Chapter 155

Kinaine woke up early in the morning.

"Ugghhh..."

And he suffered with his face buried in the pillow.

As Asad had said, there was no hangover. Rather, his body felt unusually light, as if he had had a pleasant dream.

But a hangover would have been better. Even more so if he couldn't remember anything. Then he wouldn't have felt this embarrassed.

"What on earth did I say?"

The words he had uttered came vividly to mind. The more he recalled the sincere truths he had spoken without pretense, the deeper the wrinkles became in the blanket clutched in his hand.

No matter how he thought about it, there must have been something in that alcohol. Though people say one becomes more honest after drinking, that's when one is drunk. He couldn't have been drunk from just one glass, so there must have been something wrong with the alcohol.

What good did it do to realize that now?

Chirp chirp, chirp!

Even Chirpy's chirping sounded like laughter.

Kinaine laboriously lifted his face that had been buried in the pillow. What was done was done. Now he needed to focus on what needed to be done. Today was the day of the finals.

When he unwrapped the bandage, he could see the wound already healing. The healing effect of the alcohol was more impressive than expected. Kinaine checked for any discomfort by rotating his shoulder. It was just slightly stiff, but he didn't feel the same pain as yesterday.

Good. This should be fine.

Of course, he couldn't say he was in optimal condition, but since he hadn't been in optimal condition for a long time, this was sufficient.

But since both his stamina and strength were poor, he couldn't afford to drag out the fight. One minute at most. After that, he couldn't guarantee victory. That was why he had ended all duels quickly so far.

In fact, he had wanted to create the appearance of barely winning in the finals against Hasan to make him complacent, but he gave up as it was clear his body wouldn't hold up. Still, since he had ended his matches quickly, Hasan probably hadn't been able to figure out much about him.

He hoped Hasan would be as complacent as possible.

Just then, he heard footsteps approaching the door. If it was someone coming to visit, it could only be Tiron. Kinaine's gaze turned toward the window. Wasn't it earlier than usual?

Just as Kinaine threw the blood-stained bandage out the window, the door swung open.

"What, you're already up?"

As expected, the visitor was Tiron. His voice was slightly surprised, as if he hadn't expected Kinaine to be awake. Kinaine turned around with his eyes closed.

"Did I wake up early? Since my eyes became like this, I can't tell how time passes."

"...I didn't think of that. You usually wake up at exactly the right time, like a ghost."

"But what brings you here?"

From the delayed response, Kinaine detected hesitation. He didn't know what was going on, but it was clear that Tiron had a reason for visiting him earlier than usual.

"Well, I brought medicine. It would be good for you to take it now."

As Tiron approached, Kinaine felt a strange sense of dissonance.

"Oh, they said they changed to new ingredients."

Kinaine realized the source of the dissonance from those words. His dulled sense of smell had prevented him from accurately identifying it.

It didn't feel right. Tiron had essentially said that someone other than himself had made the medicine. No matter how he thought about it, this change didn't seem to stem from good intentions.

"By the way, did you do something wrong to the dragon?"

At Tiron's question, Kinaine was silent for a moment. He knew that this pitiful doctor was reporting his every move to Hasan. Perhaps this question was also from Hasan. If so, the answer was as good as predetermined.

"He said he doesn't want to see me anymore. He's probably tired of me. He's such a capricious person."

Kinaine deliberately spoke in a tone of dejection. This should have been a satisfactory answer for Hasan.

"Is that all? Capriciousness?"

But the response was different from what he expected.

"If it's capriciousness as you say, then his mind could change again, right?"

"Huh?"

"When I saw him before, the dragon seemed to want to devour you whole. Don't you have some secret method that made him like that? Why don't you go and try to seduce him again the same way? What worked once can work twice."

"...He's not the type to give his heart again to something he's tired of."

This wasn't the reaction he had expected.

Worried that his confusion might show, Kinaine quickly changed the subject.

