Chapter 68

His face showed he didn’t care at all if someone found out, contrary to his words, but Valentine didn’t notice because he was pressed so close. Only naive Valentine was pleased, thinking “Finally this person has learned some shame!” He was completely unaware that the alpha was just going along with the omega’s feelings, believing his nagging was finally having an effect.

‘Oh right, I shouldn’t be doing this.’

Valentine decided to directly ask about his pheromones that he had been pondering yesterday and today.

“Um… about Reynard’s pheromones.”

“My pheromones?”

“Yesterday after you left, my father and uncle came to my room and were shocked. Because of the pheromones left in the room…”

His voice trailed off as it might be a sensitive topic.

In fact, he wanted to directly invite Reynard to the chaos that had occurred in his room yesterday centered around the four people. Everyone’s thoughts guessing at the truth of the pheromones were such a mess, and their minds were in disarray with unanswerable questions.

“Ah, that.”

An honest acknowledgment came right away.

Reynard looked quietly at Valentine’s serious face, then lowered his body back to the seat beside him. He adjusted the seat, putting a cushion behind his back so he could sit comfortably on his own, and instead asked Valentine:

“It’s more surprising that you didn’t know until now. Didn’t you feel any uneasiness from my pheromones?”

Yes!!! That’s why I’ve come this far! Valentine wanted to scream asking if he was in his right mind to ask that now, but he held it in. This seems to be real…. He swallowed dryly and calmly answered to continue the composed conversation.

“No. I only liked it from the beginning. So I first learned that your pheromones were unusual when I heard my family talking about it yesterday.”

Reynard smiled warmly as he watched Valentine explain how bewildered he was. He raised his hand to gently brush back the flowing platinum blonde hair. He was neatly arranging what had become quite disheveled from the kisses and wind coming through the window.

“That’s right. My pheromones are a complete mutation.”

“A mutation?”

“Yes. They’re pheromones that all alphas and omegas avoid because they’re too strong.”

That’s what my doctor says. Reynard added casually as he explained.@@novelbin@@

“What?”

It was the first time he’d heard of such a thing.

“So I was really surprised by your reaction at first. That there exists someone who says they like these pheromones.”

Valentine’s eyes widened round at his words immediately acknowledging that he was unusual and unsettling. It was rare for someone at the top of the ruling class like him to acknowledge his own weakness.

All members of the great noble families, especially those of the royal family and their equivalents, are educated from childhood about ‘weaknesses’ and ‘shame’. Acknowledging embarrassment, mistakes, or inadequacies is tantamount to a threat to the ruler’s position. They act close to ‘shameless’ to make their claims and actions more solid. They ignore shame to push through their assertions more strongly, and are educated from the start to think they are righteous in any situation.

Even the 3rd Prince Clifton never mentioned externally his handicap of being close to recessive. He acted as if he didn’t care about it at all. And knowing how hard he worked to cover it up made the alpha before him all the more surprising.

“I didn’t expect you to talk about it like that…”

“It’s really not a big deal to me.”

Reynard answered leisurely, relaxing his posture back against the seat.

At that moment, Valentine thought his confidence and dignity were really cool. It was the opposite of himself, who lived with a ‘small Valentine in his heart’ that was always timid and dejected in one corner, suffering from the trauma of the original story. A firm belief that no fact could damage his own worth…

Not having it created wonder and admiration.

“I really liked Reynard’s pheromones from the beginning. When the doctor heard that, he said it’s something that can rarely happen between an alpha and omega with very good compatibility.”

“I think so too.”

My doctor said the same. Reynard nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, it’s the first time. Someone saying they like my pheromones.”

It was hard to believe.

To him, Reynard’s pheromones felt rougher and more attractive than any alpha’s, a strong scent that suited him perfectly…. And it was the first time in both his past and present life that alpha pheromones had excited his body like this. Was this really compatibility as the doctors said?

“Really?”

“Yes. Out of all alphas and omegas combined.”

Reynard answered again as if he found it cute, looking at Valentine who was asking again with round eyes of disbelief.

