Achim asked. The child cautiously lifted his head. His eyes were hidden behind his long, grown-out hair. Instead, Achim looked at the child’s round little nose and lips as he spoke.
— We’re friends now, aren’t we. I should at least know your name.
The child’s mouth parted softly. He stayed like that, mouth open and silent for a while, before finally speaking.
— Linus…….
Achim nodded.
— Come on, Linus. Looks like it’s going to rain again.
Linus curved his lips faintly and gave a small nod.
Such a gentle, shy little kid, Achim had thought, watching Linus.
Right. He definitely had that soft, delicate quality about him.
[Hey babe, what cup size should I get you?]
“……”
He still hadn’t hung up. Achim slowly surfaced from his thoughts at the sound of Linus’s voice.
[Bigger is better, right? You don’t seem like you’d know much about this sort of thing, Achim, so I’ll pick out the underwear packed full of my own preferences.]
“……”
[Oh, just to be safe — should I pick based on Michael Bernhardt’s tastes instead?]
“Shut up, Linus……”
[Ahahaha.]
Achim clenched his fist, wanting to punch Linus right then and there. There was no way someone like him — a Royal Alpha, no less — would ever get tangled up with a Beta like himself in that kind of way.
Irritated by Linus’s constant stream of empty jokes, Achim had to keep forcing down the disgust rising in his throat.
“I like women who are small and petite.”
[Hm?]
“I’m saying he’s not my type no matter how impressive he is. So cut it out with those unfunny jokes, Linus.”
When Achim said it with a straight face, Linus burst out laughing — puhaha.
Damn it, did I get swept up in his pace again. Achim regretted it too late and irritably mussed up his own bangs. He didn’t respond even when Linus called his name.
A moment later. As Achim stood quietly with his phone in hand, just listening, an oddly serious voice came through — one that didn’t suit Linus at all.
[You never know how things will turn out. If you speak too boldly, you might end up eating your words.]
Yvonne Rasch. Achim’s new identity, created for the undercover infiltration.
“These damn muscles.”
Achim peered at his own reflection in the mirror — blurry as fog, coated in dust — and complained while kneading one of his forearms.
He’d spent a solid month losing weight to make himself look as convincing as possible as Yvonne, a woman in her twenties. But perhaps there had been a miscalculation — because with only his body fat reduced, his muscles had actually become more defined instead.
Just as Linus had said, Achim was clearly on the lean side. No matter what he ate, his weight neither dropped nor gained easily, and whether it was simply in his nature, he always carried a faint layer of muscle even without exercising. He’d never imagined that would come back to bite him…….
Achim scrunched his face in displeasure and picked something up. It was a wig made of human hair, custom-fitted to the shape of his head.
Achim draped the long black wig — the same color as his natural hair — over his head and carefully arranged the strands.
Next, he looked at the pair of elaborate underwear set out before him. It was lace-trimmed lingerie, packed to the brim with Linus’s taste.
Achim stood with his arms crossed, deliberating for a long while, then suddenly glanced down and looked over his own body.
“……”
Do I really have to wear this? It’s not like it has to be as big as Linus wants. There are all kinds of people in the world.
After deliberating, Achim ultimately tossed Linus’s goodwill into a small drawer. He shoved it all the way into the corner so it couldn’t be seen, and only then did he feel a wave of relief wash through him.
Damn Linus. Achim muttered under his breath and slammed the drawer shut with a bang.
Finally, he picked up a small glass bottle. Inside the translucent amber bottle was a clear liquid, filled a little past halfway.
Achim watched the liquid sloshing gently inside, then wrapped his hand around the cap. He twisted it to one side and the bottle opened with a soft pop.
— Drink this and your voice will shift to the opposite of your biological sex. It lasts somewhere between 20 to 24 hours. It wasn’t easy to get my hands on. Hmm, but……
Just as he was about to tip it straight into his mouth, Linus’s voice drifted through his mind.
— The downside is that it’s an untested drug, so there’s no telling what kind of side effects it might have. There’s apparently even an Omega who became infertile after drinking it. Oh, but thankfully it won’t be life-threatening — the manufacturer guarantees that much, at least. I’m worried, but…… you’re going to drink it even if I tell you not to, aren’t you?
It’s not going to kill me. Besides, infertility or pregnancy — neither of those things applied to him.
Achim brushed past the unfavorable examples Linus had listed once more and downed the liquid in one go.
Michael Bernhardt’s mansion was, truly, every bit as immense as his reputation.
The grounds surrounding the estate were expansively beyond imagination, and one had to walk hundreds, thousands of steps just to reach the wide lawn stretching out in front of the main building.
When Achim finally arrived before the large fountain at the center of the lush green lawn, his mouth fell open at the sight that spread before him.
The large white stone structures maintained their classical architectural style intact, and the decorative elements distinctive of the Neo-Baroque style stood out prominently across the building’s exterior, its windows, and various other details — exuding a sense of opulence.
It was a landscape that seemed to recreate a utopia from within one’s imagination.
“Yvonne Rasch?”
A voice cutting in on his admiration made Achim startle and snap his mouth shut.
He looked to the side. A distinguished older man wearing a monocle stood there.
Achim nodded.
“Yes.”
At that, the man began walking ahead as if gesturing for him to follow. Achim patted the wig a couple more times to check it, then fell in step behind the man.
He had already changed fully into a maid’s uniform.
Guided by the man, Achim stood in a corridor lined with a red carpet and glanced sideways at the maids lined up in a row beside him. Looking them over, more or less all of them were either similar in height to Achim or a little shorter — consistent with the recruitment requirements.
Relieved that his own appearance didn’t seem likely to stand out, Achim noticed, at the far opposite end of the line, a head that barely reached around his waist.
“I am Wolfgang Appel, the butler of this estate.”
At the sound of the man’s voice, Achim — who had been tilting his head curiously — looked forward again.
Wolfgang gave a brief introduction of himself and then began listing the duties the house maids would be responsible for going forward.
Achim nodded along, making a show of listening intently. He couldn’t afford to get on the butler’s bad side either. Since he’d need to slip around the estate secretly, Achim intended to do his very best to go unnoticed.
But as the man’s explanation dragged on, Achim felt his focus reaching its limit. This is boring. His concentration wavered, and other thoughts began nibbling away at the corner of his mind little by little.
A short while later, the butler suddenly stopped speaking. He bowed deeply in the direction of something, and everyone’s gazes turned in the same direction.
“Welcome back, Michael.”
Achim was no different. Hearing the name, he turned his head — and at last, he was able to spot the target of his mission.
A moment later, at the sight of Michael, Achim’s mouth fell open without him even realizing it.
Laughably, the very first thought that struck him upon seeing Michael was: the screen really doesn’t do him justice.
Michael Bernhardt, towering well over 190 centimeters, commanded every gaze in the room with his entrance alone. His blond hair gleamed as though coated in honey, and the eyes set beneath his long lashes — a strange, mesmerizing blend of gray and emerald — drew the eye instinctively.
His skin, nearly porcelain white, went without saying, and his nose, straight and strikingly high-bridged, lent a sharp strength to what was otherwise a breathtakingly beautiful face. It was astonishing.
