Action Looms

The grand hall of the Governor's Mansion.

Days after arriving in the City of the Radiant Sun, Annie and Arthur finally met Governor Hado in person.

The reception hall was opulent, with more servants coming and going than guests. Besides the "Mr. and Mrs. Kane," Charles Lang sat slouched at the other end.

Before long, the rear door opened.

Governor Hado was wheeled in by Madam Hado.

The custom alloy wheelchair screeched against the marble floor. The governor seated in it... looked nothing like a man in his mid-fifties.

He was gaunt, his eyes dull, his face bearing the sickly pallor of years of indulgence. Though a blanket covered his legs, it couldn't hide the signs of atrophy—he had clearly been bedridden and paralyzed for years.

More importantly, the moment Governor Hado entered, both Alphas in the room rose to their feet.

Not out of respect, but because the man in the wheelchair exuded a stench of pheromones that bordered on putrid.

Like overripe fruits and vegetables left to ferment in a vat, the odor was so thick that as Governor Hado drew closer, Annie could barely breathe.

Was Governor Hado in heat?

In this state? In this setting?

Even Annie, who was immune to pheromones, found it unbearable—let alone Alphas, who naturally recoiled from their own kind.

The pheromone concentration, nearing heat levels, made both Arthur and Charles Lang take half a step back.

Annie suppressed the urge to cover her nose and mouth—it would be far too rude.

This wasn't normal.

The human body self-regulates. When weakened, heat is delayed. Annie didn't believe the governor, sitting in his wheelchair and looking like death warmed over, still had the capacity to procreate.

And the smell of those pheromones was... too strange!

If Governor Hado's pheromones had always smelled like this, he would have long become the talk of the town.

And Arthur, when he'd mentioned the governor earlier, hadn't mentioned this detail.

That only proved the governor's pheromones had recently turned abnormal.

What was the cause? Could it be connected to his condition?

Annie quietly turned her gaze to Madam Hado, standing behind the wheelchair.

The veiled beauty seemed not to notice the stench. Sensing Annie's eyes on her, she merely looked back with composure.

Then Madam Hado bent down, leaning in close to the governor's ear.

"My lord," she said softly, "all the guests have arrived. Don't forget the important matter."

"Ah... right."

Governor Hado's murky eyes shifted to the three of them.

He seemed to have just woken from a daze. He cleared his throat, and his emaciated face twisted into a practiced smile. In that standard grin, one could still glimpse the politician he'd been in his youth: "I'm not well, so I've had to ask my wife to entertain you all. Please forgive me... ahem, but next week will be the Flame Festival."

The speech came out smoothly, but Governor Hado's gaze fixed on no one.

Like a programmed puppet performing to an empty stage. "This is very important to the City of the Radiant Sun. The official celebration has been suspended for twenty years, so I've decided to preside over this year's Flame Festival in person!"

By the end, Governor Hado raised both hands high, but his body couldn't tolerate such a passionate display. The moment the words left his mouth, he fell into a violent fit of coughing.

Madam Hado quickly produced a handkerchief to wipe the drool he couldn't control.

The declaration was met with silence in the hall.

...Too strange!

Annie didn't know the customs of New Thebes well enough. She turned to Arthur.

For once, the two Alphas were surprisingly in sync, converging in unison at the hall's ventilation point.

Arthur stood by the window, while Charles Lang leaned against the doorframe. After hearing the governor's speech, the former frowned so hard he could've crushed a passing fly.

"Ahem."

Charles Lang cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself at just the right moment.

He crossed one leg over the other, still wearing that lazy, insolent air right in front of the governor. "During the Flame Festival, Arthur, just bring your little bride along with me. You two are a couple blessed by the Prophet, so you'll light the festival brazier yourselves this year."

Annie understood in an instant.

This wasn't Governor Hado's idea—it was Charles Lang's.

Arthur's blue eyes shifted. He was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Fine."

The Butcher's face split into a grin.

"Good, good! My little brother's got my back!"

He stepped forward eagerly, reaching out to clap Arthur on the shoulder, only for Arthur to dodge without ceremony.

His hand met empty air, but Charles Lang wasn't embarrassed at all. He simply used the motion to lean against the window frame.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Arthur said coldly. "I've been helping you. What's in it for me?"

"Oh—don't worry about that."

The Red Medal officer spread his hands. "I reported everything to the higher-ups a while back! He's very pleased. The leader's coming next month to inspect the work that's almost done. I can introduce you to him then... This is an opportunity most officers in the City of the Radiant Sun would kill for, little brother!"

The leader was coming?

Annie's heart skipped a beat.

Was this bastard testing them, or had he fully trusted them already?!

That one sentence carried a mountain of information!

