Adel hastily lowered her gaze to hide her longing.

“It’s just that I was worried because the current situation is complicated.”

“……”

“You’re not yet skilled in the culture of social circles, Lord Valentin. You probably have few memories of it, having only moved between the Ansgar territory and battlefields before. So……”

“So.”

Adel quickly put on a tearful expression. Unlike the days when she would pretend to cry a little and he would retreat on his own.

He had already crossed over to her seat, straddling her knees and pinning her movements with his hands on either side of her head.

“Tell me more.”

“You’re not angry, are you?”

“Well. How do I look?”

Somehow anxious and uneasy, Adel thought as she looked up at him blankly.

The head that had been silently looking down at Adel suddenly tilted askew.

Lips neater than a woman’s descended not so neatly onto her nape.

When she squirmed from the ticklish breath, both her hands were grabbed.

He whispered in a somewhat sorrowful voice.

“You always worry about and feel sad for humans. What is it about them that you like so much? Because they’re insignificant?”

“When did I ever……”

“……Could it be that you pity them?”

“Am I in any position to pity anyone……”

The conversation became increasingly incomprehensible. Valentin’s expressionless gaze suddenly twisted into a smirk.

“How much more difficult must it be for you to give up?”

“Ah, it hurts.”

“Of course. This isn’t a reward, after all.”

Despite his ruthless reply, the strength immediately left his hands. His touch was extremely gentle as he cupped her cheek.

As she looked up at him as if mesmerized, Valentin smiled fiercely.

“You still don’t come to your senses even like this.”

He tilted his head and kissed her near the eye.

A series of small kisses followed below. Cheek, earlobe, corner of the mouth, chin……

As if spiteful, he kissed everywhere except her lips, which she had briefly longed for.

“When you keep showing such openings, it makes me want to delve in. Though you crying while hating me would be pretty too.”

Is that really what you want? His nonchalant mutter snapped her back to her senses. Adel gasped and quickly opened her mouth.

“I, I don’t know what I did wrong……”

His lips grazed Adel’s nape dangerously and slid over her collarbone.

“Th-this was all said with you in mind, Valentin.”

The movement that had gone a bit lower paused for a moment.

Then Valentin raised his lowered head. His narrowed eyes gazed at her.

Adel instinctively realized that her words had come close to the correct answer. And that she must not let this slip away.

She looked straight into his eyes without avoiding them, as if appealing to her sincerity.

“I didn’t say these things out of concern for others. Besides, who else would I……. be worried about?”

Valentin raised one eyebrow as if daring her to say more. Adel swallowed the saliva pooled in her mouth.

“Especially that sh-shell……”

She couldn’t help feeling disgusted even as she spoke.

“I truly wasn’t worried about it at all.”

His gaze narrowed suspiciously.

When she couldn’t bear his meaningful stare and turned her head away, he firmly grasped her chin to make her look at him.

“Really?”

“……”

“You were worried about me, not other humans or this shell?”

He tilted his head slightly.

“Why?”

“……Just, I.”

“Don’t tell me you pitied me?”

She hastily nodded. It was thanks to her instinct that she sensed this was the correct answer.

Valentin, who had been staring at her blankly in disbelief, finally smiled broadly.

An unrealistically beautiful flush spread across his face, sculpted as if by God. As if he were truly happy.

It was a somewhat amusing yet sad sight.

For one comparable to God to smile so brightly at mere words of pity from a human……

“Adel, say it again.”

Only after Adel had told him several more times that she pitied and worried about him did Valentin release her.

Adel fixed her disheveled clothes while catching her breath. Her face had turned completely red.

“I, that is, I wanted to tell you that the current situation might be worse than you think. Since you probably don’t know about human malice……”

Whether he found her straightforwardness cute, or her words amusing.

Valentin smiled without a trace of shadow, narrowing his eyes. However, he responded compliantly without any particular criticism of her opinion.

“You can teach me about such things, can’t you?”

“I might be able to handle other things somehow, but when it comes to politics, I know nothing. I won’t be able to overcome the shrewdness of the older nobles……”

He let out a low laugh.

“The shrewdness of young ones who haven’t even lived a hundred years is nothing.”

“……Of course, from that perspective anyone would seem that way to you, but you still need to be a bit cautious. The capital is crawling with Morig’s high priests, and you……”

“Are a monster by birth, a dragon who must avoid ‘holiness’. Is that what you were going to say?”

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“The only thing I fear is you, Adel.”

She blinked her wide eyes.

She stared at him blankly as if demanding an explanation, but Valentin gently pulled her hands towards him as if there was no particular meaning.

“Come now, let’s stop this talk. I’ll show you something good now.”

He said as he spread her palms facing upwards and brought them together.

Almost identically, he unfastened the bracelet he had put on her wrist.

“Ah……”

It was a bracelet she hadn’t taken off even while sleeping or bathing, in case she inadvertently used magic.

