Damn! Damn! Chapter 5

He didn’t even have a birth certificate, let alone know where he was born. He didn’t even know what country his parents were from. He only guessed they were from Asia based on his appearance; he didn’t know his birthplace. Even his name was given to him at the facility, so Achim truly knew nothing about himself.

At the time, Achim did not blame or lament his parents who abandoned him or the situation he was in. No, it would be more accurate to say he couldn’t. Achim was too young to even entertain such thoughts.

Then came the age of six, when he gradually started to think for himself.

It was on his way back to his room after a meager meal consisting only of bread and milk. Achim turned his footsteps toward the sound of commotion coming from behind the facility building.

A small, scrawny young boy was surrounded by three or four others. The boy, cornered, was terrified, his head deeply bowed, lips pressed tightly shut, unable to move.

It was then. One of the group raised his hand high and struck the boy’s head hard. That was the moment Achim took his first step.

Achim ran quickly and firmly grabbed the wrist of the boy who had raised his hand again.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Achim asked the boy with wide, round eyes. He stood with his back to the terrified boy, as if shielding him. The boy with brown hair and freckles covering his nose looked back and forth between Achim and the boy behind him, then asked with a sneer.

“A friend?”

“No.”

At Achim’s unhesitating answer, the boy behind him flinched and huddled his body together.

“Then get lost.”

“Why?”

“You said he wasn’t your friend. So what business is it of yours whether he gets hit or not?”

At the freckled boy’s words, Achim glanced back at the boy. His small stature and the way he was trembling made him look just like a rain-soaked mouse. Remembering the mice that sometimes sneaked into the facility to escape the rain on stormy days, Achim looked forward again.

“He is my friend.”

He could feel the boy behind him flinch again.

“Don’t lie. You just said he wasn’t your friend.”

“You would have hit him if I said he wasn’t. So he is my friend.”

It was a strange logic, even for a child to hear. The faces of the three or four boys, including the freckled one, distorted instantly.

From Achim’s perspective, their behavior was even harder to understand. What kind of place was an orphanage? It was a space where children in the same predicament gathered together.

Instead of embracing each other, they were ganging up on someone to bully them. Achim felt intense emotion for the first time.

“Get lost.”

“No.”

The freckled boy glared at Achim, who was much shorter than him, with his eyes narrowed. Conversely, Achim simply blinked indifferently and did not let go of the boy’s wrist. Rather, the more the boy struggled, the more Achim tightened his grip, causing the boy’s face to distort with pain.

He didn’t swear, and he didn’t strike him. But perhaps struck with fear by Achim’s un-childlike gaze and grip, the group, led by the freckled boy, turned tail and ran.

Achim watched their retreating backs as they scurried away with indifferent eyes once more.

“Th…”

At the small sound coming from behind him, Achim finally turned around.

“…Thank you…”

The boy whispered, fumbling with his small hands. His head remained bowed.

Achim looked down at the boy’s round hair whorl and reached out. When he smoothed down the side hair that had become a mess from being hit by the freckled boy, the boy was startled by Achim’s unhesitating touch, but soon calmed down.

“What’s your name?”

Achim asked. The boy lifted his head cautiously. Because of his long hair, the boy’s eyes were covered and hidden. Instead, Achim looked at the boy’s round nose and lips and spoke.

“We’re friends now. I should know your name.”

The boy’s lips opened slightly. He was speechless for a while with his mouth open, then finally spoke after a long time.

“Linus…”

Achim nodded.

“Let’s go, Linus. It looks like it’s going to rain again.”

Linus curled his lips slightly and nodded.

Such a delicate and shy child, Achim thought, looking at Linus.

Yeah, he definitely had that charming, delicate side to him.

[Honey, what cup size should I make the chest?]

“…”

Did he still not hang up? Achim slowly snapped out of his thoughts at Linus’s voice.

[I guess the bigger the better, right? You don’t seem to know much about this stuff, so I’ll pick out the lingerie with my own taste.]

“…”

[Ah, just in case, should I pick something that matches Michael Bernhard’s taste?]

“Shut up, Linus…”

[Ahaha.]

Achim clenched his fist, wanting to punch Linus right now. There was no way that a Royal Alpha and a Beta like himself would ever have any reason to be involved in that way.

Annoyed by Linus, who kept making tasteless jokes, Achim had to suppress the urge to retch.

“I like small and petite women.”

[Huh?]

“No matter how great that guy is, he’s not my type. So cut the unfunny jokes, Linus.”

When he spoke sternly, Linus burst out laughing.

Damn it, did I get played by him again? Achim regretted it late and tousled his bangs irritably. He didn’t answer even when Linus called his name.

A moment later, as he just listened while holding the phone, a voice that was uncharacteristically serious reached his ears.

[You never know what might happen in life. You’ll regret it if you talk too big.]

Yvonne Lasch. That was Achim’s new identity for his undercover infiltration.

“Damn these muscles.”

Achim, looking at himself in the mirror—which was covered in dust and looked blurry like a fog—complained while kneading his forearm.

He had spent almost a full month losing weight to look as much like the 20-something-year-old Yvonne as possible. Perhaps there had been a miscalculation, as he only lost body fat, making his muscles feel even more defined.

As Linus said, Achim was definitely on the slender side. No matter what he ate, his weight neither dropped nor rose, and perhaps due to his nature, he always had small, lean muscles even without working out separately. That this would become a hurdle…

Achim scowled and picked something up. It was a wig made of human hair, custom-made for his head shape.

Achim placed the long, black wig, which was the same color as his original hair, on his head and carefully adjusted the strands.

Next, he looked at the pair of flashy underwear lying in front of him. It was lace-trimmed underwear that contained the essence of Linus’s taste.

Achim, who had been contemplating for a long time with his arms crossed, suddenly lowered his gaze and scanned his body.

“…”

Do I really have to wear it? Isn’t it unnecessary for it to be big just because of Linus’s taste? There are all sorts of people in the world.

After agonizing over it, Achim finally threw Linus’s “sincere gift” into a small drawer. He stuffed it into the corner so it wouldn’t be seen, and only then did he feel relieved.

Damn Linus. Achim muttered under his breath and slammed the drawer shut with a bang.

Finally, he held a small glass bottle in his hand. The translucent yellowish-brown glass bottle was a little over half-full of a clear liquid.

Looking at the rippling liquid, Achim gripped the cap. When he turned it, the bottle opened with a pop.

[—If you drink this, you’ll have a voice opposite to your gender. The duration is about 20 to 24 hours. It was hard to get. Um, but…]

As he was about to pour it into his mouth, Linus’s voice flashed through his mind.

[—The downside is that it’s an unverified drug, so there’s no knowing what side effects it might have. There’s even an Omega who reportedly became infertile after drinking it. Ah, thankfully, they say it won’t be life-threatening. The manufacturer guaranteed that much. I’m worried, but… you’re going to drink it even if I stop you, right?]

It’s not like it’ll kill me. Besides, infertility or pregnancy were things that didn’t apply to him anyway.

Achim brushed off the unfortunate examples Linus had listed and swallowed the liquid in one go.

Michael Bernhard’s mansion was truly as immense as his fame suggested.

The grounds surrounding the mansion were unimaginably vast, and one had to walk hundreds, no, thousands of steps just to reach the wide lawn in front of the main building.

When he finally reached the front of the large fountain in the center of the lush green grass, Achim’s jaw dropped at the sight unfolding before his eyes.