Chapter 1288: 46. Abnormality

Those familiar golden eyes.

They held neither the terrifying majesty that could make someone immediately fall to their knees nor the bone-chilling cold capable of freezing a person solid.

There was only a trace of indifference in them.

Yet for some reason, the instant Muen met those golden eyes, a sudden wave of panic rose within him, and his heart quietly began accelerating beyond his control...

It almost felt like... guilt?

"No, wait. What do I have to feel guilty about?"

Muen hurriedly shook his head hard, driving that inexplicable emotion out of his mind.

Miss Dragon had approved of what happened last night.

Miss Dragon had been the one to give them the space inside this carriage.

As for his behavior as a good man, Miss Dragon herself had personally said that she would not interfere.

Even with all the commotion last night, Miss Dragon had never disturbed them once. She had stayed outside the entire night.

Exactly. Miss Dragon had shown absolutely no sign that she cared. He had openly played a few naughty little games with the women he loved, so what was there to feel guilty about?

He was just scaring himself.

"Ha... good morning, Miss Dragon."

With that thought, Muen immediately straightened his back and greeted Hamreign enthusiastically..

"..." Hamreign said nothing, merely staring at him in silence.

Muen felt every hair on his body stand on end beneath that gaze.

What was going on? Was it his imagination? Why did it feel like Miss Dragon was looking at him right now... the way one would look at a pervert?

They had only gone one night without seeing each other, and his eternal companion was already becoming this distant...

"It's already noon. And besides..."

Hamreign's gaze dipped slightly. "Exactly when are you planning to put your clothes on?"

"Hm? Ah... I forgot about that. Sorry!"

Only then did Muen realize that his attention had been completely occupied by the emptiness in his body and the note those little temptresses had left behind, making him forget that he was still completely naked.

He had almost become an actual pervert running around naked in broad daylight.

Fortunately, this was not the first time Miss Dragon had seen him completely naked, so he was hardly going to blush and panic like some innocent maiden over such a trivial matter.

Muen immediately reached for the clothes beside him and began putting them on.

Only... just as he was about to put on the innermost garment, he suddenly noticed something.

His movements grew slower and slower...

Until they stopped completely.

"Um... Miss Dragon."

"What?"

"Isn't it... a little too bright inside the carriage?"

"It's noon. Isn't it normal for it to be bright?"

"No, no, no. What I mean is... shouldn't you lower the curtain first?"

Muen remained standing on one leg, the other halfway into his trousers. He raised his head, blinked, and said, "I don't really mind if you like looking at me. We're very close companions, after all, so there's nothing wrong with taking a look.

"But... having you stare straight at me without even blinking, and for this long—even I'm getting a little embarrassed..."

"Of course, only a little. Just a tiny bit embarrassed. It doesn't really affect anything... but if you could lower the curtain for a moment, that would be great..."

"..."

Those molten-gold vertical pupils abruptly contracted, then suddenly widened again.

Hamreign seemed to jolt awake at that very moment, only then realizing that, without noticing it herself, her gaze had remained "stuck" to Muen with an excessively "eager" intensity the entire time.

At this moment, her companion's body was completely bare, without the slightest covering, while her gaze had been so direct. Combined with those golden eyes that seemed to brighten and darken unpredictably, even by a dragon's standards of right and wrong, this was clearly an extremely impolite thing to do.

"Hmph."

Hamreign merely snorted coldly, turning her exquisite face slightly aside and averting her gaze as she said in an icy voice:

"Are you implying that I care about your body?"

"That's not what I meant. I just wanted you to lower the curtain for a moment—"

"You're thinking too much. I was merely worried that those human women might have done something harmful to you last night, so I took one extra look."

"No, no, I wasn't saying that at all. I just meant the curtain—"

"Even though you are my companion, I will permit such a vulgar misunderstanding only once. There will not be a second time."

With that, Hamreign completely ignored Muen's explanation, violently flung the curtain shut, and disappeared from his sight.

Only Muen and the curtain he had been longing for remained staring at one another. The latter swayed back and forth before finally succeeding in blocking the dazzling sunlight outside, returning the carriage interior to darkness.

"..."

The corner of Muen's mouth twitched violently.

No, wait...

Had he said something wrong just now?

He had only wanted her to pull the curtain. How had that somehow turned into some kind of misunderstanding?

Wasn't that reaction... a little too intense?

"Miss Dragon... is acting weird."

