ISMW Chapter 10

The man addressed by Yu Chen stopped in his tracks. After turning his head, instead of arguing with Yu Chen as he usually did when they met, he flared his nostrils and carefully sniffed the air around them, then fixed his gaze on Yu Chen: “Hmm? Yu Chen, you also bought the Third…”

 

Fu Yanxi’s unfinished sentence was interrupted by a third person: “Damn? Brother Xi, you also dyed your hair the same color as the Third Prince?”

 

“Yes.” Hearing this, Fu Yanxi ran his hand through his newly shortened hair, which had been dyed from red to silver, and raised an eyebrow as he looked at the third person’s side-parted hair. “You dyed yours too?”

 

The third person, whose full name was Gui Yan, ranked third in the combat assessment for the guard selection and came from the same legion as Fu Yanxi. He was now looking at Fu Yanxi’s silver hair with envy: “Why do I feel like your dye job looks better than mine? Brother Xi, which salon did you go to? How much did it cost? I paid 5,200 star coins for this silver hair—was I ripped off?”

 

Over five thousand star coins for a dye job?

 

And for men’s short hair at that?

 

Wasn’t this clearly being ripped off?

 

Fu Yanxi was about to answer Gui Yan when he immediately closed his mouth and stood at attention after hearing a long, sharp whistle—it was Commander Dike’s assembly call.

 

Dike didn’t care what they had to say or what scores they had to settle. As soon as everyone arrived, he blew the assembly whistle and then coldly scanned each alpha’s face with a solemn, authoritative gaze: “I don’t care which legion you served in before. From today on, you have only one identity: Royal Guard! And there is only one person you must protect with your life and serve with your soul—the Third Prince! Do you understand?”

 

“Understood!”

 

Fu Yanxi responded very loudly, and Gui Yan was not to be outdone.

 

Being close to them, Yu Chen’s ears were nearly deafened by their shouts, which sounded like life-and-death oaths. Even after entering the North Palace, he still felt his head buzzing.

 

Their elite guard team, including Commander Dike, totaled ten people. They took two cars, and since Dike wasn’t in their car, the atmosphere was more relaxed. As a result, Fu Yanxi and Gui Yan chattered all the way, annoying Yu Chen to the point where he wanted to hit someone.

 

However, Yu Chen felt that even if Dike had been present, he probably wouldn’t have said anything. After all, he was personally selected by Crown Princess Yun Xunguang as the commander, and his loyalty to the royal family was extraordinary. He enjoyed seeing the guards worship Yun Xunlan like a deity, as if they had been brainwashed.

 

The main subject of Fu Yanxi and Gui Yan’s conversation was Yun Xunlan, and the content could be completely summarized by Fu Yanxi’s web handle—Forever Guarding the Third Prince. If Dike had heard it, he might have even joined their conversation.

 

So annoying.

 

Human joys and sorrows are not universally shared.

 

Yu Chen, who felt nothing for Yun Xunlan and could only commit to faithfully fulfilling his duties without dereliction, found their noise irritating.

 

Fortunately, this noise subsided somewhat as they passed through the North Palace gardens, because Fu Yanxi and Gui Yan couldn’t take their eyes off the half-blooming pink flowers among the greenery.

 

Not wanting to look at the two of them, Yu Chen turned his head and also glanced at the flower clusters. However, this glance made him feel that these pink flowers were strangely familiar…

 

“Yu Chen.”

 

At this moment, Fu Yanxi started barking again.

 

Yu Chen couldn’t even be bothered to lift his eyelids: “What are you going to bark about now? Go ahead.”

 

Fu Yanxi asked him: “I wanted to ask you earlier, did you buy the same pheromone-scented perfume as the Third Prince?”

 

What thing?

 

Yu Chen frowned and turned his head to glance at Fu Yanxi.

 

“I’ve bought many different ones before, but none were as similar as the one you’re using. I, I… also want to buy a bottle.” The tall alpha’s ears reddened unusually as he spoke these words, his expression tense, as if he had just made an incredibly difficult decision. “As long as you share the purchase link with me, all our past grudges will be wiped clean. If I ever argue with you again, I’m a dog.”

 

Yu Chen scoffed coldly: “Call me ‘daddy’ and I’ll give it to you.”

 

Fu Yanxi responded decisively: “Daddy.”

 

Yu Chen: “?”

