He Yan decisively turned off the special notifications, changed the notes, and ignored a certain someone’s message. He obediently kept his eyes open for the remaining fifteen minutes of the class.

After class, just as He Yan was about to leave, the omega sitting in front of him suddenly turned around and timidly called out to him, "...Cousin He Yan."

He Yan sized him up for a few moments and recognized the identity of this omega. This was a distant cousin from his family clan. Of course, it was the kind of cousin that was a thousand miles removed.

Although the number of omegas at the Imperial Military Academy was small, they were still divided into small cliques. Among them, the aristocratic omega clique centered around He Yan was undoubtedly the most formidable. As a member of the He family, his little cousin was naturally also classified into He Yan's side.

However, he was very timid and didn't like to cause trouble. Every time He Yan led a group of omegas to bully their love rivals, he would always stand by the side, hesitating to speak. A few times, he even stammered and tried to persuade He Yan, but naturally, He Yan impatiently scolded him a few times. As time went by, he just shrank to the side, not daring to speak.

Unlike Elai, this little cousin of his was a truly obedient little rabbit.

"Is there something?" He Yan asked.

"That, that..." As soon as the little rabbit met his gaze, he began to stutter nervously again, as if he was doing something bad. His voice grew smaller and smaller, "I, I smelled... on you, that alpha's... pheromone scent."

He Yan reflexively twitched his nose.

Although His Majesty the Emperor was eager to let the whole empire know in a high-profile manner that he had already been marked, in order to satisfy his ever-expanding possessiveness, He Yan did not want to be so eye-catching. So he coldly ignored the Emperor's wistful gaze and sprayed himself with a special spray to mask his pheromones before coming to school.

So now, although he did indeed have the scent of His Majesty's pheromones on him, the scent was very, very faint. One would probably have to be close to him to smell it. In theory, his little cousin shouldn't have been able to smell it.

So the question is, does his little cousin have the nose of a dog??

"I've always been particularly, um, sensitive to alpha pheromones since I was young," the little cousin's voice grew even smaller under his meaningful gaze, and his eyes slowly reddened, "S-sorry... I, I misspoke."

Wait, he's about to cry???

"............" He Yan felt a little helpless inside and could only try to make his tone sound gentler, "It's okay, I'm not angry. Mm, want to go eat some dessert together?"

It was lunchtime now. He Yan had eaten a lot in the palace in the morning and wasn't very hungry now, so he didn't have much of an appetite at the moment. He had heard before that a new dessert shop had opened on the second floor of the academy cafeteria. Going there for a meal today could be considered a simplified version of lunch.

The little rabbit nodded with red eyes, showing a look of being overwhelmed by favor, "Th-thank you, cousin."

The taste of this new store was indeed not bad. But what He Yan didn't expect was that his cousin, who looked soft and cowardly, ate at a speed that was very inconsistent with his image. When He Yan had eaten a third of his portion, the little cousin across from him had already finished a whole piece in two or three bites.

He Yan: "........."

He Yan was afraid he wouldn't be full, so he ordered some more dishes for him. As a result, they were all quickly devoured as well.

The two of them finished a dessert meal in a relatively harmonious and friendly manner. The little rabbit seemed to have been bought over by a meal and completely forgot about the original body's bad attitude towards him before. He happily blushed again and expressed his determination to He Yan, "Cousin, d-don't worry, I will definitely k-keep your secret!"

It seems he's not timid anymore at this moment.

He Yan found him quite amusing and wanted to tease him a few more times, but the prompt light on his wrist light brain quietly lit up. He Yan clicked it open and sure enough, it was from that person again.

[Idiot: Dear, want to have lunch together?]

He Yan was about to reply that he had already eaten, but another message quickly came from the other side.

[Idiot: I booked a restaurant, it's very close to the academy. I'll come pick you up now.]

He Yan: "............" He had to admire this wave of self-questioning and self-answering.

[He Yan: No need, I just ate.]

[Idiot: Sorry dear, I remembered the wrong time for your school dismissal. I'll have someone change the time to the evening. Do you have class in the afternoon?]

[He Yan: No class, but I'm staying in the dorm tonight. Don't take leave for me without permission.]

[Idiot: Aggrieved.jpg]

Their family idiot even knows how to use emoticons... It seems he's quite in touch with the people's livelihood as an emperor!

He Yan had mixed feelings.

However, when he looked up, the eyes of his little rabbit cousin were even more complex. He was blinking his big eyes, with a bright gaze that couldn't hide the two big characters "gossip". "Is, is that my brother-in-law?"

He Yan suddenly felt that this cousin of his was actually a bit annoying, so he reached out and flicked his forehead. "Ask again and I'll silence you."

The little rabbit covered his flicked forehead, his face flushed as he looked at He Yan.

*

With the end of the term approaching, even at the Imperial Military Academy, known for its strictness, there were very few classes. He Yan had no class in the afternoon, so after saying goodbye to his cousin, he went straight back to the dorm and logged onto the light net. He entered the virtual mecha training arena to continue honing his mecha skills.

