By Zephyria 
As if guessing our status from my attire revealed under the disheveled robe, Allen took a step back and waited politely with his hands clasped together.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sir…!”
“I’d like to give you some kind of reward, but there are many eyes watching, so an excessive reward might be a burden. It seems you’re selling flowers.”
“Yes, yes! Yes, that’s right.”
“Good. Then I’ll buy all the remaining flowers. Would that be an appropriate repayment?”
“Huh… All of them?”
“Yes. All of them.”
“Thank you, thank you!”
As their ceremonial conversation lengthened, my surprised heart gradually returned to its place. As a swordsman of above-average skill, Frederick’s discernment was sharper than anyone else’s, and although Allen’s clear beauty was somewhat faded in his shabby attire, it was still outstanding among the many people. Not to mention that his outstanding appearance was exactly like mine.
“Alright. Good work. This should be enough.”
“Thank you. Farewell!”
But Frederick, who paid Allen and picked me up again without even saying goodbye, didn’t seem to notice it at all. There’s no way… is there?
Sensing something strange, I cautiously brought it up to Frederick when I thought we were far enough away from Allen.
“Hey, Freddy.”
“What.”
“That person from earlier. The one who helped me.”
“Ah, the one selling flowers?”
“Yeah. That person… didn’t he look a bit like me?”
“What?”
Frederick, who had been carrying me and walking steadily, suddenly stopped and frowned unpleasantly, scanning my face carefully with his eyes.
“Did our youngest get sick and lose his eyesight? How dare you say that lowly, insignificant old man looks like anyone.”
“O, old man? Did you see him properly? He looked a lot like me.”
“That’s it. Let’s call the doctor as soon as we get to the mansion. You must have a problem with your eyesight.”
This confirmed it. Even if it wasn’t broad daylight but night, there was no way Frederick could see Allen, who was only seventeen, as an old man. So, I should probably assume that some kind of force I wasn’t aware of had intervened.
System is impressed by your insight, Player. (•̀ω•́ )ゝ
Insight +3.
So it was this bastard. The teeth were grinding automatically at the insight stat that was thrown like charity.
System reveals that the main characters in the story will not properly recognize ‘Player’ until the start of the original story.
Ha, knowing all that. You were just watching me fret and worry, weren’t you? I wondered why you were so quiet. You enjoy watching me struggle more than anyone else, and if there was an ‘event’ like this, you would have happily jumped in and added something…
System avoids answering.
“Damn bastard, trying to get all the fun out of everything…”
“Huh? Noah. What did you say?”
“No, nothing. Just take me quickly. I want to lie down in bed.”
For now, it was fortunate that I had secured the planned two-year preparation period. I was too tired, too tired.
Frederick and my night outing naturally left traces. Since it was Frederick who went out with me in the first place, I didn’t expect meticulous handling from the start, so being scolded by my father, who was quite seriously angry after a long time, wasn’t a big deal.
Still, perhaps because I had overexerted myself, I started to fall ill the next day, so I didn’t get scolded as much as Frederick. Frederick had his knight title revoked for a month and was punished by staying in the lower-ranking squire’s quarters and undergoing the same training as them.
“What should we do, our young master has lost so much weight. He’s nothing but bones now.”
Nicole was more dejected and upset than I was, who was sick, and didn’t know what to do.
Because Nicole and the nanny wouldn’t leave my side to take care of me, Seymour’s visit to the Count’s residence this quarter was canceled altogether. She sent a letter saying that since the young master was sick, she wouldn’t even dream of coming and taking up his time.
No matter how much I said I was okay, that I wanted to meet Seymour this time, it was no use. The two, who had even set up a makeshift bed in my bedroom, guarded me around the clock, monitoring whether I was eating well and taking my medicine without fail.
“Nicole, I’m really okay now… Can’t we just change the blanket to a thinner one…?”
“Mom! Young master is doing it again!”
“Ah, I know, I know! I’ll stay still and cover myself. Don’t tell the nanny.”
