Hey, y"all ?   Sorry I"m late, I just came back from whitewater rafting. I jumped in twice and fell in twice...it was pretty fun! ✌️  I think I"ll update on Mondays from now on. I"m usually really busy on the weekends...

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So when today, Carlo stood before his sickbed and said suddenly, “The person I like is you,” Aiden naturally thought it was a joke. He didn"t take it seriously, and didn"t want to pay him any attention.

Carlo sat impatiently at his bedside, watching Aiden drink porridge, and when Aiden finished his bowl and still didn"t say anything, Carlo scratched his head and said, “Didn"t you hear me? I said, I, I like you…”

“I heard you.” Aiden smiled and said.

Carlo flushed. “Then how come, how come you didn"t respond?”

Aiden was quite puzzled. “How should I have responded?”

Carlo: “...”

As he was saying that, General Craig walked in, holding some fresh fruit he had just bought. The tall man walked to his son"s bedside. He gave Carlo a glance, then disregarded him. He put the fruit on the table, then asked Aiden softly, “Do you want to eat some fruit? There"s the five-star fruit you like.”

“Okay.”

Craig pa.s.sed some fruit to his son, and rubbing his son"s head, said, “I just asked Louis, and the results of this morning"s examination were all normal. The surgery was very successful, and after a few more days of observation, you can be discharged.”

Aiden originally disliked other people touching him, but for the last few years, Craig had shown him a lot of love and care. The heat his father"s palm gave off made him feel very warm. So when Craig touched his head, he didn"t avoid it, but sat there quietly and let him stroke his hair.

Watching this scene, Carlo was jealous to death. He wished that he could change shape and turn into General Craig"s palm.

After Craig finished feeding Aiden two five-star fruits, he found that his son"s cla.s.smate Carlo was still sitting there and hadn"t left. Craig looked at him and said, “You"re the one who was admitted to military school at sixteen, Carlo from the Bech family?”

Carlo thought that his future father-in-law was about to praise him, and his face brightened. He immediately said, “That"s right, I"m Carlo!”

He didn"t expect that Craig would frown and say, “St. Romia Military Academy"s regulations are very strict. What excuse did you use to take leave for this?”

Carlo stared blankly, scratched his head and said, “On, on the leave application, I said that someone in my family was ill…”

Craig said severely, “You"re part of the imperial military now, you shouldn"t tell lies!”

Carlo: “...”

At the time, he was afraid that the school wouldn"t approve his request for leave, so he wrote that someone in his family was ill on his leave application, and even made it out to be a serious illness. If you said this matter was a big deal, it"d be a big deal, and if you said it wasn"t, it wouldn"t be. If the school really did look into it, and found out he had lied, they might mark it down on his record.

With Craig"s warning, he realized the seriousness of this matter, and hung his head, ashamed.

Aiden saw how his father"s words had left Carlo hanging his head, and he couldn"t help but feel some schadenfreude. You looked down on omegas since you were small, but you"ve got nothing to say now, have you?

Fortunately, Craig didn"t continue pressing him. He waved his hand and said, “You made a trip just to come see Aiden, that shows you two are great friends. Don"t worry, I won"t tell the school about this. But in the future, you have to be more careful. As a cadet, you have to think about the consequences of your actions. Don"t break the school rules, you hear me?”

Carlo immediately nodded hard like a bobblehead. “I hear you! Like you said, I"ll be more careful!”

Craig turned back at this, and continued feeding his son fruit.

At that moment, Xi Wei and Klaire pushed open the door and entered. When he saw Aiden sitting on the bed eating fruit, Xi Wei smiled and walked to his bedside, taking his hand and asking: “How do you feel? You look like you have a lot more energy.”

Aiden smiled and said, “Yes, I"m much better! Thanks for coming to see me.”

Klaire lightly poked Carlo"s back and said, “We should go back.”

Carlo could only stand up, and earnestly look at Aiden: “Aiden, you have to take care of your health. Afterwards if I have the chance, I"ll come see you again.”

Aiden nodded. “Okay.”

Carlo looked at him reluctantly. “Then...I"ll go back first?”

Aiden smiled and said, “Okay, goodbye.”

Seeing that there wasn"t much time left, Carlo could only leave the ward with Klaire.

