DSB 72

Yutis went to Lebel’s room with the letter in his hand. Lebel was lying on the bed and playing with Karon. The red eyes that had been on Karon turned toward Yutis as soon as he appeared. Lebel smiled with crescent eyes.

“You came.”

When Yutis saw Lebel’s smile, he clenched his fist.

‘How much effort have I put in just to see that smile?’

When Lebel first arrived in the North, he looked as if he did not know what joy was, and he did not even show the smallest smile. He always looked at people with an expressionless face. But his touch was warm, and that had made Yutis even angrier at the Empire.

Lebel had been brought by his mother’s hand and sold to the imperial family. The imperial family had accepted him as a child because he was a dominant omega. It had been only to use him in a marriage trade one day.

Lebel had become part of the imperial family overnight, but his mother, who had been a maid, had left without hesitation once she received the money. The Emperor had accepted him as his child but had never even looked at him, so he had naturally grown up without care.

Since he had never received affection from either his mother or the imperial family, he had lacked many things that he should have known as basic knowledge.

And since he had never received affection, he had no way to know how to speak to others with emotion, but they had called him a fool and abandoned him further, and he had grown up with his emotions dried out.

Yutis recalled the first time he had seen Lebel. His reactions had been slow and he had spoken little, but he had not been foolish enough to be called an idiot.

No one had cared for him, but Lebel had learned by seeing with his eyes and hearing with his ears. The fact that he remembered even the words of someone who had been his childhood friend showed that he had a good memory, and since he could use magic that he had learned only through verbal teaching, it meant that he was intelligent.

Yutis did not want to show the current Lebel to those who had sold him away like an unwanted object without realizing his worth.

“What is that look on your face?”

Lebel looked at Yutis, who gave no answer. For some reason, his face seemed stiff. Yutis shook his head with a reassuring smile.

“No. Nothing happened. More importantly, how do you feel?”

“You checked just a while ago. I’m fine.”

“I think you have a fever. Excuse me for a moment.”

Yutis stepped quickly toward Lebel. He liked Lebel’s smile, but he disliked the redness on his face caused by the fever. Yutis put his hand on Lebel’s forehead to check his temperature.

[Get away right now!]

Karon, caught in between them, tried hard to push Yutis’s chest with his head. When Lebel’s heat cycle began, Karon had been isolated and had not been able to see Lebel’s face for days, locked up in his room.

From afar, he had felt Lebel’s demonic energy grow weaker each day, and that had made him even more frantic. Lebel was already possessing a frail human body, so Karon had been immensely worried.

But the other human who always got in his way, Mahan, had not let him go. Karon had scratched the door and barked endlessly, showing signs of separation anxiety.

When he finally got to see Lebel again, Lebel had caught a cold. On top of that, the room was full of Yutis’s pheromones that even Karon’s nose had hurt, and Lebel’s body had been covered not by his own demonic energy but by Yutis’s.

Karon knew why, and he fiercely glared at Yutis. Mahan, who had been watching Lebel beside him, lifted Karon into his arms to separate them and spoke.

[You again!!]

By that point, Karon was glaring at Mahan with the same ferocity he showed to Yutis. Mahan patted Karon’s head, he was already used to Karon’s growls and barks.

“The coughing has decreased a lot. But they say the fever doesn’t go down all at once.”

“I see…”

“Didn’t you hear the same thing earlier? Why worry? He said he’s recovering well.”

“Being careless is not good.”

Lebel brushed off Yutis’s hand and shrugged.

“When have I ever had time to be careless? Whenever my condition worsens even a little, someone rushes to call the doctor.”

Lebel spoke to comfort Yutis, who still looked serious.

“I’m much better thanks to you. You gave me plenty of pheromones, didn’t you?”

Yutis knew that his pheromones were covering Lebel’s entire body. He had covered him so thoroughly that even after two days, the scent still lingered.

“A cold cannot be cured by my pheromones.”

“They help. They lift my mood too.”

“……!”

So the quality of his demonic energy is high. Lebel had spoken without thinking, but Yutis’s face turned red.

“Anyway, did you finish what you were doing?”

