* * *
Since then, Joel hadn’t heard a word from his biological father, and had no way of knowing whether he’d arrived safely.
Still, he chose to believe things were going smoothly.
Letters from abroad often took months to arrive, and Joel was too busy to worry over the details.
Now, what remained was the greatest hurdle: funding his escape.
His adoptive father hadn’t given him a single coin.
His ID and purse were under the control of a servant assigned to him, so Joel couldn’t even buy a quill on his own.
Even the expensive clothes and jewels on his body were property of his adoptive father.
So Joel had no choice but to sell off Lord Bennet’s castle and estate to fund his escape.
The trip itself had been financed using Bennet’s emergency funds, anyway.
If his father found out later, he would surely be furious — but Joel was confident he could convince him.
Bennet loved him dearly and always put his safety above all else.
Once he understood the full context, Bennet would probably feel guilty that he hadn’t rescued Joel from that hell sooner.
With graduation from the Imperial Academy just around the corner, Joel had nearly finished all his preparations.
Once the money from the estate sale arrived, he would convert it all into gold bars and make his escape.
Nervously, he waited for word from the agent he’d sent to Lord Bennet’s territory.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince, who had once been plagued by Joel’s constant attention, initially seemed relieved by the sudden peace.
But it didn’t take long for him to grow suspicious and uneasy about Joel’s true intentions.
One day, as Joel was walking down the corridor, the Crown Prince stopped him as he briskly strode past.
“Hey.”
Joel, of course, was planning to ignore him and keep walking.
But one of the Crown Prince’s attendants grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop.
“Ah!”
Joel cried out from the pain, and the grip loosened momentarily — but then the unknown alpha attendant, one of the prince’s lackeys, tightened his hold even more.
“What do you think you’re doing? Are you insane? Let go of me!”
“Insane? That’d be you. Who do you think you are, ignoring the Crown Prince’s summons?”
Joel glared at the thug holding his arm.
He may have had a nasty temper, but he was physically frail and had no strength to shake off someone like that.
On top of that, his adoptive father had kept him half-starved for ages under the pretense of controlling his weight.
The Crown Prince, having walked up at some point, ordered, “Let him go.”
Joel rubbed his sore arm and shot the prince a resentful look.
“You’ve been quiet lately.”
“What business is that of yours?”
The sharpness in Joel’s tone made the air turn icy in an instant.
The only ones unfazed were Joel — who’d always been rotten to the core — and the Crown Prince, who was used to that rot.
“Well, maybe it’s not my business. But considering how often you pulled ridiculous stunts to mess with me, I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy.”
“No need to worry. I’m not plotting anything this time.”
“Hmmm…”
“Oh, right — I almost forgot. Let me take this chance to say something. I’m not going to chase after Your Highness anymore.”
“What brought that on all of a sudden?”
“I’m just not that into you anymore.”
Joel snorted with a smug little laugh, turned his back, and walked off.
He could feel the Crown Prince’s stunned gaze on his back, but he never once looked back.
That night, Count Lucas barged into Joel’s room after hearing about the incident.
He yelled at Joel, asking if he’d lost his mind — but by then, Joel already had an excuse prepared.
“Father, this is all part of the flirting technique I learned from Penelope.”
“Penelope? That prostitute?!”
At the mention of the capital’s most infamous high-class escort, Count Lucas’s fury faltered for a moment.
“Yes. Penny told me that I was being too clingy with the Crown Prince. Even a dominant omega can become a turn-off if he clings too much. Sometimes, you have to act like you don’t care to catch an alpha’s attention.”
“Hmph…”
“Father, it’s true that I’ve been openly pursuing His Highness the Crown Prince for the past three years without gaining anything in return. Don’t you think it’s time to change strategies?”
“If that’s truly what you mean, then I’m relieved… But Joel, you’re not really thinking of giving up on His Highness, are you?”
“Ah, Father, don’t you know me at all? I’m Joel! Do you seriously think I’d let go of the Crown Prince?”
“Well, that’s true.”
