By Zephyria 
It was when Nicole had briefly left to get drinking water. Someone knocked on the carriage door, and thinking it was Nicole returning already, I carelessly opened it.
“…It’s been a long time, Young Master Noah.”
“S-Sir Kyle?”
“Have you been well? I sincerely hope you have.”
The knight with blonde hair and blue eyes looked tall and proper as always.
“I haven’t been well, actually.”
That… he clearly looks deranged. I should be shouting at the top of my lungs asking what he thinks he’s doing and chase him away, but I simply couldn’t. Anyone would feel the same seeing his eyes with no light in them. I worried that unnecessarily provoking him might cause an unfortunate incident. Common sense dictates that one should avoid madmen.
“Ha ha, ha… Yes. It’s been a while, Sir Kyle. I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been well.”
As I backed away hesitantly, my back soon touched the wall. Kyle took a bold step inside and closed the carriage door with a click.
“I’ve thought of you every single day, Noah.”
“Mmm, I see, I see…”
“From when you first approached me. Until your coming of age ceremony that I so eagerly anticipated. I’ve constantly replayed it all in my mind.”
“…”
“But I truly don’t understand.”
“…”
“Did I do something wrong to you? What about me displeases you? Please tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll change it.”
He did do something wrong… but it was awkward to confront him. Even if I told him that in previous rounds he had repeatedly backstabbed me, and that he would likely do the same in this round too, I would be lucky not to be treated as a madwoman.
At the same time, I feared that if I used the crown prince’s consort excuse again or said something about his humble status displeasing me, he might become obsessed with our ‘forbidden relationship’ and rapidly increase his favorability level.
The System watches you in your predicament with great excitement. (೨♛‿♛೨)
Damn it… I’ll deal with you later.
The System cheers you on, saying it’s watching you even now! ( ◉ ᴗ ◉ʃƪ)❤
The annoyingly cheerful exclamation mark infuriated me, but dealing with Kyle in front of me had to come first.
“Sir Kyle…”
“Yes, Young Master.”
So. Without triggering his hidden preferences… without raising his affection too much… preferably decreasing it significantly… I just need to avoid receiving his confession right now, right?
I looked at Kyle, who seemed to be holding his breath while waiting for me to speak, and subtly released my pheromones. It wouldn’t be strange for a novice Omega who just experienced their first heat cycle to have difficulty controlling them due to emotional disturbance.
“Ah, Noah…”
The effect was immediate. Kyle’s already lifeless eyes became dreamy and unfocused. Without grasping the situation, he reached out toward me and stepped closer. I unfastened a couple of buttons on my shirt and took a deep breath.
“Aaaah! What are you doing, Sir Kyle!”
I needed to scream.
“Y-Young Master! What’s happening!”
“Get him out of here right now!”
Immediately, knights from nearby rushed in, flinging open the carriage door. Seeing me huddled in the corner, trembling fearfully, and then looking at Kyle, they seemed to immediately understand the situation. Without any regard for him being their comrade, they roughly bound Kyle’s limbs and dragged him outside.
“This can’t be, Noah…! How can you be so cruel…!”
Kyle called out desperately, but no one paid any attention to his cries.
Affection Level: 63%
Really? It only dropped this much? As befitting his perverse tastes, he was quite persistent in many ways.
My earlier thoughts about finding an excuse to visit the imperial palace first had been in vain. By the time I returned to the mansion in the capital, an invitation had already arrived from the imperial palace, inviting potential crown prince consort candidates to the crown prince’s palace.
“Y-Young Master. Please don’t be nervous, j-just act as you usually do, and, and, and you’ll be fine, r-right?”
Throughout my preparations to enter the palace, Nicole appeared even more nervous than I was.
“It looks like you’re the one who’s more nervous, you know?”
“Ugh, I don’t know. I haven’t been sleeping well for days. If I had known you would manifest as an Omega, I would never have turned a blind eye when you skipped etiquette lessons as a child. I regret it so much…”
“It’s too late now.”
