The Petal of Love
The rhythmic clatter of a mortar and pestle echoed through the dimly lit room, even though it was morning.
The heavy blackout curtains had been drawn to cast an even deeper shadow.
Inside the darkness, a pair of slender hands moved with delicate care, turning the pink liquid inside the test tube that had been ground inside the mortar.
One drop fell from the tube onto the mortar.
The grinding resumed, the tension in those hands mixing the contents with perfect precision.
Swallow.
The sound of swallowing echoed through the room, mixing with the grinding.
“Please… please, this time, this time I have to succeed….”
The voice trembled with desperate longing.
Shiver, shiver-shiver.
Clunk! Bang! Clunk! Bang! Clunk! Bang!
The hands grinding the mortar trembled violently, and the heart outside the body threatened to leap out of the chest.
Clatter.
The mortar had stopped. The girl stared at the completed result, and a tiny spark of light lit up in her emerald eyes.
“It’s done… it’s finally done.”
Shiver, shiver-shiver.
Overcome with joy at success, the hands reached for the result, trembling. The gentle fingers gently shaped the liquid into the form of a love potion.
“So… so with this, with this, I can finally give love to Seong-ssi—”
The girl was lost in ecstasy, staring at the finished pink love potion.
Just then, the curtain that had been closed opened a tiny, almost invisible crack, letting a single thin line of light slip through and shine directly on the mortar.
“Ah, no!!”
Whoosh-whoosh.
The girl hurriedly shielded the light with her body, but part of the already-completed result had lost its color and was rising into the air in black smoke.
“I have to protect even this much!”
Parts that had already lost their color could not be saved, and the girl tore away the discolored sections in a hurry.
But too much had been ruined, leaving only one love potion that could be salvaged.
“Ah… ah…”
Even though the girl’s eyes lost their light in despair, her hands rolled the saved dough into a slightly smaller love potion than before.
“Ah, no. It’s… it’s okay. It’ll be fine.”
The girl kept murmuring that it was okay over and over.
No, Dang Hwa-ran.
Her emerald eyes had gone dull and cloudy.
Two love potions sat in front of her.
She had created the Love Poison, a legendary potion from the Sichuan Dang Clan that was only a simple legend inside the family, in order to win Cheon Seong’s heart.
It was something no one else in the Dang family had ever managed to make.
It had been created by Hwa-ran’s own hands.
Swish.
Green hair swayed as Hwa-ran’s eyes turned to look behind her.
“Cheon Seong-ssi…”
Before her stood a wall completely covered with photos of Cheon Seong that she had secretly taken since the day he entered the academy.
The girl on her knees rose up, stepped in front of the photo that matched her own size the most, and reached out to gently stroke the cheek of the man in the picture.
Of course it was just a flat wall, but for some reason it felt exactly like touching Cheon Seong’s cheek.
“Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi… Cheon Seong-ssi…”
Her appearance was so intense that anyone who saw it would think she was cursing someone.
Yet inside her words, love poured out so thickly it felt ready to burst.
Swish.
Hwa-ran’s face moved closer to the Cheon Seong in the photo, and she closed her eyes.
Chuk.
“I love you… ♥︎”
Chuk.
“I really, really love you… ♥︎”
Chuk.
“I want to become your woman… ♥︎”
Chuk.
“I want you… ♥︎”
Chuk.
“I really love you… ♥︎”
Chuk.
“My prince…”
The love, the affection, was twisted somewhere deep inside.
“I really love you ♥︎”
……
……
……
……
……
……
……
“Ah, hello? Do you remember me? A while ago we—”
“I don’t remember.”
A female student who had approached with a casual remark flinched at the cold, irritated answer.
“Ah, ugh… sorry…”
A girl from the same class who had suddenly come up and said something obvious enough to make anyone remember her flushed and darted away.
“Fuhuhu, your boyfriend must have way too much popularity, huh?”
Clump.
A pleasant feeling enveloped her back as she turned to see Yoo Hwa-young standing up and hugging her from behind.
But…
“I’m not your boyfriend yet.”
Seong had been making an effort to like Hwa-young, but he had not yet accepted her as a lover.
Of course it was trash talk, and he knew it was the truth, and even he knew it was trash, but he had already done almost everything he was going to do, and yet he said it anyway.
He was an asshole for saying that, but he did not regret his choice.
When he thought about his position, he should not carelessly add precious people to his circle or get close to them.
In fact, getting close had already failed because he had accepted Yuna and Beatrice as lovers, but he had no intention of adding lovers indiscriminately.
He had no intention of loving someone who did not return his feelings.
“Hihi~ You really are hopeless, you know?”
“I know I’m trash too. But if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
At his words, Hwa-young poked his cheek with her finger, then pulled back her hand, but the poking force grew stronger.
“If you have something to say, don’t poke and just speak.”
She turned her head and, just as he had expected, Hwa-young leaned in and pressed her lips briefly to his.
“Mommy mommy! Look at them!”
“Damn, it’s envy!!”
“Crrk, I love you…”
Various reactions erupted from the other students watching the scene.
“…What?”
“What… what is that?”
And then Cheon Seong, the one involved, asked Hwa-young.
Hwa-young trembled and avoided his gaze.
