The Dignity of the Omega

#24

Enrique moved his hand, which had now regained considerable strength, and popped a snack into his mouth. Pol watched Enrique, his lips twitching as if he had something he wanted to say.

“What are you curious about?” Enrique asked, staring at Pol.

Pol hesitated for a while before finally asking cautiously, “Um… Are you in any pain? Are you uncomfortable moving or sitting? Didn’t it hurt when Count Persi… you know? Were there any acts you disliked or found unpleasant?”

Pol’s ears turned bright red, embarrassed by his own questions.

“Are you curious, or is it my father who’s curious?”

“Well…”

Pol trailed off, scratching his cheek with his finger. Judging by his reluctance to answer, it seemed to be both.

“There’s nothing like that,” Enrique said curtly. Pol nodded in response.

“By the way…” Enrique paused, glancing at his finger. The shining ring caught his eye.

“Quickly, call Anture here.”

When Enrique spoke in a commanding tone, Pol’s face immediately hardened. Enrique glared at Pol and repeated, “Anture. I said call him here.”

Pol’s eyes trembled slightly at Enrique’s words, spoken through gritted teeth. Enrique narrowed his eyes at this strange reaction.

“What’s wrong? When I say call him, why are you looking at me like that? Do you think I’m going to beat up the Ruben Empire’s prince or smash his head with a vase?”

“Um… It’s not that, Your Highness.”

A look of deep perplexity and dismay appeared on Pol’s face.

“What is it? Speak quickly.”

Enrique urged Pol. After hesitating for a moment, Pol finally spoke with difficulty.

“The Ruben prince… left for Ruben with his entourage on the day Your Highness entered your heat cycle.”

“What? Left…?”

Enrique asked, doubting his own ears. Pol nodded with a tense face.

“Anture left for Ruben? He’s not in Shamier?”

Enrique muttered softly. His head felt numb, as if he’d been hit by something. As he blinked stupidly, Pol waved his hand in front of Enrique’s face with a worried expression.

“Your Highness? Are you alright, Your Highness?”

Enrique, who had been sitting with a dazed expression for a moment, strongly grabbed Pol’s wrist that was waving in front of his eyes. Then, with fierce eyes and gritted teeth, he asked again.

“Say it again. What happened to Anture?”

A murderous aura emanated from each of Enrique’s words. Sensing this, Pol swallowed hard and carefully spoke.

“It’s said that upon hearing the news of Your Highness entering the heat cycle, he immediately went to see the king. Then he promptly left for Ruben with all the remaining members of his party.”

“…”

Enrique released Pol’s wrist and looked down at his own hand. The ring on his ring finger shimmered with a unique, ethereal light, as if mocking Enrique. Even though he knew it was futile, Enrique desperately struggled to remove the ring again. But of course, the ring didn’t budge at all.

“That Anture ran away to Ruben…? That little brat dares to fool me twice in a row?!”

Grinding his teeth and muttering, Enrique finally exploded.

“Anture! You son of a-! You fraud! You sneaky bastard!”

As Enrique started throwing whatever he could grab, including pillows, in a fit of rage, Pol pressed himself against the wall to avoid being hit. Enrique spewed all kinds of vulgar curses while screaming. Feathers from the pillows he had torn apart in his fury fluttered around the room.

“Aaargh-!! Argh! Aaaargh-!”

Unable to contain his anger, Enrique screamed at the top of his lungs. Then he shouted, “Call a blacksmith or whoever right now! I’m going to have this damn ring cut off or my finger cut off to get rid of it!”

Alarmed by the commotion inside, knights and servants poured into the bedroom, opening the door. Pol shook his head at them, signaling that everything was fine. Enrique sat on the bed in the midst of the chaotic room, covered in goose feathers, seething with anger.

At first, Anture had pretended to be pitiful and put on a ring that supposedly couldn’t be removed, then he took advantage of Enrique’s heat to flee to the distant Ruben. The fact that he had been fooled twice in a row by a kid he had somewhat underestimated was infuriating beyond endurance.

“Just you wait! Anture-!”

Enrique tore apart the pillowcase in his hands while shouting the name of the boy who had tricked him at the top of his lungs.

*

“Hahahahaha-!”

“Kuhuhuk…”

“Haha! Haha! Oh my, my stomach!”

