Scent

'How gullible.' Egas thought it would take a lot more effort to ask for forgiveness. Under close examination, the issue perhaps lied with alphas.

Alphas dealt with alphas. No matter how harmless one might seem, the aggressiveness was deeply ingrained in the genes.

If one did wrong to another alpha, the latter would sense a vital need to return the favor. Even if that instinct could be controlled, to forgive was not as simple as an apology.

For example, Rick seemed the most easygoing alpha, but he was also one of the most controlling alphas in Egas's social circle. An infamous incident was when another alpha treated Rick's omega to a drink, and Rick almost beat that alpha to death.

Perhaps these traits of alphas were the contribution to why the population of alphas remained equal with omegas even though they could live longer. They end up killing each other off.

However, what he didn't know was the beta had only half forgiven him. Saying he was forgiven was just a courtesy as the beta planned to have as little contact with this person as possible.

"Leader?" Ken called again.

Egas looked down at the beta - he seemed to have asked what was next for their training. Even though Egas preferred Ken to call him by name, it wouldn't do to give preferential treatment so obviously.

Instead, he ended training, "It's lunchtime. Let's go."

Ken thought Egas would go together with him to the cafeteria, but Egas indicated he had work.

Emotionally, Egas wanted to join, but logically, he had already unreasonably squeezed time from his busy schedule to spend time with Ken. Any more than that was asking for a nagging from his assistant. So he had to sacrifice lunchtime to make up work and just take a nutritional drug for lunch.

Ken waved Egas goodbye and went to the cafeteria. Egas had dismissed him too early, so when he arrived there was only one male omega sitting at the regular table.

Grabbing a meal and joining the omega, he learned his name was Jean. Unlike the other omegas who had a pale complexion, Jean had sun-kissed skin and very attractive teal eyes. Cropped silver hair gave him a sunny look.

Jean casually asked, "Where's Krisa? I thought she did your training."

Ken replied without much thought, "She had training and switched with Leader."

The omega asked, "Did you know the leader previously?"

"No," Ken explained he had been on a totally different planet and didn't have any alpha or omega friends.

"I see..." Jean seemed to be in thought.

Ken didn't have a chance to decipher Jean's reaction since another female omega joined them. Her name was Mia.

Mia seemed older than the average age across this table. Caramel colored eyes and shoulder-length straight blonde hair. Although she was smiling, Ken felt a kind of sorrow through her eyes.

Being an older sister type, she asked all sorts of questions about his background and whether he was used to living here on the spaceship. Quickly finishing his meal, Ken had to escape from the barrage of questions.

At the rate Mia was asking questions, she could almost write a biography on him.

Once Ken fleed, Mia remarked, "How cute!" Turning to Jean, she added, "Even cuter than you."

Jean corrected, "I was never cute." Then he changed the topic and commented, "I thought betas have a weak scent, but Ken had a strong one."

Unsurprised, Mia teased, "Your nose is like a dog. I'll bet you can even smell a fart from yesterday."

"..." Jean lost his appetite.

Mia continued, "Most betas I know have a very weak scent, matching their weak sense of smell. It's lucky in that they didn't need inhibitors, but unlucky because it was one of the reasons which made them weak. They were closer to the ancestors of the past, and us omegas and alpha have a stronger primal instinct to match the beasts. We usually awaken higher ranks and can reach a higher class.

But I did skim a research paper before in regards to the relationship between awakening and scent. There have been some reported cases where an awakened's ability altered and strengthened their scent. Naturally, being a higher rank also strengthens all physical senses, and that includes smell.

So Ken's scent may be stronger due to his awakening."

"Is it possible then, for his scent to affect alphas?"

Mia shrugged, "That shouldn't be the case. Alphas react to scent, but only sweet ones like the one from omegas. If they reacted to all strong scent, then they would be sleeping with each other."

Jean said, "I see..."

Mia asked curiously, "Why are you asking? Did Ken's scent smell good? You interested?"

Instantly shaking his head, Jean clarified, "I have no interest in him. And like you said, even if he had a sweet scent, it would not affect me. Otherwise, omegas would be sleeping with omegas."

Raising an eyebrow, Mia teased again, "You mean you aren't already?"

"..." Jean was no match for Mia.

Although she was not getting a reaction from Jean, Mia still spoke, "When are we arriving at Area X16778? We are traveling far this time."

Now Jean could reply, "It will be ten more days before we reach there. The area had been on our list for awhile, but our Union has been fighting with Mesa Alliance for the right to explore it."

"It's part of our galaxy to begin with. What gives them the right to set a flag there?" Mia raged.

Jean knew Mesa Alliance was a sensitive topic for Mia and decided to end the topic. He quickly finished and left the table, leaving Mia still in thought.

Once Ken was back in the room, he suddenly remembered he had to ask Krisa about the undelivered messages.

Tomorrow, he could ask Krisa. For now he was tired and although the restoration drug helped a bit, it was far from recovering all his energy. Even for a 3 Star like him, it had so little effect. For those high classes, he wondered what type of drug they had to use to recover.

As these thoughts engulfed his mind, he went to shower and soon hit the bed, drifting off to sleep.