He drank the remaining wine without leaving a drop, then slid his long tongue along the glass. With white, slender fingers on the transparent glass.

“Hmm?”

“You spilled some wine.”

Not a drop of wine had spilled, but Litania was drunk and those who could have corrected the facts couldn’t bring themselves to speak up.

Orbis took the empty wine glass from Litania’s hand and kissed her fingers. Whether embarrassed or ticklish, Litania shuddered with a soft “Mmm.”

“Orbis, people are watching.”

“I’m merely cleaning your hand.”

“You could use a napkin…”

“Didn’t you say a black knight is a man who drinks the wine left by a woman?”

There hadn’t been a single drop of wine on Litania’s fingers to begin with, but now a bitter alcoholic liquid touched her skin as Orbis licked it.

The order of events had been reversed, but Orbis brazenly continued.

“So I must drink every last drop you left behind.”

“Ah…”

While Litania paused, dazed with her judgment clouded by alcohol, Orbis moved his lips. A deep heat rose like smoke over the bitter scent of alcohol.

Orbis slightly tilted his head while maintaining eye contact with Litania and gently bit the tips of her neat fingers.

Perhaps embarrassed to make eye contact even while drunk, Litania hiccupped softly and furrowed her brow.

“Orbis, stop it…”

“As you wish.”

The red tongue that had clung obsessively as if it would never part quickly moved away.

As the soft warmth retreated, the air felt cold against her hand, and Litania felt oddly regretful.

‘Was he really just trying to clean off the wine?’

Perhaps because Orbis had withdrawn with such a bland expression. Litania felt embarrassed, as if she alone had been flustered over nothing.

As she lowered her hand below the table and put on a prim expression, Orbis gently tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear.

The glove brushing her ear, tingling from the heat, was still smooth.

“Oh, your clothes are different from this morning.”

“I couldn’t wear the same outfit twice to meet you. I’m hurt you only noticed now.”

Orbis smiled as if joking and twirled the ends of Litania’s hair around his finger.

The servants and knights watching the two were dumbfounded, their mouths hanging open unable to say a word.

‘That fierce, cold-as-ice divine dragon… is acting so flirtatiously?’

‘He can smile?’

‘Is this a different being that just looks the same? Some kind of magical doppelganger?’

‘Did he send a doppelganger to us? Is that why it had no expression and was so terrifying?’

Confused glances were quickly exchanged.

Regardless, Orbis placed a damp cloth on the empty glass and gently pulled Litania’s shoulder to lift her up.

“Shall we return to your room, Litania?”

“It’s embarrassing in front of people… I can walk on my own.”

“Wouldn’t it be more embarrassing if you stumbled?”

“I guess so.”

Litania nodded slightly and wrapped her arms around Orbis’s neck.

“Everyone, I’ll be heading in first. Enjoy the after-party, no. I had a lovely evening…”

Seeing the astonished looks on the knights’ faces, Litania mumbled her words.

Was it because her tongue was tied and she was rambling? Still, they would understand since it was her first time drinking, right?

Leaning her limp body against Orbis, Litania whispered softly.

“Everyone’s staring… let’s go quickly.”

“Of course.”

Orbis glanced at Snow, who was still there, then turned around and left the banquet hall.

No one had yet realized that from the moment he entered until he left, Orbis hadn’t spoken a word to anyone but Litania.

Small white snowflakes were falling from the pitch-black sky beyond the window. Litania stared at them blankly while being carried by Orbis.

“It’s the first snow…”

“Yes, it is the first snow.”

“Oh no, this won’t do.”

“What won’t do?”

It’s the first snow I’ve seen since coming to the dragon city. When the first snow falls, it’s only natural to go outside and greet it. Come to think of it, there’s no air pollution here, so it’s safe to eat the snow. Litania mumbled incomprehensibly with her tipsy face.

“While the first snow might sober you up, suddenly going out in the cold wind when you’re so heated up will give you a cold.”

“You’re supposed to go on a date while watching the first snow…”

“A date?”

“Mmm. It’s nothing.”

