Suna

“W-What are you talking about?” I stammered nervously.

Clairmont stared at me for a good ten seconds before he continued, “Don’t try to bluff your way out. From all the dragons that I have encountered so far, you are the only one who spoke things about ‘planning the future’ and ‘what ifs’ while acting so anxious. Only mortal beings with short lifespans such as humans would act like that.”

I gaped my lips a bit, trying to arrange words to retaliate. But what he said has some truth in it. We humans do tend to plan ahead for future. That was even our specialty, and even ability. And now Clairmont said that is something only humans did?

“Besides, you’ve talked about the possibility of you being a human too so that would count in as one of the pieces of evidence.”

“Urk?!” My stammering didn’t help much. I guess I’m pretty bad at whipping up a lie, given my straightforward nature.

Despite sounding so keen on wanting to reveal my true identity, when I told him that I was a human being, like a real real one, his reaction was pretty lukewarm.

“I see.” Clairmont leaned back lazily onto the bed.

Eh?

That’s all?

No dramatic hatred nor hidden revenge?

“…That’s all?” I fluttered my eyes, feeling a very bit taken aback.

“Well, yeah. What do you expect me to do about you being a human before? It’s your past now, no need to think about it. Just think about the present.” Clairmont paused. “But we really need to fix your behaviour of acting like a human.”

Eh? Fix my behaviour?

“Why?” I don’t think I have anything to fix, though?

Clairmont heaved a quick sigh. “Arrogance. I need you to be a little more arrogant.”

I unconsciously scoffed. He would be labelled as a bastard if he told me those words back in my original world. People sought after humble people, not an arrogant one. He said as if being arrogant was the right thing to do, given his nonchalant tone.

We both stayed silent after that. No response, no bickering, nothing. I pursed my lips to prevent myself from talking any further to avoid saying anything unnecessary. Though, I do feel like slapping him on the face for telling me to act like him.

I do remember Clairmont from the novel. In fact, because he appeared on the latter part of the novel, and because I have a strong short-term memory, I remembered almost all of his traits. And what do you know, being arrogant is one of his strong points.

Throughout the course of reading the novel, ‘The Evil Villainess is My Lover’, I was wondering why Clairmont keep up with his arrogant behaviour. Maybe it was just the author trying to depict that Clairmont is a mighty being, so being arrogant is a must. Now that I think about it, a lot of magical beasts in novels with similar characteristics like Clairmont; long-lived, powerful, wise, seemed to be particularly arrogant if not too much. As if being proud comes along with their prowess.

What’s good about being proud, anyway?

“You seem to have a lot to say to me.” Clairmont spoke, breaking my train of thoughts. I gave him a side-glance before slowly turning my head to him.

“I… Don’t think I have anything to say to you.” Even though I have.

Clairmont heaved a sigh. He then crossed his arms beneath his head and gazed at the ceiling. For some time, no words came out of his mouth before he said, “This world consists of a lot of Mana. And we dragons, are a being made solely by Mana, after it concentrated for several thousands of years and in the end materialized. That’s why, most dragons wake up being surrounded by high quality Mana stone, which was actually the remnant of their materialization.”

I blinked my eyes. Those words sounded similar to what’s written inside the novel, during a chapter when Clairmont had a secret meeting with Minerva at some point of the novel. He told her about the beginning of dragons like what he was doing to me.

“That’s why… Dragons are revered as a noble being, you see.” Clairmont shifted his position to lay on his side to face me. “We are looked upon highly by people who are curious of us, and know that our powers are something that they will never be able to achieve. What do you think will happen if they found a dragon who acted timid like you?”

I pondered a bit. Though, in truth, my mind was pretty blank at that time.

“…They will find you to be friendly?” I guessed.

Clairmont snickered before he said, “For a short time, yes. For a long time, they will start relying upon you and your magic power. For a longer time, they will start stepping on you and abuse your power. I’m sure you are well aware of human’s greed. They are fascinatingly short-lived being, yet their greed’s worth surpassed a thousand years. They won’t let us go when we start to warm up to them.”

His statement made me think. In a sense, what Clairmont said has some truth in it. I am a dragon now even though I was a human before, and I can’t use human logic to live in this world as a dragon. But still, being arrogant huh?

Clairmont might act arrogant now, but he would change when he starts falling in love with Minerva, and even let himself being used. It’s a pity, but I can’t even tell him about the future, or even the fact that he is one of the characters inside a novel, which is actually quite frustrating to be honest. But wait…

Oh…

I think I understand it now.

So that’s what it is… I think I finally got the gist of what Clairmont means.

“So are you telling me to act arrogant so we could protect ourselves from the people who tried to use us. It’s like that, right?” No wonder Clairmont is always arrogant throughout the course of the novel. For some reason, I felt moved by his nobility of acting as such for the sake of people. He is actually a kind person!

“What are you talking about? Of course not.” Clairmont heaved a thin, exasperated sigh.

Eh?

I raised my eyebrows. The little amount of admiration I had for Clairmont earlier now vanished into thin air.

“Why do we have act arrogant as a means to protect the others? I couldn’t care less about what others think. We can just destroy them if they even as much try to step on us, you know? In just a flick, and whoosh, they’re gone.”

Wow. What a snob.

I couldn’t sustain the corner of my lips from twitching.

Clairmont then added, “We are dragons, we can act in any way we want, so it’s just right that we can act this much.” He ended his speech with a relaxed tone, albeit too relaxed, before crossing his legs on one another.

I stared at him with a narrowing gaze.

Well, that’s Clairmont for you. An always, forever will be arrogant, dragon.

I grumbled. I’m kinda annoyed that what he said has some truth in it that I can’t deny, but still, I’ll be the version of a person that I wanted to be on my own, without imprinting people’s persona. I might take some of Clairmont’s advice into account though.

“Alright, I get it. I need to act PROUD so I won’t get used, right?” I stood up and took off my cape.

“That’s not what I meant- whoa.” Clairmont mumbling stopped when he saw me took off my clothes.

“What are you doing?” He asked, as if he couldn’t see the obvious.

“What are you talking about? I’m taking off my cape, of course. It’s autumn outside but this room is well equipped with heater, so I’m feeling a bit hot and stuffy.” I placed the cape that I took off onto the hand rest of the sofa nearby.

“O-Oh…” Clairmont answered, sounding flustered.

His reaction gained a frown from me. Like, what’s his problem? Never seen a person take off their cape before? I’m sure I won’t get any answer even if I ask, and I don’t want to risk hearing him said something mean about how I am a potato or some sort, so I slumped on the sofa before I said, “When do you think the King would grant us audience?”

Clairmont’s tone sounded pretty normal as he replied. “I don’t know. If he isn’t so busy attending to his people and let fascination overwhelm him, then we’ll meet him very soon.”

I nodded in response. Well, I did arrive in Rustaval a few days prior to the ruination scene, and truth to be told, I couldn’t really see any signs of war coming to this peaceful country. It was as if the scene depicted inside the novel upon this place seemed impossible to happen.

Did I miss something?

Before I even start to ponder, one of the pockets of my cape started to glow brightly. Both me and Clairmont—who noticed that—sat up and exchanged a glance between each other. After that, I silently walked up to my cape and fumbled the inside of the pocket.

“…It seems we’ll be getting a faster response than I expected.” I showed Clairmont a dark blue ball the size of a golf ball, which is used as a communication device handed by the adventurer’s guild to us, that is currently glowing.

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