Varen looked at me with a stiff face. That characteristically clear gaze felt like it would pierce straight through my face.
Embarrassed, I gave a pointless little cough and rambled on.
“Look, we kept sleeping together back in our forest. We took turns, but still.”
“......”
“There are several bedrooms here too. It’s just... being in the same space as Margon tonight feels a bit uncomfortable.”
“......”
“Just one day. Can’t you put me up for a night?”
To be precise, it wasn’t that I wanted to sleep in Varen’s room.
It was just that tonight I didn’t have it in me to see Margon’s face, and there wasn’t anywhere in this dragon den where I could truly feel at ease.
“......”
I thought he’d whisk me off right away, but Varen didn’t answer at all. He only dropped his face and rolled his eyes.
Is he playing coy now that he’s grown. The reaction was different from what I’d expected, and I felt even more abashed.
To meet the eyes of that deeply lowered face, I tilted my head.
“Varen, is it uncomfortable to sleep with me?”
“No. That’s not it. Absolutely not.”
He snapped his face up before I’d even finished speaking, and I took a step back in surprise.
The moment I asked him to let me sleep over, Varen, who’d been acting passive, suddenly came on strong.
He took my forearms, one in each hand, and met my eyes head-on.
In the brief moment, not just the tips of his ears but even his nape had flushed scarlet.
“Ceryl, I want to sleep with you too.”
“Uh... then great. Is your room far from here?”
“But we can’t. You’re... too weak.”
What does that have to do with anything?
Ah, is there some magic on a dragon’s room that a human can’t withstand?
That could be it. Varen isn’t just any dragon—he’s a prince of Dravergh.
And he’s been kidnapped once before, so there might be security magic that keeps humans out.
“You are... to sleep with me is....”
Varen hesitated and let his gaze run over my body. Then he stared fixedly at one spot.
Following his eyes, I saw he was looking at my lower abdomen.
What on earth was that supposed to mean.
“...Hey! What are you thinking!”
The moment I understood the meaning of that seething, boiling stare, heat rushed over my whole body.
I shoved Varen back and shouted, and he only shook his head.
“As it is, these days... just seeing you makes it impossible to hold back. Stop testing me.”
“Who tested who? I said just let me sleep!”
“I don’t want to hurt you. A human could never handle a dragon.”
“I’m going to lose it. You sleep on the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor!”
Varen and I colored our faces like we were competing to see who could get redder.
Neither answered what the other said; we only said what we wanted to say.
“Ugh....”
Then Varen let out a pained groan and grabbed his hem.
Naturally my eyes went there. The paper-thin cloth showed the bulging outline exactly.
“...Why on earth....”
“Ceryl, don’t tempt me. It’s late, go in.”
Varen opened the reception-room door himself. He pushed me inside while I still had more to say and slammed it shut.
Caught off guard, I stood there blankly, blinking.
Once I came to, I glared at the guy who would be on the other side of the door.
“What the hell is in that bastard’s head?”
“I didn’t think you’d come back. But you did.”
The one who answered my mutter aimed at Varen was Kallen.
Like a thief with a guilty conscience, I flinched in place.
Before I turned around, I pressed my cheeks with the backs of my hands to cool the heat in a hurry.
“Uh, Kallen. You’re not asleep yet?”
“No. I couldn’t fall asleep.”
I finally fixed my poker face and went into the living room.
Then I glanced around. I didn’t see the reason I’d been reluctant to come into the reception suite.
“Where’s Margon?”
“Right after you went out, he went straight into the bedroom.”
When I pictured that shaggy face shedding fat tears, a pointless bitterness rose.
He’s so stubborn he’s almost stupid; the heartbreak must be no small thing.
What I’d briefly forgotten while taking the night air with Varen weighed on me again.
With a low sigh, I sank into the sofa opposite Kallen.
“It’s late—why aren’t you sleeping?”
Kallen said nothing, only looked down at what she had on her knees.
It was the sword Varen had given her. The leather scabbard had a luxurious shine, and even the hilt was set with a yellowish gem—clearly not an ordinary item.
At a glance, it looked expensive. And it wasn’t something he’d given to me.
But the more I looked, the less I liked the gift.
“Kallen, hand that over. It’s too dangerous for you.”
Kallen immediately hid the sword behind her back.
Those stubborn orange eyes stared straight at me.
“No. The dragon gave it to me.”
“Who’s taking it from you? Keep it, and I’ll give it to you when you’re grown.”
“I’m fine now. It’s not dangerous at all.”
“It is absolutely not. You don’t even know how to use a sword.”
“Then... I’ll learn.”
“Are you really going to be this disobedient?”
I thought Varen’s puberty had passed, but it looked like Kallen had entered the storm-and-stress period.
