BR 1.7

The bright morning sunlight woke Erons early. While it was still deep winter in Noahin, the southern Duchy already felt like spring.

He liked warmth but hated heat. The sun was already hot, and combined with the warmth of the bedroom, it felt muggy from early morning. Feeling stifled, he pulled back the covers to reveal damp clothing.

“Again? This is driving me crazy…. Why is this happening lately?”

How many times had this happened already? Mornings when his underwear was soaked through, damp enough to stain his nightshirt. And it wasn’t just water. 

It was sweet-smelling fluid. 

The fluid flows from an aroused Omega’s rear.

“Even when I manifested last year, it wasn’t like this. Strange. Am I sick somewhere…? ”

Having experienced this frequently lately, Erons, who had previously dismissed it lightly, began to worry that something might be wrong with his body.

Truthfully, there was a reason why this happened. He often had erotic dreams. Dreams where he received the touch of a stranger who emitted pheromones all night long.

He didn’t have them every day, though. It would be strange if he did.

Even on days he had no memory of dreaming, his clothes were always damp.

Before leaving the bed, Erons took off his underwear. The feeling of damp fabric clinging to his skin wasn’t pleasant.

Fortunately, this bedroom had a small bathroom attached. 

Erons carried his discarded underwear toward the bathroom. After filling the bathtub, he submerged the clothes first, not his body.

“Hah… I can’t keep doing this every day. What part of me is actually hurting? I suspect there’s another cause besides the dreams, but I have no clue.”

All he’d learned at the orphanage was to be observant of time and place, to always use respectful speech with adults, and the difference in symbolic colors between Alphas and Omegas.

As an Omega, he only knew that upon reaching adulthood, at midnight on his twenty-first birthday, his heat cycle would begin, making him capable of pregnancy.

“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve at least studied up on it.”

After washing the laundry, he bathed and emerged to find Lelis waiting with a change of clothes ready. She had noticed Erons washing them by hand every morning and tried to stop him, but he wasn’t the type to quit. 

The stains were transparent, hard to see with the naked eye, but the scent was unmistakable. It was the scent of arousal. How could he explain at his age that his clothes got wet from excitement while sleeping?

Whether maid or manservant, he didn’t want anyone to find out. 

In this mansion, where countless people already looked down on him simply for being an Omega, if rumors spread that he soaked his underwear every morning, he’d bear the scorn for life. Though he was used to enduring it, he didn’t want to cause such trouble. 

Erons simply wished his heated body would calm down quickly.

The clothes he had accumulated over his time in the mansion had piled up into a mountain. Not just nightshirts, but also indoor wear similar to Fedor’s, light garments for going out, and even uniforms for days requiring formality.

With so many options to wear, Erons found himself enjoying the daily ritual of choosing his morning attire. He took immense pleasure in seeing the clothes that seemed to multiply several times a day.

Not long ago, he’d barely managed to get through a season with just two outfits, so it was only natural.

Changing into neat indoor wear, Erons headed to Nike’s office with practiced ease.

“You look a bit better today.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You still have a long way to go, but compared to before…”
“That’s a relief. So today…”
“You can’t let your guard down.”
“Huh…!”

As always, Nike’s office was thick with the pheromones of Alphas and Omegas. They practiced regulating their pheromones every single day without fail.

It was supposed to be just teaching pheromone control, but it was excessive. Sometimes, instead of medicine, a kiss would soothe him. Sometimes, it felt like Nike deliberately didn’t prepare the medicine.

And Nike intermingled their tongues more than necessary. Erons recognized lust in the way that tongue sucked his own in like a beast. A desire that implied he didn’t want it to end with just a kiss.

Nike always kissed until he felt satisfied. He showered kisses until Erons’s body went limp, as if about to collapse.

It was kind of him to teach someone like Erons, who knew nothing. Erons always made sure to tell him he was grateful. Not empty words, but genuine. Yet, as grateful as he was, doubts also arose.

“Good work. Let’s stop here for today.”
“Yes, thank you…”
”You can go back and rest now.”

‘Is it over like this again? How long will we just keep practicing…?’

After practice ended like this, he’d go back to his room, rest, eat dinner, and sleep. That was all. There was nothing else.

Nike didn’t give him a single task.

Not a single work outfit was in his new wardrobe, despite his expectations. He thought they’d give him some eventually, but as days passed without any sign of such a thing, Erons finally spoke up first.

