Chapter 7

– Chapter 7 –

“Ah… It hurts, it hurts.”

Lizen grabbed the bedsheet and muttered, but he didn’t stop. His lips lingered at her neck for a long time, enough for multiple red hickeys to form as his hands gently stroked her breasts. Two large hands gradually descended and wrapped around her waist. His lips travelled further down and kissed her breastbone reverently. Lizen’s fingers entwined into his hair when he lowered the skirt of her school uniform. She could feel his warm and firm skin against her as he reached to take off her top. Loving the feeling of skin-to-skin contact, tears welled up in her eyes. Her stomach tickled at the new sensation of sharing warmth with someone so naked. 

“A-Ah…”

His lips held onto her nipples and wrapped them with his tongue for a while before sucking on them gently. Her waist rose slightly and the skirt of her school uniform fell to her knees as one of his hands gently came between her thighs.

‘It’s a dream, it’s just a dream…’

Lizen thought amid the chaos.

‘I always only lived rationally… In my dreams, I can just let myself go…’ 

His fingers drew a small circle near her thigh. She felt her panties getting wet.

“It feels… It feels…”

Lizen muttered.

“It feels?”

Kaiden asked whilst he nibbled on her nipples. When his lips moved, she felt a whole new sensation of tickles.

“…This feels strange.”

He jumped up and planted a kiss on her eyelids. His fingers moved slowly along her womanhood.

“Ah!” 

It was the first time in her life that she felt these feelings as her toes instinctively curled.

“K-Kaiden…”

His eyes turned blurry.

“Lizen Hakart… I want you.” 

Her waist twitched slightly upon feeling his hand caressing her tiny bump. She felt a tingling sensation running down her spine. She couldn’t stand it and hugged his head tightly.

“Kaiden Ruth… You…”

[Riiiiiiing! Wake up! Wake up!]

Lizen’s eyes opened wide as she looked around at her surroundings. Upon seeing the messy state of the room and the books scattered randomly on the floor, it was clear to her that she was in her room. She pressed the alarm clock and touched her lips with one hand as she recalled the vivid feeling on her lips. She quickly checked her right neck with a mirror, but it was white and smooth, like a lie.

“Because it was a dream… Right, because it was a dream.” 

As she composed herself, she lay face down, slamming her face against her pillow. There was nothing more to doubt. She was now entering Kaiden’s dreams every night. And things naturally happen when you spend time alone with a vigorous man in his dreams.

“Why… Why doesn’t it end after a day? What is this, Aunt… What’s going on?!”

Lizen was barely awake when she suddenly jumped at the sudden recollection. Without even putting on her slippers, she hurriedly ran up to the attic. She was in such a hurry as she climbed up the stairs that she lost her balance and sprained her ankle. 

“That time… I’m sure at that time…”

She opened Ruella’s notes again in the attic.

“100g of Butterfly Sleeping Flower, 200g of Tilda root, a handful of Nagda’s mud, 50g of Rata’s fingernails, and a strand of the contractor’s hair…” 

Lizen’s frantic hands headed for the table with random ingredients laid out all over the place. Since she had always been hopeless when it came to organising, she stayed at the same table where she got the ingredients when making the first reagent. Her heart sank as she checked the ingredients one by one. 

“Ni-Nigda’s mud?”

‘Nigda’s mud’ was coldly attached to the material that Lizen added, thinking it was Nagda’s mud. The name tag was so old and dirty. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be ‘Nigda’ and not ‘Nagda’. The name tag was dirty with dried soil, in addition to Ruella’s atrocious handwriting. If not read clearly, it could be mistaken as ‘Nagda’. No wonder! She knew Nagda’s mud was an extremely rare ingredient!

“W-What do I do…”

As an outstanding herbalist, she knew. If one ingredient is wrong or the amount added is wrong, different symptoms or various side effects could appear. Now that she had put Nigda’s mud instead of Nagda’s mud, the one-time limit of the reagent seemed to have disappeared.

“No… What do I do…”

With her head in her palms, Lizen sank onto the attic floor. She couldn’t even guess how to make an antidote for the reagent. But at the same time, it’s not like she could enter Kaiden’s dreams every night for the rest of her life. Her face quickly turned blue.

