Chapter 3: You’ve Already Served Your Purpose

The storage shed was two-stories high, with a kitchen and a toilet on the first floor. Seeing how reasonably well furnished it was, a gardener or someone else probably used to live here.

As Urien climbed the creaky stairs, he was greeted by a bedroom on the second floor—there was a single bed sitting quietly there. After a while, the maids came back to give him blankets and some other things, and he saw them off with a “Thank you” before they left.

The small river was flowing nearby and behind it was the dense forest. Although the shed was built on a small hill, seeing how close the river was, it wouldn’t be safe if the river were to flood.

At that moment, he noticed a small doe staring at him from the forest. It held its gaze for a while before eventually scurried away. 

‘I see, so deers pass by here too…’

At that moment, a fly passed by him. Immediately, he reached out for it and grabbed it with his fingers, but then…

“Madam.”

A voice called out to him. He turned around to see the young maid from before standing there.

She was throwing him a suspicious look, in which he returned with a timid smile. Furrowing her brows, she announced, “Dinner will be brought to you after the sun goes down.”

“Thank you.”

“Then, please excuse me.”

After the maid left, he released the fly. 

He stared at it as it left with a loud buzzing sound, then dropped his gaze down below. The ground was covered with a field of brilliant blue grass. On a spider web nearby, a drop of dew revealed its presence, shimmering beautifully.

“…I could live in a place like this with Marx.”

Urien’s murmurs failed to enter anyone’s ears. Even he himself was too occupied with the thought of living a secret life with him.

In the still part of the stream, the water reflected the clear blue sky like a mirror. Looking down, he saw his own reflection on it.

Seeing how his chestnut-colored hair had reached his neck, he thought of cutting it. Then, he became lost in thought, lost in the pair of purple eyes that were staring back at him.

…He was reminded of his younger brother with his purple eyes and blond hair—proof that the Martritz blood was running through his veins.

His father had the same hair color, while his stepmother—the baroness—had brown hair that tinged with a shade of gold. Among them, Urien’s dark hair stood out.

He got his hair from his biological mother, a prostitute. Up until he was seven, he had been living with his mother and he thought it’d always be that way until one day, a messenger from Baron Martritz came to pick him up.

That was when he found out that he was an illegitimate son of the baron. Anyway, it happened  more than ten years ago, so he didn’t remember the details. All he remembered was just how pretty his mother was and that she chose to give him up for money.

Of course, the baroness wasn’t happy. “You’re just a son of a whore,” were the words that he kept hearing from her. Her tone, her gesture, her attitude—it was clear that she despised him from the bottom of her heart.

One might wonder, if he ended up getting treated that badly anyway, why did they even bother picking him up from the slums? The answer was Arnault, his younger brother.

He was a Beta, a year younger than Urien. The first time Urien came to the Martritz Family, he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Since they saw no hope of him ever getting cured, they decided to seek Urien out. This way, if Arnault were to pass, Urien could take over as the successor to the family, but if Arnault was cured, they could just marry Urien off somewhere since he was an Omega.

Though his hair color wasn’t Martritz’ blond, he did inherit his father’s eyes. Since he’d be dedicating his life for the family in one way or another, they gave him sufficient education.

But then, when Urien hit eleven, Arnault’s condition improved drastically.

From then on, Urien’s treatment in the barony worsened. He was thrown into the storage shed and was forced to live an isolated life. Other than his younger brother—who’d occasionally come to bully him—his stepmother, and the servants, he wasn’t allowed to meet anyone.

Having inherited his mother’s looks, he was deemed attractive by his father and the servants, but that only made his younger brother hate him even more.

The moment he turned sixteen, Arnault began to hold loud parties frequently. He also started to live a concerning nightlife, seducing men here and there since he was into them.

His signature pickup line was, “I’m an Omega, after all”. Since Omegas were rare and beautiful, he freely used such a line.

In reality, he was just a good-looking Beta, but he didn’t care. He even used Urien’s name as he engaged in his debauchery.

After all, Urien was the real Omega here.

“You’ve already served your purpose.”

Those were the words that Arnault said to him when he fully recovered. As he said that, he poured cold water on Urien’s head, who was crouching in the corner of the shed back then.

“Why can’t you just die already…?”

Even now, he could still remember Arnault’s voice, filled with hatred.

“…C’mon, look here…”

All sorts of violence flashed through his memories.

Flames of contempt burned within the pair of purple eyes that was staring at him from the surface of the river. Reminding him of the hatred that his younger brother directed at him.

“Cold—!”

Before he realized it, Urien had plunged his hand into the river. He then continued to splash the surface of the river around, as if trying to erase that bad memory before standing out while sighing. 

In any case, he had a lot of things to do, but first, he had to go to the forest to look for berries for him to eat. Since the duke’s mansion was located just south of Martritz Barony, he figured that the forest’s ecosystem shouldn’t be different from home.

Urien was an Omega, but he only experienced heat once. He had once read in the book that extreme stress would suppress an Omega’s normal bodily function and that was probably what was going on with him right now.

Let this go on, he might just be unable to become pregnant altogether. But, he never told anyone this. After all, if he did, his father or stepmother might deem him as ‘useless’ and kill him outright.

In any case, his contract marriage would last for two years.

Whether he could become pregnant or not, it shouldn’t matter.

His train of thought got him to think, his father was an Alpha, which meant, his mother was an Omega, otherwise, there was no way that he’d be born as an Omega. He wondered if she had been well for a bit there, but he dropped that thought quickly. It wasn’t like she cared about him, anyway.

‘Still, does the duke know that I’m an illegitimate son?’

‘If he doesn’t…’ Chill ran down on his spine, while sweat began to form on his forehead as he thought of that.

‘…Two years. After two years, this is all gonna be over.’

‘Until then, I’ll live my life quietly.’

‘After all, that’s what I’m good at.’