Was it because she was still half-asleep?

Emilia didn’t avoid the stroking hand. She simply accepted it while lying still.

Like a young child receiving praise from an adult.

Stroke stroke-.

“Huhu.”

The snake smiled brightly.

Unlike her usual sharp-edged demeanor, she was particularly docile under his touch.

He seemed to be enjoying her still drowsy reaction.

The situation continued strangely for a while.

As her foggy consciousness cleared, the girl belatedly came to her senses.

A faint sigh escaped between her lips.

“…Ah.”

Emilia turned her head with a start.

As she wavered with a bewildered gaze, the boy who had been quietly laughing withdrew his hand.

His expression was as if he was already satisfied.

Seeing the slit eyes drawing an arc, the vain one bit her lip.

“……”

“……”

Silence filled the surroundings for a moment.

In the uncomfortably lingering atmosphere, the girl needlessly rolled her eyes.

The snake was sitting right beside her.

Though there was much she wanted to ask about various things, words wouldn’t easily leave her mouth.

The laboratory where shadows had whirled.

The silhouette standing there remained vividly in her mind.

Perhaps Emilia was afraid of the boy.

“My, my… I don’t know why you’re so withdrawn.”

Regardless.

The golden snake shrugged his shoulders slyly.

In the end, what the girl who had been hesitating repeatedly threw out as her first words was a particularly unnutritious question.

“…What happened?”

“While you two were unconscious, support sent from Galimar arrived. We returned to the academy without delay.”

“Then… that huge monster?”

“Don’t you know?”

The answer came back meaningfully.

Emilia unknowingly swallowed dry saliva.

-Like then… won’t you make a deal again this time?

Perhaps because of the still vivid scene?

It was a sensation particularly deeply imprinted.

-Don’t be flustered.

-As long as I’m here… You won’t be pushed back, Lady.

The girl remembered.

The body heat that had embraced her from behind, and the thrill that had made her whole body tingle right after.

The shadows spreading from her fingertips were also vivid.

-Just for a very short moment, I’ll show you a new world.

The vain one reflected on that instant.

When their hands touched, the world was dyed black and only darkness remained.

What appeared in the empty vision was a single star.

A gently shining fragment was seen.

The starlight uniquely spending the dawn soon became thousands of beauties, creating an ecstatic scene.

-You can do it.

It was an unforgettable sensation.

That which had given the girl omnipotence… was a power comparable to ‘God’.

It was an expression that would cause seizures if heard in church for blasphemy, but there was no other way to describe the impression from that time.

What she had experienced was a kind of authority.

“……”

Emilia needlessly fidgeted with her fingers.

Thoughts tangled complexly.

Most were about the boy.

He was strong.

At least, he wasn’t a vessel she could judge with her eyes.

Even setting the standard as low as possible, he was professor level… perhaps even a strong person comparable to the dean.

The performance the boy had shown overwhelmed the common sense the girl knew.

‘Until now… he was hiding his abilities.’

It was a meaningful point.

Despite having such intense power, he lived while hiding himself.

A chilling intuition flowed down her spine.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”

“……”

“I understand. Many things happened.”

Mouth corners curving nonchalantly.

Seeing the snake acting no different than usual, one question filled her mind.

Emilia pronounced it barely audibly.

“…You.”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you save me?”

She didn’t understand.

What was the reason he tried to protect her, even revealing his hidden power?

What on earth did he lack?

Though they had made a deal with each other, in reality it was just a one-sided relationship.

The girl had no choice but to obey unconditionally.

Because the snake held her weakness.

That’s why her first kiss was taken too.

“You didn’t particularly need to save me.”

It was a choice that only created losses.

As the villainess who was always calculating gains and losses, it was difficult to understand the boy’s heart.

As she stared blankly at his characteristic slit eyes, suddenly a sly smile returned.

“Huhu… You’re making the person who nursed you all night feel hurt.”

“That’s why, why.”

Blue eyes soaked in confusion.

She felt a terrible sense of dissonance.

What need was there to save her, nurse her, and stay by her side?

What did he expect from this cheap junk?

‘I don’t understand.’

The warmth holding her hand since earlier felt unfamiliar.

The fingers interlocked as if it were natural were tinged with inexplicable affection.

Perhaps she was a little scared.

Because she didn’t know what the boy wanted.

“…I learned there’s no kindness without reason in this world.”

“Why do you always try to find a reason?”

“Because I couldn’t survive otherwise.”

“That’s a regrettable thing to say.”

“It’s an important part for me.”

“Hmm.”

The snake seemed lost in thought for a moment.

He who had been chewing over a brief silence soon opened his mouth as if reaching a conclusion.

“If you really want to hear a reason… I think I can give this much of an answer.”

The boy recited.

“It’s because I cherished Lady.”

A voice gently tickling her ear.

It was an answer far from her anxious expectations.

“…Pardon?”

