Chapter 9: This Person Is an Alpha

“Personally, I think you should worry more about your clothes than the snake.”

“Mm?”

With a cigarette hanging in his mouth, Tet pushed back his bangs. The way he glanced at Urien’s way from that angle was incredibly attractive—it wasn’t hard to imagine the women in the estate would fall over heels for him if they were to see this.

“Your shirt and pants are too short.”

“That they are, otherwise it’ll be too hot. The weather’s real nice today, isn’t it?”

“It is. Wait a minute, let me…”

“‘Kay.”

Ignoring Tet’s carefree, cheerful smile, Urien bent down to see his calf. Sure enough, as he had expected, he found black dots clinging to the man’s skin.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“You were bitten.”

Hugging his own knees as he was squatting, Urien looked up at Tet.

The other man blinked in confusion. Then, as if he had also noticed something, he bent down to look at his own calves, and…

“Huh, what?! What are these?!”

“Ticks.”

“Ticks?!”

‘These are rare kinds of ticks too.’ Urien’s eyes lit up as he observed the tiny ticks that were tightening their jaws at the man’s skin.

The ticks that lived around this region would usually find deers to parasitize. Since there were deers around this area, it wasn’t a strange thing to find ticks roaming around too. But these ticks were different from the ones that lived in the Lustrand Kingdom—their colors were slightly paler. ‘Is it because the knight order often goes to war in foreign countries and brought these ticks here? It could be that these things are from Belmania. Since that’s the case, the disease that they carry would be different from what Lustrand Kingdom’s ticks carry. Which means…’

“These guys are more dangerous than the snake. Generally, there is a 30% chance that a tick’s bite could cause an infection that leads to death.”

“D-Death?!”

Seeing how vast the estate was and how this man was completely unaware of a tick’s danger, it was safe to assume that he rarely left the main building and possibly had most of his work there.

Urien stood up, looking down at Tet, who was now holding his knees.

“Don’t worry too much. For now, let’s get these things off your legs and apply some medicine on them.”

“A-Am I going to die?!”

“If you leave the wounds untreated and let infections happen, there’s a 30% chance that you’re going to die.”

“I-I’m really going to die?!”

Though shocked, Tet’s cigarette didn’t leave his lips. One strange thing about smokers was that the more panicked they were, the more they tended to inhale their cigarette—which, in hindsight, would be more dangerous for them, but that was just how it was.

In any case, Urien decided to invite Tet to his shed. The ticks only embedded their jaws lightly at the moment, but the more they let those critters be, the deeper it’d burrow their jaws in, so they had to take care of them as soon as possible.

Tet entered the shed, trembling, making Urien feel pitiful when he saw him. One thing of note though, he seemed to be quite familiar with the place.

“Didn’t Benno used to live here? Does that mean you’re his apprentice, Yuri?”

“Well, something like that.”

“I see!”

Tet said in a nostalgic voice, but then he stared at his calves and started trembling again.

Urien took some tools from his first aid kit—a sharpened branch for medical uses, some disinfectant concocted from herbs, and an ointment. Right before he started working, that was when it hit him.

‘This person’s an Alpha…’

He failed to notice his scent back in the garden due to the open air, but now, it was extremely noticeable.

Since the servants, including Ella and Benno were all Betas, and Rodrick not being in the estate, Urien had been lowering his guard down and not wearing his collar, thinking that he wouldn’t meet another Alpha here, but now…

‘What should I do? Should I wear the choker now? But, that’d reveal that I’m an Omega to him… My scent shouldn’t be too prominent since I can’t really go in Heat, but…’

‘Whatever. For the time being, I’ll get rid of the ticks.’ Holding the first-aid tools and a glass of water in his hands, Urien knelt in front of Tet, who was sitting on a chair by the window.

“This is going to hurt a little. Please bear with it.”

