"Ceryl, why are you looking at me like that?"
"..."
"It’s common for dragons to share blood like that. It’s temporary, but it links the soul. No matter where you are, you can feel each other."
Varen realized my mood a beat too late and rushed to make excuses.
And I kept glaring at him as I turned my head away. The worn tent cloth slid into my view, yet it felt like I couldn’t see anything at all. A shame I couldn’t handle came crashing down on me.
Relocation magic powerful enough to move an entire building had to have hit humans with something lethal. That had to be why I hadn’t been able to think rationally.
If I thought about it, what I had drunk was Varen’s blood while he was in rut. I even knew that liquid had an aphrodisiac effect on humans, but I had no idea what it did to other dragons.
And yet the moment I heard Morpha had drunk Varen’s blood, it felt like my organs twisted. I had almost grabbed him by the collar and screamed, How could you do that?
Heat crawled all the way up the back of my neck. I slowly buried my face in my palms.
"Fuck...."
"What did you say? Ceryl, what is wrong with you?"
"...Leave me alone. I want to be by myself."
"No. No matter what happens, I’m staying with you."
The fact that I had felt jealous of Morpha—even for an instant—filled me with bottomless self-loathing.
I was out of my mind. Completely.
I let out a silent scream and grabbed at my hair.
Varen only watched me with a deep frown, as if he had no idea what to do with me.
"Hiyuuung... hiyung! Hiyung!!"
At least Rami fluttered up onto my head and stopped my self-destruction. With her tiny feet, she slapped my knuckles—pat, pat.
I froze, thanks to her. Then I scrubbed my face violently instead. A long, deep sigh poured out of me like the ground would cave in.
"Haa... okay. Calm down."
Come to think of it, I had been stuck to Varen for too long. I had been living side by side with that bastard for months now.
And not just that. We had kissed so many times I couldn’t count them, and last night we had even matched our lower halves.
So his feelings had clearly rubbed off on me. Otherwise, what I had felt a moment ago didn’t make sense.
No matter how many times I replayed it, the jealousy I felt wasn’t what I felt for a companion monster. It was nothing like what I felt for Berry or Rami.
I knew I treasured Varen, but I had never expected I’d end up harboring possessiveness toward him without even realizing it.
"...Aaaagh!!!"
"C-Ceryl. What in the world—"
"Hiyung, hiyung! Hiyung!!"
Varen and Rami didn’t know what to do with my pained reaction. And when I looked at the two monsters in order, I fell into despair all over again.
At one point, I had lumped the two of them into the same category.
Not anymore.
Varen no longer felt like a giant reptile.
"You’re making quite a racket the moment you wake up."
The one who stopped my suffering—absurdly enough—was Noance.
He popped up again without the slightest trace of presence.
My heart was already hammering, and Noance’s unexpected appearance made it slam even harder. I thumped my churning left chest and got to my feet.
"Something amusing happen?"
Noance leaned crookedly against the tent entrance, looking at me. There wasn’t a shred of tension in his tilted posture.
I wiped the sweat pooling in my palm against my back, hiding it.
This wasn’t the time to be kissing Varen.
I remembered the killing intent Noance had shown us right up until I lost consciousness.
"...Haha. I guess it was amusing. Teleporting like that—your people are incredibly skilled."
"Yeah. We’ve got a pretty remarkable mage."
"Congratulations. Then why bring us along?"
I had to tighten my throat and keep my voice from shaking. If I didn’t, he’d hear how terrified I was.
Varen stood up behind me a moment later. I felt Noance’s gaze slide after him, so I naturally stepped in front of Varen again.
And the two men on either side of me let out the same short laugh at the same time.
"Ceryl, what are you doing?"
"Haha. Brave, for a human."
I was trying to protect my monster. Why were they laughing?
I nearly snapped, but swallowed hard and forced the emotion back down.
Noance chuckled like he was entertained, then drew the baton tucked at his waist. Like he was cracking a switch, he tapped it against his own palm—tap, tap.
