Yuuta stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

The click of the lock echoed in the empty hallway, final and absolute. He stood there for a moment, his hand still resting on the door handle, his forehead pressed against the cool wood.

What am I doing?

The question drifted through his mind, but he had no answer. Or rather, he had too many answers, all of them painful, all of them leading back to the same place.

She doesn’t love me.

She never did.

I was just fooling myself.

He pushed off from the door.

Walked down the hallway.

Down the stairs.

Out into the evening air.

The neighborhood was alive with the quiet hum of night settling in. Families sat on porches, sharing stories. Children played in fading light. An old man waved at him from across the street.

"Evening, Yuuta! Off to work?"

"Yes, Mr. Lewton." Yuuta managed a small wave. "Have a good night."

"You too, san. You too."

He walked on.

Past the familiar streets.

Past the corner store with its flickering sign.

Past the park where children’s laughter still echoed.

His feet carried him automatically toward MoonBucks the little cafe where he’d worked for years, where the smell of coffee and pastries had become almost like home. It was 7:00 PM. His shift started in thirty minutes. Plenty of time.

Plenty of time to think.

Plenty of time to hurt.

He didn’t notice the bush shaking as he passed.

Didn’t notice the shadow that had been waiting there for over an hour.

Didn’t notice the figure that emerged the moment he was gone and walked straight toward his apartment building.

His mind was elsewhere.

Lost in violet eyes and cold words and the death of a hope he’d never admitted he had.

The shadow climbed the stairs.

Silent.

Determined.

Watching.

It reached Yuuta’s door.

A hand raised.

Knuckles met wood.

Knock.

Knock.

Nothing.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

The door flew open.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!"

Erza stood in the doorway, her violet eyes blazing, her body radiating the kind of fury that made lesser beings flee. She’d been expecting Yuuta. Preparing to unleash all the frustration and confusion and something she didn’t understand onto his pathetic head.

But it wasn’t Yuuta.

It was a girl.

Short maybe five foot six. Dark hair. Amber eyes. A black frock and a bag clutched in her hands like a shield.

A human.

An annoying human.

"You." Erza’s voice dropped to something far more dangerous. "Nasty human."

Fiona didn’t flinch.

Didn’t step back.

Didn’t show fear.

"Is Yuu here?"

The name hit Erza like ice water.

Yuu.

The human who begged her not to kill.

The mortal who couldn’t withstand her presence.

The fool who asked for mercy for this very girl.

Her killing intent already summoned, already reaching for Fiona’s throat froze.

Stopped.

Died.

For the first time in her centuries of existence

The Dragon Queen of the Atlantian Continent was stopped by a human’s request.

She stared at Fiona.

At the girl who wanted her dead.

At the girl who had called her a monster.

At the girl who stood before her now, trembling but determined, asking about him.

"Tch." Erza’s hand dropped. "You’re lucky."

She grabbed the door.

Started to close it.

"I spare your life because that pathetic human asked me to."

The door swung shut.

But before it could latch..

"I know who you are."

Erza’s hand stopped.

The door hung open a crack.

"I know what monster you are." Fiona’s voice was steady now. Stronger. "I know your motive. I know why you’re here."

Erza’s face twisted.

Not in rage.

In something she hadn’t felt in centuries.

Curiosity.

Fear.

How?

She hadn’t told anyone. No one knew why she was really here. Not Yuuta. Not Elena. Not a single soul on this miserable planet.

But this human...

This child...

Claimed to know.

Is she telling the truth? Erza’s mind raced. Or is she making blind statements, hoping to provoke a reaction?

She studied Fiona.

Really studied her.

The way she stood.

The way her hands gripped her bag.

The way her eyes, those amber eyes held Erza’s gaze without flinching.

She knows something.

But what?

And how?

"Speak," Erza commanded. "What do you think you know?"

Fiona met her gaze.

And smiled.

Not a friendly smile.

The smile of someone holding cards they shouldn’t have.

"I know you’re not from this world," she said quietly. "I know you’re here for something more than just him. And I know..." She paused. "I know there are people who come from same goals."

The air between them grew heavy.

The night grew still.

And two women one a queen of dragons, one a human with secrets stood facing each other in the dim light of a cheap apartment hallway.

Erza studied the girl before her with cold, calculating eyes.

A human. Young. Barely more than a child, really. And yet she stood there, in the doorway of an apartment that contained a Dragon Queen, and spoke words she had no business knowing.

Interesting.

Troubling.

Dangerous.

"Let us see," Erza said quietly, "how much you truly know about me, human."