Was she angry about what happened last night?

No, no, no... she did not even care about it, so why would she be angry?

He had to be overthinking things.

Muen did not have the spare energy to speculate too much right now. He simply buried that small suspicion in the back of his mind, picked up his clothes again, and continued dressing.

Before long, he had finished tidying himself up.

After looking at his handsome face in the mirror and confirming that there were no hickeys left on his face or neck, Muen finally swept his gaze around the carriage. With a sigh, he began cleaning up.

Damn it...

Those little temptresses had not even bothered tidying up before leaving. For Liya, this would have taken no more than a single Holy Light spell, yet whether intentionally or deliberately, they had left every last scent and trace exactly as it was.

He had no idea what they were thinking. Surely they had not started acting like little ** just because he had called them little ** a few more times last night, actually intending to use their scent to declare ownership in front of Miss Dragon...

No matter what, Muen obviously could not allow their plan to succeed, much less let them keep provoking her... once or twice was one thing, but again and again? Who could tolerate that?

There was absolutely nothing improper between him and Miss Dragon. If those girls kept doing this, wouldn't they end up making it look as though there really was something unclear between them?

"Tch, even the carpet is still soaking wet. Every one of those temptresses acts all pure on the surface, but how are they actually any different from little **? They all need discipline."

Muen clicked his tongue, muttering as he replaced the carpet with a fresh one.

The disadvantage of knowing only illumination magic became painfully obvious at a time like this. He had to clean the entire carriage manually, little by little. The magic scrolls in his storage space did not contain any broadly useful low-level spells of this kind either, and there was no way he could ask Miss Dragon for help.

As a result, it took him quite a bit of effort before he was more or less finished.

"Hm? There's actually still one piece left?"

At the very end, Muen pulled a scrap of fabric out from under the sofa. It was white, looked extremely innocent, and even had a pink bow on it.

"Haven't seen this style in a long time. Whose is it?"

Muen searched his memory. He did not remember seeing anything like it last night and had no idea which shameless woman had left it behind.

It had definitely been deliberate.

"So you're still hiding tricks like this?"

Muen sneered.

When it came to this sort of thing, every last one of them was full of schemes.

But how could something like this possibly escape his eyes?

Confiscated!

Muen immediately put away that adorable yet wicked piece of fabric. The next time he got the chance, he was absolutely going to interrogate those girls properly, find its "owner," and then punish her severely!

......

Once the carriage had been completely cleaned, incense lit, and Muen had confirmed that no traces or scents remained—not even any "contingency" one of them might have left behind—he finally lifted the curtain again.

"Miss Dragon, you can come in now."

"..."

Outside the carriage, the fiery-red figure seemed to be looking at the scenery and gave no response whatsoever to Muen's call.

"Miss Dragon?"

"..."

"Miss Dragon!"

"...Hm?"

Only after Muen called several times, raising his voice with each attempt, did Hamreign suddenly return to herself and turn around.

"What is it?"

"I said... you can come in now."

Muen's expression turned strange.

With the senses of a mighty calamity... she could not hear him calling?

"Oh."

The next instant.

A breeze brushed across his face, and the fiery-red figure outside the carriage suddenly vanished.

Immediately afterward, the incense inside the carriage was overwhelmed by an even more alluring faint fragrance. Before Muen could react, that fiery-red figure had already appeared inside.

She moved so quickly that Muen's body instinctively tensed, almost entering combat mode on reflex.

"Why are you nervous?"

Hamreign looked at him suspiciously.

"You scared me."

Muen bared his teeth. "The way you moved just now, I thought you were about to rush over and slap me."

"You haven't done anything wrong. Why would I slap you?"

"...That's what I'm wondering too."

"..."

Hamreign frowned. "Was I really moving that fast?"

"You weren't aware of it yourself?"

"I was a little distracted."

Hamreign said nothing more. She simply wandered around the carriage for a moment before saying in surprise, "It's actually quite clean. I thought this place would be filled with filth and the stench of those human females."

"..."

Muen's expression became even stranger.

Of course this place should have been filled with the scents of those little temptresses, but that was because... he had cleaned everything up.

With Miss Dragon's perception, could she really not notice that?

What exactly was going on?

Why did she look completely immersed in her own world, as though she had no awareness whatsoever of anything around her?

"Miss Dragon..."

"What?"

"...Nothing. It's nothing."

