“How could I be the teacher who gets removed?”
“Ah……”
“The useless one should bid farewell. If you also think, Lord Cayden, that having just one teacher would be better, I’ll convey those words to His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“I’m fine with it.”
Cayden immediately answered without a hint of embarrassment. It was behavior unbefitting the position of Crown Princess, but Assad found his urgent reply somewhat agreeable. Surprisingly so.
“Are you pleased with your new teacher?”
“Yes, I like you.”
His gloomy expression seemed to brighten ever so slightly. It was amusing.
“Amun. You’re truly a wonderful teacher.”
“…Was I?”
“Of course. Despite my daily frustrations, you never once get angry with me. I don’t know much, but… surely, there aren’t many teachers in the world as kind and gentle as you.”
Receiving such strange and embarrassing words, Amun was at a loss.
Am I misunderstanding the meaning of kindness and gentleness? Am I confused between Imperial and Kingdom languages? His mind became uncomfortable, like someone who had heard something beyond common sense.
Cayden was smiling. It was a peculiar smile that brought to mind flattened grass thoroughly drenched by rain. Indeed, that man definitely didn’t know how to smile.
How annoying.
Amun felt a thirst so intense it was disconcerting. He hastily picked up the glass he had set aside earlier and moistened his dry throat. Drinking the cool beverage finally made him feel somewhat alive again.
Cayden, with a slightly surprised expression, gently pushed his own untouched glass toward Amun. When their eyes met, Amun felt embarrassed to his core.
“You must be very thirsty.”
Cayden regained his smile. He had a face that clearly found Amun adorable, like looking at a tiny creature stuck to the ground.
It gave him chills. Adorable? Even in his earliest childhood, he had never received such a gaze. To be seen as approachable by his own spouse, of all people, was humiliating. His face flushed hot enough to redden both cheeks.
‘…Well, finding Amun adorable isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself.’
Sighing inwardly, Amun forced a smile to match Cayden’s. He barely managed to calm the boiling temperature of his mind.
Amun’s goal was to become that man’s only confidant. Someone intimate who could be told anything, his ally. Since he had already established this level of familiarity, future matters seemed likely to go well.
Assad had expected that his spouse wouldn’t easily open up to Amun. Cayden’s background, gloomy impression, his minimal speech that made one wonder if he could speak at all, and his seemingly self-imposed isolation… all made him appear to be the type who neither liked nor trusted people.
But Cayden gave his heart to Amun too easily. He took a liking to Amun simply because he agreed to teach him the Imperial language. He didn’t seem to realize that Amun wasn’t fulfilling his request out of personal affection, but merely obeying his master’s orders.
And then all that nonsense about kindness and gentleness.
Assad had never heard such words in his life. If he were a 10-year-old child, he would have written in his diary about hearing such absurd nonsense. It was that bewildering.
Just a little more kindness and you’ll give me your heart too.
Thinking about it now, it made sense that that man was vulnerable to others’ kindness or affection. According to the brief record of his life’s hardships written on soft paper.
He was an omega who had spent his life working. He had been working since the tender age of 14. He was sold from the orphanage where he stayed to a wealthy Count’s house, starting as his son’s body servant—not something he had chosen himself. And just after two years, he was transferred to work at a farm owned by the Count, where he stayed until he was 22. All while repaying the price the Count had paid to the orphanage director under the pretext of protecting and raising him for 14 years.
But for some unknown reason, he was expelled by the Count and Countess without any explanation. That happened just last year. And right before coming to Helio, he had been working at a merchant guild master’s mansion on the outskirts of the capital, tending to horses.
How could he have felt the tenderness of others in such a grueling daily life? Meanwhile, his personality was what it was. He probably wasn’t popular with people. Still, with his good looks, he must have attracted all sorts of strange insects, repulsively so.
‘What if I hired a handsome alpha with a gentle personality… and had him approach that man?’
Suddenly, such a thought occurred to him.
Unlike the licentious Kingdom people who knew nothing of marital fidelity, the people of the desert lived looking at only one person their entire lives. At least, they tried to. That was the same for the imperial family who had to set an example for the imperial citizens.
