Regardless of Valentin’s self-deprecation, Dalton’s unofficial recent history lesson continued.

“The current emperor started his reign already losing to the congress due to his trait when he inherited the throne.”

Dalton continued, pointing with his index finger to the part that said ‘congress’ in the newspaper headline.

“In order to be recognized as a superior and suitable successor and a great emperor material despite not being a dominant alpha, he had to keep an eye on the congress throughout his rule of the empire.”

“That must have been the case….”

“Having conducted politics like that for nearly 30 years while considering the congress, how mad must he have been?”

Dalton scoffed, expressing the emperor’s behavior with the trivial and petty word ‘mad’. It was as if asking who wouldn’t want to stop considering their mother-in-law and become the true king of that family. Although there was an aspect of expressing it simply for his nephew who had just become an adult, there was no doubt his personal feelings were included.

Dalton, who was a dominant alpha and a talented person recognized even in the academy and university, had a reasonable aversion as a victim to the imperial family and powerful nobles from prestigious families in Eldon who looked down on the Wiche Viscount family for having risen to the rank of nobility only a few generations ago, in other words, for not having a long history.

It was an ironic thing.

Those with more power suffer from traits, and those with good traits suffer from honor and power.

Either way, it couldn’t be anything but bitter.

‘Is it difficult to be recognized as an individual regardless of trait and family in this era after all…?’

Valentin also let out a hollow laugh.

“He would have wanted to at least establish his successor as a dominant alpha son. That way he would have wanted to strengthen the imperial authority. He could also get back at the congress.”

But the emperor had no dominant alpha sons.

He only had a dominant alpha daughter and sons who were beta and common alpha.

It wasn’t that there had never been female emperors in history, but it was true that they had weaker power compared to male emperors. It was still an era with a clear class system, gender discrimination, and trait discrimination.

A female emperor with potential to further weaken the imperial authority while looking for a successor to strengthen it…. Neither was a completely satisfactory alternative for an emperor full of victimhood, gloominess, and greed.

But where was that only in the imperial family? Even in ordinary noble families, alpha sons were considered the top priority as the family’s successor. Next were beta sons. Women and omegas were even lower. For a woman to compete with male siblings for the successor position, she had to have a trait above common alpha. It was a suffocating society in many ways.

And currently, the congress was simultaneously weighing the 1st Princess and 3rd Prince as the emperor’s successors.

“That’s why Empress Beatrice is obsessed with you.”

Dalton raised his index finger and pointed exactly at Valentin’s chest.

Valentin widened his eyes looking at the finger pointed at him.

Looking at his nephew’s face as if it was cute, Dalton lightly tapped the porcelain-smooth and snow-white forehead with that index finger, not hurting him, and continued the story.

“Think about it. Anyone can see that Empress Beatrice is a person of the sharp Hedderfield ducal family. That person knows very well about the emperor’s weaknesses and thoughts.”

“Ah….”

It seemed he understood.

“If not with her son, she wants to satisfy the emperor even with a grandson. By scratching the emperor’s itchy spot refreshingly like that and properly massaging his painful areas, the possibility of her son becoming the crown prince will increase, right?”

“Damn it. In the end, they want me as a broodmare with good bloodline for maintaining the next throne and power.”

At his nephew’s intense reaction, Dalton added, “Valentin, watch your words,” and pinched his cheek, not hurting him.

He had wondered why they insisted on him, a male omega with better physical conditions to give birth to a second generation, rather than a female omega, but in the end, it was that. As long as he was male, unconditionally a ‘dominant’ omega.

“So in fact, our family’s money is just an extra to the empress. Your trait is more important than money.”

It was the conclusion and core that came out after a long story and teaching.

As soon as he heard that, another question arose. If it was really only because of ‘trait’, was there a need to insist on only one person?

“But if it’s another dominant omega besides me…?”

“Currently, in social circles, you’re the only dominant omega around the 3rd Prince’s age. The few people are all already married because they are more than 10 years older than the prince, or they are too young and complete babies.”

