CH 19

“Are you listening to me?”

“Y-Yes, yes.”

“Let’s go for a run. Once you get a feel for it, the rest will be easy.”

Uh-oh, don’t come.

“Uh, that’s okay, I’ll try again on my own.”

“What do you mean try on your own?”

“Well, it’s hard to ride with two people on the horse.”

The Crown Prince chuckled and gestured towards the horse with his eyes, asking ‘With this?’

Heineken was a huge horse.

Even though two full-grown men could sit on it and still have room for luggage, it was still a bit awkward to ride together.

As the Crown Prince quickly mounted the horse, his firm chest pressed against my back and instinctively I leaned forward.

However, the Crown Prince seemed to have no intention of allowing it.

“Are you trying to minimize wind resistance? Nice try, but not now.”

The Crown Prince’s hand suddenly reached out and pulled me back by my chest.

Thump.

The part where his hand touched trembled involuntarily.

Is this because I’m an omega or something?

I shouldn’t be so sensitive, but my nerves were getting the better of me.

Biting my lip, I moved my butt forward this time.

I heard a voice behind me, unable to hide its disapproval.

“Hooh, why are you doing that?”

Ah, don’t sigh.

My neck was covered in goosebumps.

In the end, because I froze stiff holding the reins, the Crown Prince said, “Let’s stop for today,” and jumped off the horse first.

I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment.

I was caught up in strange thoughts in front of the man who was trying to teach me.

I took the Crown Prince’s hand and got off the horse, muttering a small “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, but what’s the matter? Are you worried about what I’ll do to you right now?”

The Crown Prince saw right through me.

I had physiological fear.

It wasn’t a matter of being gay, or even sexual orientation.

I had never had a serious, long-term relationship with a woman in my previous life, or a passionate love, so it was possible that I might like men.

However, there was a significant difference between thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll try dating a man,’ and ‘Giving birth to a child in a man’s body.’

Just imagining it was frightening and difficult.

And it was even more so because I had to completely change my thinking as an ordinary twenty-seven-year-old man.

“If that’s the case, you don’t have to worry. As the you have said earlier, there is an order to everything. I won’t force you to have a child if you’re not ready, so please rest assured.”

The Crown Prince looked shocked and upset.

A feeling of ‘I’m really upset right now’ emanated from the Crown Prince’s scent, flowing out slowly.

It was different from a simple smell because it hit my senses like a hammer.

Was this the effect of pheromones?

Leia said that those with very strong traits could transmit emotions through pheromones.

It’s not something tangible like magic or telepathy, but it means they can share emotions like ‘intimidation, anger, sadness, agitation, joy.’

The Crown Prince’s pheromone conveyed ‘a little sadness and agitation’ to me.

And it shook my heart.

“It wasn’t like that.”

I managed to catch up with the Crown Prince, who was walking ahead, holding the reins on both sides and striding forward.

“Then what is it?”

The Crown Prince kept walking without stopping.

I had to talk and catch up with the Crown Prince, so I panted a bit.

“It’s not because I’m afraid of what you’ll do to me, Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince slowed down and handed the reins to the stable boy at the entrance to the riding grounds before turning around.

“Then what? Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you’ve been avoiding me since last time?”

It was building up.

The Crown Prince, who used to be so easy-going every time we met, now looked his age for the first time in a long time.

“It’s not like I’m avoiding you because I don’t like you. It’s just that we’ve only just met. And it’s awkward to think that we might become a couple….”

It’s also difficult for me now that things are changing without me even realizing it.

“It’s not that we might become a couple, but we will.”

The Crown Prince corrected me with a gruff voice, which made him look cute, and my tension eased a bit.

“Of course, it’s part of the exchange conditions, so it’s something we both have to do.”

I wanted to be honest and say that I’m still scared, but the Crown Prince beat me to it.

“You sound convinced that nothing would have happened between you and me if it weren’t for the terms of exchange.”

There seemed to be sadness hanging on the end of his pouting lips.

It felt like I should stroke the head of the tall and well-built young man, but I tightly clenched my hand that was about to move forward.

I guess being handsome can be a weapon in situations like this.

I’m twenty-seven.

He’s a good man who wants someone like me who has lived a mediocre life.

It makes me somewhat proud. It feels a bit strange. I keep feeling a willingness to agree, but I wonder if that’s okay.

Right, you’re a man, Jeon Woo-young. If you make a promise, you keep it.

Why don’t I just get pregnant and give birth?

