William stroked my cheek and spoke slowly.
“An Omega who has never had a heat cycle can’t easily handle pheromones released by a Dominant Alpha of imperial blood.”
I thought there would be some reason, but hearing it, it was a much more desirable reason.
“Then Your Highness has been waiting out of consideration for me.”
William lifted his chin and answered confidently.
“Of course! When have I ever hurt Daniel?”
“Even if it’s difficult, you endure it?”
“It’s not difficult though? It’s not like William is going anywhere, and you’re right beside me, so what’s difficult about it?”
“Isn’t it difficult to control your pheromones?”
“I can control this level of pheromones easily. That aside, you’re not answering my question and keep asking questions instead. What are the stages?”
I slowly answered while licking my lips that still had heat remaining to cool them down.
“I meant that even praising someone who did good deeds requires stages. You have to give praise proportional to the work done.”
William’s gaze touched my lips.
“So saving the empire’s people was only worth a short kiss?”
“It’s not exactly that…”
As William grew smarter and my answer became more difficult, I decided to rely on William’s consideration. Since I said I didn’t like being hurt, I had no choice but to use that sentiment. At times like this, having a child’s body is convenient.
“What I said about stages was just an excuse. The truth is I’m scared. Just being close makes me breathless and feel like my heart might burst, so if we do something more intense than this, I might die, right?”
William retorted with an aggrieved expression.
“You think I might kill you?”
“After talking today, I feel relieved that you probably wouldn’t.”
When I said this with a smile, William firmly grasped my hand.
“Have I ever done anything Daniel disliked until now?”
“No.”
“Have I ever been stubborn even when Daniel persuaded me?”
“You haven’t.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
On the surface, there was no problem.
But wasn’t the reason we could maintain such a peaceful relationship not solely because William was kind?
Though he had changed a lot from his childhood when he was the seed of a tyrant, William still showed the particular coldness characteristic of tyrants through his expressions and actions. Fortunately, I had been controlling him well so far…
Moreover, the occasional evaluations that Erica or Behern made about William sometimes bothered me.
‘Daniel-nim sees His Highness as too young and weak.’
‘When talking about Daniel-nim and His Highness, it’s like talking about different people.’
While people’s evaluations can differ across various relationships, wasn’t such a big difference problematic?
But I couldn’t reveal these inner thoughts to William. So I chose appropriate words to answer.
“Haha, there’s no problem. I trust Your Highness. I was just being careful out of fear.”
William, who had been fidgeting with his fingers, muttered as if talking to himself while looking at distant mountains.
“Just let heat come, just heat…”
Hearing those words, I could only pray that time would come after William safely became Emperor and I left the palace.
***
Time passed quickly, and another two years went by, making William and me 17 years old.
Due to the development and trade of the lopeia mines, the Stamili Empire continued to prosper.
William was also taking steps toward becoming a wise ruler. However, as the Crown Prince’s power grew stronger, the problem was that nobles who couldn’t board that train of power would inevitably bring up the Crown Prince’s marriage issue whenever they could.
Each time, William would reveal the deeply hidden qualities of a tyrant and growl at the nobles.
I might be oversensitive, but power wasn’t something that could be subdued just by suppressing it. You had to release it to some degree and find compromise points to appease it for control. However, while William used such attributes of power well for other issues, he refused to compromise when it came to the companion Omega issue, making me feel like I was walking on thin ice every day.
“Sigh…”
“Is that going to make the ground cave in? Why don’t you put your mouth to the ground and blow air into it?”
I grumbled while sorting the documents William handed me according to their purpose.
“Now you’re even complaining about my sighing.”
“Because it puts me in a bad mood.”
William put down the documents he was holding with a ‘thud.’ Having lived here for a long time now, I had reached a point where I could just ignore such behavior, so I continued my work and shamelessly retorted.
“Because of the nobles?”
“Mm?”
There was slight irritation in his voice.
Was he really in a bad mood because I sighed? Or was there something else?
I hurried to think of something else before William got more irritated.
“Ah, you must have too much work indeed. You haven’t been able to rest at all lately.”
