By Zephyria 
I slept soundly without even having a nightmare for once. Was it because of Allen, who appeared much earlier than expected? For the past few days, I had been particularly edgy, and the bad things that had happened in the previous rounds would often appear in my dreams, keeping me up at night.
As expected, it feels good to get a good night’s sleep. I could feel the gentle sunlight slowly shining through my closed eyelids. I didn’t even open my eyes and enjoyed this relaxed and leisurely feeling for a while. When I rubbed my cheek against the pillowcase, it felt like the soft fabric was clinging to my face. Uhheueung, I made an unconscious nasal sound and turned to lie on my side, but suddenly the inside of the blanket felt strangely damp and hot. How hard did I sleep last night that I was sweating so much…
I was just thinking to myself and hugging the blanket and curling up my body once more when I heard a faint laughter above my head, and someone stroked my head. But I wasn’t surprised and didn’t open my eyes. Because there was only one person who could come into my room at this time.
“Nicole, I’m going to sleep a little more…”
“……”
“Where did you say you got the sleep incense from? It’s really effective. I slept really well…”
Even to my ears, there was no sense of vigilance in my voice, which was limp and relaxed. Like a hedgehog that had laid down all its thorns and even pulled them out. The laughter that burst out again became a little thicker. Enough to realize that the owner of the laughing voice was not Nicole.
…Who is it? This person is not Nicole.
The moment I had that conviction, my eyes, which had been as heavy as lead, opened wide as if it were a lie.
“You’re finally awake, sleepy patron.”
“Ah…”
“It’s against the rules to fall so soundly asleep without even a wicked magician casting a spell, you know?”
Before my eyes, the magician’s face, smiling brightly, was full. He, whom I had met again after a period that could be said to be short or long depending on how you looked at it, still had a strangely twisted part of his mind, making the corners of his eyes, which were bent in a crescent shape, pale. If I remembered his habit of smiling brightly the more dirty he felt, that was definitely the case.
“Le, Lennox.”
Could this guy have dragged me to his laboratory inside the Magic Tower again without permission? I reflexively called his name and hurriedly checked my surroundings first. But fortunately. Everything from the bed I was lying on to the ceiling above my head and the large window where the sunlight was pouring in was all too familiar to me. It was my room.
“What is this? Coming to my bedroom without permission.”
The voice that had been soaked in sleep became unrecognizably cold. I opened my mouth towards Lennox, maintaining a firm attitude. I had to draw a clear line with Lennox, who, unlike other people, had the ability to distort my plans and life if he made a wrong decision even once.
But Lennox didn’t seem particularly impressed by my resolute attitude, merely shrugging his shoulders once and flicking his fingers. With his light gesture, the half-drawn curtains opened even wider, and the bedding, which had been damp, quickly became fluffy.
“Well, I really didn’t intend to go this far… I wonder if I should tell you that you’ve barked up the wrong tree.”
“Speak plainly.”
“Ah, it’s nothing much…”
His red eyes crinkled habitually, and the magician clapped his hands exaggeratedly. Then, red rose petals, as if they had been taken directly from the color of his eyes, began to pile up in my room, creating a lavish rain of flowers.
“I’ve missed you so much, my patron.”
“You… you really…”
“So don’t scold me. Keep me by your side and just praise me.”
This was definitely cheating. Who could withstand such an unrealistically beautiful scene without lowering their guard? He may have chosen the flower unknowingly, but even the red rose petals were excessively similar to the scent of my Pheromone.
“I’ve certainly done something that will earn me your praise. So, please? Yes?”
“…Don’t ever do this again. It’s extremely rude. To enter a noble’s room without permission before they’ve even dressed.”
“Yes, yes. Of course. First, come this way.”
Had he taken a tour of the room while I was sleeping? Just as the rain of flowers subsided, Lennox, holding my hand, led me so naturally to a small reception room attached to the room.
“I was so impatient to show you this. You can’t even imagine.”
He placed me on a daybed where two people could sit side by side comfortably, instead of the sofa where two people could sit facing each other. Lennox rummaged through his robe pocket and took out a glass bottle. The glass bottle, tightly sealed with a rubber stopper, looked similar to a long-necked flask.
“What is this…?”
“First, open it and smell it.”
“No.”
My refusal was immediate. He, with a brazen face that didn’t seem hurt at all, whined, “Ah, how sad,” and then opened the stopper himself and thrust it towards me. I narrowed my eyes and slowly moved my butt, trying to secure a safe distance from Lennox.
