His Breeding Obsession

 

Still, a new Great Witch would be born, and Chera would be able to clean up the mess.

 

‘And now for the regrets…’ 

 

If there was one more thing I wished for, it would be that Grecan, Leverianz, and Malandor had a moment to speak.

 

‘This is enough.’

 

With that, Mirania closed her eyes in contentment.

 

She waited for a moment of peace, a moment of nothingness.

 “No, it will not be as you wish.” 

Grecan’s voice pierced the calm, throwing stones at her mind.

 

‘You’re the one I’m most worried about, you little troublemaker.’

 

Too bad I didn’t have the strength to say it.

 “You’ve been waiting for this moment all along, Mirania, and that’s why you can leave me so easily. Cowardly, you are, cowardly. You brought me here, so it’s only fair for me to let you leave, and you can’t leave my side until I do.” 

Awakening, and now arrogance.

 

Wistfully, Mirania strained her eyelids to communicate, if only with her eyes.

 

She was already numb from the neck down. There was no time to make her last words.

 

At least she could make a gesture.

 

Slowly, she opened her eyes. And looked.

 

Grecan was pouring the now-familiar red liquid into his mouth.

 

‘Red flower!’

 

The corners of his mouth curled up as he watched Mirania’s eyes widen as if she realized what he was doing.

 

Then he leaned down and kissed her.

 

Her eyes widened to the limit. Against her diminished senses, she could faintly feel soft lips, tasting of blood.

 

Then a cold liquid invaded her parched mouth.

 

A grunt and a whimper escaped her at the conflicting sensations of its sweetness and unpleasantness.

 

Inside her mouth, Grecan’s tongue moved in all directions.

 

The teasing of his tongue against her drying tongue, licking the roof of her mouth, was so desperate that Mirania felt a twinge of pity.

 

‘Stop it.’

 

There’s no point in this, anyway.

 

Her mind rejected him coldly, but her helpless body refused to budge.

 

At first, Grecan’s head tilted more than ever as he concentrated on simply passing the red flower solution to Mirania, until within moments, he was frantically seeking her mouth.

 

Unlike Mirania’s reluctance to do this, Grecan was confident.

 

‘I can certainly digest the red flower now.’ 

 

Malandor had been right when he said that if one was worthy, they would know how to use it.

 

No one had to teach him, it just came naturally. This was how it should be done.

 

He handed all the red flowers with their malevolent aura to Mirania, but Grecan didn’t leave her lips.

 

Her breath was electrifying and sweet, and he craved it.

 

It was a true first kiss for him.

 

Mirania had said it wasn’t a first kiss, but to him, it was, and it was all he’d ever tasted.

 

Unlike Leverianz and Malandor, Grecan was late to the game, and when asked when he had awakened to the idea at all, he could answer without hesitation, ‘now’.

 

He couldn’t think of the excitement of his first kiss.

 

Despite his desperate need to keep her alive, his heart was pounding furiously.

 

‘So good… so sweet. It tastes so sweet.’ 

 

His brain scrambled. Heart was pounding like a fish on water.

 

Grecan loved the taste of her mouth so much that it made sense that Leverianz was such a rascal.

 

His saliva-laden tongue swirled around Mirania’s dry tongue.

 

The touch of her tongue sent a shiver down his spine.

 

True to his need, he pressed his upper body against hers. His lower body felt strangely stiff and uncomfortable.

 

After a few moments of this, an unusual pain came over him, a tightening of his heart.

 

It felt like a tight, strong thread that could never be broken or unraveled. It was stiff and tingling.

 

By no means a normal sensation, but before he realized it, Grecan was lost in the kiss with Mirania.

 

In the midst of his absorption, he was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and pulled back.

 “Grecan, stop!” 

Leverianz peeked over Grecan to look at Mirania.

 

Between them, her lips were damp and swollen, like they’d been soaked in water, from all the biting and sucking Grecan had done.

 

Grecan gripped Mirania’s shoulders and turned her head to the side.

 

Leverianz and Malandor were sweating profusely, holding him away from Mirania.

 

Immersed in Mirania’s kiss, he lost track of time and space and forgot what was happening.

