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Beneath the pouring rain—

I quietly stared at Arcadium.

Arcadium, whose dragon transformation had been undone.

He had fallen on his rear and was desperately trying to draw out magic.

But he was someone whose mana circuits no longer functioned due to an accident.

No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t cast proper spells without the help of an ancient dragon’s magic.

At most, he could barely manage simple support spells using the little mana he could squeeze out.

Drip—

At that moment, blood started trickling from Arcadium’s nose.

It was the result of pushing himself too hard to use magic.

“Guh, cough…”

He spewed thin blood from his mouth and trembled all over.

I began walking toward him.

“P-please! H-help!”

Arcadium looked at me with horror and tried to run.

But I moved faster, stomping down on his back.

Pinned underfoot, Arcadium struggled.

He looked like an insect, and that made me laugh.

A violent pulse surged from deep within my stomach.

Inside Arcadium remained the remnants of an ancient dragon.

Those remnants still held the dragon’s mana.

Previously, in his full form, I couldn’t sense it.

But with the enhanced effect of my draconic transformation, I could now feel it vividly.

Devour it.

Covet it.

Tear it apart.

The voice echoing in my head was unbearably annoying.

“P-please! I can’t die like this!”

Arcadium begged desperately for his life.

For someone who had mocked and abused the deaths of others, his plea was pitifully disgraceful.

Something dripped from the corner of my mouth.

Was it drool, rain, or blood?

I couldn’t tell.

But one thing was clear—

Arcadium looked delicious.

Before I knew it, my face had lowered right in front of his neck.

A sticky liquid wet Arcadium’s throat.

He screamed as if his life depended on it.

At last, as my mouth opened—

I struck myself across the face with my right hand.

Crunch!

My jaw shattered and hung loose.

A searing pain echoed through my head.

My draconic healing tried to restore the broken jaw—but I let it be.

Instead, I kicked Arcadium in the head.

Smack!

A clean hit.

Arcadium’s consciousness instantly faded.

Arcadium held crucial information regarding the vampire mystery.

It wasn’t just Lucas—it even involved Celestial Grace.

If I consumed him here, we’d lose a vital source of information.

Crack!

I clenched my fist hard enough to crush it, forcing myself to suppress the hunger.

My goal was only one thing—

A happy ending for the people of this world.

That alone was what I endured everything for.

I wasn’t about to let a single craving destroy it all.

I shoved the overwhelming hunger back into my body.

Stepping off Arcadium, I turned away.

Voices called out frantically from a distance.

I had to let them know Arcadium needed to be restrained and taken into custody.

But even speaking that much felt like a trigger to my suppressed hunger.

With no choice, I drew the word “Criminal” above his head on the wall and left.

I began running aimlessly through the forest.

My vision was blurry, red-tinged.

The hunger I barely kept in check was driving me to the edge of madness.

The dragon remnants inside me surged with delight, spewing mana wildly.

That damn thing was overjoyed—

Now that it saw I was turning into a dragon vessel.

“Damn it…”

I forced my still-healing jaw back into place with my hand.

The hunger I had resisted once now only grew stronger.

At this rate, I’d start devouring people even if they weren’t my enemies.

I had to endure—

At least until Xenia completed her magic.

As I clung to that thought—

“Senior?”

A voice rang in my ear.

I looked up at the familiar voice—

And there stood a girl.

Signs of battle marked her body.

Her once silver hair was now dyed a dark brown.

Nikita Cynthia.

The moment I saw her, my foot instinctively moved forward.

In a flash, I appeared before Nikita—

And was just about to sink my fangs into her neck.

Drool dripped from my open mouth with each breath.

But just as I snapped back to my senses, I quickly leapt back.

Damn it.

I had seriously tried to eat Nikita just now.

Nikita stared at me blankly.

My hunger was too overwhelming to read the emotion in her eyes.

“N-Nikita, run. Right now, I…”

“It’s the gluttony of an ancient dragon caused by hybridization, isn’t it?”

Nikita had noticed my symptoms.

I tried to urge her to flee quickly.

But for some reason, instead of escaping, Nikita looked straight at me.

My lips kept parting and closing without saying anything.

“Niki…ta…”

“Senior, do you know how agonized your face looks right now?”

I couldn’t see my own face.

All I could think was that my mind was about to break from the hunger roaring inside me.

Nikita’s pale white skin came into view.

The fragile muscles beneath it made my heart pound uncontrollably.

I couldn’t bear to look anymore and tightly shut my eyes.

“It’s okay.”

At that moment, I heard Nikita’s voice.

“I just don’t want to see you suffering, senior.”

“Why!”

I asked with all the strength I had—why wouldn’t she run away?

I couldn’t control my hunger anymore, my legs were trembling.

I was just a breath away from pouncing on her.

Yet Nikita smiled brightly at me.

“Because I love you.”

My tightly shut eyes opened and landed on Nikita.

She had stretched her arms out to either side.

Drenched in rain, she smiled tenderly, full of compassion.

“Because I love you more than anything in this world. Because if it’s you, I can give you everything.”

Love.

What is that, to keep her rooted in place like this?

I didn’t know.

Not knowing made this situation unbearably painful.

I began to think that love might resemble hunger in some way.

An uncontrollable emotion, a compulsion.

A longing that pulls you toward someone who was once a complete stranger.

“Senior.”

Nikita smiled with all the love in the world.

That smile felt so warm, even amidst the rain, it lit everything up.

“Come here.”

That was the end.

My sanity had already reached its limit, and I lunged.

