#054
Carlisle threaded his fingers between mine and controlled my hand. Against my will, I ended up gently stroking the dragon’s head and horns. All the while, I was on edge, wondering if this animal might suddenly turn violent and bite me.
I was the type who absolutely couldn’t understand tourist activities like draping giant snakes around your neck or observing crocodiles up close under a zookeeper’s guidance at overseas zoos and such places.
Unlike me, who was scared stiff and tense, the dragon acted spoiled as if it really were my pet, rubbing its head directly against my hand. Then it lowered its head all the way down to my waist level.
‘What, what am I supposed to do about this.’
“It seems to want you to ride it.”
Carlisle said indifferently to my bewilderment. As if this giant dragon were just a well-trained gentle horse. For someone like me who had never learned horseback riding, even riding a well-trained horse would be a huge challenge, but asking me to ride a dragon that might be a monster – does that even make sense? Once again, sweat began to form on my scalp and palms. The color drained from my face.
“Why… ride this thing?”
“The coconut disappeared.”
Carlisle gave an irrelevant answer. When I made a face asking what nonsense he was talking about, he pointed to the spring. It was where the coconut had fallen earlier.
‘What!’
The coconut that had been floating on the water surface was completely gone. And naturally, the Fragment of the Sacred Tree along with it!
“Where did it go?”
Carlisle answered as if it was no big deal.
“The moment this guy surfaced, it sank into the water.”
“Why?”
“How would I know.”
“……”
“So ride it. This guy seems to be some kind of guardian spirit, so it’ll probably take you to where the fragment is.”
“……”
Even if you say that…
Worried I might offend the dragon, this time I couldn’t bring myself to shake my head outright, so I widened my eyes and rolled my pupils around. Even without words, I could feel my eyes growing as big as plates and all the color draining from my face, so Carlisle must have gotten the message clearly enough.
Carlisle clicked his tongue, then took off his trench coat, jacket, and vest, throwing them all to Taro. Then he climbed onto the dragon himself.
‘Oh, a dark knight!’
Well, I’m not exactly a princess, but I am still the weaker one, so he must be displaying chivalry for my sake. He really isn’t completely bad after all. I felt relieved and tried to step back. But… for some reason, my wrist was still being held.
“…?”
When I looked at him meaningfully to let go of my hand, Carlisle met my gaze and slightly raised the corners of his mouth. The moment the hair on the back of my neck stood up from an inexplicable sense of foreboding, Carlisle leaned his upper body like a Mongolian warrior on horseback and suddenly grabbed my waist and pulled me up.
“Uwaaah!”
That crazy bastard Carlisle Lightinger hugged me and put me on the dragon. On the body of a mythical beast with no saddle or reins, with only horns to grab onto! Right, what was I expecting from the ruthless Carlisle. I felt like I’d be the one crying tears of blood.
I lay face down, grabbed the horns, and hung on desperately. Behind me, Carlisle layered his body over mine like a blanket. Being pinned under this guy was annoying and unpleasant… or rather, I desperately wished he would press down harder and more firmly. This bumpy riding experience was absolutely terrible. Without the Tranquility Potion, I get severe motion sickness too!
As if to confirm that it was indeed a dragon, it performed acrobatics in the air, twisting its body like a roller coaster. It even plummeted vertically into the water in a nosedive, just as I had feared. My screams filled the dungeon before disappearing into the water along with our descent.
Since the dragon lived here, it probably wasn’t as shallow as it looked, but conversely, there was no telling how deep it might get. I was gripped with terror.
Sure enough, the dragon began descending downward, downward, endlessly. What had seemed shallow was indeed a fake. Just how far down was it planning to go? I was terrified that I might get crushed by water pressure at this rate. No, I’d suffocate to death before that happened.
‘Mmph mmph.’
Sure enough, I began to suffocate. When I first dove underwater from my cabin, it was part of a quest, so I could breathe freely underwater within the time limit. This should also be part of a quest, so couldn’t they let me breathe? What a backstab.
How far down had we come? Would it be too late to try swimming back up now? Panic hit before I reached my limit. I clutched my throat and struggled. That’s when it happened.
Carlisle grabbed my shoulder and flipped me around, so now I was pinned facing him. Suffocating, I thrashed around trying to escape. But Carlisle held me down without letting go.
