* * *
There was no need to pretend to be sick—because I actually was unwell.
I hadn’t done it on purpose, but my fever had already risen, my face was flushed, and I was panting.
Not having to hide it made things easier, honestly.
It was almost stupid thinking back to the old days, when I used to grit my teeth and bury myself under the blankets just to fake being fine, not wanting anyone to see me looking weak.
I checked the favorability rating of the eldest brother, who was doing nothing to help and just stared down at me in visible annoyance.
[Favorability: -55%]
Damn. I already knew the number, but seeing it again still made me feel like crap.
My so-called eldest brother had never gotten tired of hating me.
Probably because I wasn’t his real brother.
Even if that look of contempt had slightly faded, he still wore a cold expression as he muttered with a sneer.
It was too loud to pass off as just talking to himself.
I knew this routine well—he wanted me to hear.
“This is why you never bring in someone with different blood into the family in the first place.”
God, what a cliché-ridden disaster of a game. It had every trope in the book.
‘Noah Hamilton’ wasn’t the biological son of the count and countess. After losing their youngest son in a tragic accident (of course), they had coincidentally come across a child who looked just like him—a distant relative’s kid, and decided to adopt him to soothe their grief.
But calling it a “distant relative” was generous.
Technically, my family line had branched off so long ago, we were barely allowed to share the Hamilton name.
Our connection to the main house had been severed generations ago, back in my grandfather’s time.
Anyway, so who was the real lost youngest son of the count’s family?
Naturally, it was Allen.
Allen, who had grown up cheerfully despite wandering the streets, full of life and optimism, somehow ended up working at the Hamilton estate around age nineteen, hired by chance through a job agency.
While working hard, someone just happened to mention how much he looked like the late young master Noah, and through another very convenient series of coincidences, the countess overheard the gossip, and boom—he was back in his rightful place.
That was how the first act of the game began.
What kind of plot only functions through one coincidence after another!?
I recalled all of this, and the memories of my past life, when I was around ten.
I had been happily rocking on a ridiculously luxurious diamond-encrusted rocking horse I’d begged my father for.
The memories came crashing in like a natural disaster, with no warning at all.
When my past life’s memories first came flooding back, I honestly thought I would go insane from the unfairness.
I was an orphan, scraping by with part-time jobs, no support, no fallback—until I finally clawed my way into a decent-sized company.
Just when I thought I could finally live like a normal person, I died.
‘From overwork during a late-night shift’, of all things.
But once the shock wore off, I figured maybe this wasn’t so bad.
I may have been adopted, but I was still living it up as a noble’s son—no financial worries, a whole family, food on the table.
Not a bad deal at all. Still, there was something weirdly familiar about the names—mine, my brothers’… too familiar.
I kept telling myself it couldn’t be, until one day, fanfare suddenly blasted in my ears.
[The System welcomes you with open arms for discovering the truth of this world!
⁽⁽( ᐖ )⁾⁾ ₍₍( ᐛ )₎₎
You have been reborn as ‘Noah Hamilton’ in the game, The Gentleman of the Rose Mansion.
The System will continue to cheer you on passionately until the very end! (ΘεΘʃƪ) ]
And just like that, I got thrown into a world I’d never imagined—inside a game.
“Hey. What, you finally gone deaf now?”
This bastard of a firstborn had been picking fights with me since we were kids.
His go-to topics were always things like, “You’re not my real brother,” or “Where’s the real Noah, and why are you pretending to be him?” or “Every time I see you living comfortably, I get terrified imagining where my real brother might be suffering…”
If you just listened to him, you’d think I, a six-year-old at the time of the original Noah’s disappearance, had kidnapped him myself.
But neither the original Noah in the game nor I—now possessing his body—were the type to be intimidated just because we weren’t biologically related.
Normally, I’d have just rolled my eyes and ignored him, like, ‘Sure, keep barking’, and walked past.
But now, I stood frozen, trembling.
Even this jerk seemed to notice something was off.
His words were still sharp as ever, like his tongue had a blade on it, but maybe he was trying to ask if something was wrong in his own twisted way.
