Chapter 3: The Path to Forgiveness
Because of his lie about mana tuning, Jade was under a cuddle ban. He had tried to plead with Ruri for forgiveness, looking sad and sympathetic, but his attempt was met with silence. Dark clouds had gathered between them in the midst of their lovey-dovey newlywed period.
“Ruri...” Jade murmured.
Ruri would normally lay in cat form on Jade’s lap, but she was currently sitting far away from him, enjoying a friendly cup of tea with Kotaro, Rin, and the other spirits—as if she were taunting him. Jade’s sorrowful cry was promptly ignored.
Meanwhile, Quartz would talk to the ring whenever he had a free moment, but the occupant was still too angry to reply to him. Seraphie had been a dragonkin mate for much longer than Ruri, so she probably felt even more betrayed. Ruri wasn’t going to step in and mediate either, considering she was also upset she’d been fed the same exact lie.
Ruri was stunned that Jade had taken advantage of her ignorance to make her believe his self-serving lies. She had trusted him from the bottom of her heart, and the rage she felt was immense.
Several days had passed, and Jade had reached his limit. His cuddle deficiency was flaring up.
“Ruri, I can’t take it anymore! I need my fix!”
“Oh, I see. And?” Ruri replied in an icy tone, not even giving him a passing look.
Jade dropped to his knees and took Ruri’s hand. “It was all my fault. I just knew that you were bashful, so I gave in to an urge against my better judgment—that if I told you that, you would accept it. I swear to you that I will never tell such a lie ever again. So, please... Please, turn into a cat for me!”
Ruri was stunned that Jade was so starved for something soft in just a few days’ time. He was pleading his case with such sincere passion in his eyes that it was quite the pathetic sight. Jade’s appearance was of the highest caliber, yet despite his good looks, he was a somewhat unfortunate man. This was the ruler of the Nation of the Dragon King. If any of his subjects were to see him in this state, they might be a tad apprehensive about the nation’s future. That said, Jade did appear to be wholeheartedly sorry for his actions, so Ruri decided it was time to bury the hatchet.
Ruri heaved a sigh before facing Jade and saying, “If you ever tell me a stupid lie like that again, I’m divorcing you on the spot.”
“Huh? Divorce?” Jade repeated as his face muscles twitched.
“Any problems with that?” Ruri asked, shooting a glare at him.
Jade shook his head furiously. “None! Absolutely none!”
“Also, no kissing until the tuning is done.”
“No what?!”
“This is your punishment for lying to me, Jade-sama.”
“But you already had me on a cuddle ban, didn’t you?!”
“That is one thing, and this is another. It’s fine, right, since we can tune my mana without kissing?”
“N-No, but, you see...” Jade stammered, his eyes darting all around.
Ruri smiled sweetly and cooed, “You’ll show me that you can be sincere, right?”
“Right...” Jade agreed. He slumped and mumbled under his breath, “Even though we’re newlyweds...”
Ruri heard his hushed comment, but she ignored it. Looking at her completely disheartened husband, she pulled out her bracelet and put it on, turning into a cat for the first time in a while.
Jade started quivering in excitement.
“You can hold me.”
“Grk. My first cuddle in forever!”
Although she was exasperated at Jade, who was on the verge of tears, Ruri walked up to him. He timidly reached out to her, scooping her soft and fluffy body up into his arms.
“I was in total agony not being able to touch you, Ruri...”
“Then let this serve as a lesson to never deceive me again.”
“If this is what I have to go through, then I never will again.”
Ruri secretly considered using this punishment again in the future should the need arise.
While Ruri and Jade’s reconciliation transpired, things on Seraphie and Quartz’s end were also progressing. Feeling pity for Quartz, who was starting to look haggard from the stress, the Spirit of Light intervened, convincing Seraphie to reluctantly leave the ring. Seraphie still gave him a very stern lecture after she reappeared, but Quartz was so overjoyed to see her that it was doubtful whether he actually heard a word she said.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Now that Ruri had forgiven him, Jade sat with her in cat form on his lap, looking over paperwork.
Ruri and Seraphie’s punishment had unexpectedly affected more than just the Dragon King and his predecessor. The mental drain of being apart from their loved ones had reduced the nation’s dynamic duo into useless messes, hampering their work. Thanks to this, Jade’s desk was piled high with paperwork.
Claus had scolded Ruri and pleaded with her to report to him in advance the next time she did something like that. Ruri had no idea that Jade would get so down that it would impede his kingly duties, so she sincerely apologized—not to Jade, of course, but to Claus and the other aides whom she’d inconvenienced as a result.
The situation had been the most stressful for the chancellor of the kingdom, Euclase. They were still griping about the whole ordeal even now, right in front of her.
