# 5
Of course, he didn’t believe those ridiculous articles. Sion and himself were in a relationship where they couldn’t possibly like each other.
This was because they had already given each other the worst partings when they were young. Far from liking each other, even meeting was awkward, so they were on terms where they hardly exchanged words.
It was a question asked knowing it would certainly be negative, but Sion’s reaction didn’t deviate much from expectations. He frowned with his ears turning bright red, like someone who had suffered an unparalleled humiliation.
“Don’t say such nonsense.”
“Then why on earth!”
Ash’s voice, which rarely raised in volume, resonated loudly throughout the bedroom.
The reason he had been trying so hard to maintain crumbled. It had been a life where he thought it natural to have sex with Beta women and also to marry Beta women.
“Why on earth did you do such a crazy thing, why!”
But in just a few weeks, all of that had been turned upside down.
From the unexpected fever that came upon him, all the truths that had been certain in his life were completely overturned. The regret of breaking up with Adeline didn’t even amount to a single crumb compared to this shock.
Life felt like a mere insignificant piece of paper. A life worse than practice paper, flipped this way and that by the whims of a cruel creator, eventually torn apart.
This couldn’t be. He didn’t want to accept this marriage even if a knife was held to his throat.
Becoming the Crown Prince’s consort was a path Ash had never once considered in his life plan. Living as someone’s wife, sharing a bed with a man, forming a marital bond—these were things that should naturally be absent from his life.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, I’ve brought hot bath water. Shall I bring it in now?”
The voice of an attendant was heard from outside the door. Thinking that they might have heard his raised voice earlier, Ash covered his forehead with trembling hands. Sion opened his mouth calmly, with a rather different attitude.
“Bring it in.”
At the short command, sturdy servants quietly pulled a huge golden bathtub into the bedroom through the opened door.
The water filling it swayed gently. A faint citrus scent wafted hazily amidst the hot steam hovering over the water. Because citrus scent was most similar to Sion’s pheromones, Ash couldn’t help but blush with despair.
Sion, who had taken a towel from one of the servants, ordered them to withdraw. Regardless of Ash’s feelings of disgust and disillusionment that gave him goosebumps, the attendants bowed and withdrew with expressions as if they were looking at a happy engaged couple.
The blue eyes that shone gently between the strands of golden hair that had fallen looked at Ash before turning away. Sion, leaning slightly against the table, said:
“Wash up. If you don’t want to hold the ceremony looking like that.”
* * *
If the Rihart Duchy’s family was like clouds darkening the sky, then the Estein Imperial family was said to be like the sun illuminating the world.
True to that description, Sion was a dazzling man from head to toe like the radiance of warm sunlight. It was a beauty that would have suited an Omega.
The face revealed under his fine golden hair gave an impression of a pitiful angel being persecuted, causing people to sigh with affection just by making eye contact.
Paradoxically, his blue eyes, as if reaching the peak of that beauty, are known as a fatal flaw that should be shameful for a Crown Prince. This is because historically, all direct descendants of the Estein Imperial family had golden eyes.
Ash, immersing his body in the steaming bathtub, could see Sion’s features well without having to turn his gaze. He also knew well that Sion’s eyes had been sliding over his body for some time, standing motionless like a solitary taxidermied sculpture.
The blue gaze pooled in the gap between his jawline and collarbone. The stare that descended endlessly, onto his chest where the misty water surface undulated, somewhere in the water infused with perfume and soap, was unbearably suffocating.
Clearly, there was a time within reach when he could have been naked in front of him without feeling anything. Nothing had really changed now, but it was uncomfortably creepy to the point where goosebumps rose everywhere Sion’s eyes touched.
Ash’s hand, which had been submerged in the water, came out of the bathtub.
“Give me the towel.”
“Come out. I’ll dry you.”
“That’s not necessary, just give it here.”
It’s not like his hands and feet had become useless from falling into the lake, so he didn’t understand why Sion insisted on drying him. Sitting firmly in the bathtub, he said nervously, flicking his hand:
“Dragging this out will only delay the ceremony more. If you’re thinking of breaking off the engagement completely, I’d be grateful.”
However, Sion holding the towel was just as stubborn. As if he might escape in this state. Eyes of surveillance, not allowing him to prepare anything alone, bound Ash.
“Since things have turned out this way, I was going to postpone it until tomorrow, but I’m truly grateful, Ash. I didn’t know you considered this wedding so important.”
