Ezra's POV
"You are not allowed to ask any more questions. Just do as I say. You are just an omega—nothing more."
My father shouted at me, and I stood there looking down, not meeting his eyes at all. Because he had said something that made my soul tremble.
The Beastman clan and humans have been enemies for centuries.
They have killed countless alphas and omegas, and we didn't leave them alone either.
From killing them to making them slaves—raping them and beating them.
We went to every length just to teach them a lesson, but I doubted—was it really just for a mere lesson?
Beastmen forcefully made human omegas pregnant and then abandoned them. Every day, blood flowed like water from both sides.
But my father, as the Emperor of the Elsia Nation, offered peace to the Beastclan after all these years.
He arranged the hunting competition, in which whoever wins will get a chance to marry me.
Those Beastmen, who always killed humans like leaves falling from trees—and especially omegas, whom they raped and killed brutally—and now my father is saying he's going to marry me off to one of them?
That's why I tried to oppose him for the first time in my life.
Since childhood, everyone said I am the most beautiful omega in the whole nation. That's why Father never let me out of the palace.
He never even let me meet other omegas—only confined me to this place.
But thanks to my mother, she secretly taught me many things to protect myself.
She knew I would have to learn self-defense to survive. But Father doesn't know about that.
But I am his one and only son—he should have considered me, thought before making any decision.
And just then, a sharp slap jolted me. I glanced up, and my father was looking at me with an angry face; his eyes were glaring at me. I touched my face but didn't say anything.
"What the hell? Are you ignoring me, bitch? Just say yes."
"Yes, Father," I replied.
"Get the hell out of here," he shouted, and I left.
I didn't want to talk to anyone except my mother, but she has been sick and bedridden these days. That's why Father is doing whatever he wants.
When I stepped inside the room, I heard a coughing sound.
"Mom! Are you okay?" I rushed to her.
"I'm fine, my son. But what happened to your cheek? Did someone bully you? Is His Majesty doing something to you?"
I wanted to tell my mother what Father was doing right now, but I couldn't—because her condition is getting worse.
If I told her the truth, she would worry about me and become even more tense. And I don't want to make her worry.
"It's nothing, Mom. I just fell down. Don't worry about me. And… Dad has arranged my marriage."
Her eyes widened in worry. I knew she would react like this. But if I'm about to get married, then it should be me who tells her.
She grabbed both my hands. "Ezra, your father isn't threatening you, is he?"
Mom knows Dad very well, but she also can't do anything to him now.
"Mom, don't worry. Dad isn't threatening me. It's my own decision too, since I'm turning twenty this year."
I slept beside Mom that night, because from tomorrow, my life was going to change. I knew it very well.
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The next day, the servants helped me wear a white outfit and a white veil that covered my face, showing only a blurry outline. Because of the outfit, I looked thinner and shorter.
They made me wait in my room for hours, and then a servant came and took me out of the palace, near the forest.
I sat down beside my father and looked around. So many Beastmen were standing there, their pheromones scattering in the air.
I glanced at my father, and he smiled at me while standing up.
"As you all know, I want to offer peace between humans and Beastmen. That's why I have organized today's hunting festival," he said.
"So today, human alphas will compete with Beastmen alphas, and whoever wins will get the chance to marry my one and only omega son, Ezra."
As he said that, I felt gazes on me. When I glanced down, every alpha standing there was looking up at me. I quickly looked away because their gazes made me uncomfortable.
"Let the hunt begin now," Father ordered.
And in a second, every alpha ran into the forest on their horse.
This forest was not ordinary—because in this forest, there are animals that once ate magic stones.
That's why they are not like normal animals. And no matter how many knights we've sent to hunt them, they always ended up dying.
So Father is taking advantage of this opportunity by using me as bait—so that someone might kill those animals, and he can kill two birds with one stone.
But I know no one can kill those animals, since even our strongest knights died in brutal ways. So I don't think even these Beastman alphas can do it.
But if something bad happens today, things are going to worsen between the human and Beastman clans.
I was sitting there for almost the whole day. My father was eating and drinking, but he didn't even let me drink water, saying I can't look fat. So I had to stay hungry to look pretty and perfect in front of those alphas.
Suddenly, I heard a firecracker explode in the sky. A single one. That meant someone had killed those animals—but who, I didn't know.
After a while, the one who had killed those animals began to emerge, and I slightly moved my veil to see who was strong enough to do it.
But then our knights came forward, and my eyes widened when I saw that it was our knights who had killed those animals.
But just then, those knights stepped aside and glanced toward the forest path, as if they were waiting for someone.