"You were going to chase us anyway. I just moved you in one go so we wouldn’t waste time. Why not?"
It was obviously a gesture laced with threat.
I narrowed my eyes, staring at the rod in his hand. The image of that needle at its tip shaving past Varen’s face still burned vividly in my mind.
I didn’t know if the poison worked on dragons too, but remembering how Varen had suffered from human poison during the Belzena war made cold dread crawl over my skin.
I reached my arm back and felt around. Varen took my hand without hesitation, exactly as I meant him to. The steady grip fed a thin thread of courage into me.
It was like I was swaggering because I had a dragon at my back, but I lifted my chin and challenged Noance anyway.
"It’s true—we were trying to find the Rebels. Because we wanted to talk to you."
"Talk?"
"Yes. But you tried to kill us before we could even have a proper conversation."
"When did I?"
"What do you mean— You swung a weapon at us!"
When I finally raised my voice, Noance let out a quiet, incredulous snort. Then, as if he had no idea what I was talking about, he even shrugged.
"I never tried to kill you. If I’d decided to kill you, you’d be dead."
His confidence overflowed so blatantly I had nothing to say.
And I could feel Varen’s body heat rising behind me.
I soothed the hand I was holding, doing everything I could to calm him.
"Listen, Noance. You—"
"You know my name."
"..."
"That’s odd. I’ve never seen you before.... So what the hell is that?"
Shit. I had forgotten the Rebels used code names to hide their identities.
Real names were shared only among the executive level. And even if you knew someone’s real name, you still addressed each other by code name or rank, just in case.
But because the novel used the name "Noance" in narration instead of the rank "Conductor," it had stuck to my tongue.
And now I had made a fatal slip.
To avoid making it worse, I clamped my mouth shut. When I answered with silence, Noance looked at me with interest.
"I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was just checking your reaction."
"..."
"You’re quick, sure. But you’re a normal human. [N O V E L I G H T] Which makes you even more interesting."
Still talking to himself, Noance straightened fully and folded his arms.
The inside of the tent was dim, but outside, bright sunlight poured down. Backlit like that, Noance somehow radiated pressure despite his small frame.
"What the hell are you, anyway. How does a normal human manage to drag around two dragons."
The hand Varen and I were holding twitched at the same time.
I forced my breathing steady and replayed his words.
Two dragons had to mean Varen and Morpha. But Morpha hadn’t been with us in the black market. If Noance knew I traveled with two dragons anyway, that meant he’d been watching us since the moment we infiltrated the city.
The realization sent a strange thrill through me. Awe burst out, overpowering tension and fear.
"So you were watching us from the moment we entered the city."
"Yeah. We’ve got a real scout. And a damn good one."
The role I had made up to fool Noance was scout.
He was mocking me by pointing straight at it.
The way he spoke felt oddly familiar—cornering someone with a few calm words, while casually scraping at them.
For the first time in a while, an obnoxious gray-haired face flashed through my mind.
But for some reason, even though he reminded me of Zed, I didn’t feel irritated at all. A pointless laugh just slipped out.
Dragons were enough when it came to raw firepower. What I had wanted from the Rebels was intelligence—because in the Belzena war, we had been ambushed and lost Ordin precisely because we were outmatched in information.
But now there was not only a top-tier mage, but also the world’s best assassin.
It was like a whole pumpkin vine had rolled right into my lap.
Once the calculations were done, the muscles in my face finally loosened. I put on the most trustworthy smile I could manage and spoke.
"I’m sorry I deceived you, Noance. There were reasons I had to."
"Hmm...."
"I’ll introduce myself properly. My name is Ceryl Aylos. I want to speak with the Rebels officially."
Despite the polite introduction, Noance tilted his head. He stared at my face, then rolled his eyes upward like he was trying to drag something out of memory.
"Aylos, Aylos.... Feels like I’ve heard that somewhere."
Damn it.
A script I’d lived through too many times.
The house this body belonged to had not a speck of mana, yet it never failed to get in my way. I kept my smile plastered on, but I couldn’t stop the cold sweat from seeping out.