“I swear. Being newlyweds is fine. Having fights is also fine. However, I would much appreciate it if you didn’t bring that trouble our way. Thanks to your antics, I haven’t been getting nearly enough sleep, and it’s been chapping my skin.”
“I apologize,” Ruri replied, bending to Euclase’s pressure. “Y-You still look beautiful, Euclase-san.”
Ruri was trying to flatter Euclase a bit in order to raise their mood, but Euclase glared at her for some reason and said, “Well, of course I am. Just how much money and effort do you think I put into my beauty regimen? In fact, you ought to pay closer attention to your own cosmetics. Youth alone will only carry you so far!”
“R-Right!” Ruri answered, her feline tail standing straight on end.
“Also, you aren’t even in tune, are you? Why aren’t you done yet? You’ve been together for so long.”
That was actually Jade’s fault. He’d only been giving her mana when they kissed, though holding hands would have sufficed. That was why it was taking so long. It was all Jade’s fault for lying—not Ruri’s at all.
Now, thanks to the kissing ban she’d imposed until the tuning was finished, Jade had been actively touching Ruri’s head and hands to circulate mana into her body. If he had simply done that from the beginning, then the process would have been finished long ago.
It was entirely fair to say that Jade was to blame. Jade seemed to know that himself, because he awkwardly turned away from Ruri and Euclase.
“After you’re tuned up,” Euclase explained, “you’ll age as slowly as a dragonkin, so the sooner the better.”
“Oh wow, is that so?”
Ruri still couldn’t imagine aging as gracefully as dragonkin, who didn’t reach adulthood until they turned one hundred.
“Well, either way, Ruri would have lived a long time because of her mana,” Jade said while patting Ruri’s head.
In this world, the amount of mana you had affected your life span. Even among humans, there was a difference in how they aged after reaching adulthood depending on whether they had mana. Riccia, Ruri’s mother, and Beryl, Ruri’s grandfather, appeared young for their ages due to their mana.
Ruri had known for a while now that dragonkin had a long life span, so she was relieved to learn that she would be able to match Jade’s. It meant that she would have that much more time to be with him. On the other hand, that would also affect the amount of time she would have to live without her parents and grandfather. She decided not to think too deeply about it for the time being.
Now that Euclase’s sermon was over, more work piled up on Jade’s desk, making Jade grimace. Nevertheless, he needed to reap what he sowed. Ruri tried to be invisible and stay out of the way, but suddenly, and without warning, the door flung open. Euclase and Claus raised their eyebrows, wondering who would enter the Dragon King’s office without knocking, but their expressions quickly relaxed once they saw who it was. It was an individual who had no relation to the human world’s rules—the Spirit of Light.
Not daring to call the supreme-level Spirit of Light impudent, Euclase moved to the side and opened a path straight to Jade.
“What can I help you with?” Jade asked politely.
“I’m not here for you. That’s what I’m here for,” the Spirit of Light said, pointing to Ruri. As soon as Ruri cocked her head in confusion, the Spirit of light grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. “Seraphie wants to see her. I’m going to take her there.”
Before Jade could even agree to it, the Spirit of Light left the room with what she’d come for.
The Spirit of Light, a supreme-level spirit in a form so adorable that she could be mistaken for a bisque doll, held Ruri by the neck still as Ruri dangled in the air. There were probably dragonkin who would secretly writhe at the sight of these two in the castle.
“What is it that she needs?” Ruri asked.
“No clue. You’ll have to ask her. She’s apparently been busy making something lately.”
“Ah, maybe it’s that,” Ruri guessed.
The Spirit of Light brought Ruri to Quartz’s quarters. Quartz was out because of work, but Seraphie was in.
“Seraphie-san?”
After the Spirit of Light lowered her to the ground, Ruri trotted over to Seraphie. She saw several bracelets scattered around. They looked very similar to the one she was currently wearing, confirming that her hunch had been correct.
“Tee hee hee hee. I’ve done it, Ruri. They’re done!”
“You really did it?!”
“Yes. This one is a rabbit. This is a squirrel. This is a dog. And I’ve made a bunch more too!”
Seraphie showed her bracelets to Ruri with a look of satisfaction and pride. They were all replicas of Ruri’s cat-transformation bracelet. Although they were of lesser quality and capability than the one made by the first queen of Yadacain, these magic tools were the best that Seraphie could come up with.
In order to make these, Ruri and Seraphie had asked the dragonkin castle workers what animal they’d like to turn into. Their answers culminated in the several bracelets that lay before them.
“How many times can you use these?” Ruri asked.
“Only about three times a piece for now. But with a little more research, I think I can increase the number of uses.”
“Oooh. You’re the best, Seraphie-san!”
“Tee hee hee, keep the praise coming,” Seraphie said with her head held high. “Still, we need to test them before we start selling them.”
“Then let’s go out and look for people to be our test subjects right now!”
