As the winter in Japan intensified, the surroundings gradually turned cold. Pieces of snowflakes floated about and landed effortlessly on my metal window pane. Gleaming as it bounced the light that was coming from my dimly lit bed lamp. However, rather than staring at those fluffy white structure, I’m on for a bigger mission.
BLING!
My smartphone bleeped. I picked it up from the bedside shelf and glanced briefly at the clock; 2.15 a.m. Scoffing at the late time, because I don’t care, I unlocked the phone’s touchscreen by swiping my thumb on it’s cold and slippery surface. Immediatlely after unlocking my screen, notifications popped out like mushrooms after rain. I clicked my tongue in exasperation and started my hunt for one notification, the only notification that I wanted to see.
“There it is!” My eyes lit up when it saw a single pink notification bar among all those white notifications. I quickly sat up, crossing my legs along the way as I tapped on the notification. A loading screen for a w******l app appeared for a few seconds—enough for me to cover myself with my thick blanket to protect me from the cold—before it loaded the homescreen for the app. Then I squealed.
“It’s here!” I squealed again. This time I grasped the phone tight on my chest and rolled on the bed in excitement for several rounds, squealing and kicking the cold air vigorously. I sat back up after some time, and after feeling a numb sensation across my feet. I brought the phone screen to my face and took another few more seconds to stare at the screen. There—reflected in my eyes—was none other than the new update for my favorite romance novel “The Evil Villainness is My Lover”. It was my first ever book since I downloaded this w******l app, and it has been my favorite ever since.
It tells the story of Carter, the son of a poor farmer in the countryside. Because of how penniless they are, they have to sell Carter—who’s an 18 years old that year—to the capital to work as a guard. His change started when the horse cart that brought him and 12 other village kids got ransacked by a goblin. Every single one of them died except Carter who managed to escape into the forest.
Inside the forest, he spent several days trying to find food and water, but finally gave up when he have little to none survival knowledge. He was saved—however—by none other than the evil protagonist herself, Minerva Lyle Williams. Deciding to bring Carter home, she never knew that’s when her love story with him began. I squealed again when I remembered the storyline, I’m not even reading the latest chapter yet but here I am destroying my vocal cords. I’m lucky that my parents allowed me to live alone in Tokyo because of my studies. If not, I’ll have to stay in my hometown in the region of Osaka where the internet connection is scarce.
I gathered myself and blew a sigh, trying to calm my nerve down. Then, pressing the “PAY WITH COINS” button, the screen loaded again for a moment, before the chapter unlock. I fumbled my toes, reading the chapters intently as the atmosphere quieted down.
The other reason why I was so excited for the newest chapter was, it stopped at a good part where another new character is introduced. It was a mythical dragon, named as Clairmont but people called him Halberdier of Chaos, Rodrigar. Even though he’s just introduced in about a few chapters, somehow, he immediately became my favorite. I don’t know how should I put it, but maybe I’m attracted by how the author managed to explain his appearance in detail; a dark skin tone, piercing golden eyes with a spiraling red around it’s cornea, tall stature, and leanly muscular body. The author also stated in their notes that Clairmont looked like an Arabic prince, but for me, he’s like a beautiful being, having a perfect feature that’s blessed by the author who created him.
My lips formed a smile in awe as I read this new chapter. It was at the part where Carter secretly formed a pact with Clairmont so he could gain more power to stand side by side with Minerva. Then, after a few more plotlines, the chapter ended.
I heaved a sighed of satisfaction, and maybe a little bit of regret? Because I have to wait for another three days for the new chapter to be uploaded. It was jarring, but for a story this good, I’m willing to wait. I laid back onto my bed, daydreaming about the day I’ll be able to meet Clairmont, or even every character in this story.
A bright light suddenly flashed into my room. I jolted in surprise, and automatically shielded my eyes with one of my hands as I crouched down to the bed. The light disappeared soon after, replaced with a gentle sound of chattering.
“Ricky, I told you not to prematurely chant the spells and immediately enter the portal. What do you think will happen if your body get disjointed?” A smooth—thin but masculine at the same time—voice said in a low tone, as if scolding someone.
“What? We usually do it like that, don’t we?” Another voice—more deeper and huskier than the first one—retorted.
“Yes. That is if we entered a portal with the rarity purple and above. There’s still a risk in entering carelessly into a blue portal like this one.” The first voice corrected.
