# 7
It was something I learned much later, but the reason Sion came to stay at the Rihart Duke’s mansion pretending to be a wealthy businessman’s daughter was to protect him from his uncle.
At that time, the Emperor shocked the world with his bombshell statement about placing his young illegitimate child on the Crown Prince’s position. The Emperor’s brother, who faced the crisis of being pushed back in the succession order by a mere illegitimate child, harbored considerable murderous intent toward his young nephew, even showing signs of rebellion.
The safest place to protect his precious son from the assassination threat of his overly ambitious brother.
A place with vast snowfields, dense coniferous forests that don’t easily allow intruders, and mines of enormous scale responsible for most of the Estein Empire’s minerals.
The Rihart Duke’s territory was, at the time, the safest fortress for the Emperor to hide Sion.
He disguised Sion’s identity and placed him as the arranged marriage partner for the Rihart Duke’s second son, then only summoned him back to the palace after thoroughly purging the opposition forces over four years.
The two people who parted with such an unpleasant ending reunited eight years later. It was when the Rihart Duke was summoned by the Emperor and entered the capital of Esteria.
Ash, who had just graduated from the academy at that time, accompanied his father in place of his brother who had to stay in the north as the family heir.
By then, Ash was already in the full bloom of youth. Having been popular among girls his age since his academy days due to his handsome appearance, he had been dating almost without pause, and his charm shone in the capital as well.
At a banquet where young people who had just debuted in society gathered. That day too, Ash was busy with his love affairs. He skillfully led a girl who quietly followed him with a shyly reddened face to the coat check room on the second floor of the banquet hall.
It had been exactly two weeks since he broke up with his previous girlfriend. Although his girlfriend positions rarely lasted three months before being replaced, he wasn’t foolish enough to behave in a way that would earn him a reputation for being dissolute.
Because as long as he didn’t cause trouble by dating multiple women simultaneously, despite the many women who approached him, a young man’s diverse dating experiences only added to his charm.
“W-what if someone comes…”
“No one will. It’s alright.”
Ash smiled and held her chin. In the coat check room, too narrow even for one person, he moved expertly to ensure her dress, which she had probably taken great care to wear, wouldn’t get wrinkled.
Ash gently embraced her slender back, which could be covered with just one hand, and cupped her cheek while overlapping their lips. Looking down at the eyelashes that fluttered as they lowered, Ash lightly held her increasingly breathless lips.
This moment is truly the best. The moment of the first kiss.
The first kiss is the initial moment when the heart’s door opens.
Everything after that is actually a bit mundane. Even the first sex that typically follows after a couple of dates wasn’t as thrilling as the first kiss.
“Haa…”
When he briefly separated his lips as if giving her a moment, her lips stained with rouge exhaled a trembling breath. Ash gently stroked her reddened eyes with the tip of his thumb and was about to overlap their lips again while whispering sweet words to her.
At that moment, the door flung open, and the gazes of three people became entangled across the doorway.
“…”
The girl who had her arms around Ash’s neck buried her face in his chest in embarrassment. Depending on who opened the door, this girl could get a bad reputation. Ash wrapped his arm around her head to shield her from the intruder’s view.
“…What is it?”
The last page of a weekly magazine’s gossip column always carried the same maxim, almost like a joke:
[Don’t carelessly open closed doors.]
Whether it was a liquor storage, a terrace, or a cramped coat check room. It meant that any of these places was sufficient to become someone’s secret rendezvous spot. This was an unwritten rule that anyone attending a banquet naturally observed.
Ash frowned and carefully examined the person standing against the corridor light. He needed to know who this tactless person was who opened a door without knocking at a banquet.
“Ah, …Sion.”
He barely recognized the other person’s face. Sion was still frozen, not moving at all, like a porcelain doll.
“It’s been a while.”
“…”
He seemed about to say something as his lips moved slightly, but Ash didn’t particularly care.
“Could you close the door?”
“…Disgusting.”
He couldn’t hear clearly what Sion said. Ash frowned and tilted his head to listen to his words.
“What did you say?”
“Having no sense of shame.”
Bang. The coat check room door closed without warning. What’s he saying… Ash laughed dryly and reached out to lock the door.
“I’m sorry you were startled. I forgot to lock the door.”
He lowered his head towards the girl again and apologized gently. She looked up at Ash with a dazed face, as if enchanted.
“…”
He knows this look. The look of a woman in love. Ash pretended not to know it and stroked her cheek with a concerned face.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fi—mmph.”
And their lips met again.