So I cranked up the pheromones and darted my eyes around like I was panicking.
It wasn’t strange, after all—newly awakened individuals often lost control of their pheromones at first.
And this nonsense excuse—that I had trouble controlling them due to a late awakening—was the exact tactic used by Allen, the character who drove every Alpha in the game wild with desire while pretending to be clueless, cheeks flushed, pretending he didn’t know what he was doing.
You watching this, System?
You said everything I did until now was “boring,” right?
Well, just wait. I’ll blow your mind so hard you’ll fall over backwards.
Even if Allen shows up and everyone turns toward him again, I don’t care.
I’m ready to do whatever it takes—anything—to escape this cursed loop of resets.
“B-Brother… something’s wrong, I keep— I didn’t mean to— but why, why is this happening…?!”
As I called out to him, visibly panicked and trembling, a flicker of confusion passed over Andrew’s face.
Hah.
Looks like it’s working. Not a bad start.
Still, seeing myself tremble like that in front of him really bruised my pride.
Things had to change from now on—but even up to age seventeen and across countless repeat cycles, things between me and the firstborn had never gone smoothly.
Not once had I gotten rid of that cursed minus in his favorability rating.
It’s not like I’m naturally confrontational. I just wanted to live quietly without upsetting Allen.
I never went out of my way to start anything.
It was always him who lit the fuse.
I guess he expected the lowborn fake to cower in fear every time he barked orders.
But when I didn’t give him the reaction he wanted, he’d escalate, I’d ignore him, he’d escalate further… a vicious cycle.
Still. I really don’t get it.
Blood or not, a brother’s still a brother, isn’t he?
After growing up together for this long, wouldn’t you think he’d stop picking fights by now?
I was still pretending to be flustered when the message popped up.
[You have released an excessive amount of pheromones beyond your physical maturity.
You are now under the status effect: ‘Arousal’.
:(⁄ ⁄ᵒ̶̶̷́⁄⚰⁄ᵒ̶̶̷̀⁄ ⁄):
If [Arousal] continues for more than 5 minutes, you will forcibly enter ‘Heat Cycle’.
:(⁄ ⁄ᵒ̶̶̷́⁄⚰⁄ᵒ̶̶̷̀⁄ ⁄): ]
“……!”
…Shit.
Until just a few hours ago, I was still in my mid-twenties, and having a body that could handle putting out excessive pheromones without much issue, I hadn’t thought to factor in my current condition.
I only meant to pretend to lose control—never expected to actually do it.
“Noah? Noah Hamilton!”
“Huuhk… ugh… hnnn…!”
“Everyone, fall back! Now!”
There wasn’t even time to think.
My knees gave out from under me, and I collapsed where I stood, clutching my chest as I struggled to breathe.
Andrew quickly ordered the knights with traits to withdraw, then unfastened his cloak and wrapped it around me, covering me completely.
Beyond the now-blocked line of sight, I could faintly sense an Alpha’s pheromones stirring in the air.
Was it the scent?
No—what brushed against my skin in fleeting, stinging waves wasn’t so much smell as it was pain, almost like a physical sensation.
Was he trying to suppress my unhinged energy—gone wild from losing control of my Alpha traits—with his own presence?
A heavy oud-like scent poured over me, engulfing everything.
It felt like I’d been dropped into a forest densely packed with agarwood trees.
Instinctively, I crawled toward the forest that surrounded me—his scent.
As I groped my way forward, trying to bury my face where the fragrance was strongest, a sudden force tightened around me, holding me so tightly I thought I might be crushed.
My shoulders ached from the strength of the embrace, yet strangely, that force felt… calming.
Stable.
And as if responding to that, my ragged breathing slowly began to settle, returning to a steady rhythm.
[Status effect Arousal has been removed.]
“Haa… haa… haa…”
“……”
I came back to my senses only after seeing the system message.
As I slowly caught my breath and pushed the cloak away from my head, I found myself face-to-face with Andrew, still holding me in his arms.
His deep blue eyes—so dark they could seem black in dim light—stirred quietly with a storm of emotion, impossible to name.
* * *
