125: 3.65 A Nuisance

3.65 A Nuisance

There were a lot of aftermaths needed to be taken care of. The rebellion group had turned into a mess after they suddenly lost their leader and spiritual pillar. Not to mention that there were a lot of casualties, more than expected, from their grand plan of crashing the wedding. Like headless flies they went into hiding, and there was no way the Emperor would pass up this golden opportunity to purge the organization from its root. Left with no choice, Emperor Bernard finally resigned to his fate and asked for Versatine Kingdom's cooperation to hunt down the remaining members.  0

In the span of one day, Alaze was thrown into chaos; many important figures in the kingdom were gravely injured because of the bombing incident and as the main culprit, Princess Rosemane was utterly condemned by masses. 

It was detrimental to the image of the royal family and along with it was Emperor Bernard's reputation which had been completely tarnished. No matter how hard Emperor Bernard wanted to keep the scandal under the rug, he was helpless to do so. 

The cameras were actually still rolling up until the second when the bomb exploded. The initial purpose of broadcasting the most romantic wedding of the first fated pair in the century ended up backfiring. Videos of Princess Rosemane rebelling had spread throughout the kingdom—no, throughout the world. She became even more famous than the actual fated pair. There was no one who hadn't heard of Princess Rosemane and the foolish thing she had done to crash her half-brother's royal wedding. 

Princess Rosemane was captured on the same day and put into trial. Her crime was severe enough to be judged as a capital offense and the punishment befitting for such crime was either execution or lifetime punishment. During those times, she was still trying to drag Lu Yizhou down with her. She filed the report of attempted murder, accusing Lu Yizhou of the crime of attacking a member of the royalty. However this time, she was utterly unsuccessful. Not only did the public sided firmly with the winged beastman, the Emperor also turned his back on her. 

Her friends — if they could be called friends — came out one by one to confess Rosemane's elaborate plan to take advantage of Lu Yizhou's approaching rut to trap him into marking her. They were terrified as Rosemane's status as a Princess was rocky and there was no way she would be able to cover their crime anymore, or so the news reported.

No one knew that it was Lu Yizhou who did everything behind the scenes. Using his level 2 'Devil's Whisper', he managed to hypnotize those people and force the confession out of their mouth. When those people returned to their senses, the evidence had been presented to the court and they couldn't evade punishment anymore. The revelation created another wave of criticism, as many black materials popped up one by one to prove Princess Rosemane's dirty deed over the years. Even Cathy, the Princess' former best friend as well as the mouse omega who had almost died under Lu Yizhou's hands, uploaded a video online to confess that she had been influenced by Rosemane's hatred for Prince Oliver, thus the nerve to attempt such a heinous crime to harm the cat omega.

Everyone couldn't bring themselves to believe it. Princess Rosemane — the omega who had always presented herself as bold, charming and proud. One of the most famous influencers and philanthropists in Alaze — was actually such a black-hearted, cruel beastwoman! How audacious! Such a person ought to receive severe punishments!

Headline news was refreshed every single day, one was more interesting than the other. The politics were a mess and people began to question whether the kingdom actually needed a monarch. The public opinion brewed until later on, a new group calling themselves 'The Advocate of Democracy' appeared, consisting of beastmen from all kinds of backgrounds, Alphas, Betas and Omegas alike who supported the fact that power shouldn't lay only on a particular group of people. They were different from Peter's group whose goal was to wreck the government and rule for themselves. They were practically harmless and their objective was to create a more peaceful environment for people to live in without caring about status, thus Emperor Bernard was unable to convict them of any crime except for some mild warning. Alas, they rapidly duplicated in number and became a main source of headache to the Emperor. Of course, this was the event of another day.

As of now, people were still hyping over Princess Rosemane's coup and the exciting progress of her trial. Thus, very few people noticed that the couple who was supposed to have their wedding the very same night had disappeared off the radar.

***

The so-called couple was currently preparing to welcome a new member to their family.

It was an arduous time as Oliver had a rough pregnancy.  Logical, considering how his health had always been fragile.

Oliver was eleven weeks along now, much to his chagrin of how time flew by so fast. His flat and soft belly began to show a few days ago. Not too conspicuous, only a slight bulge on his lower abdomen as if he had eaten too much for dinner. But still, he had burst into tears when he first spotted it in the mirror. Blame it on the pregnancy hormone. He had become too much of a crybaby. He cried when he woke up sometime in the morning and didn't find his Alpha in the bed hugging him as he wished for. He cried when the shower came out too cold, or too hot, basically if the temperature didn't suit his taste. He cried when he could no longer fit into his favorite skinny jeans which was the Alpha's favorite — although Lu Yizhou had never said it out loud. But who was Oliver if he couldn't spot the flicker of lush in the Alpha's silver eyes every time Oliver sashayed his ass that looked especially perky clad in the tight jeans?

He cried about everything and anything. Yet he hadn't complained, not even once, for his strenuous pregnancy.

During his first trimester, he spent almost every morning vomiting on the sink as soon as he woke up. He had slimmed down in the span of a few weeks, chin sharpened and skin pallid, sickly enough to make Lu Yizhou distressed. Upon seeing the frown on his Alpha's face, Oliver offered a weak smile. "It's okay. This will pass soon." He opened his arms for cuddles and Lu Yizhou lifted him up into his embrace to wipe his face clean, wash his mouth and carry him to the bed. Then he sat down so that Oliver could settle on his lap. The omega pressed his nose to Lu Yizhou's neck and inhaled deeply. "Um, you smell so good. I feel better already."

"You haven't eaten anything." Lu Yizhou pointed out with some degree of displeasure. He had no idea that pregnancy was this problematic. The fetus was barely a few inches long but it already weakened Oliver like this. What about when it grew later on? Would it suck Oliver dry…? His jaws hardened at the thought. He couldn't let anything happen to Oliver. Lu Yizhou had no qualms being the bad guy if he could eliminate the source of Oliver's misery. 

Right…even if half of the child's blood was his own.

"Hey, hey, look at me." Oliver cradled the Alpha's face and bumped their foreheads together. The omega's eyes were intelligent and bright and sometimes, Lu Yizhou had the notion that he was able to see through his soul. He was astonished at how quick Oliver was able to decipher his micro expression without him having to say anything. Nobody had ever understood him — or even put an effort to — like the omega did.  But what came with the convenience was having some of his unwarranted thoughts pointed out. Like this time. "You're thinking nonsense again." The omega pouted. "You aren't allowed to think that our child is a nuisance."

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