She pulled the door wide.

An invitation.

A challenge.

Fiona stepped inside without hesitation.

No fear showed on her face. No trembling in her limbs. No sudden second thoughts about walking into the lair of a creature who could end her existence with a thought.

Those who saw Erza from a distance always admired her beauty the silver hair, the perfect features, the ethereal presence that seemed to belong in paintings rather than reality. But those who saw her up close... those who stood in her presence and met her eyes... they always felt it.

The weight.

The pressure.

The absolute certainty that they stood before something far beyond human.

Only a select few could withstand that feeling. Those who had no fear of death. Those whose souls were already broken. Those who had looked into the abyss so many times that the abyss had stopped looking back.

Yuuta was different.

He was her mate chosen by fate, bound by that night a year ago. The connection between them gave him an authority he didn’t understand. The fear he felt wasn’t the fear of death. It was simpler. More human.

The fear of a husband disappointing his wife.

But Fiona..

Fiona had no such connection.

And yet she met Erza’s gaze without flinching.

Curious, Erza thought. Very curious.

She closed the door behind them.

The apartment was small. Cramped. Filled with the evidence of ordinary life.

Crayons scattered across the floor greens and blues and reds, spread like fallen leaves around the spot where Elena had been drawing earlier. A half-finished picture lay among them, showing three figures holding hands beneath a bright yellow sun.

The dining table held empty bowls. Curry rice, mostly finished. A glass with a single sip remaining. Signs of a meal shared by people who were learning, slowly, what family meant.

And in the corner of the dining area, curled on the floor despite the perfectly good couch nearby—

Elena.

Asleep.

Her rabbit costume was wrinkled and dirty, still bearing the stains from the zoo adventure. Her tiny chest rose and fell with the rhythm of deep, peaceful sleep. One hand clutched a crayon. The other rested on her drawing.

She had eaten her fill and simply... stopped.

Like a light turning off.

Fiona stared at her.

At this child.

At the daughter of the monster she had come to confront.

He made food for them, she thought. Even though she’s a monster. Even though she threatens his life. He still came home and cooked for them.

The thought irritated her more than she expected.

More than it should have.

Erza moved past her without a word.

Crossed to where Elena slept.

Lifted her gently so gently, with a care that seemed impossible from someone so cold and carried her toward the bedroom. Her movements were fluid, practiced, tender.

Fiona watched.

Filed the image away.

She cares for the child. That’s something.

While Erza was gone, Fiona’s eyes swept the room.

The books near the TV stacked haphazardly, some open, some marked with pages turned down. A map of the world spread across the coffee table, with annotations in a language she couldn’t read. The drawings Elena had made dozens of them, it seemed, scattered across every available surface.

She picked one up.

Three figures.

A tall one with silver hair. A medium one with black hair. A small one in a rabbit costume. They stood before a castle that stretched to the top of the page, complete with towers and flags and a dragon circling above.

A kingdom, Fiona realized. She drew them a kingdom.

Nothing unusual.

Nothing supernatural.

Nothing that proved—

"Now."

Erza’s voice came from behind her.

Fiona turned.

The Dragon Queen stood in the bedroom doorway, her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. The mask was back in place the cold, distant face of a being who had seen centuries and found none of them worth remembering.

"Nasty Human." Erza gestured to the floor. "Tell me who I am. Tell me why I am here. And tell me" her eyes narrowed, " how you know things you should not know."

Fiona sat.

Not because she was commanded to.

Because her legs were suddenly weak.

The aura Erza was emitting not the full force of it, not the crushing weight Yuuta had experienced, but enough pressed against her like a physical thing. It whispered in the back of her mind.

Tell the truth.

Or die.

"I know," Fiona said carefully, "that you are a monster from another world. I know you placed a spell on Yuuta to use him for your purposes. And I know..."

She paused.

Chose her next words with precision.

"I know you want his blood to call upon the Forgotten God."

Erza didn’t react.

Didn’t move.

Didn’t blink.

But something in the air shifted.

She was listening. Fiona realized that suddenly, and the realization sent unease crawling through her chest.

Erza was not pretending to care. She was not humoring the conversation out of politeness or boredom. She was listening carefully, weighing every word with the kind of attention predators gave before deciding whether something should live or die.

Fiona swallowed before continuing. "Yuuta was born different," she said quietly. "Those red eyes he hides... they aren’t normal. Your kind needs blood like his. Blood capable of pleasing your gods."

Still nothing.

No reaction.

No visible emotion.