“Sir Frederick is something else too. Just because he’s ignorantly healthy, he thinks our young master is like him! How could he take someone who hasn’t even had their Heat cycle yet over the mansion walls? When I think about that night, I’m still so angry and dumbfounded that I can’t even sleep!”
Since I had pretended to go to bed early and secretly slipped out with Frederick, knowing that Nicole would definitely object, it seemed that the mountain of anger hadn’t been resolved yet. I knowingly backed down and crawled further into the blanket.
It was better to be scolded by Nicole than to endlessly face Mrs. Seymour’s teary, worried gaze… Ugh, it was too guilty to bear.
“That’s right. Did you pack all the luggage to take to the territory?”
I tried to change the subject as naturally as possible, but it seems Nicole didn’t think it was a good idea. Nicole glared at me sharply, then matched my tone as if she would let it go just this once, saying, “Yes, I packed everything.”
Around the time my body aches were almost gone, the signs of the Heat cycle slowly began. Since it was something I had already experienced countless times, I thought nothing of it, but everyone around me was in an uproar.
Originally, it was customary to endure the first Cycle after Awakening without the help of suppressants, let alone contact with other Alphas or Omegas.
It was a kind of rite of passage to be reborn as an independent adult, or so they said. The excuse was fancy, but it was a useless custom. You can only get suppressants to eat from the second Cycle onwards.
To safely endure this rite of passage, in the case of me, an Omega, it was most important that there were no other Alphas around. This was because I could instinctively search for nearby Alphas and crave their Pheromone, even unconsciously.
For that reason, I, who was about to face my first Cycle, was sent down to the main castle of the Hamilton territory, which was empty because all the family members in the main house had gone up to the capital. My father, without me even asking, had discreetly given Kyle another external mission.
According to Nicole, Frederick was even going around other nearby territories, checking if there were any other Alphas who had come down, and cracking down on them all, or something like that. It wasn’t the first time, but I honestly thought it was too much every time.
Andrew, hearing the news of my first Heat cycle, felt strangely restless and secretly came to see me for a long time in the deep night when everyone was asleep. Of course, I was sound asleep every night, so I didn’t know at all. The next morning after such a thing happened, Nicole or Mrs. Seymour would subtly tell me that the young Count had visited again last night.
“Everyone is too much. It’s not like I’m the only person in the world who has Awakened as an Omega.”
“Hey, you’re not just any Omega. You’re an Alpha, a superior one! You might become the Empress one day, so of course, we have to pay attention to every little detail.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying you wouldn’t take care of me if I didn’t become the Empress, Nicole?”
“Was I that obvious? If I want to get a big reward, I have to do well in advance!”
Nicole’s playful teasing, implying that there would be nothing if I didn’t become the Crown Princess or Empress, made my heart ache. That’s what he should have done. He should have abandoned a useless master who couldn’t become the Empress or Crown Princess and flown away long ago, Nicole.
Just in the last Cycle, when Frederick grabbed my hair and dragged me to the underground prison, Nicole tried to help me escape secretly, only to be caught and meet a tragic end before my eyes. At the time, I didn’t know how Nicole, who was just my attendant, even if he was capable, managed to get into the underground prison. But now that I think about it, I suspect Mrs. Seymour, the second-in-command of the information guild, might have helped.
“What are you two talking about so cheerfully?”
“Nanny!”
Mrs. Seymour approached my bedside, carrying onion soup with a delicious, sweet aroma. Mrs. Seymour’s special onion soup, filled with high-quality butter, onions, and cheese, was one of the few things I could manage to swallow whenever I had no appetite.
“Nicole, have you packed Adrian’s luggage?”
“Of course, Mom. It’s my specialty.”
“I’d feel better if I went down with him… I feel uneasy sending this one down alone.”
Mrs. Seymour placed the soup on the bed table, muttering worriedly. Her knee joints had deteriorated significantly over the past few years, making long-distance carriage travel impossible. I forced myself to eat the onion soup, even though I wasn’t hungry, to ease her worries.