Everyone says they live well even after having a baby.

Uh? Marriage is just something you can quit once you start, right?

I can guess what kind of weight the Crown Prince’s spouse has, but I’ll make it happen through effort and perseverance.

After all, there wasn’t much to do outside the castle, was there?

I can still bake bread here like the Crown Prince said.

Will the child look like the Crown Prince or me?

If it’s a son, he’ll look like the prince, and if it’s a daughter, she’ll look like Carl Lindberg.

If it’s a son, he should resemble the Crown Prince, and if it’s a daughter, she should resemble Carl Lindbergh.

No, if it’s a girl with the Crown Prince’s appearance, she’ll be a pretty cool lady. Like Leia.

With the unwavering gaze of the Crown Prince in front of me, my imagination began to run wild in panic.

Whether it’s a man or a woman, a person is attractive when they possess an inner charm, but adding good looks on top of that is like icing on the cake.

To me, the Crown Prince would probably be a burdensome, no, an overwhelming partner for me.

As I stood there, my mind racing, my imagination running wild to ‘I’ll just date him blindly’, the Crown Prince emitted a more ominous aura.

“Anyway, I’m the only Alpha who can handle you, and you’re the only Omega who can handle me, so if you’re having useless thoughts, you better stop it right now.”

I could hear his teeth grinding as he walked past me.

An omega and an alpha who can handle each other.

Does that mean we are unique to each other?

But why did Carl Lindbergh end up as a villain in the original story?

Suddenly, I remembered something I had forgotten.

Even if Leia Lindbergh wasn’t the female protagonist, there was another mate for the Crown Prince.

A tough love opponent that never gave up, despite Carl Lindbergh’s interference.

Maybe it was because of my excessive imagination, but one side of my chest throbbed with pain.

This is unnecessary.

I turned my head and grabbed the hand of the Crown Prince who was trying to leave the riding ground at a brisk pace.

The Crown Prince’s eyes widened in surprise.

“If there is another Omega who can handle Your Highness, can I repay this debt with something other than marriage?”

At my words that I uttered before I could even organize them, blood vessels bulged on the Crown Prince’s neck.

“Is that something you can say?”

The Crown Prince seemed really angry.

It seemed like he was holding me accountable for pushing him away like this.

“Listen carefully. Within the scope of my knowledge, there are only three dominant omegas on this continent who can handle me and have no mate.”

The Crown Prince growled as he spoke.

“One is a young child who is presumed to be a dominant omega but has not yet manifested, and the other is an old woman who will die any day now. And the other is you.”

The Crown Prince took a step closer.

“There are other omega that I can marry, but I don’t want to. Because.”

One word at a time. The Crown Prince’s lips trembled as he spoke.

“At sixteen, during my first rut, I pushed the other person to the brink of death.”

The question ‘how?’ rose in my throat, but I didn’t ask.

The Crown Prince took another step closer, and now there was only about a hand’s width between us.

“Don’t misunderstand. There was no ‘relationship’. The Emperor himself subdued me on the day I went wild, and since then, the Omega has not been able to work in the palace.”

His eyes, which had shone like polished glass through years of weathering, slowly darkened, it felt like I was sinking into them.

“If my rut ever comes, I’ll be tied up for a week. I’m afraid. I could end up killing someone just for the sake of breeding.”

Pheromones burst forth from the Crown Prince’s body.

As punishment for arousing his ire, I received all of his pheromones.

In truth, it wasn’t that difficult for me.

It was like soaking in a bathtub of herbs mixed with white sandalwood and cypress.

It was a scent I wanted to smell and touch even more.

Is it because I am his ‘only’ mate, as he says?

I didn’t understand how pheromones could drive someone to death, but I remembered Leia and the other knights frowning whenever they smelled the Crown Prince’s scent.

Suddenly, as I looked down at the ground, a line of ants passing by scattered in all directions.

“Even when I’m this close, you’re okay.”

The Crown Prince growled as if threatening, with a look of agony all over his face.

I shouldn’t be thinking this, but he looked really pitiful.

He was so handsome and had a great body, but it seemed like he had decided to grow old and die alone without a mate at a young age.

I reached out my hand as if possessed.

It was partly instinctive, and mixed with some sympathy.

I stroked the distressed Crown Prince’s cheek.

He didn’t flinch or move away.

He just stood there, staring at me like a statue, even when I stroked his cheek and pushed his sweat-soaked hair away from his forehead.