House Meyer had consistently produced Alphas for generations.
To the point where the Duke of Meyer was always an Alpha.
And the reason House Meyer was demoted to a count’s family was.
Because they harbored terrible greed to maintain the bizarre tradition that an Alpha must always be the head of the family for generations.
“You know too. Just how filthy the things your grandfather committed in that underground prison were, all in the name of producing Alphas.”
Grandfather.
I don’t know much about the Duke of Meyer, who was an Alpha.
Everyone within the family hushed up about grandfather, about that ugly history. They only taught the bright side of the family. But it was such a famous incident that I knew about it roughly.
Neither our father nor Stefan’s father, my uncle, were Alphas. The Duke of Meyer couldn’t stand the lineage of the ‘Alpha Duke’ being cut off in his generation.
Perhaps because of that, as he aged, he bizarrely began obsessing over Alpha bloodline.
That symptom like mental illness,
gradually intensified when it was confirmed that even Mikhail, born as a grandson, wasn’t an Alpha trait.
Eventually, the Duke of Meyer began secretly buying Omegas. He imprisoned Omegas in the underground prison of the family mansion and cruelly used them for the purpose of producing Alphas.
And that ugly hidden side became known to the public.
The whistleblower was the former former Duchess. My grandmother.
I can’t even imagine how much mental anguish she must have suffered for not bearing an Alpha. Also, after learning all the truth, as a fellow Omega, she couldn’t have just stood by watching the situation. And if an Alpha had truly been born in that prison, our father might have had to give up his position as heir.
If not for grandmother, father wouldn’t have been able to inherit the family.
In other words, the reason Rilke brought up such words was…….
After a silence, I opened my mouth.
“Don’t tell me, among the children born then—”
I couldn’t bring myself to continue.
“That’s right. I was there.”
Rilke’s lips rose crookedly.
“Our mothers were innocent. My mother was even a noble. Just because she was a fallen noble… for a daughter of a proud noble family to be imprisoned in an underground prison and have to please an old duke!”
At that time, House Meyer barely avoided annihilation.
Part of it was offering the tremendous wealth accumulated over hundreds of years, but the reason that was taken into consideration was that the reporter was the Duchess. They were only demoted to a count’s family, and father, who was around Mikhail’s current age, inherited the ruined family. It was when Mikhail turned 11.
And the Duke of Meyer—
“Your father was also a terrible seed, inheriting that person’s blood. I suppose he’s my brother? It seems he pretended to be a good person in front of you, his child,”
—died in this prison.
“Your father took no responsibility at all! Even though all that trouble happened because of his own father, he felt no remorse about our mothers!”
Rilke shouted.
“To kick out all those Omegas with just a pittance!”
“That’s right.”
I cut off Rilke’s words.
“I think it’s unfortunate.”
It was surprising. But that was all.
“That’s it? So that’s why you did ‘that to me’?”
The countless things that happened with Rilke passed by.
Being framed, being threatened.
Being made a liar, having my face ruined, being driven to be a murderer.
The current me could avoid it only because I was in healthy condition and knew the future, but my weak past self had suffered through it all intact. No matter how much I tried to escape, it was like a noose gradually tightening. The water rising to my chin until I sometimes really wanted to end it. If not for Benedict, it really would have ended there.
Anger surged from deep inside me.
“I don’t know if you’ll understand, Rilke. I never did anything wrong to you.”
Rilke’s face stiffened rigidly. The blue eyes rippled and were stained with anger.
“You, don’t talk in that, don’t talk in that way!”
“You’re the one who shouldn’t talk that way.”
Rilke’s words were contradictory.
To give one example,
In the past, Rilke ultimately did no harm to Mikhail.
He remained Rilke Meyer until the end.
“You just wanted to live as you pleased. I just got in your way on that path.”
In the changed present, Mikhail almost died. It must have been because he got in Rilke’s way.
If Rilke had been moderate with me.
I could have lived feeling sorry for him for the rest of my life.
Because whatever Rilke secretly thought, what grandfather did wrong wouldn’t change.
Having learned all the facts,
No matter that he was my grandfather, I wouldn’t have been able to hold my head up for the sins my bloodline committed. I would have wanted to compensate.
“How shameless! Apologize sincerely!”
“And, did you really bribe my physician? Did you make me take medicine?”
We only said what we wanted to say to each other.
