When Mikhail returned to the inn with the Darphung after completing his morning training, it happened.
“Mikhail.”
At the sound of Adrian’s clear voice, Mikhail came to an abrupt stop. Hm? He had just been checking to make sure the Darphung was keeping up behind him. Mikhail turned his head. Adrian was perched lightly on the window ledge, one arm resting on his raised knee.
“You still like me, right?”
Adrian’s lips curled ever so slightly into a smile.
Their gazes locked. Adrian was smiling, yet it was impossible to tell what he was thinking—that ambiguous expression that always left Mikhail guessing. Mikhail had grown used to trying to decipher the hazy truth hidden behind that smile. It was second nature to him now. Adrian’s eyes, sharp as needles, pierced through the silence, aimed squarely at Mikhail.
“What, not anymore?”
“Of course I do.”
Dodging the question or testing the waters with a clever retort wasn’t Mikhail’s style. He wasn’t someone who laid traps or circled around his feelings. He had grown up learning never to turn his back on an enemy, always to face things head-on. He had been taught to never retreat. So Mikhail always laid his feelings bare without hesitation.
“That’s right. My feelings haven’t changed.”
Without even a hint of hesitation, he voiced his sincerity. The corner of Adrian’s lips fell, and all trace of amusement vanished from his face. As expected—Mikhail still had feelings for him. If he didn’t, that vivid mark on his chest wouldn’t be there now, etched into his skin.
“Adrian, did something happen?”
What could’ve possibly happened while he was away training to prompt a question like that? Concern creeping into his voice, Mikhail crossed the room, coming to stand in front of the window. Adrian looked back at him with a blank expression and asked once more.
“Then… if I said I liked you too… what would that make us?”
It was a strange question.
Mikhail couldn’t help but be thrown off, his instinct questioning the intention behind it. He stared at Adrian’s face for a long moment in silence before finally parting his lips.
“What else? Then it would mean we like each other.”
Adrian reached out and touched Mikhail’s forehead, then gently swept his fingers through the soft silver strands of his hair.
Mikhail’s eyes widened slightly at the gesture. Adrian said nothing, and maybe it was because of that silence that the atmosphere felt even more charged. Mikhail’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, tension mounting. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest with a speed he had never experienced before.
Adrian, their faces mere inches apart, stared deeply into Mikhail’s eyes for a long while before whispering, almost like a breath:
“Come here.”
The soft voice brushed against Mikhail’s ear like a caress.
That voice carried a strange, compelling weight—like a command laced with mana. Mikhail leaned in further toward Adrian, who was still perched on the window ledge. Satisfied, Adrian’s eyes crinkled ever so slightly as his smile deepened. He gave the command once more, in a whisper thick with intent.
“Closer…”
Mikhail’s eyes trembled. They were already impossibly close. To get any nearer, he would have to press Adrian—who was sitting upright—against the window itself.
Thud. He placed both hands on Adrian’s shoulders and drew in close.
“Like this?”
“Yes, just like that.”
“…Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
Shh. Adrian let out the softest breath, gazing up at Mikhail intently. A look of pure curiosity flickered in Mikhail’s eyes.
You’ll be shocked once you realize what kind of situation we’re actually in right now.
Adrian thought to himself.
While Mikhail had been out for morning training, Adrian had visited the fairy-run library. And there, he had discovered something. He wondered—what kind of expression would Mikhail make if he told him?
No… can Mikhail even handle it?
Suddenly, a faint tremor flickered through one of Adrian’s eyes. It was the sharp pain that flared across his upper chest—right where the same mark as Mikhail’s was etched. He already knew the answer.
Click, click. Without a word, Adrian began undoing the buttons of Mikhail’s shirt.
“Adrian?”
His golden eyelashes dipped downward, casting shadows across his face. As he unfastened a few more buttons, the unique mark engraved on Mikhail’s bare chest revealed itself in full, boldly asserting its presence. Bathed in sunlight streaming through the window, the mark seemed to glint as if proudly showing itself off to Adrian.
Since when? Could it have been… back then?
As he stared down at Mikhail’s exposed chest, Adrian recalled a particular moment.
“Adrian!”
Whether it was the sound of Mikhail’s voice or something else, the ear of the dragon lying nearby twitched. The rhythmic footfalls echoed—Mikhail sprinting across the surface of the black lake as if it were solid ground.