In just a few seconds, Ash completely forgot about encountering Sion.
* * *
Ash’s life in the capital was very smooth.
His romances, sometimes clumsy and sometimes a bit self-centered, became increasingly refined with experience, instilling in him an impeccable manner without any excess.
It was a very natural progression that his reputation, built over several years, established itself as a kind of fantasy among the women in the capital’s social circles.
That Ash Rihart suddenly became an Omega one day and became the Crown Prince’s consort.
For young men of a similar age, it was probably the most shocking news of the year, or even of the past few years.
“…”
After completing the arduous ceremony, he returned to the Crown Prince’s bedroom where a piercing chill had flowed during the day.
With night’s darkness settled in the bedroom, it was filled with romantic warmth from various scented candles and flower decorations.
Without even removing his tightly fastened cravat and stuffy vest coat, Ash lay alone in a formal posture on the bed strewn with red petals and remained frozen like that for a while.
It seems people’s thinking becomes dull when caught in situations that are too absurd.
He had only thought about divorce, never considering anything else. Imprinting, heat cycles, pregnancy, childbirth… He felt as if all the realities he had been avoiding came crashing down at once.
So now he had become a body that must reproduce with Sion.
A body that cannot be free from this binding unless he bears his child.
As soon as he organized his thoughts that far, a chilling sense of crisis swept over him.
…Was it this terrifying to be in the same space as the Alpha who had imprinted on him?
The fact that there was someone right beside him who could bind him with pheromones at any time and take him at will brought a strange fear he had never felt before.
This wasn’t a question of whether he could physically overpower Sion. Physical strength or size differences are meaningless in the face of pheromones that hook onto instincts.
If Sion just decided to, he could…
He raised his head slightly and glanced at Sion sprawled on the sofa. His long legs extending beyond the sofa’s range didn’t move. Ash very slowly stretched out his hand and grasped the candle wick scissors on the console beside the bed.
‘Is he asleep?’
Raising his upper body a bit more, he carefully examined Sion. On the table beside the sofa was an empty bottle of sedatives.
‘Who needs sedatives right now… He took them himself.’
If something happens, he would resist with all his might. Although Sion’s build was slightly larger, the difference wasn’t so great that he would be easily overpowered.
At that moment, a long breath was heard from over there. Though it was a very faint sound, Ash startled as if he had heard thunder.
“…”
After quickly checking Sion, who was still lying in the same position as before, Ash threw away the scissors he was holding and carefully got up. It seemed impossible to fall asleep in this bedroom, so he needed to escape to the study or somewhere.
Without even putting on slippers, Ash tiptoed off the bed and picked up his shoes that had fallen in the corner. His steps on the floor covered with soft carpet were quiet.
‘The coat.’
His gaze, searching for his tailcoat that should be somewhere, fell on the back of the sofa. A look of dismay immediately spread across his handsome face. The very coat he was looking for was hanging on the backrest of the sofa where Sion was lying.
The end of the tailcoat’s tail was trapped under Sion’s shoulder. Ah, of all places… Ash approached him with a silent sigh. A shadow fell over the face with eyes gently closed.
That face, as bright and clear as if without any worry, is utterly annoying. The long eyelashes drooping under his eyelids occasionally trembled. They looked extremely fragile, like flower petals swaying in the wind.
A beauty that makes his teeth grind when he thinks about his childhood when he almost dedicated his life being captivated by this face. It was a face so diversely beautiful that one wouldn’t tire of looking at it this way and that, yesterday and today again.
You should have been born a woman. Then I would have truly cherished you for a lifetime. Of all things, you had to be a man… What a waste of a face.
Tsk, Ash covered his mouth, having clicked his tongue without realizing. In the quiet bedroom, the sound of clicking his tongue felt as loud as a thunderclap.
“…”
Anyway, let’s leave.
There’s nothing more damn annoying than spending the night in the same bedroom with a black… no, pale man.
Ash grabbed the coat hanging on the sofa. Just as the shadow of his arm crossing over Sion’s chest was about to be withdrawn.
“…”
Blue eyes opened gently.
Though he wasn’t trying to do anything wrong, his heart skipped a beat for no reason. Ash pretended to be nonchalant as he quickly picked up the coat.
“Oh… you’re awake? I was going to sleep in the study. I don’t sleep well when someone is next to me…”
Just as he finished saying “sleep,” suddenly his vision flipped.
The sofa seat still warm from where Sion had been lying until a moment ago now touched Ash’s back. The shoes and coat he had been holding dropped to the floor.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