Moreover, he added an explanation that among such dominant omegas, the family with the best conditions was none other than our Wiche Viscount family.

Valentin sat loosely in the chair with his arms crossed like Dalton and slowly recalled the current situation of the family.

The Wiche Viscount family that mainly engaged in transportation businesses such as trade and railways. The huge iron mine with no end in sight discovered by the great-grandfather viscount. The various trade routes with third countries that they monopolized. The unrivaled technology for handling steam engines passed down from predecessors…. His father Brandon Wiche, who was particularly good at business, was literally holding the purse strings of the current empire while operating huge businesses and groups.

Damn it. They were really conditions the cunning Empress Beatrice and Hedderfield ducal family would passionately covet…! It seemed they wouldn’t let go unless he became infertile or died.

How in the world… How in the world could he escape from this damn yoke…!

Valentin silently screamed while pulling his hair inside the moving train.

Scheme

Really, how in the world could he escape from this terrible fate…?

3rd floor of the Wiche Viscount family’s mansion in the capital. It was still a familiar space even after 5 years. Valentin quietly laid on the bed in his room and fell into thought while blankly staring at the canopy curtain that shone transparently in a mysterious color like the wings of a firefly.

The empress wants him as the 3rd Prince’s partner, and the 3rd Prince and his lover hate him.

In order to think rationally and clearly, Valentin traced the objective facts he made into sentences in his head.

Moreover, that lover Evener Luwin has the ability, brain, and even power to put him in a predicament.

Dalton had answered Valentin’s questions very diligently on the way back from the train, and among those questions was information about the Luwin Viscount family.

[The Luwin Viscount family. They are a viscount family like us but in a different position. They are a very long-standing family established from the beginning of the founding. And they are political partners who have shared ideals with the Hedderfield ducal family for a long time. They have probably been intertwined in marriage ties for hundreds of years since the founding. So it means they are very close as families.]

[There’s really no room for the empress to gain anything.]

But that was also why she couldn’t openly touch them even though she didn’t like them.

[That’s right. How much more benefit could she get by getting involved with them who are already allies? Historically, imperial marriages or political marriages of high-ranking noble families are for mutual benefit, you know.]

[That’s true….]

[Moreover, Evener Luwin is a recessive omega. That’s probably the part Empress Beatrice hates the most. Isn’t it a factor that stimulates not only the emperor’s but also her own complex?]

The spouse of her son who is a recessive omega like herself…. Unlike not expressing any stance on their relationship externally, she may have been tremendously opposed internally.

‘Indeed, in the original work, there were often descriptions of a love achieved despite parental opposition.’

Valentin thought, vaguely recalling the contents of the original novel that were now fading.

Moreover, Evener Luwin, who was kind to everyone except Valentin, was popular with everyone in social circles as a gentle, beautiful, and witty person.

He showed hostility and was unkind only to Valentin, but no one criticized or pointed that out. Who would like an arrogant little devil coveting the long-time lover of an omega with a face full of innocence? Thanks to that, with the addition of people’s sympathetic gazes, everyone pitied Evener, and people despised and hated Valentin who walked around with his nose in the air, taking the 3rd Prince’s side as if it were his own.

Moreover, his friends who supported and liked Evener Luwin…. How cunningly that group, which was almost no different from followers, tricked and tormented him…. Of course, thinking about the past, he deserved it, and after being bullied, he committed even worse evils, so it could be said to be his own doing….

Valentin held his forehead, thinking of himself before regaining the memories of his previous life. Oh dear, this stupid kid…. It was truly a calamity he brought upon himself.

It was really fortunate that he came to his senses even after regaining the memories of his previous life….

Now, Valentin was not swayed by any praise for his appearance or traits, nor by people who approached him for his family.

So the life in Sorencia where he lived hiding his family name was extremely prosperous.

‘These are the people who truly see me for who I am.’

Valentin could vividly feel such emotions.

Because at the time he left for Sorencia after regaining the memories of his previous life, he had the ability to definitely hide or control his pheromones, and the people there treated him as just an extremely beautiful boy who came to study abroad from the Heston Empire with his young uncle. Valentin recalled the mentally prosperous days he spent with friends and teachers there.