“Your Grace. When will my work clothes be ready?”
“Work clothes?”
“I have many new outfits, but not a single work outfit. I can’t work wearing such fancy clothes, can I?”
“…What are you talking about? You’re doing work? Who on earth told you to work?”
“Ah, no! No one told me! It’s just… I’ll be getting work soon too, so I can’t just keep practicing pheromone control with you, Your Grace…”

Erons couldn’t finish his sentence properly and had to trail off. Nike was wearing an angry expression.

He exhaled sharply, as if trying to suppress something that was rising to his throat, then pulled Erons down to sit on his lap.

“Child, listen to me carefully.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”

“I have absolutely no intention of putting you to work. Even if you wanted to, I wouldn’t make you. You are more precious to me than anyone else who bears my name.”

“… I can’t. I’m too unworthy to bear the Duke’s name. I know nothing of etiquette, and I can’t even read. I can’t humiliate the benefactor who saved me.”

“Learning to read is easy enough. You’re clever; you’ll pick it up quickly. I’ll see to it myself. You needn’t worry about a thing.”

“But…”
“Child.”

Nike pressed her lips lightly against the back of Erons’s hand.

“I want you to be mine. If my words sounded false, I apologize. But everything I said was sincere. Become mine. And always stay by my side.”

Nike, still holding Erons’s hands tightly, pressed his forehead against Erons’s shoulder and leaned into him. Unable to move with both hands held, Erons gently placed his cheek against Nike’s head.

“I really won’t be of any help to Your Grace. I don’t know how to do anything…”
”Don’t think that way. You’re perfectly fine just as you are right now.”

Nike cupped Erons’s chin, and their gazes locked. Unlike his own, his blue eyes held unwavering resolve, yet they looked at him warmly.

The feeling of being looked at like that was truly comforting. Erons liked those eyes, and he liked the way they seemed to give him confidence.

“Don’t be impatient. What you don’t know, you’ll learn in time. For now, trust me and just stay like this.”

As if to emphasize the contact, Nike pressed his lips firmly against Erons’s forehead, lingering there for a moment.

“Hey, instead of talking about this, how about you tell me about yourself?”
“About me?”
“All I know of you is who you are now. I’m curious. What was your childhood like, the part I don’t know? It might not be full of happy memories, but won’t you tell me a little?”

Erons had never specifically mentioned his days at the orphanage. As he said, there weren’t any happy memories to speak of. So he felt even less inclined to talk about it.

Even if he did talk, he’d only get pitying looks.

“I’ve lived in an orphanage since birth, so there’s nothing special… My life is pretty uneventful, so it might be boring for you, Your Grace. No. It’s definitely boring.”

“Still, I’m curious. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to hear. Isn’t it only natural for me to be curious about the childhood of the boy who will soon be my son?”

…How could I refuse? He calls himself my father, yet he keeps poking at my weak spots like this.

“I… grew up in the Noahin Orphanage.”
“Noahin? That’s where we first met.”

“Yes. I lived there my whole life. There was a temple nearby, and going there with the other kids was my only joy. The headmaster rarely permitted us to go out.”
“What a mean headmaster.”

“There were quite a few things we weren’t allowed to do. I don’t know about other places, but our headmaster ran the orphanage alone. There were many children, and he was by himself, so maybe he was deliberately stricter? People get bitter when they’re struggling.”

“It’s good you’re trying to understand, but don’t think that makes it acceptable. No matter what, children are… precious and should be treated with care. Whether they’re my blood or not.”

“Yes, I understand. The orphanage was about… the size of this office, I think. No, maybe a little smaller? Over twenty children lived there regardless of age. When I was little, the older boys carried me on their backs and raised me. When I grew up, I carried the newborns and raised them. We were each other’s parents and children.“

“That must have been hard.”
“It was a little tough, but the kids were all good and listened well, so it was okay.”

Erons deliberately smiled and continued calmly. But the content was anything but calm.

Even as a full-fledged adult, he still hadn’t shed the air of a minor. Carrying and raising children smaller than himself couldn’t have been as easy as he made it sound.

The fact that he could speak of it so matter-of-factly showed just how little that headmaster cared for the residents.

“Did you sleep well? Did you eat your meals properly?”

“Yes. We always slept huddled together. Sleeping like that helped me get closer to the kids. Meals were usually bread, milk, and soup. Ah, but on special days, he bought us delicious treats!”

“Special days?”

“Birthdays! He always made sure to celebrate them. He’d buy cake and fruit juice, and make beef stew. That’s why we all used to say we wished it was our birthday every single day of the year.”

“I see.”

Cake. Fruit juice. Stew.

The orphanage conditions were unimaginably poor. Naturally, Nike’s expression wasn’t good. For someone of noble birth, this kind of story must seem like something only found in novels.

