‘Me being a good match with a man like Cayden, what nonsense.’
Amun silently left the servants’ quarters, clicking his tongue inwardly. He departed without saying goodbye, not wanting to disrupt the cheerful, boisterous atmosphere that had spread after the small mock battle had ended.
As the thick door closed, silence fell like a lie. Amun stepped into the stillness spread across the corridor.
But he wasn’t the only one who had opened the door and come out.
“Amun.”
Amun pretended to be startled and stopped at Lihet’s call, silently watching as she hurriedly approached him.
“You’re going to see Her Highness, right?”
“Yes.”
Soon Lihet came to stand right beside Amun. Her straight gaze met the eyes of Amun, who was taller than her.
Lihet examined the man with the appealing youthful appearance, who smiled gently but somehow looked cynical.
“Amun, be careful,” she said, opening her mouth to deliver a concise warning.
Be careful? He heard words he hadn’t expected. What kind of conversation was she trying to start with such abrupt words? After what happened in the servants’ quarters too, Amun thought Lihet was acting particularly strange today.
“What should I be careful of?”
“Your eyes.”
“My eyes?”
“Yes. Guard your eyes well.”
What’s wrong with my eyes? Amun wanted to object to Lihet, who was saying things he couldn’t understand at all. But since her words continued without interruption, he kept his mouth shut for now.
“Not just your eyes. You need to guard your pheromones well too. Being a beta myself, I don’t know much, but Sister Sela says she can sense alpha pheromones from you. She’s worried because they seem to be getting stronger.”
“Pheromones?”
Assad was bewildered. He wondered what on earth she was talking about.
To begin with, Amun’s nature was beta. His ability was unlike simple transformation magic that even magicians could easily perform. When changing his appearance, he could delicately adjust not only the external appearance but also the internal nature. So receiving advice to guard his pheromones made no sense.
This wasn’t just Amun’s problem. It was also Assad’s problem. Since his manifestation until now, Assad had never made mistakes related to pheromones. Even his family didn’t know his body scent.
“…I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“You’re someone who should stand behind Her Highness. You need to be careful, and careful again.”
“You know I’m a beta. Someone must have mistaken someone else’s pheromones for mine.”
“That sister has a better sense of smell than dogs. She’s also sensitive to others’ pheromones. Those who hadn’t manifested even after becoming adults all received warnings from her and then became alphas and omegas. Don’t you know that?”
Lihet shook her head playfully. In a gentle voice, as if soothing Amun, who seemed a bit flustered but showed no intention of confessing his secret.
“Visit a doctor when you have time. Since it’s before your coming-of-age ceremony, you’re easily influenced by others’ pheromones. They say love, no, emotional changes… can change one’s nature.”
Lihet, who had been carefully choosing her words internally, slowly continued.
“Amun. Her Highness is His Highness the Crown Prince’s one and only companion. Remember that.”
“…”
“I don’t want to speak at length, as it seems I’m meddling too much in others’ affairs. But you’re smart. You must understand what I mean.”
No. I don’t understand at all. Though thinking this inside, Assad didn’t voice his thoughts. If he did, he would only hear a few more strange, incomprehensible naggings from Lihet.
“Alright, that’s it. I’ll go back now. See you later.”
Lihet bid farewell, lightly tapping Amun’s forearm.
Without lingering, Lihet turned back and walked toward the servants’ quarters. Soon after taking his eyes off Lihet’s retreating figure, Assad brought his wrist to his nose.
He couldn’t smell any pheromone scent from Amun.
He wouldn’t make the mistake of emitting pheromones in his original body, let alone in a body he had completely made into a beta. He felt he had received a strange misunderstanding.
‘Is she worried that Amun, with his changed nature… might do something reckless to the Crown Prince’s consort?’
Even if his nature manifested, it wasn’t as if the first rut would come immediately.
However, he didn’t think Lihet’s warning was excessive.
He knew well that such concerns were nonsensical. He was an alpha who wasn’t swayed by others’ pheromones, and Cayden was practically an omega without pheromones. But since Lihet didn’t know he was Assad Mekerius, he thought she might have such strange worries.