He was an overly capable and suspicious magician. How could I stick my nose into an unidentified liquid given by him, knowing what he might do? The time I carelessly drank the tea he gave me when I first arrived at the Magic Tower and fell asleep was still a regret I held.
“I’m really innocent this time. There won’t be any minor side effects like falling asleep, losing consciousness, becoming incapacitated, losing your reason, or suddenly going into Heat cycle. I can swear!”
Lennox expressed his innocence as if he were truly wronged, but that made it even less believable. Swear? Last time, he swore he would tell me everything I wanted to know if I cooperated with the experiment, but he didn’t say a word until he sent me back.
“Would you believe it if you were me? You swore then too, but you didn’t keep any of your promises.”
“Ah, that’s why I came here today. The results of the experiment aren’t completely satisfactory, but a plausible byproduct came out. I can say that you helped with the experiment enough, so I came to keep my promise.”
“Hmm…”
“Really!”
“Okay. I’ll trust you one more time.”
I felt sorry for him, who was smiling confidently, but what I trusted wasn’t Lennox, the suspicious magician himself, but rather the obvious favorability that couldn’t be hidden.
Favorability: 51%
I hadn’t particularly tried to win him over, but somehow, his favorability had already surpassed 50 percent.
I held the long-necked glass bottle right under my nose and slowly shook it. The fragrant floral scent crawled up the glass bottle and gradually lingered around my breath…
“Uh? This smell is…”
“Ha, I see. Judging by your reaction, it seems I’ve finally succeeded?”
The scent of fresh roses, so fresh that it felt almost poisonous. This was, not exactly the same, but… very similar to my Pheromone.
“See? I told you you wouldn’t regret it.”
Lennox boasted that he had found a way to convert the unique Pheromone that only Alphas or Omegas could sense into a physical sensation that anyone could perceive. He said that if he developed this method a little further, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to steal other Alphas’ Pheromone.
“If that happens, you won’t have to get help from that unlucky Crown Prince during your Heat cycle. You’ll have ‘me,’ a very loyal and effective suppressant.”
“No, if it’s really possible, I wouldn’t even need you. If I could just refine and use Alpha Pheromone… I could do it alone… No, no, wait. Before that!”
“You’re so sharp in unnecessary things…”
“How do you know that His Highness the Crown Prince calms my Heat cycle?”
“Oops. Slip of the tongue.”
“…Lennox!”
“Haha. Calm down, calm down. I came to tell you that today, too?”
I shouldn’t have trusted the magician. I awkwardly smiled, avoiding the magician’s gaze, and grabbed his collar, shaking him.
“What have you been doing to me all this time! Tell me the truth!”
“Um, I missed you. I really didn’t mean anything else.”
“Lennox!”
The effect of the lavishly scattered rose petals ended there.
He just smiled slyly, looking down at me with interest as I was about to die of anger. And then, without even thinking of loosening the collar that was shaking, he stretched out his arm and suddenly put his hand into my bed pocket.
“I’d like to enjoy it a little more, but anyway, a promise is a promise.”
Perhaps because his previous life was so rough, his hands, which seemed more like those of a back-alley thug than a magician, were already holding a blue Mana Stone. He had given it to me directly.
“From now on, you really have to keep in mind that you shouldn’t accept gifts from magicians without suspicion.”
“Th, then could it be…”
“Maybe. Is your guess correct?”
Oh, my head. I really raised a tiger cub.
“I cast a spell on this Mana Stone that allows me to monitor the wearer’s condition at will. But wasn’t it quite useful?”
“You are, really, really hopeless…!”
“Hey. Don’t be so angry. Thanks to that function, I saved your life. Didn’t I?”
If I hadn’t been secretly watching, how would I have known that you were in a dangerous situation? The magician very leisurely listed logical reasons, and since it was true that I had survived thanks to him, I was speechless.
I was just saying, “You, you,” without being able to say anything else, when.
Knock knock.
I brought the washing water, Master. I’m coming in.
Bringing the washing water to my room at a fixed time had become Allen’s responsibility. What should I do about this? The rose petals scattered all over the room, and the magician who was smiling annoyingly!
“Sometimes, you don’t seem to realize what kind of monster you’ve raised.”
Lennox whispered lowly and left a short kiss on the back of my hand. It happened almost at the same time as the door opened. Suddenly, my shoulders felt cold. A chilly, eerie feeling licked the back of my neck and disappeared as if nothing had happened. Unconsciously, I turned my gaze to the door for a moment, and when I looked back at where Lennox had been, the magician had already disappeared from my sight like magic. Along with the untimely storm of flowers he had brought.