It felt strange as soon as it was removed, as if she had gotten used to it in just a few days.

Moreover, this was Pragma, where one of Morig’s three great temples was located.

When Adel looked at Valentin with anxious eyes, he gently rubbed her pale palm with his thumb as if to say it was alright.

“Concentrate. Now try to summon magic to your palm.”

Summoning magic was exactly like digging a water channel to draw water.

She felt the deep source of magic settled within her body like a spring.

As she gently stimulated it, the magic that had naturally been stagnant, unable to flow while blocked by the bracelet, surged up overflowing.

Was it because she was in contact with Valentin? Blue light of magic quickly filled her palm to overflowing.

“L-like this?”

“You’re doing well. Try to release a little bit of magic.”

“I-I don’t know how…… My palm is too, hot……”

“Stay calm. If you don’t know how, just let it flow away.”

“……I, I.”

“Adel, keep your eyes open.”

At those words, she suddenly opened her eyes while catching her breath.

Except for where the bluish light flowing from her palms had gathered, all the light in the world seemed to have disappeared, turning gray.

Among that, only Valentin strangely maintained his color.

Her heart skipped a beat at that marvelous sight.

Valentin hurriedly grabbed both her wrists to prevent the magic in her hands from scattering.

“Slowly……”

His calm voice reached her ears.

“Think of discarding half. Like pouring out water from a cup. Not all of it…… That’s right.”

She could feel the magic leaking through the gaps in her fingers. Her slender fingertips trembled.

The pure magic was so hot it felt like it might burn. Could it have caused blisters?

Whenever she felt the urge to drop this light from her palms, Valentin soothed her.

“You’re doing well. Now slowly close your hands.”

As she barely managed to close her hands as Valentin instructed, the magic writhed as if resisting, then gradually shrank to the size of a small walnut.

She looked at Valentin while panting.

She was out of breath, and her whole body felt languid as if she had been submerged in water and pulled out.

The colors around were slowly returning. Adel clenched her hands tightly to avoid losing the magic.

Valentin looked at the magic she was holding and said.

“In human terms, that would be called ‘unrefined’ magic. If you breathe will into it, you can turn it into a spell.”

“A spell.”

“Although I helped you today, this is quite good for a first attempt.”

Valentin smiled smoothly.

“Most humans would faint when first exposed to unrefined magic. Better if it hits a vital point. Now, try it on me.”

Valentin pulled down his collar slightly, revealing his white nape. Adel stared up at him blankly in disbelief.

“……Are you telling me to attack you right now?”

“Adel. Do you think I might get hurt?”

“You just said this power hurts people. Just by bringing it close. Of course……”

“Well, that’s what I taught you for.”

Golden eyes that looked sinister beyond the bluish light gazed at her.

She was at a loss for words as she alternately looked at Valentin’s rarely revealed slit pupils and nape. He licked his lips as if urging her to act.

“Come on, Adel.”

Perhaps because she had heard such things from Valentin? What she held in her hand seemed like a terrifying and dreadful blade.

Adel hesitated, then finally let the magic slip completely from her hand.

Valentin’s eyes widened in surprise, then he smiled with habitually narrowed eyes.

That expression somehow looked disappointed.

“……Practice it many times since I taught you for self-defense. So you can create it on your own in an emergency.”

“……”

“When you get used to it, you’ll be able to create earthquakes and tsunamis with this.”

“But, Valentin.”

Adel, who had been quietly looking down at her hand, raised tearful eyes.

“You said it’s difficult to distinguish between magic and holy power. You said healing magic is possible too, so I……”

“Let me be clear, it’s only like that when first exposed to high-purity magic. To use an analogy, it’s like the shock a warm-water fish experiences when encountering cold water.”

“……”

“It’s just brief unconsciousness, so they probably won’t even notice, but if you’re still uncomfortable, have them hold a magic stone before casting healing magic.”

The moment he said that, an unnaturally bright white light burst like a flash in the sky outside the carriage.

Adel pressed against the carriage window in surprise to look outside.

The white light she thought had burst in the sky was flowing from the main spire of Morig’s great temple.

Adel saw human hands clinging thickly within that light that seemed about to drift away.

Like she had once seen in Valentin’s power. She could see them descending onto people’s heads and shoulders and crawling around one by one.

“Oh my……”

Unlike Adel who was appalled by that horrifying sight, the people of Pragma looked up at the light with ecstatic eyes as if in admiration.

It seemed only Adel could see the ‘hands’.

As she froze at the unbelievable sight, a large hand reached out in front of her and lowered the curtain of the window.

She finally opened her mouth.

“What was that?”

“Morig.”

“M-Morig? That thing? Th-then does that mean……”

“Yes.”

Valentin’s soft laughter somehow sounded chilling.

“Morig has finally noticed that I’ve arrived.”