Unedited
The “devil,” however it may have read my abruptly distorted expression, got startled, and then it spread its wings as wide as I was tall, bone by bone.
A moment later I was half buried in the dirt, and the ‘devil’ was hovering near the moon. Only then did I realize that it had the appearance of a dragon.
The black dragon flew away with incredible speed and disappeared. Whether it did or not, I sat there dazed, not even trying to brush off the ants crawling into my nose.
Ariel Dalton, a girl with lots of fantasies about love before and after her debutante, devoured every romance novel available in Sancreek. So she understood that the demand for romance with extraterrestrials was not inexistent. But this applies only to types that are relatively close to humans, such as vampires or werewolves.
Dragons were different. Romance with dragons was taboo in romance novels. The reason was their overwhelming size and strength compared to humans, assuming they were old and mature enough to even be romantic interests.
Indeed, a dragon was a love interest where a simple hug gone wrong could turn romance into suspense. No matter how beautifully written or cleverly rationalized, such stories wouldn’t sell. Nobody, as far as I knew, would expect a scene where the heroine’s spine snapped immediately after a romantic embrace between the protagonists. Well, except perhaps one person—the crime-and-violence-obsessed Cornelia Villard, Kyle’s sister.
Anyway, that was the case. Even the omnipotent Rosemary Blossom couldn’t love a dragon. However, the system recognized the ‘devil’, or black dragon, as a target. Effects I had grown tired of seeing recently with Kyle and the student council applied to the dragon as well, which made it all clear.
I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t want to crush my spine. If Blossom’s new love interest was really a dragon, it’s not my graduation I should be worried about but my survival.
Perhaps there was a way to replace me with ‘Kylie’ as Blossom’s rival. She was so popular that even during school breaks, Kyle received letters from anonymous students admiring ‘her’. If anyone could withstand the overwhelming love of a dragon, it might just be her.
***
In my dream, I was sprawled out on a sofa one day. When I leaned back, as if lying down on the backrest, my butt rose slightly. I clearly felt the arms wrapping around me like a snake and supporting my body. It’s funny that I’m more conscious in my dreams than in real life, but here we are.
The air, no longer saturated with the numbing scent of alcohol, was filled instead with Keran Illestia’s scent. He was pressing his lips to the nape of my neck. When he bit down lightly, a tingling sensation tickled the soles of my feet. It felt like there was a spider dancing over my heart and on the top of my head.
I could clearly feel the trace of his lips moving up from where he bit down. Keran continued to kiss my collarbone, my neck, and then my jawline, one after another. His large hands pulled the plunging neckline of my dress down slightly. He tapped my shoulder, which had reflexively tensed from the sudden exposure to the air, with his fingertip as if sending some kind of signal.
Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around his back. Keran then smiled with satisfaction and kissed my earlobe. Apparently, I’d made the right move. ‘Will you open your mouth?’ I obeyed immediately to his extremely polite and smooth request.
Then my elegant intruder moved as if he had been waiting. Keran’s back was hard and hot against my palm. I touched his shoulder blades with one hand and the area below his ears and the back of his neck with the other.
I loved the feel of his golden, thread-like hair grazing the blade of my hand. So was the sensation of his tongue exploring the inside of my mouth and the playful way he would nibble on my lower lip. His hands trailed downward, tracing my body’s curves, and I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle.
“Why are you laughing?”
Keran asked, his lips pressed firmly against mine. His breath and voice seemed to whirl around in my throat.
“Ah… because I like it.”
When I answered honestly, Keran tilted his head and looked down. Gently curved golden eyes reflected me entirely—a girl blurting out mortifyingly embarrassing words in an equally mortifying state.
Eventually, my vision slowly tilted. Even though the force pushing my shoulders wasn’t that great, I completely collapsed.
Keran added a little more pressure to his thumb that was pressing my thigh, and the side slit of my dress widened. Although the intention was blatant, it was not uncomfortable but rather heightened excitement, and two pairs of legs intertwined over the sofa.
In the next moment, a wave of intense sensation washed over me. I exhaled the breath I had been holding for what felt like forever. My head tilted back on its own, my back arching, and then… .
I woke up in my bed in my room.
