But things began to take a strange turn.
Assad taught Cayden the imperial language while pretending to be Amun. He toured various parts of the imperial palace with him and told many stories to the bride who knew nothing about Helio. He approached the intimidated man first, spent time chatting with him about trivial things. He held his hand. He acted as if he had forgotten his true purpose.
He had gained trust. His bride was more comfortable with Amun than with his husband, himself.
While always smiling in front of Amun. While affectionately patting the head of someone who might be harboring malicious thoughts. Yet in front of his only husband in the world, he acted awkwardly. His face turned pale as he smiled clumsily.
Amun even heard Cayden say, “How nice it would have been if I had a brother like you.”
Assad hadn’t found any pleasure in the intimate words Cayden had shared. Cayden wouldn’t know how desolate his face had looked when he said those words.
It made his stomach turn again when he remembered how Cayden had smiled and said he was the same after Assad had blurted out the lie about having no family out of embarrassment. Why would he say he had no family when his husband was right beside him?
But Assad had no right to criticize Cayden’s words. There was no reason to. After all, he was desperate to remove Cayden from his side.
“Foolish bride.”
Assad thought of Cayden.
“Poor bride… who will never become empress.”
He thought again.
Cayden wasn’t suitable to be an empress who could help the emperor. Cayden had no family to support him, no wealth, no trust, and no honor. The man without even an inherited surname didn’t even have a strong mind to protect himself.
Cayden was destitute.
There was no need to feel unnecessary sympathy or compassion for him. It would be right to say goodbye as planned.
But… he had to kick down and demolish the plans he had made before. Assad didn’t want to suppress Cayden. He had even less desire to seize and shake his weaknesses. He didn’t want to hurt Cayden.
I shouldn’t leave even a slight blemish. I should make him a little brighter than now and take him to a safe place where there’s no one to frighten him.
No.
Is it really necessary to send him out of the imperial palace? Even if I take care of the kingdom’s trash, what if he suffers from similar harassment by someone else? If I silence people and let him continue to stay here…
“What kind of… ridiculous… dog-like thoughts am I having?”
Assad spat out a curse at himself. He uttered vulgar words he had learned while mingling with people beyond the wall.
He had clearly taken a wrong turn. No, it felt like wandering in a desert without a path. Many questions arose, but no refreshing answers emerged. He had never experienced such confusion since his birth.
Nervously disheveling his hair again, Assad rose from his seat.
He needed to meet Cayden. Cayden would be able to eliminate these irritating distractions.
With a sigh, Assad moved his steps, intending to leave his office. But before he could take five more steps, he stopped, feeling an inexplicable dizziness. He retreated and grabbed the back of the sofa.
“…What is this?”
Assad looked at his hand gripping the sofa. Veins bulged on the back of his hand as he squeezed the backrest with enough force to crush it. A suffocating heat enveloped his body.
Assad’s face crumpled as he faced the unfamiliar situation.
Uncontrollable strength, body heat that made even his breath hot, skin that stung as if hit by a sandstorm, and a heart beating more roughly…
It wasn’t just a cold or body ache that had come to him.
In the midst of confused bewilderment, Assad sensed a familiar yet unfamiliar scent. His pheromones, which had never once escaped his control until now, began to spread into the air.
It was the Joy Period.
Assad inwardly spat out profanities. Coarser curses than before.
“This can’t be happening.”
His head ached as if it would split. Yet all his bodily sensations became clean, to the point where “clarity” would be an apt description. They also became as sharp as a well-forged sword.
A commotion was heard from beyond the door.
Assad placed his hand on the dagger that guarded his waist. He counted the number of unwelcome visitors while taking in the sound of feet touching the marble floor. He did this even though he knew Servman Saban would come. Judging by how every being in the world felt like his enemy, it seemed certain that he had entered the Joy Period.
‘Why has something that should have come at least a year later arrived so quickly…’
Assad was perplexed by the Joy Period that had come too early. Finding himself face to face with a situation he had never imagined, he let out a hollow laugh.
“Come in.”
Assad muttered in response to the urgent knocking.
The firmly closed door opened, and the beta chamberlain and guards entered. Among them was Chamberlain Saban, who had received a report through the guards of the east wing that signs of the Joy Period were felt from the crown prince.
“…”
The chamberlain’s face turned pale as he encountered the sudden situation.
Facing the bewilderment that appeared in the elderly man’s eyes, Assad had to utter another vulgar curse. The fact that the white-haired chamberlain was so surprised meant that the scale of the problem facing him was significant.
