Chapter 14

Kinaine staggered out of the Gold Pot. Night had fallen without him noticing.

"Hah, hah."

He clutched his chest and exhaled rough breaths. His clothes had long been soaked with cold sweat.

Though the night wind should have felt cold, the heat in his body wouldn't cool. Rather, it was getting worse.

He was used to pain. But this heat was different from pain. It felt like insects were crawling all over his body and his eyeballs burned. Above all, he had the abnormal thought that he wanted to run back and fall into the arms of the alpha who had just been choking him.

The reason Fei had thought he looked fine was because Kinaine had used all his strength to pretend nothing was wrong.

But now it was too much. Though he tried to walk as if nothing was wrong, pheromones leaked out endlessly like a broken dam.

'I can't control it.'

This body was a recessive omega with weak traits, so even heat cycles passed like brief fevers. Even those became mere mild colds with cheap suppressants.

Moreover, Kinaine was skilled at controlling his pheromones. So this was the first time he had fallen into such an uncontrollable state. Though it would be stranger to be fine after being doused in alpha pheromones, especially those of a dominant alpha.

"An omega?"

"Is that an omega?"

The spirits on the street glanced at Kinaine, perhaps sensing his leaking pheromones. Their gazes were not friendly.

If there was one thing Kinaine had realized since coming to the spirit realm, it was that it wasn't very different from the human realm. Only appearances were different; traits, the value of jewels, gambling, and such were almost the same.

Then probably the dangers a heat-stricken omega would face were similar too.

This situation wasn't good at all. He needed to get somewhere without people...

"I thought so and followed you."

Just then, someone put their arm around Kinaine's shoulders. Because of his blurred vision, he couldn't immediately recognize who it was.

"So you were an omega?"

The person who had put their arm around him dragged him into an empty alley. Though he knew he should resist, he couldn't muster any strength.

There was one reason.

'Alpha pheromones...'

This man was an alpha. His omega body, craving an alpha, far from resisting, welcomed the approaching alpha eagerly. The most Kinaine could do was try not to embrace the man.

"Ugh."

Kinaine wiped his eyes with his forearm while exhaling hot breath. As his vision cleared, he saw the man's face.

"You're..."

It was the tailed tribe man who had been pestering him earlier. What a persistent fellow.

"Let go."

Though he tried to push the man away, it wasn't easy with arms that had no strength.

Indeed, far from being pushed away, the tailed tribe man clung closer. His large hand wiped Kinaine's wet eyes.

"I thought you were a beta, but you're an omega. Even better?"

"Let go."

"Stop playing hard to get. From the looks of it, you've already had one round. You came to the Gold Pot looking for partners, right? Nothing wrong with trying some variety while you're at it."

The tailed tribe man, sensing the alpha's rutting pheromones all over Kinaine's body, misunderstood that he had already enjoyed himself once. He assumed from the start that an omega in heat wouldn't be walking alone, so he must have come to the Gold Pot looking for partners.

"You seem like a recessive, and I usually don't do recessives. But somehow, you don't seem bad."

The tailed tribe man grinned as he pulled Kinaine closer.

"Huk."

Kinaine exhaled roughly. It was because of the alpha pheromones pouring over him.

As he staggered, losing strength in his legs, the tailed tribe man caught him easily.

"How is it, feels good?"

In the tailed tribe man's arms, Kinaine just trembled pitifully. Seeing this, excitement also showed on the tailed tribe man's face. The sight of the omega who had maintained an indifferent expression suddenly crumbling in his arms stimulated his desire to conquer.

"Ah, what to do. I'm really excited."

The tailed tribe man's gaze, which had been greedily sniffing as if to inhale all the omega pheromones, suddenly turned to Kinaine's neck.

"Hmm. What's this?"

The man tilted his head upon discovering the black smudge marks on his neck. They were traces of the scales drawn with cosmetics to avoid being discovered as human. They had been wiped away when he was choked.

"Well, doesn't matter."

