dangerous ingredients on their own. Next time, he planned to go with them. If anything happened to the two of them, he would feel guilty.
He waited in the courtyard for a few minutes. Suddenly, he heard a loud thud from inside the house.
Cassius immediately rushed in and found Keith collapsed on the ground, trembling. The watering can had fallen, spilling water across the floor. His robe was soaked.
“What happened?” Cassius ran over and quickly helped Keith up, letting him lean against his shoulder. Just moments ago, he had seemed completely fine. Now he had suddenly collapsed.
“Are you hurt?” Cassius removed Keith’s hood and looked for injuries but saw no blood. Still, there was a faint scent of blood in the air.
Was this a heat cycle? But he didn’t smell any pheromones.
Keith’s entire body was wracked with pain, as if he were being pierced by needles. He curled up, clinging to Cassius’s collar with trembling fingers.
“I’m sorry. My heat cycles are irregular. I didn’t expect it to start now. Everything hurts,” Keith whispered.
“What? Why is it different for you?” Cassius was caught off guard. He had suspected heat, but he hadn’t expected this. He held Keith tightly, practically cradling him in his arms.
He didn’t know what to do. They were so close that he could smell Keith’s hair, but he still couldn’t detect any pheromone scent. Naturally, it didn’t trigger any physical response. His own scent was still well concealed.
He had heard that releasing an Alpha’s pheromones could soothe an Omega during heat, but doing that now felt like taking advantage of someone vulnerable. Besides, Keith’s condition didn’t seem like a typical heat.
“What should I do? You shouldn’t sit here on the floor.” Cassius gently picked him up and carried him upstairs.
He noticed that Keith’s body temperature was rising. Keith, half-conscious, didn’t respond. Cassius laid him down in the bedroom on the second floor and touched his face. His cheeks were flushed and hot, with an unhealthy red glow.
Cassius removed Keith’s cloak. Underneath, he wore a high-collared white shirt. At the back of his neck was a row of buttons. Cassius helped him lie on his side, then leaned in to undo the buttons.
What he saw made his expression tighten. The gland at the back of Keith’s neck had split open and was bleeding. A red triangular symbol glowed faintly over the wound.
It was a curse. Every time his heat cycle came, his gland ruptured. His body took damage. Then, just as it began to recover, the cycle would repeat, tearing it open again and again. This endless damage was the reason he could not have children.
“Your gland is bleeding,” Cassius said as he opened the wardrobe and found a clean cloth. He moved closer and carefully wiped the blood from the back of Keith’s neck.
“It hurts,” Keith gasped. His body tensed suddenly, like someone had just rubbed salt into an open wound. He sprang upright and grabbed Cassius’s arm in panic.
“Alright, alright, I won’t touch it,” Cassius said quickly, almost falling over. He caught himself with one hand on the mattress. His face came close to Keith’s neck, and that was when he finally picked up the faintest trace of scent, daffodil.
It was so light he had to be almost touching him to detect it. The scent was far too weak to stir any Alpha instinct.
As an Omega, Keith was considered broken. No wonder no one wanted to marry him.
The person who cursed him had been cruel beyond reason.
Cassius clenched the cloth tightly. His knuckles turned pale. Whoever had done this had better pray they never met him.
“Get me the pain medicine. It’s in the potion storage cabinet in the next room. The bottles are labeled,” Keith said weakly. His voice was so faint it seemed to take everything he had left.
For an Omega, going through heat without any natural release or soothing meant relying only on painkillers. It was unbearable.
“I’ll get it,” Cassius said. He gently adjusted Keith’s position on the bed, then stood and quickly headed for the next room.