When he said "the leader," he had to mean the head of the terrorist organization Twilight. And "the work that's almost done" could only be the gene weapon in development.

Damn it. Annie's mind raced.

This wasn't good news for them.

Her and Arthur Kane's mission was to destroy the lab developing the gene weapon and secure the antidote formula on top of that.

If the development finished and Twilight's leader arrived, the lab's security would only tighten further.

They had, at most, a month left.

But then...

Annie glanced at Governor Hado again.

The Alpha in the wheelchair, after his impassioned speech, had fallen back into silence. Like a wind-up doll whose spring had run out, he'd lost all strength to move.

Charles Lang didn't spare the governor a single glance.

He waved at Arthur. "The stench is too much in here. Let's talk details somewhere else. Little bride, you go on back. Bet you're scared half to death, huh?"

Annie had no idea how a normal Omega was supposed to react to such aberrant Alpha pheromones.

She could only lower her head and let the Butcher and Arthur leave together.

Then a servant stepped forward to take over the wheelchair from Madam Hado. Just before the woman turned away, Annie spoke up: "Wait, Madam."

The servant wheeled Governor Hado out, and the rest dispersed.

The hall emptied in an instant, the stench fading along with them.

"What is it?" Madam Hado asked warmly.

She wasn't surprised—she'd already guessed Annie would stop her.

Annie took one last look at the wheelchair.

"Last night," she said in a low voice, "what excuse did you use to hold back Charles Lang?"

"...That's not the question I expected." Madam Hado smiled.

"The governor isn't capable of conversation now, and the Butcher definitely knows that," Annie said. "There has to be another reason."

Charles Lang was practically living in the Governor's Mansion, treating it like his own home. How could he not know the governor was in this state?

Madam Hado must have done something with the governor's condition.

Sure enough, Madam Hado let out a soft, long sigh.

"You're very clever, Mrs. Kane," she admitted. "The Butcher has been looking for samples of abnormal pheromones. He's wanted to take samples from the governor for a long time. How could I possibly agree to that so easily?"

"Samples?"

"You can smell it too," Madam Hado said, her tone remarkably calm. "Governor Hado's pheromones are not normal."

"Is it... a medical condition?" Annie probed.

"The result of overdosing," Madam Hado replied. "That's how Boss He and I first met. Hado wanted to relive his glory days, to return to the decadent life of his youth. As his wife, I had no reason not to help."

"..."

What a way to put it—"as his wife"!

In a few simple words, she'd laid out everything she'd done since marrying the governor.

Marry the aged governor, play the "sorceress concubine"—use excessive drugs to keep him wallowing in his debauchery until he was completely ruined, and then the entire Governor's Mansion would fall into the hands of an Omega like her.

Sabiha Nkosi's family could never have imagined that an illegitimate daughter, an Omega no less, would seize control of the entire mansion this way.

"What does the Butcher want with samples of abnormal pheromones?" Annie asked, puzzled.

"I don't know." Madam Hado answered honestly. "But I think it's probably connected to the gene weapon. The Butcher said long ago that development had reached its final stage—only fine-tuning remained."

Just as she'd thought.

Madam Hado's account lined up perfectly with what Charles Lang had revealed moments ago.

The plan to breach the laboratory was urgent.

And also—

Abnormal pheromones?

If they needed abnormal samples from Alphas, they'd surely need some from Omegas too.

After all, the gene weapon was designed to target Omegas.

Annie raised an eyebrow. A new line of thinking clicked into place.

.......

...

Half an hour later, in the guest room of the Governor's Mansion.

Arthur Kane pushed the door open, and Annie rose at once: "What did the Butcher say?"

"A parade by carriage, then up to the altar with me to light the fire," Arthur said, his face taut. "He's fishing."

"What?"

"The orphanage was already hit once, and it's the same playbook," the Alpha said with certainty. "He's waiting for someone to strike again."

...That made sense.

Annie's field experience wasn't as extensive as Arthur's, but once he spelled it out, she caught on quickly.

Even without deep knowledge of New Thebes's customs, she could tell this was a grand celebration. Come the festival, the crowd would be a swirling mix of all sorts—perfect cover for anyone wanting to do something to the parade carriages.

Boss He's people had already attacked the Butcher once.

He was using this opportunity to lure them out again.

So the question was: Boss He knew Annie and Arthur's backgrounds and wouldn't act rashly. But Luke Garner, the radical who supposedly couldn't get into the City of the Radiant Sun—would he let this chance pass?

"Notify Boss He," Annie said. "She might be able to use this somehow."

"What do you want to do?" Arthur asked sharply.

"..."

She hadn't said anything, had she!

It felt like Arthur had already figured out her habits—he just assumed she'd be up to something.

And honestly—

Annie tightened her grip around the heat-inducing injection she'd just pulled out.