After hearing Joel’s explanation, Count Lucas stepped back with a perplexed look on his face.
Joel’s words sounded convincing enough, and since a leech like Joel would never give up on the Crown Prince anyway, he figured there’d be no harm in letting him try things his way for once.
From then on, the ever-cautious Crown Prince continued to keep a close watch on Joel without lowering his guard.
Even when the graduation party was only a week away and Joel remained unusually quiet, the Crown Prince—half-testing him—asked Benjamin if he’d like to attend the graduation party together.
But what Joel did upon hearing that news was nothing short of shocking.
He actually went to Benjamin and offered him congratulations.
It would’ve been less surprising if the sun had risen in the west.
That was just something Joel would never, ever do.
Already on edge, unsure of what reckless thing Joel might attempt next, the Crown Prince couldn’t take it anymore and confronted him.
“Joel, what are you up to? Don’t tell me you’re planning to kill Benjamin?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? I’m busy, okay? Get out. Shoo.”
But Joel flat-out kicked the Crown Prince out of his own parlor.
In truth, he was frantically putting his escape plan into motion behind his adoptive father’s back at that very moment.
Everything seemed to be going according to Joel’s plan—until the unexpected happened on the day of the graduation party.
The Imperial Academy’s graduation approached in a flash.
The Crown Prince’s partner for the graduation party was officially confirmed to be Benjamin.
Among all the empire’s omegas, the only one who could’ve rivaled the Duke of Melfis’s eldest son, Benjamin, for the spot was Joel.
And since Joel hadn’t raised any objections, the matter was quickly settled.
Those who had expected Joel to cause a dramatic scene were half curious, half disappointed.
Speculation ran rampant about what his true intentions might be.
But even that curiosity faded quickly.
Public attention soon shifted to the graduation party, which promised to be far more extravagant than usual—thanks to the Crown Prince himself being one of the graduates.
Joel behaved as if everything was perfectly fine on the outside, but inwardly, he couldn’t shake off the bitter taste in his mouth.
He had always believed that the seat beside the Crown Prince would be his.
And after spending three whole years trying so hard to prevent Benjamin from becoming the Crown Prince’s partner, the moment he stepped back—even briefly—that position was handed to Benjamin as if it had always belonged to him.
In the end, he was nothing more than a bothersome mayfly in the Crown Prince’s love story, and the real protagonist had always been Benjamin.
Joel had made up his mind to give up on the Crown Prince, of course.
But even so, the reality of it still hurt more than he could bear.
And then came the day of the party.
Joel would’ve skipped it altogether rather than witness someone else standing beside the Crown Prince.
But since this might be the very last time he’d ever get to see him, he dragged himself to the ballroom against his will.
Watching the Crown Prince flirting with another omega was several thousand times more painful than he had imagined.
Throughout the event, Joel struggled to suppress the urge to drown himself in an entire barrel of wine.
He was dying for a drink, but something about tonight told him he mustn’t drink.
After all, in his previous life, he had gotten drunk and caused a huge scene—throwing himself at the Crown Prince in a drunken stupor.
He couldn’t let himself repeat the same mistake.
So Joel forced himself to ignore the Crown Prince and Benjamin, focusing instead on the banquet food being brought over by his servant.
In reality, he had been glaring daggers at Benjamin for two hours straight with a look on his face that said he might stab him with a fork at any second—but unfortunately, Joel wasn’t even aware of how murderous he looked.
Joel’s servant, terrified of being scolded by Count Lucas for fattening him up, still couldn’t defy his young master and kept bringing food obediently.
Normally, Count Lucas would practically starve Joel under the pretense of “weight control.”
All Joel was allowed to eat in a day was half a potato and half an apple.
In his past life, Joel had followed that strict diet to avoid disappointing his adoptive father.
But now that he knew the man’s true nature, he had no intention of acting like a fool anymore.
Whether or not that wretched excuse for a guardian—who was no better than a back-alley pimp—was disappointed in him didn’t matter anymore.
* * *
