Show Me Your Stats!-Chapter 158

Is this really a secret romance? At this rate, it's like just covering our eyes and pretending. Even among the estate's residents we encountered, there was one who recognized Janus's face and, guessing who was next to him, literally froze in place.

Ayra pressed her robe tightly to prevent even a single hair from escaping when suddenly, she saw a familiar face. It was the high priest Aterra te Act, striding somewhere with several priests. Despite today being a pleasant day, she swiftly hid her presence to avoid unnecessary disturbances, but still noticed Act's face looked unusually pale and drawn.

'Is he not well?'

Or is something troubling him? Curiosity flared briefly before Act disappeared into the temple, and Ayra, not particularly fond of him, quickly retracted her fleeting interest. Janus was sweeping through the market with unabated enthusiasm.

"Just a moment, Janus..."

She barely uttered his name to suggest a break when a yawn burst forth. His energetic pacing was more exhausting than she anticipated, compounded by reduced sleep from preparing for the festival and installing ice sculptures all night at the lord's castle, draining her magic power as well.

"Why, tired?"

"Uh, I need to sit down."

At Ayra's gesture, part of the ground rose to form a bench. Sitting down with a thud, Janus joined her, chewing on some freeze-dried vegetables she didn’t know he had bought, and without much liking for vegetables, he promptly passed them to her. Ayra crunched on them for a moment before tossing them into her subspace.

"But are you really thinking about a secret romance?"

"We're not exactly proclaiming our love everywhere, so... this is still a secret romance, right?"

Janus replied with a face spoiled by the vegetables. Was this what a dragon considered a secret romance? Despite being able to use mind-reading magic, Ayra was perpetually baffled by Janus's thought processes. As she tilted her head, Janus's attention was already snatched away by something else.

"Huh? That's something new."

Lured by exotic food at a street vendor, Ayra handed him a handful of magic stone shards while she gazed blankly at the snowy sky. Dating was fine, but it was incredibly tiring and sleepy. Her eyelids fluttered slowly. She felt she could sleep soundly upon returning to the castle until the next morning.

'A dragon's secret romance, huh...'

As she pondered blankly, a sudden thought flashed through Ayra's mind.

'Could it be that the subject of a secret romance isn’t supposed to be a human?'

Why would a dragon need to be discreet in human company? As a mage, her brain spun 135% faster when it came to dragons and magical beasts. Considering the opinion of his own kind would make more sense. With that thought, the theory of a second dragon’s existence in the vicinity resurfaced in her mind. Her muddy, fatigued brain briefly cleared.

'It's certain. There's another dragon near Solar. Could it have fought with another dragon the night of the earthquake in Bolni? Maybe it was driven out of Solar after losing. And if it was a dragon that lost to Janus and took its anger out on Bolni...'

Ayra recalled Janus's response when she had asked about the earthquake in Bolni.

'Well, I was partly to blame.'

Looking back, his answer was ambiguously non-committal, neither confirming nor denying.

'If it was the revenge of a dragon defeated by Janus, then surely it can't be said to have no moral responsibility for the Bolni earthquake.'

Of course, even if that was true, it was the fault of that dragon, not Janus’s...

Assuming the existence of another dragon, it made sense that the doomsday count was still ongoing in her territory even with Janus now as Ayra's powerful ally. Suddenly, an unsettling feeling she had previously dismissed returned.

'But the earthquake... I keep feeling like I'm missing something about it.'

Ayra chewed over the keywords: dragon, Janus, earthquake. There was definitely something nagging and unsettling, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. And briefly forgotten, her fatigue returned, clouding her once more clear mind.

Setting aside the uneasy feeling, Ayra tried to open the map window to check for any nearby dragons, but instead of the map, a system window popped up with an error sound.

[You don't have enough MP to open the map window! :( ]

"Ah..."

Right. She had drained her MP creating those damn ice sculptures for the festival. Not to mention, frequently opening the map window to monitor Sobletz had also consumed a significant amount of MP. Looking at the back of her hand, she saw that her MP, her lifeline, was also in a bad state.

"Ah, let's just sleep on it, sleep on it."

While Ayra was merely yawning repeatedly, Janus returned, casually carrying some food. Seeing the dragon enjoying the festival more than herself, Ayra smiled. But Janus stopped short, then smiled back at her.

"Why? What did you buy that's got you in such a good mood?"

