“Clemens! The Marquis is leaving!”

Despite being the one who told others to leave, the most bewildering part for Reynard was that the Viscount himself stomped out first.

The Viscount left his own office first, with anger in his steps. As if to say he could no longer face such a bandit here.

Although the Viscount didn’t directly spit, Reynard felt the embarrassment of someone who had been spat on in the face. Unable to stand up due to the absurdity, he sat blankly when the butler carefully suggested with a cough:

“May I escort you to your carriage…?”

It took Reynard a while to understand those words.

‘What just happened…?’

Success had come right before his eyes. And just as it was dancing wildly about to fall into his hands! At that moment, it stuck out its tongue and quickly ran away.

Reynard took a sip of the cold tea to clear his mind. A big sigh came out. He felt quite toyed with, but it wasn’t incomprehensible.

“It’s not easy…”

It was all his fault for ignoring every procedure from start to finish due to his urgent heart. But who knew pregnancy could happen so easily….

Regretting his boyhood days when he had carelessly received sex education, thinking he would never be deeply entangled with an omega, Reynard got up from the sofa.

“I’ll guide you to the lobby.”

“No. Guide me to Valentine.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll see my omega before I go. Guide me to him.”

As the Viscount had said, a servant of a ‘mere Viscount’s family’ could not ignore those words. The butler, like a professional, swallowed a sigh and guided the Marquis of Valkyries to the young master.

“Understood.”

When Reynard followed the butler out the door, meeting another angry guardian for the second time was perhaps inevitable once he set foot in the loving Wiche Viscount’s family.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

‘I thought it was all over…’

Dalton, who had been leaning against the office door, straightened up as he saw Reynard coming out.

“I’d like to have a word with you.”

Reynard did not warn about the heir to a Viscount’s family without a title casually speaking to him, who held the title of marquis. Despite it potentially being quite rude.

“Please speak.”

The alpha who had lived without bowing his head to anything in this world was now eager to make a good impression on the family of the omega he had in mind. That’s why he had been using honorific speech with Dalton out of respect since yesterday. According to Valentine’s explanation, he was the closest family member who had been with him during his study abroad period.

Seeing Reynard respond calmly and kindly with a smooth smile despite his request, Dalton signaled with his eyes for the butler to give them space. Seeing the experienced butler immediately step back and quietly make way, he opened his mouth towards Reynard.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m on my way to meet Valentine. I promised yesterday that I would visit.”

“…I’ll escort you.”

Dalton led the way with a sullen expression.

After sending Valentine to his room, the two alphas of the Viscount’s family talked until late last night.

The Viscount and his heir. The two leading the family discussed at length with a realistic view about what had happened to Valentine.

The conclusion of the meeting was ‘approval of the marriage’. Although it was a sudden and unwanted event for them, marriage was a priority given Valentine’s pregnancy. Even if it was like swallowing mustard while crying.

As devout believers of the empire’s state religion and family tradition, abortion was a sin. From what they heard from Valentine, it wasn’t a forced or violent pregnancy either. He said it was a consensual relationship. Although it was an unexpected accidental pregnancy.

[I don’t dislike him. No, I quite like him actually.]

Valentine had said this to Dalton in the carriage. His cheeks were flushed red like apples, not thinking for a moment that he was about to be severely scolded.

From Dalton’s perspective, that was clearly the face of an omega who had taken a liking to an alpha. Although it was still too unripe and young like a newly sprouted bud to be called love.

So even though the situation was extremely unpleasant, and he disliked it enough to want to punch that sculpture-like handsome face of the alpha, he had no intention of openly opposing or interfering.

Given the feelings of the two, and the fact that a child had already been conceived, it was a marriage that had to happen.

Of course, separate from that, his eyes and twisted lips were full of anger and displeasure towards this terrible bandit of an alpha who had impregnated his precious nephew, a young omega. And Dalton had no intention of hiding it.

Although the pregnancy was said to be an accident they both caused, he was 10 years older than Valentine. He still believed it was an issue that an alpha familiar with social circles and with social status should have been careful about. Therefore, Dalton’s face was full of distrust saying, “My nephew is young and thoughtless, but what were you thinking?”

“Valentine is currently confined to his room.”

“I see.”

Reynard still smiled and answered nonchalantly. As if such things were not a problem.

“He might refuse to see you.”

“That’s fine. I’ll persuade him myself.”

Somehow at these confident words, Dalton suppressed his rising anger. And as he moved his steps towards the southern building of the mansion where Valentine’s room was, he carefully opened his mouth. He was finally about to get to the point.

“How much do you know about Valentine?”

The two walked along a small path in the garden connecting the buildings. Dalton glanced at the servants moving luggage and threw a question at Reynard.

Reynard thought for a moment and then slowly tilted his head.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

“I know that you two haven’t met many times.”

“Regrettably, that’s true.”