On the road back, Carlo sat dejectedly in the c.o.c.kpit, not saying a word. Bluestar twisted back and forth in front of him, curiously spinning a few circles. Klaire couldn"t help but ask, “What"s wrong? Wasn"t Aiden"s surgery very successful? You should be happy, how come you"re so absentminded instead?”

Carlo said quietly, “I confessed to him just now…”

Klaire said with surprise, “Really? You"re that bold, you actually confessed in front of his sickbed?”

Carlo nodded with a face full of sorrow.

Klaire was amused and said, “How did he respond?”

Carlo grabbed his hair in depression. “He just said “Oh,” and then drank porridge and ate fruit, and ignored me.”

Klaire held back his laughter until he almost got an internal injury, coughed twice to cover it up, and said, “It"s your fault for being too impulsive. When confessing, you"ve got to pay attention to technique. You have to wait until you think the other person has you in their heart and you feel sure of the outcome before you confess. That way, the probability of success is higher. If you confess without careful consideration, he definitely won"t accept. Use your brain and think, won"t you?”

Carlo was even more depressed. “But at the time, I just thought...it was so wonderful that he"d been saved, as long as he lived on well, he could ask me to do anything and it"d be fine.”

Klaire lightly patted his shoulder. “You"ve fallen pretty deep.”

Carlo raised his head and said, “What if it was Xi Wei being sent into the operation room? Would you be able to bear not saying anything?”

Klaire was silent for a long moment, then smiled slightly and said, “That"s true. All the logical arguments in the world will just turn into quibbling in the face of someone you really like. If Xi Wei was the one being sent into the operating room...don"t talk about confessing, I might get too worked up and just kiss him outright.”

Carlo said proudly, “So don"t always tell me off. Aren"t you the same?”

Klaire said with schadenfreude, “But at least my communication skills are better than yours. You still have to practice how to express yourself more, I think Aiden probably didn"t even understand what you meant.”

“...” Carlo suffered a critical hit.

Riding the S-cla.s.s mecha Bluestar, the two of them soon reached St. Romia Military Academy. They threw themselves into studying for their heavy course load once again.

That summer break, the four boys all pa.s.sed their seventeenth birthdays. However, Carlo and Klaire couldn"t find an opportunity to go to Ellen Academy to visit their sweethearts, because St. Romia Military Academy organized a schoolwide military exercise, requiring all the freshmen to partic.i.p.ate.

Time flew by. When Carlo and Klaire were entering their second year of college, Xi Wei and Aiden were already graduating from Ellen Academy.

Ellen Academy"s academic program was designed to help omegas master the subjects of fertility and physiology. However, Xi Wei was completely uninterested in those subjects, so when his graduation exam came, he didn"t pa.s.s several courses.

Aiden, on the other hand, got full scores in all his subjects. At school, he had been very dedicated to his studies. What"s more, he really liked children, and he had already decided to choose an alpha he liked to marry and have children with after he graduated. Aiden"s thinking was more in line with the majority of omegas.

Although Xi Wei hadn"t pa.s.sed his graduation exam, Ellen Academy didn"t force its students to repeat a year. No matter what score they got on the exam, they"d still let the omegas graduate. In any case, as the teacher said, if the omega didn"t understand, it was all the same if the alpha understood. It was fine if things like heat and marking were turned over to an alpha who understood them.

On the eve of graduation, Xi Wei went to Ellen Academy"s underground factory once again. Following his uncle"s instructions, he hid large quant.i.ties of suppressants in Egret"s storage chamber, planning to take the opportunity to transport them to the capital planet. For these last few years, he"d been responsible for communication between the Underground Alliance chapters in different major galaxies. By now, he was already very practiced in slipping through interstellar defense networks.

Ellen Academy"s graduation ceremony was very grand, but it also carried a strange thread of sadness.

Thousands of omegas stood on the school grounds wearing graduation robes as they accepted the diplomas the princ.i.p.al was pa.s.sing out. These omegas had come of age, which meant that they already had the ability to bear children. They only had to walk out of these grounds, and they"d be married to all sorts of alphas. If their luck was a little better, they"d find an alpha who would love and protect them, and perhaps they"d have a lifetime of happiness. If their luck was a little worse, they might be trapped at home for the rest of their lives to bear and raise children, without ever being able to do what they wanted to do like before.

Xi Wei stood in the crowd, looking at the azure sky over Ellen Academy. He suddenly felt that the omegas standing on the school grounds were just like animals lining up at a breeding farm. They were forced to accept the a.s.sociation"s arrangements, and had no way to control their own destinies.