 

‘…?’

 

An ecstatic, intoxicating sensation he’d never felt before, one that shook his head.

 

Still dazed from the afterglow, Grecan slowly realized what was happening.

 

Those dark, beautiful eyes narrowed in fright.

 

‘It’s you guys again?’ 

 

Yes. And again.

 

Interrupted once again. By these two.

 

Grecan felt like his insides would burn with rage.

 

Hatred for the interlopers that he thought had receded.

 

It burned like an anointed fire that he hadn’t yet extinguished.

 

The desire to kill them all spread through my body like wildfire. His muscles bulged furiously.

 “Grrr…” 

He had just been in heaven. Now he was banished from that blissful paradise.

 

Again, because of these two.

 

Baring his teeth and glaring at him, Leverianz shouted at Grecan.

 “You madman, now is not the time for that! Look at your surroundings!” 

Grecan glowered in annoyance, but soon understood what Leverianz meant.

 

His expression changed.

 “The wind.” 

The wind was blowing. The source was Mirania. Grecan spun around.

 

From Mirania’s closed eyes, a typhoon was raging.

 

Grecan reflexively hugged Mirania tightly, but the rising winds steadily widened the gap between them until they were separated.

 

Grecan screamed in despair.

 “No!” 

He flailed his hands in agony, but the wind, which had become a storm, ripped him from her with a savage ferocity.

 “Gaah!”  

Alice screamed, already blown away.

 

A gust of wind powerful enough to blow everything away.

 

There was a blink. Mirania moved her

‘eyelids’,

and then grimaced in disbelief.

 “What’s going on? There was some kind of weird storm just…” 

Mirania opened her eyes, closed them again, and opened them again. Still, nothing had changed.

 

She was speechless at the completely changed landscape.

 

In fact, it wasn’t even a landscape.

 

There was nothing in front of her.

 “…” 

Literally, nothing.

 “…” 

It was all black, and Mirania couldn’t tell if she was lying or standing.

 “What is this?” 

What the hell has happened, am I lying, sitting, or standing?

 

Surely, she thought, she had been on her back when Grecan had done the embarrassing thing of passing the red flower into her mouth, so she must be lying down at the moment, but suddenly she couldn’t be sure.

 

Because she couldn’t even feel her own body.

 

A hand was raised. She could feel it, but she couldn’t make it out, so she had no idea if she had raised it or not.

 

The sensory confusion was extreme. Mirania realized in a flash.

 

‘This is the otherworld.’ 

 

This was not her world, but another.

 

No land she knew could have produced such a miracle.

 

‘Am I dead?’

 

It was the most believable thought, but it was also a terrible assumption.

 

All her life, she had thought that when she died, she would turn to dust and sand and return to nature.

 

That it would become the roots of a tree, and that it would travel through the world.

 

‘Was what I knew wrong? No, it was right, and I hadn’t heard or seen anything about this strange place where my body was visible.’

 

There’s only one answer.

 

Something went wrong.

 “I made it, the storm. I can’t control fate, but I can control a windstorm. No matter.” 

The scarred voice rang out through the space, strained as if it were forced through hoarse breaths.

 

Mirania peered, unable to see anything.

 “No, that’s all I can do, to buy us some time.” 

The voice that followed was somehow grim.

 “Who is it?”

ask Mirania.

 

She wondered if the voice would even come out, but it did.

 

Mirania realized once again that this was otherworldly. Her voice was as clear as ever after her near-death experience.

 “Everything has been messed up, screwed over, and I don’t know where to start to make it right. No, it will be different now, but I’m not sure that it’s the way I want it to be,”

said Mirania.

 “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “You don’t?” “Who do you think I am?” 

She doesn’t know who she’s talking to, but it’s clear that this figure couldn’t be anything ordinary.

 

Mirania calmly asked questions, mindful of the strangeness in her voice.

 “I am the one you have been hoping to meet.” “The one I’ve been hoping to meet?” 

Suddenly, Mirania’s eyes widened at the sight of the old woman before her.

 

She glanced down at her hands, just in case, but they still didn’t seem to be engulfed in darkness.