Chapter 18: Woman, Do You Know You're Playing with Fire? (Patreon)

The banquet hall of the Barielle mansion was vast, its decor extravagant beyond words — crystal chandeliers hung splendidly from the ceiling, and the floor was carpeted in finely woven crimson rugs. In a word: opulent.

The long table set for guests needed no introduction. Even before Natsuki Subaru had stepped through the door, it was already laden with steaming dishes — roasted meats, thick soups, bread, and several plates of food he couldn't even name.

Probably some local specialty of this other world.

"Wow, now this is quite the hospitality."

Natsuki Subaru sat at one end of the long table, staring at the steak on his plate for several seconds. The cut, the color, the aroma — it was all so perfect that eating it almost felt like a crime.

"What's the matter? You've been so shameless up until now, yet here in my presence you suddenly turn timid?"

Priscilla, evidently long accustomed to such extravagance, rested her chin on interlaced fingers, watching Natsuki Subaru's expression with obvious amusement.

"Have you finally been dazzled into submission by my radiance? Or perhaps you no longer intend to play the clown for my amusement?"

"Hey now, that's a bit much," Natsuki Subaru shot back, righteous indignation in his voice. "Better safe than sorry, you know? Who's to say you haven't slipped something into my food with less than honorable intentions?"

"Ha. I would never stoop to such shabby, underhanded tricks."

Priscilla smiled faintly, rose, and drifted over to Natsuki Subaru's side, lifting his chin with the folding fan in her hand.

"Especially not on a man who might be worthy of becoming my husband."

"Cough!"

At those words, Natsuki Subaru nearly choked on his own spit. So I scare the daylights out of Reinhard this morning, and now it's my turn to get scared?

"That joke isn't funny at all, Miss Priscilla."

"I never jest." Priscilla narrowed her eyes. "Having received such a blessing, you ought to demonstrate your worth in return."

"Sorry, I already have a girlfriend."

Without a second thought, Natsuki Subaru pushed aside the fan propped beneath his chin.

"Well, maybe I should say that's just how I see it, one-sidedly... Anyway, I'm not exactly eager to get whisked away by some other woman the moment I land in another world."

"Don't put on airs in front of me."

Priscilla snapped her fan open and looked down at him with lofty condescension, her tone laced with a deliberately flirtatious mockery.

"Perhaps I've misjudged you after all. Every man in this world, it seems, is nothing but a foolish creature driven by lust — just like you now, hiding your true feelings behind pretty words, unwilling to admit them."

"Huh? Hold on a second! How did the conversation suddenly leap in this bizarre direction?"

Priscilla ignored his protest. The corner of her mouth curled into a proud, aggressive smile as she deliberately leaned forward, letting the impressive expanse of pale skin above her bustier dress come into full view.

She drifted forward, one slow step and then another, until those two soft mounds nearly brushed the tip of Natsuki Subaru's nose. An overwhelming pressure, mingled with her intoxicating perfume, struck straight at his brain.

"Well? Feeling it now? Can that filthy little desire of yours not be held back any longer?"

"Alright, lady, if I'm being honest, all I feel is that I can't breathe."

Natsuki Subaru frowned slightly. He wanted to push her away but had no idea where to put his hands, so he opted for the fierce strategy of sitting perfectly still and doing absolutely nothing.

The provoked dragon within him, however, had no intention of letting this slide.

— Ridiculous mortal.

— Lowly insect.

— How dare she... speak such arrogance to us?!

"I'd suggest you watch what you say," Natsuki Subaru said, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. "Not everyone's as thick-skinned as me, you know. Ha, ha..."

"How pathetic, Natsuki Subaru."

Priscilla pressed the tip of her folding fan lightly against his forehead, her eyes brimming with mocking contempt as she said coldly:

"I thought a man like you might at least have the courage to strike back at me. But it seems now that you're only fit to cower in some dark, muddy hole like a stray dog, too spineless even to glance at the sunlight."

The easy composure Natsuki Subaru had worn at the start was gone now; his brow knit tight. Seeing that he offered no reply, Priscilla gathered her skirts slightly, slipped her left foot free of its heel, and continued in a tone dripping with condescending charity:

"I'm in a good mood today, so I'll permit you to kneel down and lick my toes, like some unsightly beast, like a babe suckling at its mother's breast. If you can manage that much, I might just think a little more of you."

Before she had even finished speaking, deep within Natsuki Subaru's soul, the world-ending, violent fury he had kept so tightly leashed erupted like an exploding volcano at the sound of such utter contempt!

Natsuki Subaru might be able to rein in the violent impulses stirred by battle, but he could never change the arrogance carved into the bones of a mad dragon.

Faced with Priscilla's blatant, repeated provocations, the dragon had already fallen into a state of utter frenzy.

"You... shut... your mouth!"

Natsuki Subaru's voice turned hoarse, as though some terrible, guttural growl echoed beneath his words. The temperature in the banquet hall shot up sharply, a wave of heat rolling outward in every direction.

"As expected, it just couldn't hold itself back after all."

Seeing this, Priscilla let the contempt and mockery drain from her face, her gaze turning sharp and cold. She knew her goal had been achieved.

Just as Ciel had told her, something savage and terrifying dwelled within Natsuki Subaru — and now, that presence had finally bared its ferocious claws.

— Such arrogance.

— Such insolence.

— Kill her!

— Let her feel our wrath!

"Go... just go!"

Natsuki Subaru's eyes felt fit to burst as he spent the last of his reason trying to urge the proud woman before him to leave, but instead of retreating, Priscilla stepped closer, gently taking hold of his left hand.

On that hand, jet-black scales — radiating a heat that scorched the skin — had begun creeping from his fingertips. One scale, two... gradually they covered his entire palm, transforming it into a ghastly dragon's claw.

"Why would I leave?"

As though utterly unaware of the danger radiating from that claw or its terrible heat, Priscilla pressed her delicate fingers directly against it.

A wisp of scalding white smoke rose, searing pain shooting through her hand, yet her eyes showed not the slightest trace of fear — only a noble, icy disdain for everything before her:

"I don't like running away, and I like even less watching a man I've set my eyes on bow his head to some beast inside him that knows nothing but rage and destruction!"

"Stand up! I want to see for myself whether this all-destroying presence Ciel spoke of is truly as unbeatable as claimed!"