Sir Lifros was looking at his younger sister with dissatisfaction.
“The theme of the musical composition is Satyros? Isn’t that just a ferocious wild boar?”
At the front, the court music director was presenting a new piano concerto.
“He got inspiration from the hunting festival? That’s definitely a lie!”
He barely managed to soothe Lucia who was making rude remarks, saying he must have gotten inspiration from the monster subjugation. Sir Lifros’s lips, who was trying hard to smile beside them, were trembling.
“She’s very drunk.”
“That’s right! She definitely drank way too much! Because Joachim looks like twins to me… Oh! It’s a violin!”
A gentleman who said he usually liked Lucia’s performances asked to greet her. He also nodded to Joachim, and he was holding a violin case in his hand, but Lucia couldn’t take her eyes off it.
“Let’s go now. I can’t let my younger sister cause more trouble.”
Sir Lifros said.
“I have an ominous feeling. I feel like that innocent-looking gentleman is going to ask to hear violin playing— it’s too late.”
A rich tone that clearly cut through the strings was heard. Even though it was a rich and intense tone that made one want to keep listening, Leon smiled reluctantly. Led by him, Joachim headed toward the wall.
“You should never open a violin case in front of drunk Lucia. Then anyone would hate the sound of violins for at least a month.”
He looked at the siblings anew.
A knight who wielded one of the Empire’s finest auras and a talented musician.
Normally, he thought it was natural for them to be affiliated with House Meyer, which provided a good working environment and salary.
But could they really leave the country where they were born and raised easily for such reasons?
“Lucia is too young.”
The biggest opponent of the marriage, Sir Lifros, looked at his future bride who was playing wildly.
“When I really heard those words… what noble gets married right after coming of age these days?”
The average marriage age for imperial nobles was around 25 years old.
“Is it okay to leave her like that?”
“As long as the violin sound continues, it means Lucia is safe. I’m not worried about that child. That guy who’s my younger sister’s fiancé is the one—ah, oh no.”
Leon, who had spoken up to that point, turned around and sighed. Before he knew it, Lucia’s fiancé was fluttering toward her like a butterfly drawn to flowers.
Leon hastily thanked him for handling drunk Lucia and ran over there.
The matter with Baron Moss, and the matter of getting married too.
No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no reason for Lucia to send him earrings. She might be good at acting, but it seemed more likely that Rilke had schemed.
The same went for Sir Lifros. He always had a disposition of staying like the wind and leaving refreshingly, and recalling such temperament, it might not have been a big deal for him to change countries.
While watching Leon and Lucia’s fiancé engaging in a war of nerves, he inadvertently sensed a presence behind him.
“……Uh— Saren?”
That guy was standing very close.
“That smell is coming from you again. Like a flower scent—”
When he tilted his head back, Saren’s hand brushed past his ear.
His shoulder was grabbed. He frowned and shook off that hand.
Moving away from him, he brushed his nape in embarrassment.
It was probably because of Benedict. Since learning about the secret passage, he had been visiting every night. Mikhail pretended not to notice him sneaking into his mother’s room.
Benedict mostly just slept and left, but sometimes he touched a little. Yesterday was one of those days.
“You smell nice.”
“You smelled nice too.”
Not knowing what to do, he said whatever came to mind. As if amused, Saren tilted his head.
“Do I really smell nice to you too?”
He was dumbfounded and uncomfortable at the friendly attitude. Moreover, this guy kept talking about roses, and that was the pheromones of Benedict, who was also an alpha.
It felt like someone was coveting a precious treasure he had been hiding, and it was funny and bothered him that Saren, an alpha, couldn’t recognize Benedict’s pheromones.
“No. I got it, so go.”
Their faces were close again. He avoided him again and this time the guy’s nose tip brushed past his cheek. When he looked troubled, Saren’s eyes sparkled.
“Why are you like this? Why is your face red?”
That was because of Benedict.
Because he remembered the situation yesterday when he used his pheromones, his body scent that had filled the room. Saren grabbed him again, and just when he was about to kick him away.
The person who had occupied his mind all this time was approaching.
“Prince Meyer.”
Benedict called him.
Saren, who had moved away from him, quickly showed his respects. Benedict, who exchanged brief greetings, looked at him matter-of-factly.
“Wasn’t there a message from Count Meyer?”
Saying he had been waiting all along, he smiled the appropriate smile for dealing with nobles. Saren, who had been hesitating, stepped back saying to converse comfortably.
He moved to an empty terrace with Benedict.
