You are the crimson veil that dyed my eyes with blood.
You are the black beast that ripped my heart to shreds.
The stars have fallen, and the earth has crumbled.
Now, let us cross hell together and reach heaven.
Before everything turns to foam and vanishes.
This time, I will protect you there.
In that place where everyone will be happy.
My beloved...
<Crimson Veil> End
This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.
____________________________________
A blue-tinged darkness colored the surroundings.
The damp, moldy smell unique to a basement, mixed with the metallic stench of rusted iron, seeped into his nose. Cold, suffocating—it was hard to breathe.
Smell, touch, hearing, taste—every sense sharpened, except sight. Seo Heemin waited in the oppressive silence, his fevered body burning, as if the world itself had ended.
How long had it been? The heat that had scorched his entire body disappeared. Blink. Blink. Heemin opened and closed his eyelids several times, trying to adjust to the darkness. But it was as though a deep blue curtain was draped above him—nothing clear entered his vision.
With a hand drained of strength, he barely managed to reach out and sweep through the air.
Suddenly—
His fingertips touched something that sent chills through his skin—cold, hard metal.
Steel bars...?
His mind snapped into focus.
He should be lying on his bed—yet here he was, trapped in an unfamiliar place.
He was surrounded on all sides by iron bars. Beneath him, coarse wooden planks creaked with every movement he made.
“Next, Number 20—Prime Omega. Get ready!”
“Yes, sir!”
Rough, gruff voices layered with the sound of creaking floorboards, blending into a harsh echo.
Prime Omega? His thoughts stumbled. Is this a dream?
It felt like one. The scene before him vividly mirrored what he had been reading just before he fell asleep.
The distant murmur of voices, the shaking of wooden planks, the iron bars, and the term “Prime Omega”—this dream was far too detailed.
‘Hey, Heemin! Look at this—the character has your exact name!’
His third sister had tossed him a BL novel, saying it was creepy that the main character shared his name. In that book, “Seo Heemin” was sold at an Omega auction after losing his father, falling into debt, and being captured by human traffickers.
Out of half-curiosity and half-repulsion, he had started reading the BL novel <Crimson Veil (赤幕)>, and by the time the sky began to brighten with dawn, he had fallen asleep.
Lingering on the novel’s poignant ending, he had flipped back to reread the opening. Drowsiness had crept up just before the scene where the protagonist reunited with the main character, Cha Iheon. His last conscious thought had been how horrific the Omega auction scene was—he never expected that thought to manifest into this dream.
A self-proclaimed print addict, Seo Heemin was the local library’s top borrower. When there were no books left, he even read his sisters’ BL novels, caring more about stories than genre.
He had never felt particular attraction toward men, but he also had no prejudice—his second sister was in a same-sex relationship.
Besides, contrary to his initial assumptions that BL novels would be nothing but smut, many had deeper narratives than he expected. Their delicate portrayal of love, regardless of gender or orientation, captivated him. It was the love story itself that moved him.
Among the authors he encountered, one in particular stood out. His sister had tossed him <Crimson Veil>, the author's latest release. He had been drawn to its dry, stripped-down prose—yet beneath it, the author’s tender gaze toward humanity shone through. Even the coincidence of the protagonist sharing his name hadn’t stopped him from reading.
Perhaps because his sisters preferred realistic contemporary novels, the Omegaverse—populated by Alphas, Betas, and Omegas—had been a foreign concept to him. But the novel’s unrelenting darkness and ruinous atmosphere pulled him in, keeping him glued to its pages all night.
The scene that haunted him most was the final one: Seo Heemin, clutching the lifeless body of the man who died to protect him—before taking his own life.
And the monologue that followed that death lingered in his mind:
The star was the dead child. The earth, their broken world. And the place where everyone would be happy... where was that?
He had hoped the two, after crossing through hell, would find their heaven—a love fulfilled at last.
Yet here he was, trapped in a dream of that very scene, caged and cold.
The creak of the wooden boards shattered his sentimental haze, yanking him back to reality—
This is... too real.
He had experienced lucid dreams before. But he could never think in them—never reason, never control himself fully.
This dream was different.
His body responded freely. His fingers still tingled from the cold steel.
He clenched his hand tightly—his nails bit into his palm. Pain shot through his skin, sharp and undeniable.
Pain? In a dream?
The clarity of sensation—the chill, the ache—
It was wrong. Too vivid.