Litania sighed, feeling Orbis’s steady, unwavering gait.

‘Dates are for couples. What am I saying all of a sudden?’

Date. Now that she’d said it out loud, it felt like a regrettable word. It’s not that she hadn’t done things with Orbis that could be called dates, but they’d never had an official one. That was natural since they weren’t a couple.

‘It’s natural… is it natural?’

Litania blurted out a question.

“Orbis, what kind of relationship do we have?”

“Officially, we’re married, and privately, we’re friends.”

“Friends…”

Litania recalled how Orbis had appeared at the banquet, drank her wine for her, and licked her fingers.

Before that, he had helped her bathe when her arm was injured, and even fed her meals directly.

Orbis had said that was how one treats a friend. The perspectives of humans and dragons might be different, so perhaps it wasn’t a lie.

But to Litania, Orbis’s actions didn’t feel like simple expressions of friendship.

‘Maybe Orbis really doesn’t have any other intentions, but…’

The fact that she felt fluttery despite his plain attitude, wasn’t it because she actually harbored different feelings?

“You know…”

Litania began to speak slowly, her head resting on Orbis’s shoulder.

“At first, I was scared of you. I thought you were strange. Well, not a person, but a dragon.”

Once she said it out loud, it felt more like talking to herself than to him.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. But when I realized you were actually kind, gradually…”

I started to like you.

Her vision blurred from the alcohol. Her eyes grew hot and she felt inexplicably sad, so Litania blinked.

Why did I drink? I shouldn’t have.

“The things you do so casually keep making me embarrassed, and my heart flutter…”

This is why people shouldn’t drink. You end up rambling and saying weird things.

Her mind was saying that, but perhaps due to the alcohol, her mouth wouldn’t listen to her brain. Litania hung her head low with an “Ah,” feeling pathetic.

“Are you feeling good?”

A light breath brushed the top of her head. A low but gentle voice. Like dew falling on a pond reflecting the blue sky, it created gentle ripples in her heart.

“Actually, earlier too…”

The small ripples grew larger. Like water waves that split into two when blocked by a finger, unfiltered emotions began to pour from Litania’s lips.

“When you licked my fingers… it was really embarrassing, but my heart was pounding.”

Orbis let out a ticklish laugh at her honest answer.

“What kind of embarrassing face are you planning to make when you wake up, my drunk friend?”

“I don’t know. I guess tomorrow’s me will deal with it…”

“That means I’ll get to see you tomorrow too.”

His voice sounded especially warm as he added, “That’s nice.” Litania closed her eyes right there in Orbis’s arms.

She had a vague thought that she should change clothes and lie down in bed when they reached the room… but it quickly faded away, overcome by drowsiness.

She had a strange dream.

In the dream, Litania was submerged in deep water with Orbis.

It was already odd that they were bathing together, but the atmosphere was even stranger.

It wasn’t a friendly and intimate atmosphere like friends, nor was it a sensual and erotic one like lovers.

Litania’s body was stiff, and she wore a somewhat disgruntled expression.

Even stranger was Orbis’s expression. He wore a face devoid of any expression, as if he had tried to imitate a human face but failed halfway.

It wasn’t simple expressionlessness, but rather an eerie expression as if something inhuman had forcibly tried to mimic humanity and missed something crucial. She had seen such an expression before.

When she first came to the dragon city, that butler Simon had worn such an expression. Like a monster not yet accustomed to imitating humans, awkwardly trying to copy…

“Where are you going?”

Orbis caught Litania’s body as she tried to move away from his embrace.

“Aren’t married couples supposed to be one body? So we shouldn’t be apart.”

Informal speech?

Had Orbis ever spoken to her informally? She opened her eyes wide at the unfamiliar way of speaking.

Conversely, the Litania in the dream was frowning deeply.

“I said I wanted to wash up.”

“That’s what we’re doing.”

Sighing heavily as if words weren’t getting through, Litania shook her head. The milky water rippled with steam, and a red arm rose up. The color was too deep to be just from the hot water. Looking closely, she had burns on her arm.

“It hurts…”