Chapter 1: Newlywed Life
Some time had passed since Ruri and Jade’s wedding. After the ceremony, they’d taken a honeymoon trip to the Nation of the Spirit King to meet the Spirit of Trees. Despite the altercation she’d had with Lapis, the Nation of the Spirit King’s Beloved, Ruri had enjoyed her honeymoon speaking with the Spirit of Trees and walking around the nation’s royal capital.
Ever since she’d returned, Ruri had been living the newlywed life with Jade—an experience so sugary sweet that it made her want to shout it from the rooftops. But there were also the ubiquitous third wheels interrupting at every turn.
“Oh, Ruuuriii!”
Ruri heard the familiar elderly voice and rolled her eyes from atop Jade’s lap, where she lay in cat form. She was dreading yet another day of this.
“Here we go again...”
Jade stroked Ruri’s head as he sighed wearily.
“You’re being far too loud, Agate.”
Agate and the other elder vassals had arrived to visit the happy couple.
“How are you feeling, Ruri? About ready to have children?”
Agate’s question was practically a daily routine at this point, and Ruri’s patience was running extremely thin.
“Oh. My. God. I keep telling you each and every day you ask, but there’s no way I’ll be ‘ready’ the day after you pose the same darn question!”
Ruri’s fur stood on end. It was clear how much Agate and the other elders had their hearts set on a royal baby, but they were being extremely insensitive.
The elders slumped in disappointment.
“Oh, bother. Still?”
“Don’t you think you’ve been taking a little too much time?”
“Your Majesty, might I suggest that you dedicate more private time between you two?”
Ruri’s face flushed, instantly running hot. This had gone past insensitivity and straight into sexual harassment.
“You are all well aware of how busy I’ve been with work. I won’t be able to have any personal time with Ruri, so we can’t tend to the deed right away,” Jade replied nonchalantly.
“Jade-sama!”
Ruri trembled in shame, wondering if Jade was out of his mind to respond like that.
“Hm? What?” asked Jade.
His voice had turned almost syrupy, and the sudden sweetness eliminated any objections she had.
“Urk, never mind...”
“Oh? Okay.”
As Jade petted her fluffy head, she simply buried her face and waited for Agate and the other elders to leave.
“In that case, we’ve no choice but to bump up the time you two can spend with one another,” said one elder.
“Maybe we should get more people to help with the king’s work?” said another.
“Let’s hash out a plan, everyone!”
“Excellent!”
And just like that, the group came and went like a tornado. Ruri heaved a deep sigh and wondered how Agate and his posse could still be so very active at their age.
After a while, Jade put down his pen. Ruri suspected that he was taking a break and lifted her head, but Jade suddenly took off her bracelet and placed it atop his desk. Ruri reverted back to human form in the blink of an eye. Jade cradled her body and planted a light kiss on her lips. He stared lovingly at her as her cheeks flushed.
Jade always treated her carefully. It was almost like being wrapped in cotton. She occasionally had to deal with his dragonkin possessiveness, but she spent each day treasuring his love and the serene happiness it brought.
Jade wrapped his large hands around her cheeks and brought his lips to hers over and over, delivering kisses that were far deeper than the light pecks he’d started off with. It wasn’t long before Ruri had her fill, but Jade showed no signs of stopping.
Jade would kiss Ruri like this at even the slightest repose. As he dealt with his kingly duties, he would keep Ruri by his side as much as possible. Then, once he decided he could break from his work, he would persistently kiss her for what seemed like forever.
Although Ruri was anxious that someone would suddenly come into the office, she didn’t dislike Jade’s advances. She usually let him have his way, despite her embarrassment. However, Jade was getting incessant, and he wouldn’t let go once he’d started.
Ruri was nearing her limits. She put some power into her arms and wrenched herself away from Jade. She happened to see his disappointed face, but she couldn’t let herself fall for it.
“I can’t handle any more,” Ruri said, pulling her face away as if it was her only recourse. She was panting heavily.
Jade, on the other hand, wasn’t letting go, and she couldn’t escape from his arms. She didn’t really mind since she wasn’t intending to escape anyway, but Jade’s frequent physical intimacy drove her to twisting and shouting on occasion.
Ruri used to blush just from sitting on Jade’s lap in human form, but Jade had smothered her with so much close contact that she didn’t have the leeway to care every time it happened. Nevertheless, even though Ruri was more used to things now, she was still a beginner, and the constant, heavy touching was still too much for her to endure. She’d had no idea that Jade was such a compulsive kisser until she’d married him. Perhaps this was just how newlyweds were supposed to act, but Ruri couldn’t keep up with Jade’s pace.
“Um, Jade-sama, would you mind toning it down a little bit?” Ruri timidly suggested, fearing that she wouldn’t be able to hold up if this went on. But Jade’s icy stare made her quickly correct herself, and she added, “I-I mean, I’m not saying that I don’t like it, but just a little!”
