Erger held his breath for a moment, staring at the man before him in a daze. Lustrous, gently swaying black hair. Neat bangs that swept evenly across his forehead. Eyes that tilted ever so slightly downward at the outer corners, giving him a soft and temperate look. A straight, prominent nose and a jaw held firmly shut. Full lips with just enough color to them.
And above all else — eyes so blue they gave off an almost wintry chill. Liard Igvaltwyn was beautiful.
Elegant and clean. Yet there was nothing unmasculine about his bearing. His body showed the unmistakable marks of long-practiced training. His shoulders curved gently at the ends but were broad, and his chest was solid. Below that, his waist was narrow and his hips slim.
As befitted one who had long held the imperial throne, his gaze carried a gravity to it. He seemed like someone who would not be easily stirred by anything. He gave off a composed, mature air.
He was like the vast lake surrounding the Mage Tower. A blue surface that looked as though it could hold everything within it. Simply watching him left Erger feeling, without quite knowing why, as though something in him had settled.
His face made it difficult to guess his age. Erger knew intellectually that the man was twelve years his senior. His deep, still eyes were as dry as ancient wood — like those of a man who had lived several hundred years. And yet his smooth, soft-looking skin made him seem the same age as Erger.
Honestly, with a face like that, what does age even matter? Erger had completely forgotten the ferocious mental tirade he’d been delivering against this man only moments before, and swallowed drily.
So the rumors about the Emperor being a handsome man were true. Rumors never managed to capture the full reality of a thing. He was handsome, yes — but he was someone who couldn’t simply be summed up with the word handsome.
Liard’s eyebrow gave a faint twitch at the gaze that kept drilling into him without a word. At that small movement, Erger felt a tingle rush through his entire body in an instant.
Liard walked over with a posture so flawless it looked measured with a ruler, and settled first into his chair. Erger stared in a stupor at that elegant gait and manner of movement.
He doesn’t feel like the same species of creature as the rest of us. Right — the Igvaltyns were a bloodline blessed by the gods. One couldn’t exactly call them ordinary humans.
Erger recalled the scene he’d witnessed along the streets of the capital earlier. The people pressing their heads down in reverence at the sight of the Igvaltwyn seal. He’d scoffed at that then — but now he was beginning to understand it, just a little. The Igvaltyns might well be beings worthy of that kind of devotion.
The problem was that what he himself was feeling right now went beyond devotion — it was an uncontrollable, surging attraction.
The fact that he looks so ascetic and utterly without flaw just makes it worse. There was something about the Emperor in his perfectly fitted formal uniform that roused a deeply improper kind of feeling.
God, do the attendants see this man every single day while they work? Does it not affect them? If it were me, I’d be hard at the drop of a hat… Erger reminded himself that anyone who heard such thoughts could have him arrested for lèse-majesté, and tried desperately to tamp down the heat rising through him.
Liard made a quiet gesture toward the dumbstruck Erger.
“Sit.”
A low, compelling voice. And that hand that sliced lightly through the air — Liard’s hands were large and firm. Unmistakably the hands of someone who had wielded a sword. And yet the way they moved was so unhurried that it unsettled the onlooker in ways that served absolutely no one.
Erger sat back down awkwardly in his chair. His heart picked up speed with only a table between himself and Liard.
I had no idea the Emperor would be this beautiful. He should have sent a portrait in advance. If he had, Erger might have come to the palace a full year earlier without dragging his feet…
Erger found it strange to be so thoroughly captivated by someone’s face. It was the first time in his life this had happened. After all, the face he looked at in the mirror every morning was that of a remarkably handsome man. Erger knew full well that his own appearance was exceptional.
It would have been stranger not to know. Every last one of the new arrivals at the Mage Tower, without exception, froze the moment they laid eyes on Erger. Even close friends who had spent years alongside him at the Mage Tower would sometimes catch themselves tensing up involuntarily when Erger turned his face toward them.
So he was not accustomed to being the one startled by another person’s looks. If anything, it was always the other way around.
With Liard, it wasn’t purely a matter of his individual features. In terms of sheer visual impact, Erger was the one whose face commanded more attention. And yet somehow, the air around Liard alone seemed to move differently.
Was it the weight of the title of Emperor and the name Igvaltwyn — or was it because he was an extreme-rare Omega…?
Right. An Omega.
He was going to be his Omega.
