They said Eldon’s mother was from the Empress’s handmaiden origins. Not a noble young lady who entered as an imperial handmaiden, but a truly low-ranking handmaiden who did menial work. She gave birth to the First Prince, but the Emperor, sensitive about status, didn’t even properly grant her the title deed of a concubine.
But Eldon would be different from the current Emperor. He would harbor resentment about his mother’s situation, so he wouldn’t be bound by status. Yes, that’s the person.
A story filled with conviction formed in Seha’s mind.
Let’s become a servant as soon as possible and enter the imperial palace. Eldon will fall for me. And as the prophecy says, he’ll make me Empress.
However, Seha’s golden fantasy didn’t last long.
Rosenthal Chendewden, who was supposed to be Arleigh’s lover, became the Crown Prince’s fiancé overnight. They say he pushed it through with the power of the Chendewden ducal family.
Seha was enraged. I must stop it before the wedding. That’s my place! But even pouring out all the money he’d gathered from pickpocketing, he couldn’t enter the imperial palace.
“Didn’t you say you’d let me enter as an imperial palace servant!”
Madam Brown, formerly the head imperial handmaiden, said she would make Seha a servant, and Seha offered up all the assets he’d saved. But as soon as she received the money, Madam Brown went back on her word. Not only that, she hurled abuse saying how dare a lowly Hyeon Tribe member think of going to the imperial palace, and to consider it an honor just to have conversed with a noble person like herself, then chased him out.
“Open the door! Fuck! Open the door!”
Seha pounded on Madam Brown’s gate, but the tall door wouldn’t open.
Three days later was the Crown Prince’s wedding. In the end, the Hyeon Tribe’s prophecy was wrong. To think a prophecy with a 100% accuracy rate would miss, and that unlucky bastard was me. As Seha cursed and trudged along, he heard a bizarrely innocent voice.
“They said there’s a pretty Hyeon Tribe bastard, but I don’t see him.”
“Oh! There he is!”
Two bald men chased after Seha. Seha realized Madam Brown had sold him out.
He desperately ran away. In the process, he bumped into someone.
Seha was startled. Blonde hair and blue eyes, skin smooth as porcelain, luscious red lips. A person so beautiful it felt suffocating.
He was in a different league from the lower-ranking noble trash he occasionally encountered when going to the plaza. A person who exuded the aura of a great noble from his entire body. Though he was male, the Empress’s seat would be for someone like that. It was foolish to even dream from the start.
The fantasy that had dominated Seha for nearly a year shattered into pieces. Seha stole the golden key that had fallen to the ground.
Damn it, Empress? Me? He returned to pickpocketing again. The dream of living virtuously, learning etiquette, becoming a servant, becoming Empress, and making those who looked down on him and the Hyeon Tribe kneel—all evaporated into nothing like this.
Then someone grabbed Seha.
“That key, where did you get it?”
Seha lost his words seeing the face of the man who grabbed him. He was Crown Prince Eldon Generoanth.
To meet the Crown Prince in this manner.
The prophecy was right. I will become Crown Princess. It’s my destiny. Seha smiled inwardly. The dream that had evaporated came back to life.
The Crown Prince was looking for the key’s owner. The person who had brought despair with just his existence, who was pretty like a doll. They said that person was Rosenthal Chendewden. He possessed overwhelming beauty incomparable to the articles or portraits seen in newspapers. So that’s what a real noble, a real omega is like…
“I saw it in a deep back alley.”
The lie came out naturally.
‘Don’t find him. Don’t find him. Get caught by slave traders! Get caught right now! Disappear and never appear before me again!’
If Rosenthal Chendewden gets caught, if he becomes a slave and disappears, the Crown Princess position will be mine.
The pickpocketing skills I’d inevitably acquired brought me luck. There’s no need to feel sorry. Rosenthal lived happily thanks to his innate appearance, family, and trait. Now it’s my turn to be happy. It’s just a baton pass, that’s all.
Thinking this, Seha followed the Crown Prince into the palace.
Eldon made Seha, who had nowhere to go, his servant, and had him stay in a magnificent separate palace where Rosenthal had originally stayed. He even entrusted him with a precious divine beast.
This was clear preferential treatment. Palace people whispered that the Crown Prince had fallen for Seha and broken off the marriage. It was a pleasant misconception. And it would soon become reality.
Everything was proceeding smoothly when Rosenthal returned. To think he’d come back after being dragged away by illegal slave traders. Tenacious bastard. But Seha didn’t give up.
I’m the protagonist of the prophecy. The Crown Prince holds me in special regard. He desires me. He shows his smile only before me. He even brought me along on the important journey to find evidence to bring down Grand Duke Curtis. Just one more step, just one more step forward. He’ll eventually choose me.
And today, that opportunity came.
