My first kiss got stolen by a beautiful Hybrid dragon girl called Glace. However, something didn’t feel right in my heart. A shadow covered the happiness and some dark feelings overwrote the joyful ones I was supposed to be experiencing.

According to what I had heard, a kiss was supposed to be sweet but right now it only left a sour taste in my mouth. As if it was filled with salt.

Why was that ? I thought about it for a second and realised why I was reacting the wrong way to the situation.

First, the picture of Blume having sex with Tras popped into my mind at the time I got kissed; this made me feel disgusted, as if I was kissing her instead of Glace.

Furthermore, if one were to consider the situation logically, there was definitely something wrong going on. Why would a mature girl like her kiss a thirteen years-old guy she had just met and who had destroyed all hopes of her having any siblings ?

An alarm sound rang in my head and I decided not to let myself get deceived by this dragon. Maybe she was trying to seduce me to make me pay later ?

Arism, who had kept quiet until now, decided to speak up with an annoyed face.

“Ahem. I’d like to tell you two to get a room, but considering Glace’s appearance, it’s not going to be easy.”

This made me come back to reality. The beautiful Glace let go of me with a bashful face.

“What do you mean ? She looks human enough to enter a town without any problems, as long as we dress her up, right ?”

“Hell, are you still so entranced by the kiss that you haven’t noticed ? Look at her. She’s got horns on top of her head and scales on her face. There is no way the guards won’t notice that.”

“Ah, if it’s only that, I can withdraw them !”

Glace interrupted Arism to show us what she had just said. Her horns decreased in size until they disappeared completely. As for her scales, they looked like they were absorbed by her skin and vanished as well.

“Should I also remove the scales on my chest ? I’ll do it if you want me to, Hell, fufufu.”

She said that with a wry smile while looking at me. Arism sighed while I blushed. Even if I didn’t trust her, I was still a teenager who had already started puberty !

“Stop teasing me. If there is one thing I hate, it’s slutty behaviour.”

I answered her with a tone that sounded even colder than I thought possible. I didn’t think of myself as intimidating though, especially how despite my tall build for my age, she was still taller than me. Despite this, the look on her face changed drastically to an apologetic one.

“Aw… sorry.”

Arism raised an eyebrow but didn’t let out any comment.

“Anyway, since the problem is sorted, we can successfully have you enter the town. Your white hair and purple eyes are still unusual but it should be fine. We just need to find you some clothes.”

Arism looked like he had an idea and spoke up.

“Leave that to me. I’ll head home quickly and get some for her.”

“Home ?”

“Yeah. I’ll take some clothes that belonged to Mother.”

I didn’t ask about why he said that using the past tense. I could guess from the way he said it so I didn’t pry into it any further.

Arism hurried home and I was left alone with Glace. This made me feel uneasy so I tried to distance myself a bit from her but every time I did, she would stick to me over and over again.

“Why are you avoiding me… could it be that you hate me ?”

“I don’t trust you.”

I said the truth as bluntly as possible because I didn’t want to cause any further misunderstanding. This woman’s behaviour made me feel uncomfortable.

“… Wasn’t it you who saved me though ? Risking your own life for it ?”

“That… is true. But considering the facts and what I told you before, the way you act with me is clearly abnormal and suspicious. Are you planning a sneak attack on me as soon as I get seduced by you ?”

She looked at me with surprised eyes. Did I say something stupid ? It was all very logical to me.

“You… dummy. Did you perhaps have a bad experience with women ? Or is it because you’re feeling guilty about the eggs destruction ? Then let me tell you something about me. Just like a normal dragon would, I was born with the knowledge of my ancestors, which is why I can converse with you like this. But this knowledge also lets me know a lot about the dragon history and our relationship with humans. So let me tell you the story of my people.”

“What does that have to do with us ?”

“Be patient, allow me to explain. First of all, dragons were not always considered as monsters. There was a time, a little over 500 years ago, when they were considered as one of the major races. That is because dragons are intelligent creatures, capable of speech and are not only focused on their primal instincts like most monsters. But came the day when the Emperor of the Porcephone Empire, one of the most influential people in the world at the time, decided that dragons were lowly beasts that deserved to be hunted just like other monsters. Although dragons were stronger than humans, we were by far outnumbered and decided to hide since we could not defeat them by ourselves. As the years passed, the dragons started to develop a hereditary hate for humans, the reason they were exiled. Almost all dragons nowadays are born with an urge to kill humans when they see them, which is the reason we are feared and hunted down by you.”

“That includes you too then, right ?”

“Yes. But our mindset is not set in stone, we are merely born with it. It may be subject to change, just like mine after you saved me. When I was born and saw the eggs destroyed, the thing I thought was that it was normal. That is the way things are : we kill humans and in return, humans kill us. We hate humans but there is no reason to hate them when something like that happens because this is the way things are. However… you were different. Not only did you come back to save me, your natural enemy, but you were also ready to sacrifice yourself for it. This made me think that maybe not all humans were bad. Not everything is black and white and just like that, there are some of your kin that do not deserve our hate. You were honest when you said you don’t trust me so let me be honest with you as well : I trust you. You are all I have and what I wish is to be able to follow you wherever I can. I want to be with you and have you teach me more about the kindness of humans.”

