There were three things in life Sumr hated.
Shadebeasts. Witches.
"Miss Dragon? This is not the way to our ho."
And now, this little creature she now carried on her back.
"My ho." Sumr stressed the word ’my’. Her arms wrapped Ciel’s thighs tighter, as the small, sleeved arms pressed further to her neck.
"I moved it." Sumr sighed, her step slow with steady breaths, each linger further than they should. "The shadebeast knows where I live now. It’s obviously too dangerous."
"So...?"
Hearing Ciel’s regretful, hesitating hum, Sumr groaned.
Why did she feel like it was as if Ciel’s world collapsed? It was her ho that was forced to move in the first place!
"I borrowed a Witch specialised in Realm magic to move it elsewhere." Sumr responded with low breath.
Then, she felt the need to add. "It would be the sa as before."
Why did she ntion that? Had the witch’s taunt gotten to her? Was she always so inefficient with her words?
"Mm," Ciel nodded, and as she did, her cheek brushed against the dragon’s shoulder, "thank you..."
Sumr irked. "You’ve no need to thank ."
Ciel pulled back, her grip stiffening on the dragon’s shoulders.
"Say, Miss Dragon," she asked. "Were we always so... distant?"
mory of that ’kiss’ flashed by in Sumr’s head.
"No." She imdiately denied ’it’.
Sumr couldn’t see Ciel’s face from the front. Yet as the little creature’s chest pulled away, she frowned.
The dragon then dipped her toes against the grassfloor. Ciel’s balance fell forward with the motion, her chest finding Sumr’s toned back again.
"I neither dislike nor hate it." Sumr stated. "It was all business."
A few chuckles escaped from Ciel. "Isn’t... both the sa thing?"
"Are you judging right now?"
"No."
Ciel’s eyes, round and innocently sparkling, flicked to her Miss Dragon’s reddened ear. "No, I’m not."
It has been ten minutes since Miss Dragon decided to carry her through the forest.
They have both waited under the trees’ thickened leaves. The firefly buzzed a quiet green, fluttering at their sides to warn of any danger.
The fiery leaderboard withered out. Voices of panic and confusion echoed from afar, a sign that students were being evacuated without notice.
It was now finally over.
Ciel’s shoulders slumped. It was this quiet mont again when she should have felt the most peace.
Instead, her heartbeat drumd against Sumr’s back, a torrent of emotions embedded in every beat.
"Miss Dragon," she finally asked. "Your manipulated reality itself, right?"
Sumr, her gaze set ahead and expression hidden, answered. "What of it?"
"Then," Ciel forced out her voice. "Do you feel the need to... well, bind further?"
Change her will. Plant her soul with ’hints’. Even pupteering her body.
The battle with the Queen of Hunt confird it. Ciel judged that Sumr could do so much more with her from the start.
"..."
"You’re capable of it, right?" Ciel pressed on with Sumr’s silence. "You always do, for the safety of your student. So-"
"Are you insinuating that you’re not already my student, Ciel?"
Sumr interrupted as she grumbled. "Who were you to judge my decision? Know your place, little Queen."
"...right..."
Ciel’s chuckle echoed in defeat, but Sumr’s teeth only seethed more in irritation.
"Ciel." She insinuated. "I do not an harm to you. From the very start. Do not dismiss my effort to save you just now."
Ciel’s breath hitched.
She couldn’t see Sumr’s expression, just the voice that always scolded her, like back when the pajama failed to cover her skin.
So she nodded. But, not enough.
So Ciel rubbed her cheek against Sumr’s neck, a sign of her submission.
"Was my..." Her question was now more restrained. "Was my spellbind always rigged? From the start?"
The vine-like wristband flashed beneath the serene, perhaps dangerous moonlight.
Sumr only had one answer.
"I always protect my property."
Ciel could only keep her lips pursed. "Mm."
That was all the response she could muster.
—---------
They walked again for a few more minutes.
As the silence between grew stiller and the breeze chillier with a howling edge, Ciel suddenly suggested.
"Miss Dragon, I find the need to kill my family now."
A bizarre statent, but the Principal had heard worse in her life.
