The word “mate” was familiar to me.
It was a word that carried the promise to take responsibility for an animal’s entire life and care for it.
I never imagined a dragon would interpret it as something else.
“...I’m going out of my mind.”
“Why are you going out of your mind? Is your body too exhausted?”
I really was exhausted. Big and small wounds made my whole body ache, and my legs had been shaky for a while, barely able to keep me standing.
Honestly, I wanted to shut my eyes and fall asleep. No—if I let go of the tension, I felt like I’d faint on the spot.
But there were more than a few things I had to do right now.
I had to clear up Varen’s misunderstanding, check the dragon’s physical condition, and locate our people. Before the Dragon Hunters resumed their moves, we had to get completely out of the burning forest.
So I couldn’t just peacefully pass out.
“I’ll give you a kiss. If you kiss me, everything will be solved.”
That tone, as if he were bestowing a favor, was a familiar repertoire.
I throbbed in the temples. I’d thought all monsters were purely innocent beings, but that wasn’t always true.
A dragon’s voice sounded exactly like the temptation of a devil.
“You’re very tired. I’ll share my strength with you. Hm?”
Rationally, it wasn’t a bad offer.
Left to recover on my own, I’d be down for three days, but one kiss from Varen and my body bounced back like it had been reset.
On an ordinary day I’d have rubbed my lips against his, acting like he’d worn me down, but right now I didn’t feel like it at all.
“You know very well what it means to receive a Dravergh’s power.”
Varen whispered in a seductive voice. Suddenly {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I felt a maddening thirst.
I’d been shouting all day, running, sweating. And I hadn’t had a single sip of water.
The inside of my parched mouth felt foul. I forced down dry saliva and pressed my forehead.
“Ha... I am tired, but can we talk fir—”
“Let’s talk after you recover.”
Varen turned my body so I was facing him. Then he lowered his head and naturally brought his face closer.
When he tried to kiss me head-on, I raised my hand without thinking and clamped it over his lips.
Varen looked at me with displeasure.
“Why are you refusing? Is it because you’re embarrassed?”
“Like hell I’m embarrassed. We talk first— quit licking, you bastard!”
Varen slid his tongue against the fingers plugging his mouth. The sensation of something hot and soft swimming between my fingers gave me goosebumps.
My heart had been pounding for a while and kept picking up speed. My already-exhausted body couldn’t handle the overrevving pulse.
My stomach kept roiling and my condition was rapidly going downhill.
“Ceryl, you’re not doing well. You haven’t eaten anything.”
At those words, hunger surged together with the thirst.
People often overlook it, but physical stamina has a huge impact on mental state.
A human with a weak mind gives up easily when the body is tired. You want to drop everything and surrender your body.
“...This is driving me crazy.”
“You keep saying that. I’ll share my strength before you go crazy.”
Varen brushed aside my powerless hand and angled in.
Just his sweet breath made a dried-out human body react like it had found an oasis.
How many times had this happened just today. I weighed two choices in my hands that I had no desire to take.
After a short deliberation, the decision tipped to one side.
Dressed up nicely, it was a rational choice; honestly, it was selfishness.
“...Make it short and strong.”
Kissing Varen would take a few minutes, but a dragon’s strength lasted for days.
If it was an act for recovery anyway, it was better to conduct it as efficiently as possible.
What came back to my heavy voice was a smile laced with delight.
“What’s ‘short and strong’? I’m not sure I understand.”
“......”
“I’ll have to try it to know.”
I flinched instinctively and took a step back. But solid forearms wrapped my waist and the back of my head as if to allow no further refusal.
Only after I was caught with no way out did I slowly close my eyes. I was tense for the kiss to follow.
But contrary to expectation, Varen did nothing.
I was meekly offering my lips, and when nothing happened, I cracked my eyes open.
Varen was looking at me with a gaze distinctly calmer than a moment ago.
“Ceryl, you really throw me into confusion.”
“......”
“I want to protect you even if I have to give my heart. I don’t want to leave so much as a scratch on your body.”
Unease crept up at words whose meaning I couldn’t parse.
“Even knowing you couldn’t endure it, sometimes I want to destroy you.”
I was about to ask what that meant when the words were swallowed by Varen’s lips.
The moment he kissed me, he pushed his tongue in very deep. It speared down like it would jab my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Mm—”
It hadn’t even been long, and I was already short of breath.
This was the third kiss with Varen. The previous ones now felt like children’s games.