And somehow that silence felt far more terrifying than anger.

Fiona forced herself to continue despite the pressure slowly building in the room around her.

"The gods of the Nova world."

The air exploded instantly.

There was no movement Fiona could follow, no warning her mind could react to. One moment Erza stood across the room in silence, and the next Fiona felt an overwhelming force close around her throat before her thoughts could even catch up.

Her body was ripped off the ground violently.

The floor disappeared beneath her feet as she was lifted effortlessly into the air, Erza’s hand wrapped tightly around her neck like iron.

Fiona’s eyes widened in shock.

She had not even seen Erza move.

Frost erupted across the walls and floor in jagged patterns as the temperature inside the room plummeted unnaturally fast. The pressure pouring from Erza’s body no longer felt human. It felt ancient, overwhelming, like standing in front of a natural disaster given consciousness.

Her violet eyes had changed completely.

There was no softness left inside them.

No patience.

No restraint.

Only something cold enough to make instinct itself scream danger.

"How," Erza asked quietly, her voice no longer sounding like the voice of a person at all, "do you know about my world?"

The words were

Fiona’s feet dangled.

Her hands clawed at Erza’s grip.

Her lungs burned for air.

"Who are you?" Erza’s eyes blazed. "Who sent you? What do you really want?"

Fiona stared into those violet eyes.

Into the face of death itself.

And for the first time since she’d started this

She felt true fear.

Fiona dangled from Erza’s grip, her feet kicking uselessly against empty air, her hands clawing at the iron fingers wrapped around her throat.

But even now even with death inches away she forced words past her crushed windpipe.

"You... you’re proving... my point..." Her voice was barely a rasp. "Monster... demon... evil..."

Erza’s eyes narrowed.

"I am proving nothing," she said coldly. "Except that you are a fool who walked into a Monster den without understanding what being I am."

"Then why..." Fiona gasped for air. "Why are you so... eager to kill me?"

"Because you know about my world."

The words hung in the air.

"A human." Erza’s voice dripped with contempt. "A pathetic, ordinary human who has never left this miserable little planet. And yet you speak of the Nova world as if you have any right to know it exists."

She pulled Fiona closer.

"Tell me how. Tell me why. Tell me everything."

Fiona’s eyes widened.

She doesn’t know.

She thinks I

But before Fiona could force out a response, something changed.

Erza’s gaze unfocused slightly, her violet eyes no longer looking at Fiona directly but through her, as though she were staring into something buried far beneath flesh and bone.

"Memory reading," Erza murmured softly. "Let us see what your pathetic mind is hiding."

The moment those words left her mouth, Fiona felt it.

Something entered her thoughts.

Cold.

Foreign.

Wrong.

It did not feel like a person searching through memories. It felt like being opened apart from the inside, like invisible fingers were turning pages she had never intended another living being to see. The presence moved through her mind with terrifying precision, ignoring fragments of childhood, skipping over fear, pain, dreams, and ordinary memories as though none of them mattered.

It was searching for one thing only.

The source.

The beginning.

The reason she knew.

Fiona’s body trembled violently as the pressure inside her head intensified, and then suddenly—

Erza found it.

A woman appeared inside the memory.

Violet hair.

Red eyes.

Standing within shadows that seemed alive around her, whispering truths in a voice too soft to fully remember, planting forbidden knowledge piece by piece into Fiona’s mind like seeds waiting patiently to bloom.

The moment Erza saw her, the atmosphere in the room changed.

Her lips curved slowly into a smile that held no warmth at all.

"So," she said quietly. "That is how you know."

Her fingers released Fiona’s throat immediately afterward.

Fiona collapsed onto the floor in a violent coughing fit, gasping desperately for air as pain burned through her neck. Bruises were already forming beneath her skin where Erza’s hand had been. She scrambled backward instinctively, dragging herself away from the queen as though distance alone could save her from whatever terrifying thing stood before her.

Erza looked down at her silently.

Not with anger.

Not with disgust.

Something worse.

Disappointment.

"You are fortunate," Erza said calmly, "that I possess memory reading. Otherwise, I would have extracted the truth from your flesh itself."

Fiona stared upward, her body trembling uncontrollably.

For the first time since meeting Erza, she understood something horrifying.

This woman had not been threatening her before.

She had been restraining herself.

"You’re not..." Fiona swallowed painfully. "You’re not a normal demon at all."

Erza’s eyebrow lifted slightly.

"Demon?" she repeated. "Is that truly what you think I am?"