“So you are a very precious person to me. An incredible stroke of luck in my life that will never happen before or after.”

Before or after…?

Does that mean I’m the first?

“No way…”

“No way?”

“Has no one ever said they liked your pheromones until now? Am I really the only one?”

It was his patented surprised rabbit expression. Seeing Valentine flustered, Reynard chuckled.

“You need to know how truly lovable you are, Valentine.”

Suddenly?

After throwing out an unexpected compliment, he began a detailed explanation.

“Not only has no one said they liked it, but no one has been able to endure my pheromones themselves. There were no exceptions, whether alpha or omega. When I released my pheromones, they couldn’t even stand being in the same space.”

So the reactions of other people yesterday were true after all.

“After my secondary manifestation, I went through several experiments, but no one could endure it. Even family.”

“Oh my…”

It was truly something he had never heard of before. He had never even thought that a person with such pheromones could exist.

“So I thought I would never be able to meet an omega in my lifetime. I’ve never released pheromones in the presence of others unless I meant to threaten.”

He added an explanation with a shrug.

“This is the first time I’ve heard that you had such a secret.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s not only a dishonor to the family name, but a weakness that must not be revealed to enemies. It’s treated as top secret.”

He subtly concealed the fact that he had ignored the family’s close associates who considered this fact top secret. He occasionally released them when needed regardless of whether he was discovered, but he spoke as if it had never happened.

Reynard was subtly stimulating Valentine’s sympathy now.

He was subtly fabricating that if it weren’t for you, no one would accept me, and I would become a truly pitiful person.

‘So that’s why no one knew…’

“Then do you usually keep them completely locked away…?”

“Yes. I don’t release them at all normally.”

That was true.

He couldn’t make everyone around him fearful and uncomfortable. He only released them when threatening or fighting, it was true that he lived with his daily pheromones completely locked away.

“I see…”

It was hard for Valentine to imagine.

Though he was an omega superior who could sensitively control his pheromones, it wasn’t easy to live with pheromones locked away in all aspects of life. Pheromones naturally came out in places subconsciously recognized as comfortable spaces like home or during sleep. It was the same among comfortable people like family.

‘It’s the same as saying he had no comfortable people…’

This was even more true for emotional pheromones that expressed thoughts and feelings, not just sexual pheromones that induced heat and heightened sexual feelings. Just as a dog unconsciously expresses its feelings with its tail, trait bearers naturally expressed emotions through pheromones in comfortable spaces and among comfortable people.

Pheromones were the second means of communication given by God.

“That’s amazing…”

Valentine couldn’t hide his surprise. To have to consciously control all of the unconscious. He couldn’t imagine how much effort upon effort it must have taken.

“I went through a lot of training. If I hadn’t, my pheromones would have been so strong that people around me couldn’t live normal lives.”

“It was that severe?”

“Yes. Even my father, my closest family, had a hard time.”

“……”

“And as I said before, it was a weakness and secret that couldn’t be revealed. It wasn’t an option, but a necessity.”

After finishing speaking, he firmly closed the carriage window. Now that it was fully ventilated, his attitude showed concern that the cold wind coming in from outside might harm Valentine’s body.

Perhaps the expression “mutation” that he himself had used was exactly right. At first Valentine thought it was an explicit expression of self-deprecation, but hearing the explanation, it seemed to be an unusual and unfortunate thing that everyone would have thought.

But if all alphas and omegas found it unbearable like that…?

If there really was no one before or after…?

“Then am I the first omega you’ve met?”

“That’s right.”

A clear immediate answer. He looked somehow pleased.

And I thought he was a playboy…!? Valentine wore an expression of shock as he recalled Reynard’s smooth and natural flirting and skinship from when they first met until now. That was instinct?

“Valentine, I want to tell you that you are my first and only for everything.”

Reynard said as he lifted Valentine’s gloved hand and placed a reverent kiss on it.

“Only…!”

“Now you know why I rushed to propose? I have no intention of missing this slim chance, no, this luck that will never come again, that an omega I like could like my pheromones.”

Elation and a desire to conquer could be read in his voice and eyes.

“You have to take responsibility for me.”