"You and Inkaro have a kid?!" Hinosa blurted out in what sounded like genuine shock, but the unchanging smile on her face that Lizu, frowning at the girl's outburst, could see as clear as day. The teen, spoiled silly since birth, giggled away at getting more of a rise out of Lizuranti than Inkaro, who seemed more prioqupied with being carried by Lizu like he was some house cat. His only saving grace in his —would be precarious— situation was that Lizu was wearing her charcoal grey fur cloak over her fluffy pale beige onesie and zipped up for extra measure, saving Inkaro the neck pain of having to crane his neck.

  "Do you have to do something so cliche so early. It's six in the morning." Lizu grumbled through bated breath and crackle-sounding hissing, which would've resembled electricity, had it not been for the clear fact it was genuine electricity bolting and bounding throughout her mouth, meaning it couldn't resemble something it already was. "Also, Enulatina's honey is too potent to be eaten this early in the morning, so don't even risk it."

  Moments away from taking the glob of solidified, lime-coloured honey from the worker beegirl, Hinosa reluctantly retracted her hand, much to the beegirls' disappointment. Their sorrowful faces pained the noble girl ever much so, but if Lizu was giving her a warning about something honey-related, then it was unquestionably the correct option to heed it, even if she was lying to keep it all for herself. As she thought about it, Hinosa realised that getting between Lizuranti and honey was a more deadly situation to be in than facing a Rank-UR monster without any equipment. The noble girl had witnessed the error of doing such a thing in her childhood when a monster smashed one of the child Lizu's fifteen honey jars, the dragolyte had intended to be her lunch; the aftermath wasn't a pretty sight. She somehow found the thought both spine-tingling and heart-poundingly amusing as she bounced over to Lizuranti: "Sorry-sorryies, I just had to, when else will I have a chance to say it?"

  Rolling her eyes as she subtly increased the overbearingness of her bear hug against the young Inkaro, Lizu slapped her tail against the floor. The simple act made her disgruntlement palpable through the resounding, yet muted, boom that bellowed through the house, one that jolted Enetha awake by making her momentarily airborne. The little princess lostly took in her surroundings with half-lidded eyes, face redder than a glowing tomato from how firmly she'd had her face pressed against the many pillows surrounding her during her heavy sleep session.

  Hearing the holy magic wielder's cheeky remark, Lizu lightly huffed as she rested her chin on Inkaro's head and allowed her chubby cheeks to spill of the guy's currently smaller head She wanted to give Hinosa some quippy remark, oh she really did, but knowing Hisona might end up being her biological child(s) godmother at this rate, given how their relationship had flipped from rival to friend-adjacent status recently.

  "Fair enough, I suppose," Lizu murmured, letting her cheeks spill over Inkaro's head even more one last time before she reluctantly held Inkaro out towards Hinosa. With clear pain in her voice as she forced herself to speak the words she wanted to all but keep sealed away, Lizu whined out something that barely bordered on being considered a 'polite' request. "Just get it over with, Hinosa! My heart can take it."

  Whilst all that was going on, Nuenala, present for the moment at the behest of Inkaro, having asked her to make him some silly glasses frames, lounged out earnestly on the sofa. Due to her nature of being more of a night owl gamer, the yukachuo being up so early in the morning was nothing short of a miracle. Had it not been for Lizu letting slip of Inkaro's youthful constitution, Nuenala wasn't sure if she'd have the energy to even pry her eyes open, but getting to see Inkaro in an identical state to her, she wasn't going to miss something like that; she was sure of that. Naturally, the blacksmith pulled her phone out of her hoodie before bouncing onto her knees, aiming her phone at Inkaro like a trained paparazzi person. She snapped a picture.

  "Hah, now you know what it's like," Nuenala proclaimed heartily and verbosely, gloating to the highest of heights as she snapped away picture after picture with her phone's camera, capturing all angles of Inkaro's suspended visage.

  If Inkaro recalled, Nuenala had said those very words for the fifth time, if his counting was correct. The age-loss teen mulled it over, since he didn't have anything better to do, whilst Hinosa purified his curse anyhow. He considered whether Nuenala was secretly hinting at something he'd only be able to notice while physically being a child with a mature mind. "I suppose I do."

