By Zephyria 
Adrian Pearson’s favorability has increased by 0.41 percent.
Adrian Pearson’s favorability has increased by 0.77 percent.
Adrian Pearson’s favorability has increased by 0.32 percent.
Ah. This bastard is at it again. I was playing along when everyone naturally treated a stranger who was clearly not the crown prince as if he were. From the moment I noticed the true crown prince standing behind the fake one, staring at my face so intensely my cheeks felt hot, his affection level started creeping up again.
I came to a tentative conclusion. The crown prince. He definitely has voyeuristic tendencies in addition to his sadistic nature.
Otherwise, although not as rapid and steep as before when he said he preferred making me cry openly, there’s no way his affection would continuously rise like this while he secretly watches my face from hiding.
Based on my experiments toying with Andrew over the past few months, these separate alerts seem to come after at least ten consecutive affection increases or decreases.
Not understanding the true crown prince’s intentions, I tried to be as cautious as possible. I barely remember how I responded to the fake crown prince’s questions. All my attention was fixed on the real crown prince standing behind him.
Originally, I had planned to use this opportunity to arrange a separate meeting with Lady Beatrice, but thanks to the crown prince’s bizarre behavior, I couldn’t even do that. It’s so frustrating. Somehow, not one of these main characters has their head on straight.
Anyway, though I don’t remember how it passed, by the time I regained my senses, the conversation between the crown prince and the two consort candidates had ended.
“Young Master Hamilton, please come this way.”
After Lady Beatrice left first, the one who volunteered to guide me was, of course, the crown prince himself. Ridiculously, he still had brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a palace servant’s attire.
I quickly thought it through. Should I claim I had noticed His Highness’s identity from the beginning? That I knew it was him who followed me to my estate and that the Alpha pheromones on my body were his? If I pushed this clever, perceptive narrative…
No. That wouldn’t work. Maybe with other characters, but with Adrian Pearson, who was extremely suspicious due to his difficult upbringing, he would likely drag me to the torture chamber, demanding to know how I recognized a crown prince I had never seen before.
He was a man with such low tastes that he couldn’t help but be captivated by Allen, who never tried to solve problems himself and just tearfully whimpered. I had a better idea of how to approach this.
“There’s much to explain, but first I wanted to greet you properly.”
Adrian, still in his servant’s attire without seeming to care, casually waved his hand to clear the surroundings. Even the one pretending to be the crown prince bowed respectfully to him and withdrew from the reception room.
“You are… the one who worked at our mansion…”
“Pleased to meet you again, Noah.”
It was no small feat to pretend not to notice these movements while keeping my gaze fixed only on the crown prince’s face.
He extended his hand to me without hesitation. I deliberately shuddered and stepped back a couple of paces. The unpleasant smile on the crown prince’s face deepened.
“That spirit of not easily allowing others to touch you, indeed, you are worthy of becoming the future crown prince’s consort.”
He praised me as if watching a child’s play, and I pressed my lips together once before releasing them.
“…Who are you really? When I saw you before, you were merely a Hamilton worker, but today you are in the crown prince’s palace.”
The astuteness and intelligence permitted to me was just enough not to irritate the crown prince. I hinted that while I had no idea about his identity until now, something seemed off about this meeting. The crown prince smiled brightly, as if he had been waiting for this, and removed several ornaments hidden in his sleeve. Immediately, the ordinary brown hair and brown eyes that could be seen anywhere transformed into brilliant golden hair and jewel-like purple eyes.
“…!”
Pretending to be surprised, I quickly knelt down. Although the crown prince’s face wasn’t publicly known, the brilliant golden hair and jewel-like purple eyes were proof of royal blood. By this point, it wouldn’t be strange for me to recognize his identity.
“Why observe such cumbersome formalities between us?”
“…Your Highness.”
He slowly approached me as I knelt. Thinking he might be about to help me up, I waited quietly, but instead of the expected touch, what enveloped my shoulders was his suffocatingly intense pheromones.
“Ah…!”
It was a damnably familiar scent. The very pheromones that had vibrated through my body after experiencing my first cycle.
My already lowered posture reflexively sank further toward the ground. I almost dropped my head completely, gasping for breath.
I could have easily resisted, but I chose not to. As someone who had manifested barely half a year ago, this was the more natural flow.
“Y-Your Highness… ngh, just a moment, hnngh…”
He oppressively pressed down on my entire body, and my pheromones, drawn by his, also began to subtly rise. The forcefully induced excitement made my heart race but didn’t make my head spin. Rather, while pretending to be overwhelmed, blushing and making my eyes glisten pitifully with tears, my mind remained coldly clear. I hadn’t forgotten what the crown prince had done to me.
“How was that day? Were you alright?”
Now that he had revealed his identity and so clearly acknowledged his pheromones, the “that day” being mentioned was all too obvious.
“You don’t need to thank me. It was for the precious one who will become my consort—couldn’t I at least do that much?”
“…Yes.”
I couldn’t believe it. He genuinely seemed to think he had bestowed some kind of grace upon me.
It was a bit creepy, knowing that the crown prince was already in the mix, and assuming it was his pheromones… If I had no knowledge of the world in this game, I would have spent days and days in a panic thinking that I might have hooked up with an Alpha I didn’t even know in the heat of my first cycle.
At the very least, he should have made some sort of comment to me. The common sense I know would have told me.
‘You are most beautiful when you crawl at my feet with a face like that.’
Adrian Pearson muttered low in ecstasy and lowered his stance. There was no respect, no affection, not even a hint of respect, as he stroked his hand through my tousled hair. To add insult to injury, my likability rating was already at 40 per cent.
‘As for thanking you…, yeah. We’ll save it for later, when you’ve been formally welcomed into this palace.’
‘Hmph…’
‘So keep your eyes peeled and behave yourself, unless you want to die at the hands of Duke Grachio right now. By the time the Duke is quiet, you’ll already be the most revered Omega of this country.’
What an arsehole. What the fuck is this sense of civic duty? I suppose it’s expected of a crown prince in a monarchical society, but it’s still repugnant to my 21st century sense of civic duty…
…readjusting my consciousness…
The System is infinitely capable of helping you settle in and adapt to the world.
Huh? What were you thinking just now…? My hair was definitely the first thing to go, but I didn’t even have time to consciously think about it.
‘I, Your Majesty, uh…!’
The crown prince, who had grabbed my chin firmly, had just locked lips with mine.
I feel like I’m being eaten. I felt a tingling sensation on my lower lip, and before I knew it, a thick tongue was thrusting into my narrow mouth. My legs go limp, and I clutch at the hem of his robe with all my might. The crown prince let out a small laugh at the crinkling of the hem. It was a strange sensation to feel the dull chuckle in my mouth, sending chills down the back of my neck and making my toes curl.