Question marks floated above the girl’s head.

Regardless, the sweet voice calmly explained itself.

“At first, I had no particular thoughts.”

Calmly.

“I thought it was just a passing connection. Our first meeting was truly a mess after all.”

He seemed to be talking about that time.

The day the two first encountered each other.

“I thought you were a prickly person.”

“…I really was prickly.”

“I thought it would be difficult to get close… but my thoughts gradually changed.”

“……”

“Thanks to Lady choosing a new path.”

The snake smiled gently with his eyes.

Emilia was listening with bated breath.

“At first I wanted to know you, later I wanted to watch you… now I hold a heart wanting to protect you.”

So that you can create a new story.

I want to be a strength by your side.

I wish that this time, Lady’s name would be written together in that fairy tale I loved so much.

“Because you’ve changed this time.”

The air dyed freshly.

Before she knew it, Emilia’s face had turned red.

It was because of the sudden content.

“……”

Though Emilia was infinitely ignorant in this area, she couldn’t help but notice when it was this blatant.

It was a moment when knowledge learned from books shone.

This was clearly.

That kind of meaning.

They were sentences with the atmosphere of a man confessing love to a woman.

The girl was dumbfounded by the bomb statement that fell out of nowhere.

“Wh-wh-what… suddenly, uh, uhh…?”

Her mind was bleached pure white.

Emilia unknowingly let out an intense reaction.

“Wh-wh-wh-why are such words suddenly popping out?!”

“Didn’t Lady ask?”

“Th-that’s true, but…!”

Of course she had asked why he saved her!

She had no idea it would flow like this.

The girl bit her lip restlessly.

The ward that had been filled with ominousness until just now was now only exuding a fresh scent.

The snake spoke calmly.

“The deal… The words I gave you then were sincere.”

“……”

Deal.

Emilia only then realized what the boy wanted.

A few words remaining in her memory came to mind.

-But I want you to live for me.

-It’s enough if you stay by my side always… so I can watch your story.

That was certainly the content.

In exchange for saving the vain one, the snake wanted to keep her by his side.

Though there was no selfishness at all in the words the boy had said until just before, Emilia had no way of knowing that fact.

That’s how she came to misunderstand on her own.

That the boy before her eyes loved her.

“I-I……”

Thump thump.

Perhaps because of the unfamiliar situation?

Her pulse beat strangely.

While trying to calm the heat constantly rising to her face, the girl timidly conveyed her thoughts.

It was a bit of worry.

“I don’t know if I can do well.”

She had learned that emotions don’t go as one wishes.

Though she had promised to always stay by the boy’s side, could her heart become the same as his?

It was unknown.

“As I said last time, I have no experience in this area at all… I don’t know if I can live up to your expectations.”

But.

“…Still, I’ll try.”

Because she had already received help.

If she owed her life to him twice, shouldn’t she at least show effort to fulfill the deal?

At least she intended to try to have feelings for him.

“It might not be as much as you want.”

“I know.”

“And I’m very clumsy.”

“Everyone is.”

“If even that’s okay… I’ll do my best.”

Emilia muttered quietly.

The snake was stunned for a moment, then soon burst into a faint laugh.

“Pfft… That makes me happy.”

The boy stroked the girl’s head as if finding her endearing.

This time she didn’t avoid his touch.

She simply lay still with her eyes tightly closed.

“……”

“Huhu.”

In fact, the two were understanding the situation completely differently.

Though Emilia had conveyed her resolve amidst numerous agonies, to the boy’s ears it sounded simply like a determination to work hard to help him.

As the misunderstanding deepened like that.

“Ugh… my head hurts.”

Just then, the sound of someone tossing and turning was heard from beside.

Following that, when they turned their gaze, green eyes that seemed to have just woken up could be seen.

“Wh-where is this? There was definitely a monster……”

Disheveled pink hair.

The girl who had been looking around blankly suddenly met gazes with the two people watching her.

“You’ve woken up, Miss Regia.”

“Commoner… seems you’ve come to your senses.”

“…Eh?”

Regia couldn’t help but be flustered.

One was a person she thought had died.

The other was a person who had been on death’s doorstep with her.

The girl’s dazed eyes from sleep soon shook violently.

“Y-Young Master? Lady…?”

Moisture gathered in her eyes.

The girl asked in a low voice while sobbing.

“…Could it be I died too?”

“……”

“……”

It seemed she was mistaking this for the afterlife.

The girl who started shedding tears.

“Hic… What do I do! Poor Young Master, sniff, Lady…!”

Somehow she seemed to be mourning the deaths of others rather than her own.

Anyway, it was an awkward situation.

“Now, now! Stop that?”

“We’re not dead! Stop crying and come to your senses!”

“Ugh, uh, hic! Huwaeng…”

The pilot crying out loud.

The snake and the vain one had to work up a sweat for a while to soothe her.