The Scent of a Wife

In the year 3000 of the Star Calendar, the New Humans had exiled the Zerg into a black hole for nearly a century. Just as humanity was about to forget the shadow that had once hung over them, a white-hole jet erupted.

During the operation, the Empire's Alpha Marshal wiped out every Zerg remnant in the white-hole ruins and saved the lives of everyone aboard the starship.

He also brought back his fiancée.

*

Bai Yilan, a male Omega, had just reached adulthood.

The asteroid listed in his household registration was eighteen jumps away from the Imperial Capital Star. In the eighteen generations before him, not one of his relatives had ever left their homeland.

They said his hometown still taught Omegas the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, and to obey their husbands in everything. On the Imperial Capital Star, ABO equality had already been fully realized, and Omegas took pride in defeating Alphas.

An Omega from such a backward place was bound to be provincial.

Documents were strewn all over the floor as young aristocrats from high society took turns mocking him, vowing to teach him a proper lesson.

Red wine soaked one corner of the paperwork. Someone picked up the page and finally got a clear look at the ID photo.

The Omega was still wearing his school uniform. He had slender shoulders, lips pressed together, and a youthful, quiet chill about him.

A tiny mole rested on the tip of his nose.

"..."

When he looked up, the Omega in the photo seemed to have stepped into the room.

He stood there, his expression calm, like a beautiful ghost from an old castle.

A troublemaker's face changed. He pointed at Bai Yilan and challenged him, "Y-you... why aren't you wearing a suppressor ring? What shameless behavior!"

Everyone caught the scent...

An indescribable, cool, lingering fragrance.

In a fleeting moment, the beautiful youth had appeared in front of him like a ghost.

Bai Yilan tugged open the collar of his restrictive formalwear, letting the other man touch the choker around his neck. "You mean this?"

Then he leaned closer and sniffed. "You... smell delicious."

With everyone watching, the aristocrat fell off his high-backed chair.

*

Bai Yilan woke up inside a human body. When he looked into the water, he saw that he looked just as he had before falling asleep.

But he no longer had petal-like limbs and could not take on an orchid's form. For a mantis orchid, he had lost his ability to hunt.

Fortunately, a human called his "fiancé" decided to keep him.

Bai Yilan sniffed. His fiancé had no scent.

Not delicious, and Bai Yilan was hungry now.

*

The Marshal was a 3S-rank Alpha, standing at the pinnacle of the Imperial Capital Star's Alphas, an Alpha among Alphas.

Once released, his pheromones were strong enough to make ordinary people bleed from all seven orifices. Ordinary suppressor rings had no effect on him, so he had to regularly inject himself with large amounts of suppressants to ensure not a trace of pheromones escaped.

He had brought his fiancée, who had gone missing, back from the white-hole ruins.

His fiancée was lovely, but too young, and still in school.

He had just survived a Zerg disaster and was very dependent on the Marshal, always leaning against his shoulder.

Their engagement was merely an arrangement between old friends of their fathers. The Marshal took care of Bai Yilan's daily needs and planned to bring up ending the engagement once Bai Yilan graduated and could support himself.

White-hole ruins kept turning up Zerg disasters, and the Marshal was so busy he barely had time to rest. He only heard that his fiancée was making friends quite successfully and often brought classmates home for parties.

Colleague: "You either work overtime and don't come home, or fall asleep the moment you get back. Do you know what you look like these days?"

Colleague: "Like the husband in those videos, sleeping soundly while the bed is still rocking."

Marshal: "Those people are just Bai Yilan's friends."

He didn't think there was anything wrong, but everyone around him looked at him as if he were wearing a green hat.

He decided to go home for a visit.

He hauled his dazed adjutant out of the master bedroom's bathroom. Marshal: ?

The bathroom smelled like burning protein, as if something were about to be cooked through.

Bai Yilan ran over from the kitchen and hurriedly threw his arms around him. "Darling, I think the bathroom's smart heating system is broken. It was so scary."

The Marshal looked down. His fiancée seemed uneasy and pitiful.

It seemed he ought to come home more often. Bai Yilan was in danger alone, and perhaps his colleagues had a point.

After that came the endless catching of third parties, until he grew tired of it...

*

While repelling a sudden Zerg attack, the Marshal's suppressants failed, and the Zerg Queen gravely wounded him in the chaos.

Dust filled the air. The Marshal raised his eyelids and, through the blur of blood, saw his fiancée rushing toward him after disembarking from the starship.

There was no time to ask why Bai Yilan had taken such a risk, nor to tell him to stay away from the Marshal's out-of-control pheromones, because Bai Yilan had already embraced him.

Bai Yilan said, "You smell delicious."

His wife's cool, melancholy orchid fragrance enveloped him.

Archived 2025/1/25

[Fake universally disliked, actually universally adored] [ABO irresistible to all] [Many one-sided crushes]

[Orchid mantis Zerg Queen as the recipient. The "third parties" in the blurb are food to him, but he doesn't actually kill anyone]

Core theme: Learn to control your desires