“Adrian! Snap out of it! Don’t give in to the black mana!”
It had been a moment he thought would be the end.
Even as the black mana consumed him to the point that he could no longer move or even respond, Mikhail’s resolute voice continued to pull Adrian’s consciousness back up from the depths.
“It’s my turn to protect you now.”
His quiet voice rang out with unwavering strength.
And then… Mikhail was surrounded in radiant light, as if he had become light itself.
From beneath the dark miasma, Adrian’s eyes—once again reflecting the color of bright scales—locked onto the image of Mikhail, glowing as if he were ablaze. The monsters caught in Mikhail’s light began to turn to ash.
It was in that moment that Adrian understood. The destiny foretold by the Ordinas was nothing more than a dream—meaningless until the instant it actually came true. But that scene… it had stirred something deep within Adrian, who had lived through countless eons.
A mere human, once thought to be weak and fragile, had defied his fate and stood tall by his own will. Unless one had witnessed that moment with their own eyes, they could never truly understand its weight.
But still… to be the dragon’s mate?
Adrian’s brows furrowed as he recalled the passage from the ancient text he had found in the library.
Mikhail?
Back then, Adrian had certainly felt a desire—to possess the most beautiful thing in the world. This journey had begun from a selfish longing to stay close and watch over Mikhail from right beside him.
Mikhail had come to recognize those feelings first, back during their days at Basamiel. True to his nature, he had confessed his heart right away.
And from the moment Adrian became aware of his own emotions—there at the Black Lake—the ritual of becoming a dragon’s mate had quietly begun. It was only now that Adrian understood why he had needed such a long period of rest after Mikhail had defeated the monsters. That was when the true growing pains had begun.
It felt like confirming he had already ruined something before it even had a chance to begin. Right now, Adrian was seeking something—something only a dragon like him could not know. And the only way to understand it was to ask the one who had already stepped into that unknown realm.
“When two people like each other… what do they usually do?”
Adrian murmured, eyes fixed intently on Mikhail’s chest. The exact same mark was beginning to appear on Adrian’s own chest now.
According to the old tome from the library, even the dreams Mikhail had been having every night were part of this. The reason it appeared through dreams was obvious—it was a considerate mechanism to ensure they shared even their unconscious selves, preparing them for the many hardships to come.
“…Why are you asking something like that in this situation?”
Mikhail furrowed his brow, clearly flustered.
“You want something from me, don’t you? You’ve wanted this since Basamiel, haven’t you? Kissing each other… and sharing a bed, warming it together.”
At Adrian’s direct words, Mikhail’s eyes widened dramatically.
“Well, I’m fine with going straight to it.”
A kiss, at least—they’d done that before at the palace.
Adrian tilted his chin slightly, gesturing toward the bed behind Mikhail. But the moment he turned his head back to gauge Mikhail’s reaction, Adrian’s eyes widened in surprise.
The dazed look on Mikhail’s face had crumpled—badly.
“You idiot.”
What? At that, Adrian’s head tilted slightly to the side.
“You, of all people—you who can name every single blade of grass along the roadside—don’t even understand this simple thing?”
To Mikhail, Adrian was someone far too precious to touch carelessly. His feelings were never light enough to treat Adrian so flippantly.
Mikhail’s eyes blazed with a fierce, flickering fire. But Adrian, trapped between Mikhail’s body and the glass window, remained utterly calm.
“Are you pretending not to know? Or do you just not want to know?”
“…”
Even Adrian couldn’t answer that.
He knew it was strange to ask someone—whom he already knew still loved him—whether they still did. Of course, he knew the answer before he even posed the question.
But what if, like Mikhail said, he just didn’t want to know?
Maybe things really were best left just as they were. Spending a few more years—no, even a few decades—at Mikhail’s side. Staying with him until the end of his life… and then, once he’d seen that moment with his own eyes, walking away cleanly. That was what Adrian had always done. Maybe, for the two of them, that was the best possible outcome.
But once the mark etched on both of their chests was fully complete, that option would disappear forever.
Before that happened, Adrian wanted to know what it was Mikhail truly wanted.
So he decided—just this once—to find out however he pleased.
Adrian’s fingers tightened subtly around the fabric of Mikhail’s open shirt. And with that single motion, their faces—already so close—crashed together.