At least, that was what Ciel was convinced of.
But Sumr’s grumble, loud and stuttering with irritation, suggested otherwise. "When?"
Sumr didn’t speak further, but Ciel continued, knowing what the Dragon asked for.
"From the mont I confronted the Queen of Hunt."
A frown flickered from the Dragon’s brows. "Really? Not from when you encountered the mimic at that tree? Not when the two betrayals are happening in front of your very eyes?"
Ciel shook her head. "Sotis, a hollow sympathy would do more harm than good."
She smiled as life left her black eyes, leaving only an abyssal darkness. "I find the need to respect their griefs, not pay them with flimsy courtesy."
Sumr paused in her walk, mulling over every word.
Then she strode with wider, heavier steps. "And why did you feel the need to kill your kins?"
"It was simple." Ciel smiled. "I’m soone who couldn’t evaluate lives the right way. Others’ lives don’t matter to , as much as my life didn’t matter to myself."
She continued. "But... it didn’t use to be like that. Long ago, I hesitated. I... did things that I must do to survive. And when that hesitation faded, I realised that my body, thoughts, and mind were all warped."
Her fingers danced on the Dragon’s shoulder, as if counting her years of the past.
"Survive. Survive. And survive. I must retain sothing, I told myself. And in taking lives for my own, I forgot ."
Sumr asked, her head held high. "What was it that you have forgotten?"
"That even deaths had anings," Ciel answered. "I, perhaps, had forgotten that mine was the sa."
To that, Sumr’s tension rose. Her teeth gritted. Her eyes narrowed. Her grip tightened over Ciel unreasonably.
"Miss Dragon?"
This ti, their silence perpetuated, lasting longer than the last.
Eventually, as they crossed the path of the forest, a liquid-like sensation caressed Ciel’s skin.
Ciel’s eyes perceived it as they passed through a do-like barrier, before arriving before a wooden house in their clearing.
It was Sumr’s house. Their house was the sa as before.
Stepping into their ho, the tension between them brewed-
"Hm?!"
Until Sumr threw Ciel against the bed, clenching her arms over her head.
Ciel’s eyes quivered.
But Sumr’s words were anything but comforting.
"I forbid you to dishnour my attempt to save you, didn’t I?"
Ciel frowned. "I didn’t."
"You did so," Sumr mocked with a grin, her face flushed with heat. "By claiming you didn’t care about your life."
Sumr’s knees shifted as Ciel backed away.
The mattress sank with both their weight. As Sumr leaned in, Ciel only squird further beneath the Dragon’s tight grip.
Tickly breath crept up her skin as Ciel heard the Dragon’s lips ghost it, muttering.
"I’m to do with your body as I please." She ordered. "Shadebeasts or not, I’ll squeeze it dry until I see fit to abandon you. So, don’t you ever lower yourself."
A hushed chuckle escaped Sumr. "You’ve preserved. And now you’re not alone. Isn’t that wonderful for both of us, Ciel?"
Then, Sumr pulled away, her grasp leaving Ciel in an instant.
Ciel’s face was dazed.
As the dragon’s figure remained towering over her, she glanced up.
The shuddering grin over Sumr’s face was unmistakably frightening.
To the point, Ciel’s thighs clasped unwillingly.
But it was a re mont before the Dragon’s lips retracted into a frown.
Noticing Ciel’s bloodied white blouse and skirt, she left the bed to fetch the dressrobe beside her desk.
"I had more work to do." Sumr flatly stated as she threw a pajama over Ciel, before returning to the desk.
She carried on, even as her hands drew to the piles of docunts. "Be dressed, then sleep. It has been a long night."
Ciel blinked.
Then, she observed the pajama in her hands.
The white fabric was light and delicate. Held together by two thin straps, it was sleeveless with only a short skirt trailing in the end.
A short skirt.
Ciel’s eyes flickered to Sumr’s back. Then back to the pajama.
She noticed one more detail: it was sized and layered perfectly for her.
Embracing the pajama, Ciel didn’t say anything further. Couldn’t think of anything further.
She just had a feeling Sumr wouldn’t correct her dress. Not this ti.
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