Use him?

My eyes widened at Benedict’s unexpected proposal.

“What exactly do you mean?”

“Use me as a shield to prevent the imperial family from coveting you.”

I wondered why he was suddenly making such an offer. Despite the usually reticent man speaking so much, somehow his true intentions remained hard to grasp.

“Enter into an engagement with me. Of course, I’ll break it off whenever you wish.”

Seeing my bewildered expression, Benedict added a detailed explanation.

“Um. You don’t need to go that far for my sake…”

While Henry had a strong motivation of not wanting his former fiancée as his aunt.

No matter how I thought about it, this proposal offered no particular benefit from Benedict’s perspective.

“Then let me be honest. It’s not for your sake but for mine.”

“What?”

“Because I care about you.”

Benedict smiled faintly while looking at me.

“…!”

“Is that reason enough now?”

It’s impossible to let my guard down. This game keeps testing me in this way.
When a handsome male lead offered to let himself be used for my sake, I couldn’t help but waver for a moment—being only human.

‘This is clearly that contract marriage cliché I’ve seen so many times.’

But my goal was survival, not romance.

‘Why do you keep dangling sweets I can’t eat? How cruel.’

I bit my lip firmly.

At least until I raised Oscar to adulthood and sent him to the ravine, I couldn’t let myself be distracted by sweet temptations.

‘I haven’t even sorted things out with Henry yet. Getting involved with Benedict too would be such a headache!’

My head throbbed. It felt bitter having to reject the male leads’ attention while receiving it.

However, raising Oscar safely was more important to me.

‘I’ve held out this long. It’ll be over once I reach the ending.’

I took a small deep breath and steeled my resolve further.

“While I appreciate the offer, I’ll have to decline.”

“May I ask why?”

“I’d like to try solving my problems on my own.”

“Then I’ll respect your decision.”

Benedict surprisingly nodded without resistance. He seemed to understand that forcing the issue wouldn’t help.

“However, if you change your mind, please let me know anytime.”

“…What?”

“I’m willing to let you use me for your sake at any time.”

Perhaps disturbed by our conversation.

At that moment, Oscar groaned and twisted his body in his sleep.

***

[System: Miss Ariella Hayworth! You have pending missions.

-Would you like to check your missions?

> Yes/No]

Though it had been an exhausting day, the system wouldn’t leave me alone.

[System: Warning! If unchecked missions accumulate beyond a certain point, the system will switch to forced rampage mod…]

Seeing my soul-dead eyes, it didn’t forget to include its tiny threats.

“…Fine. I get it.”

This must be what it means to not even have the energy to resist.

I sighed deeply and pressed the ‘Yes’ button.

[System: Daily Mission! Write one chapter of ‘Dragon Romance Novel’.

Would you like to proceed?

> Yes/No]

My head was fuzzy with sleepiness, yet of course it had to be a mission requiring intense concentration.

“Huu-uh, I’ll do this when it’s light out. Isn’t there something else?”

I tried to skip it for now, but.

[System: Sorry. This mission cannot be refused.

-Forced refusal will switch to ‘Debt Repayment’ mode.]

Of course it wouldn’t be that simple.

“…Yes, yes.”

I took out my notebook and pen with bleary eyes.

‘That troublemaker. Is he really asleep?’

I glanced at Oscar sleeping in bed and smiled faintly.

“Right. It’s easier to write when Oscar is asleep.”

It’s not like I could refuse anyway. I changed my mindset and gripped the quill pen again.

‘Should I write about flying in the sky?’

There was no special reason. That memory just happened to come to mind.

‘Since it’s a romance with a dragon, it’s like a fairy tale anyway.’

Looking back, that day was the most unbelievable event I’d experienced.

‘Writing it exactly as it happened wouldn’t be right. I’ll just borrow the flying in the night sky part. So the female lead and male lead…’

I wrote the manuscript following my stream of consciousness.

***

Oscar quietly opened his eyes. Was it still night? Pitch darkness surrounded everything.

“…Ari?”

As soon as he opened his eyes, Oscar looked for Ariella first.

She was fast asleep, slumped over the table. It seemed she had fallen asleep while writing her manuscript.

Oscar got up from the bed and hopped down. Then he carefully approached her, trying not to wake her.

“Ari.”

Even when he called her name and gently shook her, she didn’t wake up. She must have been very tired from watching over him all day.

“Ari, if you sleep here your mouth will get crooked. You’ll catch a cold too.”

She should take care of herself as much as she takes care of Oscar. His chest pricked like being stabbed with needles.

He remembered the night he flew through the sky holding her. If only he could carry her now and let her sleep comfortably in bed like then.

“Oscar strong.”

Of course, Oscar was confident in his strength. Even after being sick for so long, he could originally bend swords with his bare hands.

But there was a problem.

