<CHAPTER 5>
Fragrant and Beautiful
Meanwhile, there was someone who was utterly shocked after overhearing the conversation between Redemberg Lu Edeltein and Herond.
It was Lucy, a maid of the Demon King’s Castle.
Standing quietly at one corner of the room and watching the two men, Lucy’s light brown eyes wavered violently.
Are they both out of their minds?
Giving a dragon as a gift would not earn affection but would obviously get someone labeled insane.
That was true even if the recipient were a demon rather than a human woman.
Lucy had planned to stay silent no matter what, but in the end she could not hold herself back and cautiously stepped forward.
“Um… Demon King, wouldn’t it be better to give flowers instead of a dragon?”
“Flowers? If it’s flowers, aren’t they everywhere the moment you step outside? Why would you gift something like that?”
“Because they’re fragrant and pretty.”
“Fragrant and pretty?”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein tilted his head in confusion.
“Isn’t that the same for a dragon?”
“…Pardon?”
“The scales of a black dragon are extremely beautiful. And its blood smells quite pleasant as well.”
Herond, who had been listening beside him, nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
“That’s right! And it’s much bigger than flowers!”
What kind of thought process lets someone put flowers and dragons in the same category?
Lucy was so dumbfounded that she was left speechless.
She wanted to retort immediately, but she could not.
In terms of rank, Herond was far above Lucy.
On top of that, Redemberg Lu Edeltein was present, so she tried to persuade them as gently and carefully as possible.
“Still, wouldn’t receiving such a large gift all of a sudden be overwhelming?”
Neither Redemberg Lu Edeltein nor Herond possessed the obvious common sense that a human woman would never be happy to receive a dragon as a gift.
Rather than trying to make them understand that, it was better to give a reasonable excuse for choosing something else as a present.
“Hmm, when you put it that way, you’re right.”
Did it work?
“Then I’ll cut it up and bring it.”
“…Excuse me?”
“If size is the problem, isn’t cutting it the solution?”
She never imagined he would take the phrase “a big gift” so literally.
“As expected of you, Your Highness. How wise!”
As Herond eagerly echoed him, Redemberg Lu Edeltein smiled in satisfaction.
Lucy felt her mind go blank.
* * *
Boom!
A loud crash echoed outside Ehilie’s house.
The ground shook as if something heavy had fallen.
Boom!
It did not end with just once.
Boom! Boom!
“What was that?”
The sound came from the forest not far away.
Ehilie cautiously opened the door and stepped outside.
The moment she went out, the unidentified rumbling stopped.
“It sounded like it came from over there…”
As Ehilie walked one step at a time toward the source of the noise, she soon froze upon seeing something enormous before her eyes.
On the ground, soaked in blood, lay a massive dragon covered entirely in black scales.
And beside it stood a man drenched in blood from head to toe.
It was Rek.
“Ehilie, for you… a gift…”
Rek was saying something, but none of it reached Ehilie’s ears.
She was in no state of mind to properly hear him.
Forced to witness such a horrific scene without any mental preparation, Ehilie could not even scream and fainted on the spot.
* * *
“Ehilie!”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein hurriedly caught her in his arms before her body could hit the ground.
In that brief moment, he saw it.
The fear filling her bright blue eyes.
Fortunately, Redemberg Lu Edeltein was merely inexperienced in romance, not an oblivious demon.
The instant he faced Ehilie’s expression, he quickly realized that she did not like the dragon he had so carefully cut up for her.
In a way, it was fortunate.
She had fainted before she could fully grasp the situation.
What should I do now?
Ehilie had already seen the dreadful gift.
Should he just get rid of it and pretend nothing had happened?
But Ehilie had a strangely sharp side to her.
If he pushed too hard, she might grow even more suspicious.
“Damn it.”
He never should have been so easily swayed by love advice from that fool Herond, who had never dated once in his life.
Roughly running a hand through his hair, Redemberg Lu Edeltein rapidly thought things through.
There’s no helping it.
He decided that rather than hesitating and messing things up halfway, it would be better to remain perfectly consistent to the end.