“Aunt, I… What do I do…”

Lizen remembered what Ruella told her while showing her various herbs before she went crazy.

“Lizen, for every reagent, you must create an antidote. Herbology is an artificial study, so the process is only complete when the user returns to their natural state. If it’s an elixir, I can almost make it exactly as I envision it. However, we can’t commercialise it because I couldn’t make an antidote. Therefore, making antidotes is as difficult as making reagents.”

There was a reason why these daring notes only remained as notes. Ruella had an abundant amount of ideas but couldn’t create an antidote. So these must’ve been notes of reagents without antidotes.

How can she make an antidote for a reagent that she concocted inaccurately? Lizen’s hands grasped her head as she felt an overwhelming feeling of despair.

It was only one day that Lizen came to the fitness centre in the evening. As Kaiden hit the punching bag, he found himself secretly waiting for her. He had definitely heard her murmur that it was good to work out in the evening, but she never came since then. He worked out until he ran out of energy and collapsed against the wall. He’d dreamt of Lizen for three consecutive days.

Kaiden often dreamed of his childhood. The dream he had the most is when he came to the capital city, Ameniti, after saying goodbye to his parents’ tombstones. He dreamt of it the day before yesterday, but strangely, Lizen appeared. It was a dream, so he recognised the 17-year-old Lizen who sincerely comforted and patted him. 

No one comforted 17-year-old Kaiden. The Ruth territory lost its owner in a flash, and Kaiden’s brother took over the territory at the age of nineteen. Those were hectic days for everyone. No one had the spirits to comfort the 17-year-old boy who was still standing with a head full of thoughts. But Lizen appeared in his dream and hugged him. The comfort was somewhat overwhelming, so he kissed her forehead deeply.

It was strange. Last night, she appeared again. He wondered if he was just frustrated with desire. He naturally dreamt of hugging a woman from time to time to time. But, there was never an instance where such a specific person kept appearing vividly. Lizen, who he assumed was an outgoing and cheerful kid, was almost silent in his dream last night.

Once Kaiden started to become conscious of it, he kept seeing Lizen. She was bright and cheerful, but she didn’t have many friends. She focused hard on all her classes and would study late into the night at the library. She was even a girl who pursued unrequited love. He washed up in the shower room, left the fitness centre a little early and headed to the library. It was already late into the night, yet among the few students in the library, he saw a wavy brown-haired girl.

“K-Kaiden?”

As Kaiden chose a random seat, a girl approached cautiously.

“What brings him to the library?”

Kaiden frowned at her whisper. He usually never came to the library. That’s because he got good grades just by listening in class. Behind the girl who was curious about his sudden appearance, another girl also poked her head out.

“…Just because.”

He gave a short reply and took out a book. Female students started to giggle as they slowly backed away. He was always popular with the girls in school because he studied well and was unmatched at martial arts. But he hadn’t paid any attention to a woman in five years. Because he couldn’t afford to pay attention to such things. However, because she appeared in his dreams for three consecutive days, she was the new target of his attention.

Her wavy brown hair brushed across her back as she stretched her arms. Watching the sleeves of her white school uniform blouse, Kaiden’s hand swiftly covered his face. There were piles of books next to her. They were all books regarding herbology.

‘Those are books not in the scope of the exam though…’

Those were in-depth books that covered topics well beyond the scope of the exam. Lizen’s aunt was such an excellent researcher at the Bureau of Herbology. Lizen also showed excellence in Herbology, perhaps because she’s from the same family. Of course, Kaiden’s weakest subject was Herbology because there were just so many things to memorise.

Not knowing that Kaiden was at the library, she diligently looked through the Herbology books that she brought from the library but couldn’t find a single phrase mentioning reagents that linked dreams. This was the library of the Royal College of Magic which has the widest selection of books, leaving her with no need to visit other libraries. She delayed her preparation for the general exam and searched for books all day but to no avail. As she heard the announcement of the library’s closure, she slowly stood up. 

“What on earth- Why are there so many people?” 

She rubbed her eyes and looked around. Usually, there were only about ten people left at this time, but today there were more than thirty. Not to mention, almost all of them were women. Her indifferent eyes fell upon the unbelievable. It was Kaiden.