I didn’t even need to pretend to be sick. I really was in bad condition. Without specifically intending it, my face was already flushed with fever and my breathing was rapid and labored. It was actually easier not having to hide that I was sick. It seemed foolish now that I used to grit my teeth and pretend to be fine until I could burrow into my bed, only then allowing myself to groan freely, all because I didn’t want to appear disheveled in front of others.
I first checked the affection level of the eldest son, who didn’t even know how to support a visibly sick person and just looked down at me with displeasure.
Favorability: -55%
Damn. Though I already knew this figure, confirming it always left a bad taste in my mouth.
My nominal eldest brother had tirelessly and consistently disliked me. Probably because I wasn’t his real brother.
Though the look of contempt had lessened, he still wore a cold expression as he muttered sarcastically. The volume was too loud to be considered a private mutter. It was familiar words meant for me to hear.
“This is why someone of different birth should never have been brought into the household in the first place.”
As expected of a failed game. The setting was so formulaic, as if every possible cliché had been poured into it.
‘Noah Hamilton’ wasn’t a proper young master born to the count and countess. The couple who had ‘coincidentally’ lost their youngest son in an unfortunate accident had ‘coincidentally’ seen another child from a branch family who looked exactly like their lost son and adopted him into the main family as a way to console themselves.
My place of origin was called a branch family in name only, in reality, when tracing bloodlines, it had split from the main family several generations ago and was barely permitted to use the family name. Already more distant than eighth cousins from the main Hamilton family since my grandfather’s generation.
In any case, who would that real youngest son of the count’s family be? Allen, of course.
Allen, who grew up cheerfully maintaining his vigor and vitality despite wandering the streets, was ‘coincidentally’ temporarily employed at the Hamilton estate through an employment agency around age nineteen, and then while working hard… somehow people said he resembled young master Noah, and ‘coincidentally’ the countess heard rumors circulating among the employees, and finally he returned to his rightful place, this was the introduction of chapter one in the game.
What kind of story absolutely refuses to progress without that damned coincidence, coincidence, coincidence!
I recalled all these settings and memories of my past life when I was about ten. It happened while I was excitedly rocking back and forth on an unnecessarily luxurious rocking horse adorned with diamonds that I had begged my father for. The memories of my past life crashed down like a disaster without any warning or signs.
When my past life memories first came flooding back, I felt so wronged I thought I would go mad. Born an orphan without a soul in the world, struggling to maintain a living through part-time jobs, barely squeezing through a tight gap to get employed at a reasonably sized company. Just when life was finally starting to improve, I died. And of all things, from overwork during overtime?
But after the shock subsided, I thought it might be for the best. Even though I was adopted, this life as a young master in a noble family with no worries about making a living and with parents and siblings all intact wasn’t bad at all. Yet strangely… my name and my siblings’ names seemed so familiar. While I was thinking “no way,” a fanfare suddenly rang in my ears.
System welcomes you with open arms as you face the truth of the world!
⁽⁽*( ᐖ )*⁾⁾ ₍₍*( ᐛ )*₎₎
You have been reborn as ‘Noah Hamilton’ in the game <The Young Noble of Rose Manor>.
System will passionately support you until the end.(ΘεΘʃƪ)
And so I was thrown into a world inside a game that I had never even imagined.
“Hey. Have you finally gone deaf?”
This firstborn has been picking fights with me since we were young. Most of his provocations were about how I wasn’t his real brother, asking where the real Noah went and who I was to pretend to be his brother, saying he’s terrified to even imagine how his real brother might be living somewhere whenever he sees me doing well… mostly pointless content. Just listening to him talk, it was as if I, the real ‘Noah Hamilton’ who was only six when Allen went missing, was somehow the kidnapper of the count’s youngest son.
Still, just like the Noah in the original story, I who possessed this body wasn’t the type to be intimidated just because I wasn’t their biological child.
If things had gone as usual, I would have picked my ear and ignored him no matter what he said, but seeing me stand still and tremble, the eldest son must have felt something was off. Though his words were as sharp as if his tongue was fitted with a blade, in his own way he was asking what was wrong.
