William buried his face in my shoulder and breathed deeply in and out. The breath touching my nape tickled, making me shrink back, so William pressed his lips even closer.
“Now I feel like I can live. Are Dominant Omegas originally like this? I’ve seen Dominant Omegas before, but it wasn’t like this…”
“I can’t even believe that I’m a Dominant Omega myself.”
“That makes sense. You wouldn’t be able to smell your own scent. But Danny…”
I turned my head to meet his eyes. His gray pupils wavered for a moment, then a deep sigh escaped from his lips. I silently waited for his next words.
Only after a long while did William finally speak.
“Even if Danny weren’t a Dominant Omega, I would have trusted only Danny like I do now.”
William’s words were gratifying, but the atmosphere seemed to be flowing strangely, so I thought I should change the subject and laughed loudly.
“Hahaha! If Behern and Duke Aren heard that, they’d be quite hurt.”
“Of course I’m grateful to them too. But being grateful and truly trusting and relying on someone seem to be different things. I feel something beyond trust toward Danny… I feel anxious without you, I can only feel at ease when you’re by my side, and no matter how difficult things get, I feel like everything will be okay as long as you’re next to me.”
I knew what emotion William was having right now. Children who had been exposed to abuse for a long time were bound to form strong attachments to someone they could rely on when such a person appeared.
However, that attachment wasn’t a healthy attachment, but led to insecure attachment or separation anxiety.
I knew the method to change insecure attachment into secure attachment, but I wondered if that method would work on a child with the special circumstances of being the Crown Prince of the Empire. Still, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
The method for treating insecure attachment was surprisingly simple. Until they found some stability, you had to tell them not the truth, but what they wanted to hear.
By making them recognize that the attachment figure wouldn’t leave, that they would stay by their side, and by always being there, the child would gradually change from insecure attachment to secure attachment.
So I hugged William tightly and patted his back while saying:
“Thank you for trusting me. I’m also happiest when I’m by Your Highness’s side.”
William hugged me even deeper. Even though we were wrapped in layers of clothes, it was close enough that I could feel his heartbeat.
***
It had already been 5 years since William was crowned as Crown Prince.
After the Crown Prince coronation ceremony ended, I spent such peaceful times that I wondered if this was really okay.
William’s height had grown so much that I had to look up at him, and his shoulders had become broader. Even though his rampage cycle had changed from every 6 months to every 3 months, his Alpha traits that showed in his appearance became even clearer, pleasing the Emperor.
The Emperor, saying his health wasn’t what it used to be, gave William parts of the economic and military power and began teaching him politics directly. At this rate, William ascending to the Emperor’s throne would proceed without any problems.
On the surface, I lived as the Crown Prince’s one and only concubine, becoming a role model for low-ranking attendants, but in reality I was a storyteller who had to offer one folk tale every night, and a strategist who had to put our heads together to solve problems whenever the Emperor posed difficult questions.
Telling stories beside the beautiful and wise William and solving difficult problems together was enjoyable and rewarding work, and if I could, I even had the strange thought that I wished William wouldn’t grow up and would stay by my side like this.
Even while living happily like this, I would occasionally think of Kalroy who had gone to the Ohariko Empire.
Since he went as an envoy rather than being exiled, he wouldn’t be mistreated or abused. But living away from the empire where he was born and raised in a strange place couldn’t be easy.
At least it was fortunate that Rob was there, someone so loyal that he would give up his life for a single word from Kalroy.
He must have grown a lot, right? Come to think of it, has Kalroy turned twenty?
Having various thoughts, I picked up my teacup. I started my day by listening to chirping birds in the early morning and appreciating the garden visible through the window. Today it was raining, so the outside looked even more beautiful.
My reflection appeared in the window filled with moisture. It had already been well over 5 years since I entered the Imperial Palace. I hadn’t grown as much as William, but my height had also grown little by little.
Looking at my young appearance that had now become familiar, I suddenly wondered how old I would have been if I hadn’t died in my original world, and my body shuddered.
Already in my thirties…
Even as time passed, whenever memories from my original world came to mind, my mouth turned bitter. The tea I usually thought was fragrant tasted bitter, and I soon became depressed.
“Lord Daniel!”
At the voice calling me, I turned my head toward the door. Erica was standing there, breathing heavily. Erica was an attendant I had been given after William was crowned Crown Prince and I became an official concubine.