He didn"t want to be like that, and he wouldn"t surrender that easily.

So when Xi Wei successfully brought the suppressants back to the underground castle on the capital planet, he immediately said to Uncle Berg, “I also want to take suppressants, Uncle. I don"t want to accept the alpha the a.s.sociation arranges for me.”

Berg looked at the resolute eyes of the boy in front of him, smiled slightly, and patted his shoulder. “Of course. Even if you did want to marry, I couldn"t bear for you to.”

Xi Wei felt happy from the bottom of his heart, and said, “I can do it the way you did it in the past, right? I can inject the suppressants and postpone my heat, and then tell everyone that my pheromone levels are naturally low, and my heat will come later than other omegas. That way, I won"t be married off, right?”

Berg nodded and said, “Yes, that"s right. Back when you started school and had your blood tested, I had Egret interfere with the testing machine"s system, so that it showed a result of zero for your pheromone levels. That way, if you say now that your pheromone levels are naturally low, and your heat comes later than the average omega, that would only be expected, and people won"t be suspicious.”

As the leader of the Alliance, Berg always planned far ahead from the start like this. Xi Wei was in a good mood from not having to marry, and he couldn"t help but reach out and give Berg a hug, saying, “Uncle, you"re really great!”

Berg smiled and rubbed his head. “I still have a task for you. Since you"re not in a rush to get married, you can help Dave retrieve some components. He"s making a new mecha, and a lot of the components are difficult to buy on the capital planet, and have to be secretly purchased from the outer galaxies.”

Xi Wei said seriously, “I understand. I"ll definitely complete the task the Alliance has a.s.signed me.”

Berg said, “Although you don"t have to worry about marriage for now, the palace has a provision that eighteen-year-old princes need to hold a coming-of-age ceremony. When the time comes, His Majesty will hold a luxurious banquet according to the rules. Many alphas may come, attracted by your reputation. No matter what purpose they have in mind, whether they want to get close to you or be friendly with you, don"t pay attention to them. Don"t get too close to any alpha, including your good friends Klaire and Carlo, do you hear me?”

Xi Wei nodded. “I hear you.”

The news that the eldest prince was holding his 18th birthday coming-of-age ceremony soon swept the empire"s major websites. Much of the empire"s populace was wondering how the abnormal omega they"d heard of had grown up like. Had the eldest prince turned a little more gentle after becoming an adult? Could it be that no one would dare to marry such a violent omega?

The major forums were flooded with posts guessing what would happen. Most people weren"t optimistic about the prospects of someone as abnormal as Xi Wei.

That lasted until the day of the banquet, when Xi Wei walked step by step down the palace stairs with a calm smile, wearing exquisite royal robes. All the alphas at the scene were shocked until their jaws dropped.

He gave off an indescribable feeling.

Unlike the gentle, delicate nature of many omegas, the eldest prince Xi Wei carried a hint of valor between his eyes and brows. His handsome features looked as if they"d been meticulously carved, and his eyes were jet black and shining, so clear that they looked like they"d been washed with water. He was wearing gorgeous ceremonial robes and standing on the steps, his expression calm, neither servile nor overbearing, just standing there in silence. He seemed to carry an air of arrogance and n.o.bility innate to a member of royalty, that couldn"t be scorned or profaned.

The crowd of alphas that had Xi Wei"s indifferent gaze sweep over them suddenly thought that conquering an omega like this felt like more of a challenge than anything else!

Many of the young alphas below the stage felt their hearts begin to stir, and they wondered how they could get close to Xi Wei.

In the crowd, Klaire stood in the corner wearing a military uniform. He watched the prince walking slowly down the steps, and the corner of his mouth rose into a slight smile.

—Xi Wei, I"ve waited until you"ve finally grown up.

—This time around, I definitely won"t let you slip away!

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5:24 for 2,542 words, or 12.7 minutes for every 100 words. An improvement in rate by 0.2 minutes...another chapter packed with long paragraphs.

It kinda just occurred to me that this novel qualifies as a slow burn. I don"t know why it took me that long. But we"re like, more than halfway through and the main pair hasn"t even held hands yet… Maybe it"s because it doesn"t feel like a slow burn? Randy and Craig are there just making up for it, with their cohabitation, shared heats, and three children…

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