 

Yu Chen’s rising smirk froze halfway due to Fu Yanxi’s resounding “daddy.” And his newly acquired adult son wasn’t just Fu Yanxi—Gui Yan, who competed with Fu Yanxi in his adoration for Yun Xunlan, also looked at him eagerly: “Daddy, share it with me too.”

 

“Daddy, I want it too.”

 

“Me too, daddy.”

 

The twin alphas Song Tingyan in the passenger seat and Song Tingxiao in the back seat also chimed in, leaving only the expressionless female alpha Lu You, who was driving the car, as the only one who hadn’t called him daddy.

 

Unexpectedly, after exchanging a glance with her in the rearview mirror, Lu You also opened her mouth: “Daddy?”

 

Yu Chen: “…”

 

Wait, do you all love him that much?

 

Yu Chen’s gaze once again passed through the car window, falling on the lush flower clusters. This time, he finally remembered why these flowers looked familiar.

 

They were the vibrant, never-withering colors in the North Palace garden, the sweet coolness of the ice cream that had melted on his tongue not long ago, and now the dense, swirling scent surrounding him, floating in his breath, exhaled and deeply inhaled into his lungs—the scent of Galactic Empire Third Prince Yun Xunlan’s pheromones: Lychee Rose.

 

Who is Yun Xunlan?

 

If you randomly grabbed an omega on the streets of the Galactic Empire and asked this question, their answer would likely be only one: my dream alpha.

 

Perhaps asking a beta would yield similar results.

 

After all, since the beginning of this year, when the ninth-generation omega heat suppressant independently developed by Yun Xunlan was released, he had taken the top position on the “Galaxy’s Most Desirable Alpha to Marry” ranking with an overwhelming lead.

 

It’s worth noting that the previous eight generations of omega heat suppressants all had problems with significant side effects and short duration. The ninth-generation suppressant developed by Yun Xunlan not only had no major side effects, but also extended the duration from one day to three days. Although it couldn’t completely cover an omega’s entire heat period, it greatly reduced the painful side effects that omegas had to endure when using suppressants.

 

In addition, he donated half of the profits from the sale of the ninth-generation omega heat suppressant to establish a charitable foundation, specifically to help omegas from financially disadvantaged backgrounds who couldn’t afford suppressants to safely get through their heat periods.

 

What omega wouldn’t like such an alpha?

 

Therefore, even though the voting for the “Galaxy’s Most Desirable Alpha to Marry” ranking hadn’t ended yet, Yun Xunlan’s vote count had already broken historical records, exceeding the second-place candidate by a full three times, with the total number of votes still rising.

 

This led to jokes on the galactic web: It seems there isn’t an omega or beta in the entire galaxy who doesn’t want to marry Yun Xunlan. Those who are unmarried need not be mentioned, while those already married all want to divorce and remarry.

 

But Yu Chen never imagined that alphas like Fu Yanxi, Gui Yan, and Lu You would also be so deeply enchanted by Yun Xunlan.

 

Seeing that Yu Chen wasn’t responding, Fu Yanxi immediately narrowed his eyes, growing suspicious: “Yu Chen, you’re not playing us, are you?”

 

Hearing this, Gui Yan, Song Tingyan, and Song Tingxiao also fixed their gloomy gazes on him. If Lu You didn’t need to watch the road while driving, she would certainly have stared too.

 

Yu Chen: “…”

 

Yu Chen, less than half a day into his job, was about to offend most of his colleagues in the elite guard team.

 

However, being someone who always owned up to his actions and disdained lying to escape situations, he told Fu Yanxi honestly: “I was originally just trying to mess with you.”

 

—But all of you rushed to call me daddy, so I had no choice.

 

Though Yu Chen didn’t explicitly say the latter part, it was written all over his face. Anyone who wasn’t blind could see what he meant.

 

Fu Yanxi: “…”

 

Other alphas: “…”

 

Facing several pairs of dark, brooding eyes, Yu Chen decided to spread some fatherly love and reveal the truth: “This isn’t perfume, it’s the scent of ice cream. You all know Elianxia dessert shop, right? Their new ice cream has this flavor, eighteen star coins each. If you like it, you can go buy it, or I can treat you—I’ll send you red envelopes right now.”

 

“Ah, I know! It’s the new flavor released just this month, incredibly popular online!” Gui Yan’s eyes lit up, but quickly dimmed again as he said dejectedly, “I also went to Elianxia today, but the store I visited was sold out. I couldn’t get any.”

 

Lu You nodded, her fingers curling slightly on the steering wheel: “Yes, I remember it too, especially their advertising slogan.”