‘Amun. Her Highness is His Highness the Crown Prince’s one and only companion. Remember that.’
When thought of that way… the strange warning he received today in Amun’s form didn’t feel bad.
He felt he had chosen well, someone who would care for Cayden. She would observe well the nonsense of alpha males who might approach his bride. She would certainly report quickly. In any case, he hoped there wouldn’t be a need to bury someone under the desert sand.
Having finished his thoughts, Amun cheerfully walked toward his destination. It was almost a run.
* * *
After nodding a greeting to the porters waiting in the second-floor corridor of the west wing, Amun placed his hand on the firmly closed door.
After giving a knock that might as well not have been given, Amun urgently turned the doorknob without waiting for Cayden’s response.
The intruder who entered the Crown Prince’s consort’s space, which now felt quite warm, immediately locked the door, as if worried someone might follow him into the bedroom.
One person was enough to throw open the Crown Prince’s consort’s chamber door, whether it was Assad Mekerius or Amun.
Today, the scene Amun encountered in Cayden’s room was a little different from usual. It was because of the gifts Assad had sent to Cayden.
Half of the reception area to the left of the spacious bedroom was occupied by fine silks, fabrics, jewelry, and artworks. Cayden was standing awkwardly right in front of them. No, he was fidgeting, not knowing what to do. As expected.
Truly, his bride was a person whose heart was easy to read. Just by looking at his expression, one could clearly see what his feelings were.
But at the same time, Cayden was also a person who revealed nothing to him. Sometimes, he couldn’t even gauge what that man was thinking.
That gap… Assad found it difficult.
Recently, Assad, in Amun’s form, had experienced an embarrassing incident when visiting the market outside the outer wall with Cayden. He had really only left for a moment, but in that short time, Cayden had vanished like a lie. The human he had given money to watch Cayden closely only muttered excuses, saying his bride had run away because of some man.
That day, Assad had almost grabbed each passing man by the collar, raising his fist and asking if they had threatened his bride.
In fact, during the process of finding his bride, some did suffer misfortune. What could he do? They wouldn’t cooperate in finding the person.
“Lord Cayden.”
Assad addressed his bride, who had the remarkable talent of driving people crazy, enough to claim the top spot in the desert. He was in Amun’s form.
“What joyful matter occupies you that you don’t even look at me when I arrive?”
“…Amun.”
Cayden turned his body toward Amun. His face, which had been full of worry, brightened instantly.
Amun was satisfied with the man standing with his back to the piled goods. He had ordered that the gifts should be first stacked in one corner of the bedroom for the Crown Prince’s consort to check personally, instead of sending them directly to the wardrobe and exhibition room. It seemed the head servant had obeyed his words well.
“His Majesty sent so many… I don’t know what to do with all this…”
Cayden haltingly conveyed his thoughts to Amun.
‘What do you mean? Just keep what you like and discard what you don’t.’
Seeing Cayden flustered in front of items that were entirely his own, Amun clicked his tongue inwardly.
“The busy Crown Prince specially took time to personally select these precious items. Only for you, Lord Cayden.”
Amun spoke distinctly to Cayden. When speaking the imperial language in front of Cayden, he always used precise pronunciation, like the scholars in the palace.
He didn’t tell him the background—that these were the results of calling in the heads of trading companies with palace entry permits and talking at length in front of them. That would have been too transparent.
As for those gifts, he could give a thousand, ten thousand more.
As the Empire’s Crown Prince, he couldn’t be outdone by a servant like Amun. That remained true even if he removed the title of Crown Prince and left only the word husband in its place. It was a somewhat childish thought.
Cayden looked alternately at the piled items and Amun. His face looked disoriented, like someone who had just woken from sleep.
Between the sleeves that moved up and down with Cayden’s hands, which couldn’t stay still as if anxious, the bracelet Amun had put on him repeatedly appeared and disappeared. It was an ordinary bracelet with a small blue gem hanging in the middle of a thin cord.
‘He said he would cherish it dearly. He really hasn’t taken it off.’
While not even considering wearing the wedding ring. Following with his eyes the bracelet that was not particularly hateful but not outstandingly beautiful either, Amun gave a fake cough. His throat was dry.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