I should go tell him right away. If we find the secret ledger of Grand Duke Curtis that Viscount Bellos hid, with that achievement I might be able to sleep with him and become the Crown Prince’s concubine. And eventually…
A golden fantasy flowed out. Seha briefly forgot the basic common sense that one should use doors and habitually climbed over the wall.
Silang’s barrier magic was cast on the small villa where the Crown Prince’s faction stayed, so only permitted people could enter. And of course, Seha was one of the permitted people.
He wanted to deliver the news to His Highness the Crown Prince even a bit faster. They said the Third Prince received something called the Imperial Medal today. So His Highness the Crown Prince fell into crisis. But if we just find Grand Duke Curtis’s secret ledger, the tide will turn. His Highness won’t forget my achievement in helping him keep his Crown Prince position.
Unlike the freezing imperial capital, the south had hot winds blowing even in November. The window to the Crown Prince’s room was slightly open. As Seha was about to barge inside and stopped, realizing his mistake, Leon’s voice was heard.
“Your Highness, do you intend to pass tonight as well?”
Not noticing Seha’s existence eavesdropping on their conversation, he asked Eldon.
“What good is worrying? Something like the Imperial Medal is nothing but a lump of scrap metal before the secret ledger. It’s certain he hid the ledger somewhere in this village. There’s no need to fret.”
“That’s not what I’m speaking of.”
“Then?”
“Tonight, have conjugal relations.”
Seha’s eyes widened as he eavesdropped on the conversation. Is it finally today?
That day, in the office, Eldon called him with a sticky voice. He tried to touch Seha’s body but ultimately didn’t. Instead, he brought him along on the journey. Even afterward there was an atmosphere for copulation, but nothing had happened yet.
I was going to present the ledger to achieve my goal, but it might happen a bit earlier.
“Since when have you interfered with this body’s nightly affairs?”
“I humbly apologize for speaking, but I understand you have not resolved your pheromones recently. If a rut were to come during this important time when we must strike the Third Prince and Grand Duke Curtis, I fear it might ruin important matters.”
Unlike omegas who have periodic heat cycles, they said alphas can control the timing of their rut cycles themselves through sexual intercourse. Seha recalled the knowledge he’d acquired and concentrated on their conversation.
“Needless worry.”
“It’s not needless. This is an important time. Have conjugal relations tonight.”
“Did you forget? My Princess is at the imperial palace. Do you mean for me to return to the palace for mere carnal pleasure during such a critical time?”
The moment Seha heard the sticky words “my Princess,” his body froze coldly. Then Leon said what Seha had wanted.
“Isn’t Seha here?”
It worked. Finally it worked. My Princess? Once you have relations with me just once, thoughts like that will be forgotten in an instant.
As Seha clenched his fist thinking this, Eldon’s head tilted diagonally.
“Seha?”
It was a voice mixed with deliberate displeasure. Seha’s elevated heart grew even colder than before.
“Isn’t that why you brought him?”
“…He’s just a quick-witted servant boy. If you’re going to spout nonsense, leave now.”
Eldon’s voice fell heavily. Seha turned away before Leon left.
A quick-witted servant? You thought of me as only that?
Seha strode toward his room.
Even if I tell him information about the secret ledger now, I’ll just rise from quick-witted servant to capable servant. He recalled the Hyeon Tribe’s prophecy once again.
[Child of the Hyeon Tribe, Seha. You will become the Empire’s Empress. Through you, the Hyeon Tribe will find glory, and all the people will kneel before you.]
Right, the prophecy said I would become Empress, it didn’t say I would become Eldon’s companion. And the Hyeon Tribe’s prophecy has never been wrong. Why had I forgotten this simple fact?
Perhaps the next Emperor might not be Eldon. If we don’t find Grand Duke Curtis’s secret ledger right away, Eldon will be deposed and the Third Prince will be appointed Crown Prince.
Seha coolly raised the corners of his mouth and tightly grasped the grotesquely crumpled pendant.
***
“Ah, ah…”
“Good morning.”
When I couldn’t say anything and stammered, Hereis gave a gentle smile.
I must be getting used to it since I frequently have wet dreams. The moment I woke up, I became aware of the situation and returned to reality.
“You didn’t sweat today.”
Of course I didn’t. Because I had dinner with Eldon at a Hyeon Tribe restaurant overlooking the Serian River, chattering like a Korean food expert about how you can’t use white kimchi for stir-fried kimchi, there isn’t enough red pepper powder, and bibimbap eggs are good soft-boiled, then kissed at the top of the clock tower and it ended.
It was an all-ages romantic date that would only exist in the webtoons I used to draw.
In other words, I starved Hereis again today.
“You didn’t forget the sex scent today, did you?”
“I did not.”
Hereis shook his head firmly. The incubus’s sex scent doesn’t work well on virgins, it seems. I should have used the equipment Raki bought. I was restless because of Young Master Patrick and just slept, and it ended up like this.
