Chapter 78: Too Perfect to be Real!

The face can never be perfect. Even after my features balanced out following manifestation, I couldn’t say I was structurally perfect. It’s natural. Over time, according to my habits, the current imperfect balance will gradually shift further.

“Did the Queen Consort also manifest late like me?”

“…No, I heard he manifested even earlier than average, before he turned ten.”

“He was 19 at this time. How could he maintain such a perfectly balanced face 10 years after manifesting?”

I checked the explanation added in small letters under the portrait. A structurally perfect face even though almost 10 years had passed since manifestation.

A portrait is not a photograph. But the reason a newspaper illustrator chased by deadlines was obsessed with perfection to this extent was nothing other than the model being that perfect.

“It’s a painting drawn by Res.”

The painter using the name Res, meaning reality, was still active.

There is a famous anecdote about him. Although it happened a very long time ago, he once received a complaint from a person who modeled for his painting. Claiming he distorted the truth. And the court sided with Res. That he only painted as it was. After that incident, Res became even more famous as a painter who paints the truth.

“The incident where Res gained fame…”

“Was 22 years ago.”

“It’s a painting drawn when he was most intoxicated with fame.”

It means he drew it when he was much more obsessed with facts than now, having become more flexible and knowing compromise. Then this painting would be much closer to the truth than a photograph in an era where modification with programs is easy. That would also be the reason he was entrusted with the illustration for this marriage article.

The painter’s stubbornness not tolerating even a small stray line was intact in the hair slightly disheveled by the wind, and in the frills of the shirt completely covering the collar…

My thoughts stopped for a moment. Meticulous and thin frills, no matter how many layers, didn’t hide the delicate lines of the Royal Grandson Consort. This outfit must have been selected to highlight his appearance most.

But another possibility kept coming to mind.

Am I oversensitive? Am I bewitched by Dosel’s words? I checked myself over and over. When the answer ‘no’ repeated successively, I opened my mouth again.

“Was the necklace worn by Count Umbra’s servant given to him from the beginning?”

That necklace engraved with cognitive interference magic. Could that thing, worthy of being called a national treasure, have been given to that spy from the beginning?

No matter how much the King checks the King’s Brother, it was an item too excessive for a spy with weak pheromones to use exclusively.

Could there be another user in between? If it was used for a long time by someone with pheromones strong enough to cause erosion.

If it’s someone possessing magical power capable of activating all functions of that necklace.

So if it makes all balance look perfectly matched.

“Previously, I asked a herbalist about pheromone reducers. The herbalist scolded me harshly saying it’s a drug that kills people. Although I learned later that some overlap with toxic herbs used for abortion…”

“…They are toxic herbs endangering life if the exact amount isn’t kept. If not refined properly, even if one survives, aftereffects remain.”

“I heard the skin becomes pockmarked. Like those who survived smallpox.”

In this world where vaccination hasn’t been established yet, smallpox was still a terrifying epidemic. Nobles couldn’t be an exception. However, it was also true that Alphas or Omegas with pockmarked skin were shunned by those who weren’t.

If the Royal Grandson Consort’s skin was pockmarked, it had to be covered. Even if it meant giving up a national treasure. The situation where he was the only one qualified as the Royal Grandson Consort had that much justification.

I imagined the portrait with perfect balance distorted.

The picture drawn in my head with a more human appearance gradually resembled the person I saw in my dream.

“Have you seen him in person? Have you ever seen traces of magical power from him?”

My speech became faster without realizing it. My gaze fixed on the portrait of the Queen Consort’s younger days returned to the King’s Brother.

He was frowning heavily. As if mimicking the expression I made.

“Please tell me only the truth.”

I urged him. Please don’t lie even if the answer I hope for and the truth he knows are different.

“…That winter, I saw him in the Rose Garden.”

He was talking about the time he waited in the Rose Garden all day to tell the King, who forced an engagement with Count Umbra’s adopted son, that he would go to the battlefield.

The King’s Brother held my two hands. As if I would disappear if he let go.

Only after that did he barely speak to me again.

“Your guess is correct. That necklace was definitely hanging around his neck.”

Ha. I burst into laughter.

****

The way from the study to the bedroom felt quite far. Absurdly so.

When I stood in front of the room where I stay, my bedroom door, I even felt a sense of relief.

“I will go in.”

Even after I placed my empty hand on the doorknob, his hand holding my other hand didn’t let go.

“Tell me if you need me. Anytime.”

I looked at him, smiled, and nodded. Still, he was holding onto me.

“See you tomorrow.”

Only after saying goodbye promising the next day could my hand be released from him.

I entered the door as if being chased. Hurriedly closing the door, I stood leaning against it for a while.

I couldn’t think of anything. It felt like someone pushed me into a deep pit. An illegitimate child of the Queen Consort; I was confused just like the day I thought I suddenly fell into this strange world from Korea.

The sound of the King’s Brother’s footsteps wasn’t heard. He was still standing in front of my room door.

I moved my steps reflexively.

Only then did I hear the footsteps leaving the front of the door.

I went out to the balcony just like that.

Sunset came in through the branches. Looking at the burning light, I collapsed to the floor.

The Royal Grandson Consort with pockmarked skin. Toxic herbs showing aftereffects similar to smallpox. Possibility of abortion.

There was no clear evidence. Just guesses.

However.

I brought out my pheromones. The scent felt from the trees surrounding the balcony was covered by the scent of lilacs in an instant.

Lux Splend who possessed extremely weak pheromones. Power to purify gems. The only dominant Omega Queen Consort. Lux Splend, who was his tutor, my father. The young master he called so desperately while drunk. The wail that everything was because of me. My mother who wanted to erase me.