After hesitating for a moment, Muen temporarily suppressed the urge to ask.

There probably could not be anything physically wrong with her. After all, given her strength, making her physically unwell was just slightly, ever so slightly difficult.

So was it psychological?

But only a single night had passed. What kind of troubles could a mighty calamity like her possibly develop?

Surely she had not accidentally seen what happened yesterday and suffered some sort of psychological shock because of it...

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

She was a dragon who had lived for a thousand years. What kind of spectacular scenes had she not seen?

"Have a seat first."

Muen temporarily stopped thinking about it and gestured invitingly. "We lost quite a lot of time last night, sorry about that. We'll have to hurry a little for the rest of the journey."

"It doesn't matter. For me, this journey was only a casual excursion in the first place."

Hamreign appeared very magnanimous.

She sat down in the same place where she had sat yesterday—directly opposite Muen.

Just as she was about to continue speaking, however, her slender brows suddenly furrowed.

"Wh-what's wrong?" Muen immediately became nervous again and hurriedly asked.

"Nothing."

Hamreign shook her head.

Apparently there really was nothing wrong.

Yet under Muen's astonished gaze, she suddenly stood up and took two steps.

From directly opposite him...

To his side.

Then, right beside him, almost pressed against him, she slowly sat down.

"..."

The dragon girl's natural fragrance washed over him. Muen had thought he would remain perfectly composed, but in the end, he still could not help becoming slightly nervous.

"Miss... Miss Dragon..."

"What?"

"No... cough. Nothing."

—As companions, sitting this close together was perfectly normal.

He really was making a fuss over nothing.

To demonstrate his composure, Muen turned his head toward the window.

The scenery outside was slowly retreating.

The dragonblood horse, which his senior had directly put to sleep with a sleeping spell last night, had finally awakened and was once again galloping toward their final destination while pulling the carriage.

Muen rested his chin against his hand, feeling the breeze weakened by the carriage formation brush across his face, feeling the warmth and fragrance from the soft body beside him...

This moment was beautiful.

Different from the madness and excitement of last night.

Beautiful in an entirely different way.

And somehow, it made him want to carefully engrave it into his memory...

"I think I'll sit over there again."

"Huh?"

Muen froze.

Before he could say anything, Hamreign stood again and returned to the seat opposite him.

What the hell?

This time, Muen was genuinely bewildered.

Yet when his searching gaze landed on that flawless beautiful face, he still could not read a single thing.

Her face remained expressionless.

Her golden eyes remained indifferent.

At some unknown point, Miss Dragon's emotions had once again become impossible to distinguish, without the slightest visible fluctuation.

The only difference... was that Muen vaguely felt that her breathing had grown slightly heavier during that brief moment just now?

No.

That was probably just an error or an illusion.

Dragon or not, no one's breathing remained absolutely uniform every single time.

Something like that proved nothing.

"Is there some smell on me that you don't like?"

Muen sniffed himself, wondering whether the scent of one of those little temptresses had somehow survived his cleaning.

"No. It has nothing to do with you."

Hamreign calmly said, "I simply prefer sitting alone."

"Is that so?"

Muen nodded.

That did fit Miss Dragon's personality.

So he really had been overthinking things before.

"Then... Miss Dragon, why don't you enjoy the scenery, have some snacks or something, while I sleep for a while?"

Muen pointed outside the window, then took out a large assortment of snacks and dishes and placed them on the small table in front of them.

His sudden suggestion came partly because the hard battle last night had left his body drained, and he really was beginning to feel sleepy now.

But also because, for some reason, during this rare time alone together, he suddenly could not think of anything to talk about. Miss Dragon was acting strangely as well and did not seem inclined to chat.

The atmosphere had become a little awkward.

"Sleep."

Hamreign gave a slight nod.

"Thanks."

Muen breathed a sigh of relief.

Hopefully, after he got some sleep, Miss Dragon would return to normal.

With that thought in mind, Muen rested his head on his arms, closed his eyes, and began to nap.

He truly was somewhat exhausted, and he truly had not rested properly. In a haze, his consciousness quickly began to blur.

He was about to fall asleep...

But suddenly, a faint movement beside him caused the consciousness melting away like cream to abruptly solidify again.

The sofa beneath him trembled slightly.

Within the silent carriage, even the sound of the soft fabric and filling sinking inward was startlingly clear.

At the same time, he felt that familiar softness and warmth.

Right beside him.

Very, very close.