“I heard your pheromones have stabilized. Marriage proposals should start coming in soon, and there should be at least one alpha among them.”
“He’s still too young.”
Mikhail answered while cutting his baguette into pieces.
Stefan had a name pronounced in the southern style, just like Mikhail and I.
It was a Meyer family tradition for all direct-line children to have southern names, but honestly, they felt old-fashioned, so it was rare for even collateral branches to do so.
Stefan was also from a collateral branch that split off one generation up. But his father gave his son Stefan a southern-style name like the direct line had.
“His pheromones could go wild like before, and look how big he is now—what if he grows even more? Shouldn’t we launch the ship while he’s still young?”
Mikhail didn’t answer Stefan’s words and focused on carefully spreading herb butter on his baguette.
This was all Mikhail’s fault.
Hyung was still unmarried. Seeing as there was no particular news even after I left home, there was a high probability he’d continue to be unmarried.
In the current situation where Mikhail, the Count Meyer, had no children, I was first in line for succession and Stefan was second. Rilke was excluded from the line since he became an adopted son under the condition of having no succession rights.
Uncle had given up succession rights to the Count Meyer house, and everyone knew it was for Stefan’s sake.
In this situation, if I married, Stefan would become first in line and I would be second. If Stefan became Count and had children, my succession rank would fall behind that child.
He’d have to give up that absurd greed once Mikhail married and had children.
“Joachim, don’t you think so too?”
Perhaps feeling awkward at Mikhail’s lack of response, Stefan kept talking to me.
“Well, I do know. It’d be hard for you to even receive marriage proposals, right? If you look closely, you might seem decent, but with Rilke by your side, how could you proudly walk around with your shoulders back?”
I was the one who knew. Stefan thought he couldn’t walk with his shoulders back because of Mikhail, who was Count Meyer.
“Anyway, if you were an omega from another family, it would have been much easier to find a match.”
“You’re too kind. Joachim hyung is far more excellent.”
Rilke, who had been at a loss, interjected, but Stefan was only absorbed in himself.
“Hyung-nim. I know an alpha—how about them as Joachim’s match? The second son of a marquis family—”
Stefan’s interference, becoming more concrete than in the past, was tiresome.
“Take all my succession rights and property, hyung.”
I don’t need anything, I said, piling on plenty of apricot jam and clotted cream.
I really didn’t need any of it. I’d be leaving this place in a year anyway, and even if they gave it to me, I wouldn’t accept.
“Why is he acting like that?”
Stefan, finding it absurd, tattled to Mikhail.
“Succession rights aren’t scones, and what’s with his manners? In the time I haven’t seen him, his way of speaking has become like some commoner rabble.”
Though Stefan’s usual way of speaking when tattling to Mikhail like that was hardly more refined, I corrected myself since I was criticized.
“I clearly stated, Stefan hyung-nim. Count Meyer, Your Excellency, you heard, didn’t you? Please guarantee—”
Mikhail hit me with bread, saying a son had no ambition and was spineless.
“……”
Only at times like this was I a son.
He’d ignored Stefan’s nonsense all this time, but acted like that over one thing I said. Seeing how he threw bread instead of a teacup, he seemed to take my words as a joke.
On the other hand, Stefan actually prepared a guarantee the next day and got hit with a teacup. Before violence, direct and collateral lines were all the same.
* * *
To think it ended up like this.
“Let’s go.”
Stefan himself was unwelcome, but the incidents he brought were even worse.
“Why have you become so timid? Rilke has already finished preparing.”
I’d been agonizing over it but there was no answer.
Unable to last even two days after arriving, Stefan came asking to secretly go out at night. I still hadn’t reached a conclusion, but I was following him out as a result.
“Anyway, you lack boldness. You weren’t like this when you were young.”
That guy used to hang from trees like a monkey when he was young. Even after boarding the carriage prepared on the back road of the estate, Stefan’s chatter continued. Rilke just smiled silently.
The destination mansion was located on the outskirts of the capital, connected to a tributary of the Roen River.
It was close to the Meyer estate, which had been built around the same time. It was also one of the few hunting-permitted areas in the Empire.
Before long, the carriage passed the Bris Bridge supported by 12 arches and entered an uphill road dotted with tranquil magic street lamps. To the right of the sloping road spread a dense oak forest.
Seeing the river flowing down beyond it like dark blue silk made me feel hopeless.
“Joachim, aren’t you dressed too plainly?”
