Chapter 2: A Separate Residence for the Consort

Their conversation only lasted for a few minutes, but it was obvious to Urien that Rodrick was an Alpha.

Well actually, he knew about it already. After all, he had looked him up prior to their meeting. It was probably why he chose him as a marriage partner—after all, he was an Omega—though no one could say it for sure. 

In this world, aside from males and females, there was something called secondary genders, which consisted of Alpha, Beta, and Omega. Most people were Betas, while the other two were rare among the people and each held a special position, for better or worse.

Alphas were biologically superior from the rest. Overall, they had better physical abilities and intelligence than the other two. They sat at the top of the food chain, hence why though their numbers were few, there were more than plenty of them among the nobles and royalties.

Meanwhile, Omegas were the exact opposite, being the bottom of the food chain. Urien was a perfect example of an Omega being born in a noble family; his whole family despised him while the servants ostracized him. His younger brother specifically, posed as him and went around seducing men in town.

And as stated, Omegas, even male Omegas, could conceive children. It was generally believed that all Omegas were beautiful, doll-like beings that existed to be ‘enjoyed’. People admired their beauties, but at the same time, they’d forcefully push their desires onto them.

They were humans like any other, but they were treated as if they were toys.

Also, Omegas had a unique trait where they’d enter this state called ‘heat’ where they’d exude their pheromones to seduce the Alphas. Any Alphas that were affected with those pheromones would enter a state called ‘rut’ in which they might just sexually assault the Omegas.

If an Alpha bit an Omega’s neck, it could alter the previously mentioned pheromones and even suppress their heat. This was what was called a ‘bond’. A bonded Omega’s pheromones would only affect their Alpha partner from then on, reducing risk of sexual assaults as well as some other benefits. Generally, only lovers would start a bond with each other, but accidental bonds did exist.

This was the reason why Omegas wore chokers to hide their necks, carried suppressants for their heats, as well as emergency contraceptives. Meanwhile, Alphas just needed to be careful so they wouldn’t be affected by an Omega’s heat.

Urien knew that Rodrick was an Alpha, hence why he wore a choker when he met him. The would only last for two years and once it expired they wouldn’t have anything to do with each other anymore. There was no need for them to bond.

An Alpha could bond with multiple Omegas, but an Omega could only be bonded with a single Alpha. If an Omega’s neck was bitten by the wrong Alpha, then that was it. After all, enduring heat without an Alpha after being bonded was pretty much a torture—at least that was what he had heard.

In other words, Urien had to make damn sure that Rodrick didn’t bite his neck. He also had to keep his guards up to avoid an accident from happening.

That would be his main goal for the next two years.

‘…Still, why two years, specifically?’

Eating his cold breakfast, Urien tilted his head.

The room he was assigned to was located at the edge of the estate’s main building. Before him, laid a cold, completely unappetizing meal.

Last night, he had read the copy of the contract that a servant had given to him, but even after reading it multiple times, it wasn’t specified why he set two years as the terms. Since he only knew Rodrick through rumors, he naturally couldn’t guess why either.

The fact that Rodrick had set a time limit even though he was set to divorce Urien later anyway was strange. Which meant, there was probably a good reason behind it.

Perhaps he was planning to marry someone else in two years time, or this was a matter related to the ongoing war he was participating in.

‘Two years, huh? I don’t know if it’s long or short.’ Thinking so, Yurien dipped the hard bread into the cold soup to soften it a little, and brought it into his mouth.

“…That’s tasty.”

The breakfast that they prepared for him was a cold potage soup, a piece of black bread, a shriveled salad, and a glass of hard water.

It had been five days since Urien arrived at the duke’s estate. Considering his current status was that of a consort of the most powerful and wealthiest ducal house, the Edel Family, this meal felt like a bad joke. But he could still enjoy this meal.

After all, it was still significantly better than what he used to eat back at home. Back at the barony, he was mistreated by his father, stepmother, stepbrother, and even the servants.

They made him live in a storeroom, only providing him with a piece of bread and a glass of water for his meals, forcing him to look for his own food from the nearby river and forest.

But, even that piece of bread felt like a blessing for him back then. 

Eating something that he didn’t need to work hard for was still a shocking experience, even to the current him.

“Thank you for the food.”

“…”

He muttered after he finished his meal. Then, a maid who had been standing near the door came over without saying a word.

She just cleared the dishes away without even opening her mouth, only throwing him a sharp glare when she was about to leave the room. Urien thanked her with a “Thank you,” but she didn’t say anything to him. Ever since he arrived at this estate, none of the servants talked to him.

But this didn’t come as a surprise. After all, he was the infamous Urien Martritz.

He was the devilish man-slut who, despite being a man, went out of his way to seduce other men. The servants were probably frustrated that their master had married such a man.