Already fully excited, he shrugged as if it didn't matter and moved to step forward.

More precisely, he tried to step forward.

Thunk!

The tailed tribe man collapsed to the ground after being hit on the head with a large stone. Someone ran toward Kinaine, who had fallen to the ground with him.

"A-are you alright?"

The impact of hitting the ground actually helped clear Kinaine's mind, and he looked up. He heard voices murmuring above his head.

"Ramu! I told you not to interfere!"

"But Rahu, that tailed tribe man was trying to drag this person away!"

"That's why I said to leave it alone and not get involved!"

The two arguing people had similar appearances despite their different builds. Both had dark blue hair and wore worn clothes. And above all...

"...Wings?"

Kinaine's eyes widened at the sight of the wings on their backs.

Just then.

"Nine, there you are!"

A tall man called his name as he ran over. Though startled by the stranger acting familiar with him, Kinaine picked up a large stone nearby even in his confusion. It was what the girl called Ramu had used to knock out the tailed tribe man.

"Don't come closer."

"What?"

When Kinaine warned in a hoarse voice, the man stopped, looking confused. However, Kinaine gripped the stone even tighter.

The man was an alpha, and Kinaine knew what had almost happened to him with an alpha just now. He had never feared alphas in his life. But now...

"Hey, what happened to you?"

Kinaine frowned at the man's question. What was this?

Though it was clearly a face he was seeing for the first time, it felt familiar.

Not just the voice and way of speaking, but more precisely those purple eyes looking at him.

'No way...'

"Nine!"

Just as he was about to realize the answer, Kinaine's consciousness sank into darkness.

* * *

He dreamed. A dream of when he first met his lover.

That man was being called a magical beast.

At the time, Kinaine was a vigorous young prince of twenty-one. He preferred going outside rather than staying in the stifling royal palace, and that day too, he was staying in a rural village disguised as an ordinary traveler.

"That's a magical beast! Quick, let's kill it and burn it!"

When he went out to see what the commotion in the village was about, he found people repeatedly striking some man with thick wooden sticks. Kinaine frowned and approached as they treated him like a beast rather than a person.

"What's happening?"

"Outsiders stay out of this!"

Though the villagers were sensitive to outsiders' interference, Kinaine was the type to easily gain people's favor anywhere.

As it happened, a young woman who had received his help before stepped forward to explain the situation.

"Don't worry about it. That's not human, it's a magical beast, sir."

"You're saying that person is a magical beast?"

"Of course. Just look at that hideous appearance. What else could it be but a magical beast?"

Only then did Kinaine examine the man being beaten carefully. Indeed, the man's appearance was unusual. Kinaine's eyes widened as he saw that half of the man's face and body were covered in black scales.

"We let it be since it didn't come down from the mountain before, but lately it's been stealing our livestock!"

While listening to the indignant voice of an old man standing nearby, Kinaine stared at the man. The man made no resistance at all despite the rain of blows.

Kinaine stepped forward.

"Stop."

When he grabbed the wooden stick being swung at the man, the people's sharp gazes turned toward him.

"Didn't we say outsiders shouldn't interfere!"

"Have any of you ever seen a magical beast?"

"We have! This thing right here is a magical beast!"

"A magical beast."

Kinaine muttered quietly as he easily took away the wooden stick he had grabbed. The young man whose weapon had been suddenly taken looked flustered.

"Would a magical beast quietly submit to being beaten with wooden sticks like this?"

"What do you..."

"If this person were really a magical beast, this village would have been massacred long ago."

"..."

An icy silence fell at his words.

It wasn't strange that these villagers didn't know real magical beasts. The subjugation of magical beasts around the kingdom was handled entirely by knights.

It was the duty of nobles, and Kinaine too had participated in subjugations to fulfill that duty. Therefore, unless one was a knight, almost no one in the kingdom had encountered a real magical beast.

Kinaine threw the confiscated wooden stick behind him. His indifferent gaze swept over the people.

"Isn't it truly fortunate? That this person is an ordinary human."