‘You crazy bastard, move! Let go!’
As oxygen stopped flowing to my brain, my consciousness grew hazy. Then Carlisle grabbed my chin and pressed his lips to mine.
What, is he trying to share breath through the mouth? Is that even possible? Isn’t that just some kind of cinematic license?
‘There’s no way that would work…’
A hot, firm tongue pushed between our joined lips. Just what the hell is this crazy bastard doing in this situation? The moment I was about to lose my mind, something small and round was pushed in by his tongue. It was incredibly bitter and sour, disgustingly slimy – like a poisoned fish eyeball or something.
When I reflexively tried to reject it, Carlisle grabbed the back of my neck and forcefully pushed his tongue deeper. His thick tongue slid along mine, shoving the small pellet deep into my throat.
Gulp.
I ended up being forced to swallow whatever pill or bead it was. I glared at Carlisle with a grimace. My throat burned painfully where the pill had gone down. It wasn’t an exaggeration – tears came to my eyes without my realizing it.
Since we were in cold water, the heat around my eyes was quickly washed away by the cold water. But as if he had noticed my tears, Carlisle stared intently at my eyes before reaching out again.
‘Why, what! I swallowed it. I don’t know what it was but I swallowed it, so why again.’
I was still pinned under his body and riding on the back of a dragon that was endlessly cutting through the water, so my movement wasn’t free. Carlisle grabbed the back of my head with his large hand and pressed his lips to mine again. Though I was displeased, I obediently opened my mouth. Because I had finally realized the effect of what he had made me swallow.
What he had made me swallow – I don’t know what the ingredients were, but anyway, it allowed me to breathe underwater. So this time he must be trying to give me something else I need.
His tongue entered again. Earlier I was out of my mind with life-threatening panic so I didn’t realize, but this is kind of… doesn’t it seem like an act that starts with K? Of course, in the game, he and I are married, we’ve gone all the way, but that was between characters…
Come to think of it, I also kissed young Carlisle at the beach festival event earlier. That was even a real kiss for the sake of kissing. The ticklish, fluttering sensation from then was still lingering. But thinking of that now was a mistake. It made me think of this current act as a kiss too. And honestly, that Carlisle is absolutely not the same person as this Carlisle.
Carlisle’s tongue licked mine. Not just licking my tongue, but thoroughly licking and sucking my teeth, palate, and under my tongue. I trembled without realizing it. Not from cold… no, let’s say it was from cold. I was clearly losing body heat to the cold water.
More importantly, what is it? If you’re going to feed me something, do it quickly. Unlike before, I’m in my right mind now, so you can just give it to me and I’ll swallow it myself. You don’t need to push it all the way to my throat with your tongue…
No, wait a minute. If you rub there like that, it makes me feel strange!
Lying flat on my back, I couldn’t grab the dragon’s horns, so I had no choice but to tightly grip Carlisle’s collar. In that position with our mouths pressed together (naturally it wasn’t just our mouths but our bodies pressed together too), didn’t it look like I was the one begging for this act?
Moreover, since I’m a physically healthy adult male, I couldn’t help but react to external physical stimulation. But if we’re pressed together like this… it becomes problematic.
I flinched and twisted my body. Since I didn’t want to die, I still gripped Carlisle’s collar tightly, but I tried somehow to separate our lower bodies. But naturally it wasn’t easy. Thanks to wearing loose overalls, it didn’t show outwardly, but since I wasn’t lying on top of him but pinned underneath, there was no way he wouldn’t notice the changes in my body.
Whether he noticed, the tongue that had been ravaging my mouth as if it owned it stopped moving. Then it scraped my palate slightly before withdrawing. As the hot tongue and lips that had filled my mouth separated, I suddenly felt cold as if my body temperature had dropped.
“…?”
But that wasn’t the problem.
‘What, weren’t you going to give me something?’
In the mouth that Carlisle had left, there was nothing remaining except the sensation of where his tongue had been and the feeling that had made my lower abdomen tingle and boil. I probed my mouth with my tongue. There was nothing. The subtly sweet taste was probably what Carlisle had left behind… no, let’s not think about that.
‘Then what the hell did he just do?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