  Hearing the guy's blunt and honestly indifferent reaction to her words, it took all the wind out of the blacksmith's sails, verbally tripping her right before the finish line of an ultra-marathon and making her slam face-first into the ground of defeat. Eventually, the blacksmith's annoyance swelled somewhat, managing to manifest in the form of her skin prickling and her lashes flaring up, as she coiled her metalic tail round and round into the outline of a drill.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  "You could've pretended to be upset to vindicate my ego and years of suffering," Nuenala said defeatedly, disgruntled and deflated beyond her limit, before plopping her chin on the head of the sofa, followed by her instantly conking out. Soon enough, gravity took its hold on her, and she slumped back onto the sofa, fitting right into the grooves she'd left in the cushions. However, her sleep didn't last long, brought about by her phone slapping her in the face. Yet even with a stinging face, Nuenala was out again in seconds, snoring away this time around.

  A few minutes would pass without any further incident, unless Enetha floating past Lizu and co on her Mould Breaker rings counted, paying the scene as a whole no mind, not so much as batting a single eyelash was stocked out of the barely conscious princess. The princess's passing might've been enough to get the girls' attention, had they not been so focused on the curse-dispelling process.

  Many more minutes followed after that, many more.

  "Aaaaaaaaaad... done," Hinosa announced pridefully, but not in an ego-inflating way. It was more along the lines of someone being happy for someone else; so in this case, the girl was proud on Lizuranti's behalf... maybe?

  "Are you-." Almost like to answer the dragolyte's question in the most physical way possible, Inkaro's head shot up and uppercutted her in the chin, hitting her with the meanest surprise attack to deal all the critical damage possible, especially with how any given dragon's weakspot was the underside of their chin. A strangled 'gah' of discombobulation shuddered its way out of Lizu, weakly letting go of the age-restored Inkaro, as she staggered backwards. Try as she might, and no amount of resolve could overcome, Lizu struggled to keep her mind straight before she toppled backwards onto her chonky tail with a heavy thump.

  She was out colder than Nuenala.

  "Oh, stigmais, I killed her!" Hinosa blurted out in unbridled dismay as she brought her hands to her head. Even as she tried to dispel the silly thought, because obviously something like this wouldn't do someone like Lizuranti in, Hinosa couldn't keep her breath from stiffening, yet remaining somewhat delicate in a noble way. Despite her best efforts, the noble vatruva snapped as her cloth-like appendage went fully limp, her mental state made that much worse by Lizuranti's uncharacteristic stillness in her slumber.

  Almost like bad timing for her overpacing heart, Hinosa got a text from her mother, and given the time, meant the woman would like help with knitting again. Her mother took knitting seriously, so much so that only Inkaro's attachment to grimoires could match, meaning Hinosa couldn't ignore the request, much like Lizuranti asking for help.

  While she marched in guilt and terror of Lizuranti potentially being upset at her as she left the house in a hurry, Inkaro, cladded in only his shirt and pants, tilted his head to one side, befuddled to how the girl could've come to such a conclusion. Inkaro raised a hand before catching his golden agate, with its attatched chain coiled ensnared around it, that had been tossed at him by Morilore.

  "Are all nobles needless overthinkers?" As he pondered on his own question, a flash of gold enveloped Inkaro, only disapating once he was fully clothed in his usual attire. "Oh yeah, the glasses for Anazenpha, the lens should have settled by now."

  With that thought in mind, Inkaro strolled forward. His destination: the kitchen freezer. But as he walked past Lizu, Inkaro was sure to step around the attack area of her grubby little mitts, knowing those things had a mind of their own when the girl slept. If his fiancée got her cling grip on her, Inkaro knew his work efficiency would drastically go down.

  But even in her sleep-proned state, Lizu snagged her tail around Inkaro's hand from the guy's blind spot, clinging to him with a tightness that the guy instantly knew he wouldn't be overpowering without the aid of magic. So with a heavy sigh, Inkaro waved his bound hand in a rhythmic fashion, triggering some deep-rooted instinct in Lizu. Moving with an elegance that seemed impossible for someone deep in the throes of sleep, Lizu clambered her way up Inkaro and settled herself in the best sleeping position on his back before resting her chin on the guy's shoulder like some trained house cat. Only once she was right where she wanted to be did Lizu relent on the clinginess of her tail, but letting go was asking for the impossible out of her sleeping self.

  Even in her sleep, Lizu bore a satisfiedly contented grin. She had the kind of look on her face that would get her labelled the villainess rival in an otome game, which didn't dissipate in the slightest as Inkaro wobbly stumbled his way over to the kitchen, not having given up on getting those lenses.