DSB 41

“I told you not to overexert yourself. You almost got into serious trouble. If you had collapsed while you were alone, I would not have been able to face Young Master Yutis.”

“I understand. I will rest for a while.”

It was a surprising experience for Lebel too, he had been standing perfectly fine and then suddenly fainted from dizziness. His head was spinning and his vision had turned blurry. Yet he thought he might have seen the person he wanted to see.

“Where is Yutis?”

“… Young Master Yutis is worried about the Young Madam as well.”

But he still could not see him.

“I heard that Yutis is also unwell. Did he collapse like me?”

Mahan said it as an excuse, but it did not sound like a complete lie. Since Lebel could feel Yutis’s demonic energy through his own, he had felt that it had been unstable. To be precise, it was not because of illness, but because his mind was restless, so his demonic energy was wavering.

Even now, Lebel could feel it flickering from far away.

How could he not be concerned?

“The young master is far healthier than the Young Madam, so there is no need to worry. You should only focus on your recovery. Have you not usually slept well? Are you unable to sleep now?”

Yes, that was right. Normally he would have slept just fine, but strangely he could not fall asleep now.

“I only sleep when I am sleepy.”

“…Have you not often slept the entire day?”

“I slept because I was sleepy.”

Mahan looked at Lebel with a confused expression. It was difficult for him to understand that a human could sleep the whole day.

Of course, if a person was tired, they could sleep deeply for a day. But in Lebel’s case, he slept far too much.

“…Young Madam lady, I heard that you always slept even in the imperial city.”

“Unless someone woke me.”

In the imperial city, there had been too many annoying people, so he had often closed his eyes on purpose.

“How were you before that?”

“…Before that?”

“I mean before you came to the imperial city.”

“Before I came to the Imperial City?”

To Lebel, the time before he came to the imperial city meant when he had been living in the Demon Realm.

“It was about the same.”

If anything, he had been even lazier. Back then, no one but Karon had dared to disturb him.

“…Have you never gone out to see the world outside?”

“I do not understand your question.”

Lebel tilted his head. Seeing Mahan’s serious expression, he hesitated for a moment.

Was it because he was ignorant of the human world? Recently, both Mahan and Yutis had been subtly asking about him more often. How much should he say?

“Well, not completely never, but even then, I mostly slept.”

He spoke vaguely on purpose. Even though he had been confined in the Imperial Palace, it was not as if he had never gone outside at all, just as he had done in the Demon Realm.

Lebel leaned back lazily on the bed, so he did not notice that Mahan was frowning. His body needed to recover before he could go anywhere, so he had to rest first.

“Young Madam, I will apply the ointment.”

“Ointment?”

“Yes, it is Young Master Yutis’s order. Would you please show your back?”

The deepest wounds were on his back. It was unnecessary, but Mahan, who read Lebel’s expression like a ghost, insisted.

“That will not do.”

When Lebel slumped in reluctance, Mahan pulled him up. Mahan was as stubborn as Karon, perhaps even more.

He worried that scars might remain and applied the medicine while suppressing his distress. Even though the wounds had already faded and healed without leaving marks, he still did it.

These days, Lebel’s daily routine consisted of applying ointment on his injuries and receiving holy power treatment from Illa when he visited while he rested.

“That should be enough for today.”

“Thank you, Priest Illa.”

“No, it is my duty. For a quick recovery, it is important to eat well and take in all necessary nutrients.”

Lebel only nodded. He was tired of hearing it.

With his mind clear, he thought. He did not know when his wounds would completely heal, but even after they did, Yutis would probably not come. It had already been three days since he last saw Yutis’s face.

Then he would have to lure him out.

“Mahan.”

“Yes. Please speak.”

“Call the physician.”

Mahan’s eyes widened.

“Are you in pain somewhere?”

“That is not it. I have something to ask.”

“I will bring him immediately!”

Mahan did not even listen properly and fussed as he ran to fetch the physician.

The physician Mark, who served the Hestro family and was their personal doctor, ran in hurriedly, but instead of being asked to treat injuries, he was startled when the young madam began to ask about pheromones.