"I have evidence!" Fiona snapped suddenly, desperation forcing strength back into her voice. "I’ll prove what you are! I’ll expose you! I’ll save Yuuta from you!"

For a moment, Erza said nothing.

Then she sighed softly.

"I am disappointed."

Fiona blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"Disappointed," Erza repeated, crossing her arms slowly. "I believed your feelings for him were genuine. Foolish perhaps, misguided certainly, but genuine nonetheless."

Her gaze hardened slightly.

"But you are no different from ordinary humans. Driven not by love, but by greed."

"What are you talking about?" Fiona shouted immediately. "I do love him!"

"If that were true," Erza replied quietly, "then why did you hide yourself from him? Why did you turn him into fuel for your revenge?"

The words struck Fiona so hard her blood turned cold instantly.

"I didn’t..." she whispered weakly. "I never..."

"Do you believe I failed to notice?" Erza stepped closer, her voice calm enough to become terrifying. "I saw your memories. I saw the truth hidden between your thoughts, the truth even you refuse to acknowledge."

"There is no truth!" Fiona shouted desperately. "I love him! I always loved him!"

Erza stared at her silently for several seconds before speaking again.

"Then your understanding of love is very different from ours."

Her tone remained calm.

Almost gentle.

"That was not love I saw inside you. It was hatred. Revenge. Obsession." Her violet eyes narrowed slightly. "You wanted to destroy something, and without realizing it, you began using Yuuta as the weapon for your vengeance."

Fiona opened her mouth to argue.

Nothing came out.

Because deep inside herself, something had begun to crack.

"No..." she whispered weakly. "No, you’re wrong. You’re the monster here. You’re the one using him."

Erza stepped closer again until the cold radiating from her body became impossible to ignore. Fiona could now see the exhaustion hidden deep within those ancient violet eyes, a weariness so old it no longer resembled human emotion.

"I do not care what you think of me," Erza said softly. "But now that I know the truth inside your heart, I will give you one warning."

Then she leaned downward.

Their faces were only inches apart now.

"Do not cross me again," Erza whispered, her voice low and edged with absolute warning. "Do not involve Yuuta in your vengeance, and do not drag him into your schemes ever again."

The light in her eyes sharpened instantly.

"Because if you do," she continued, her voice dropping into something cold enough to freeze thought itself, "I will erase you in a manner that denies your soul even the mercy of reincarnation for ten thousand years."

Fiona stopped breathing.

Her thoughts stopped.

Her body refused to move.

All that remained inside her was fear.

Pure fear.

The kind born when instinct finally realizes it is standing in front of death itself.

And the moment Erza stepped back, Fiona scrambled to her feet and ran for the door without daring to look behind her even once.

Tore it open. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Fled into the night without looking back.

Erza watched her go.

Stood in the doorway for a long moment, staring at the empty hallway, at the stairs where Fiona had disappeared.

Then she closed the door.

Turned.

Looked at the crayons scattered across the floor.

At Elena’s drawing of their family.

At the empty bowls on the table.

At the life Yuuta had built here, in this tiny apartment, on this miserable little planet.

"Foolish humans," she murmured.

But her voice was softer than usual.

And when she picked up Elena’s drawing and looked at it at the three figures holding hands, at the castle in the background, at the sun smiling down on them all..

Something in her chest ached.

To be continued.

(End of Chapter)

Bonus scence

Elena tilted her head, her big eyes full of curiosity. "Papa, what’s a power stone?"

I paused, blinking a little. Where did she even hear about that? "Oh, well, it’s kind of like a vote or a way people show support for a story. It helps us get more attention and makes the story more popular."

Her eyes sparkled. "Wow, that’s so cool! But... why do we have so few?"

I scratched the back of my neck, a little embarrassed. "Power stones are pretty rare. There are tons of stories out there, so not everyone can give them. We just need to be careful when we use them."

"So, we can’t ask people for them?" Elena asked, looking a little confused.

I shook my head with a smile. "Exactly. People give them to us if they really like our story. Sometimes, they’ll say thank you for the support."

Elena: "Papa... I need a Power Stone..."

(her eyes big and teary, voice trembling like she just dropped her ice cream)

Yuuta: "Elena, sweetie, we can’t just ask for that. It’s up to the readers, you know."

Elena: "But they love me! Right?"

(she sniffles dramatically, wiping her tears with her dragon tail like it’s a tissue)

Yuuta: (sweating nervously, turns to the fourth wall)

"Uhh... dear readers... please? Look at this face. You wouldn’t let a half-dragon daughter cry, would you?"