The morning of their departure for Count Gray’s castle finally dawned.
Joel wanted to spend this moment—which might very well be an eternal farewell—as fondly and romantically as possible. Regrettably, things did not go as he hoped.
From the second the Crown Prince opened his eyes, he clung to Joel pathetically.
The Prince forced Joel, who was trying to get ready, to sit on the bed and knelt on the floor before him. Holding Joel’s knees down so he couldn’t move, the Prince looked up with eyes shining like a dejected puppy.
“If you go to Count Gray’s estate, we’ll have to be apart until the investigation is over… Does it really not bother you to be away from me? Because I… I don’t feel that way at all.”
“Wasn’t it Your Highness who said it would be better to go to the spacious castle and rest comfortably since the tourists are swarming? Please move. My legs are falling asleep.”
“I know I said that because of the tourists, but now that I think about it, I don’t see why we couldn’t stay here just a few more days… Can’t you reconsider?”
Faced with the Prince’s whining, Joel couldn’t tell him the truth.
If he didn’t leave today, he couldn’t be sure when another chance to escape would come.
His stomach would soon start to bulge; if he lingered by the Prince’s side and got caught, it would be the end of everything.
Moreover, the longer he stayed with the Prince, the harder it became for Joel to let him go.
At this rate, he might accidentally confess the pregnancy himself and settle down by the Prince’s side forever.
Then he would return to being Count Lucas’s puppet, repeating a life spent trembling in fear of losing the Prince’s affection. Joel knew he had to leave before his foolish greed grew any larger.
“There are eyes everywhere looking at me like I’m some kind of circus act! I can’t rest comfortably here at all. Why are you only thinking about yourself, Your Highness?”
Instead of honestly saying “I have to run away before I like you even more,” Joel chose to criticize the Prince in a spiteful tone.
He calculated that if the Prince’s feelings were hurt, he would let him go.
He truly didn’t want to speak to the Prince that way, but whenever he met those pleading eyes, the idiotic thought of ‘Should we leave tomorrow instead?’ kept popping up in his head.
When Joel snapped at him like that, the Crown Prince backed away, looking flustered as if he had committed a great crime.
“Ah… I see. My apologies. I was inconsiderate. I’m sorry.”
It would have been easier on Joel’s heart if the Prince had been offended by his rudeness.
Joel stood up, doing his best to hide his guilt.
“I will head to Count Gray’s castle as soon as things here are settled, so please take care of yourself there until then.”
Just before Joel left the bedroom, the Crown Prince draped a new cloak over his shoulders.
The cloak, made of white fox fur, was tailored for the Prince’s stature, so it was much too large for Joel.
Once the Prince fastened it, Joel looked as though he were buried in a fluffy duvet.
Because the Prince had drenched the cloak in his pheromones, Joel began to feel a bit lightheaded and limp, as if he were taking a “pheromone shower.”
Seeing Joel sway slightly, the Prince felt relieved.
Since Joel insisted on leaving while pregnant, the Prince had used the temporary measure of saturating a highly absorbent fur cloak with his scent.
The effect was better than expected.
It was common knowledge that a pregnant Omega required their partner’s pheromones.
Once Joel arrived at Count Gray’s, the Prince wouldn’t be able to provide him with pheromone showers for a while.
Of course, since he had been giving Joel pheromone showers periodically over the last eight days, being apart for a few days wouldn’t cause a problem… but it didn’t hurt to take precautions.
Watching Joel dazed and surrounded by the fluffy fur, Carlyle couldn’t hide a silly grin.
Joel’s sharp, cat-like beauty matched the white, soft fur perfectly.
Everything about him was adorable—his small frame swallowed by the white cloak, his clear eyes sparkling with innocence, and the way he nuzzled his cheek against the fur to catch the scent.
Watching him purr like a kitten wrapped in soft fluff, Carlyle really didn’t want to let him go.
But since Joel was carrying a child and claimed he couldn’t rest with all the eyes on him, the Prince couldn’t force him to stay.
He picked Joel up in his arms and walked out of the bedroom.
Across the way at the landing, the carriage Joel was to take was waiting.
Benjamin and Robert had already boarded their respective carriage and horse long ago.
When the mansion doors finally opened, the estate residents who had lined up to see Joel off prepared to cheer.
However, they froze instantly upon witnessing the unexpected sight of Joel being carried out in the Crown Prince’s arms.
After a moment of wide-eyed shock, they began to whisper among themselves.
Being caught like this by the people who had watched him grow up made even the usually shameless Joel blush furiously.
Intoxicated by the pheromones, Joel forced his relaxed body to move and looked around.
Not only the residents, but the swarming tourists were also gathered on the hillside, waiting to see him off.
He thought the Prince had ordered them to leave, but it seemed they had been camping in the forest out of the Prince’s sight, waiting for permission to enter the underground mansion.
Overcome with embarrassment, Joel spoke to the Prince in a tiny voice.
“I… I’ll walk. Please put me down…”
“You won’t even have strength in your legs; how do you plan to walk? It’s fine.”
At the Prince’s words, a look of absolute shock washed over the crowd.
The Prince only meant that Joel would find it hard to walk because he was dazed by pheromones, but his words were ripe for misunderstanding.
Joel’s face grew even redder, but the Prince, oblivious to the awkward shift in the atmosphere, kept walking.
Joel felt an impulse to grab any resident by the collar and scream that the reason he had no strength in his legs was not what they were thinking, but simply because of pheromones.
Though, since pheromone bonding essentially implied sexual contact had occurred, it was a meaningless clarification.
Regardless, just as the Prince said, his body had no strength at all, so he could do nothing but pull the cloak up to hide his face with trembling hands.
“Rest well there. I will join you soon.”
The Crown Prince sat Joel on the carriage seat and spoke softly, kissing his flushed cheek.
With so many eyes watching, the flustered Joel realized that all possible misunderstandings had already taken root and slumped in his seat. He simply nodded, letting things be.
“…Yeees.”
“Good boy. And… don’t forget that I have something to tell you.”
“Yes.”
A lingering hand stayed on Joel’s soft cheek before pulling away.
This time, the Prince pressed a light kiss to Joel’s lips.
Joel wanted to hold onto this kiss—which might be their last—for as long as possible, but he had neither the setting nor the strength for it.
Watching the Prince’s lips pull away with eyes full of regret, Joel belatedly wished he hadn’t wasted time arguing in the bedroom and had just spent it kissing instead.
Finally, the carriage door closed. Leaving the waving Crown Prince behind, the carriage carrying Joel departed from Sir Bennet’s estate.
Though they were flustered by the Prince’s public display of affection, the people—remembering that Joel was the national hero who defeated the demon and saved the Prince—sent him off with cheers and tossed flowers.
Inside the carriage, Joel blinked awkwardly.
The cheers were almost deafening.
It had been so long since he had received a warm welcome instead of hostility that it felt foreign.
When he had been adopted by Count Lucas three years ago, the residents had thrown flowers to bless his future, but now, even the high-and-mighty nobles were showering him with praise.
The inside of the carriage was filled with the bergamot-scented pheromones that made him truly happy, while the outside echoed with cheers and acclaim.
He had thought he would never be liked by people again, and his eyes grew warm. Joel closed his eyes with a small, proud smile.