"What about the medicine?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said? The ingredients have changed!"

Tiron shouted angrily.

"You're smart. If the medicine suddenly changed, shouldn't you be suspicious? Everyone around you is your enemy, won't you get your head straight?"

Tiron's meaning was clear. He was telling him that something was mixed into the medicine.

But why?

"The only one on your side here was the dragon, but now not even that. What are you going to do?"

Kinaine couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you worried about that?"

"......"

"Ah, are you worried about what might happen if I can't undo the black magic cast on Jinaks? If that's it, you don't need to worry."

Since Tiron considered him an enemy, he naturally wouldn't be concerned about his well-being. He was probably worried that if Kinaine died, he wouldn't be able to restore his hometown to its original state.

Kinaine was about to say that such worry was unnecessary, that when his breath ceased, the black magic would naturally be undone.

"That's not it!"

If only Tiron hadn't cut him off by shouting.

"......"

"......"

An awkward silence hung in the air. The first to break the stillness was Tiron.

"Damn it, I don't know what's true anymore! What if you're deceiving me with black magic? What if I'm falling for your tricks?"

Though he couldn't understand what Tiron meant, he could tell that Tiron was confused.

"I don't know if what I heard is true or false. I don't know whether to believe you or not."

...Heard?

"Tiron, did you happen to hear something?"

"...Before, in the bathroom, I overheard a bit of the conversation between His Majesty and you."

Kinaine quickly retraced his memories. If it was that day...

Could it be?

Suddenly his heart began to race. If Tiron had heard even part of the conversation that day, it wouldn't be strange if he had learned the truth.

That meant Tiron was the first person to learn the truth. The truth that Kinaine could never reveal no matter what he tried.

"Tiron, that's..."

"Stop! I won't listen to what you say. You're probably going to tell me that what I heard is real. But I can't stop thinking that you might be deceiving me."

"...Alright, I understand."

He intellectually understood that Tiron's suspicion was justified. After all, black magic could manipulate Tiron's perception and implant false memories. But the disappointment he felt was unavoidable, given how much he had hoped.

The sound of Tiron's footsteps grew closer.

Click.

The sound of a window opening was heard. What followed was the sound of liquid being poured out. Tiron had thrown all the medicine out the window.

"This... is a heat cycle inducer. They didn't tell me what kind of medicine it was, but I can tell just by the smell that it's an herb that induces an omega's heat cycle, and there's only one such herb."

"I see."

"You're not surprised. Did you already know?"

"No, but I didn't think it would be poison. The king wouldn't try to kill me so easily."

"......"

"But it seems the king didn't expect you to do this. He seems to trust you quite a bit."

"I don't think that's particularly the case."

"That's why he sent someone."

"What? Who did he send?"

It was an obvious question. What other reason could there be for trying to make him take such medicine?

Before Kinaine could answer, the door swung open and someone entered.

"W-who are you?"

"Doctor, you may leave now. Or you can stay and watch. I don't mind being observed."

A drawling response came to Tiron's wary question.

Kinaine could tell that the intruder was a recessive alpha. It was because of the pheromones that threatened to overwhelm him at any moment.

A recessive alpha's pheromones couldn't compare to those of a dominant alpha, but if he had taken the inducer and his heat cycle had been triggered, he wouldn't have been able to endure even those pheromones.

But there were two things that both Hasan and the recessive alpha didn't know.

First, that Tiron had discarded the medicine, and second, that Kinaine had realized something long ago.

'I didn't think I would be so vulnerable to an alpha's pheromones.'

'What? You speak as if you're a beta. No matter how recessive, an omega should know that an alpha's pheromones are dangerous.'

'...That's true.'

On that day at Gold Pot when he realized how vulnerable an omega's body was to an alpha's pheromones, Kinaine had made a decision.

'So I thought about it, and next time, it would be better to knock them out before being attacked by pheromones.'

And that's exactly what Kinaine did.