I slowly lowered my hands. I’m afraid, but their human-like voice caught my interest in wanting to see their face. I gasped in shock after I caught the sight of both of them.
One guy, Oh My God… Possessed the beauty that I’ve never seen in anyone before, not even in the Miss universe in my university, or not even in any idol that I’ve seen and admired before. His beauty is his own; round eyes that lined with long and curled eyelashes, a shining grey eyes—like the color of the moon, the perfect features of his face, and chest-length dark blue spakly hair, looking almost like the night sky. I squinted my eyes, trying to eye his other features that I couldn’t determine clearly because of our distance. I’m staring too hard that I didn’t realize that the two of the have spotted me hiding behind my blanket.
“Uh-” He paused, eyes fluttering from the obvious confusion shown on his face. “Excuse me?” He greeted in English, in which I took time to understand because I’m not too fluent in that Western language.
I jolted.
“Y-Yes…?” I replied in a tiny voice, slightly wary of them and their sudden appearance. I paused again for a few seconds solely thinking for words to describe my question that I have in mind, translated in English. I finally gave up when the other guy who’s beside the beauty stood forward, aligning his higher shoulder with him. He looks very different from the first guy—who is elegant. At a glance, I swore I saw a lion beside that beautiful guy, not a human. He also posses a beauty of his own—all of them in a form of vigor. His slightly thick brows were paired with his eagle shaped eyes. The irises are golden like his short layered cut hair that was styled neatly, his golden bangs brushed on behind his ears. As he stood beside that grey eyed guy, his body is more muscular than him, a broad shoulder that indicates a person who’s a protecter, and stunned every people that saw him.
Including me.
“W-Who are you guys?” I asked in my mother tongue, Japanese. Upon realizing what I said, I covered my mouth, eyes darted in between them awkwardly as I gradually feel shy.
“So you’re Japanese, huh?” He suddenly spoke with a fluent Japanese as he weaved a smile at me.
“Eh?” My eyes lit up.
“You can understand Japanese?!” I remarked.
“We both can, actually.” The golden haired guy gently scrathed the back of his head.
My eye sparkled with excitement, before soon after, turned into a scrutinizing look. “…Breaking into someone else’s house is a crime, you know? I can call a police all I want.” I raised my phone.
The two of them shot me a strange look, like they didn’t understand what’s the threat for them even if I called the police. The dark blue haired guy caned his chin, his other hand rested on his hips.
“…I’m sorry for tresspassing into your house. I actually want to ascertain something with you.” He explained, still using a fluent Japanese that amazes me every time I heard them. He sounded like he had lived in Japan for a long time, given how fluent he speak.
The three of us then sat on the wide space in front of my bed that I made as a small living room. Because I lived alone with my parents’ allowance, I don’t want to burden them by having to pay my rent in a bigger place, so I rented a 6 tatami mat apartment. Simply put, it’s a small apartment room with thin walls and a lot of flaws. But the room is cheap, so I scraped by with everything to make the room inhabitable.
Before inviting them to sit, I pushed any comic books and magazines that were scattered on the floor onto the side and gave the two of them a zabuton, a small pillow used as a sitting place. Surprisingly, the two of them also knew how to sit properly on a zabuton, which again raised my sense of respect for them. Though, I had to work a bit harder just to host two massive people which I guessed their height at about 6.4 foot to 7.1 foot. If these two people were to step on the 5.1 foot me, I think I’d probably die.
“I’m sorry, I only have green tea.” I served a tray filled with two cup of hot tea.
“It’s okay.We’re grateful for your hospitality.” The dark blue haired guy smile. I have an inkling that he’ll be my next favorite stan. Well, if he’s proven to be a normal person and not a weirdo who appeared out of nowhere.
He carefully lifted the cup and handed it to the golden haired guy.
“Here, hold it like this.” He motioned to the other guy with his hands—one hand supporting the bottom of the cup while the other one hold it’s surrounding.
“Like this?” The other guy reaffirmed, doing exactly as the first guy’s instruction. Seeing them conversing to tenderly with each other heightened my bromance sense. My imagination suddenly ran wild and I giggled all by myself. My shameless act gained the dark blue haired guy’s attention.
“What’s wrong, miss?”
I immediately shook my head a no. “Nothing. Go on, have some tea.”
He accepted my offer and the two of them sipped the tea almost simultaneously. My bromance radar pinged again.
