[BL]Reborn as the Empire's Most Desired Omega
Chapter 76: Rings and drama

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Rings and drama

Trevor finally lifted his hand toward the portfolio. "Can we begin? We need the rings by Thursday at noon. Cathedral Registry doesn’t wait."

There was a pause.

A long one.

Benjamin stared at him like he’d just been personally handed a live grenade.

"I’m sorry," he said, voice soft. Dangerous. "What did you just say?"

"Thursday," Trevor repeated, calmly. "At noon."

"Thursday," Benjamin echoed. "As in the day after tomorrow. As in forty-eight hours from now."

"Forty-four, technically," Windstone offered from the doorway.

Benjamin turned around so fast his coat flared. "Forty-four hours?"

Trevor didn’t blink. "Yes."

Benjamin clutched the edge of the velvet case like he was restraining the urge to fling it out the window.

"Do you understand what you’re asking me to do?" he said, voice rising. "This is not ordering stationery or monogrammed towels, Trevor. This is custom ringwork. Engraving. Casting. Certification. Sacred bless-your-union nonsense. You want all of that—and delivery—to one of the most watched religious institutions in the Empire? In forty-four hours?"

Lucas sipped his coffee. "You forgot the box. I want a nice one."

Benjamin’s hands flailed heavenward. "Oh, he wants a box. Perfect. That’s what this needs. Additional packaging."

Trevor exhaled. "Benjamin."

"No, I’m serious. Why not throw in a tiara? Maybe a matching dagger for the first ceremonial assassination attempt? Better yet, I’ll forge it all out of the tears of artisans who still believed in lead times."

"Do you need air?" Lucas asked mildly.

"I need a drink," Benjamin muttered, massaging his temples. "And a sedative. And a new client."

Windstone crossed the room in silence and poured water into a crystal glass. "You’re not getting one until Thursday."

Benjamin took the glass with a scowl and downed it like it was vodka.

"I hate both of you," he said.

Trevor folded his hands calmly. "But you’ll do it."

Benjamin’s glare was nuclear. "Only because your husband is delightful. And I will make sure to ruin you financially for this."

Trevor didn’t flinch. "If the rings are good enough, I’ll let you."

"You say that now," Benjamin snapped, snatching the sample tray like he was about to perform surgery. "But wait until you see the invoice. It’ll come with a small funeral bell and a letter of apology from your future accountant."

Lucas leaned back, watching them with vague amusement. "You really do attract the dramatic."

"I don’t attract them," Trevor said. "They just never leave."

Benjamin sniffed. "That’s because your emotional availability is so limited it counts as a limited edition."

Trevor didn’t even blink. "Are we choosing or are you still venting?"

Benjamin gestured dramatically toward the tray like he was leading an orchestra of underpaid nobles. "Fine. Duchess, we never got properly acquainted. I recommend starting with that and working our way out of what you don’t like. Windstone told me you don’t like diamonds."

Lucas didn’t immediately answer. His fingers brushed the edge of the coffee cup before setting it down, gaze steady.

"Lucas Oz D’Argente," he said. "Or Duchess, if you’re still deciding whether or not to be polite."

Benjamin didn’t miss a beat. He bowed, lower this time. "Benjamin LaVierre. House jeweler. Vault raider. Recovering egomaniac."

Lucas looked unimpressed. "Still recovering?"

"Barely."

Trevor said nothing.

Benjamin motioned to the tray again. "Now that we’re formally insulted and introduced, let’s begin. I heard no diamonds. Anything else that makes you violent?"

"I’m not fond of metal that’s had someone else’s name on it," Lucas said, reaching forward. "Nothing inherited. Nothing steeped in someone else’s meaning. If I’m going to wear this for the rest of my life, it shouldn’t belong to anyone else—not your archives, not Trevor’s ancestors, not the crown."

He picked up a narrow palladium band—matte, unfinished, and cool to the touch. He turned it in his fingers like he was testing the weight of something more than material.

Benjamin blinked. Then smiled like he’d just found the rarest commission in the Empire.

"You’re going to be a nightmare," he said. "A beautiful, well-dressed nightmare."

"I’m not here to be easy," Lucas said.

Trevor’s eyes didn’t leave him. "That’s what makes you mine."

Benjamin groaned. "If either of you get romantic on me, I swear I’ll gild something out of spite."

Lucas hummed as he turned the ring again. "If I’m officially a dominant now, shouldn’t I pick something extravagant? Something that screams generational wealth and imminent homicide?"

Benjamin paused. Blinked. Then let out the loudest sigh known to the Fitzgeralt household.

"You can choose whatever you want," Trevor said evenly, ignoring his friend melting into the rug like a tragic oil painting.

Lucas didn’t even blink. "Then, do you have alexandrite? It would look nice in contrast with Trevor’s eyes."

Benjamin made a sound. It was not human. Somewhere between a gasp and a wheeze, like a dying falcon being gifted a gemstone.

"You want a color-shifting gem that refracts light like moral ambiguity?" he asked, voice rising. "For contrast?"

Lucas tilted his head. "Why not? It’s rare. Complicated. Looks like it hides things."

Trevor, still unbothered, murmured, "So just like me."

Benjamin threw his hands in the air. "Fantastic. Unfortunately, you’re right—it will work. And I have the perfect stone for that, which is infuriating. Now I understand why you skipped the engagement entirely, Trevor."

He then turned to Lucas, eyes narrowed like he was trying to identify a rare species. "A dominant? How did he even find you?"

Trevor didn’t look up from the tray. "Serathine. And then he fainted in my arms at his coming-of-age gala."

Benjamin froze. "He what?"

Lucas sipped his coffee, unbothered. "I was overdressed. And underfed. And surrounded by nobles who wanted to buy me like a brooch. Also trauma."

Benjamin turned slowly, like his entire worldview had shifted three degrees to the left. "You fainted. At a gala. Into Trevor’s arms."

"I didn’t plan it," Lucas said, dryly. "Though in hindsight, it was efficient."

Trevor, still examining the ring samples, added mildly, "It worked." Correct content is on NovelFire

"It worked?" Benjamin echoed. "You bagged the Empire’s most unapproachable man by collapsing into him like a regency heroine and that worked?"

Lucas arched a brow. "I was the one who said to get married. He complied."