Chapter 246: The Queen

“Nothing... should go wrong, right?”

In the quiet courtyard, Veil paced back and forth outside the room door, hesitation and struggle flickering now and then across her bun-shaped face.

Of course, she wasn’t worried about Muen Campbell.

She was worried about the President.

Although she knew the President became brutal after drinking, when she calmed down and thought about it—she had just put a drunk President together with a man.

A lone man and a lone woman, in the same room?

Even though she knew the President was in a rampaging state—don’t even talk about letting someone take advantage; it was hard to even get close.

But...

It was that infamous Muen Campbell, after all. Who knew what despicable tricks he might pull?

If he accidentally stained the President’s purity...

“No, I have to make sure!”

Veil took a deep breath, pressed herself against the main door, and began lifting the formation that sealed the room.

Of course, she wouldn’t lift it completely—that would be far too risky.

She only lifted a portion, wanting first to listen to the movement inside.

“Bang!”

But the instant she lifted it, a heavy crash from within the room made her delicate body tremble in fright.

“W-what... what’s happening?”

Startled, Veil hurriedly pressed her ear to the door, continuing to listen.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

“Bang bang—clang!”

All kinds of loud crashes kept erupting from the room, as if two beasts inside were fighting, brutally destroying everything around them.

Even with just her ear to the door, Veil felt as if the whole building were shaking from that immense commotion.

“T-this... intense?”

Veil swallowed hard.

This racket was much worse than last time when the President accidentally took a sip of alcohol.

Had the President’s tolerance gotten even worse?

Terrifying.

“Looks like I was overthinking.”

Startled as she was, Veil couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief.

No one was going to take advantage here—who could possibly take advantage of a humanoid tyrannosaurus?

It’s just...

“Poor Muen Campbell.”

Even if she couldn’t witness it with her own eyes, in Veil’s mind there already appeared an image of Muen Campbell being ruthlessly manhandled by the President.

“Don’t die on me...”

Listening to those terrifying sounds from inside, Veil pressed her hands together, crystalline tears at the corners of her eyes, and prayed earnestly:

“At worst... even if you stay as the President’s detestable fiancé in the future, I won’t badmouth you anymore.”

After her prayer, Veil quietly stood up, quietly resealed the formation, and then quietly strengthened the whole array again.

She welded the door shut—completely.

...

Just as Veil had guessed, inside the room that had been completely welded shut, a fierce battle was underway.

But after the two of them unleashed their respective “strongest” strikes at the same time—only to both miss—this fierce fight began to veer off in a strange direction.

There were no moves or structure anymore, and no longer any abilities or technique.

The two of them tangled together like squabbling market shrews.

Grabbing hands.

Pinning feet.

Yanking clothes.

Biting.

Rolling back and forth.

Everything they touched got knocked over, shoved aside, ground into fragments.

Now and then, an angry curse slipped out.

Like two monsters, they ravaged everything.

They grappled from one end of the room all the way to the other.

Candle flames flickered.

Documents on the desk flew everywhere.

The room grew hotter and hotter.

And this bout of grappling, without either of them noticing, suddenly changed flavor.

Perhaps it was the spring scenery revealed when Celicia’s clothes were yanked open, or perhaps it was the corner of her lips that Muen accidentally brushed against while straining to hold her down.

It was like a spark falling into a powder keg long primed by alcohol.

Like heaven’s thunder hooking earth’s fire—it detonated in an instant.

Grabbing hands became ten fingers interlaced.

Pinning feet became bodies grinding.

Biting became kisses falling on every patch of skin.

There was no need to tear at clothing anymore, because it had already become scattered shreds; both of them had only a final, thin barrier left.

Celicia’s fully revealed perfection and fullness, her skin rendered all the more alabaster by the contrast of black undergarments—skin as flawless as mutton-fat jade—worked like the most violent poison, stimulating Muen’s nerves, making him clutch the girl now temporarily beneath him into a brutal embrace, as if to fuse her with himself forever.

And the girl writhed like a water snake, her delicate body twisting. Under the surging hormones and this tight contact, her sensitive places were bit by bit awakened and teased by Muen, rising to the surface; together with the alcohol, it lifted her consciousness ten thousand meters into the air, swaddled by countless warm clouds.

She moved to match Muen without thinking, even beginning to anticipate his next movement—anticipating him to breach that forbidden zone, to bring endless clouds and rain, endless balm.

But just as that last layer of cicada-wing-thin defense was about to be breached, Muen’s movements suddenly stopped.

He braced himself up from Celicia’s ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) body, eyes bloodshot, breathing hard, drenched in sweat—like a beast in heat.

Desire burned his will like flame, and between heaven’s thunder and earth’s fire, the trigger seemed about to be pulled—no time to lose.

Yet, perhaps the alcohol was evaporating along with the sweat, or perhaps some line of defense deep in his heart made Muen’s brain regain a sliver of clarity at the final moment.

“Damn it, what am I doing?”

He looked at the girl beneath him, still panting softly.

The girl’s name was Celicia Leopold.

She was a princess standing high above in the Empire.

The pure white witch admired by countless people.

She was noble, aloof, pure.

If she so much as lifted her foot, people willing to lick it could line up from Belrand’s Queen’s Avenue all the way to the palace gate.

And yet such a girl—pure and unsullied like a snow lotus—such a girl who haunted countless men’s dreams, at this moment, was beneath him, her perfect white body twisting, her eyes silkily seductive, breath like orchids, arching up to meet him.

