It was a golden jewel no one could help but be bewitched by. Even Taran, her companion of many years, swallowed hard at how captivating and dazzling it was. Yet he did not look away.

“Stop this, Ariel. It’s already over, you and me.”

“What are you talking about, Taran? Over?”

Ariel smiled softly. Her red lips parted, revealing white, even teeth.

“Taran. Do you know? You and I can never be over.”

“Ariel.”

“Because I.”

Her large eyes narrowed dreamily, and the golden jewel settled upon his lips. She acted like she might devour him on the spot.

“Haven’t even started.”

She leaned closer, so near that their lips seemed ready to collide at any moment.

Taran could not understand her behavior. This was not the line she always kept. Bold as she was, she often touched and stroked him, but she never came on this blatantly.

“So there can be no end between you and me.”

Finally Ariel wrapped both arms around his neck. Taran’s brows furrowed fiercely.

No matter how much he cherished her, this was an insolent act that went too far. The moment he grabbed her wrists to pull her off by force.

It happened.

“But you know, it’s a little irritating. I haven’t even started, and I’m supposed to just sit quietly and lose you!”

Holding her arms left his balance precarious, and his body fell backward in an instant.

Her voluptuous body mounted him at once. Then she immediately bent down and swallowed his red lips, the lips she longed for over such a very long time.

Ah. How much she wanted, wanted those lips.

“Haa….”

Ariel wanted to feel this brief moment wholly and fully.

Was a kiss really such a big deal that she waited this long? All she needed to do was knock him down.

She was nearly out of her mind from the rush of pleasure.

‘Yes. I don’t care if he coldly pushes me away. Either way, I became the first woman to kiss him!’

Even while kissing, Ariel was anxious about when Taran would pull her off. Taran was clearly accepting this one-sided kiss because she caught him off guard.

‘Probably once you come to your senses, you’ll try to pull me off even by force. Before that, just a little… just a little more.’

At the very moment she desperately wished time would stop like this.

Taran’s hand wrapped around her slender waist.

“!”

Startled, Ariel flinched slightly, but Taran instead began raking through her hair with his remaining hand.

Her blue hair was mercilessly tousled.

He used his strength to press her face even closer, seemingly refusing to allow the slightest gap between their lips.

Ariel’s mind went hazy at his totally unexpected reaction.

He wanted her.

With the large hand she loved beyond measure he held her waist, and with the other he ruffled her hair. His hot tongue stirred her mouth, and she breathed in the sweet breath tangled with saliva.

This isn’t a dream! It’s real!

“I love you… I love you, Taran.”

Holding his face and drawing her lips away, Ariel whispered her love in a trembling voice. These were words she wanted to say since long ago, when she was a small, innocent girl.

Words she only ever dreamed of. Words that could not leave her mouth for the world and only circled inside it.

Her golden eyes, looking down at the face of the one she loved, sparkled full of joy. Her pale face flushed lovingly, and her panting breath was full of sweet scent.

“I love you so, so much…!”

As she stroked Taran’s forehead and tried to say her love once more, the large body that lay beneath her all along mounted her at once.

Taran began pouring out a passionate kiss again. The rough, intense kiss awakened all her senses. Thrilling, ecstatic, and she felt like she might faint at any moment. Even her toes tingled.

“Haa…”

Running her fingers through Taran’s wavy hair, she thought she wished this moment would never end.

‘I don’t mind dying locked in you. Taran. If it’s you….’

Then Taran’s hand seized her full br*ast.

“Ah!”

A cry of joy burst out at the wildly provocative sensation.

Finally, finally, you’re becoming mine! Finally you and I are making love!

At the very moment Ariel’s pleasure and joy reached the top of her head, Taran roughly tore off her clothes.

Rip. Rip-rip.

“!”

The moment the seams of the tightly woven dress burst, Ariel realized something was wrong.

“Taran! Wait!”

She cried out urgently, but Taran did not stop. He buried his face in the nape of her neck and kissed her frantically.

Hot lips bit, sucked, and ravenously devoured her neck. Pleasure rushed over her again. The kiss, hot and fierce enough to make her dizzy, was an aphrodisiac hard to refuse.

Her large eyes closed, and hot breath burst from her plumply swollen lips. But when his hand tore her skirt again, she had no choice but to snap her eyes open.

Seeing her dress pinned under Taran’s legs, horribly torn, she struck his shoulder with her fist.

“Stop it!”

Then Taran lifted his head and looked at her flushed face. His radiant olive eyes were cloudy and unfocused. It was a provocative, sensual gaze. His exhaled breath was also very rough and decadent.

“Why? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Taran asked in a cracked voice, undoing the buttons of his shirt.

“Yes. That’s right. It’s what I wanted.”

“So?”

“Be a little gentler with me. You know. It’s my first too….”

“Wish for what’s possible.”

“But…!”

Like a man who went days without a sip of water and found an oasis, his reckless, aggressive movements continued. He ravaged her body without mercy.

Despite Ariel’s struggling, the dress with its beautiful pearl decorations was horribly torn. Pale pearl beads glowing softly bounced across the marble floor with a clatter.

“Stop! Please stop! Stop, Taran!”

Smack!

Her hand struck Taran’s face with all her might. His left cheek flushed red.

“Haah. Haah.”

Ariel, her eyes brimming with tears, glared at him, gasping for breath.

“I don’t know whose tune you want me to dance to.”

“Haah. Haah.”

“If you ever act on your own again, then.”

“Hic. Hngh….”

“Even if you beg me to stop, it won’t end.”

Having finished speaking, Taran rose without hesitation and left the reception room.

“Ha. Hahaha. Hahahaha!”

Ariel burst out laughing like a madwoman. Endless thick tears wet her face.

It was miserable. Madly miserable. Shameful and humiliating. That filthy feeling spread in an instant to every corner of her body.

She looked at her wretchedly torn dress. When she gathered the tattered front together, her chest felt hacked to pieces too.

It was not the ending she wanted. Not at all, not for a moment, not for a single instant.

The scent he left behind finally broke her. Everything of the man she loved so dearly was disappearing.

The touch lingering in her hair, the fragrance lingering at the tip of her nose, even his perfect body reflected in her eyes. The fact that his radiant green-brown eyes would no longer turn toward her drove her mad.

“This isn’t right. It’s all because of that b*tch! If it weren’t for that b*tch, I would have! Surely I would have…!”

Roughly wiping her tear-soaked face, she decided to release this filthy emotion in another direction. An arrow soaked in poison was preparing to fly to the wrong target.

“Why hasn’t news of her death come yet! Why! Why!”

Ariel clenched her fist so hard her palm seemed ready to tear, and struck the innocent sofa.

“That damned witch must have botched it! I have to find out myself.”

Her plump lips were crushed against her even teeth and burst. Red blood dripped onto the white carpet.

“It isn’t over yet.”

The whirlpool in the sea, grown even larger, was slowly rising toward the surface.

* * *

“Are you feeling all right, Princess?”

A woman with her orange hair neatly pinned up asked as she brought Lia’s washing water. Tiny freckles settled grain by grain across the bridge of her nose. She was the lady-in-waiting, ‘May.’

“…I’m fine.”

Lia did not want to answer, but she could not ignore a face so clear before her. She answered briefly, reluctantly. Speaking casually to someone felt very awkward.