His pulse gave a sharp kick at the thought that surfaced unbidden. It was a reality he had wanted to avoid — and yet the more he turned it over in his mind now, the more a strange, buoyant feeling stirred in him. Something almost sweet lingered at the tip of his tongue.
No pheromone scent reached him from Liard whatsoever.
Extreme-rares managed their pheromone glands more strictly than those of any other designation. The pheromones of an extreme-rare were no different from a poison dispersed into the air, as far as ordinary people were concerned. Even during his raucous nights with multiple partners, Erger had never once released his own pheromones.
Conversely, the pheromones of other Omegas barely registered to Erger at all. Even dominant Omegas were the same.
What would the Emperor’s pheromones be like? What would they smell like? If he buried his nose in the man’s nape and ran the tip of his tongue over the area around his pheromone gland, would he get the illusion of an actual taste…
Erger’s violet eyes narrowed. The look it gave him was languid and faintly dangerous. He appeared to be full of discontent — but in truth, he was half-lost in a haze.
He didn’t yet know that what he was experiencing was the rare phenomenon known as an ‘intoxication response’ — what happens when an Alpha meets his own Omega. It was a symptom that arose from being drawn to an Omega by pure instinct.
Liard blinked slowly. His dark lashes, angled neatly downward, shifted. Erger’s throat worked in a rough, involuntary swallow.
It seemed the steady, unbroken gaze that bore into him through the silence was making Liard uncomfortable — he gave the faintest crease of his brow, then gestured briefly to dismiss all the attendants from the room. When Haiman was the last to leave and drew the door shut behind him, only the two of them remained.
Erger was still fixedly tracking the flicker of Liard’s fingers when Liard spoke quietly.
“We kept you waiting.”
“……”
“It must be uncomfortable, coming somewhere unfamiliar — but you’ll settle in soon enough. We will assign capable people to attend to you.”
Liard’s voice was so calm and even that it was almost like a lullaby. Erger sat there in a daze, then gave a belated nod.
“Yes… right.”
The words weren’t coming easily. His head felt completely stuffed.
Why am I being like this? A sudden worry struck him that he might be coming across as some bumbling child. Compared to the Emperor — who radiated such an unmistakably warm, mature quality just by existing — he was, in fact, the younger one, but…
Even so, there was no need to act quite so much like a child. He wasn’t some adolescent boy. He was going to be this man’s Alpha, and might well soon be the father of a child.
Erger clenched his hands into fists on his knees. With his thoughts drifting all the way to the subject of a child, he had, without meaning to, found himself imagining the body concealed beneath the Emperor’s neatly pressed, stately uniform. The wedding was to take place as soon as possible, they’d said. So before long, he would be sharing the Emperor’s bed on their wedding night.
From the moment he had first laid eyes on the Emperor’s face, something had been quietly rising below — and now it had gone fully rigid. Erger was mortified at his own body’s reaction.
He’d spent last night tangled up with four people. Furious at the thought of leaving for the palace, he had worked off his desire in a frenzy. He’d thought he wouldn’t even need to touch himself for a few days.
Afraid that what was happening below might be noticed, Erger’s face went stiff. His naturally severe expression sharpened further.
Liard regarded Erger for a quiet moment, then let out a low, brief sigh. The sound of it made Erger’s cock give a startled twitch, and he very nearly bit his own tongue.
“We are aware that this marriage was not something you wished for. You are in the prime of your youth, and you had much work yet to do at the Mage Tower. To have been brought here for a political marriage… We find this pitiable, and intend to take your circumstances into account as much as possible.”
As Liard opened with that measured, earnest tone, something shifted along Erger’s spine.
The gentle voice continued.
“In name it is a marriage, but you are not bound to the imperial house. You will observe protocol as Imperial Consort, but you will have no obligations to bear. You will be free to live as you please within the palace.”
“……That’s the best thing I’ve heard yet.”
It was the first time Erger had spoken at any length, and Liard’s lips curved smoothly into a smile. At that smile, Erger caught himself about to let his mouth fall open and snapped it shut. Damn. He’s even more beautiful when he smiles…
“Only the consummation on the appointed date. That is the sole thing We ask of you, and…”
Listening to Liard’s words flowing gently on, Erger felt something strangely off settle over him. These were undoubtedly words he should have been glad to hear — and yet the more he turned them over, the more of a bitter aftertaste they left. This was clearly the marriage he had loathed and resented. The fact that he could be freed from even that obligation should have been a relief.
“Once a child is conceived, We intend to send you straight back to the Mage Tower. What do you say?”