“That’s exactly it… regret comes too late, that’s why it’s called regret…”
Nicole’s expression was particularly gloomy as he checked the fit of my newly tailored clothes. But having someone beside me who was even more nervous and dramatic than me helped me maintain my composure. I kept chuckling as Nicole’s trembling hands carefully fastened the gold buttons.
The one who accompanied me to the imperial palace was none other than the young viscount, Andrew Hamilton. Who has been raising questions lately with his particularly volatile moods.
“It’s been a while, Andrew.”
“…Indeed.”
At my casual greeting, waving my hand, his blue eyes immediately lit up with a sparkle. This was quite a change from the bleakly fading gaze he had while walking to the carriage.
He had been generally like this since I returned to the capital from the estate after my first heat cycle. Andrew Hamilton’s complexion was mostly gloomy, even overcast skies during the rainy season would seem brighter than him.
But whenever I called out “Andrew” as if doing him a favor, he would brighten momentarily, then immediately turn away, draw a respectful line, and then become even gloomier than before.
Like a capricious child who likes a new toy only to quickly tire of it, I toyed with Andrew Hamilton, our noble young viscount, as I pleased. Despite my sudden and strange changes in attitude that anyone would notice, Andrew didn’t dare question my behavior. More precisely, he seemed to lack the emotional space to express anything.
Considering his secret preference was “me, not as a brother,” Andrew Hamilton likely harbored faint romantic feelings for me even during all those countless cycles where I was trampled upon.
His harsh criticism that I could never be his brother and should stop pretending to be the real “Noah” was probably part of those feelings. The affection level that only showed romantic feelings plummeting toward negative infinity was also likely a measurement concerning me as his “brother.”
When I just returned from the estate, it was Andrew who came to meet me at the capital’s entrance. Frederick always had knight training he had to attend around this time, so he always substituted his greeting with a letter in past cycles. But Andrew, who had never come in his place before, was waiting for me at the capital’s main gate, desperately feigning aloofness. Instead of asking kind questions like if I was alright or if I had been in pain, Andrew Hamilton tried to chastise me with his familiar criticism of why I was moving so sluggishly. Not realizing that I had already seen through his underlying feelings. It wasn’t even amusing.
The only thing different from all the cycles I’d been through so far was that I encountered him on the day of my first manifestation and fully released my pheromones, which I had never allowed him to smell before.
Andrew, overwhelmed by mere pheromones, revealed the depths of his feelings that had remained hidden through dozens of repetitions.
Whether he sensed my pheromones or not, the fact that I was the dominant Omega “Noah Hamilton” remained unchanged.
Finding this utterly tiresome, I deliberately provoked him as if to punish him.
‘That day. When you encountered me just after I returned from the temple, Andrew.’
‘…’
‘You were excited when you saw me, weren’t you?’
The agitation hidden beneath his faint sneer was pitifully exposed. Caught off guard, he couldn’t even hide his expression from me. His wavering gaze was simply ridiculous.
‘That’s… not possible. Don’t insult me with such… worthless tongue wagging.’
His rebuttal was weak. Like a fragile new sprout trembling in an unexpected downpour. Andrew didn’t seem to realize how pathetic and pitiful his gaze and voice were when addressing me.
‘Oh, is that so?’
I openly mocked him.
‘Well, if the gre-at young viscount says so, what more could I, your younger brother, add? However.’
Andrew, forgetting even how to breathe, waited for me to continue after my brief pause. I decided to throw a sharp stone at his thin veneer of pretense. A vile satisfaction seemed to boil up from my cruel mischief.
‘…It’s disgusting. What kind of brother could possibly be excited by his younger brother’s pheromones?’
I wanted to hurt him. If he truly had feelings for me, I wanted to taunt him about why he couldn’t act any better than that until now.