Shortly after, when I thought I might die if I endured this any longer, Erica appeared with medicine. I snatched the medicine from her hands and gulped it down.
“They said there could be side effects if the classification doesn’t match…”
“Hnngh… Huff, cough cough…”
As soon as I took a sip, I spat it all out because the medicine tasted so revolting.
Don’t they even manage quality control for medicine that lower-class Omegas drink? Rather than getting better, what if something seriously wrong happens to my body?
I was anxious, but this wasn’t a situation to be picky about things, so I squeezed my eyes shut and drank it all down to the last drop.
“Ugh… The smell is strange too. Please don’t throw up after taking this.”
“Thanks.”
After crunching on the candy Erica offered me, I felt like I could live a little.
My mind returned and the heat in my body gradually subsided.
It was definitely strange. The heat cycles that used to come only a few times a year had been coming frequently lately.
I was well aware of my body’s condition, so I had been taking suppressants without fail until now. However, at some point, it felt like the medicine wasn’t working.
What on earth is going on?
Even though Erica said she obtained it secretly, since it was medicine exchanged for lopeia, the quality shouldn’t be poor…
Moreover, it was also strange that my body, which wouldn’t improve no matter how much Dominant Omega suppressant I took, immediately found stability after taking the terrible and revolting Recessive Omega suppressant.
I heard that among Dominant Omegas, there are some who need to take large doses of medicine to calm down when their heat cycle comes—could I belong to that type? If the drug effects finally kicked in belatedly only after taking both Dominant Omega and Recessive Omega medicine, then my body’s current abnormal reaction would make sense.
But even so, something felt off about it.
“Are you feeling a bit better? Really, my heart drops every time this happens.”
Normally I would have comforted Erica well when she made such a tearful face, but right now I didn’t even have the presence of mind for that. If William were to discover this, all my planned work might come to nothing.
To thoroughly hide the fact that my heat cycle had come, my urgent priority was to properly understand my body’s condition and find a solution.
I asked Erica, who was still covering her nose:
“Erica, is there any possibility that the royal physician could misjudge someone’s classification?”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said. Since the nobles are so corrupt, I’m suspecting that the current royal physician might be a parachute appointment or something and have terrible skills.”
“So why are you having those suspicions? Don’t tell me you’re suspecting that Daniel-nim’s classification might not be Dominant Omega?”
“No, it’s not that…”
When I trailed off, Erica shook her head and answered:
“That could never happen. You know that royal physicians inherit their family business for generations to keep the royal family’s secrets, right? Don’t suspect such things.”
What Erica said was a fact I also knew, so it made sense. However, I couldn’t shake my doubts about my classification.
Come to think of it, it was a bit strange from the beginning.
For Dominant Omegas, heat cycles usually come before turning twenty, so companion Omegas for royals are also decided early. Yet compared to them, mine came rather late, and while other Dominant Omegas experience heat cycles once a month, mine were very infrequent.
The infrequency was helpful for my situation, so I hadn’t thought about it seriously and had overlooked this fact. However, considering that Dominant Omega suppressants haven’t been helping at all recently, that too became sufficient reason for my suspicions.
“Daniel-nim, you seem to be getting sensitive because you’re not feeling well. You should lie down in bed and rest for now.”
The Noble Council would take at least three hours to finish, so if I wanted to show William a healthy appearance, it would be better to sleep even a little.
I lay down in bed and closed my eyes. But the unresolved doubts kept coming to mind, so I couldn’t fall asleep comfortably.
***
At the same time, William, who had finished the Noble Council meeting, felt like his head was about to explode.
‘Just hearing half the word “companion Omega” makes me want to vomit!’
If it were up to him, he wanted to burn at the stake all those who mentioned the word companion Omega, whether they were meritorious subjects or whatever, but every time such thoughts arose, his conversation with Daniel came to mind and he couldn’t do anything.
The year they turned thirteen, William, who had secretly overheard servants asking each other about their ideal types and chattering about romance, asked Daniel the same question.
‘What’s your ideal type, Danny?’
‘My ideal type? Why are you suddenly asking that?’
‘Can’t you just answer me? Danny always asks for reasons.’
Daniel answered with a smile:
‘I like someone who values human life preciously, has a warm heart with deep compassion, has proper conduct, and is wise and intelligent.’
William was greatly shocked by those words. When servants talked about their ideal types, they mainly talked about appearance, so William had been somewhat confident.