 

“Melt the eighteen lychee rose on your tongue…”

 

Fu Yanxi recited the slogan in a low voice. By the time he finished, not only were his ears red, but his entire face was flushed as if he were drunk, rivaling his former hair color: “Does this really not violate advertising laws? It’s pushing the boundaries, isn’t it?”

 

Did the “eighteen” in the slogan refer to the price or the age?

 

Did “Lychee Rose” refer to the ice cream’s fragrance and shape, or to a certain person with the same-named pheromone scent?

 

Why would a cone that didn’t have a top-tier taste, yet cost as much as eighteen star coins per serving, sell out every day?

 

—Everyone knew the answer in their hearts.

 

“Pushing boundaries? What boundaries is it pushing? It’s been selling for a month with no one intervening, so it definitely doesn’t violate any laws,” Gui Yan stubbornly refused to admit, insisting, “Anyway, before I can buy this ice cream on my next leave, it absolutely cannot be discontinued!”

 

Song Tingyan and Song Tingxiao strongly agreed with this, likely having the same idea: “That’s right, you’re absolutely correct.”

 

It was only then that Yu Chen realized what they were talking about.

 

His opinion remained the same: Do you all really love him that much?

 

And what kind of nonsense was Elianxia writing in their ice cream advertisements?

 

Thinking about this made Yu Chen speechless. When he bought the ice cream, he was only focused on how it would taste and hadn’t paid any attention to its advertising slogan. If he had seen it, he absolutely wouldn’t have bought the ice cream—the fragrance lasted way too damn long!

 

The lychee rose scent in his mouth still hadn’t dissipated.

 

Yu Chen licked his canine teeth—evolved in alphas to facilitate the injection of pheromones into glands—feeling increasingly irritated.

 

He had never marked anyone, but the foreign scent in his mouth and that advertising slogan gave him the illusion that he had just bitten into a soft gland with a lychee rose pheromone scent.

 

Thankfully Yun Xunlan was an alpha. If he had been an omega, how would this be any different from sexual harassment?

 

Didn’t the Galactic Empire have a PR team specifically responsible for maintaining the public image of the royal family? Why weren’t they managing this? Where was the law?

 

Even before realizing Yun Xunlan’s pheromones were lychee rose, Yu Chen had wanted to drink water to suppress the taste. Now that he knew, he couldn’t tolerate it any longer. The lingering fragrance of food was different from pheromones—pheromone blocking spray couldn’t eliminate it. Yu Chen could only get up and rummage through the trunk for mineral water to rinse his mouth.

 

Seeing this, Fu Yanxi’s face immediately grew long with jealousy and envy as he muttered: “Living in blessing without knowing it…”

 

“Stop acting like a rabid dog all day,” Yu Chen scolded him with a cold face. “Do you want this blessing for yourself?”

 

Alphas have strong territorial instincts. They instinctively reject all alphas except themselves, a phenomenon more pronounced among high-level alphas. To prevent pheromone leakage that might offend Yun Xunlan, they all had military-grade strong suppression patches on the backs of their necks.

 

What if he went to meet Yun Xunlan with a mouthful of lychee rose scent and Yun Xunlan mistook it as a provocation?

 

After rinsing with two full bottles of water, Yu Chen finally felt he could no longer smell the lychee rose. But as soon as he got out of the car, the fresh sweet fragrance of white lychee flesh mixed with pink roses floated back around him.

 

It was now evening. Yu Chen lifted his eyelids to see the lychee roses burning wildly in the sunset along both sides of the North Palace path, never to wither. They walked among them, like prey entering the territory marked by a top-tier alpha of the Galactic Empire’s royal family. If they didn’t bow in submission, they would be mercilessly hunted down.

 

This made Yu Chen suddenly recall something: Yun Xunlan’s pheromone level had always been a mystery. The royal family had never disclosed it, though the outside world assumed he was SSS-level.

 

This was because everyone in the royal family, whether alpha or omega, was at minimum SS-level. Additionally, a year ago when he attended a banquet in place of Yun Xunguang, his pheromones had accidentally gone out of control, causing several SSS-level omegas at the banquet to enter their heat periods. Even alphas of the same level present were suppressed and could barely move. With such powerful pheromones, who would believe he wasn’t an SSS-level alpha?

 

Yet the contradiction lay precisely here: if Yun Xunlan truly was SSS-level, why wouldn’t the royal family disclose his level? And why would they now go to such lengths to specifically establish a small elite force to protect him?

 

 

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1 Kofi = 1 Extra Chapter