“O-Okay…”

Urien removed the ticks as carefully as he could, but that didn’t stop Tet from wincing in pain. Eventually, he removed all the critters from his calves and disinfected the wounds afterwards as there didn’t seem to be any of the ticks’ body parts stuck in the wounds. Only when Urien dissolved some nutrients into the water, stirring them while saying, “It should be okay now,” did Tet finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, you saved me…”

“Next time you wander around that place, wear clothes that cover more of your skin.”

“I will.”

‘Now, what do I do?’

Urien couldn’t go into Heat, but accidents might happen, hence why it would be best if he were to be careful when interacting with Alphas.

Since they were done here, he tried to figure out a way to make Tet leave, but as he was wondering how to bring it up, the other man exclaimed, “Ah!” in a loud voice.

“There’s something in this box.”

“Ah.”

Marx’ box was still on the table. The rustling noises Marx’ made probably captured Tet’s attention.

Indeed, Urien had forgotten to hide the box. Meanwhile, Tet had already stood up and observed the box’ side with a curious gaze. Immediately, Urien spoke out.

“It’s just a rare insect. Don’t you have work to do, Tet?”

“I’m on my break now. Also, you can be at ease around me, you know?”

“But, you’re older than me…”

“Eh, who cares about that. Anyway, a rare insect? What kind?”

“Umm…”

Sensing his hesitation, Tet directed his golden eyes at Urien, locking his gaze on him.

His gaze felt all too familiar to him, but before he could figure out why it was so, Tet already continued.

“Don’t worry, I already took my Alpha suppressant.”

“…Huh?”

“You’re an Omega right, Yuri?” His next words made Urien clench his mouth shut.

But, even after seeing this, Tet just continued nonchalantly.

“Don’t worry, like I said, I took suppressants. I’ve nursed an Omega girl who was in Heat before.”

“…How did you know I am an Omega?”

“By your smell, of course. It was just, the mood wasn’t right to point that out.”

Tet said, pointing at his calves.

The surprising thing here was that he had noticed his scent. It seemed like even a broken Omega who couldn’t go into Heat like him still exuded the unique scent of an Omega. This was the first time he knew of such a thing. The revelation made him feel uneasy, but at that moment, Tet shook his head lightly.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t a bad scent or anything.”

“A-Ah, okay… Anyway, I haven’t met an Alpha who took on suppressants before…”

“Because that’s my duty.”

“…”

“Also, stop being so polite with me already.”

Urien shut his lips again, not saying anything. ‘Duty,’ it was the first time in his life that he had seen an Alpha doing such a thing for such a reason.

In this world, Omegas were seen as evil beings who loved to seduce Alphas. Case on point, though it was Urien’s father who impregnated his mother, his stepmother never blamed him and instead cursed his mother for daring to seduce his father.

Incubus, the old demon that was recorded in this kingdom’s ancient religious texts, was said to be modeled after an Omega. It was widely believed that humans desire for sex was due to the Incubus’ seduction. Ultimately, they believed that the Incubus was bad and anyone who impregnated them were poor victims.

Omegas were bewitching, beautiful, and devilish beings whose purpose was to lead people astray. No one would blame an Alpha for impregnating an Omega as the Omegas were the devils—root of all evils.

With the main religion depicting Incubus in their texts, such a view became common sense in this kingdom.

“Duty?”

“As long as I don’t get swayed by Heat, nothing will happen.”

“…”

‘What a…novel way of thinking.’

Urien fell silent. Meanwhile Tet, seemingly unable to move on from the box, turned his eyes back to the box on top of the desk. As he focused his gaze on the box, he nonchalantly threw a question at him, “Why don’t you use a choker if you feel uneasy?”

At that, Urien just stood frozen but eventually, he opened his mouth again.

“Umm…”

“Hm?”

“…”

“What’s wrong?”

‘Maybe, if it’s him…’

Urien gulped before taking a deep breath.

“I have some good tea with me.”

“Ah, that sounds good!”

‘Maybe, if it’s him, we could be friends…’