* * *
When Aaron returned to the drawing room with the oldest, poorest-quality tea leaves he could find, Joel had already made preparations to leave.
Sure, the Crown Prince was an hour late—but in Aaron’s opinion, someone like Joel had no right to break an appointment with the prince.
And if Joel did leave, the blame would fall squarely on Aaron for failing to keep him there.
Forcing a strained smile onto his face, Aaron approached him.
“Lord Joel, won’t you stay a little longer? I’ve found some very fine tea leaves.”
“I’m done here. I’m leaving.”
“His Highness is likely delayed due to matters of state. You’ve already waited this long—wouldn’t it be a waste not to see him?”
“You think I’m overreacting? I wouldn’t be upset if he really were delayed by state affairs. But he’s late because he’s off chatting with Ben! After summoning me here, no less!”
“Cha-chatting…?”
Aaron’s jaw dropped at Joel’s brazen tone.
Ben—that was an informal nickname for Lord Benjamin.
Benjamin had never once given Joel permission to call him that, but Joel always used it anyway.
Of course, it wasn’t out of friendliness—it was to demean him.
Aaron had assumed Joel was too dense to realize why the Crown Prince was late, but apparently, he had at least that much awareness.
Since Aaron had known Benjamin since childhood, and had witnessed all the harassment he endured from Joel during their school days, he was firmly on Benjamin’s side.
He couldn’t stop himself from defending him.
“I think you may be mistaken. They’re meeting to discuss tax increases in the Melfis territory next year. It’s not a personal matter.”
“Oh, please. Like they’d discuss policy with some omega who doesn’t even have a title. The duke should’ve come himself. Do I look stupid to you?”
Joel snapped back instantly, his tone thoroughly disrespectful.
Aaron was momentarily speechless.
‘Okay, so maybe not stupid…’
But with Joel’s insult hanging in the air, Aaron chose to remain silent.
As much as he wanted to bite back, he didn’t have the energy to deal with Joel throwing a tantrum.
And to be honest, the Lucas family behind Joel intimidated him a little.
As the experienced royal attendant he was, Aaron masked his irritation with a smooth smile.
“Still, His Highness personally invited you. If you leave like this, he’ll surely be disappointed. This tea was recently imported and quite rare—I’ll brew it myself. Please, enjoy a cup while you wait a bit longer.”
Joel, smug from Aaron’s sudden change in tone, smiled victoriously.
“Fine. Since you’re begging so nicely, I’ll wait just a little longer. Wickham, bring me that letter from Lord Bennet from this morning.”
He propped his foot up arrogantly on the expensive hardwood tea table and issued the command to his servant with all the entitlement in the world.
Aaron looked at him in disbelief.
“Lord Bennet” referred to Joel’s lowborn biological father.
Acting like the Crown Prince’s drawing room was his personal study—how unbelievably arrogant.
Should he say something?
Or should he just appreciate that Joel was willing to wait and hold his tongue?
Joel, not even glancing at Aaron—whose face was rapidly reddening again—tore open the envelope and addressed him with an indifferent tone.
“You can go. And you can keep that cheap tea for yourself.”
He even flicked his hand like he was shooing away a bothersome fly.
To think he dared dismiss the Crown Prince’s own attendant inside the royal palace—Joel clearly believed he was already Crown Princess.
Aaron’s pride—his noble, fragile pride—finally shattered.
And yet.
“…If you need anything, please call for me.”
‘How did he even know it was cheap tea?’
Swallowing down his humiliation, Aaron could do nothing but bow respectfully.
As Aaron hurried away, Joel smirked slightly.
He had just taken a shot in the dark, but seeing Aaron scrambling away while still remembering to grab the tea leaves, it was clear he really had brought the old ones.
Even after graduation, even as adults, these childish torments continued subtly.
“Hasn’t he learned anything new?” Joel sneered meanly.
He was used to this kind of treatment by now… but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.
From the moment he was adopted into the Count’s household, Joel had been under constant scrutiny for being “a commoner blessed with superior traits.”