I, who had always been in the position of listening, didn’t want to do that anymore, and Rilke only said what he wanted to say just like before, so it turned out that way. We poured out only our one-sided positions, having a conversation that wasn’t a conversation.
“Rilke, I’ll ask one last time.”
I caught my breath. It felt refreshing to pour it out, but I also felt a bit tired.
“Did you make me like that? Did you make me take medicine that caused my pheromones to run wild?”
The medicine the dead physician made me take was that kind.
Even while pouring out countless accusations, Rilke hadn’t denied my questions even once.
Finally, Rilke stopped his clear voice.
“That’s right.”
Rilke answered.
“So what? What about it?”
The air felt sticky. I opened my trembling lips.
“…To you, that’s nothing.”
Because of that, I had to… be separated from my family… writhe in high fever and pain for years. After father passed away, I couldn’t properly meet people. I had to endure all sorts of crude criticism and ridicule about my pheromones.
“So what! You’re not sick in the end anyway!”
Rilke shouted again.
Listening to the curses pouring out, I closed my mouth.
Rilke, who dragged things to this point, couldn’t possibly understand my words.
He wouldn’t sympathize with me. I was a fool for saying such things.
“You’re not sick in the end anyway! You still have everything!”
I suppressed my emotions as much as possible and asked toward the face that had turned red with rage.
“Is it also because of you that I became an Omega?”
“Don’t blame me carelessly! That’s because you were born abnormal!”
Rilke’s cry touched the prison walls with weight and rumbled back.
I could see my parched corners of the mouth rising as if dumbfounded.
“Everything was because of you, Joachim.”
The kid said incomprehensible words.
Sparkle, the blue eyes shone as they looked directly at me. Rilke stretched out his neck and looked up at me.
“You have a real talent for ruining everything.”
“……”
“In that cursed family… it’s because you were finally born as an Alpha. You shouldn’t have been born! Our mother, who was trying hard to forget everything and live on… ended up seized by unavoidable hatred because of you. Our mother could have lived forgetting everything.”
If only you hadn’t existed, he poured resentment onto me.
“Our mother raised me while constantly watching only you. An Alpha being born in House Meyer. Someday, that Alpha. I’ll bring down that household.”
And suddenly Rilke burst into laughter.
As if truly so delighted, high cackling laughter filled the cold prison.
“But isn’t this world really funny?”
The kid was now looking at a distant place, not at me.
“You… became an Omega! It really worked out well!”
With a face still filled with laughter, Rilke whispered blankly.
“But if you… suddenly became Empress? What would be the use if House Meyer prospered? Mother and I had no choice but to find a different direction. Fortunately, a path opened up. Your father hired a young tutor.”
Focus gradually returned to Rilke’s eyes.
“Anyway, wouldn’t it be enough to just ruin House Meyer? Half-smart Mikhail accepted me as a younger sibling but never gave me inheritance rights until the end. Therefore, I had to become the best Omega. …Becoming Empress was my goal……”
Rilke said as if dumbfounded.
“For you to take my place.”
He probably meant Benedict.
I answered, now dumbfounded myself.
“It was never yours even once.”
“What?”
Looking down at Rilke glaring up, I wondered if I had to listen to more useless words.
Even if he himself was turning away from it, Rilke’s situation was the worst. He would rightfully receive his punishment, and since I learned what I was curious about, there was no need to stay here longer.
Because there was another person from whom to seek answers.
I stood up from my seat. The tilted metal chair clattered noisily.
“Jo… Joachim!”
The kid urgently called me.
I raised my gaze at the changed voice.
“I’ll… I’ll give it to you!”
In the eyes I met,
The childhood Rilke who sometimes came to visit and look at me when I was confined in the annex overlapped.
“The Iota spy list! Aren’t you curious?”
The kid sat up on his knees as if trying to approach me.
Clank, the chains dragged again. Crouched Rilke whispered in a voice that had become sweet as cotton candy.
“I can tell you every single one of them!”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. In exchange.”
Rilke set a condition. He smiled strangely.
“You… must wear the earrings I gifted you.”
Rilke’s voice lowered even more sweetly.
With a face that thought he knew me quite well, Rilke stared up at me.
“Ah, look at that expression. Good to see. Are you surprised?”
“……”
“It suits you well, Joachim. Like that expression, those earrings will suit you very well too. How about it?”
Will you accept my proposal?
Rilke’s eyes rippled as if imagining. It was a face convinced things would go his way.
“No.”
I answered immediately.
“You wear them.”