I released even stronger pheromones as if I’d been waiting for this moment, rolling my eyes around in confusion. It wasn’t particularly strange since it was natural for those who had just awakened their traits to be unable to control their pheromones.
And always using the ridiculous excuse of immature pheromone control due to late manifestation to casually release pheromones to anyone, then pretending innocence with flushed cheeks while acting helpless, this was also Allen’s special move that drove every Alpha in this game crazy.
Hey system bastard, are you watching this? You said everything I’ve struggled for until now was boring, right? Just wait. I’ll make it so interesting you’ll be shocked and fall over backwards.
I don’t care if Allen appears again and everyone turns toward him. I’m fully prepared to do even worse things for this show to escape the cycle of resets.
“B-brother. Something’s wrong, I keep, even though I’m trying not to, this, why is this…”
When I called to him with a trembling voice and shook my shoulders, a slight disturbance crossed Andrew’s expression. It seems to be working? Not a bad start.
Despite this progress, showing a trembling appearance in front of this guy was severely damaging to my pride. Although things would be completely different from now on, up until seventeen and throughout the many repeated iterations, there had never been a single time when the relationship between the eldest son and me flowed smoothly. I had never once removed the minus sign prominently attached to the front of his affection value.
I wasn’t some born troublemaker, and all I wanted was to live quietly without bothering Allen, so why would I deliberately create problems? It was always the eldest son who was desperate to light the fuse. He seemed to want me, a fake of lowly birth, to be completely intimidated by his commands. But when he rarely got the reaction he wanted, he would provoke me more, I would ignore him, and then his level of criticism would intensify… It was a vicious cycle in many ways.
No, but I really don’t understand. Even if we don’t share a drop of blood, isn’t a brother still a brother? We’ve grown up together for so long, shouldn’t he have stopped picking fights by now?
While thinking this to myself and still pretending to be confused on the outside, it happened.
You have used excessive pheromones that do not match your physical growth level.
You will enter ‘Abnormal Status (Arousal)’.
:(⁄ ⁄ᵒ̶̶̷́⁄⚰⁄ᵒ̶̶̷̀⁄ ⁄):
If ‘Abnormal Status (Arousal)’ continues for more than 5 minutes, you will be forced to enter ‘Abnormal Status (Heat Cycle)’.
:(⁄ ⁄ᵒ̶̶̷́⁄⚰⁄ᵒ̶̶̷̀⁄ ⁄):
“…!”
…I’m screwed. Until just hours ago in my perception, I had been in my mid-twenties, so releasing excessive pheromones wasn’t a major problem, and I hadn’t particularly considered my current state. I only intended to pretend to lose control, not actually lose it.
“Noah? Noah Hamilton!”
“Hnngh, ugh, hnn…”
“Everyone, step back right now, hurry!”
There was no time to think further. My knees buckled first. As I collapsed in place, clutching my chest and barely managing to breathe heavily, Andrew immediately ordered knights with traits to back away, then removed his cloak and completely covered me with it.
Beyond my blocked vision, I could feel the faint pheromones of an Alpha wavering. Scent? No, this feeling that occasionally brushed against my skin was a sensation closer to pain reception than smell. Perhaps trying to cover my out of control pheromone with his Alpha trait, a heavy oud scent poured down over my entire body. It felt like being surrounded by a dense forest of agarwood trees.
I instinctively crawled toward the forest surrounding my body. As I tried to bury my head in the place where the scent was strongest with fumbling hands, suddenly a strong force tightly constrained my entire body as if to trap me. My shoulders ached from being embraced so strongly, but strangely, that powerful force felt stabilizing.
Meanwhile, my rapid breathing gradually found its calm tempo.
‘Abnormal Status (Arousal)’ has been lifted.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
“…”
My senses returned after seeing the guidance text in the system window. Slowly regulating my breathing, I pulled down the cloak covering my head and found myself directly meeting the gaze of Andrew, who had been embracing me. Those elegant blue eyes, which could appear black in dark places, were quietly rippling with some unnamed intense emotion.