The sun rose on the next day.

Melphis, standing in front of Vivian’s house door, took a deep breath.

‘There’s nothing to be nervous about. How many times have I seen Vivian now? No need to be scared at this point.’

Despite this, his heart wouldn’t easily calm down, unlike his mind.

Cold sweat formed on his hands, and his spine stiffened on its own.

“Ah, seriously. I’m not a little kid anymore. What is this.”

He felt awkward, not knowing what to do like a young boy right before a confession.

Melphis grumbled softly. This was all because of Vivian.

Unable to control his complex emotions, he roughly ruffled his hair back and forth with both hands.

Then he stopped, flustered.

Ruining the hair he had set up since early morning, it was nothing short of a foolish action.

Melphis snapped his fingers. The messy hair rearranged itself back into a neat style.

Lastly, he took out a mirror from his bosom and checked his condition.

The truth was, until he came here today, Melphis had made full preparations.

It was to avoid repeating the same mistake as yesterday.

He didn’t particularly like revealing his emotions to others.

His way of living was always to wrap himself in a veil of falsehood and exaggeration.

But for the first time yesterday, Melphis inadvertently exposed his inner thoughts on the outside.

Not only did his cheeks turn bright red, he unintentionally revealed his shaken emotions.

For Melphis, who disliked having his inner thoughts discovered, it wasn’t a pleasant thing.

So today, he came fully prepared to prevent this in advance.

He had already cast a cooling spell on his face to calm his cheeks that reddened just from looking into Vivian’s eyes.

In case that wasn’t enough, he had even powdered his cheeks and neck area for the first time in his life.

With this, he wouldn’t have to run away because he didn’t want to get caught with reddened cheeks like yesterday.

After gazing into the mirror for a while, he checked his condition one last time.

‘Face? Looks fine. Hairstyle? Neat. Preparations are perfect. Let’s go with confidence.’

Having finished his confirmation, he knocked on the door with a confident attitude.

The door crack opened slightly and Vivian’s face peeked out.

“You’re here?”

Confirming that the visitor was Melphis, she welcomed him and let him inside.

At her face suddenly filling his vision, Melphis realized his face was heating up again, but he didn’t panic.

Unlike yesterday, his preparations were perfect.

As long as he acted composed, Vivian wouldn’t know he was feeling shy.

“So what was the matter you wanted to talk about yesterday?”

She tilted her head and asked, having let him in.

Melphis slowly examined her appearance.

Unlike yesterday, Vivian was wearing outdoor clothes.

‘Already fully prepared to go out with me, and only now asking about the matter? How cute.’

Did I just unknowingly call her cute? I must be crazy!

Melphis felt like a bomb had dropped inside his head.

Trying hard to act calm, he replied.

“Remember how you said you’d give me a day in return for helping you before?”

“Yeah. I remember.”

He smiled faintly, beautifully narrowing his long eyes.

“That’s why I came. Please spend the day with me today.”

Vivian pondered for a moment, then nodded.

“Okay. It’s a promise. But where are you planning to go?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

Melphis reached out his hand towards her.

It was just a necessary process to teleport together, not an action with any ulterior motive.

It absolutely wasn’t an action with ulterior motive, but…

This was bad. His face heated up again.

‘It’s okay. The cooling spell hasn’t worn off. Vivian doesn’t know.’

Still feeling uneasy, he furtively glanced at the mirror hanging on the wall.

Fortunately, his appearance in the mirror was no different from usual, except for a somewhat strange expression.

Vivian asked in a voice filled with doubt.

“Why the hand?”

“We need to be in contact to teleport together.”

On another day, Melphis would have teased her, saying they had to link arms, but now that he was being sincere, it wasn’t easy to do that.

Like a malfunctioning robot, Melphis creakily waited for Vivian to give him her hand.

Finally, their hands touched. In that moment, Melphis thought that the back of Vivian’s hand was really soft.

‘Stop it, stop! You’re not a teenage boy, so stop being so conscious of it! How old are you!’

Trying to calm down made him conscious of it again. Just when it seemed to settle, it flared up once more.

He had lost count of how many times this had repeated.

‘How is this a dragon who has lived for over 1000 years…’

It was hard to maintain his usual relaxed attitude.