“Kuhaha… Ahhuhu…”

His friends collectively held their stomachs, falling backward with laughter. Their faces were contorted with pain from laughing so hard their stomachs hurt, yet they couldn’t stop laughing.

Enrique glared at his friends who were rolling on the floor with laughter, wearing a sullen expression. His eyes were still burning with unresolved anger.

His friends laughed for a good hour before finally becoming exhausted and sprawling out on the floor one by one, panting. Even then, they let out occasional chuckles. Their clothes and hair were in disarray from rolling around laughing, but no one cared. That wasn’t important right now.

“Good heavens. To think the day would come when our Enrique would be played like this…”

“Pfft…!”

“Stop laughing, you jerk! If you laugh, I’ll laugh too. If I laugh anymore, I feel like my stomach muscles will tear.”

“That’s right. I’m too tired to laugh anymore. Please, nobody laugh. I don’t want to laugh.”

His friends panted out one comment each. Enrique picked up cream-covered snacks from a nearby plate and threw them at his friends’ faces one by one. The already disheveled appearance of his friends was completely ruined. But instead of getting angry, they licked the cream off their faces and giggled.

It took quite a while for the laughter to completely subside. Everyone sprawled out on the sofa, their faces clearly showing signs of exhaustion from laughing so much.

“That little prince is really something. A real piece of work.”

“I know. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that Enrique would be played like this in his life.”

“Hey, hey. He may look young and innocent, but he’s still the heir to the great Ruben Empire. It’s foolish to take that at face value.”

“True. He’s a direct descendant of the Ruben Emperor, how could that blood go to waste?”

His friends chatted lazily as they lay sprawled out. Enrique furrowed his brow, using his thumb to fiddle with the ring on his ring finger.

He had tried to forcibly cut off the ring by calling a blacksmith, but it was useless. The ring simply wouldn’t cut no matter what they tried. They said it probably wasn’t an ordinary metal. Well, it made sense that a ring with such magical properties wouldn’t be made of common metal that could be easily cut.

After repeatedly confirming that there was nothing he could do, Enrique decided to completely ignore the ring until a solution presented itself. But that wasn’t easy. Whenever he came to his senses, Enrique found himself unconsciously fiddling with the ring. It had become such a habit that he often caught himself touching the ring on his ring finger with his thumb without realizing it.

“By the way, why did the guy who said he’d stay in Shamier for five years waiting for marriage suddenly return to Ruben?”

One of his friends suddenly asked.

“He probably ran away to avoid getting beaten up by Enrique. He must have figured out Enrique’s temperament by now.”

“Nah, that’s not it. If he was afraid of that, he wouldn’t have tricked Enrique in the first place.”

“That’s right. It’s more likely that he couldn’t bear the thought of watching Enrique being intimate with another man for five years.”

After a moment of thought, everyone nodded in unison at the last statement.

“Well… Even if he’s young, he must have basic male pride.”

“I wouldn’t be able to watch my fiancé rolling around with another guy for years either.”

Hearing this, one of them snorted.

“Hmph. Still, an alpha should have that level of tolerance. He’s indeed still too young.”

Again, everyone nodded in agreement.

A brief silence fell. Everyone picked up their teacups to wet their dry throats. Enrique noticed his friends glancing at him with strange looks. He wondered why they were being so cautious when they weren’t even in a formal setting.

“If you have something to say, just say it?”

Enrique said with an annoyed expression. At that, his friends all put down their teacups and their eyes began to sparkle.

“So, how was it with Count Damiel?”

“Was he good? He must be good, right? I’ve heard rumors that he’s exceptionally skilled in bed!”

“How do you feel after spending your first heat cycle? It must have felt like entering a whole new world, right?”

“How did it feel? Is it really that good? I heard it’s so good you could pass out?”

The questions from those with experience and those without were clearly different.

Enrique elegantly picked up his teacup, took a sip, and put it down again. His friends watched him with sparkling eyes, waiting for his answer. They looked like hungry hunting dogs waiting for their food.

“He was good. It felt good.”

Enrique answered briefly.

“Oh come on…”

“Hey, hey, hey, what kind of half-hearted answer is that?”

“Boo~. That’s mean.”

His friends booed in unison. But they didn’t press Enrique any further. They knew his personality too well.