* * *
“Are you awake?”
The first thing Ehilie saw when she opened her eyes was Rek’s clean and tidy appearance.
This is…
Ehilie was lying on the bed in her own room.
It seemed Rek had carried her here while she was unconscious.
As she blinked blankly, Ehilie suddenly stiffened.
“Rek, weren’t you covered in blood earlier?”
Rek hesitated briefly before opening his mouth.
“You seemed very startled when you saw me, so although I knew it was rude, I borrowed your bathroom to wash the blood off. I’m sorry.”
Ah, I see.
Nodding, Ehilie soon remembered something far more important.
“Now that I think about it, there was definitely a dragon next to you earlier…”
Ehilie abruptly got up and ran outside the house.
She needed to confirm whether what she saw earlier was real.
“Wait, Ehilie…!”
Ignoring Rek’s attempt to stop her, she arrived at the spot and was once again confronted with a gruesome sight.
She had not imagined it.
Not far away, the dismembered dragon still lay there.
“Ugh!”
“Ehilie, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. More importantly…”
Suppressing her nausea, Ehilie asked with difficulty.
“What is that?”
“It’s a dragon.”
As if she didn’t know that.
“No, I mean… why is a dragon like that, and what were you doing there?”
“The truth is…”
Rek rummaged through his pocket and took something out.
It was a bouquet made from freshly picked wildflowers.
“I wanted to give you a gift in return for saving my life.”
His red eyes darted around, gauging Ehilie’s reaction.
He then spoke in a slightly timid voice.
“If you don’t like it, I will dispose of it myself.”
“No! I like it!”
A noble man personally making and gifting a bouquet was unexpected.
“You looked reluctant…”
“Ah, I was just startled. It’s my first time receiving flowers.”
“Is that so? I thought you must have received many.”
“What? Why?”
Rek smiled gently.
His voice, sweet as if drenched in sugar, tickled her ears.
“Because you are a person as fragrant and beautiful as these flowers.”
Ehilie screamed internally.
Oh my goodness. How can he say something like that with a straight face? Isn’t he embarrassed at all?
Rek was definitely a main character in this world.
Otherwise, there was no way he could casually say something so cringeworthy.
“A-anyway.”
Ehilie pulled herself together despite her half-dazed state.
There was still something she needed to ask.
“What happened to that dragon?”
“Well…”
The gloom settled over his face, which had been bright just moments ago.
“On my way here, a dragon suddenly appeared. So…”
Rek’s brow furrowed.
His already pale face turned even whiter.
Seeing his trembling lips and labored breathing, Ehilie hurriedly comforted him.
“I’m sorry. You must have been very frightened too. I pushed you too hard.”
“It’s all right.”
Rek continued with difficulty.
He said that as he stood frozen in shock after seeing the suddenly appearing dragon, an unidentified man appeared before him out of nowhere.
The moment she heard that, a clear image of the man’s identity formed in Ehilie’s mind.
“That man, did he have blond hair?”
Rek frowned as if recalling his memory, then nodded.
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Did you see his face?”
“Not clearly.”
“What about his eye color? Were they blue like mine?”
“I think so.”
As expected.
The unidentified man who brutally slaughtered the dragon had to be the original male lead, the hero.
“Do you know him?”
“…No. Not at all. He’s a stranger.”
He had to be a stranger.
The moment she met him, the horrifying original novel’s plot would begin.
* * *
Ehilie returned home together with Rek.
Her mind was a mess because of the sudden appearance of the dragon and the hero.
She had come here to escape the original story.
Did that mean she could not escape its flow no matter what she did?
If it had been me instead of Rek who encountered the hero…
Overwhelmed by creeping anxiety, Ehilie trembled slightly.
“Are you all right? You don’t look well.”
“Ah, I’m fine. I was just startled. More importantly, Rek, about the person you met earlier. Did he say anything else?”
“Anything else?”
“Like looking for someone…”
“Ehilie.”
A shadow fell over Ehilie’s head.
Rek, who had approached her without her noticing, asked in a much lower voice.
“Are you interested in that man?”