What ended the dead-end bickering was Rami peeking her head out of Kallen’s arms.
“...Hiiiuuung!!!!!”
“Whoa, you scared me.”
A tiger’s roar came out of that tiny body.
“Rami, why all of a sudden?”
“Hiiuung!! Hiiuuuuung!!!”
Rami fluttered down from Kallen’s arms.
And instead of climbing onto me like usual, she stood on the table with her tail held stiff.
I’d never seen such a complaint full of dissatisfaction. What was with her now.
“...Mi, miyaang....”
Miya, who had slipped into my clothes and was coiled around my forearm, let out a small cry.
As timid as it already was, maybe it was scared of its senior; it trembled so hard even its tail didn’t show.
Hearing the frail cry, Kallen tilted her head.
“Who just cried? Was that a monster?”
“Hiyung! Hiyung, hiyung!!”
Rami even started tapping the table with that thin tail.
I’d forgotten «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» for a moment, but Rami was every bit as jealous as Varen.
The dragon clothes Varen had dressed me in had no inside pocket. Because of that, I’d been apart from Rami for days.
But the rookie was boldly lodged in my arms, so she was good and pissed.
I scratched my cheek with a troubled face.
“Rami, don’t get so angry. Be nice—it’s a new friend....”
“Hiiuuung!!!”
“...I’m going to go deaf.”
Just because we were staying in Dravergh’s house, a handspan lizard must have thought she’d become a dragon.
At her response with not an inch of concession, I gently soothed Miya.
Maybe the merging was too soon, but it would be good for reptiles to get along.
“Miya, it’s okay. Even if she looks like that, she’s a good kid—come out and say hi.”
“...Mi, miyaang....”
“Come on. You’re sweet, our little one, right?”
“Hiyung! Hiyung!!”
Rami was tiny, but her temper was no joke.
Miya flinched and slowly showed itself outside my clothes. From the end of my sleeve, a thumb-sized white snake poked out its face.
Kallen’s focused face lit up.
“Oh my, how pretty. What’s the name?”
“Miya. Varen named her.”
“Hello, Miya. I’m Kallen.”
Kallen smiled gently and welcomed the new monster.
For Miya’s merging, the most important thing was Rami’s consent. Tense, I checked the little black lizard’s reaction.
“...Hi, hiyung....”
But something was off.
The moment she saw Miya’s face, Rami went stiff as a board.
I wondered if Miya had used an ability, but the white snake was still just shivering.
“Huh? Ceryl, I think a petal just drifted by. Did you see it?”
“...Yeah. I think I saw it too.”
In that barren space, I felt a lukewarm soft wind.
I didn’t know who was casting magic, but it was like I could see a vision of petals scattering.
“Hi, hiyung... hiyung, hiyung....”
“...Miyaang....”
“Hiyung? Hiiuuung....”
In a clearly lower, softer decibel, Rami spoke with Miya.
I could only watch, not knowing what they were saying, when Rami fluttered and vanished into the gap in the sofa.
And a few seconds later, she came back holding a single strawberry in her stubby hands.
“Hiiuuung... hiyung....”
She even offered it to Miya with a cry. Miya snapped its head away as if strawberries didn’t suit it.
Then Rami fluttered into the sofa gap again.
This time she came back with a single green grape in her short arms and held it out to Miya.
“Hi, hiiuuung... hiyung!”
“Rami, what are you doing?”
As if she couldn’t even hear me, the black lizard’s whole attention was on the white snake.
“Hiyung, hiiuuung.”
“...Myak!”
The green grape didn’t suit it either; Miya let out a short, sharp cry.
When the fruit offensive didn’t work, Rami rose up, bracing on her hind legs.
Then she, too, as if she had a chest, puffed out that tiny thing and waggled her hips.
“Hiyung! Hyung! Hyung! Hyung!”
As if bewitched by the ridiculous waggling, Miya came completely out of my clothes.
“M-mya, myak, myak....”
Then left, right—Miya tilted its white head in time with Rami’s hip beat.
Watching my babies’ romance in real time, my face froze.
“Kallen, is interspecies mating common among monsters?”
“That can’t be. It’s my first... Ah! Come to think of it, dragons and humans are also interspecies.”
“......”
I buried my tired face in my palm.
When I closed my eyes, I imagined Varen’s hulking frame doing a courtship dance like Rami. Just picturing it for a second gave me chills.
But what if it were a golden dragon.
If a house-sized body waggled its hips asking to be my mate?
If he lifted his cute two feet and wagged that plump tail to seduce me?
“...I might go for that.”
“Sorry? Go for what?”
“Haaaaah....”
I breathed out a hot sigh from deep in my core.
My overactive imagination made my head throb.