But Daniel didn’t say a single word about appearance.
‘No… who asked about that stuff? I mean appearance, appearance!’
Daniel burst into loud laughter and answered:
‘I don’t really look at appearance much, but someone with broad shoulders, fair skin, and neat features would be sufficient.’
While he was relieved that he seemed to fit the appearance criteria, thinking about all the things he had done behind Daniel’s back, he couldn’t completely put his mind at ease.
That’s when he thought:
At least outwardly—no, at least in front of William—he would absolutely never do anything that looked violent!
Because of that, William had to live every day stabbing his thigh to suppress his temper again and again.
Seeing William suppressing his temper in front of the meeting room door, Behern asked:
“Your Majesty, where shall I escort you?”
“Where else would it be?”
“Shall I escort you to Daniel-nim’s quarters? Or shall you go to your office and have Daniel-nim called there?”
“I need stability. Go straight to where Danny is.”
No one but Daniel could relieve his boiling anger. Just meeting him and doing nothing but looking at him would calm his mind and bring peace. So William, who was angry to the tips of his hair, needed Daniel more desperately than ever.
“Your Majesty, but how about resting today? You look tired.”
“I don’t look tired, I probably look angry.”
“…Yes. Honestly, you do look that way. Is it because of the companion Omega issue?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Since I ascended to the throne, I’ve worked on border defenses, reformed the tax system to promote public welfare, opened new lopeia trade routes… I’ve run around until sweat formed on the soles of my feet, but instead of thinking about helping the Emperor, these so-called meritorious subjects sit around having useless discussions—how could I not be angry?”
“The meritorious subjects are for Your Majesty and the eternal prosperity of the Stamili Empire…”
William stopped walking and shouted angrily:
“Shut up! I get angrier every time the Head Chamberlain nags me! You’ve been watching me for so long, and now you call that an argument?”
“Your Majesty, my thoughts were shallow. Please forgive me.”
Behern held back what felt like a thousand fires burning inside him and retreated for now.
‘Still, compared to when he was young, how much better is this?’
Thinking of the times when he would start getting angry and break all the furniture in the room and swing swords at servants, this level was tolerable.
Still, Behern worried about William as Head Chamberlain. He couldn’t just watch and ignore how his master, who acted flexibly in other matters and showed genius in politics, was excessively sensitive only when it came to issues about Daniel.
‘He’ll gradually get better.’
With such thoughts, he was about to follow behind when William suddenly stopped walking. Then he looked at his reflection in the large mirror at the end of the corridor.
“Behern.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“How do I look?”
“What are you asking about…”
William, who had been looking in the mirror, turned around to face Behern. No matter how you looked at it, it was a handsome face. So even Behern, who was good at reading William’s inner thoughts, couldn’t understand the intention of this particular question.
William paused for a moment, then muttered “What would I hide from Behern…” and sighed before continuing:
“I was asking if my expression looks cruel.”
Finally, Behern understood his lord’s words.
‘He must want to always show Daniel only a cool and mature appearance.’
Having experienced hardships from childhood, he looked mature for his age, but at times like this, his age-appropriate innocence showed.
Daniel might be the medium that would maintain his lord’s innocence to the end—this thought was both fortunate and frustrating at the same time.
‘It would be nice if that target wasn’t just one person but several…’
Behern felt both relief and anticipation simultaneously while hiding his emotions and answering:
“From what I see, you’re no different from usual.”
Whether Behern’s words were satisfactory, the corners of his mouth turned up sharply.
“Right? Then… from the Head Chamberlain’s perspective, how does my skin look?”
Though he was flustered by William’s unexpected question, he answered without showing it, like the experienced servant he was:
“It’s beautiful.”
“That’s fortunate. Strangely, I’ve been concerned about it.”
Perhaps embarrassed about asking such a question, William brushed his chin and started walking again. As Behern followed him and just turned the corner, Aren spoke to them as if he had been waiting.
“Your Majesty.”
“Uncle, what business brings you here after just seeing you at the Noble Council meeting? Why aren’t you waiting in the office?”
Hearing his lord’s dignified voice, different from how he spoke to himself, Behern bowed his head toward Aren. Aren, seeming to have urgent business, only acknowledged the greeting with his eyes.
‘What could it be? I hope it’s not something that will disturb His Majesty’s already uncomfortable mood…’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