Technically, that wasn’t true—Joel wasn’t exactly a commoner, so the treatment he received felt all the more unjust.
His birth family, the Bennet family, had distant ties to a viscount line, and his biological father, Bennet, held a knighthood and a small territory.
But to the children of high-ranking nobles, Joel’s lineage was barely worth mentioning.
They resented that someone like Joel—common-born or close to it—had been granted the gift of dominant traits, regardless of whether he was Alpha or Omega.
At first, Joel had been blissfully happy when he was adopted by the Lucas family.
But he soon realized he wasn’t the protagonist of a beautiful fairytale.
Joel could confidently say that the first month after entering the Imperial Academy was the hardest time of his entire life.
No one spoke to him.
Day after day, he was blatantly ignored.
Not only by the noble students, but even their servants looked down on him.
The academy instructors also turned a blind eye to the isolation Joel faced.
Back then, Joel—still naive, but with a kind heart—had blamed himself at first.
He tried approaching the people who looked at him like some strange spectacle from afar.
He even asked his adoptive father, Count Lucas, to throw a grand party.
He offered help whenever anyone seemed to need it.
In return, the bullying only intensified.
Once the other students realized Joel had a gentle personality, they started treating him like he was easy to handle—especially the group of recessive trait holders who led the bullying.
At first, they held back, mindful of Count Lucas.
But once they realized Joel wasn’t the kind to complain to his adoptive father, they started mocking him to his face without restraint.
They’d stare at him during meals, nitpicking every bit of his table manners.
Every time he passed by, they’d make snide comments about his clothes and taste.
As if the jealousy of the recessive trait group wasn’t enough, Joel also had to deal with the advances of Alphas.
Some Alphas, thinking Joel’s lower background made him an easy target, approached him, and when he rejected them, they turned spiteful.
Their arrogance made them furious. Joel had declined them politely and kindly, but they still acted like, “How dare someone like you reject me?”
Whenever an Alpha reacted that badly, Joel would apologize—even when he’d done nothing wrong.
But their egos were already bruised by the fact that Joel dared to say no.
Having been rejected, those same Alphas began spreading nasty rumors behind his back, saying Joel was promiscuous.
Just like that, Joel ended up branded with a humiliating reputation.
It was about a month into the bullying when things finally broke.
One morning, as Joel was listening to the usual noise from the recessive group before their real estate class, he snapped.
They were mocking him for walking out of a dinner party the night before. Joel had simply left because he couldn’t stand the veiled insults, but overnight, the story had morphed into Joel sneaking out for a secret hookup with a recessive Alpha.
Joel stood up and walked toward them.
The group briefly tensed at his angry expression, but quickly dismissed him and kept chattering amongst themselves.
After all, Joel had endured all kinds of insults for an entire month without saying a word.
What could an angry face do now?
One of the recessive Alphas, the one claiming to have been with Joel, even threw out a crude taunt.
“Hey Joel! Your knees okay? Must’ve hurt doing it on the bare ground yesterday.”
The others jeered, treating the insult like Joel had actually done something vulgar and dirty.
Instead of replying, Joel decided to do something he had only imagined a hundred times during all the bullying.
He released his pheromones—to make someone submit.
The moment Joel let them out, an intoxicating rose scent filled the classroom.
The pheromones of a dominant Omega had the power to overwhelm any trait holder—especially Alphas.
The Alpha who’d been mocking Joel immediately dropped to the floor, trembling like he’d been struck by lightning.
As he wheezed, struggling to cover up his obvious reaction, Joel sneered, asking how someone who couldn’t even handle his pheromones could hope to be his partner.
“What’s going on here?!”
The balding professor, just entering the room, looked on in alarm.
Being a Beta, he wasn’t affected by Joel’s pheromones.
He stared sternly at Joel, but when Joel—always polite before—returned his gaze with cold, sharp eyes, the professor flinched and stepped back.
That day was also the first time Joel realized the true weight of bearing the Lucas family name.
* * *
