BDBF 04

chapter 04

I was intelligent. Smarter than my only older brother, who had been named Crown Prince, and a princess who truly cared about the people of the Empire.

The butler said so, the maids said so. Even my mother, who passed away when I was young, had said the same.

And I believed it too. After all, I was far better than that brother of mine who never learned what was necessary to become emperor and spent every day drinking himself senseless with women hanging off his arms.

Even so, there was one person who never acknowledged me.

My father—the emperor, the center of the Empire itself.

There was something he always told me.

“Listen carefully.”

“……”

“Your role is merely to stand behind your brother and support him. So stop wasting your efforts on pointless things.”

Because I was clever, my father kept me far away from his side.

He said it was because I should support my brother from behind, but I had already learned how the world worked.

I knew the truth.

My father feared me. He must have believed that one day I would surpass him.

He knew it too—that if I had been born a prince instead of a powerless princess, I would already be sitting on the imperial throne.

That was why he was especially harsh toward me. He isolated me from the world, turned me into a loner so I could never build my own power.

And in the end…

He probably joined hands with the faction supporting the prince and killed me.

Right when I was about to reach the moment I would have been most proud of.

In the most miserable way possible.

* * *

“No, no!”

I gasped for breath. My whole body was drenched in sweat, sticky and unpleasant.

For the first time since being reborn, I had a nightmare.

A dream filled with a past I wanted to forget but never could—a past that clung to me relentlessly.

Because of that dream, the goal I needed to achieve became even clearer.

The goal I failed to achieve in my previous life:

To rise to a place so high no one could even see below me.

And to possess power so absolute that no one would ever dare treat me carelessly again.

Even if this time it wasn’t an imperial throne, but merely the position of head of a noble family.

And if, on top of that, I could have a family that truly loved me—a family I never had before—that would be perfect.

“Fuuu…”

The nightmare had completely driven away my sleep. I didn’t want to go back to sleep anyway.

So I got out of bed and walked over to the window.

Outside was still dim. Dawn, before the sun had fully risen.

Today was the first day of the pheromone lessons Hale had told me about a week ago.

And yet I’d had such a terrible dream right before it.

I could already picture the class going badly.

‘No, don’t jump to conclusions.’

Maybe because it was the quiet hour when everything still slept, my mind calmed down and my thoughts sorted themselves out quickly.

I watched the gentle breeze and the slowly rising sun while waiting for Rita to arrive.

“Miss, it’s time to wake—… huh?”

Rita, who entered with her usual greeting, stared at me sitting upright on the bed with a shocked expression.

Then she threw down what she was holding and rushed over to check me over.

“Miss, are you feeling sick?”

“Hm?”

“If not, then how are you awake at this hour…?”

That was clearly what she meant.

And honestly, it was a natural reaction. During the past two weeks, I had never once woken up early.

I smiled brightly and shook my head.

“Today’s the day, remember? The day!”

“The day…?”

“Pheromone class!”

“Ah.”

Only then did she understand.

Rita smiled softly and began helping me get ready for the morning.

“Hm? Your clothes are a little big.”

“Didn’t I grow a lot?”

“No, you’ve grown a great deal! Just sliiightly less than I predicted. That’s because you’re picky with food.”

“But I hate carrots…”

“If you don’t eat carrots, you might stop growing, you know?”

Like I’d believe that. I wasn’t an idiot.

But everyone here still thought I was just a child. They didn’t know I’d been reincarnated, so I supposed I should play along.

“Okaaay… I’ll eat them…”

Rita pinned the back of my slightly oversized clothes to fit me better.

Still, checking the mirror every day had been fun because I was growing so quickly.

Lately, though, it felt like my growth had slowed down a little.

Maybe it was just my imagination.

More importantly, who would be teaching today’s pheromone lesson?

I just hoped they weren’t scary.

“Rita, Rita! When’s the teacher coming?”

“She’ll be here soon. Are you excited for class?”

“Yeah!”

Smiling, Rita carefully checked to make sure my hair accessories weren’t crooked.

Knock knock—

Just as Rita finished fixing my hair, a knock sounded at the door.

My heart pounded rapidly as I clasped both hands together.

The moment the door opened felt unbearably slow.

And then, finally, a woman stepped inside.

She naturally clasped hands with Rita.

“It’s been a while, Rita.”

“My goodness. You’re the pheromone instructor, Eve?”

“Yes. Somehow it ended up that way.”

“You’ve gotten even more glorious scars since I last saw you.”

“Ah, this one was from the western border— Ah, right! Shall we catch up after the lesson? I think someone here has been waiting for me.”

The woman noticed my sparkling gaze and nodded toward me.

Only then did Rita realize and nod quickly.

The woman approached me, her silver bob cut swaying sharply along her jawline, then knelt on one knee.

Up close, I could see a long diagonal scar across her cheek.

It must have been the “glorious scar” Rita mentioned earlier.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, miss. My name is Eve Sciantina. It’s truly an honor to be in charge of your pheromone lessons.”

“Woooow…”

Wasn’t she way too cool?