“…”

It looks like my prejudices fooled my critical thinking after all. Glace’s feelings… they reached me. I felt ashamed for seeing her the same way I saw Blume. Just like she said, everyone is different and she is also a unique individual. She deserved a chance to be accepted by me.

“But… if you really cannot bear to have me by your side… then I will disappear. The last thing I want is to cause problems to you after all.”

“Alright.”

“Huh ?”

“I said it’s alright. You can come with me.”

“Can I… really !?”

“Yes. I have my conditions though. First, no slutty behaviour. As I said, I hate that. it reminds me of… nevermind, just don’t do it.”

“Ok, no problem.”

“Also, I’ll have you register as an Adventurer. You can’t just stay jobless if you’re planning to be with me as I cannot guarantee I’d earn enough money for the both of us. You can probably be of some use to complete quests so it’d be best if you became one. That way I could keep an eye on you as well.”

“Of course, I want to be an Adventurer with you too !”

“And the last condition is that you make sure not to let the fact that you’re a dragon be discovered. It’ll be problematic if people see your horns and scales so make sure you hide them when in a town.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Perfect then. Now let’s just wait for Arism to come back so that we can finally put some clothes on you.”

***

I was waiting in front of the reception at the Adventurer Guild. Arism and Glace were standing beside me. She was now wearing a black sleeveless tunic wrapped by two darker belts with silver spikes, black detached sleeves held by golden straps, a short grey skirt and black tights with one golden stripe on top of each. These clothes suited her extremely well and the beautiful contrast between the black clothes and silver white hair made me speechless. Arism couldn’t find a bra her size so Glace was still wearing her bra made out of scales. The tunic looked a bit tight around the chest area though : three buttons had to be undone, revealing a deep cleavage.

As expected, most males in the Guild had their gaze fixated on her. That was including the receptionist as well, who was paying more attention to her than to me even though I was the one talking to him.

“Excuse me ? Are you listening to me ?”

“Huh ? Ah, hum, yes sorry ! The reward was it ? One of Aurora’s Grace members reported that the whole cave was destroyed, successfully getting rid of all the eggs inside. I’m impressed you managed to complete such a dangerous quest. Well done, it seems I underestimated you slightly. Here is your reward.”

We got the money and I split it equally among us. Even though Glace didn’t take part in the quest, it was always better for her to have some money.

Arism put the money in his pouch and looked at me.

“Now, what should we do ? I guess you should start by securing a room, right ?”

“Yes. Then we should maybe look at the quest board, maybe we’ll find some other interesting ones. By the way, these clothes…”

“As I said, they belonged to my mother. She passed away when I was a baby. However, Father is almost never home so he never had the time to get rid of them.”

“I… I see.”

As expected, it was a tough topic. Not wanting to carry on this conversation any further, I dashed towards the quest board and picked on that looked easy. It was a monster extermination quest. The target was a little community of Bulks.

Bulks were little blue humanoid monsters with one eye and 4 arms that were only rank D. On their own, their strength was only that of a rank E monster but the threat rose when they banded together. They could get annoying quickly as they were well known for surrounding their target and sacrificing a few of their own kind just to take down stronger opponents.

But considering the current strength of our group, this quest was a rather easy one. The reward however was worth the effort : 400 Gold coins.

It was already nighttime so Arism went home and I went to my room with Glace. For the purpose of saving as much money as possible, we were sharing the same room. Although my heart was against the idea, my purse was the one dictating my choice.

The one thing I feared was to not be able to get any sleep because of the fact that I was sleeping beside a perfect beauty. But unexpectedly, Glace didn’t try to cuddle me or tempt me like she did earlier. Was it because of the fact that I told her I hated slutty loose behaviours ? Anyway, this allowed me to rest properly and be ready for the quest the next day.

Nothing really extraordinary happened that day. I met up with Arism, the three of us headed to the quest location, destroyed the group of enemies rather easily and came back. I also witnessed the fact that Glace was an extremely powerful Magician, probably better than Arism, which was due to her immense and accumulated knowledge. She was also able to use dragon breath despite her human appearance. She still had dragon attributes after all.

We then went back, collected the reward, ate together and spent some time in town. At night, we went back to inn and slept there.

The following days went the same way and we started to get recognised whenever we entered the guild. Whether they were interested in Glace’s beauty or our skill, more and more adventurers talked with us everyday. This made the place friendlier than it was before but the Adventurer Guild wasn’t my objective right now.

The deadline had grown closer and I had gathered money for the trip.

It was finally time to meet up with Yaquinn.