“What’s with you, Ariel? Did you really just have a steamy dream or something?”
My roommate, barely suppressing laughter, spoke with a teasing tone. I quickly searched through the bedding, and then I felt a bumpy texture inside the pillow cover. When I took it out, it was a small straw doll. There was something like a stone inside its tangled body.
“Oh, my dear Brianna. I miss the days when your tongue was purple.”
“I, ha, just thought you seemed—ahahaha—so down lately!”
“Thank you.”
As I gritted my teeth and threw away the straw doll, Brianna rolled around on her bed and giggled. After a long bout of mischief, she abruptly turned serious and said, “Anaïs has been worrying about you a lot.”
Anaïs was one of the very few in this damned Fitzsimmons who took a liking to me. Also, since she had experience suffering from rumors like me, she seemed to empathize with me deeply. So, when she received a package from a witch doctor to curse Baron Donnelly, she also bought a ‘dream doll for a lady who is more chaste than anyone else.’
Looking closely, the two stones stuck between the straws turned out to be an ox horn and a goat horn, respectively. It seemed to express lust by having a bull’s head, a goat’s head, and a human head all in one body.
“I tried it on myself before putting it in your pillow, and wow, it was as hot as hell! Was it the same for you?”
“Shut up.”
I pulled the blanket up to my forehead so my mean and inconsiderate friend couldn’t see me. Thoughts whirled in my heated mind. Sure, I was attracted to Kellan, but… but is this what I want from him? Without any soul connection or tender emotions—just something primal?
As I lay down on my left side with my legs crossed, I could feel my heart beating violently. It was beating so hard it seemed like the bed itself was shaking.
“Bree, did you hear anything?”
I asked, feeling pricked. Brianna replied, ‘No, I can’t hear you moaning anymore.’ I was so ashamed.
Contrary to expectations, Christa Edwards, whom I sacrificed my life to rescue from Gloween Forest, did not publish my article in Monday’s Fitzsimmons Times. What was published there was an unfortunate love story that never saw the light of day due to the secret work of an intruder.
Bree endlessly grumbled about why Professor Stafford, of all people, would associate with such a pervert who has twisted sexual desires. Since the two had something in common—being overachievers—Brianna quite liked Professor Stafford.
At first, I thought Edwards had suddenly developed a conscience and decided not to make news about poor Ariel Dalton. I almost reconsidered my opinion of her—until I found the broken magic quill and the shattered pixie orb compensation claims peeking out from my doorway.
Miracles don’t happen. Krista Edwards’ left chest was probably empty, and if there was anything in there, it was something denser than Professor Dwyer’s hair and stinkier than a ten-year-old pickled herring.
Her mother was no different. Lady Edwards glared daggers at me just for being the one to carry her fainted daughter—or perhaps the horned grasshopper I’d carelessly summoned in the common bathroom two years ago, or the shabby portable teleportation circle that set the lobby ablaze last year, or the countless incident reports I’d made her write this year was taken into account…
So Lady Edwards handed over all of the evidence she had to the student council—the very group of people at the center of this mess alongside me.
It was the best way to inflict the worst punishment on an obnoxious 5th-grade girl. I didn’t care about anyone else seeing it, but I couldn’t bear for Kellan to. That’s why I repeatedly begged her to hand it directly to Professor Humphries instead of the council. Of course, the vile Lady Edwards didn’t even bother to snort.
I opened the door to the student council room, weighed down by a deep sense of defeat. As soon as I caught sight of Keran gesturing to me in the distance, I pulled out the blindness goggles Kyle used for his reckless pranks with the boys. The enchanted frames, meticulously engraved with runes, promptly sprouted pitch-black hands that completely obscured my vision.
While fumbling along the wall, I hit my knees twice and my forehead twice. After many twists and turns, when I reached the end of the student council room, Keran let me know that he was there by grabbing my wrist. Hesitantly, I found a chair and sat down, then shook Keran’s hand away like an energized chicken.
“What’s with the funny goggles?”
“They’re to keep me from getting mesmerized by your face.”
Or, it was a device to prevent my face from exploding. My cheeks heated at the mere thought of Keran, thanks to the dreams I’d had the night before.
“It’s a shame. I quite like the color of your eyes.”
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