It was explicit but true. 

Knotting, the act alphas perform during intercourse to impregnate omegas.  

Knotting was an act accomplished through the release of pheromones, and an alpha had to knot to impregnate an omega.

[I’m saying this because there are alphas among you lords, but what genotype could possibly be happy living like a beta with pheromones completely suppressed?]

It was a pointed remark asking if one could live happily as a genotype without being able to share the joy of exchanging pheromones with each other, let alone sleeping together or having descendants.

Unlike betas, genotypes like alphas and omegas could naturally share simple moods with each other through emotional pheromones and express attraction and seduce the other party through sexual pheromones. But he couldn’t even express emotions like that.

Moreover, the pheromones alphas and omegas shared with each other intimately in bed were simply more than just pleasure. Apart from pleasure, there existed their own mystical world of emotional sharing and chemical hormonal effects that betas couldn’t understand. 

To not be able to live sharing these things….

To be born as a genotype and have to hide your pheromones completely and live alone until the end….

The Grand Duke’s thoughts spread further, going beyond his only son’s unhappiness in life.

[Forget a successor, my son is destined to live alone for life.]

The father who loved his son was now consumed by sorrow rather than anger.

[A curse-like ability…. This is a curse.]

His father’s lament from long ago passed through Reynard’s mind.

“Colonel.”

The emperor caught him absorbed in distant memories.

“You can get married.”

His pheromone problem and additional issues like marriage or having children….

The emperor was now uttering Reynard’s secret that only a very few people close to the ducal family or the imperial family knew.

Moreover, while proposing his own absurd solution that the person involved hadn’t even thought of.

“Omegas aren’t the only beings in the world that can conceive, are they?”

The emperor’s plausible nonsense secretly spread in the air where the two were.

“……”

Seeing Reynard silently unable to even respond to the absurd remark, the emperor continued his explanation as if his words revealed tremendous insight or were a clever move.

“Beta women can rarely bear an alpha’s child too.”

Although the probability was very low, it wasn’t impossible. In reality, beta women could rarely get pregnant through male alphas.

“Are you referring to beta women?” 

“Yes.”

Reynard tilted his head.

It was an incomprehensible part.

Clearly, the aspect the emperor was concerned about regarding the Dennox ducal family’s offspring and successor was a successor with psychic abilities who could handle the massive naval power, as had been passed down since the empire’s birth.

But he’s suggesting offspring through a beta’s womb?

Unfortunately, most children born through a beta’s womb were betas like their birth mother.

“When I asked a medical scientist researching related matters, they said a genotype can be born from a beta at a very rare probability too.”

Aha, it seems he picked up such words from somewhere again.  

‘Of course you wouldn’t simply push a beta woman for no reason.’

What the emperor wants doesn’t change. He just heard a small probability from somewhere and is pushing that trivial theory on Reynard, acting unreasonably. He was like an old man throwing a tantrum.

“Do you think such fortunate cases with odds of one in hundreds will be immediately possible for me?”

Reynard could no longer hide his cynicism.

He had never felt sexually attracted to beta women or men even once.

If he had truly felt any attraction to a beta even once, it would be something Reynard could sufficiently consider. As someone born as the family’s successor, he certainly had a duty to continue the lineage without it being cut off.

But whether it was because he was born with a strong alpha nature or an originally sexually indifferent and unfeeling personality, it was unknown, but he had never experienced sexual attraction to genotypes other than omegas.

But as his father had expressed, unfortunately and regrettably, omegas feared and avoided him. What avoidance?

They couldn’t even endure smelling his pheromones at all.

After fully grasping his own genotype, he had been living as if castrated in terms of physical desires. The genotype he was attracted to avoided his side, and he felt no interest at all in the betas who approached him seeing his appearance or other conditions. 

A marriage with a beta who felt like a doll or stone sexually….

Even if he really endured and had a political marriage with a beta woman for the sake of an heir, the possibility of an alpha being born who could inherit the ducal family’s psychic ability as the emperor wished was far too slim.

‘It can be seen as almost never happening.’

It seemed lower than the probability of getting struck by lightning while walking down the street.

‘Is he intending to cling to even that tiny, minuscule possibility?’

Reynard tilted his head crookedly with a question and took a sip of the strong liquor from the glass he was holding.

‘It’s a story with absolutely no realistic possibility.’

Human life is limited, and assuming he married a beta woman, the maximum number of children they could have would be around five.

‘An alpha child would be born among them?’

Reynard laughed hollowly at the thought that the emperor’s suggestion was excessively optimistic.

Looking at such Reynard, the solution the emperor presented was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. It was more ridiculous than when he was told the emperor’s order to somehow survive and escape on his own while trapped in only ten remaining ships on the Turcentina coast.

“You could keep trying until an alpha is born.”

No matter how many beta women it takes, the emperor added.

At those final words, Reynard couldn’t hold back all kinds of laughter that burst out as an imperial soldier and a retainer serving the imperial family.

“Haha….”

‘More desperate than I thought, and cheaper than I thought.’

Cynicism, sarcasm, and all absurdity mixed with futility escaped through his laughter from his mouth.

He seemed like a cowardly yet greedy old man.

“Your Majesty the Emperor I respect.”

He emphasized the ‘respect’ part more to be sarcastic.

It was time to shatter the emperor’s own dirty and hopeful thoughts.

“I will never act like a stud horse solely for the birth of an ‘alpha’ offspring.”

“A stud horse…!”

The emperor shouted at Reynard in a small voice.

At the explicit word, the person who used that nuance first acted even more insulted. Anyways, he was no different from the politicians dominating high society. The Eldon social world full of tedious figures was tiring like this.

“How would what you said differ from a stud horse? It seems you intend to bring innocent beta women and make them give birth in succession until an alpha child is born.”

It was the radical words of someone who no longer felt it was worth keeping even the minimum courtesy.

“You seem to regret being unable to lose the power of that psychic ability you cherish so much, but stop it now.”

“Do you not know and act so impudently, that it’s not just for that psychic ability but to protect the noble bloodline that has been with us since the first emperor?”

Those whose sore spots are poked tend to get angry.

The emperor’s everything was transparently visible to Reynard’s eyes.

“Yes. I appreciate the praise for our family you consider so noble.”

Reynard continued with his characteristic crooked smile.

“Of course, the head of that noble family doesn’t have the temperament to endure such a sight either.”

If his father, who would be peacefully enjoying an evening breeze while smoking a cigar in the Grand Duchy right now, heard this story, he would immediately rush to grab the collar of his cousin regardless of him being the emperor and sovereign. While immediately throwing his cherished Perojan cigar into the cold seawater.

The emperor’s face listening to Reynard’s words was turning red with embarrassment and anger.

“I myself have not the slightest thought of enduring such a stud horse-like situation.”

He dared to spit out such words to the Dennox successor because he was the emperor, but it was truly the insult of insults. Who would willingly accept such a sight?

“Moreover, I don’t think I’d want to hold a beta woman I have no attraction to at all.”

Would it even function properly in front of them? He added, still with a smile. Now, he was openly and explicitly mentioning night matters without hesitation in front of the empire’s emperor, blatantly being sarcastic.

There may be those kinds of guys who feel sexual attraction to betas or fellow alphas, but he wasn’t one of them. Also, whether his penis could even function properly in front of a beta woman…. Reynard said that, crookedly smiling as if asking if it would be possible, looking down at his crotch.

The emperor’s mustache was twitching on his face reddened with anger.

“Give up.”

Reynard spoke in a resolute voice with the smile completely wiped from his face.

“This power will end in my generation.”

The family itself could be sustained by bringing in distant relatives.