“Ha!”
It seemed I had guessed wrong again this time too. No, if you have something to say, just say it. We’re not playing twenty questions, so I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Don’t tell me you’re testing me again?
While I was making various guesses, Behern, who was beside us, joined the conversation.
Behern was absolutely not someone who would interrupt when we were talking…
Since it was Behern doing this, I thought there must be a reason.
“Your Highness, when that news came this morning, Daniel-nim was with the workshop children. I should have delivered it to him, but I failed to do so.”
That news?
Whether the ‘news’ Behern mentioned was indeed the reason, William nodded.
“So Daniel didn’t know. Then I should tell him now. It’ll be interesting to see what choice he makes.”
After finishing his words, William smiled meaningfully.
“Then I’ll excuse myself now.”
Behern politely bowed and went outside, but to me it looked like he was fleeing in disgust.
What on earth happened that made Behern run away?
It seemed some news had come this morning when I had gotten William’s permission and briefly stopped by the workshop to meet the new children and ask if they had any difficulties while he was handling morning affairs.
Lately, there didn’t seem to be any matters proceeding without my knowledge. As long as it wasn’t about the companion Omega issue, William didn’t go into rampages, so I had left him alone, but it seemed something I didn’t know about had happened in the meantime.
Problems always explode when you let your guard down.
I felt I needed to know the nature of the matter as quickly as possible, so I urged William to answer.
“Your Highness, what is this news that arrived while I was away?”
William distorted his handsome face and showed displeasure. Seeing that expression, I felt quite wronged.
If I’m not the reason you’re in a bad mood, why are you scrunching up your face like that? What a waste of a handsome face.
While I was thinking this and just fiddling with the corner of some innocent documents, William muttered that he was too upset to stand it and let out a small sigh.
“…Kalroy sent news!”
“His Highness did?”
Since receiving a birthday gift from Kalroy last time, Kalroy had often sent letters through Behern. But even those had been carefully handled out of worry that William might find out, and I thought that was the end of it.
I finally understood why Behern had fled like that. Since he was caught secretly exchanging correspondence with Kalroy, he meant for me to handle it well, right?
But thinking about it that way, something seemed a bit strange.
If William had discovered that I was secretly corresponding with Kalroy behind his back, would William’s reaction have ended with just “I’m in a bad mood”? That would never happen, right? I almost confessed unnecessarily.
I felt relieved that things hadn’t gone that far and shamelessly looked at William. As I expected, he continued speaking indifferently without any particular change in expression.
“The Emperor of the Ohariko Empire is adopting Kalroy as his son and will soon hold an investiture ceremony.”
“What?”
I was so shocked I almost fell backward. I had heard that the Emperor of the Ohariko Empire was troubled about having no heir, but what did it mean to adopt a prince from another country as a son?
“Are you saying His Majesty the Emperor gave permission?”
“His Majesty… would have considered Kalroy a non-existent child the moment he left Stamili. As long as it doesn’t lead to national conflict, he probably doesn’t care what happens.”
“Even so, it’s hard to understand that even the conservative nobles agreed.”
William tapped the desk with his index finger. It was something he did when something didn’t please him or when he needed to think deeply.
Did I react too sensitively to Kalroy’s matter and hurt his feelings? Knowing that William became more sensitive when it came to matters about Kalroy, I tried to be careful, but this time I was so surprised that I failed to control my reaction, which was a mistake.
I quickly added,
“Haha, it’s not that I’m opposed to His Highness becoming the Crown Prince of the Ohariko Empire. If that happens, there won’t be any need to fight over the Crown Prince position with Your Highness, so I think it’s a good thing.”
Though I said it to appease William, I was also sincere.
I was truly someone who wished more earnestly than anyone that the two of them would no longer fight and live well in their respective positions.
“Who said anything? Making excuses makes it more suspicious.”
“I just thought since you weren’t saying anything…”
“No, forget it. What I’m worried about… it’s not because of such trivial things.”
“If you’re not angry… could you really answer how the nobles’ opposition was resolved?”
William chuckled as if he found it absurd.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