The thoughts swirling in my head were concluding only one thing.

I was really Count Umbra’s grandson and the Queen Consort’s illegitimate child.

Only hollow laughter came out.

Suddenly a chilly wind blew.

Looking up, the sun had disappeared before I knew it. Cool wind took the place of hot air.

It had become night.

I stared blankly ahead.

The moonlight hanging between branches was very bright. This place, like a nest wrapped in subtle light, was a hideout. It felt like no one could find me or harm me.

It’s a space he made for me.

“…Almost did something stupid again, Han Jay.”

I know. He only wished for me not to be hurt.

So I had to escape from the past trying to drag me down like a swamp. I couldn’t stay submerged fearing to show my muddy appearance. I shouldn’t make such a foolish choice again.

I shouldn’t let things I didn’t choose drag me down.

I stood up from my seat. I escaped from the balcony where I felt like I could stay forever. I continued with quick steps. If I stopped even for a moment, I felt the barely made resolution would collapse.

My steps headed in a direction I had never gone before. Reaching the door connecting his room and mine internally happened in an instant. I raised my hand and knocked on the door just like that. It was an urgent and strong knock. The thought that the rough sound might have surprised him crossed my mind briefly, but it was forgotten by the movement of the door opening abruptly soon after.

“May I, come in?”

“Of course.”

In reality, it was a very short time. That we were apart. But when he held my hand again, I felt my heart pounding. Like an adolescent holding hands with someone they like for the first time.

“You were about to drink coffee.”

When I asked looking at the things on the tea table he led me to, he laughed shyly.

“Because I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“…Because you thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep?”

Did his pheromones affect my manifestation as he said? Is that why our dreams are connected?

“What dreams do you dream when you don’t dream the same dream as me?”

His hand brewing coffee paused. His eyes, slightly widened as if he didn’t expect me to ask such a question, soon settled calmly.

“In the past, dreams of when I was dragged to the royal palace basement kept me awake. People I hurt became monsters and dragged my limbs. Shouting that the real monster is you.”

The coffee in the cup placed in front of me was very light brown. With that, closer to warm water than coffee, I moistened my throat. When I put down the cup, his words continued again.

“I don’t lose sleep because I’m scared of that dream anymore. Now…”

He exhaled a low breath and poured out the words at once. As if he couldn’t do it otherwise.

“Dreams without you. Dreams where you don’t exist in this world. Dreams where you live in a place I don’t know, without knowing me.”

It was a story I hadn’t thought of at all. The low voice seemed to embed into my heart. My lips opened automatically and my voice flowed out.

“I know the person who gave birth to me actually tried to erase me. My conception seemed like a curse to him.”

My words crumbled his expression. He shook his head like a person facing a horrific situation.

“So I wondered if I came into existence as a result of him suffering something terrible. Since he eventually gave birth to me and parted with me, I hoped he would live comfortably now. Without any connection to me.”

He, Philius, stood up from his seat and knelt before me. I touched the corners of his eyes looking more painful than me.

“But there’s no way the only dominant Omega was subdued by a recessive Alpha and forcibly bore me. He just couldn’t take responsibility for the price of deviation.”

Even I, just manifested, could subdue Dosel without difficulty. Lux Splend’s pheromones, which that Dosel mocked, must have been even worse. To the dominant Omega for whom a shining position was natural, Lux Splend might have been a fresh breeze but was eventually discarded. Along with me.

The hunter, Lux Splend’s sorrowful voice came to mind. Maybe he had imprinted. Enough to crave him even while living a life shabbier than a Beta becoming a nameless hunter in a rural corner.

Though no one would know now.

“If Count Umbra knew about me around the time I first met the Duke, you, he would have tried to kill me. And if it’s now, he would try to offer me to the King.”

He grabbed my hand fumbling his eye corner as if snatching it and kissed it. Looking up at me as if worshipping. But full of desire to catch me at once and drag me down to where he is if I try to disappear.

“So when you have to strike Count Umbra, do not hesitate because of me. Since he won’t hesitate to dispose of me.”

What I thought was a deep pit was actually a simple trap. Count Umbra, the Queen Consort, and I were people who could never be tied as one. The blood flowing in my body was just a usable means or a curse to be eliminated for them.

They were people who could never become my family. My family from the previous life and they couldn’t be placed on the same line. Absolutely.

Even with this man in front of my eyes now.

“…You have to use someone else’s identity for a while, Jay.”

Looking at his eyes with firm determination, I smiled.

“Why didn’t you tell me all this while?”

“I thought you might have other options.”

His lips touched my wrist. On the spot where the mark he left disappeared, he set his teeth again. A deep mark was created anew.

“Although you have to borrow someone else’s name for the time being, Jay, you will become able to live with your name as it is. Surely.”

He swearing to me was lovely. He promising the future.

“I don’t know well what tomorrow will be like.”

Even seeing me unable to affirm the future he speaks of, he smiled. As if knowing in advance what I would say next.

“But right now, you are lovely.”

I kissed his forehead. And whispered again.

“I love you.”

I slowly parted my lips. I saw his eyes closing and opening again. Even seeing the deepened blue eyes, I confirmed with him.

“Is it not enough?”

“Impossible.”

His expression as if fallen into ecstasy looked like he satisfied all the hunger so far. No, that’s not it. He seemed to have realized another thirst. A thirst that must be quenched immediately.

When I also felt out of breath, I was pulled down. Into his embrace.

His lips found mine.