The most surprising thing was that Erons was actually embellishing the situation as he told it.

Nike’s hand, which had been around Erons’s waist, moved up to his head. He stroked Erons’s hair very slowly.

The gentle touch held something beyond pity and sympathy. No matter how much he acted normal, he couldn’t help but feel it when they were this close.

In fact, Erons had deliberately softened his words, anticipating this reaction. This anger and worry. But even that seemed pitiful to Nike’s eyes.

…I hate this kind of reaction.

Pity and sympathy were things he’d always received. Everyone who saw him thought that way, spoke that way, and treated him that way. So he was used to it. But hated it just the same. Erons, at least, didn’t think he was that pitiful. He tried not to think that way.

I thought that would make me seem less pitiful.

“Any other unusual aspects?”
“What kind of unusual aspects?”
“You might not know since you don’t go out much, but something that makes you think, ‘Other orphanages probably aren’t like this.’”
“Hmm…. What is there? Ah.”
“So there is something.”

“Yes. Now that I think about it, it seems a bit strange. We were all Omegas. The new kids who came in, the ones we lived with. There were no Betas or Alphas.“
”All Omegas? Every single one, without exception?“

”Yes. Very rarely, maybe once every few years, a child with a different trait would come, but the headmaster would send them off for adoption right away. The kids who knew their names or faces probably wouldn’t be around anymore.“

Something felt off.

Orphanages are supposed to take in children regardless of their trait. Most were too young for anything unsavory to happen anyway.

They’d be adopted before that happened.

Aphas and Betas are indeed more popular with parents than Omegas. It was only natural that they’d be adopted first, leaving only the Omegas behind. 

But the headmaster seemed to only take in Omega children from the start. Like a human farm raising only Omegas.

“Did any of the adopted children ever return?”

“There was one. This happened not long before I left the orphanage. A few years ago, an older brother who had been adopted came back. But he was a bit strange, like a slightly mad person… ‘No, I don’t want to die,’ he kept saying, begging to be saved.“

”He begged to be saved… Anything else strange?“

”He seemed very anxious. He kept crying and screaming. I wanted to help, but he only repeated the same words and wouldn’t explain the details, so I couldn’t understand. His voice was so loud that soon after, the headmaster came and took him away.“

“You don’t know what happened after that?”

“The headmaster said he found new parents for him. He said this time he went to a kind couple, so we shouldn’t worry. He said the previous parents were too violent, which is why he became strange.”

“Hmm… Do you remember that man’s name?”
“It was Rudin.”
“Rudin?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if he changed his name after the new adoption.”
“I see. That’s enough.”
“What is?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”

Erons felt a twinge of regret, wondering if he’d revealed too much. Nike’s face had stiffened considerably, making him feel it even more.

Should I have just kept quiet? Should I have mixed in more lies?

It wasn’t even about his own past, but about another orphan. Yet Nike seemed angrier than before. 

Uncertain what exactly had provoked him, Erons struggled to calm his anxious heart.

“Child. Did that headmaster hit you?”

The words wouldn’t come out. 

Hit? 

Of course he was hit. 

How could he soften this so the Duke’s anger wouldn’t flare up even more? How could he say it so those eyebrows would relax again?

“No, he didn’t hit us.”
“He didn’t yell either?”
“No. Unless we did something wrong, he never yelled.”

Erons lied as naturally as if he wore a mask of steel. His conscience pricked him, but what could he do? 

Whatever he said would surely provoke Nike’s anger, so lying was far better. Erons thought he’d deceived him well enough, yet strangely, Nike’s expression wasn’t exactly pleasant. 

What was he feeling? 

Anger? Sadness? Or… despair?

As always, Nike gently stroked his head. Only when their eyes met did his expression soften slightly. He seemed to be trying to reassure the cowed Erons. But he didn’t fully relax.

“I asked because you seemed afraid of me shouting. You always covered your ears when I raised my voice. 

“I asked because you seemed afraid of me shouting. You always covered your ears when I raised my voice. It’s as if you have some kind of trauma from that kind of situation.”
“Ah… Did I do that?”
“Yes. Always.”

Erons himself had no idea he had such a habit. And he certainly hadn’t expected Nike to remember it.

“It’s going to be a busy time again.”
“Me?”
“No, me. It looks like I should start working again soon.”

“Ah, it’s already that time… I’m sorry. I’ll head out now. Ah, Duke. About my brother…”

“Hm?”

Thinking of something at the last moment, Erons told Nike about it before leaving the office. The reality of the orphanage, which was seriously wrong, was painfully clear even without needing to investigate it.