– Imprint –

I.

Her body felt as heavy as cotton soaked in water. Yuria frowned at the stairs before her. It wasn’t only her body that felt heavy.

Her mind was dazed and foggy too. No matter how much she wiped her glasses, her vision wouldn’t clear. It was probably because of the weather.

This morning, instead of bright sunlight or birdsong, Yuria had woken to the sound of rain tapping against the window. The damp air always made her weary, but today was especially bad.

Should she just skip breakfast? As Yuria stood there pondering with a hand on the stair railing, familiar maids greeted her.

“Miss Rigbye, you woke up late today.”

“I don’t have to hold lessons anymore, after all. I thought I’d take it a little easy.”

Yuria answered while hiding her fatigue. It wasn’t a lie. As the live-in governess of the Cunningham ducal family, she hadn’t been idle even once since entering the mansion. If she had work today as usual, she would have gotten up on time and prepared for lessons no matter how unwell she felt. Just as Yuria was pressing down hard on her throbbing head once more, she heard the maids’ conversation.

“It looks like a marriage proposal came in for the youngest Young Master. You know, the omega lady from the Cellion count family.”

“Really? Then she’ll be coming to the banquet in a few days too.”

A marriage proposal. As the maids’ voices grew distant, Yuria smiled faintly. The boy she had taught for years had grown up enough for marriage talks to be exchanged.

Yuria had been hired as the ducal family’s governess around the time Luke was just entering puberty. When she first saw Luke, who was at the age where his voice had just begun to change, Yuria thought his features were very lovely. The bright smile he showed whenever she praised him was endearing too.

That boy had now grown so dignified that no one could see him as young. His slender but sturdy frame had thickened with muscle before she knew it, and there was no longer any trace of a boyish impression in his face. He had grown so tall that when she taught him to dance, she had to tilt her head back as far as it would go.

Of course, even aside from his appearance, Luke was an extraordinarily bright and diligent student. Even the fact that he was an alpha wasn’t enough to explain his many strengths.

People believed that alphas and omegas were those blessed by god. They said god selected those he especially cherished, bestowed grace upon them, and allowed them to be paired with one another. Since they were people chosen by god, it was only natural that they were intelligent, strong, and even beautiful, or so they said.

Luke was certainly exceptional enough to be called someone who had received god’s love. He absorbed everything Yuria taught him without difficulty, and what she didn’t teach him, he learned on his own. His tall height and upright gait were graceful enough to steal everyone’s attention even from afar, and his straight nose and bluish-purple eyes left people spellbound.

However, Yuria didn’t believe that god’s choice was necessarily a blessing. Their estrus periods, prettily named rut and heat cycles, were closer to a curse than a blessing in Yuria’s opinion.

Whenever they periodically went into estrus, their suffering was beyond words. An alpha couldn’t calm his heated body without taking an omega, and an omega couldn’t calm hers without taking an alpha.

These days, at least, it was said that medication could subdue the symptoms within a day or two even without going all the way with someone, but still, they had no choice but to suffer helplessly during that time.

Luke, too, wouldn’t take a single step out of his room for two days once his rut began. Because there couldn’t be any accident that might damage the dignity of the ducal family.

That was why Luke had been given a governess instead of entering a private school. And it was also the reason Yuria would soon have to leave the mansion.

After working there for years, Yuria had grown very attached to Luke and to the ducal residence itself. The duke had also told Yuria that she didn’t need to leave right away, so she could stay at the mansion as long as she wanted until she found a new position.

If only she weren’t an omega.

Yuria had hidden the fact that she was an omega and become Luke’s governess. She knew it was a sin, but Yuria had no other choice. Her household had fallen, and as soon as Yuria came of age, she had to find work somehow. What caught her eye then was the position of live-in governess for the Cunningham ducal family.