Melphis lowered his head slightly and shook it from side to side, feeling pathetic.

“Keep your eyes closed. Otherwise, you’ll feel dizzy.”

Suddenly, an enormous magical power enveloped both Vivian and Melphis.

Even for Vivian, who was usually insensitive to the movement of magical power, it was such a vast amount that she could feel it on her skin.

Even with her eyes closed, she could tell. That they had arrived at a different place.

The air around her, felt through her nose, had changed.

Vivian carefully opened her eyes.

What unfolded before her was…

“Huh? This place is…”

Faced with the familiar scenery, Vivian released Melphis’s hand and slowly examined the surroundings.

Densely packed tall trees that barely let sunlight through.

The leaves were not lush green, but mixed with deep black in places.

Memories of her childhood flashed through Vivian’s mind.

Although it was a memory from over a decade ago, it was deeply etched in her mind, so she could be certain.

The place she was in now was the monster forest she had entered in the past due to Leonie’s scheme.

Confused, Vivian turned to look at Melphis standing behind her.

“Why did we come here?”

“Can you recognize where it is?”

“Isn’t this the forest near the Schmidt family’s villa?”

“That’s right, you noticed faster than I expected.”

Instead of clarifying her question, his inscrutable attitude plunged Vivian into deeper confusion.

“I’m asking why we came here!”

“Are you curious?”

Is that even something to say?

Vivian had never told Melphis about what she had experienced here.

He had no way of knowing that she had almost died by monsters in this forest and narrowly survived.

‘Is there some other reason he brought me here?’

No matter how much she pondered, she couldn’t find an answer, and it was frustrating.

Vivian asked him again.

“Yes, I’m curious. Why did you bring me here?”

Seeing her eyes filled with questions, Melphis sighed as if disappointed.

“How disappointing. I expected you to figure it out as soon as we came here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s a secret. Anyway, now that we’ve seen what we came for, let’s go back.”

Melphis took her hand again.

In an instant, they were back at Vivian’s house.

To Vivian, who was confused and unable to even guess what the situation was, Melphis mischievously said.

“I’ll visit again tomorrow, so think about it all day. It would be even better if you think about me too. That’s all I wanted to say today.”

After saying what he wanted, Melphis disappeared like that.

He had always been a mysterious existence, but today, there were especially many incomprehensible aspects about him.

Vivian sat down on a chair as if collapsing, feeling exhausted.

Even though she hadn’t ridden a horse and had only briefly gone out and come back through teleportation, her mind seemed fatigued.

“What is it? What the heck. Why did he take me there…”

Vivian muttered to herself, facing the spot where Melphis had been until a moment ago.

The person who should have heard the question wasn’t there.

Her head felt complicated.

She let out a deep sigh and slumped over the table. Closing her eyes, she organized her thoughts step by step.

‘Melphis seemed to want me to recall something.’

Did we happen to meet there in the past? Such a question suddenly came to mind, but Vivian shook her head.

No matter how much she thought about it, there was only one time Vivian had gone to that place.

The very day she went to find Leonie’s ball.

And on that day, there was only one person Vivian had met in the forest. A certain wizard who had protected her, young and weak, from the monsters.

‘Come to think of it, what did that man look like?’

The memory of being threatened by monsters was so strong that she couldn’t remember much about the wizard.

The only thing that faintly remained in her mind was his face seen from below.

Even that was shadowed, so she couldn’t properly recall it, but his unique pink hair left a deep impression.

‘Huh? Now that I think about it, Melphis also has pink hair.’

Pink hair wasn’t something commonly seen.

But what were the odds that both that wizard and Melphis had similar hair colors?

‘Is it a coincidence?’

Could Melphis possibly be that man’s son? No, no.

If he were his son, there would be no reason to take me all the way there. If he had come to our house together with the man, that would be understandable.

‘…Could it be that the wizard and Melphis are the same person?’

At the sudden thought, Vivian quickly shook her head.

It didn’t make sense. It had already been over 10 years since then.

The wizard looked to be in his 20s at that time. Now, 10 years later, he would be at least in his 30s.

Unless he aged extremely slowly like a dragon, it was an absurd assumption.

‘…Wait a minute, if Melphis is a dragon, then everything would make sense.’

In an instant, all of Vivian’s thoughts came to a halt.