<Episode 47>
Eveline’ illness couldn’t be healed with divine power.
Her sickness was due to forcibly stabilizing the heat cycle that started the previous day. That wasn’t something divine power could heal.
It was simply taking time for her body to calm down because she had taken the stabilizer late.
Eveline was surprised by how intense the pain Omega suffered was.
When she was in the Croppers Empire, Abellard often suffered because his medications didn’t work well. She had thought him pathetic for struggling with the heat cycle while feeling a twinge of envy.
As a Beta, she was nothing.
She had envied and resented Abellard, who could do everything as an Omega, for being troubled by something as trivial as a heat cycle.
Eveline felt the old emotions she had forgotten return, making her pain even worse.
“Eve, let me hold you for a moment.”
Abellard’s trembling voice revived her sense of guilt from back then.
“Brother.”
“Yes?”
“Back then, when you were struggling with the heat cycle.”
“Ah, yes. That time.”
“I am sorry.”
She closed her eyes lightly and then opened them. When she looked at him again, his face was flushed.
“But you always took care of me when I was sick. Why would you be sorry?”
Eveline thought it remarkable that he remembered such things.
In truth, she hadn’t wanted to take care of him.
The Duke and Duchess of Wilden were very suspicious people, and servants often pretended to be a delayed Alpha manifestation to target Abellard.
Thus, they sent her, certain she was a Beta and wouldn’t get involved with Abellard.
She had hated him a lot back then. She tried not to, but it was difficult.
People compared her to Abellard wherever she went and laughed at her.
Eveline had thought Abellard quite enjoyed it.
But since coming to this island, she noticed he had changed.
Even now, facing Elkais after yesterday’s incident was uncomfortable. And Rubellite had once tried to kill her.
Eveline believed she couldn’t trust anyone in this group. Abellard was the best option, albeit not entirely trustworthy.
“I hated you, brother.”
“You said you’d call me by name, but you keep saying ‘brother.'”
“I noticed you dislike it whenever I call you ‘brother.'”
Eveline thought her words bypassed her mind due to the lingering effects of the alcohol.
“You hated me?”
“I did.”
“And now?”
“Now, I don’t. I still don’t trust you completely, but I also feel sorry for you.”
Abellard was pleased with her honesty.
Eveline, momentarily dazed, didn’t avoid his gaze but sighed softly as he held her like a child and tried to give her water.
“Why are you sorry?”
“I envied you, brother.”
“You envied me for being an Omega?”
“Yes.”
Abellard had known. He had seen the hostility she showed him and her attempts to suppress it.
“I envied you for being a Beta. But not anymore.”
“Why?”
“If I were a Beta, I wouldn’t have met you. Now, I love being an Alpha who used to be an Omega. And I love being on this island.”
Eveline watched him pause, unable to continue speaking.
All she wanted now was for the fever to subside quickly.
“Why do you like being on this island? Is it because you became an Alpha?”
“No.”
Abellard tried to say something else, but again, his voice failed him as if something blocked it.
“It seems there’s a spell on you, brother.”
Abellard mouthed the words to her while looking into her eyes.
‘If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that I like you.’
Seeing his pained expression, Eveline understood his unspoken words and her eyes widened.
“Ugh…”
“Brother?”
“Ugh…!”
He turned his head and vomited blood, likely from trying to speak despite the spell.
“Brother!”
“I’m fine… Remember, Eve, this isn’t the time to worry about others.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and healed himself. Then, he fetched water on a broad leaf to give to Eveline.
“You need to drink plenty of water when you have a fever.”
He spoke from experience, and Eveline gazed at him intently.
She knew he was pretending to be fine, so she wiped the blood from his lips with her hand.
“Brother, I want to leave this island.”
“I’ll help you. I promise I’ll make it happen.”
Eveline felt more certain that he knew something about the island.
She blinked her feverish eyes repeatedly and continued drinking the water Abellard offered her.
He wiped the water from her lips with his thumb.
Though she tasted the blood on his finger, it didn’t disgust her. Her body, soaked in the heat cycle, found it sweet.
“Ugh…”
“Eve?”
“I want to bite you, brother.”
“You can, Eve.”
She didn’t know why she felt this way, but she thought biting him might relieve her pain.
“No.”
“Why? It’s okay.”
“I don’t want to.”
She said this to him but also to herself.
Abellard, feeling a bit disappointed, laid her down and asked,
“Can I give you a lap pillow?”
“I don’t like your thighs; they’re too hard.”
“Still, it’s not good to rest your head directly on the ground when you’re sick. Your neck will hurt later.”
Seeing that he had already knelt beside her, Eveline sighed and agreed. She knew he would keep asking until she relented.
“Resting like this will twist my neck.”
“Oh, is it too high?”
“Yes.”
So he stretched out his legs, and only then did Eveline rest her head on his lap.
“Eve, you know.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go to the mountaintop once more.”
“Why?”
“There’s a shrine to Yulias the goddess there. Oh! I can speak!”
“I know it’s a shrine to Yulias. It was obvious from the outside.”
Eveline opened her eyes slightly. He was touching his neck, looking amazed as he smiled at her.
“I stayed there for a year.”
“I know that too.”
“Are you curious about this island, Eve?”
“…Yes.”
Abellard sighed deeply before continuing.
“If we go inside, I can tell you everything I know. I can’t speak about it outside.”
“So it is related to magic.”
Eveline thought with a fierce expression.
Knowing that he could speak in the shrine made it clear. Magic was the opposite of divine power.
Therefore, it made sense that he could speak in the shrine.
All shrines were sacred places directly sanctioned by the gods.
For those who wield divine power, magic, seen as a profane force, would be unwelcome.
Historically, magic and divine power often opposed each other.
“You said you wanted to leave this place.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go together, just the two of us. You can trust me, right?”
Though she had just said she couldn’t trust him, his words left her silent.
“I’ll go with you if I come to trust you, brother.”
“Okay.”
Eveline wanted to leave alone.
If she went to the opposite island as he suggested, she could live alone. She wouldn’t have to fear Alphas during her heat cycle since she could manage it by herself.
Without a mate during the heat cycle, the process could be agonizing and sometimes fatal.
But the thought of mixing with and marking someone she didn’t love was unbearable.
Perhaps the red-haired man who had helped her would assist her again if she went to the other island.
The stabilizers here must have been his doing.
So leaving alone seemed the most logical option.
“I want to trust you, brother.”
She said this without fully understanding why. In reality, she didn’t trust him but wanted to.
She couldn’t accept her actions toward Elkais, and this was the thought she arrived at, even though she wasn’t fully aware of it.
She wanted to see him just as an Alpha, just as he saw her only as an Omega.
* * *
“Are you coveting Lady Eveline?”
Rubellite asked, probing for a reaction.
Elkais had come out to hunt, but Rubellite Croppers refused to separate and search for prey, making Elkais uncomfortable. He wanted to be alone.
“It’s because of the pheromones.”
“You don’t believe feelings born from pheromones are real, do you?”
“…Yes.”
“Physical attraction can turn into real feelings.”
Rubellite said this with a bitter smile.
Elkais, who was watching his back, didn’t notice his mouth twist and darken strangely.
“Would you like me to make it, so you can’t smell Omega pheromones, Duke?”
After returning to his usual appearance, Rubellite asked Elkais.
Elkais responded with a calm expression.
“Is that possible?”
“Of course.”
Rubellite smiled contentedly at Elkais’ response and extended his hand as if seeking his cooperation.
