When I was still in my old body and started my career as an editor, I started to smoke.

Yes, I know, it’s a very unhealthy habit, but I just needed to relieve stress sometimes, you know?

At first, I only smoked occasionally. However, when I became in charge of a certain s***ty author, the times I did it increased exponentially.

Well, as smoking isn’t a pleasant habit to keep, I tried to get rid of it.

One thing that worked very well for me was sucking lollipops.

That’s why I’m here, at “Sweets Paradise”, the most famous sweet franchise in the federation, staring without blinking at the lollipop section.

There were so many flavors I was having a hard time choosing.

Should I just buy them all?

Though it would be quite a hassle to keep them hidden...

What to do?

Time was a pressing issue since I planned to visit someone today.

Oh? Maybe I should hide it at his place?

This would give me the perfect excuse to keep on visiting him frequently.

In the end, I bought them all.

******

After my slight detour, I finally went to my actual destination.

The car stopped in front of a very inconspicuous building.

I politely dismissed the driver, got out of the car, and pressed the doorbell three times.

Then, a security camera turned in my direction.

I glared at it for three seconds, for it to scan my iris.

When the door opened, I went in with resolute steps as I was sure of my destination.

Soon enough, I stopped in front of a low-key white door.

“Laurence~I came here to play~”

I heard something very heavy falling.

However, there was no movement showing that the person inside the room would open the door for me.

I knocked on the door.

“Laurence~ I know you are inside there~”

Did this brat think he could hide from me by refusing to open the door?

Sigh, I guess I have no choice.

I took the extra key I was hiding inside my clothes.

“I’m entering~”

As I opened the door, a very messy laboratory came into my vision.

Are you sure you can work on such critical research here?

Boxes were spread everywhere on the floor. I guess it was the sound of their falling that I heard?

There were also some test tubes whose contents spilled over the bench and onto the floor.

I carefully deviated from them as I searched for my dear scientist.

From the way these things fell, he should be hiding... Oh, there.

I opened an already slightly opened cabinet door.

“What are you doing inside, Laurence?”

“Eh? Oh, Nolan? I-I was just doing these super light-sensitive experiments. Hahaha”

“I thought I gave you a darkroom exactly for that. “

“Oh, you gave me that, didn’t you? I’m so forgetful sometimes, haha”

There was a pause. Laurence became more and more awkward with each passing second.

I smiled. He shivered.

“So, that’s it? What a relief. For a second I thought you were hiding from me.”

“H-How is it possible?”

“So, that means you also didn’t hear it when I came?”

“Y-Yes, I was too engaged in my experiments.”

“And the mess here... It wasn’t because you were in a hurry trying to hide, right?”

“N-No. Of course not.”

“Oh, that’s good. Then... How long do you plan to stay inside there?”

He hurriedly went out from the cabinet, with two test tubes in his hands.

“Didn’t you say these things were light-sensitive? You should stow then somewhere.”

“Haha, I was just going to do that.”

“Find somewhere to keep these things too.”

I gave him the bag with the sweets I bought.

“Th-this is...?”

“Lollipops.”

“Ah?”

“It’s a hassle to keep them at home so I’ll leave them here. Please keep them very carefully~”

He kept staring at me suspiciously like I was testing him or something. But the bag just had sweets, I swear.

I needed them to relieve stress. I couldn't hide them at home where they coulb be confiscated by the Riverstone lady.

By the way, my throat was getting dry, and we still had a lengthy conversation ahead. I wanted to drink something.

“Oh, while at it, please make some tea.”

“Y-Yes!’

He hurriedly tried to get away the farthest he could from me.

“What an angel? He is a demon!”

Laurence whispered, thinking I didn’t hear him.

“Did you say something, Laurence?”

“N-Nothing!”

Sigh. For some reason, Laurence kept getting more and more scared at each meeting. I wonder why?

After we sign the contract between us, I tore up my good child mask bit by bit...

I also warned him several times to keep his research and my involvement an absolute secret.

I also put some bodyguards (tails) around him...

And called him sometimes just for "fun"...

...But it’s not like I’ll eat him or something.

It didn’t take long for Laurence to come back and lead me to his small office where he had already prepared two teacups.

I took a sip.

Perfect.

“So, how’s your research going, Laurence?”

“As I said before, little master. It’s going smoothly until now. I have established five strong antagonist candidates for OFR receptors, with 3 being non-competitive antagonists, and 3 antagonists candidates for OH receptors on in vitro assays. There’s also one very interesting inverse agonist candidate for OHR. I’m in the middle of establishing their toxicity potential...”

I massaged between my eyebrows

“Laurence, please speak in a way I can understand.”

At least, it looked like he stopped being nervous.

“Hahaha, sorry, I guess I got a little carried away. Anyway Nolan, do you understand the concept of positive feedback?”

“I guess. It’s like a loop where ‘A’ leads to the production of B which leads to the production of more A and it keeps going until something interrupts it.”

“Something like that. Anyway, omega’s heat is the product of a positive feedback loop.”

“I’ll take some liberties while explaining and I can’t say everything is as simple as that but...Let’s say, at the start of everything, for reasons we don’t need to explain, one omega enters puberty and starts to produce a hormone which we’ll call hormone A. Hormone A then leads to the production of another hormone called hormone B, which will occur inside of this person’s gland. Hormone B then will not only lead to the production of more A but it’ll also be stocked inside the gland where he’ll suffer some minor changes, becoming a pheromone, the thing responsible for the smell omegas emit that makes alphas crazy. When the quantity of pheromone kept inside the gland reaches a certain threshold, it’ll be released at once, causing what we call heat.”

“So... You’re trying to find molecules that will interrupt the positive feedback loop.”

“Not just interrupting....”

I could feel he’d start another lengthy explanation, so I glared at him.

“Yeah... More or less.”

Well, it’s interesting to understand a little what happens to my body, but... More than the cause, I’m more interested in the results.

“How long do you think it’ll take until you produce something useful?”

“Well, If I get excellent results with at least one candidate and nothing goes wrong ... I guess five years?”

I got up from my chair.

“Five years!? That’s too long!”

I needed these inhibitors to be ready before my tenth birthday.

That was less than three years from now.

Why did the number of things I needed to worry about keep increasing?

Sigh. I should just have bought the entire candy sector on that Sweet’s shop.