Frozen Wolf, Fire Dragon

Chapter 3

“Sion, tell me what I am to you. Tell me, go on.”

“You’re… You’re the one who saved me from death, my savior.”

I was flabbergasted. It was the same wording used in the novel. This was supposed to be Sion’s dialogue with the Crimson Cloak, where he muttered this to her on his knees with tears running down his face. I tried to stop thinking about it, but my head was already spinning. As I stood there confused, Sion, who had been hiding behind me, poked his head out.

“Sion, I told you to stay back!” I quickly hid him behind my back once again.

It was the male and female protagonists’ first encounter. She was likely to fall in love with him at first sight, so my best bet was to conceal him. Furthermore, they were still just kids!

“Why won’t you let me see?”

“You can’t just yet.”

“Then can I see later?”

“Just... not now.” Giving an evasive answer, I continued to hide him.

Sion pouted, clearly feeling that it wasn’t fair, but there was no other choice. They were still really young, but I couldn’t take any chances and let the story begin just yet.

Why is she already here in the north? Was the novel’s plot tweaked somehow?

While I tried to figure out what was going on, the girl said, “Thank you for saving me.”

Straightening up a bit more and turning to me, she bowed in thanks. She seemed polite, and her voice was clear and pleasant. Perhaps because she was still a child, I just couldn’t imagine her brandishing a whip at Sion. Fighting to get those thoughts out of my head again, I shook myself and laughed awkwardly, saying, “Oh, no, that’s unnecessary, it was the obvious thing to do. I’m glad you’re fine now.”

“But...” The girl hesitated. It seemed like she had something more to say.

“What... is it?” I asked carefully. Looking at her innocent-looking face and eyes, it didn’t seem like she was going to kill us.

And she doesn’t know Sion and I are wolf hybreeds yet. I glanced at Sion, whom I still held tight behind me. Good, his ears were well hidden. She might be amicable now, but as the dark heroine in a story, it was expected that she would turn on us and kill us. So, it was still probably better for us to pretend we were humans hiding in hybreed territory.

“Where is this? And who am I?”

Did she say what I think she said?

“Wh-wh-what do you mean?” I stuttered like an idiot.

No way. This can’t be what’s happening. If this is how the story is turning out, this is nuts! Whoever the writer of this story is—are you insane?

Once again, nothing was going as planned.

Blinking in embarrassment, her eyes now rather gloomy, she said cautiously, “I... don’t remember anything.”

Oh, great.

* * *

“You really don’t know? You can’t remember anything at all?”

“No... I just remember feeling really hot.” She shook her head in defeat. I let out a groan and clutched my forehead.

The Crimson Cloak couldn’t remember anything. Not even her name, age, or why she had fainted. It sounded like she’d had some sort of accident before she’d collapsed, so maybe her memory loss had been caused by that. What crazy timing! Of course, I knew her identity since I’d read the book, but it’s not like I could just say, Hey, your name is Rahel and you’re a dragon hybreed who has fire magic. Not to mention, your brother’s the commander-in-chief in the south. Isn’t that amazing? Okay, now that you know everything about yourself, time for you to head back home!

I pondered about whether I should take her back home or not for a bit but came to the conclusion that it would be a death sentence for a wolf like me. What if I deliver her and they think I kidnapped her? Even thinking about it gave me chills, and I let out a small groan.

Sensing my distress, Sion, who had been quietly standing behind me, poked his head out once more.

His blue eyes fell upon the Crimson Cloak, or rather, Rahel.

Their eyes met in silence.

I prepared myself for any weird reactions from them, just in case. It was still a long time before the story in the novel began, but I couldn’t take any chances. They were way too young for their fateful love story to unfold just yet. As I’ve mentioned already, this is supposed to be an uncensored, excessively sexual, and dramatic femdom novel.

“Hello...” Sion said shyly. He was clearly curious about this girl who had suddenly appeared.

This was no surprise—we’d lived deep in the woods ever since our mother had passed away. Sion was still too young to skillfully hide his ears and tail. While he was generally human in appearance, his protruding ears and tail were wolf hybreed traits. Unable to display as either human or wolf, we were forced to hide.

Besides, I knew what would happen later on. I had no choice but to hide him to prevent the future in which I burn to death and Sion becomes Rahel’s slave. But I knew we also couldn’t stay in hiding constantly. We needed food, firewood, and most importantly, money.

Whenever I left the forest, I kept my hair covered by a hat and my face hidden by a mask. The north was always cold, and it snowed every day, so it was very difficult to forage for herbs in the icy land, but, thankfully, I had an extremely comprehensive herb encyclopedia that Father had left me when he died. It was a struggle to hunt down the plants, but I always managed to find some. And, if I happened to find a rare one, I could sell it for a lot of money. I didn’t have much left after paying our living expenses, but I’d been saving up to buy us a noble title.

I know this might sound confusing, especially taking into consideration that this is a fantasy novel, but essentially, Father was a human who was weaker than wolves. He was a poor commoner in a world of hybreeds, and therefore, he had no official identity or legal documentation. And, since he had none, neither did Sion and I. This was why we couldn’t simply pack up and go live in the human world.

The humans and hybreeds lived totally isolated from each other, and so hybreeds had to rely on brokers to help smuggle them into the human world. But the brokers would only help smuggle in the wolves that had some form of identification. Of course, as poor mongrels, we had no rightful status, but like everything else in the world, there’s nothing money can’t buy. A regular customer of mine once told me that in the black market, it was possible to buy and sell noble titles. So I scrimped and saved to buy one for both of us, in order to cross over to the human world and live there, pretending to be human. But that was off the table now—my plans were coming crumbling down.

Am I missing something here? Could I be misremembering the story?

I thought about it hard, but there was no way I could remember all the small details in the novel. Besides, I had only really paid attention to... well, those kinds of scenes.

While my head spun with all those thoughts, the two kids kept staring at each other. Blushing, Sion waited politely for a reply to his greeting. But the Crimson Cloak only looked away coldly.

Huh?

I blinked at the strange sight, confused. As if nothing had happened, she said bashfully, “Umm, Miss Savior?”

“Savior? I’m no such thing, I was just—”

“Thank you for saving me,” she interrupted. “I’d like to return the favor.”

“Oh no, no, it’s fine!”

“But, because I’m in this state...” The Crimson Cloak continued, ignoring my words. “If it isn’t a burden to you… Could I stay here for a little while?”

“Eh?” I began sweating despite the cold weather.

“Just until I get my memories back. I’ll repay the favor then.”

I felt lightheaded. It was like I could see my life turning into chaos, falling apart in front of my very eyes.

“Well...” I faltered.

I should’ve told her to leave that instant. I should’ve ignored those innocent, hopeful eyes! But...

“Is that asking too much?” she implored.

How could I say no to those pure eyes with no evil intent in them? She had practically just woken up from a coma!

“Eve, good things come to those who do good deeds... Please, be a good child.”

I could hear Mother’s voice whispering to me. My mother’s last words. I ended up saying what I shouldn’t have.

“S-sure. Of course, just until you recover your memories.”

“Oh, thank you!” she said, grasping my hand in hers.

Even though she had lost her memories, she was still a dragon, and I could feel her heat traveling through my body. The heat was so strong that if it wasn’t for my ice magic, she would’ve burned my hands.

“My savior!” she exclaimed brightly.

“I’m not your savior,” I grumbled under my breath. I’m a wolf hybreed that you’ll kill in the future, a mere mongrel. I had to hold back my tears as I hid Sion behind my back again.

Mom, you said good things come to those who do good deeds. But instead of good things, the female lead who’s going to kill me has come...