Since there were always dragonkin training there, Ruri and Seraphie went to the training grounds in Sector Five.
Ever since the conflict with Yadacain had ended, things had been extremely peaceful—meaning that the dragonkin soldiers were bored and without a battle outlet. Ruri had no problem with things being peaceful, but the combat-crazed dragonkin were finding it unsatisfactory. They put all their frustrations into their training, so the grounds were much more intense than usual.
Ruri, however, was here to deliver some comfort to the ailing soldiers. “Attention, everyone!” she yelled after she’d returned to human form.
The training dragonkin stopped what they were doing. She had gotten pretty used to the blood-drenched soldiers’ appearances. Some of them even stood there with all sorts of weapons sticking out of their body. It would be a personal loss if she were to keep letting it bother her.
The soldiers approached Ruri, curious to see what was going on.
“Whatever is the matter, Lady Beloved?” asked a soldier.
“Okay, everyone,” Ruri called. “Do you remember the survey I took a while back?”
“Yes. When you asked us those weird questions about what animals we’d like to turn into.”
“What did you answer?” Ruri asked the crowd.
“I picked a cat,” replied one soldier.
“I picked a sheep,” replied another.
“Heh heh heh, I picked...” started another soldier until all of them were rambling about the animals they wanted to be.
Ruri pulled out a bracelet and asked, “By the way, who said they wanted to be a rabbit?”
Several of the soldiers raised their hands.
“Okay, those of you who want to actually be a rabbit!” Ruri asked again, double-checking.
The men with their hands raised shot puzzled looks at one another, but then an astute soldier looked at the bracelet Ruri was holding and stepped forward faster than anyone else.
“Here, here! Heeere! Me, please!”
“A great response! Well then, please put on that bracelet,” Ruri instructed.
Most of the soldiers could more or less piece together what was going on.
“Huh? No way. Seriously?”
“Is this for real?”
“That can really turn you into one?”
As questions flew left and right, all eyes were on the soldier holding the bracelet. They all watched with bated breath as he put it on. In the next instant, he transformed into a rabbit.
The crowd cheered loudly.
“Whoaaaa!”
“A rabbit! It’s a rabbit!”
“Hey, let me touch you!”
“Oooh, so soft and fluffy!”
“Pass it to me!”
The soldier that had turned into a rabbit was getting mobbed. He squirmed in panic, but everyone was too excited to notice the rabbit’s cries for help.
Sensing that the rabbit would be crushed to death at this rate, Ruri shouted, “Okay, stoooop! Calm down! Anyone who doesn’t move away from that rabbit right now won’t be allowed to touch me ever again when I turn into a cat!” Granted, Ruri never expected that Jade would allow any other man to touch her now that she was officially his mate, but it was a conditioned reflex.
The crowd cleared away from the rabbit like a receding wave. The rescued rabbit took off the bracelet, and the soldier turned back into his original form.
“I-I thought I was a goner...” the soldier gasped.
Ruri couldn’t blame him for thinking that, considering how a bunch of huge, hulking men had ganged up on him. It was likely that the soldiers had considered the rabbit a strong and sturdy dragonkin, unlike the weak and frail Ruri in cat form, so none of them had held back. He’d almost ended up torn to shreds. Ruri realized that perhaps she had slightly underestimated the dragonkin’s love for soft and cuddly animals.
“By the way, this one has a limited number of uses, unlike mine. So give us your honest feedback. Would you want this if I sold it?”
As soon as she asked, the soldiers rushed over, crying, “Yes! Yes!”
“I’d want one!”
“I’ll pay any amount!”
Ruri looked at Seraphie and they both grinned.
They needed to test it to see if it would activate correctly, so they picked a number of soldiers to be their testers by drawing lots. The losers broke down in tears on the spot, but they recovered once they heard that they could eventually buy the bracelets. The winners kept their prize. Some said they would use it on their wife, and others said they would use it themselves. They all looked more delighted than Ruri had envisioned. This was the moment she knew that these bracelets would sell.
Unfortunately, there was a big issue. This story reached Euclase, who promptly scolded both Ruri and Seraphie.
“Ruri! Have you forgotten that you were assaulted by Raiders who infiltrated the castle using those to turn into animals?! What will you do if you let those spread out into the wild and they’re used for criminal activities?!”
Ruri, who hadn’t given the idea that much consideration, lowered her head. “You’re absolutely right...”
She’d only thought that other people would enjoy it if they could transform. She turned into a cat on a regular basis without giving the process much thought, so she’d completely forgotten about the possibility of it being used for nefarious purposes. One could say she had also been blinded by the prospect of monetary gain.
Euclase, infuriated at both of them, confiscated all the bracelets and banned them from making any more, which left Ruri and Seraphie feeling blue afterward.
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