He carefully lit the cigarette, ensuring the rolled leaf didn’t come undone. As the gray smoke dispersed, the tavern keeper’s young wife coughed and excused herself from the room.
“Even though I’m from the North, there are too many people eyeing this land. Our Duke manages it really well, though, right? It’s precarious but firm. Got it? Well, you wouldn’t know, not being from the North.”
And then the tavern keeper rambled on for a while, proudly boasting about the honor of living as a northerner. Niall endured the tavern keeper’s exaggerations with a smiling face.
“The first fiancée was brought to Duke’s side. She was around ten or twelve years older? Maybe she was twelve? Anyway, she was much older than a seven-year-old. It’s obvious why she was chosen. It was for pregnancy. But as Duke grew a bit, he broke off the engagement with her and left for the battlefield. Then came the second fiancée.”
According to the tavern keeper, the second duchess candidate was the daughter of a lord, and she was described as introverted and fearful, too weak to become the lady of Shiralund.
Duke attempted to proceed with the engagement ceremony, but before that, she died in a riding accident. She was found dead with a broken neck after riding out, so it was deemed an accident, though no one knew if it was really accidental.
“The third one was from Prastos. The problem was, she had ties not only to Prastos but also to Lagarton. It was a delicate choice. A woman of mixed blood from Prastos and Lagarton becoming the lady of the North.”
And the Emperor of Prastos didn’t approve of Duke’s third fiancée. He subtly suggested a breakup, but Duke didn’t listen.
Before the engagement ceremony, the third woman fell ill suddenly and was diagnosed with an unknown disease. She wandered through adversity and ended up permanently disabled. She settled in Prastos.
The fourth was from Changbaek. Duke tried to finalize the engagement, but she got scared and ran away.
And now Duke was facing his fifth engagement.
“There are rumors this time that it’s an Omega man, but well, what can we do even if it’s a man? Now Duke must get married. After holding the engagement ceremony here, he will go to the bride’s territory in the spring, have the wedding, and go on a honeymoon.”
“I see.”
Niall tilted his glass and finished the last drop before getting up from his seat.
“Is it already time?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The tavern keeper expressed disappointment and bid farewell to Niall. After repeatedly receiving promises to come back, the tavern keeper finally opened the door.
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The kitchen maids often sent snack baskets to Elmiran under the pretense of leftovers, and since Niall was the only one with flexible time who could casually go to the male training ground without any fuss, he often went to meet Elmiran, carrying the snack basket.
On that day, as usual, when Niall arrived at the training ground with a basket in one hand, he saw a strange man. A man with brown hair and a mild demeanor peeked out from behind a wooden pillar in the training ground and looked at Elmiran.
Niall felt curious. The usual reactions of men who met Elmiran were either cocky boasting or pretending to be strong, so it was the first time he saw a man looking at Elmiran with such affectionate eyes.
“Oh, Niall!”
Elmiran spotted Niall and shouted loudly. More accurately, she shouted not at Niall but at the basket he was carrying, but since the basket had no name on it, she called out to Niall. Niall waved back with a smile.
Elmiran hadn’t finished training yet, so after sending a signal saying she would eat the snacks later, she returned to wielding her sword.
“…”
After a while, he felt a gaze quietly resting on his cheek. Niall turned to face the man with chestnut hair, smiled, and greeted him.
“Hello.”
“…Uh, hello.”
Like most Northerners, Melric didn’t let his guard down around strangers. He watched Niall carefully as he placed the basket on the bookshelf, then asked, “Are you acquainted with Elmiran?”
“Yes, in several ways. Lately, I’ve been delivering snacks and catching a glimpse of her,” Niall replied.
With that, Niall extended his hand and smiled. “I’m Niall Giles. And you are…?”
“I’m Melric. The one who’s becoming Elmiran’s husband.”
Wow, Niall couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly, surprised. He hadn’t known that Elmiran was married. She was an alpha woman, so…
“No, I’m a beta,” Melric interrupted before Niall could ask.
“Beta? Even more impressive, isn’t it? How on earth did you manage to win the heart of an alpha woman?”
Anyone claiming to be the spouse of an alpha woman was usually assumed to be an omega male, so Niall looked at Melric again, surprised by his unexpected words. The friendly man seemed genuinely impressive, sparking his curiosity to hear more.
“It’s not as impressive as you think.”
“Married to an alpha woman, though. It must be impressive.”
Niall opened the basket and offered a cookie smeared with jam to Melric, who took it absentmindedly. “There’s also wine. Here, take the glass.”
As they accepted what Niall offered, the two found themselves sitting face to face on a flat stone, snow-free amidst the accumulating snow.
“In fact, I also have feelings for an alpha,” Niall confessed.
The Northerners were out of liquor. To survive the cold, they had to drink alcohol to maintain body temperature. They considered drinking well alone as a measure of manliness and deemed it unmanly to refuse when offered. Melric was no exception. He accepted the drink from Niall, and as he drank, his guard softened. Furthermore, upon hearing that Niall had feelings for an alpha, Melric became curious.
“Aren’t you a beta, too?”
“Yes. But somehow, I ended up liking an alpha. So, despite feeling intrusive, I want to ask. How did you manage to succeed, Melric?”
“Feeling intrusive? Where’s that coming from? How can you stop the heart from going where it wants?”
Melric, a beta who had successfully married an alpha despite being assumed to be an omega, was slightly excited. Niall quickly refilled Melric’s empty glass.
“I fell in love first.”
Melric hesitated, as if debating whether to speak to this stranger, but ultimately began the story. There was no hint of hesitation in his voice; rather, he spoke earnestly.
“It wasn’t easy. As you know, I’m just the son of a common blacksmith, while Elmiran was a knight. Regardless of alpha or beta, I dared not even look up to her. I fell for her at first sight, but Elmiran regarded me as nothing more than a whetstone for her sword. She never bothered to remember my name, even after years. But I couldn’t help but stay by her side because I liked her so much.”
Remembering those days, Melric sighed.
“I seized the opportunity during Duke’s last engagement ceremony. Elmiran was supposed to stay close to the fiancée as part of her strict security measures, sharing meals and sticking by her side all day. As a result, she had to practice dancing to attend the engagement banquet. Elmiran asked her fellow knights to be her practice partners, but as soon as those guys saw her in a dress, they ran away like scared rabbits.”
Niall recalled when he first met Elmiran. Even if he were dominant, he might have drawn his sword and brandished it when he first saw her. Elmiran, who seemed like she had never worn a skirt in her life, asking someone to be her partner while wearing a flowing dress… even he would have felt like fleeing.
“Elmiran was practicing dancing alone. I cautiously offered to be her partner. I asked her if I could be her partner instead. I knew I was inferior to her, but I was still a man. Fortunately, Elmiran agreed, and I happily became her partner.”
“Was that when love began?”
“No. Instead, that’s when all my toes got crushed.”
“…?”
“Elmiran was really… incredibly… awful at dancing. I thought a knight would be good at physical activities, but she wasn’t. Whenever Elmiran started dancing, she would always stick her feet forward and roll them, which completely crushed all my toes. The next morning, when I woke up, my socks were soaked in blood.”
“Then you couldn’t be her partner anymore?”
something to reiterate, but from the first few chapters, you can remember Niall claiming himself as a Beta not an Omega, so in front of others, he usually introduces himself as a Beta (except for in front of Duke, he truly reveals himself as an Omega). i was kind of confused myself so i had to reread the first few chapters!
