The Crown Prince's Courtesan - Chapter 3
1. The Hidden Dominant Omega
At twenty years old, Marie Alphrose’s life had been anything but easy.
She had no memories from before she was ten. The faintest recollections she held were of her family always living under a cloud of anxiety, like she was constantly being chased by some unseen threat. Even though, in their dull and uneventful rural barony, there was nothing or no one coming after them.
Perhaps this was because her father, the only noble who held the land there, was quite violent.
Her childhood memories were filled with endless shouting. Her father smashed things and often raised his hand against her mother.
It was hell. At some point, her father’s shouts turned bitter with curses, and his gambling addiction grew so severe that it became rare to even see him at home. Naturally, the household atmosphere grew more and more unsettled with each passing year.
The family’s fortunes steadily declined.
Marie learned early on that even nobles had to work to survive. The daughter of a poor rural baron was not even a noble in any meaningful sense once her family had fallen into ruin. Dresses were a luxury, meals were often skipped, and the servants left one by one as the household could no longer afford to pay their wages, until the estate became empty.
Through it all, her mother remained calm and beautiful.
Looking back, her mother seemed utterly mismatched with her father — intelligent and graceful, she was a gentle Omega who carried the scent of soft flowers.
Her mother was kind and lovely, but fragile. Like a greenhouse flower accustomed only to warm sunlight and gentle hands. As her father sank deeper into gambling, her mother was left alone to care for Marie and her siblings. She was a delicate soul.
The first thing to die was her mother’s spirit.
‘Marie, did you know? Our family wasn’t always like this. There were better times. If only it hadn’t been for that incident…’
Her mother became mentally ill. She cried every day, feeling the emptiness left by her father. She crumbled while reminiscing about the past. Clutching Marie’s hand tightly, her mother tried to explain the anxieties of being an Omega. She said she was worried about her. At the time, Marie didn’t understand, but as she grew older, she painfully came to realize why her mother had said those things.
Yes, Marie was an Omega too.
And not just any Omega — a rare dominant Omega.
A powerless dominant Omega, from a poor and insignificant noble family. The perfect target to be hunted.
Because noble families always needed Omegas. The higher the family’s status, the more they needed one.
Noble society was mostly made up of people with special traits: Alphas and Omegas. They had always been determined to preserve their precious bloodlines, carefully breeding among themselves to prevent their noble qualities from mixing with common blood.
Alphas, with their special strength and physical abilities. And Omegas, who could resonate with the Alphas’ pheromones and bear their offspring.
This was the symbol of power held by noble families. The problem was that the number of noble-born Omegas was far fewer than Alphas.
So high-ranking noble families went to great lengths, by any means necessary, to bring a strong pheromone-rich Omega into their house whenever one was discovered. Because such an Omega could bear strong heirs.
Among these, dominant Omegas were extremely rare.
The last record was from a hundred years ago — was further explanation even needed? And that rare dominant Omega was Marie herself.
Then, one day…
Marie’s precarious childhood ended in a cruel way. She was trampled by the footsteps of countless people who rushed in like a typhoon.
‘Ha! You call yourselves nobles? Hahaha! From now on, this land and mansion belong to us.’
‘You foolish woman, your husband sold you to us!’
‘Your wife’s an Omega, huh? I heard only Omegas can bear an Alpha or another Omega. Oh yeah, you’ve got daughters too? They’re young, but pretty enough to have value! Hey kids, are you Alphas or Omegas? Huh?’
They were debt collectors.
They said Marie’s father had left behind massive gambling debts and was dead. They claimed his body couldn’t even be found. And they insisted that his wife and children had to pay off the debt.
Her mother’s soul was torn apart by the cruelty of a father who had even put his own wife up as collateral.
Screams echoed. The debt collectors trampled peace, took everything, and mocked them all.
The modest manor of the baronial family, which had still kept some semblance of order, was ruthlessly ransacked. Even the few remaining furnishings were sold off by their hands.
After that devastating storm passed, all that was left was ruin, and her mother completely lost her mind in despair.
Marie was terrified. She clung to her younger sibling and sobbed.
My mother… I thought she was going to disappear.
‘Marie. My dear daughter.’
‘M-Mom?’
‘No. I can’t let them take you away. Our Marie, our Marie…! Mom loves you so much. That’s why I’m doing this. Do you understand?’
‘Mom?’
In her despair and wailing, her mother made the worst choice.