Stefan, who had been checking his appearance before getting off, criticized my outfit.
I had certainly dressed carelessly, caught up in other thoughts.
“It’s a masquerade ball.”
“That’s exactly why you should dress more specially. Something you don’t usually wear.”
“You don’t look much different either, hyung.”
“You might have heard, but there’s a really famous boutique in the south called Stork? I had this custom-made right there.”
Those who didn’t bring masks were directed to enter through the back door. As we got off the carriage, a guide was waiting.
It didn’t matter whether it was a masquerade ball or whatever anyway. The ball was just a good excuse—the mansion was a place where illegal gambling openly took place.
The mansion’s current owner was Count Quina, and it was possible because he was close to the Empress.
And Stefan loved gambling very much.
“Please choose what you’d like.”
The guide led us to a back room where masks were displayed.
All kinds of colorful masks were lined up on display stands. Near the entrance, a young lady was giggling and paying the rental fee. I could see gold coins spinning in circular rotation inside a transparent glass ball before falling in. Clang, the sound rang out cheerfully.
That place was already a social venue.
It just felt like masks were an accessory—they didn’t make sincere efforts to hide identities like at a real masquerade ball.
Because those people’s purpose was gambling.
“Stefan.”
I felt the need to warn him in advance to avoid getting involved in troublesome incidents.
“Huh. Did you choose?”
I had just picked up a black mask that happened to be in my hand. Rilke wasn’t visible, perhaps choosing from another display stand.
“I know why you brought me, hyung. You came to gamble.”
Not knowing when the obsessed Stefan might slip away, I got straight to the point. I threatened him by shaking the black mask I was holding.
“If you bet me in gambling because I’m an omega—”
“What are you talking about?”
Stefan made an absurd face.
“I wouldn’t have brought you if it weren’t for Rilke?”
“What?”
The multicolored feathers of the mask Stefan chose got crushed. ‘Damn, I’ll have to pay for this,’ Stefan muttered, pointing with the fluttering feather tip.
“Rilke asked to bring you. If you were still in that state from before, I wouldn’t have brought you no matter what Rilke said. I brought you out because it was pitiful seeing you locked away, and this bastard.”
He meant he brought me at Rilke’s suggestion, and if I couldn’t control my pheromones, he wouldn’t have brought me.
That’s nonsense. In the past—
“Hey? Don’t shake that mask. Geez.”
Stefan frowned and stopped my mask.
Come to think of it, I remembered that on this day in the past too, my pheromones had been strangely stable. There were about ten such days a year, so I seemed to have thought nothing of it…
Anyway, on that hazy day, it was Stefan who was absorbed in gambling. It was Stefan whose face turned pale from losing money so seriously he practically squandered it all. Rilke barely participated in gambling, just talking with people.
“I told you not to shake that.”
So when I heard ‘sold in place of gambling debts,’ I naturally thought Stefan had sold me off.
Stefan grabbed my mask face-to-face as if uncomfortable. He opened his mouth uncertainly.
“Anyway, it was hyung who wanted to come here, right?”
“It’s Rilke’s invitation. We’re just following him. How do you see me—no matter how much you dislike me, I wouldn’t bet my cousin in gambling.”
He could be lying.
But there’s no reason to lie to me yet. Though you never know what a person might do when backed into a corner.
“But are you really going to wear this?”
Stefan took my mask. He had been holding it together to prevent me from shaking it.
It was a plain black mask. If there was anything strange, it was that a large mushroom-shaped thing protruded from the brow, but it was plainer than other masks.
“Wear this instead. I’m serious.”
Stefan handed me a fierce metal-decorated hood that looked like something monks would wear. I like it. I accepted the recommendation.
“Don’t go down to the basement.”
Feeling at ease, I advised Stefan. I really liked the mask that completely covered my face.
Stefan, who was already at the dice table, looked back puzzled, but I pretended not to notice. Whether to squander his fortune or not was Stefan’s choice.
“Please go inside.”
As I tried to leave, the servant guarding the entrance blocked me.
“I wanted to look around the garden.”
“It’s not open today. I apologize.”
I heard they would offer a glass of premium Rosolio as an apology, but I declined.
Off-limits—I must have gotten in somehow luckily while fleeing last time.
If I’m not by the riverside, it becomes difficult to proceed as planned. Should I quit even now?
“……”
I let out a sigh and moved my steps.
Having climbed the tree, I should at least touch the mistletoe.