You’ve been sneaking around alone without telling me anything. Even when I asked the others, they wouldn’t tell me what you were doing, only that it was something for me.

“Do you really need to go yourself? You can order the subordinates to do it. If you’re worried about me, stay by my side.”

His pheromones aside, Yutis’s demonic energy helped Lebel.

“I will not leave anymore. When the construction is finished, let’s go see it together.”

“See it?”

“Yes. It is my gift for you.”

A gift?

On this cold day, everyone was moving busily with passion. A gift for him? What in the world was he trying to build? He had already received more than enough.

“More than that, a letter came from the imperial capital.”

“…The imperial capital? For me?”

At the word he had not heard for a long time, Lebel’s eyes widened. He took the letter that Yutis held out.

It was sealed in a red envelope with a lion-shaped mark. The sender’s name was written beside it.

Biakin? Who was that again?

Yutis spoke at the right moment and said who had sent it.

“It is from the Crown Prince.”

When Lebel heard Yutis’s words, a person seemed to come to his mind. He remembered only that the man had blond hair.

Lebel looked at the letter, and he noticed that the part where the seal was pressed had been opened. He glanced briefly at Yutis, but Yutis only stood still, as if telling him to read it. Lebel tore the end of the envelope and took the letter inside into his hand.

Lebel read the contents calmly. The tone pretended to show concern, but it was clumsy. The real purpose of the letter was at the very end.

“It seems that guests will come to the castle.”

It was not a request, but a notification.

“Guests?”

“They said they would send a delegation because they were worried about me. Is this letter even really meant for me? I am not the one who decides whether to receive the delegation.”

The letter said that since no reply had come, they were worried that Lebel might have fallen victim to Yutis’s rut. That meant they had sent letters here before. It was obvious who had handled those.

Lebel did not blame Yutis for secretly dealing with the letters. Rather, it was strange that someone who was not even in the North was bringing up Yutis’s rut and asking if he was injured.

“So the Emperor knew about your rut.”

Is that why they sent me to the North early?

Once he realized that, the contents of the letter felt even more absurd. They had sent him to help with the rut of a man called a monster, and now they shamelessly claimed to be concerned.

No, it was not even concern. They only pretended to care while digging for something else.

Moreover, the Emperor had included a cipher he had learned before coming to the North. He had not planned to learn any human cipher at all, but the tutor continued coming to him and talking endlessly, and he had been curious about what kind of cipher humans used, so he had read it properly once. That was why it was easy to recognize.

They would send someone who could help him. They told him to make secret contact and to tell that person everything he had learned while staying in the North.

How ridiculous. Did they think I would cooperate so easily?

And what have I learned since coming to the North, other than that the human before my eyes is far more fragile and full of worries than he looks? Ah, that is not only Yutis, but all humans in the North are the same.

They must be very curious about Yutis’s state during his rut, but why should he tell them? He still does not completely understand it himself. He has no interest in sharing valuable things with others.

And it seems they expect him to hand over a weakness that could ruin the Hestro family. Even if he did know one, he would not tell them.

“Is there a problem?”

Lebel looked up at Yutis. The last part of the letter was not even directed to Lebel, but to a member of the Hestro family. It mentioned his well-being only as a pretext and added an excuse that they had no choice but to send a delegation to discuss matters in spring.

He might have been the Foolish Prince once, but even now that he could speak properly, the Empire could not possibly expect much from him. They only intended to use every tool available to them. By mentioning his well-being, they only created a reason why the North could not refuse the delegation.

“Here, read it yourself.”

“May I read it?”

As if he had not already done so. The reason he read it first is obvious. Well, it does not matter anyway.

“They do not care about my well-being at all. So deal with the delegation as you see fit. It is not something I need to be involved in.”

“How is it not something you need to be involved in? You are the one who will become the mistress of this place.”

“I still do not know much about the North. Or should I be the one to receive the delegation?”

When he had been a demon, his subordinates had gone to receive high-ranking demons who visited the territory. They said that higher rank required a certain level of courtesy.

Yutis’s expression turned rigid, and he said nothing.