"Hey. Quack."
"What?"
This time, it was Kwon Minseong's turn to frown.
"Did you just call me a quack...?"
"Even if I overlook the fact that you speak to the Emperor like that, if you can't even tell whether the person standing in front of you is an Alpha, what else should I call you?"
"If I'm a quack, then what are you? A thug? Why is an Alpha who can't even get pregnant barging into an obstetrics clinic and causing trouble?"
At that moment, Tillio wanted to kill Kwon Minseong a little.
Not enough to leave him with a wound that healed in a week. He wanted to leave him bedridden for months, unable to stand.
Narrowing his eyes, Tillio regretted ever letting Minseong escape so easily in the past.
"My younger brother came here."
"There's another one that looks like you? What a tragedy. Truly heartbreaking."
"Where did you hide him?"
"If there were someone to hide, I'd hide him. But there isn't. You've already caused enough trouble in someone else's business. Now get out."
"Cheap tricks won't work on me."
"I don't have enough interest in you, or enough spare time, to bother trying tricks."
He should've escaped by now. Or does he need more time? He looks so hopelessly clueless that I'm genuinely worried.
Without realizing it, Kwon Minseong glanced toward the reception room.
Suddenly his body jerked upward.
A crushing pressure closed around his throat.
"I don't have time for jokes. I'll ask one last time. Where is my brother?"
Ah.
Getting grabbed by the collar.
It's been a while.
The first time it happened, the shock had left him unable to eat for three days.
After sacrificing his appetite, sleep, and every other basic human need to save a dying patient, the patient's guardian had grabbed him by the collar because the patient had been admitted to the intensive care unit instead of a regular ward.
As if saving someone's life wasn't enough.
The guardian hadn't stopped there.
Accusing him of putting the patient in intensive care to squeeze more money out of the hospital bill, the man had grabbed his hair as well.
Then again, a resident's hair was probably easier to pull than a professor's.
The next collar-grabbing incident had happened on the third anniversary of opening his clinic.
He'd wanted to throw a celebration party.
But the staff probably wouldn't care.
He had no family to celebrate with.
No girlfriend.
His friends were all busy running their own clinics, so calling them felt awkward.
In the end, he'd planned to quietly celebrate alone by demolishing a small cream cake.
Instead, that cake had ended up smashed across the parking lot pavement.
The husband of one of his patients, convinced Minseong was having an affair with his wife, had ambushed him behind a concrete pillar after work and seized him by the collar.
The man had beaten him until the police arrived.
Instead of celebrating, Minseong had spent the night in the emergency room getting stitches in his split forehead.
Maybe that was when everything started going downhill.
"If you don't start talking, your neck will be the thing that disappears this time. Speak."
"Instead of wasting time... khk... why don't you... look for him yourself..."
Tillio threw Minseong aside and sprinted toward the reception room.
Kwon Minseong crashed onto the corridor floor and rolled.
"Ugh. Nothing but brute strength."
How was that guy an Emperor?
He was just a gangster.
Brushing off the crumbs, Minseong stared toward the corridor where Tillio had disappeared.
Thanks to the thick carpet, he wasn't injured despite the dramatic fall.
His wrists and ankles were fine.
He hadn't been stabbed.
All things considered, this had ended pretty well.
He hadn't even needed to visit the emergency room.
Sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out, Minseong laughed bitterly.
"Hey. Quack."
Kwon Minseong pressed a hand to his forehead.
Somehow, Tillio had already returned.
Looking down at Minseong's exposed legs, Tillio clicked his tongue.
No manners.
No sense of shame.
"I told you not to call me a quack."
"An ill-mannered Omega quack who can't even show proper respect to a member of the Imperial Family and sits with his legs spread wide open in front of an Alpha sure has a lot of demands."
"Answer me."
"What a wonderful personality. You destroy someone's valuable property and still act proud about it. Very impressive."
"I don't need compliments."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"Ill-bred Omega quack."
"Psychopathic thug Emperor."