“Speak slowly. You’re going to suffocate from the morning!”
Erica caught her breath with eyes that looked like she had a lot to tell me. Thinking about getting lectured from the morning made me want to cover my ears.
“This isn’t the time to leisurely drink tea.”
“Why? Is His Highness urgently calling for me again? Ugh, if this is how it’s going to be, he should just make my room next to his room like before and let me live there. What’s the point of giving me such spacious quarters…”
Erica pounded her chest as if frustrated.
“That’s not what’s important right now! Huff, huff…”
“Then?”
“A, a party is being held. A party that His Highness the Crown Prince is personally hosting.”
“…What?”
I was so surprised that I almost dropped the teacup I was holding. I wasn’t surprised because a party was being held. It was because this was the first party William was hosting after his coronation ceremony.
To raise the empire’s citizens’ trust in William, Aren and I had thoroughly refined his image.
A frugal Crown Prince who didn’t indulge in luxury, a Crown Prince who worked more than anyone else, a Crown Prince who put the empire’s citizens first and was completely loyal to His Majesty the Emperor – this was our image-making strategy.
Fortunately, William, who wasn’t particularly interested in parties, had attended parties hosted by His Majesty in simple but beautiful appearances, showing his presence, but had never hosted one himself.
And now that William was saying he was hosting a party without even consulting me?
“This won’t do. Let’s go to His Highness the Crown Prince quickly. I need to see him directly and ask what’s going on.”
Erica, who had rushed to me in a hurry after hearing the news about the party, blocked my path.
“What are you doing? I said let’s go quickly.”
Erica widened her eyes as if she didn’t understand what I was saying and asked back.
“Where?”
“I have to go to His Highness. I need to ask why he’s hosting a party.”
“Why?”
I frowned in frustration. I couldn’t understand why the smart Erica was being so frustratingly slow today.
“Why? Don’t you know why I’m asking?”
“Lord Daniel, don’t you know why His Highness wants to host a party?”
“…?”
I stared blankly at Erica. She also looked at me with her mouth open. Her gaze looked exactly like she was looking at a pathetic child.
Why is she looking at me like that? No matter how much I think about it, I don’t know what I did wrong…
“Sigh… I really can’t live like this. Even if you’re slow, how can you not know that your birthday is in 5 days?”
I looked at Erica, unable to understand.
How does she know my birthday?
Even thinking back to the original story, there didn’t seem to be any information about birthdays, right?
“My birthday? A birthday that even I don’t know…”
Erica gasped.
“Then you didn’t even know the meaning of the gifts His Highness gave you every year on May 26th? The precious silk from the East, the jewels that are the only ones in the empire… you thought he just gave you these things because he was bored?”
“I knew they were precious items, but I didn’t know he sent them because it was my birthday…”
I trailed off and thought about why May 26th had become my birthday. Searching through my memories, a fact suddenly came to mind.
It was some time after William’s Crown Prince coronation ceremony, one night. That day too, we were lying side by side on the bed and I had told him the story of a rabbit couple who became enemies due to lack of communication. After hearing the whole story, William said we should never become like the rabbits and started asking me various things. I, who was sleepy, answered William’s questions carelessly. My birthday must have been among them.
May 26th.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t my birthday but the date I died – no, the date I came to this place, and the date I was reborn.
Since I died and was reborn, I thought it would be okay to set that day as my birthday, so I told him that, but he didn’t forget it and sent gifts every year…
Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes.
“What? Are you crying right now?”
“No. Who said I was crying? Something got in my eye.”
“Tsk, liar! It looks like you’re crying.”
Erica laughed cheerfully. Soon her warm hand wiped away the tears that had flowed down my cheek.
Erica was a female Beta around my age, and she had emanated an extraordinary aura from the moment she first arrived. Although she was much younger than my original age, she helped me with various things by my side, making me unconsciously rely on her.
But there was one strange thing.
“You know the reason for hosting the party, and there’s no particular problem, so why did you run here earlier like you were about to suffocate? What could be so urgent?”
Erica looked at me pathetically again. Among the minors I had met in this world, Erica was the only one who looked at me with such eyes.
“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
“Ah! His Highness must have summoned me. There must be many things to discuss, right?”
“Ah… I’ll just tell you before I really die of frustration.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