Could someone actually be this cool?

She was so dazzlingly impressive that I found myself staring blankly at her.

Thankfully, I snapped out of it quickly.

I didn’t want someone this cool to think I was stupid.

“Nice ta meet you, Eve! You’re sooo cool!”

“Thank you.”

Her smile was like the wind itself.

Come to think of it, Eve smelled like a fresh, clean breeze from the forest.

Just breathing it in made me feel as though I were standing in the middle of the woods.

Eve slowly stood up, and Rita left the room, saying she would return when the lesson was over.

“So what do I do now?”

“Could you please give me your hand for a moment?”

Her tone was extremely polite.

Even if she hadn’t asked so formally, I would’ve given Eve anything she wanted.

Because she was cool!

I didn’t know much about her yet, but she seemed incredibly capable.

Hale wouldn’t place just anyone by my side.

I grabbed Eve’s sleeve, dragged her over to the bed, and sat beside her.

Then I held out my hand.

Eve took it and closed her eyes.

Soon, I felt something flowing into my body through the hand we shared.

“Waaah…”

It was an unfamiliar sensation, but not unpleasant.

Because whatever flowed through my body felt exactly like Eve herself.

I figured it was probably Eve’s pheromones entering me.

Well, of course. This was pheromone class.

Anyway, the cool, refreshing pheromones soon retreated back to where they belonged.

Eve released my hand and opened her eyes.

Unlike before, her expression was now unusually serious.

Did something happen to me…?

“Am I… bad?”

“Hm?”

“You looked unhappy…”

“Ah.”

Eve paused for a moment before smiling brightly.

It didn’t seem forced, but still…

“No. Everything’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Shall we begin the pheromone lesson? Since today is the first day, we’ll start with theory.”

“Okayyy!”

I welcomed theory lessons.

Not only was studying what I did best, but I genuinely wanted to learn more about pheromones.

I was still physically very young, so they probably wouldn’t explain everything in detail yet.

Still, knowing something was better than knowing nothing.

“Before we talk about pheromones, let me explain the Four Dragons first.”

“Four Dragons?”

“Yes. There are four dragon families in total. Aside from our White Dragon family, there are three others.”

“Really?!”

I had no idea!

Without realizing it, I’d assumed the White Dragons were the only dragons.

How narrow-minded of me…!

“There are the Black Dragons, Blue Dragons, Yellow Dragons, and finally the Imperial Family, which stands at the center of humanity. These five great families maintain the balance of the world together.”

The unfamiliar story was fascinating enough to make me lean in without realizing it.

Before I knew it, I had latched onto Eve’s left arm, gazing up at her with sparkling eyes that clearly begged for more.

“I wanna meet them!”

“You’ll meet them soon enough.”

“But I wanna see them now…”

“You need to grow a little more first, miss.”

What?!

Now I had another reason to grow up quickly.

Starting today, I’m going to sleep even earlier than before!

Growth hormones, do your best!

“Before each pheromone lesson, I’ll explain the dragon families one by one, so don’t be too impatient.”

“Okay, got it!”

“Well then, now that I’ve briefly explained the Four Dragons, shall we move on to pheromones?”

Eve pulled out a sheet of white paper and a pen from somewhere and continued her explanation earnestly.

To summarize:

For dragons, pheromones were something similar to human mana.

Though pheromones were more closely tied to life itself than mana, that was the simplest way to explain it.

And because Hale had given me pheromones while I was still inside the egg, I too possessed dragon pheromones.

In other words, I had become half-human and half-dragon.

Even though I looked human, my rapid growth was thanks to those pheromones.

Eve also guessed that my lifespan would probably resemble a dragon’s as well.

She added that no one could say for certain, since I was the first mixed-blood heir ever born.

Still, one thing was certain:

I would live much longer than a human.

“Are you enjoying the story?”

“Yeah! Tell me more!”

“Hm… unfortunately, I think today’s lesson has to end here.”

Eve looked troubled.

Even though I noticed, I pretended not to and acted even more spoiled.

Kids were allowed to do that, right?

“Nooo! Don’t go!”

In the end, Eve laughed softly as if admitting defeat.

“Then I’ll tell you just one more thing.”

“Ooh! Eve, I like you a lot!”

“I like you too, miss.”

So happy I could barely contain myself, I threw my arms around Eve.

Without even flinching, she held me securely in return.

Wait a second…

This felt like the skill of someone who’d held children many times before.

“So what story are you gonna tell me?”

“A long time ago, humans and dragons used to live together. Back then, there were many half-human, half-dragon people like you.”

“Really? Then why not now?”

“You’ll learn the details once you’re older, but there was a war. The first and last war between humans and dragons. That was when the two races split apart. Among all the dragon families, only the Black Dragon family sided with the humans.”

“Ooooh…”

It was an incredibly interesting topic.

Even in my previous life, I had always found history—especially wars between nations—far more fascinating than anything else.

“Then Black Dragons must like humans?”

“No. Quite the opposite.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because they were thoroughly used by humans… and then abandoned.”