For nearly a full minute, neither spoke.
They simply glared at each other.
If people could kill with eye contact, Tillio and Kwon Minseong would have died simultaneously on the spot.
Then Tillio suddenly shoved something beneath Minseong's nose.
"I found this in your room."
In his hand was a brooch set with a large green gemstone.
Minseong wasn't surprised.
Finding expensive lost property was far more common than people thought.
His clinic wasn't an ordinary clinic.
It was the most fashionable social venue in Elunem.
Commoners and nobles alike loved showing off their accessories, and no matter how often they were warned, someone always left behind a valuable item.
"Lost property, huh? Give it here. I'll return it to the owner later."
"And how do you know who the owner is?"
"It looks similar to the brooch the third son of Baron Dihitri wore yesterday."
"Dihitri's brooch?"
"Tsk. Maybe you should visit an ear, nose, and throat clinic instead of an obstetrics clinic. Your hearing seems questionable. Come back here after you get pregnant."
"As expected of a quack. Alphas can't get pregnant. Did you not know that?"
"Don't be so sure. Who knows? One day you might fall into a world where even Alphas can get pregnant."
Muttering to himself, Minseong reached for the brooch.
But Tillio casually caught his wrist and stopped him.
"This brooch..."
With a sharp tug, Tillio pulled Minseong toward him.
Before he knew it, Minseong was pressed against a broad chest.
It was as hard as the Tooth Crusher.
Bending down, the Emperor seized Minseong's hand.
To prevent him from escaping, he threaded his fingers between Minseong's, locking their hands together.
"This is the brooch I personally gave my younger brother Aswin on his eighteenth birthday."
A dangerous smile curled across the Emperor's lips.
"Maybe it's been so long that you're mistaken."
Kwon Minseong remained calm.
After everything he'd experienced, this wasn't enough to shake him.
"It has only been four years."
"That's long enough to get confused. Your hearing isn't great, so there's no guarantee your memory is either. Besides, after four years, imitation products would've appeared by now. Maybe it's some knockoff being sold as 'The Imperial Family Brooch' or something."
The argument sounded smooth and perfectly reasonable.
Aswin would have fallen for it immediately.
Unfortunately, Tillio was not Aswin.
"There are no identical gemstones beneath the heavens. They may look similar at first glance, but their grain, color, and brilliance are all different."
As if threatening someone with a knife, Tillio raised the green gemstone close to Minseong's face.
"See it? The crack in the center?"
Just as he said, a long, thin fracture ran through the middle of the stone.
"You can imitate the shape. You can never imitate the essence."
"Hmm... I don't really understand what you're talking about."
"No. You understand perfectly."
Tillio slipped the brooch into his pocket and grabbed Minseong's robe collar with both hands.
Unable to overcome the more than twenty-centimeter height difference, Minseong ended up standing on tiptoe, flailing.
"Heeey... It's coming off. Let's talk after you let go."
"Where is my brother?"
"If your hobby is looking at naked men, I won't stop you, but I'm not lying when I say I'm not wearing anything underneath."
"If you tell the truth now, I'll spare your life."
"I don't know. I only found out you even had a brother today. And you've been threatening to kill me this whole time, but that'll only hurt you. Do you think capable obstetricians are easy to find? If I die, the Omegas of Elunem won't let you get away with it."
"I suppose I have no choice."
"Exactly. Stop harassing innocent people and get out."
"Starting today, this clinic will be permanently closed."
Kwon Minseong had been rambling casually until that moment.
His eyes flew wide open.
"What?"
"All citizens will be prohibited from entering. And the estate, which originally belonged to the Imperial Family, will be returned to the Imperial Household."
"That's ridiculous! Adelgius gave this estate to me as a gift!"
Having said everything he wanted to say, Tillio turned away.
Kwon Minseong could only stare, speechless before this display of imperial tyranny.
This wasn't just a figure of speech.
The man really was a gangster.
A debt collector in imperial robes.