“Lately, every time I see you, I seem to witness unpleasant scenes.”
The curtain closed, and he spoke.
“I’ll endure it since a lover with green eyes isn’t cool.”
He shook his head at Benedict’s words that he was jealous. He was happy, but the one who should be jealous was him, not Benedict.
“It seems Your Highness’s pheromones remain on me.”
Benedict examined him carefully. He said it was a little so.
“Saren seems to like Your Highness’s pheromones.”
He deliberately spoke in an amused tone.
In fact, the awkwardness was greater. He hated that someone had favorable feelings toward Benedict. Even if it was his pheromones.
After hearing the explanation, Benedict made a somewhat absurd face, then lightly embraced him.
“You really say things you don’t know. Whatever smell comes from you, if you smelled like soup he would say he likes the soup smell, and if you smelled like candy he would say he likes the candy smell.”
He lowered his head.
His distinctive body scent approached strongly along with warm warmth.
After a while, moving slightly away, Benedict whispered in a lowered voice.
“I’ll visit you tonight too.”
He pressed his wet lips with the back of his hand and hastily stepped back.
It felt like the place he had touched last night was heating up.
He wanted to embrace him right here.
He became afraid. In case someone came, or in case he noticed his condition, “I’ll wait.” Throwing the words, he quickly moved away from Benedict. He returned to the hall as if fleeing.
And once again, he felt a presence closely attached to his shoulder.
“Saren. Stop it.”
As soon as he turned around frowning, his eyes met with someone who had their nose on his shoulder. Damp yellow eyes clashed startlingly close, with a blatant gaze.
It was the Regent Duke.
“It’s been a while, Prince Joachim Meyer.”
A thick ambergris scent wafted over.
That smell collected from the fragrant intestines of a giant sea beast was animalistic and thick. It brought to mind the sticky sap that stubbornly seeped out every time skin was wounded.
“Come to think of it, you’re also the worthless former older brother of my new son.”
Looking at him stepping back, the Regent Duke laughed lowly, as if scheming.
Disappointingly, he was in perfectly healthy condition without any sign of illness.
Rather, the frail lady beside him looked more ill. She, trembling at the shoulders, was the Regent Duke’s commoner mistress, famous for making a poor lord into a ‘real noble.’
“I have a very good talent.”
The Regent Duke pulled his mistress closer. Her appearance, heavily made up as if to hide her sickly complexion, was visible.
“My sense of smell is very sensitive. Last time, Prince, you had the smell of a virgin.”
People were still surrounding Lucia who was playing the violin.
He thought about whether it was better to stay hidden behind the pillar like this, or better to step forward and expose being in a situation together with Duke Yorick.
“Did you receive a man? You smell deliciously ripe.”
He laughed leisurely and lowered his gaze.
An unpleasant gaze blatantly stared at the area below his waist. “Ah, omega scent.” Murmuring, he inhaled deeply. It was a really disgusting expression and tone.
“It was a pleasure to see you.”
He stepped back and spoke hastily.
“I’ll be going now.”
He was someone who said all omegas should be respected yet unhesitatingly engaged in speech and behavior that ignored gender, and while pretending to be a gentleman using honorifics, was full of rotten fruit inside.
“I heard Saren Rodiu say something interesting. He said your pheromones changed, may I go around talking about my speculation about that?”
The Regent Duke held him back with such words.
“He described it very specifically and it was pheromones I know very well.”
Stroking down the mistress in his arms, he spoke.
“The prince’s atmosphere changed completely. He dressed up well befitting him, but to my eyes, that strange sense of incongruity was visible. I remember the subjugation army victory hunting banquet. It was an event that happened right at this mansion.”
“……”
“For two people who looked at each other like that, to say that nothing really happened at that beautiful outer palace.”
‘It’s a very dirty story. Can you still like me after hearing it?’
Benedict’s voice heard at the outer palace in summer came back to life.
And also his past story that, unlike his calm voice, contained sticky madness.
The Regent Duke pushed away the mistress in his arms. She, who had been staggering like a doll, stepped aside one step back. He thought she was like a shadow.
“I get excited thinking that this body before me is a body that was held by the most noble person in the Empire.”
The violin melody continued as if about to break off. ‘In this Empire,’ the Regent Duke’s much lower voice underlay it.
“Whatever the prince can have, I can always have too.”
‘Duke Yorick has strange tastes.’
Benedict’s voice overlaps.
‘What he’s most obsessed with are omegas who have slept with me.’
This person before his eyes is not in his right mind.