Despite her exhaustion, she felt intoxicated with the value of the wine. Was this the joy of dating? Though she had dated in mazes before, honestly, it wasn’t much fun. Dates with dragons had a much sweeter, more romantic atmosphere than with crazed magicians.

Looking closely at what he had bought, there wasn't much except for a few grilled lizards. Janus paused for a moment, staring blankly at Ayra before flopping down next to her. He seemed to be pondering something, rolling his eyes around before rolling something in his mouth. Without realizing it, a yawn burst from Ayra's mouth.

"Yawn, can I go back now? I'm so tired from working ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ all night."

"Mm, just eat this and then go."

Janus mumbled something while munching. She decided to open her mouth to take a bite, not knowing exactly what it was. However, what entered her mouth was not food but the now-familiar tongue of another species. And it wasn’t just the tongue that entered.

"...?!"

An unknown hard lump was pushed in along with Janus's cleverly stimulating tongue, causing her to swallow it inadvertently. She choked slightly too late; whatever had passed down her throat wasn't coming back up. After coughing awkwardly a few times, Ayra furrowed her brow and asked.

"What exactly did you feed me?"

"Something nutritious?"

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

Janus replied with a satisfied face as he crammed the grilled lizard into his mouth. Feeling extremely uneasy, Ayra continuously rubbed her throat. Lately, Janus had been trying to feed her various tonics, and she wondered if this was also some distasteful ingredient he had deliberately concealed. Already suspicious, soon the favorability window appeared.

[Janus Rehzedet's favorability has increased by 5.]

Current favorability: 77

What did he feed me that increased his favorability...?

"You said you were tired, right? Come on, let's go and get a good sleep."

Feeling queasy, Ayra stood up with a deeply furrowed face. Even though she pressed him about what he had fed her, Janus consistently responded that it was good for her.

'Well, surely he wouldn't feed me something harmful if he considers me his mate.'

Eventually, the very tired Ayra gave up probing further. Besides, if it had been truly dangerous, the pebble would have sent a warning first. At most, it had been some bizarre delicacy. Now, all she wanted was to quickly go to bed.

But whether it was just a feeling, her stomach started to feel increasingly warm. It hadn't seemed particularly spicy when she swallowed it, but it felt like she had drunk a potent liquor as the heat inside her grew. She tried to ignore it, but by the time she reached the lord's castle, she could no longer disregard it. It felt like her blood was hotter than usual. Clutching her chest and gasping for breath, Ayra abruptly stopped walking.

"Janus, what exactly..."

She was about to ask what he had fed her when suddenly her vision spun and she felt dizzy. Janus, as if expecting this, caught her without surprise. The heat that had been warming her stomach and veins now surged up her throat, replacing words with ragged, hot breaths. Pulling her tightly to him, Janus said,

"Don't make such a fuss. It's troublesome. I know you like doing it outdoors, but it's too cold today."

"Ugh..."

She was so flabbergasted that she wanted to scold him, but her legs had lost all strength. As if he had anticipated this too, Janus scooped her up, her head lolling weakly. Her mind grew fainter, her body felt like it was submerged in lava, and everything spun around her. Janus hummed an offbeat tune as he strode forward. Ayra clenched her teeth.

'Aphrodisiac? An aphrodisiac? Did this perverted dragon really feed me some illegal drug without telling me its ingredients?'

She was barely hanging on by the thread of her anger when a familiar voice called out.

"Lady?!"

Gretel, busy with festival duties, spotted Ayra who clearly looked unwell. The chief administrator dropped something he was carrying and hurried over.

"Oh, oh, my lady...!"

"Your ladyship seems to have collapsed from overwork."

"What?! Then we must call a doctor immediately...!"

Collapsed from overwork, my foot! You fed me something! As Ayra overheard the conversation and bristled, she gathered her remaining strength to grab Janus by the collar. Just as

she was barely holding on, her magic power drained away, and a frantic system window from the pebble appeared.

[Emergency Warning! From Sobletz......]

What? What's going on in Sobletz? What's happening? Why now of all times...!

Ayra struggled to keep her drooping eyelids open to check the system window. But already drained from the quest achievements with the silk spiders, the festival, and the market, her exhausted body couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

As her body reached its limit and her magic power was depleted, the murmuring of people fading away and Janus's warm body temperature were the last things Ayra felt before her consciousness slipped away.