It felt as though he wasn’t dreaming—
But living inside Seo Heemin.
They say dreams are the manifestation of the unconscious mind—
But he wasn’t watching from afar.
He was inside Seo Heemin, living his story.
And perhaps, he thought—
Because he had cared too much for him.
The life of the “Seo Heemin” who shared his name was nothing but suffering.
In childhood, a sudden accident left him with a deep fear of Alphas. Even his closest friend, Cha Iheon, who later awakened as a Prime Alpha, was pushed away—his school years spent imprisoned within trauma.
Just as he found solace through painting, the sins of his father—who had ruined Cha Iheon’s family—tightened around his neck like a noose.
As if that wasn’t enough, he was eventually sold—his body forced into Cha Iheon’s arms, who had since become an executive in a corporate crime syndicate.
Though the novel’s Seo Heemin could only hate Cha Iheon, pushing love behind him, he—the reader—had wept bitterly at every monologue. Seo Heemin’s suffering felt so real it crushed him.
Creak—
But unlike Seo Heemin’s anguish, he was brimming with awe and excitement. Just as his heart pounded from the sheer novelty of it all—
A spine-chilling screech tore through the air as a rusty door opened.
Rattle. Rattle.
Without removing the heavy curtain draped over the cage, several men began to push it forward on wheels.
Yet, Heemin wasn’t surprised.
Everything was unfolding exactly as it had in the novel.
It felt less like a dream and more like a VR experience. If this were VR, the content title would be obvious: <Crimson Veil>.
If events followed the plot, he’d soon be brought onto the stage.
Rather than fear, his chest thrummed with anticipation at seeing the auction hall with his own eyes.
This was something he could never experience in real life—how could he not be thrilled to live it, even if only in a dream?
Sitting quietly, Heemin waited for the cage to come to a stop.
Soon, the mingling of dozens of voices reached his ears.
A pungent, unfamiliar mixture of scents stabbed into his nose—something he had never smelled before in his life.
‘...Pheromones!’
The scents were intoxicating.
Some were like ripe, overripe fruit—
Others carried the heavy, earthy depth of bark—
And some, the crisp salt of the sea breeze—
But they were nothing like artificial perfumes mixed from chemicals.
They were raw—alive—scents that came from bodies.
It was fascinating.
He couldn’t stop himself—his head tilted back, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air eagerly—
But—
Suddenly, nausea surged violently from the pit of his stomach, and his head spun.
‘...What... the hell?’
The scents that had captivated him only moments before now churned his insides. His stomach felt as though it had flipped upside down.
He gagged, his palm flying up to clamp over his mouth, his body heaving with dry retches.
No vomit came—only a wretched, sour taste coated his tongue.
Tears welled up and streamed down his cheeks.
Screw the auction—at that moment, he wanted nothing more than a hot bowl of ramen, filled with green onions, to calm his roiling stomach.
Desperately, Heemin pinched his nose shut with his thumb and forefinger, holding his breath to block out the overwhelming stench.
But the lack of air quickly burned his lungs, and he had no choice but to gasp through his mouth, his breaths shallow and rapid.
When his nausea finally eased—a chilling realization struck him, ice-cold and undeniable:
Only Alphas and Omegas could detect pheromones.
And the audience at an Omega auction—
Would be almost entirely Alphas.
The novel had described Seo Heemin’s physiology—how he could detect Alpha pheromones ten times more strongly than other Omegas, to the point that it triggered violent rejection.
As the detail resurfaced in his memory, the severity of his situation came crashing down on him.
‘No way...’
It couldn’t be.
This wasn’t just a dream.
It felt horrifyingly real—like he had truly possessed Seo Heemin’s body.
His rational mind trembled with disbelief—
But his body, unquestionably Seo Heemin’s, reacted with raw terror.
It shivered violently—like a frail willow lashed by a brutal northern wind.
The source of his dread was primal, bone-deep—
A fear of Alphas.
A trauma ingrained so deeply that his body knew it—before his mind could accept it.
And in the grip of that terror—
Heemin’s knees buckled.
Like a newborn fawn, he collapsed to the floor, his limbs weak and trembling.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as we reach the climax of tonight’s auction—allow me to introduce an extraordinary Omega. The highlight of our event!”
With those words—
The curtain concealing the cage began to rise.
The double doors of the waiting room swung open with a grinding screech—
And the rail beneath the cage hummed—
Wuuuuung—
Sliding him forward—
Onto the center of the auction stage.