Reynard put his hand on his chest and made a truly regretful expression. Seeing this, Dalton barely suppressed his rising anger and tried to continue his explanation.

“Therefore, I’m certain that you haven’t had many chances to get to know him well.”

“An alpha and omega don’t necessarily need a lot of time to fall in love.”

Dalton was dumbfounded by these words asserting that what they were doing was love.

“Do you think it’s love? Because you’ve spent so little time together, I can’t help but think you’ve just been captivated by Valentine’s appearance and pheromones.”

“It seems the Viscount’s brother is just as straightforward as him.”

Reynard only raised the corners of his mouth and smiled politely at his pointed remark.

“If you had any proper conversation with him, you couldn’t have failed to notice that he’s different from the average omega in Eldon’s social circles.”

Dalton was simultaneously warning and expressing concern.

It was a worry stemming from knowing his nephew well, who acted with unique thoughts unlike the typical omega from a noble family.

“We didn’t raise Valentine by suppressing and restricting him to fit social norms just because he’s an omega. It would be more accurate to say that we cared for him to be as safe as possible, but allowed him to grow freely within that.”

“I see.”

Until now, the family had accepted Valentine’s tendencies as they were. They didn’t put any other pressure on him to live freely and peacefully, nor did they restrain him from doing what he wanted. Of course, they always supported his opinions on the marriage issue with the 3rd Prince, and they’ve tried to let him do whatever he wanted, be it studying abroad or painting. They didn’t even burden him with the heavy responsibility of continuing the family line.

Because more than anything else, the whole family loved Valentine’s free spirit itself.

“I certainly felt that he was raised freely.”

He couldn’t help but notice. Reynard spoke casually as he strode along the white stone path. He recalled Valentine’s bright smile as he talked about his study abroad days.

Not just in the Heston Empire, but everywhere on the continent, omegas were raised differently from betas or alphas. This was because they were easy targets for crime due to their sweet pheromones and beautiful appearance. Especially young omegas without a mate.

So for Reynard, a member of the Dennox Grand Duke’s family born and raised in the most rigid military family and an alpha among alphas, Valentine’s freedom must have seemed even more revolutionary. He had thought ‘They raise an omega this freely?’ several times while looking at Valentine.

Even on the day they first met, when he saw Valentine seducing him first, he couldn’t guess that he had just turned 20 because of his prejudice about such appropriate licentiousness. He had mistaken him for a mature omega who could skillfully seduce alphas, just with a young face.

“Valentine has a slightly different way of thinking from the average omega. There are parts where he considers himself not much different from a beta male, and he likes to mingle with commoners without being conscious of class differences.”

Dalton explained about his beloved nephew.

“Sometimes I’ve thought that Valentine might not see much difference between His Majesty the Emperor on a pedestal and a gardener on a ladder because he’s so unconscious of class differences.”

Dalton pointed with his chin towards the gardeners visible on the side of the path they were walking. In the season when summer was beginning, gardeners on ladders were busily tending to the lush tree branches in the garden.

This mindset was particularly prominent during his study abroad in Sorencia, where he had hidden his identity. Dalton had been surprised more than once to see Valentine getting along well with commoners and even sometimes street children without hesitation. He clearly considered himself no different from them.

“I certainly seem to have seen that side of him.”

Reynard recalled Valentine from their last time at the Grand Duke’s residence. At that time, Valentine had been uncomfortable with the scale of servants that he thought appropriate. He also knew that conversely, Valentine had thoughtlessly visited Empress Beatrice as if she were a neighbor.

“If you’ve seen that, this conversation should be easier. Did you understand that side of Valentine?”

“You’re asking the obvious.”

Reynard smiled askew at Dalton as if to say he was worrying needlessly.

“When he marries me, Valentine will soon be a marquis’ partner, and later a grand duchess. What would someone in such a position have to be conscious of regarding status? Wouldn’t he be even freer than now?”

He will become one of the noblest statuses in the empire. So he will be able to act more comfortably and freely without worrying about the formalities of their status, whether it’s the emperor or empress, just like now.

But seeing Reynard explain like this, Dalton stopped walking. Reynard, who had been walking with him, also stopped and stood facing him.

Dalton sighed. And he shook his head at Reynard.

“…You don’t understand my words at all.”

Not caring about others’ status because you’re at the top, and not caring about status and treating everyone equally regardless of position were different. The two were as different as heaven and earth. The marquis before him didn’t understand this enormous difference at all.

Saying you don’t care about others’ status because they’re all below you anyway, and not having any barriers about status differences from the beginning were completely different stories.

Looking at Dalton shaking his head, Reynard still just tilted his head askew and raised an eyebrow.

Dalton didn’t explain further to him and started walking again.

Such peculiarities of Valentine were not something that could be understood just by a third party explaining in words. If he hadn’t experienced it directly in Sorencia, even he would have had difficulty understanding.