With the dragon’s tongue boldly and roughly exploring my mouth, I thought I’d lose my mind.
It was a kiss I couldn’t possibly keep up with. Borrowing quick breaths from Varen, I clutched his shoulders with both hands.
We were only mingling mouths, but it felt like my whole body was being devoured.
At that dizzy, unfamiliar sensation, tears welled even as my eyes were shut.
“Hh... mm...”
Maybe he noticed my breathing getting wetter, because Varen stopped the kiss he’d been pouring down.
I used the brief gap when our lips parted to drag the missing air into my lungs.
As I panted, Varen swept my eye corner with his thumb.
“Ceryl, why are you crying?”
“Ha... don’t go so deep...”
“You asked for short and strong. Is that not what you meant?”
When I kissed Varen, I felt estranged from myself. My head said it was a no, while I still felt good.
But today was entirely different. Without any room to feel good, fear clamped down out of nowhere.
Catching my ragged breath, I met Varen’s eyes.
“Are you... angry?”
At that, one of Varen’s eyebrows twitched. He didn’t say anything.
A heavy silence fell. It was so quiet I worried he might hear my heartbeat.
After staring at me for a long while, Varen let out a deep sigh. Then he gently stroked the back of my head that he had been gripping hard enough to hurt.
“I’m not angry. It’s true I feel too good for anger.”
Varen’s lips came down to my eye corner. One side was wet with saliva and the other with tears, and I felt the dampness.
Only then did I raise my hand and feel my face. Finding moisture on my fingertips left me dumbfounded.
Good grief—who knew I’d live to cry during a kiss.
“I wasn’t trying to scare you. Don’t cry, Ceryl.”
Varen kept kissing the corners of my eyes. Instead of smacking sounds, there were soft, wet ones.
It was a hundred, a thousand times more embarrassing than tangling tongues deeply, and my face scrunched up on its own.
I turned my hot face away to avoid his heated lips. Then I cleared my hoarse voice once and spoke.
“Ahem, I’m not scared. I was startled.”
“I’m sorry I startled you.”
“Don’t apologize. That just makes it more embarrassing.”
The heated mood cooled in an instant.
Was that it, then. I glanced around in my embarrassment and scratched my cheek, then my eyes fell to my throbbing palm.
Even though I’d just kissed Varen deep, the scraped wound was still there.
Following my gaze, Varen let out a low “ah.”
“I forgot for a moment. I’m supposed to treat you.”
This time Varen looked away with an embarrassed face.
I tilted my head, staring at my palm full of wounds.
“Doesn’t it happen automatically?”
“I control it consciously. A dragon’s saliva doesn’t only have healing power.”
“Oh? Then what else does it do?”
As his tone returned to normal, I relaxed too.
Questions came out naturally, but Varen didn’t seem inclined to keep chatting.
He angled his head again and brought his face close. I felt his hot breath on my lips.
“As an apology, I’ll give you everything. Take it.”
“Huh? Give me what?”
Varen answered with a kiss.
It wasn’t the venting kind of kiss from a moment ago, but a very careful movement.
Our tongues tangled softly and sweet saliva came over. My body swallowed it down like it had been waiting.
“Mmm...”
A pleasant sound slipped from my throat as I swallowed what was full of life force.
I’d vowed not to respond actively, but it was pointless.
A human body that was already exhausted to the limit craved a dragon’s power.
Before long, strength returned to my shaky legs. The ache in my throbbing wrists stopped.
I could feel life force filling in in real time. It was my body, and still it felt like a mysterious experience.
I slit my eyes and looked at my palm. The raggedly abraded skin was closing and new flesh was rising.
“Ha... Ceryl, focus.”
Maybe he felt me getting distracted mid-kiss, because Varen lifted his lips and scolded me.
I quickly made a fist and set it quietly on Varen’s chest.
After devoting myself to the kiss for quite a while like that, enough strength had returned.
Nothing hurt anymore. I felt like I could even run a hundred meters.
“Mm— Varen, stop...”
But Varen’s kissing didn’t end.
When I tried to turn my head, he caught my jaw; when I tried to pull away, he cinched my waist tight.
With our body heat rising, I was starting to sweat.
The lengthening kiss was taxing, and apart from that, it was getting beyond what I could handle.
So this was what he meant by giving me everything.
The dragon’s life force kept pouring into me. He overfilled a small human vessel and still didn’t know when to stop.
“Hh, mm— s—stop... h—”
Even good medicine has a proper dose. At this point, it was an overdose.
