Receiving news from you every season that you are doing well, and getting letters from your uncle about how hard you are working, this father couldn’t be more proud.

 

However, my son.

 

Rather than just reading in  writing about what growth my son has achieved with each season, I want to meet face-to-face and see you directly.

 

Your mother is always touching the self-portraits you sent and missing you.

 

Your mother and I are growing tired of a life where we only get to visit and meet our beloved only son once a year.

 

Wrap up your life there and come back now.

 

And I intend to give freedom to your uncle as well. The time has come when Dalton can no longer leave the successor position empty.

 

Praying for your health until the day you return, your father who loves you deeply.

 

Valentin, who quickly read through the viscount’s letter, let his arms droop with a devastated expression at the contents gently but firmly ordering a swift return home.

 

His father’s letter commanding his return together with his uncle was kind but resolute.

 

“Are you okay…?”

 

Dalton supported Valentin’s body, worrying he might collapse as he staggered unknowingly.

 

The kind question asking if he was okay contained several meanings.

 

It was an ambiguous question of whether he would be okay returning to his homeland, interrupting his studies, meeting people again back there.

 

“Yeah, I’m okay….”

 

Valentin answered in a powerless voice and faintly drew a smile on his face. The beautiful dominant omega’s face, now fully an adult, emitted a really unnecessarily desolate charm in front of his blood relative.

 

Yes, he won’t say he didn’t know a day like this would come.

 

Wasn’t it in preparation for unexpected things like this that he had been living diligently like a new person until now…? Valentin clenched both fists, infusing courage into his limp hands.

 

People in high society would have largely forgotten about Valentin’s existence by now, and with luck, maybe even the Duke of Hedderfield and the Empress forgot too. No, if he was really lucky, the 3rd Prince and his lover Evener Luwin might have already imprinted on each other. Valentin ran a circuit of hope in his head, thinking of various possibilities.

 

Pushing away the supporting hand, he returned to the easel and picked up the knife sprawled on the floor. And grabbing a dry rag to wipe off the paint, he scrubbed the lumps of oil paint splattered on the knife and floor.

 

“Don’t do that yourself and leave it. I’ll call a servant later and have them do it.”

 

“No, it’s fine. This is nothing.”

 

It was a task he had done to the point of being sick of it in his previous life.

 

From the very beginning to the trivial clean-up at the end, he never borrowed anyone’s hands. It was Valentin’s habit of taking  painting seriously. It was also to prevent any potential accidents of outsiders incorrectly handling the  paintings and tools.

 

Valentin personally put away the unfinished  painting in a shaded corner, easel and all.

 

What path and how he could go from now on… It could depend on how he acted, and change according to how the surrounding circumstances unfolded.

 

Just like that incomplete, undried painting.

 

No matter how much he sketched in advance and proceeded with drafts, picturing the finished product in his head and eyes, only after properly investing time and effort directly on the canvas could he see the completed painting at a glance later. Valentin smiled bitterly while looking at the half-done painting.

 

Let’s not think only pessimistically. Surely, a path to live smoothly and freely will appear again, just like the efforts made so far.

 

Yes, let’s return.

 

Goodbye, Sorencia…. 

 

Goodbye, my classmates and friends who became close while fighting to death.

 

Farewell, teachers….

 

*

 

From this day, the process of returning to his homeland was hurried along.

 

Valentin bid farewell to the school and atelier he attended, the teachers who taught him various things separately, and cleaned up the house he lived in with Dalton.

 

In the small mansion nestled in Sorencia where no one would live anymore, only furniture covered in white cloth and unfinished paintings remained in solitude.

 

Valentin’s fugitive life ended this anticlimactically.

 

Indeed, what kind of future would be awaiting Valentin in his homeland where a terrible fate lies in wait according to the original work…?

 

The Day of Fainting

 

Before following the story of Valentin returning to his homeland, shall we turn back the clock to the present for a moment?

 

Let’s take a short break from the past journey and take a little peek at the current Valentin who has been passed out since the beginning of the story.

 

* * *

 

Thud!

 

The reincarnated Valentin who had been striving for survival and freedom fainted from the shock of his pregnancy news and anemia in early pregnancy.

 

In fact, he hadn’t fainted for long.

 

Valentin, who briefly lost consciousness, regained his senses in less than a minute at his doctor’s urgent shouting, “Young master! Are you alright? Young master!” And feeling dizzy, he went back under the goose down comforter from the morning to lie down for a bit. It was Valentin’s struggle to somehow overcome the shock with sleep.

 

And now, a couple hours later. Valentin had regained some of his vitality with a nap and had just gotten up and moved.

 

‘What in the world… What should I do from now on…?’

 

Valentin, who had fallen into despair, raised his body that had been lying face down like the pictogram person in the ‘No Despair’ meme, walked to the side table, and poured water into a cup.

 

A proverb from his previous life about drinking cold water and sobering up came to mind.

 

‘Will my mind become a bit clearer if I drink water…?’

 

While gulping down water with a dumb head, he heard a knock.

 

Knock knock.

 

Valentin’s faithful personal butler Dawson and the other servants knew nothing at all thanks to the doctor’s lie to protect the shocking secret of the young master who was still only 20 years old – “The young master says he is tired and taking a nap. Please allow him to rest.”

 

That he had heard shocking news a little while ago, that he was faced with a very serious situation, and that he had briefly fainted.

 

Really, no one knew at all.

 

So as soon as the butler heard the rustling sound of Valentin waking up, he could calmly knock on the bedroom door from outside.

 

“Young master, are you awake?”

 

Valentin cleared his throat and answered the butler’s question from outside the door.

 

“Yes. What is it?”

 

“You have a… a guest has come to see you.”

 

Dawson, who always prided himself on being perfectly professional like a blade, rarely stammered.

 

Now? Without having exchanged any invitation or visiting card, who on earth came to see him so suddenly like this? And my butler directly informs me like this, unable to refuse it?

 

Moreover, hearing Dawson’s slightly trembling voice and vague sentence, Valentin thought it was as if that guest was right next to him, pressuring him.

 

And it was really so.

 

“His Excellency the Marquis of Valkyries, Lord Reynard Dennox, is waiting in the young master’s private reception room.”

 

‘Ah, Dawson…. You have just ushered a hunter into the rabbit hole.’

 

Having no idea at all that the rabbit was just resting for a bit to diligently devise an escape plan, and ushering him in like this…. Valentin held his forehead. He felt dizzy again and thought he might faint.

 

No, I need to get a grip! Valentin tapped his cheeks with his cold hands and shouted the nonsensical slogan “Clear! Your! Head!”

 

Dawson… his upright butler really couldn’t help it.

 

The other party was someone no noble family in the capital could refuse.

 

Who would dare refuse the war hero and heir to the Grand Duke of Dennox to his face?

 

Valentin shook his head, got up, quickly tidied his outfit and hair, and opened the door.

 

He was sitting like a mountain, incongruously on the sofa in Valentin’s luxurious private reception room connected to the bedroom. Holding a bouquet of large, luscious, eye-poppingly beautiful red roses. What is this visually mismatched combination…? But then again, a handsome man and roses seem to suit each other….

 

“Take it.”

 

As soon as he saw Valentin quietly entering through the open door, he shot up from his seat. And striding over with large, quick steps, he lightly held up the bouquet and nestled it in Valentin’s arms.

 

And Valentin, who reflexively received that bouquet, staggered at the surprisingly tremendous weight.

 

But since when were bouquets this heavy…? Reynard caught and straightened Valentin who couldn’t find his balance and was swaying in a zigzag.