CHAPTER 175
‘I thought I’d need a lot of magic power because of the gravity.’
But the magic power required to rise all the way up into the air didn’t burden her mana core in the slightest. The mana consumption was also a much smaller proportion than she’d expected.
‘Seems my mana increased a bit in the meantime.’
The cold wind aloft was fierce. Pulling her flapping robe tight around herself, Eve looked down at the ground far below, now distant.
Soon, a red light flashed in her view.
Heat generated from beneath the fissure surged up, making even the air hundreds of meters above feel hot.
But it didn’t last long. A piercing blue light spread out, canceling the heat.
It was a freezing spell for cooling.
After confirming the ground had cooled enough, Eve descended.
The place where a massive fissure had existed just moments ago had been perfectly sealed, as if patched without a seam.
“Is this enough?”
“Yeah. Good work, Mikael.”
The moment she finished speaking, a small yawn slipped out of Eve’s mouth.
She felt a little embarrassed, because all she’d done was watch.
Mikael laughed and said,
“I was starting to think we’d finally do something worthy of a secret tryst, but you look tired. Well, we did come out far at a time when we should be sleeping.”
“Mm… I’m so sleepy.”
“It’s a shame, but we should go back quickly.”
“Mm… Instead of that, let’s find somewhere we can rest for a bit.”
First, they decided to get out of the Sealing Stone’s area of influence.
When they reached a place where gravity had returned to normal, they spotted a purple fir tree fallen across the path.
Mikael drew Nightray and neatly split the trunk in half.
The fir made an excellent natural bench.
Thud.
No sooner had they sat down side by side than Eve’s head tilted to the side and settled onto Mikael’s shoulder.
A peaceful smile spread across Mikael’s face.
“Going to sleep?”
“Don’t know…”
Eve’s drowsy answer earned Mikael a playful scold.
“Ambroksha’s sealing grounds are right nearby. To feel sleepy in a place like this—your courage is impressive.”
“Ah………………… If I fall asleep here, would I have nightmares… because the physical distance is close?”
“It can’t hurt to be careful.”
The topic of nightmares drove some sleepiness from Eve.
Rubbing her heavy eyes, she sat up properly.
This was already their third night beyond the gray barrier.
Eve and Mikael decided to take some time to check each other’s mental state without holding anything back.
“Eve, since coming to Dandelion, have you had any nightmares?”
“I don’t think so. I’m sleeping deeply, and when I wake up in the morning I feel really refreshed.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What about you, Mikael?”
It was Mikael’s turn.
For a moment, his eyes—looking at Eve—grew a shade deeper.
“I have.”
“What?”
Eve startled and asked again.
Mikael had seemed so completely fine until now that it was an answer she hadn’t expected at all.
The interrogation began.
“Since when?”
“From the first night.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I only remembered later, and I wasn’t sure. And it wasn’t a dream about losing you, like we feared.”
“Then what kind of dream was it?”
Around then, Mikael lowered his gaze with a deliberately wistful air.
“…Ambroksha really does deserve to be called the most cunning dragon. If I should say it knows how to aim for mental weaknesses.”
“S-so, what kind of dream was it?”
Eve’s insides were starting to burn because Mikael was drawing it out and even setting the mood—
when suddenly Mikael brought his handsome face close to hers.
“Eve.”
A sweet voice, as if it could melt her ears, held her name.
Was it that the silhouette shaped by moonlight distorted his original lines?
In this moment, Mikael’s face looked as though it held a deep smile.
It was a breathtakingly alluring sight.
The confession happened in the exact gap where Eve’s mind went blank.
“I dreamed of loving you from afar.”
At a line that sounded like a love confession, Eve nearly forgot the situation and almost fluttered a little.
Of course, that was Mikael’s aim.
Eve calmly asked back,
“How can that be a nightmare?”
“Easily. If I’d come here without ever having you, I might have been so unsettled by now that I’d have lost my mind.”
“That much?”
“My unrequited love before I was with you was… quite vicious.”
He was smiling, but it didn’t sound like he was joking.
Still, to Eve it was hard to understand—and even felt unfair.
“That’s strange. The moment you became my personal knight, you toyed with me with ambiguous words again and again. I was practically acting in self-defense. No matter how I think about it, I never made you suffer alone.”