Gosh, if they continue being this close, I won’t be able to see them as mere friends anymore.
“Again, we’re sorry for suddenly barging into your house this late. My name is Noel Kieran, and this is my partner, Ricky Kruger.” He motioned to the guy named Ricky, who was enjoying the tea, now to it’s fullest.
I nodded in understatement. Now that I heard their names, I’m convinced that the two of them were foreigners, a fluently Japanese speaking foreigners.
“Ah, my name is Suna Mikiya-” I paused.
…Did he just say partner?
“…Are you guys a couple?” Oops, my mouth slipped, but I really wanna ask that.
Contrary to my expectation—which I thought they’d panicked out or something—Noel chuckled to my question, as he calmly responded, “We’re not. Me and Ricky are partners who ventured together between worlds.”
…Partner what?
“What?” I fluttered my eyes. I think I heard it wrongly before, but did he said ventured between worlds? An idea sparked inside my mind, sending synapses all through my body, making my mouth curve into a grin and my body shuddered.
“Don’t tell me, a transgressor?”
I asked. He nodded a yes as a response, earning a WOW from me.
“Awesome!”
He chuckled, while Ricky placed the cup on top of the kotatsu—a low table equipped with heater and a thick and soft futon closing in between the legs.
“I’m impressed that you didn’t get surprised by us.”
“Of course! It’s my dream to meet with a transgressor! I knew they were out there somewhere.” I heaved a determined sigh as I clenched one of my hand into a fist.
He briefly glanced at Ricky and the two of them seemed to exchange glances. Seriously, I feel like there’s more to them than just being a travel partner. It’s like they both understand each other without saying a word.
“Well then, you must know that every trangressor’s goal in venturing into another world is to seek for something, right?”
“Indeed!” I answered enthusiastically. I’ve read countless of manga and webnovels with transgression as the theme, and if not to have a laid back life, the protagonists will always have a destination inside their mind—what they wanna do and what they wanna achieve.
I guess Noel and Ricky were also the same. Them venturing into other worlds to achieve their goal, and I’m excited to be their assist in their search.
“How may I help you with your goal?”
Noel paused, looking like he’s hesitating.
“This might be too much to ask, but do you by any chance, stumbled upon an orb—a black an white colored one like Feng Shui—anywhere?” His tone sounded unexpecting. But I hate to break this to him, so I said, “I do found it, you know?”
One evening, I was sauntering my way to the convenience store after my classes in the university ended, when I saw something shining from behind the bushes. Curious, I inched closer to take a better look and saw a white and black medium sized glass ball that fits inside my hand. I contemplated, whether to bring the ball back home or not. But the air was too chilly and the snow started to fall down, so I made a quick decision to bring the glass ball with me back home.I’m glad that I did.Back to the present, Noel and Ricky threw me with a look of disbelief.“What?” Noel stuttered, his mouth slightly agape. I gave a nod before digging through a cloth stash that was on my bed. Then, fumbling my hand inside that stash, I pulled out a glass ball, it’s condition is the same as when I first found it.Suddenly something struck me, a sense of danger that built up inside my mind stating that these two people with me were probably dang
The first sensation that I felt after I gained my consciousness is how hard and rocky the floor is. The small rubble kept on rubbing my cheeks that it became scratchy I almost want to throw a tantrum. I grunted, trying to lift my body to scold the dust. My body felt strangely heavy, and strangely seeping with some energy that I don’t know. I squinted my eyes to perceive my surrounding.In my eyes, the place I’m in looks like a dimly lit cave, only the light that comes from a hole located far above me is my source of light.“Where am I?” I mumbled.I suddenly froze when I heard my own voice. They were feminine, but echoing like I’m some kind of huge animal—different from my original voice—which was small and thin. Covering my mouth, I noticed that something sharp is scraping my skin. I glanced at my hand and my eyes widen in horror. My fingers… They were SCALY! And the nails were definitely not that o
While I was eating, I got distracted by an inaudible noise coming from a distance not too far from me. I finished chomping on another few packets of bread, before heading to the voices. As I crawled, in a distance, I saw a group of guys was surrounding something as they talked between them. I sneaked closer for a better look, and completely forgot that I’m a huge dragon. Because of that, my horns got stuck at the upper entrance of the cave—which separates each way of the cave like segments—and what do you know? It cracked. The rock cracked. And, it fell down like sharp stalactites looking on its prey. I am somehow glad that they scattered away when they saw me. After they had left, the only thing left behind was a woman in restraint. Her garment looks like it almost ripped apart from the earlier people, but luckily I managed to come at a right time. The woman was trembling at my sight. Her eyes wavered, horror reflected in her green irises as she tried to sco
