Joril lies in bed, thinking about what happened ten years ago. He feels the scar behind his neck and remembers how much his mother and father cried when they took turns taking care of him. 

He sighs and kicks the cover to readjust his body. He sees the moon from his window, it’s quite cold but spring is next month. He will be twenty-two this year in the summer but no one has come to ask for his hand in marriage. He doesn’t care but his parents do.

Just as he is about to doze off, there is a sudden scream from a few houses away. All the houses nearby woke up. His mother comes to his room while his father and brothers go out to help.

“That’s the tenth one this week,” Rosenette sighs and hugs Joril’s burly body. “They’re all young and ready-to-marry omegas… Joril, you need to be careful. You can’t sleep by yourself anymore, you’ll have to sleep with your father and me.”

“Alright.” Joril lies on his mother’s lap.

“Why are you so happy, hm? Want to sleep with mother and father so badly?”

“Yes,” Joril nods. 

Rosenette pinches his cheek, smiles, and then sighs with a melancholy kiss, “Everything is my fault… If it wasn’t for my big mouth, your nape wouldn’t be burned. You could’ve married a normal gentleman by now. Then I wouldn’t worry like this with all of these mysterious deaths.”

“It wasn't my mother's fault. Everything was our bad luck. And this,” Joril touches his nape. “It’s a blessing. Now I get to live with my mother and father forever.”

“Your father and I don’t want you to stay with us forever. We wanted you to start a life with a good person and have children of your own… if it’s still possible, we still do want you to.”

Joril pretends to have fallen asleep somewhere along the way. His mother pats his head and stares into the moon, wishing for the night to pass faster. 

When dawn approaches, his father and brothers return with faces as pale as bleached white sheets. They all sit around Joril’s bedroom, his father starts, “It’s not good. We need to send Joril to your grandparent’s place and find a good spouse for him there.”

“My poor baby,” Rosenette hugs Joril tightly. 

“I’ll go to grandmother’s house but I won’t get married,” Joril shrugs his shoulders and has a childish smile. “I’m planning to come back here after this is all done and over with.”

“Big brother, how long are you going to stay single? Do you know Joslan is waiting for you to get married so he can marry his girlfriend?”

Joril glances at Jorin, the younger one of his twin brothers, then hugs his knees, feeling conflicted and small. His mother places an arm around his shoulders, “Mother will go with you and help you choose a good person.”

He doesn’t reply to his mother but allows her to embrace him. 

In all of his three past lives, he had never married. He especially does not want to marry anyone and then drag them through the life of a villain’s spouse. Who can live through believing he is a good person, seeing him slain by the hero, and then suffers from the guilt that he is a villain? Furthermore, every time he leaves his family they will be murdered… 

“Joril…” 

“What if I marry someone into the family? Then can I stay?” 

The others sigh one after another. His father answers him, “You’re an Omega. It is not that I do not wish for you to marry someone into the family, however, I fear that after your mother and I are gone you won’t be able to feed your spouse, your children, or yourself.”

“Then I won’t marry and I won’t go to my grandmother's. I’ll stay here and die here.”

“Why are you so selfish!” Jorin grabs Joril’s collars. “Are you going to leech off of father and mother even on their deathbeds? We only want you to be taken care of.”

Joril’s strength is no less of his younger brother and walks out of the room, acting as if to collect his thoughts. He doesn’t want these good people to die when he leaves nor want them to suffer more because of who he will be for the hero. For once, he wants to serve his family until the hero comes for his life.

He is busy making breakfast when his father enters the kitchen, “Your mother is resting… Take some food to her when the food is cooked. Your brothers and I will be in the shop.”

“Yes.”

“Joril… Your mother and I don’t want to force you, but getting married may do you many good things. Your mother and I will be fine even when you’re married into another family, and you can always come to visit us.”

He doesn’t answer and his father slips out of the kitchen again. He puts food on the table and carries a tray to his mother. He shares breakfast in bed with her.

“What kind of husbands do you like?” Rosenette smiles and pinches Joril’s cheeks.

Joril looks up and then back down, “I like women.”

“How can you be attracted to someone’s gender? Being attracted to their good traits is enough.”

“I like them strong.”

“How strong?”

“They have to be able to carry me on their shoulders. Their muscles have to be this big and more handsome than my father.”

Rosenette chuckles, “Anything else?”

“They have to come with me to visit you and father every holiday. They have to be taller than me, stronger than me, better looking than me, work harder than me, wake up earlier—“

“Sounds like you already have someone in mind.”

“Ah! I said all those things because no one can be my husband…” the last few words trail away. The cheeks pout, waiting to be comforted.

“Maybe not in this small town but definitely in the big city where we used to live with your grandparents,” Rosenette pulls on her son’s cheeks. “And you’re almost twenty-two, you should have a few children of your own to tease.”

Later that day as the sun sets on the far horizon, three more omegas of age are murdered. The following morning, Rosenette sets off to her parents’ with her eldest son.