“Ah. Of course you wouldn’t know.”
Mikael’s smile deepened.
But his eyes, lowered, were more serious than anything.
“Because I didn’t love you only this one time.”
At the meaningful words, Eve flinched.
But Mikael immediately turned the topic in a playful direction.
“Ambroksha seems to have quite the vile taste. It made me dream of feeling lust toward my lord, when I’m supposedly a knight. Ha…
It’s so irreverent and sinister I can’t even bring myself to say what happened in the dream.”
“Um… For some reason, it sounds like the dream’s ‘level’ is higher than I expected.”
“It’s all the Demon Dragon’s fault.”
“Mm, yeah. The Demon Dragon was bad.”
At this point, Eve refreshed the playful atmosphere and asked seriously,
“Anyway. You said you had nightmares. There’s no mental harm?”
“Because the real you loves me, I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You could say there’s almost no effect. If anything, it’s helping.”
“Hm?”
Eve looked at him, asking for an explanation.
“Didn’t you say it yourself? That the Demon Dragon’s nightmares might be a mirror of truth that reflects weaknesses.
Thanks to that, I’m getting to know the me who first loved you from afar.”
Another meaningful hint appeared.
This time, Eve continued as if it were nothing.
“Nightmares aren’t flat mirrors. You have to account for the fact that they reflect distorted images.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Mikael smiled gently.
He looked full of trust, yet Eve still couldn’t completely let go of her worry.
“Still… I didn’t think you, of all people, would have nightmares. The village chief said it happens to people with weak mental strength or trauma.”
“That’s…”
Mikael did have an idea.
‘Galamut’s remnant recognized that I am the king of homunculi. If so, Ambroksha would be the same.’
Through dreams, the Demon Dragon would be watching Mikael—its natural enemy.
So that at any time, it could pry into a gap and shatter his mind.
He decided to save those detailed explanations for after his awakening and deliver them all at once.
So Mikael said,
“The truth is, I’m this delicate. Your love to me is like desperate breathing—if I don’t have it, I might die.”
“…That sounds like you’re teasing me.”
“Words don’t feel convincing? Then should I prove it with actions.”
“Hm?”
As if he’d been waiting for this moment, Mikael gently cupped one side of Eve’s cheek in his palm and made a proposal.
“Will you let me kiss you… until you can barely breathe?”
Mikael’s gaze had changed.
It was a stubborn, insistent look, as if he meant to carve Eve into his retinas.
The playful conversation from just moments ago felt meaningless as the mood flipped in an instant.
Eve felt her heart beating fast.
“…As much as you want.”
Her low answer echoed through the quiet forest.
It was time to do something worthy of a secret tryst.
Violet eyes—faintly tinged, like the moonlight—drew close.
Eve stared as if entranced at the face that had become even more alluring, wrapped in desire.
The large hand that had been cupping her cheek moved to the back of her head.
Before she realized it, she was gently laid back on the wooden bench.
“Ah.”
With her long hair tousled, his shadow fell over her.
Their noses brushed at an angle, and lips covered lips.
Under the moonlight, their black silhouettes merged.
“Mmm…”
In the still purple forest, it took only an instant for wet sounds and quickened breaths to ring out.
A kiss that seemed to steal her breath poured out a fierce, thick desire.
Driven by it, the one laid beneath him couldn’t withstand the heated sensation and reached out, trying to pull him close and cling to him.
But Mikael repeatedly caught Eve’s wrists.
And he pressed them down against the bench so she couldn’t reach him.
Because it was right to cut off, in advance, any stimulus that might become a trigger for losing control.
“Ah, Mika— mmph…”
Only his lips grew more obsessive, sucking and taking.
And so, the two of them did not stop seeking each other within desperate breaths.
It was a dawn of intimate trysting.
At that same hour, beneath the light spilled by the tilted moon, there was someone slowly going mad and collapsing.
“Please, stop…”
As the murk deepened and the moon sank, his nightmare intensified.
The knight, who had become prey for the most cunning Demon Dragon, writhed in self-loathing.
How many more of these wretched nights could he endure—repeating the sin of committing wrongdoing in dreams?
Worn down, he had no confidence.
Clear blue eyes grew hazy.
The cunning Demon Dragon once again dragged the knight deep into darkness.