“…”
Finally, Ash rose. Though only the final main ceremony remained, they had already completed more than half of today’s schedule. He didn’t want to repeat the same thing again tomorrow.
A fierce stream of water poured down his broad shoulders and flat chest. Coming out of the bathtub, Ash flicked his hand impatiently.
“Give it to me.”
But Sion still remained unmoved. The moisture that had thinly covered his skin ran down along the contours of his muscles, and suddenly a chill settled.
With no bathtub to cover him anymore, Ash felt goosebumps as his naked body was completely exposed under those blue eyes. He wanted to cover himself immediately with his hands, but he hated showing such a pitiful appearance in front of Sion.
The blue jewels beneath those beautiful eyelids slowly descended and then briefly vibrated before slanting away. At that moment, Ash realized the reason for his discomfort.
A feeling as if something sticky was detaching. Curiosity and strange heat rippling inside the iris when it wavered.
Though he had received such gazes countless times before, the fact that the owner of that gaze was a man made Ash shudder.
Sion slowly unfolded the towel with his characteristic expressionlessness that concealed his true feelings.
“Come here.”
Ash reluctantly approached him. Eventually, the large towel wrapped around his body. It was as if he was embraced in Sion’s arms. A clean orange scent wafted from the inner collar of the white tailcoat.
Ash nervously pushed away the arms holding him and snatched the towel from his hands.
“Stop your nasty jokes. I have absolutely no intention of playing along with your teasing.”
He turned his back on Sion and quickly dried himself. It was truly unbearable. He found Sion’s gaze on his body disgusting.
In reality, his body, unlike a woman’s, was not different from Sion’s, so there wasn’t much new to see. They say the bodies of male Omegas are more delicate than typical Beta males, but that didn’t apply to him who had changed after already becoming an adult.
Then there was only one reason for that gaze.
‘Just because of a scent.’
The moment he realized this, an indescribable disgust washed over him. It was newly disillusioning that a mere pheromone had created such a dramatic crossroads in their relationship, which had been parallel until now.
A clean dress shirt was extended towards Ash. As if having foreseen the unseemly tumble in the lake with his former lover, quite irritatingly, an extra new formal outfit had been prepared.
Ash quietly sneered as he snatched the shirt from Sion’s hand.
“It’s impressive that His Majesty the Emperor doesn’t demand a broken engagement despite such a commotion occurring on the wedding day.”
“Your family is too valuable to break off the engagement over such a trivial matter.”
In response to Sion’s indifferent retort to his highly sarcastic remark, Ash, now fully dressed in the shirt, turned around.
“Once the wedding is over, I’ll submit a petition.”
He took the leather garter that was in Sion’s hand. Fastening belts on both thighs, Ash spoke while pinning the ends of his shirt:
“If His Majesty refuses, I’ll submit again, and again, until His Majesty’s audience chamber is so filled with my divorce petitions that there’s no room to step, and eventually my earnestness will reach him.”
His nervous hands began to meticulously put on each piece of the formal attire. With each garment he put on, Sion handed him the next piece of clothing as if he were a chamberlain, which was utterly disgusting.
“…That way, it won’t happen even if it takes a lifetime.”
At the calm voice coming from beside him, Ash, who was just buttoning his vest coat, sharply turned his head. The brilliant and annoying face that seemed crafted from particles of sunlight was only peculiar because its inner thoughts were unreadable.
The white, beautiful face tilted sideways gently. A strand of golden hair flowed down onto his fine forehead. Ash clung to his words, harboring a thread of hope.
“Then… what should I do?”
It seemed as if Sion, who held the key to all this trouble, would give him some answer.
“There is one way.”
He was willing to meet any demand. If only he could escape this absurd marriage.
“…Bear me an heir.”
However, even that single thread of hope, as faint as a strand of fine cotton, was abruptly cut. For a few seconds, Ash couldn’t understand what had come out of his mouth.
“What…?”
“An heir.”
His lips, which had been pressed in a straight line, parted. Ash’s face, which had been staring intently at his mouth as the word coming through his ears was utterly unbelievable, began to crack with crevices.
“Then, even without you, a child born between you and me would firmly maintain the bond with the Rihart Duchy’s family.”
Ash realized he had completely reached a dead end.
He had certainly thought there would be some way out, but… there was no escape route from the beginning.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