In the past half month or so, with the occasional guidance of "Crimson Bone" and the accumulation of his own practical experience, He Yan's progress was almost rapid. Now, the ID "Yi" had squeezed into the top ten of the leaderboard. Although he was in last place, he was the most eye-catching one among the top ten besides the legendary "Crimson Bone" in the training arena.

It was no wonder. Every single person in the top ten of the leaderboard had reached this point through constant failure and improvement. This process was not as simple as it sounded. Except for He Yan, every one of these people had gone through years or even decades of tempering to stand out among billions of IDs - even though the vast majority of them were just ordinary people coming to join in the excitement.

Only that freak "Yi" had taken just over half a month to charge into the top ten with an unstoppable momentum.

And it was obvious that "Yi" was still making continuous progress. No one could predict how far he would ultimately go.

He Yan opened his friend list and saw that the only friend in it, "Crimson Bone", had their light off.

After thinking for a bit, instead of going to find someone to spar with or do solo practice as usual, he opened the search box and typed in the two characters "Lai Yi".

This was also a newcomer who had entered the practice arena less than two months ago. But opening up his profile, one would discover that this ID had already entered the top one thousand in the mech practice arena rankings!

For a newcomer who had just entered the practice arena, this was undoubtedly an astonishing achievement.

————Of course, the premise was not to masochistically compare with "Yi".

From the name "Lai Yi" alone, it could be seen without difficulty that this person was Elai.

In the practice arena, besides the ID and battle records, all other personal information in everyone's basic profile was hidden by default, and gender was also an item in the personal information. So here, one could not distinguish whether an ID belonged to an alpha or an omega.

In the original trajectory, when the ID "Lai Yi" became famous in the practice arena, because most omegas did not have high aptitude in mech piloting in reality, not many people guessed that such a talented newcomer would be an omega. It was only when "Lai Yi" "unintentionally" let slip in a chat with a friend, admitting that he was a new student at the Imperial Military Academy, that the masses eating melons on the gossip section of the Imperial Mech Forum keenly analyzed his true identity from his ID and other clues. Then they were surprised to discover that he was actually an omega!

Thus, Elai instantly became a hit on the mech forum, greatly boosting his favorability in front of the public.

Recalling this segment, He Yan couldn't help but silently give Elai's "unintentional" unmasking act a 100-point rating for acting skills in his heart.

It would be a pity not to enter the entertainment industry.

However, regrettably, ever since the ID "Yi" appeared, the gossip section homepage of the Imperial Mech Forum had basically been flooded by posts discussing this ID. Now, posts discussing "Lai Yi" had sunk completely out of sight due to insufficient popularity before they could even dig out his omega identity.

He Yan secretly felt smug about this for a few minutes, then shifted his attention to finding someone to spar with. Unfortunately, the challenge requests he sent to the top nine experts on the leaderboard were all ruthlessly rejected.

After waiting a while longer, "Crimson Bone" still didn't come online. He could only helplessly start a solo practice mode and spend this slightly boring afternoon.

*

At 6pm, He Yan left the school gate and got on an inconspicuous small hovercraft in a low-key manner.

At He Yan's strong insistence, His Majesty the Emperor helplessly gave up his high-profile intention of sending an imperial hovercraft to pick him up, feeling very aggrieved inside.

The one picking him up was still the butler who had sent him back to school in the morning. In this world, the average human lifespan was 230 years old. People generally only started showing signs of aging after 150. This butler already had streaks of white at his temples and quite a few wrinkles on his face, so he was likely not young.

In fact, this butler had been left behind by the previous emperor and was fiercely loyal to Adrian. In the original trajectory, because he suspected that Adrian's death was related to Aaron after Aaron ascended the throne, he was secretly killed by Aaron.

Faced with the kind smile shown to him by this butler, He Yan also sincerely responded with a smile.

The restaurant His Majesty the Emperor had booked was indeed very close to the Imperial Military Academy. In just five minutes, the hovercraft arrived at the destination.

Under the guidance of an attendant, He Yan arrived at a private room on the top floor. As soon as he entered, he received an enthusiastic hug from the alpha. "My dear, I missed you so much."

His Majesty the Emperor felt a bit stifled inside. Originally, after marking his omega, he wished he could let the whole world know that this omega was already his. But his little omega was very ruthless. Not only did he spray pheromone masking agent to completely cover up the scent of his pheromones, he also ordered him to wait in the private room and not recklessly expose their relationship.

Sensing the little grievance in His Majesty the Emperor's heart, He Yan soothingly patted his dog head. "I missed you too."

His Majesty the Emperor immediately held his face, wanting to kiss him.

Just as this kiss was about to land, His Majesty the Emperor's expression suddenly changed. He let go of his face, flipped up his sleeve, grabbed his hand, and kept sniffing back and forth. Finally, he raised his head with a displeased expression and accused, "There's the scent of another omega's pheromones on you!"

He Yan: ".................."

Perhaps it was because he had flicked his little rabbit cousin's forehead today, leaving behind a trace of faint scent, but he had already washed his hands... I have to say, His Majesty the Emperor's nose seems to be even more powerful than his cousin's dog nose.

However, the problem was, how could this person fucking be jealous of even an omega????