[Valentin, a traveling troupe wearing masks from Tenechia is performing in the central square this time! Let’s go watch together.]

Three or four classmates who were receiving apprenticeship-style  education under Pontormo, a master painter and teacher of the same era, came in a group and said to Valentin who was painting.

[Sure. Will you bring your sketchbook too?]

[Of course! It’s a golden opportunity to experience things different from usual!]

[I’m only disappointed that I can’t bring an easel.]

[Tiziano, you’re weak at instantaneous sketches, but you’re all talk….]

[Rosso! You can’t just say a friend’s weakness out loud like that!]

[You could have just laughed it off, but Cellini, you’ve now killed me twice!]

Tiziano rubbed Cellini’s face with his hand covered in black conté, expressing his anger, and friends who ran around crashing, threatening to collapse the atelier to take revenge…. In the end, even Valentin’s innocent white face was covered in conté as well as charcoal, and they all changed into looking like chimney sweeps, a ridiculous time….

‘Living freely like that was my true dream….’

Valentin smiled bitterly, recalling the free days in Sorencia.

All of that was happy and fun, but he couldn’t continue his escape, leaving all responsibilities to his parents simply for freedom and dreams. Although he wasn’t the family’s successor, he had the duty to fulfill his role as a member and child of a noble family to the extent that he enjoyed the rights.

He realized the most important fact that the marriage talks with the 3rd Prince would not be resolved by escape alone unless the situation of the imperial family and his own trait changed.

Recalling the original work, it wasn’t simply Valentin’s personal problem. The strange things that started with the engagement to the 3rd Prince….

In the novel, the villainous Valentin became more confident after the engagement, but the social circle’s evaluation wasn’t much different from before. The ‘arrogant devil’ simply became an engaged ‘arrogant devil’. Rather, what happened starting from that period were things related to the family. Boycotts from trading partners, betrayals of business partners, accusations close to false charges by third parties. All such bad events occurred starting from the engagement.

And when such bad conditions and incidents struck and the family was in trouble, the social circle’s evaluation of Valentin began to have a huge effect. No one lent a helping hand to the family. Rather, everyone unanimously turned their backs coldly, speaking words despising Valentin Wiche. As if they received an order to hate Valentin and ostracize him…. Especially the people around Evener Luwin played that role to the fullest. Really as if everyone worked together to defeat the villain.

Was it because he was the villain of the original work and simply a supporting character? There was no detailed description of how all those things happened. But he could intuitively know. That the engagement was the beginning of all ruin.

This was the reason Valentin was trying so hard to avoid the engagement. The formula ‘engagement = beginning of ruin’ wouldn’t leave his head due to the reason he became aware of his reincarnation.

As if only the protagonist matters in the world…! Is it okay for the villain to just collapse? Valentin blamed the original novel that simply portrayed the supporting characters. He shouldn’t have expected such details in a simple story that emphasized the step-by-step rise of the hard-working protagonist and the catharsis of the villain’s downfall from the beginning. What’s important in such a story is not what circumstances the villain had and how he was ruined. Readers just expect, ‘I hope that bad guy gets screwed and kicked out as soon as possible….’ Explaining the villain’s circumstances would only be boring.

But if he had known that properly, he would have prepared another solution by now…. Damn original novel…. Valentin wiped the protruding tears. All he could do was avoid this ominous engagement.

If the family wasn’t involved like this in the original work, Valentin wouldn’t have returned from Sorencia. He would have believed that everything would be resolved if only he disappeared and completely exited this story.

But unlike his wish, the family was deeply involved in the villain’s downfall. Unidimensionally, it wasn’t a path that ended with only his death, but a result where the entire family and family members were shattered, right? If there was no engagement, the family might have continued to prosper.

Although he couldn’t immediately know the exact causal relationship between the engagement and ruin, Valentin felt a sense of responsibility.

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TL NOTE: Please don't skimp on the stars for the translation - it inspires me and gives me the strength to write more. Thank you~!

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