“If it doesn’t bother you, then there should be no problem,” Jade nonchalantly replied.
Ruri gave herself a mental pep talk, telling herself not to give in, and then tried to plead her case.
“No, I mean, I know what I said, but I won’t be able to hold up if we do this every single day. Physically or mentally!”
Ruri was mainly concerned about the stress on her heart. She’d heard that a dragonkin’s love for their mate was strong, but this was beyond her expectations. It was so bad as of late that he would get grumpy whenever she wasn’t in eyeshot.
Ruri, being a human, had initially thought that it would settle down after a while, but she had severely underestimated dragonkin. The more days that passed, the worse Jade’s possessiveness became. Ruri didn’t necessarily feel inconvenienced since she’d originally been in cat form most of the time around Jade, but she did wish that he would keep in mind that she was a human and take it a little easier on her.
“But this is also for your sake too, Ruri.”
“How?!” Ruri asked, not understanding what part of kissing was for her benefit.
“What, no one told you?”
“Told me what?” Ruri’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t expected there to be an actual reason.
“I thought that Agate or one of the others would have told you when they explained the marriage ceremony, but I venture they didn’t tell you anything?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, so no?”
“You were told that a dragonkin male can only have a child with the mate he gave his dragonheart to, right?”
“That I was.”
Before the wedding, Agate had given Ruri a general rundown of the dragonkin marriage ceremony. Mates would swallow the dragonheart, thus making a contract to be spouses. If the marriage was between two dragonkin, both would exchange dragonhearts and swallow them, but other races could become a dragonkin spouse just fine by swallowing their mate’s dragonheart. If the woman was a dragonkin and the man was of a different race, the man could hope for a child by swallowing her dragonheart. But if the man was the dragonkin, the woman had to swallow the dragonheart or she wouldn’t be able to conceive. It was apparently necessary in order to raise as strong a dragonkin as possible within the mother’s womb.
“Things don’t simply end when you give your dragonheart to your mate,” Jade explained. “Since the dragonheart is a foreign object, the dragonkin must send mana into the dragonheart and tune it in order to make sure it acclimates to the mate’s body.”
“Tune it?”
“Haven’t you felt anything unusual when we kiss?”
“No, my mind is always so overloaded that I can’t think of anything else,” Ruri said, her expression serious.
Jade chuckled. “If that’s the case, then try to sense my mana a little more,” he said, bringing his face to hers and giving her a light peck.
Ruri focused her attention on their lips and felt something slightly warm and magical flowing into her from Jade. It was a comforting power that she recognized.
“I’m sure you felt something enter your body now, correct?” asked Jade.
“Yes, I did.”
“That was my mana. Given how you’ve been acting, it seems you hadn’t noticed that I’ve been streaming mana into you.”
“Not in the slightest...” Ruri replied, chalking it up to her discomposure when they kissed.
“Unless I prepare and tune the dragonheart to your body by pouring mana into you, then you won’t be able to have children.”
“If that’s the case, then why do Agate-san and the others keep coming to ask me every day? They should know that I can’t have a child if I’m not ready yet.”
“Agate’s group isn’t so much asking if you’re personally ready for children, but more so if you are properly tuned. Also, once I tune it to you, it will make your body stronger—not as strong as a dragonkin, but strong enough. It will prevent slight injuries or illness. Humans are a weak and frail race that soon dies from illness or injury. That is why Agate’s group is so worried about you and asks whether you’re in tune every day.”
Ruri was shocked to hear that those incessantly annoying questions were out of concern for her. She felt bad that she’d assumed they were being a gang of harassing old codgers.
“So how long does it take to get in sync?” Ruri asked.
“Dragonkin usually take a honeymoon vacation after the wedding where they eat and sleep with their mate for a month,” Jade replied.
“Grk! That long?” Ruri exclaimed, her face tensing into a grimace. Just hearing those words made her almost pass out.
“No, that is just between two dragonkin. It will take time for the dragonheart to adjust to a human like you—even more time.”
“Whaaa?!”
“Also, it will probably take longer than that since I have my kingly duties to attend to. Though, considering that Agate’s group is preparing something to alleviate that, I assume I’ll be able to spend more time giving you my mana.”
That essentially meant that a hailstorm of kisses—even more ferocious than now—would be sweeping over Ruri.
“Unghh...” Ruri groaned. She could no longer oppose it after hearing that there was a reason for this all. Still, she was relieved that things were over for today.
“By the way, you seem to have perked up considerably,” Jade said with a daunting and amorous grin.
Noticing the look on his face, Ruri let out a voiceless cry and plotted her escape. But Jade quickly took her into his embrace, thwarting her attempts. She timidly looked up at him, and Jade gave her a beaming smile.
“The quicker we tune you up, the quicker you’ll shut up Agate’s group, you know?” Jade proclaimed, slowly drawing his face to Ruri’s.
With no choice but to concede, Ruri closed her eyes. She endured yet another draining affair until Claus arrived at the office.
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