Everyone was occupied with their own thoughts and no one spoke after that, Aki who had never faced such long drive looked visibly tired. With great expertise, he placed his legs on the wide seat and leaned down to sleep on his Onee-chan's lap, he has been doing this for a week already and he was adept to it.
Yuki was also bored by now, but she wasn't sleepy, she made it a point to sleep at night and take a power nap during the day if she was too tired, otherwise, she didn't like to sleep a lot, according to her, if she makes it a habit, it would be detrimental at a later stage.
Yuki couldn't read a book because she had packed everything and she only had her tablet with her now, if not for Aki, who wanted to help her pack and placed everything inside a box with his own books that the Duke gave him, she would have at least kept one book aside.
She finally gave up and decided to read from her tablet, she didn't like the feeling, but she had no other choice.
Just when she was about to start reading, the cold voice of the Duke made her stop, "I assume you are already aware of your gender."
Normally, it would be weird to ask a six-year-old about this, but since the very first moment he had placed his eyes on her, he wanted to treat her as an adult, he felt like it was okay to talk to her like one.
Yuki's finger twitched as she looked up, "I'm a Beta. But I'm not sure about the official certificate."
In this world, if the child was a Beta at birth, they will be given a proper certificate, the same was given to the Alphas and Omegas after they reached puberty, but the Duchess didn't want it and she forcefully changed her gender to Alpha... as it goes, Yuki could still pass as an Alpha for all her life if she didn't have to use 'magic', the test conducted by the imperial government was indeed mandatory and free, but bypassing the result was also possible for some with deep pockets and the Duchess happened to one of them, she had already forced the doctor to give Yuki a certificate for 'Alphas' so, in the future, she did not need to have that test, in the world's eye, she was already an 'Alpha'.
The Duke was again shocked by her statement, her saying that she was a Beta was already shocking enough, but still, it was normal with her IQ, the Duke presumed, but the way she spoke, as if, she knew about her 'given' gender in the certificate was indeed out of his expectations.
For the first time, the Duke felt bad about her being just a 'Beta', he felt it was a huge 'shame' for such a kid to be so 'normal'...
….....
….....
The car was making its way through the isolated roads in the dead of the night.
Come the next morning, they will be in the capital.
Aki and Yuki were nestled together and were sleeping contentedly, they still had a relatively smaller frame and fit in the huge seat, Aki was cute, to begin with, but Yuki who usually had a (-_-), with her guard down, looked very adorable with her soft hair cascading down her face and her little mouth slightly open showcasing her cute little pink tongue and also the gap between her teeth as her milk teeth had started shedding, it somehow made a huge contrast to her usual look and the gap made her look even more endearing.
The Duke, who had been looking out happened to see this scene and took a picture of it, he knew that Aki will be glad to see them in the future plus, he felt that it was a normal thing to do. Just a week ago, if one said to him that he will become a doting parent who also likes to flex around his kid, he would simply ignore them, but after spending over a week with them, the distance between them had indeed shrunk by a lot.
The protectiveness he felt for Aki could be said to be the same as any other Alpha towards other Omegas, but the Duke was aware that it was not instinct, he genuinely wanted to protect this little kid, as for Yuki, he felt he could connect with her as an adult, it wasn't something he usually felt, even from the older nobility!
The Duchess had spoken a lot about him not marrying and him not having the feeling of what it felt to have a family, because she had lost it... at that moment, the Duke had thought of it as normal, he still hadn't wanted to get along with these kids, nor had he wanted to take responsibility as a parent, he just had the thought of raising them because they were his blood, nothing more and nothing less, but reality slapped him.
He had let his guard down that day when he saw the little Aki in tears asking around for Yuki, he could have ignored it, it would have stopped there, but he didn't, he took a step to help him and that marked the start of the change, along the way, their existence crept in through the small gap he created that day and taken a huge space in his inner world.... still, it wasn't like he was feeling burdened, he would have taken care of them as an adult, but now he would as a father.
He still didn't know how to behave like one because a day ago when he had spoken about 'magic', in a roundabout way, he had probably hit a sore spot of Yuki who was a noble child, but a 'Beta'
He may not have known that she knew of her gender, but when he saw that smirk on her lips, he understood that the gender system that he had been running away from all his life, had actually taken a deeper root in his unconsciousness.
He who thought to never compare the genders, it seems, had never seen the Betas as equal, for him... the true nobles had always been the Alpha and Omega...
Before he could start reflecting on what he could do better as a parent, he felt a sudden chill and immediately asked the soldier-cum-driver to stop the car.