The Dignity of the Omega

#16

“I am Enrique’s fiancé. Although I’m a bit younger than Enrique, I’ll be your husband soon. You shouldn’t treat me like a child.”

It was clear that Anture was trying to speak politely while carefully choosing his words, despite being angry.

Enrique had also been Anture’s age once. To adults, he might just be an ignorant kid, but he had his own pride and belief that he was no longer a child.

“That wasn’t my intention, but I can see how my actions could be interpreted that way. I’m sorry, Anture.”

Enrique cleanly admitted his mistake and apologized. At the sincere apology, Anture’s eyes gradually calmed down.

“…Thank you for apologizing. But please don’t misunderstand. I don’t dislike your touch at all. It’s just that I felt like you only saw me as a child…”

Anture said sulkily, pouting.

‘Ah, he really is cute,’ Enrique thought to himself. His hand itched to ruffle Anture’s hair again. If he messed up that silky hair, would Anture get angry again?

“If it’s not my head, then…” Anture suddenly mumbled softly. Then, glancing at Enrique with a peculiar look, he continued, “If it’s not my head, you can touch and caress anywhere else you like.”

“…That’s alright.”

Enrique politely declined. Anture made an overtly disappointed expression.

“But…”

Anture carefully began. Enrique could guess what he was going to say. He was probably going to ask about Damiel.

“I saw you talking with that knight for quite a while earlier. What kind of relationship do you have with him?”

Enrique stared at Anture. He was torn between telling the truth to this young puppy who had just calmed down or brushing it off.

Even if he brushed it off now, Anture would learn the truth soon enough. Would it be better to give the young boy some peace of mind for that short time? Or since he’d find out anyway, would it be right to tell him quickly?

In fact, Enrique already knew Anture’s feelings. Though still immature, he was clearly smitten with Enrique. He also had a strong sense of possession as his fiancé. On the other hand, being not yet of age, he likely hadn’t learned the tolerance and composure that an alpha should naturally have.

“Enrique?”

Anture called out with slightly tense eyes. He seemed nervous about what answer Enrique would give, as he was just staring at him. Enrique almost unconsciously reached out to pat Anture’s head again.

“He and I… met for the first time today.”

Enrique eventually revealed only a small part of the truth. Relief and joy filled Anture’s eyes. Enrique felt conflicted, knowing that soon those black eyes would be burning with hot anger.

“I saw your head attendant waiting at the entrance of the walkway. May I escort you there?”

Anture asked in a bright voice. His eyes were sparkling with expectation.

Enrique thought for a moment and then nodded. He felt he could grant this much joy to the young boy who would soon be greatly distressed.

*

“Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!”

Enrique raised his slightly tipsy eyes to look at his friends who were constantly shouting for him to drink. Their eyes were bloodshot as they shouted, almost in a state of frenzy. Even if Enrique said he might die if he drank this, they were not in a mood to let him off.

Enrique looked down at the glass flower vase his friends had filled with alcohol. If he drank this, he felt like he might lose an entire day’s worth of memories until tomorrow. But there was no helping it. Enrique himself had a history of forcibly feeding his friends alcohol from such glass flower vases during their bachelor parties.

“Drink quickly, Enrique!”

“If you don’t drink, we’ll strip you naked and throw you in the garden fountain!”

“Oh! That’s good too! Say it now if you don’t want to drink! We’ll throw you naked into the fountain right away!”

His friends shouted, caught up in a frenzy.

“You guys… Are you trying to kill me?”

Enrique grumbled, grinding his teeth.

As if they had been waiting for those words, his friends made a gesture of rushing in to strip him. The completely drunk guys were not in their right minds. If he continued to resist without drinking, they might actually strip him naked and run out, regardless of him being a prince.

“I’ll drink! I’ll drink, okay! You persistent bastards!”

Enrique shouted at his approaching friends and lifted the glass flower vase full of alcohol. Then, glaring at his friends, he began to gulp down the alcohol.