Tears of joy were shed by me when the cold wind slaps my reptilian face. I couldn’t help it. Even though the sky wasn’t as bright as I imgined it to be, the handful blinking stars hanging in the dark limitless space were enough to elevate my mood. I fathomed my arms and enjoyed the breeze from my view, standing 30 meters on the ground.As a firebreathing(Or ice breathing, I don’t know) creature, the cold wind felt pretty bearable to me, but not for Elfina who’s shuddering on her feet. Out of pity, I told Elfina to turn around and not look back until I told her to before opening the Online Store to look for a cape. The beautiful designs of the cape almost got my attention, but I must make haste to provide Elfina with better clothing so she didn’t freeze to death. With careful decision, I chose a cape for her—A black colored cape with lines of neon green on it’s hem—which I deemed as a safer design rather than the other grandiose
I, am a dumb lizard. I was flying away to run from a hoard of mad villagers, and now I’m stuck, in the middle of the air, without knowing how to land.I sobbed as my huge two pair of wings carried my body and soared high up in the sky. If crashing sounded gentle, I would’ve done so a long time ago. But the word CRASHING itself is horrifying so there’s no way I would want to accidentally close my wings and fall flat on the ground. If I didn’t die, my whole surroundings will perish by my weight.“Ah mou, what should I do…?” I mumbled to myself, occasionally enjoying the brush of air on my scaly face.Hm?Suddenly I saw something moving not too far from me—like an object that’s covered with invisible magic—despite my front view filled with only sky, sky and sky.“Eh? Am I having auditory illusions now?” Just like that one game I played being a character that slowly became crazy a
I guess being a slime is not that bad. The perspective of how you see this world had definitely changed to be a little bit wider than when I was a dragon. And as a plus, I don’t have to walk when all I need to do is chill on this Arabian looking prince’s shoulders. His face looked familiar somehow but I kinda forgot who he is.The dragon clicked his tongue. “Sheesh don’t move so much, you. Your skin is cold.”“What?!” I slithered further from him while displaying a taken aback expression. “You are the one who turned me into a slime, how dare you complain that my skin is cold? What are you, a baby?”I can see his veins popping from my position. Gritting his jaw, he replied, “I ought to toss you down to the ground and smother you with dirt. Consider yourself lucky for having the luxury of staying on my shoulder.”I snorted. This bastard, I should have just stomped him when I was a dragon. Who
I woke up dazed after that. While still trying to figure out my situation, the first figure that caught my attention is Rodrigar who was sitting beside me. “You’re awake?” He turned to the side to look at me. “Whuh… What happened?” My voice sounded coarse. It might be the after effect of the potion, but I feel my throat dry. “You suddenly went silent, so I checked up on you. Then I saw you laying dormant on the ground without moving an inch when I came near, that’s why I got the idea that you passed out of something and brought you out from the bushes.” Rodrigar scrunched his face. “Just what in the world you’re doing inside the bush that make you pass out?” “Oh…” I rubbed my head with my outstretched limb. Given the looks of my formless limb and my translucent light blue body, I am still a slime. “It’s nothing…” I heaved a defeated sigh. I guess other than giving me pain, the potion didn’t give me any other effect. Thankfully I’m still
Now that I think about it, I wonder what is Rodrigar’s full name? I’ve been literally calling him Rodrigar for the past 2 chapters now I can’t help getting curious.“By the way, Rodrigar. What is your full name?” I turned to my side. Rodrigar was sitting with his leg crossed on top of brushing his nose length bangs to the side. The air is especiallly fierce, given the high altitude the both of us were at. Luckily I have cold resistance skill—from when I strain my eyes reading through all the skills in my skills list, and even if I didn’t, the surface of the skin of this dragon both of us were sitting on is enough to keep me warm throughout the night. Apparently Rodrigar has a skill to duplicate his body into several copies, and this dragon is Rodrigar’s duplicated self.Rodrigar shot me a side glance. “It’s Clairmont. I thought I’ve told you before.”I fluttered my eyes a bit. “Clairmo