“……”

Oscar silently looked down at his pitiful limbs. To carry her… his arms and legs were… far too short.

“…Hah.”

Oscar heaved a deep sigh. Come to think of it, even his sigh sounded pathetically childlike.

Does being cute put food on the table?

Well, being cute did make Ari feed him.

Still, not being able to do even something this simple like carrying Ariella. It was frustrating.

To begin with, there were too many things babies couldn’t do. Right. What can’t be done, can’t be done. There were limits to what could be overcome in a baby’s body.

In a baby’s body, he couldn’t protect Ari, nor could he marry her. Oscar felt utterly useless like this.

“Arrogant O’Neil.”

He ground his teeth thinking of that sickly Grand Mage. He had heard everything while pretending to sleep when Benedict was making his moves.

Setting up a research room here under the pretense of caring for a dragon. It made him even angrier knowing how cunning that man was.

What? Proposing marriage to Ari? How dare a mere Grand Mage covet his Ari. It was absurd.

“Son of a bi… no, son of a dog is a puppy.”

He quickly corrected himself after using rough language, remembering how Ari told him to use pretty words. After all, Ari might be pretending to sleep just like he had earlier.

Oscar waved his hand in front of Ari’s face. Fortunately, it seemed she hadn’t heard the curse word.

“Hah… what a life.”

He had to do what he could. Oscar spread out the shawl that was lying on the sofa, and standing on his tiptoes, draped it over Ariella’s shoulders.

“Mmm.”

Perhaps feeling warm from being covered, Ariella made a small sound and hunched her shoulders.

It would be perfect if he could lay her in bed, cover her with blankets, and snuggle into her arms.

Nngh. As he strained, a black light flickered and then faded away.

“Hing.”

He had no strength left even for polymorphing. And Ari had told him not to overexert himself.

Is this all he could do? Oscar felt utterly pathetic at his helplessness.

“Ugh……”

Suddenly, black light enveloped his body and his arms began to itch. When he scratched with his nails and looked down irritably, black scales had appeared there. His nails seemed somehow sharper too.

His face felt hot. Was the fever starting again? No, it didn’t feel painful like before.

“This isn’t good……”

Oscar’s red eyes grew even redder. It seemed time was running out.

***

Did I fall asleep slumped over? When I opened my eyes, the sun was already high in the sky.

‘Really now. I must have been exhausted.’

I couldn’t help but laugh. Who falls asleep bent over like that?

Either I grabbed the shawl while half-asleep from the cold, or someone covered me with it. A shawl was draped over my shoulders.

‘Is Oscar alright?’

As soon as I came to my senses, I wondered about Oscar’s condition. It had become a habit since Oscar had been seriously ill.

But the bed was empty and Oscar was nowhere to be seen.

“…Oscar?”

There was no answer to my call.

‘Did he go to my room?’

Since Oscar’s nest was my bed, he might be there, I thought as I hurried to my room.

“……”

Oscar wasn’t in my bed either.

“Where are you hiding? Are you playing hide and seek this early in the morning?”

Remembering how he used to hide when anxious, I even checked under the bed.

Oscar wasn’t there either.

‘Did he go to eat breakfast?’

Though I’d fed him plenty for dinner. He might have gotten hungry early in the morning.

As I stood there dumbfounded, there was a knock at the door.

“Miss. It’s Jenny.”

“Come in.”

Jenny and Laura entered with water for washing up. It was a scene no different from any other morning.

“Have either of you seen Oscar?”

“What? We thought he was with you, Miss.”

Wondering if Leon had taken him, I went to check the training grounds.

“What training? He’s still recovering. Why are you looking for him with me? Wasn’t he stuck to you like glue all day?”

Leon didn’t know either.

Neither he nor anyone else in the Hayworth mansion had seen Oscar.

We searched the mansion thoroughly with the servants.

The food storage, dining room, training grounds.

Oscar was nowhere to be found.

‘Could he have gotten lost after going outside?’

When we couldn’t find him anywhere in the mansion, we expanded the search to the surrounding forest.

Oscar was nowhere to be seen.

One day, two days, three days.

And then a week.

Though everyone searched anxiously, not even a trace of Oscar could be found.

***

“It seems he left after becoming an adult.”

Benedict said in a calm tone. He too seemed to have hesitated for a long while, watching me in distress.

Oscar had left me.

He seemed to know that this was a conclusion I could never easily accept on my own.

“Grand Mage.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“…Oscar made it safely to the ravine, right?”

My throat tightened as I spoke, making me pause for breath.

“I’m sure he did. Dragons cannot go against their instincts after all.”

Come to think of it, Oscar had been sick and grown suddenly. This time too he had been very ill, so naturally there would have been growth.

Oscar leaving me was as natural as water flowing downward.

In the end, I had to accept it. That my small, precious hatchling had now left the nest that was me.

And so Oscar disappeared.