The reason moved him. After going through the rut incident, he said he wanted to learn properly for Yutis’s sake. Mark swallowed his tears in silence.

“Pheromones are also one of the human functions. Then it is right to ask a physician about them.”

He had thought of asking the people around him, but they made such a fuss over every little thing that the thought vanished.

If it was a question about pheromones, everyone would assume he was asking for Yutis’s sake.

Since that man was his husband, it was right to think of him, but Lebel had never tried to sacrifice himself for him, so he did not understand why they caused such commotion.

“So how should I handle it? I succeeded before, but now it does not work well.”

While recuperating, he had tried to recall the previous feeling and release pheromones, but it did not work. Just expanding his demonic energy at random did not bring pheromones out.

Emitting highly pure demonic energy was harder on the body than he had expected.

Lebel raised his head and looked at the physician. He frowned the moment he saw the man’s face. He felt he had chosen the wrong person to ask.

Mark was not making a scene, but he was pushing up his glasses and wiping his tears, and it was easy to guess what he was thinking.

But no one understood the state of Lebel’s body better than the man before him. Illa healed with holy power, but he did not fully understand what condition Lebel’s body was in or what it needed.

Lebel tapped the table with his finger to tell him to focus.

“Is my body broken so I cannot handle pheromones?”

“Wha, what are you saying? Why do you think I prepare medicine for you every day? The reason Young Master Yutis’s rut ended safely was thanks to your pheromones. Since your pheromones manifested, you can surely control them.”

Mark told him to trust him and began to explain pheromones in detail with fervor.

“Pheromones accumulate in a gland called the pheromone gland. Just as you inhale and then exhale the breath that you take in, pheromones are controlled in the same way.”

“…The breath?”

“Yes. Just like breathing.”

Lebel tried little by little according to Mark’s words. Just as humans learned to breathe when they were born, demons learned to handle demonic energy from birth.

The method was similar, so pheromones must have come out together while he was handling demonic energy.

Mark sat before him and spoke enthusiastically like someone teaching a child.

He used all kinds of examples, blood and airways and so on, to help Lebel recognize the movement of pheromones.

Then something small stirred inside Lebel’s body.

“Yes, that is it. That is how you do it.”

When Lebel released pheromones, Mark clapped his hands with a smile. The result of several hours of talking finally appeared.

“Hmm.”

He succeeded by chance, but he still did not completely grasped it. He did not want to waste demonic energy, but whenever he tried to release pheromones, his demonic energy leaked out too.

Since that day he had released both pheromones and demonic energy together, it had probably been harder, so he thought he should separate them.

Practice might be the only way. But he had now understood what pheromones were. Lebel’s eyes were sparkling.

As expected, there was nothing he could not do.

“Take a slow, deep breath. Do you smell the fragrance?”

Yutis had said that he smelled like flowers. A faint floral fragrance brushed Lebel’s nose as he focused.

“Ah. Is this it? Yes, I understand. This is the feeling.”

When Lebel exhaled and spoke, Mark rejoiced as if it were his own achievement.

“It seems your functions have returned as your health recovered.”

Lebel clenched his hand as if to hold the fragrance in his palm.

“You are becoming more skillful.”

“I think I have learned the knack.”

It was something that could be done easily once learned.

It felt like drawing something that was sleeping soundly within the soul, like demonic energy, but it was not the same as exposing everything.

When he summoned fire, the condensed demonic energy at the center was the core, and what spread out from it was the pheromone.

It felt like separating that and pushing it out. If he had learned it beforehand, he would have handled it better then.

“It is fortunate that you can now recognize pheromones, but other symptoms may appear in order. If any sign of heat shows, you must tell me.”

“Heat?”

“I mean the heat cycle. The susceptibility period of an alpha is called rut, and the one of an omega is called heat.”

I see. Since I have the body of an omega now, will I also have a heat cycle?

Mark saw Lebel reacting as if he had heard the word for the first time, and he began to sweat as he asked.

“Do you not know about heat either?”

“I only know it as a rut. Will I also lose reason like Yutis?”

“……”

He froze in place.