“What’s wrong?”
Archduke Rihast stood without answering the man’s weary voice. As if she had understood why he was acting like so, Eileen couldn’t swallow her saliva as she held her breath.
“What’s this smell?”
Eileen’s eyes trembled. Archduke Rihast mentioned a smell that could only be picked up by his nose.
‘But I shouldn’t smell yet.’
Alpha and Omega pheromones were not exactly odors. However, people used to express it as a type of scent because they needed to use their nose to pick up the unique traits of the second gender reference.
Being a beta, she shouldn’t be capable of releasing any pheromones. However, her body was in the middle of slowly manifesting as an Omega. Since a dominant alpha, which is said to be more sensitive to pheromones, was smelling something, all kinds of anxiety arose because he might have detected the omega pheromones sleeping in her body.
“Are you talking about the scent of freesias? It’s the laundry room so the scent is quite strong.”
Eileen sighed in relief, thinking that the man’s answer wasn’t a pheromone, but a natural scent. Of course, there was no sound, and it didn’t leak out as she was covering her mouth with her hands.
“It’s not here, let’s look elsewhere.”
“Have you been to the stables?”
“Not yet. I’ll go there myself.”
By the time the conversation between the two gradually moved away, Eileen closed her trembling eyes tightly. Her eyelids gradually stopped trembling and her heart regained its original speed.
She was almost caught. Still, she managed to avoid it, making her relieved. Only until such time that Eileen got up after removing the bedding that she had covered herself with.
“I didn’t want to hide and eavesdrop like this.”
Her heart-pounding experience taught me a piercing lesson. She knows it’s actually the most efficient method, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever do it next time.
Eileen, who came out, confirmed that there was no one else in the hallway and sighed.
“Now, I’m going back…….”
Just as she was about to say that she was going back, Eileen’s eyes stiffened at the pair of eyes she met. She was a rabbit who came out to enjoy but suddenly made eye contact with a crouching tiger.
Eileen screamed silently when she saw the Archduke leaning against the wall.
“Why are you here?”’
She was too surprised, no sound came out. While Eileen couldn’t say anything, Archduke Rihast slowly leaned away from the wall. He looked stoic, as if he was not surprised to see Eileen here.
“You smell like freesias.”
It meant that he knew she was in the laundry room earlier. Being caught, she had no excuse and didn’t know what to say.
“So…”
She couldn’t think of any excuse because her head was hardened like a stone. With that being said, she had to say something somehow.
“Go back to your room.”
Eileen bowed her head at his cold attitude.
It’s over. Without his permission, she wanders and eavesdrops on the servants. Even if Eileen was kicked out, she had nothing to say.
“Why aren’t you coming?”
“No, I’ll go.”
She didn’t know what’s going on, but Eileen hurriedly replied when she found out that she was going to go to the room together with him.
The path going to the laundry room was time consuming because she was looking around earlier, but on her way back, it was actually too short.
Archduke Rihast entered the room and sat down in a chair without looking to see if Eileen was following him. Eileen only looked at the chair opposite to him and did not sit down. She wanted to pull the weight of the momentum that somehow leaned to one side.
Archduke Rihast immediately brought up the main subject upon noticing that Eileen only stood and had no plans on sitting down.
“Why did you go out?”
“I went to find the archduke.””
“I guess it was urgent to see you leave without permission.”
An indescribable thick sarcasm flowed from the Archduke. Eileen was the one at fault for wandering without permission, but her reason was justifiable.
“It was hard to wait and stay still because I knew you were talking about me, not that I’m saying I did a good job by leaving.”
Anyway, walking around other people’s residence without saying a word is disrespectful to the owner, so Eileen immediately expressed her intentions to reflect.
“I’m sorry.”
“No…..”
Archduke Lloyd Rihast responded.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. You did well.”
“…..I won’t do that again.”
“It doesn’t matter if you do it again. You can go anywhere you want.”
That sounds fun, Eileen thought, biting her lips after Archduke Rihast’s words. She made a decision not to do so next time in the fear of being threatened again, however she was unexpectedly pardoned.
There was an awkward silence again, but the Archduke stood up. Eileen felt impatient with the conversations they had so far. He was yet to finalize their marriage, so she kept quiet all this time. But as she thought, the conversation shouldn’t end here, so Eileen suddenly brought it up.