I sank my teeth into the nape of Nikita’s snowy-white neck.

As a mouthful of blood poured in, tears welled up in my eyes like never before.

But even through those tears, I saw it clearly.

Nikita was smiling as she offered her neck to me.

She wrapped her arms around the back of my head.

“Let’s just sleep for a bit.”

At that moment, dragon magic spread from Nikita’s entire body.

The remnants of the ancient dragon disappeared, and she began wielding a new kind of dragon magic.

The only person capable of using dragon magic without the remains of an ancient dragon.

There are only two things that can stop dragon magic:

One is holy magic.

The other is dragon magic of the same kind.

The frost of the Ice Dragon filled the forest.

In an instant, the spreading chill froze the forest—and us—solid.

My body slowed, and my mind faded.

In that fading moment, I could still clearly see Nikita’s face holding me close.

Despite the ice, I felt a strangely warm sensation.

Thanks to that, my eyes closed much more peacefully than before.

Frozen in the frost of the Ice Dragon.

Nikita and I fell asleep like that.

And somehow—

For the first time in a long while, I felt a small heartbeat deep within me.

* * *

Love.

It is an ambiguous emotion that cannot be defined clearly.

And it was also the first emotion I lost through the “Veil Bandages.”

Why does the bandage steal emotions?

There was a time I pondered that question myself.

And before long, I arrived at a conclusion from the name “Veil Bandages.”

Veil.

A common stage prop in theater.

When an actor steps on stage, they captivate the audience by expressing various emotions.

But once the curtain falls, they return to being just performers.

The stage ends behind the veil.

The emotions of the characters disappear with it.

The Veil Bandages is the same.

To be cast off the stage of this world, becoming a character that no longer belongs on the stage of life.

Perhaps it steals love first to ensure one never returns to the stage they once loved.

That’s why the Veil Bandages is a terrifying tool.

Because it makes you forget the most precious things in this world.

However—

The moment you regain something you once lost,

That etched emotion becomes far larger than before, so massive that you will never forget it again.

The world is ironic like that.

Only when something is lost do we truly grasp its value.

Flash—

Through my open eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling.

The infirmary of Zerion Academy.

How could life be a continuous cycle of passing out?

Truly, what a weary life this is.

A faint pain flickered in my head and disappeared.

It must be the aftereffects of being unconscious for so long.

Still, thankfully, my mind was clear.

With this clarity came the return of memories from just before I blacked out.

Overcome by hunger, I had sunk my teeth into Nikita’s neck, and she responded by casting ice dragon magic.

The moment Nikita’s face came to mind, I snapped fully awake.

She had used her own body as bait to stop me.

The memory of that moment left me reeling.

What was she thinking, pulling something so reckless?

Was she even in her right mind?

I kicked off the covers and hastily got up.

I had to check if Nikita was safe.

My body creaked from the long slumber, but I threw open the hospital room door with force.

"Ah, o-oh, brother."

There, just outside the door, was a familiar face.

It was my little sister, Xenia.

“Xenia.”

“Why are you up already? Your body can’t be fully healed yet.”

Xenia tried to push me back into bed, grunting as she did, insisting I needed more rest.

But I wasn’t someone who could be pushed around by her strength.

“I’m fine. I’ve rested enough. More importantly—”

“I’ve suppressed the remnants of the ancient dragon.”

So it was her.

I had noticed that the hunger I’d felt earlier was gone when I woke up.

I’d wondered if someone had taken care of it—and of course, it was her.

“Thank you. You worked hard.”

“Do you know how scared I was? You and senior Nikita were both frozen. I drained all my mana just trying to draw out celestial magic to resolve it.”

Xenia had seen what happened to me and Nikita, realized my hunger had erupted, and somehow managed to summon celestial magic to suppress the ancient dragon’s remnants.

Unconsciously, I touched the corner of my right eye.

“You might feel a little off—celestial magic has been engraved directly into your right eye.”

She had embedded celestial magic directly into my eye.

No wonder the ancient dragon’s remnant fled in a panic.

“More importantly, it’s been less than two hours since Nikita’s ice dragon magic was undone. You need more rest.”

Two hours.

I looked around.

The infirmary was quiet.

It seemed the magical palace incident was still ongoing.

“Xenia, more importantly—what about Nikita?”

“Senior Nikita is in Room 302…”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest.

I ran.

Xenia shouted in frustration behind me, but I didn’t have time to listen.

I had to confirm with my own eyes that Nikita was safe.

Driven by that thought, I sprinted and threw open the door to Room 302.

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to knock.

At the moment I opened the door, someone flinched and turned toward me.

There she was—a girl who had just taken off her hospital gown and still had her school blouse draped over her arm.

Between the strands of her long silver hair—

Her pale back, the white underwear running across it,

And on her snowy nape, a vivid bite mark.

In that instant, it felt like a spark exploded in my eyes.

The sensual image was etched into my mind like a brand.

She turned her flushed, startled face toward me, covering her chest with both hands.

“...Senior, I understand you were worried and rushed over, but you should’ve knocked before entering a lady’s room.”

“I-I’m so sorry!”

I quickly shut the door and leaned my head against the wall outside.

I had done something terrible to Nikita.

My heart was pounding wildly—probably from the shock.

But in the midst of that, I realized this pounding felt… different from before.

The image of Nikita’s pale back wouldn’t leave my mind.

And at the same time, I felt a long-forgotten weight stir in my lower body.

“……”

I fell silent and slowly raised a hand to my lips.

It seems…

I’ve regained my love.