Celicia sat atop Ewan, her hips swaying with an unconscious, hypnotic grace, her clothes in a state of tantalizing, scandalous disarray.

Her already half-removed dress, surrendering to the pull of gravity, slipped even further. The highest, most formidable peak had been conquered, so what followed seemed only natural. And thus, a landscape of breathtaking, forbidden scenery burst into Ewan’s mind, completely unobstructed.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

This position. This view. And the searing heat that now radiated from Celicia, a stark, fiery contrast to her usual arctic demeanor. Ewan felt his brain short-circuit with a deafening whine, a geyser of hot blood surging to his nose, threatening to erupt like a volcano.

“Your Highness, please, calm down!” Ewan clamped his one free hand over his nose, his voice a strangled squeak of pure panic. “Any further and this is going to be R-rated!”

“Don’t. Move.”

Celicia’s voice was still as cold as a winter morning, but it was now laced with an unfamiliar, bewitching huskiness. Just hearing it sent a shiver down Ewan’s spine, shaking his already crumbling resolve.

“Don’t… move…”

She leaned down, her breath hot against his skin, and pinned his other hand with effortless strength. The delicate scent of orchids, the intoxicating fragrance of a young maiden in distress, enveloped him in a dizzying cloud. Ewan still wanted to struggle, to fight back, but the girl sitting on him felt as heavy and immovable as a mountain.

At that moment, Ewan finally, truly understood the profound importance of strength. With strength, he wouldn’t be humiliatingly pinned beneath a woman, completely and utterly powerless.

Damn it all to hell! If I survive this, I swear on my ancestors’ graves I will start training like my life depends on it!

“Dark Dragon’s Blood…”

“Huh?”

Celicia was suddenly muttering to herself, her voice a low, feverish whisper.

“The potion… it was mixed with Dark Dragon’s Blood… Adding it to a potion enhances its effects…”

“Oh, oh.” Ewan nodded dumbly, completely bewildered as to why she was choosing this particular moment to give him a lesson in advanced alchemy.

Is this some kind of teacher-student roleplay?

Oh, this is bad. I’m getting even more excited.

“But…” she gasped, “Dark Dragon’s Blood has a… a unique property. It cannot… come into contact… with Dragon’s Tongue Herb. Once it does… it activates… the Dark Dragon’s Blood’s… poison.” Her breathing grew heavy and ragged, her words becoming choppy. Her expression was a battlefield, flickering between sharp clarity and hazy confusion as she fought a desperate war against the toxin raging through her veins.

“An aphrodisiac poison.”

Ewan suddenly realized she wasn’t speaking to him at all.

“That poison… it has no cure…”

She had been… talking to herself this whole time.

“No cure, no cure, no cure… there is no cure. There is no antidote.”

She repeated the words like a desperate mantra. As she did, Ewan could see the raw, undiluted desire in her eyes practically solidifying, threatening to spill out and drown them both. Was she trying to… convince herself of her own doom?

“Except for…”

A sliver of piercing clarity suddenly returned to Celicia’s eyes.

She pinned Ewan’s hands down with crushing force, her gaze locking onto his. For the very first time, a ferocious, predatory expression appeared on her beautiful face. “Ewan Campbell… this time… you win. But I swear on my name and my magic, I will make you repay this humiliation tenfold in the future!”

“Wha—?”

What?

The future?

Before his brain could even begin to process her words, Celicia lunged down, her soft, cherry-red lips silencing his with a fiery, desperate kiss.

…

“Mmm…”

“Ahhh…”

“Oh, gods above…”

“I can’t take it anymore!”

“This feeling… it’s just… too good…”

“I’m ascending to a higher plane of existence…”

“This Pacici Cake is SO DELICIOUS!”

Ariel shoved massive, glorious chunks of cake into her mouth, the heavenly sweet aroma flooding every corner of her brain. She was in pure, unadulterated bliss. Her cheeks were puffed out like a hamster’s, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.

“You really, really love Pacici Cake, don’t you?” Lilia commented from the side, a hint of amusement in her voice. “Be careful you don’t get a stomachache.”

“Impossible! You can’t get a stomachache from eating Pacici Cake! For this very purpose, I have evolved a new, specialized organ,” Ariel announced proudly, patting her flat stomach. “Let’s call it the Pacici-stomach! With this, my capacity is limitless!”

As she spoke, she took advantage of the nearby nobles being lost in their own boring conversations to deftly sneak all the remaining Pacici Cake from the dessert table over to her personal hoard. After a moment’s thought, she charitably picked one out and offered it to Lilia. “Want some?”

Looking at the cute and delectable cake, Lilia was sorely tempted. Her family was from the lower rungs of the nobility; she rarely had the chance to eat such a high-class dessert. But she glanced down at the majestic mountain range on her own chest—the very source of her chronic shoulder pain—hesitated for a moment, and then shook her head with a sad sigh. “No, thank you. I’ve gained some weight recently, so I really should…”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!” Ariel practically inhaled the cake she’d offered and huffed indignantly. “There you go again! You have no idea how blessed you are! Do you have any concept of my suffering, you big-chested cow!”

“Wha—! Calling me a cow is going too far!” Lilia blushed a deep, furious red, which only succeeded in making her look even more adorable, like a ripe, pinchable tomato.

“Oh, so you deny your bovine nature, do you?” Ariel wiggled her fingers, a mischievous, predatory glint in her eyes as she pounced. “Let me teach you a lesson! Hmph! Ha! How about this!”

“Waaah… no… that tickles! Ariel, stop! There are people watching!”

“Isn’t it better with an audience? Now I’m getting really excited! Take this! And this!”

“Ngh…”

The girls’ playful wrestling went largely unnoticed by the serious-faced nobles, though a few adolescent boys couldn’t help but steal more than a few glances, muttering about the decline of noble decorum while simultaneously trying not to miss a single moment.

“Alright, that’s enough!” After a while, Lilia slapped away Ariel’s roving hands, her cheeks flushed as she shot her a playful glare. “By the way, weren’t you looking for Princess Celicia? What are you still doing here stuffing your face with cake?”

“It’s fine. I can find Celicia later. It wasn’t anything urgent, I just wanted to ask her about some sword techniques. If not today, I’ll have plenty of chances at the academy.”

“But I saw her leave with that Ewan Campbell fellow earlier,” Lilia pointed out. “She still hasn’t come back. Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“I saw that too!” Ariel frowned, a pout forming on her lips. The mere thought of Ewan Campbell left a bad taste in her mouth. He was always giving her grief at the academy, just because his family was powerful. And most importantly, he was Princess Celicia’s fiancé! How was a scumbag like him worthy?! Princess Celicia was her prey!

“But it’s probably fine,” Ariel said, quickly dismissing the thought with a wave of her hand. “At a formal event like this, it’s hard for her to refuse his invitation. It’s not her fault that damn Ewan has a good father.”

“Aren’t you worried he might try something… inappropriate with the princess?” Lilia teased, blinking her big, innocent eyes.

“Pfft, please. With Ewan Campbell’s third-rate, clumsy fighting skills? He can’t even beat me,” Ariel scoffed with utter disdain. “How could he possibly do anything to the princess? Try to drug her? Princess Celicia is a genius. She’d probably have him pinned to the ground and begging for mercy before the thought even fully formed in his tiny little brain!”