“Marriage.”
When Archduke Rihast turned his head to her, Eileen realized that he had just spoken too unfriendly. Eileen extended her words with a sweet smile.
“Let’s get married.”
‘… Is that it?’
***
On the day her brother’s wedding was held in her previous life, Eileen first stepped into the Archduke’s residence. She had never been married, so she marveled at the appearance of her older brother in white robes for the big event.
Eileen, who wanted to see Ethan before returning home the next day, got lost as she left the room recklessly. She would ask for directions if she had to meet someone, but there was no one there, so she stood in the middle of the hallway and had a troubled expression on her face.
“Huh?”
She was glad to hear footsteps, but when the name ‘Ethan’ came out for a while, she hid herself behind the pillar without realizing.
‘Why did I hide without realizing it?’
She didn’t mean to, but it must have been fascinating to hear her brother’s name from someone else’s mouth. As a matter of fact, yesterday’s Ethan was so dazzlingly beautiful.
“Was it Young Master Ethan who received a hit yesterday?”
“Yes it was.”
“It was impossible not to recognize the scent of a dominant omega. Alphas really like pheromones, so I was wondering who it was. Oh my! He must have spent an amazing night with the archduke yesterday.”
Eileen wrapped her heated cheeks in the women’s noisy conversation. She had no idea because she wasn’t married yet, but she read about it from a book.
You don’t get a child just by sleeping. It said she had to kiss, fit her legs, and fill her stomach.
“That’s not true either.”
“Hmm? But you said it was young master Ethan? Isn’t it obvious because they got married yesterday?”
“Sigh.”
“What’s wrong? Tell me.”
As another woman could not speak easily, Eileen also became impatient and listened more.
“How can he spend a great night when the Archduke isn’t home?”
“What are you talking about? The two spent the night together, right?”
“After the wedding, the archduke led the knights out at night. They said they had to leave right away because he didn’t have time.”
“Then what about Young Master Ethan? I think Ethan’s pheromone just subsided. I don’t feel any being spread this morning.”
“That’s…”
“Hurry up and tell me.”
“I think he got relief from someone else.”
“What?”
Eileen held onto a pillar because her vision blurred and her head spun like crazy.
“The Archduke left. His heat was exploding and he didn’t have an inhibitor. He must have felt as hot as fire and his reasoning becomes clouded. It just so happened that a knight was passing by so he grabbed him and received relief.”
“Oh my God, Is that true?”
“It’s a story from the conference between the vassals.”
“Then, what you meant when you said Young master Ethan was hit is… Oh my!
The woman was surprised as she continued to talk.
“Who are you?”
Eileen spoke in shock.
“Ethan oppa…… What happened to him?”
That day, Eileen returned without meeting Ethan. Since then, she had met her brother twice, but couldn’t ask him about the wedding day. However, it was not difficult to guess the relationship between the two, considering her brother’s dark expression and the archduke who never came home from the battlefield.
Ethan made eye contact with Eileen, who was pressing down on her feelings.
“How can a person leave for the battlefield on the day of the wedding?”
If Eileen had stayed that night and left the next day…Eileen was at a loss, she wanted to resent the person who caused her brother’s death, but she couldn’t as it never happened this time.
‘Let’s hold it in. That’s why I’m here.’
Her goal was to prevent her brother’s tragic death, it would be a waste to get agitated for nothing.
Eileen pulled out a confession that she didn’t want to say.
“Please marry me.”
At Eileen’s proposal, Great Prince Rihast burst into laughter as he looked at her expression for a while.
“Is that the face of the person proposing to someone?”
Eileen glanced at her face in the mirror.
It looked like a child who had to force herself to eat food she really didn’t want to eat.
Anyway, she couldn’t find any excitement when proposing.
“Your Highness said it like that, too.”
“Me?”
“You did it with a very hideous face.”
On top of that, he brought it up like it was kidnapping without choice.
In response to Eileen’s rebuttal, Archduke Rihast briefly swept her mouth. ‘What was he thinking?’ His mouth was twitching, and something similar to a smile came to mind.
“I didn’t know proposing would look like a challenge.”
Eileen responded at his evoked voice with an absurd look.
Did he just call her proposal a challenge?
Was she throwing gloves at him like a challenge? Is that how a proposal looks like now? Ridiculous.
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