Infidelity among the imperial family, especially the Emperor or his successor, became a very serious problem. It was incomparable to the infidelity of ordinary imperial citizens. Because the charge of infidelity was compounded with the charge of blasphemy. It was only natural, having kissed each other and vowed love before the priest, who was God’s proxy.
As long as they followed God’s will, the married couple must not commit adultery. If a spouse’s infidelity became an issue between the couple, even God could not prevent their separation.
Cayden’s infidelity would easily break the companion oracle placed between him and Assad.
Of course, it would be embarrassing for the Crown Prince’s consort to commit adultery. But if the perpetrator was that man, it would be different. People would think that an omega from Elba, where openly keeping mistresses and lovers despite having a spouse wasn’t viewed negatively, couldn’t break his habits and had caused trouble.
Why hadn’t he thought of this method before? Amun’s mind cleared like a scholar who had just attained enlightenment.
“Amun.”
Awakening from his reverie, Amun looked at Cayden, who was calling him. Their eyes met in an instant.
“You look happy.”
Cayden’s gloomy face, which had whispered to him, was strangely elated.
Amun’s gaze slowly fell to the abundance of drinks and snacks gathered before him. His joyful mood was instantly shattered. What bloomed over the broken happiness was bewilderment.
Why wasn’t he eating and instead trying to feed his attendant? He couldn’t understand it at all.
Amun re-examined the plan that had formed in his mind.
What would happen if such a man met a kind alpha? He felt that he might give away even his organs if necessary, with plenty to spare. He might even give up his life without hesitation if asked to die in someone’s place.
But what if that alpha was just externally polished, while rotting on the inside? Looking after someone who only knew how to parasitize his spouse would mean that man would again spend his entire life just working.
Assad, in the guise of Amun, came to a somewhat extreme conclusion.
…Yes. Using another alpha was nonsensical from the start.
Cayden did come from the north. But he seemed different from the evil and licentious kind that permeated Elba. That foolish and innocent man would undoubtedly treat any alpha approaching him with sincerity, not as a plaything.
‘As the Crown Prince of the Empire, I can’t mock someone with a weak heart.’
Such sordid acts shouldn’t be done. Amun erased the unnecessary thoughts that had been swirling in his head.
There was no need to go to such lengths to drive the man away. As originally planned, he should first find out what kind of person his spouse was and what thoughts kept him persevering here. And then… proceed with separation negotiations as peacefully as possible. If that was possible, that is.
“I was contemplating how I could be of more help to you, Lord Cayden. Now I’ll be your only confidant and Imperial language teacher.”
“……”
“I will continue to serve you wholeheartedly.”
So please reveal your true intentions quickly. Hiding such ulterior motives, Amun concluded his words.
“…Thank you.”
Hearing Amun’s insincere words, Cayden averted his gaze as if embarrassed. His dry hand, brushing down his right cheek where a faint scar remained, grazed his hair blacker than shadows.
Watching the strange and foolish smile faintly appearing on Cayden’s lips, Amun smiled back. The thought of the man who would come to depend on him—his only confidant and teacher—made him feel good.
* * *
For Cayden, a room was just a space where one could lay their body down.
The room was shared with seven other children at the orphanage. The room was shared with the servants at the Count’s house. The storage room in the basement of the villa overlooking the farm. The shabby inn room where mice appeared and the small room on the top floor of the employee dormitory.
All the rooms Cayden had passed through until now had been nothing more than shelters to safely pass through the darkness of night.
But this desert room was different. The space, several times larger and more splendid than even the young master’s bedroom at the villa, was not a mere shelter for a lowly worker like himself. It was a comfortable dwelling that never lost its dignity for a single moment throughout the repeated appearances and disappearances of the sun and moon.
Cayden found the comfort contained in the space given to him unfamiliar. Getting accustomed to the scenery inside the bedroom seemed more difficult than getting used to the entire scenery of the detached palace. The bedroom itself, with a bathroom and dressing room on either side, felt like the master he should serve, making him continually flee to the corner of the balcony.
Perhaps it felt more difficult knowing that it could never be his space. He felt like a thief who had broken into someone else’s house.