The only one who had noticed the signs of the Joy Period coming to Crown Prince Assad Mekerius was a female servant who had worried about Amun not being able to completely hide his pheromones.
* * *
Assad returned to his bedroom without protest, following the chamberlain. He thought he should lock himself away as quickly as possible before losing his reason to the absurd heat.
Assad sat with his back against the headboard of the bed, listening to the chamberlain’s nagging. His concerns were mainly warnings mixed with worry that if the first Joy Period was carelessly spent, there could be abnormalities in his pheromones. He worried so excessively that the elderly man’s hair seemed to have turned whiter in that short time.
‘Before my pheromones develop abnormalities, my hearing will be affected first.’
Assad thought this even as he pressed the back of his hand against his unbearably hot forehead.
The chamberlain wasn’t the only one making noise. The sight of healing magicians and doctors bustling about made his already hot head even hotter.
“…I will bring the crown princess.”
Assad, who had been listening to the chamberlain with one ear and letting it go out the other, suddenly raised his head. His hand also quickly left his forehead.
“Are you insane?”
Assad asked with a fiercer face than usual. A ferocious light shone in his golden eyes, clouded by heat.
“The crown princess will have already been informed of the situation. She is surely preparing…”
“Then why did you bring these people?”
Assad’s hand, with its bulging veins, suddenly pointed to those who had retreated behind. Fearing that Assad might lose his reason to the heat, one magician hurriedly lowered the temperature in the room.
“Use medicine to block the pheromones, use magic to calm me down, put me to sleep for days, try another method. Not the crown princess.”
“How could we block the sacred Joy Period of the one who will become the sun of Helio with mere medicine? Magic is also the same. The first Joy Period of a strong alpha like Your Highness cannot be artificially controlled. Especially if it’s an earlier-than-expected Joy Period.”
Hearing the chamberlain’s words, Assad began to laugh nervously.
“Three or four times a year. A Joy Period that will continue to come until I’m over forty. It’s neither a blessing that ends with just one time nor a prophecy, so what’s so important and sacred about it?”
“…”
“Fine. If neither magic nor medicine works, I’ll try to control myself.”
“Your Highness.”
“Everyone out. That’s an order.”
Faced with the stubborn crown prince, the chamberlain wore a concerned expression. But he immediately obeyed Assad’s words and sent everyone out except himself.
Silence descended upon the spacious bedroom where only the two remained. Even that silence soon became disturbed under Assad’s hot breath.
“The Joy Period of the emperor and his successor cannot be blocked. That would be no different from rejecting God’s gift. It’s something that would incur the punishment of heaven.”
“I’m hearing all sorts of strange things. Why should I be mindful of God’s eyes regarding my Joy Period issue?”
Assad frowned. The pheromone scent had become so thick that if the chamberlain had not been a beta, he would surely have retched at Assad’s sharp pheromones.
“Perhaps… is there an omega you wish in your heart to spend the Joy Period with, and that’s why you’re being like this?”
Unable to ask outright why he was being so stubborn, the chamberlain indirectly probed Assad’s heart.
Chamberlain Saban knew well how unyielding the person he served was. That’s why he was anxious. He became impatient.
It was difficult to find the reason why Assad was being so adamant. Weren’t he and the crown princess getting along fairly well, even if they weren’t very intimate? He wondered why Assad was rejecting him now that he had entered the Joy Period.
If Assad were to truly spend the Joy Period alone—though the emperor wouldn’t allow it—a new rumor would soon spread in the imperial palace, he thought. That the young crown prince had preserved his chastity for someone he loved.
“…What?”
Assad gave a belated response. It was closer to a sigh than an answer.
“If you could give me a hint as to who it is, I will bring them. I can handle it so that no one will notice.”
The chamberlain whispered. He knew it was wrong, but he uttered those words under the judgment that it was better to help commit an improper act than to let Assad spend the Joy Period alone.
“After all that talk about God. You say things that would make God faint so easily.”
The smile disappeared from Assad’s lips. Excited, he rose from his seat. He even stepped onto the floor, leaving the bed. His body, without a shred of clothing, was drenched in sweat.
“Saban. Don’t make me such a scoundrel. Do I, the crown prince of Helio, look like someone who would seek out another person just because the Joy Period has come? While leaving my partner pushed aside in a corner?”
Facing Assad’s cold expression, the chamberlain sensed it was time for him to be driven out.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