Only a single barrier separated them.

No—this hardly even counted as a barrier.

All it would take was for him to thrust once, and he could possess this Princess through and through, make her yield, delighting under him.

No one could blame him, because this was just an accident.

A beautiful accident.

But—

“How is this any different from the first time?!”

Just like the first time he “obtained” a girl—though it had been because of his own foolish plan, the outcome had been pushed there by accidents on all sides.

Yes—an accident.

But it was unfair to the girl.

It did not come from her own will, but from outside influences.

Before, it had been drugs.

This time, it was alcohol.

Utterly unfair.

“Y-you’re... not going to keep going?”

Celicia, too, noticed Muen had stopped. She lifted her pert hips slightly, as if searching for the scorching heat from just now. She raised eyes turned to mist by the alcohol, looking at Muen in confusion.

“Hss...”

This dazed, silly look—so utterly opposite her usual chill—and that constant seeking motion, only further overstimulated his nerves, making the iron spear that had already been through two rounds of battle feel as if it would explode on the spot.

But Muen still clenched his teeth, suppressed the urge that nearly made him detonate where he lay, and lowered his head to kiss Celicia once on the forehead.

“Sorry. I said before—compared to your body, I want your good opinion more.

So, Celicia, I won’t do things you hate anymore.”

As he said it, even Muen couldn’t help showing a self-mocking, bitter smile.

The bullet was already in the chamber, and yet he held it back at the final second—if this were a novel, readers would curse a guy like him as a spineless wimp, right?

But whatever. He didn’t want this “adorable” Princess to suffer one more time.

This was fine.

Only—Muen didn’t notice that the girl’s delicate body had, at this moment, seemed to stop moving.

“When you truly have some good feelings for me in the future, let’s continue then.”

Leaving those utterly sincere words, Muen prepared to get up.

If he stayed any longer, he was afraid he really wouldn’t be able to hold himself back.

Crack...

Right then, though, he seemed to hear a crisp sound, like ice freezing.

No—wrong. Not “like.”

Muen slowly turned his gaze to his hands braced against the floor.

A thin layer of ice had frozen over them, fixing his hands to the ground so he couldn’t pull free.

Muen stiffly lowered his head.

Beneath him,

the girl was silently watching him.

Only—within those ice-blue eyes, the misty vapor was condensing, turning into water, then slowly freezing into ice.

The girl’s cheeks were still slightly flushed, the lingering fragrance on her skin still wafting.

But her expression had become incomparably cold.

Just as Muen knew her to be.

“This is...”

Recovered?

Muen paused, then realized.

Right—if even he could, through intense exertion, make his body automatically expel the alcohol, Celicia should be able to as well.

Given that her level was higher than his, she should do it even faster.

Thinking that, Muen shivered and showed an utterly embarrassed expression.

Because the girl was still pinned beneath him; the two of them wore only a thin undergarment each—and even those were a bit disheveled from what had just happened.

“C-Celicia, this was an accident—an accident, you know?”

Muen explained in a panic:

“I wasn’t planning to do anything to you. I already stopped, and I can leave right now...”

Leave...

He couldn’t leave.

Because Celicia was freezing Muen’s hands in place.

“Celicia?”

Muen gave a wry smile. “Let me go, okay?”

“...”

Celicia was silent, looking at Muen.

Examining him closely.

Looking at Muen’s face as he forced back desire, her expression went blank now and then, as if pondering something—or some sentence.

The ice kept spreading.

But no matter how pure, how hard ice may be, once it has melted and refrozen, there will certainly be something different mixed in.

And the things frozen within will remain longer, deeper, than for ordinary people.

“Celicia... melt the ice, please?”

Muen still spoke with careful caution: “I won’t do anything to you. I’ll immediately—”

Before he finished speaking, the ice melted.

Muen brightened and was about to pull away—when he suddenly felt two soft hands loop around his neck.

Then, the familiar spin of heaven and earth.

The girl had already pressed Muen beneath her.

“Eh?”

Muen blinked.

What the heck? Again?

“Celicia, y-you—what are you doing?” Muen cried out in alarm.

Celicia straightened her body, sitting on top of Muen. Her nostrils flared, still lightly panting, her skin glowing under the candlelight. With a wave of her fair hand, the final barrier between them floated away.

Those perfectly shaped jade rabbits sprang free, bared before Muen’s eyes, still standing tall.

“W-what... what?”

Muen stared at the sight that made his mouth go dry, struck dumb.

“You... you haven’t sobered up?”

“Muen Campbell, you’re a grown man, droning on with a pile of useless nonsense. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

Celicia finally spoke, her voice icy.

She lowered her head, staring into Muen’s eyes, the corner of her lips curling into a disdainful, cold smile.

“And when did you get the delusion... that you could control me?”

As she said this—

in Muen’s suddenly wide eyes, she lifted her hips, reached down with her fair hand, grasped the burning weapon.

And then—

Her delicate body thrust down fiercely. With twin cries escaping at once, the long spear drove into the valley, unstoppable.

The girl’s silver hair flew, her body surged violently, her fragrant sweat dripping.

She lifted her proud head high—not like a princess standing above, no... at this moment she was more like a cold, arrogant Queen, leading her only knight into ever deeper, ever farther charges—charge, charge, charge again!