“Ohhhhh!”

“Woohoo!”

His friends pounded on the table with their fists and let out cheers of encouragement. The faces of the attendants waiting nearby could be seen turning black with worry.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

Enrique pushed all that strong alcohol into his stomach without taking a single breath. He felt his mind reeling, but he endured with sheer willpower. Finally, he slammed the empty glass flower vase down on the table with a bang.

“Ohhhh! As expected of Enrique! That’s our prince!”

“Yeah! That’s it! That’s our stubborn Enrique!”

“You tough bastard!”

His friends clapped and each shouted a comment. Enrique wiped his alcohol-soaked mouth with his sleeve and said with a slightly slurred tongue,

“You two… Just wait for your bachelor parties.”

The two friends who hadn’t yet lost their bachelor status looked terrified. Enrique smiled wickedly at them. He was planning to prepare an even larger glass flower vase for them.

His body, which had been enduring with sheer malice, now slumped limply in the chair. His vision blurred, and everything around him seemed to waver. This was no exception for his friends who had been drinking like there was no tomorrow. Everyone was sprawled on sofas or slumped on the floor, swaying.

“Hey, you… Huh? You… I heard you met that beta?”

One of them brought up the topic with a heavily slurred pronunciation. Suddenly, the eyes of the dazed guys lit up.

“Me too! I heard too. He’s the second son of the Persi Count family, right? What was his name again? Da… Da…”

“Damiel! Damiel von Persi!”

“Ah, right! Damiel von Persi!”

As the name came out, they all burst into laughter as if it was somehow funny. Then they each picked up their glasses and raised them high.

“To Lord Persi!”

“To Damiel von Persi!”

“To our prince’s hot first night with Lord Persi!”

They all shouted toasts, calling out Damiel’s name loudly. Enrique raised his own glass and clinked it hard against his friends’ glasses. The sound of glass clinking rang out clearly. Then, as if by agreement, they all emptied their glasses.

By now, there was no one left in this place with a sober mind. As they all recognized that everyone had lost their senses, lewd comments started to slip out.

“Hey, hey, have you heard? About our Damiel. I heard his bedroom skills are quite extraordinary.”

As one of them said with half-closed eyes, everyone burst into laughter. Then they all gathered close, putting their heads together and started whispering.

“Of course! He’s going to be our prince’s bedmate, how could he be bad in bed?”

“Hey, hey, I’ve already found out everything. Do you know who Damiel’s ex-lover was?”

As one asked with a face like he was about to reveal a great secret, everyone leaned in to listen.

“Well… It’s the young master of Baron Melson.”

A couple of them sparkled their eyes at this. The rest looked like they already knew.

“The young master of Baron Melson is now the consort of Count Curkly, isn’t he?”

Someone said, pretending to know.

Enrique recalled the image of the Count Curkly couple. Count Curkly’s consort was a quite mature beauty in her mid to late 20s this year. Of course, she was an omega.

“Hooo…”

For Enrique, who had no particular interest outside of national and personal gain and politics, this was news. Seeing Enrique’s reaction of hearing this for the first time, everyone got excited.

“You know, the Curkly family originally prospered through maritime trade via Monta. So the alphas of that family have traditionally spent long periods abroad…”

“That’s right.”

As Enrique casually went along, his friend continued the story excitedly.

“Count Curkly, who adores his consort, wouldn’t make her take those harsh suppressants, would he? So there’s a story that he personally sought out a well-bred beta to ‘take care of’ his consort while he was away.”

“Hooo… So he was ‘selected’ like this time by the husband of his ex-lover.”

“Well, even so, he would have refused if he didn’t like it. But considering they were lovers for several years, Damiel must have been quite satisfactory, don’t you think?”

“In the end, it means he’s very skilled in bedroom matters with omegas.”

Having said this much, his friends exchanged glances and snickered.

Enrique, sprawled on the sofa listening to his friends’ lewd chatter, suddenly asked.