From their attitude, rather than being disappointed in Rodrick, they were blaming Urien who had seduced their master. Although from Urien’s perspective, it was an unnecessary sentiment since he had no intention to seduce Rodrick whatsoever.

Urien trudged over to the window. He was forbidden to leave this room, though not that he wanted to in the first place, hence why he had stayed put in the past four days. Besides, he knew that his true freedom would come in two years, so he couldn’t care less how badly he was treated during that time.

“I wonder if Lord Rodrick will ever come back here?”

The master of the estate himself was currently away.

Four days ago, he only signed the contract marriage’s vow and gave it to the maids. He probably left the estate soon after and hadn’t come back since.

Urien was slightly curious about what he was up to, but when he tried to ask the servants what he was doing, all of them just averted their gazes.

They refused to even set him in their lines of sight, let alone answer his question. Regardless, this didn’t change what he had to do; to lay low and stay out of trouble. With that in mind, he hadn’t spoken Rodrick’s name even once in front of the servants.

Anyway, he had heard that things in the estate were being taken care of by Rodrick’s younger brother, and it wasn’t something that he, a mere consort in name—actually, he wasn’t even sure if he could be called that—had something to do with.

“Still, I’m bored. I wanna go outside for a bit…”

Urien muttered as he stared at the garden outside the window.

It was currently summer. The wonderful season when all the flowers and sun reached eagerly towards the sun.

Then, he directed his gaze towards the bedroom. Before he realized it, a thought escaped his lips.

“Marx…”

He let out a sigh before biting his lip.

It wasn’t like he wanted to wander around the mansion or anything.

He just wanted to go outside…to that garden.

The duke’s estate was as spacious as a whole palace. In fact, the garden alone was so large that it’d take a day to explore it. Not only that, if one were to go further into the garden, they’d find a forest and a river there—all of this was still within the estate.

He was tempted to see the lovely garden, but the forest was even more enticing than it. Urien let out another sigh and turned his gaze the other way.

His room was on a wing compared to where Rodrick’s room was—the latter was close to the knight’s training ground.

Urien’s room was at the edge of the second floor—at a height where it seemed like he could just climb out of the window if he wanted to. 

‘…Hm. Should I do it?’

Waiting idly for the time to pass could become a matter of life or death. So, he decided to just do it.

‘The maid just left, there shouldn’t be anyone coming here for a while.’ Thinking so, Urien quickly opened the window, checking the distance between the window and the ground.

‘It’s quite high, but I won’t die even if I fall from this height.’ When he looked to the side, he saw a tree branch extending towards him. He was quite good at climbing trees—well, he never actually tried climbing trees before, but he believed that he was good at it.

Urien approached the bed, pulling out the sheet. Just as he was about to turn the sheet into a makeshift rope after approaching the window…

“…Excuse me, Madam.”

“Huh?”

‘What do you mean, ‘excuse me’?!’

Urien hurriedly tossed the sheet back onto the bed. Before he could even answer, the head maid already entered the room.

He quickly plastered a smile on his face, but she made a distorted expression on her face—either due to her dislike of his smile, or because of how antsy he looked.

“What are you doing over there?”

“Um, nothing…?”

“I see. In any case, Madam, you’ll be moving to a new room.”

Urien blinked in confusion. “Moving?” he asked while tilting his head.

At that, the head maid just gave him a dry answer.

“Yes, Madam. We have prepared a separate accommodation for you.”

“A separate accommodation?”

“Please, get ready to move.”

Behind the head maid, there was another maid, younger, but wearing an identical expression to the head maid.

But, it was clear that they had no intention to help him out with the moving, so Urien just let out a wry smile, throwing “Give me a moment,” at them and started doing what he had to do.

He tidied up the sheet and packed up the clothes they provided him. The only personal things that he packed up were his heat suppressants, contraceptives, and the ‘box’.

After stuffing the drugs into his pocket, wrapped the clothes with a big cloth, and placed them on top of the box, he…

“Alright, it’s time to go.”

Muttered as such and lifted the box.

The ‘separate accommodation’ that they brought him to was more than anything he had ever imagined.

“Please stay here until the master returns.”

“…”

“Madam, are you listening?”

“Ah, yes…”

‘Oh, damn, I was too busy staring.’

The accommodation was a small house at the edge of the estate.

It was probably an old storage shed or something, but it was still a wonderful-looking two stories shed. Here and there, part of the roof was missing, but those were easily fixable. He stood there in a daze, staring at the building, while the head maid and the younger maid left without a word.

Then, he stepped inside with a low, “Excuse me”. No one answered him, but an earwig did pass by his feet as he did. 

Urien took a deep breath. The scent of earth entered his lungs. He knew what they were trying to pull here.

Basically, since they didn’t recognize him, the good-for-nothing man-slut, as their master’s consort, they stuffed him here to harass him. They hated the idea of them being in the same mansion as him.

Little did they know though, this was something that he wanted.