“If you’re going to be this embarrassed, why did you kiss in the first place? What were you even doing alone?”
Hwa-young had kissed Cheon Seong in front of everyone, so her face was the same shade of red as her green hair, making it even more obvious.
Seong sighed and continued.
“I know you got permission from Yuna, but to everyone else it just looks like I’m a trash who casually spreads his legs and you’re a jealous fox chasing a guy with a girlfriend.”
The surrounding students’ reactions were mostly positive because they knew the subject was Yoo Hwa-young, the youngest daughter of the Flame King Guild, but behind them dirty rumors were already flying about him and Hwa-young.
Of course if anyone noticed, the rumors would disappear without a trace, but… it was the starting point of the rumors.
In any case, from now on there would probably be a lot more people coming to pick a fight over this.
“And the problem is it only applies to me.”
Stare.
Startled, Seong glared at the Hwa-young sitting beside him, and the girl who knew him too well trembled.
“Haa… is this something to be happy about?”
“It’s… it’s okay! If there are any such kids, I’ll… I’ll take care of them!”
Hwa-young nodded confidently as if she would handle everything herself.
“But those kinds of guys are going to pick a fight for real, aren’t they?”
The issue was that she didn’t even realize it was the issue.
Because Hwa-young was the youngest daughter of the Flame King, if those guys had any sense they would never touch her.
The academy had already seen the Flame King visit after the dungeon invasion, so they would be even more cautious.
But compared to Hwa-young, Seong was just an ordinary academy student with no backing.
“Yoo Hwa-young is pretty, so the guys who like her will probably come to pick a fight with me instead.”
Of course if he counted backers, Aren and Ryu Se-rin from the academy, Mir, and Beatrice were all potential backers who could help in both information and combat.
But that was still information below the surface.
Aren and Ryu Se-rin could not directly help because of academy fairness, so he could not expect more than tiny support from behind.
Beatrice was the same.
There was only a slim chance he could ask her for help, and even then, for any other reason… the nights with Beatrice would be terrifying.
Mir could help on the information side, but that too could only be done from behind, so it was a bit awkward inside the academy.
“It would be better if they just came to fight me directly.”
What he needed to hide was nothing but the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and spatial magic.
Everything else should not attract too much attention, so he had held back, but now that it was too late, there was no need to hide.
But those guys had some sense, so they would not come to fight directly and would instead annoy him by poking at him now and then.
“Then I should throw out a bait from my side. Hm? Why is your face so red again?”
Seong, who had been planning to catch a fish as bait to get rid of the people who were bothering him, asked curiously at Hwa-young’s flushed face.
“Uh, th-that… um… am… am I pretty?”
“What? Why did your face suddenly turn red all of a sudden—ah, you’re doing it because of that, right?”
Nod.
The part where he had said she was pretty was the cause.
“You know you’re pretty too, right? Even I think that’s the only reason you’re embarrassed about something new.”
“Th-then… maybe…”
Hwa-young peeked at Seong with wide eyes and fiddled with her fingers.
Seong waited quietly for her to speak, and the more his ears turned red, the more carefully she began.
“Then… just once more… say that I’m pretty… p-please?”
At Hwa-young’s answer, Seong blinked, then grinned and asked.
“Why did you hesitate so much if that was all there was to it?”
“B-but it’s embarrassing!”
Hwa-young answered, clenching her small fists and shaking them down.
Seong watched her for a moment, then, despite the noisy classroom, spoke in a voice that was both clear and sweet enough to captivate her ears.
“You are pretty. Really, really pretty.”
The ordinary line and the chaotic classroom atmosphere.
But to Hwa-young it felt completely different.
Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-k!
Seong had answered with a laugh, and Hwa-young’s face grew even redder, steam shooting up from her head in white puffs.
Then Hwa-young suddenly staggered, and finally—
Bang!
She slammed her head on the desk and collapsed.
“What? Are you sick?”
Seong, seeing the steam and red face and ears, lifted the fallen Hwa-young and placed his hand on her forehead.
“Hm… you seem to have a fever. My hand is cold so I can’t tell for sure… ah, there was a method.”
Because his body was so cold, he could not tell how hot she was.
He scooped her up and pressed his forehead to hers.
“Uuu… what am I doing…”
“Huh? You’re awake?”
“…Heuheung~ ♥︎”
Once Hwa-young regained her senses, the moment she saw the clear sky-like eyes and the firm muscles holding her body, her vision blurred again and she fainted.
“You’re not that hot, yet you collapsed again.”
She was not exactly feverish, but there was no way the flame-magic genius Hwa-young would collapse at 40 degrees, so it was strange.
“Haa… more importantly, I can’t throw out the bait unless Hwa-young wakes up.”
He had to show a sample to reduce the number of people who would bother him, but the girl who needed to wake up to throw the bait was unconscious.
“I can’t wake her up to do it, and I can’t just postpone it for later?”
Today was the day to reduce the numbers, and while it was regrettable, Hwa-young’s condition was not good, so he had decided to postpone, when—
Thud.
“I challenge you to a duel! It’s Hwa-young vs. you, winner takes all!”
A white glove appeared in his hand, and the bait had been caught.