Chapter 21: Jarina

"Wait!"

As Desire turned back to look at the person calling him, his eyes widened, and his jaws dropped to the floor.

A figure of a girl takes his vision. A girl of tall stature was walking down the path where he just left, her purple hair swaying in the air.

As Desire focuses his eyes, he could see the simple clothes wore by the woman. If put in nice terms, a simple white dress, if in a frank way, a white long rag covers the woman's body.

The rag was long enough to drag as she continues to run. The woman's facial features could be seen as she neared Desire.

"Wait! Don't leave!"

A thin jawline adorns her face, as her mouth forms an odd shape as she continued shouting.

"Waaaaaaaaait!"

Of course, Desire wasn't moving at all. Despite that, she shouted and shouted, making Desire to think that she was an exaggerated person.

The woman finally caught up to him, and she put her hands on her hips as she talked.

Her small, pale lips continued to move articulately as she spoke.

"What do you mean by leaving! I invited you here, yet you'll leave?"

Her purple eyes continued to pierce through Desire as if she wouldn't allow any answer besides a positive one.

"Uhm, who are you?"

The woman was so beautiful that Desire couldn't take his eyes off of her. Her innocent charm as she spoke with an innocent face seems to have hooked Desire's interest.

The woman snorted and made a 'Hmp!' sound as she tilted her head up.

"I am the one who called you here!"

"B-beautiful."

Desire nodded his head with a dazed look on his face. However, he soon shook it, thinking that this was wrong.

'What am I saying?! She's the one who played me, but...'

Indeed, if she was the one who invited Desire here, then that means she was the one who was playing him earlier.

Desire didn't like that kind of treatment, but of course, none of that matters as he is a monster lover.

Desire could forgive something like that in a blink of an eye.

What matters is that Desire could feel something within him rising. Something hot and passionate was glued to his eyes as he looked at the woman.

"You better not leave, okay! Follow me, I will take you to the real house!"

The woman said as she turned around, gesturing for Desire to follow behind her.

Desire stood still for a moment as he continues to marvel at the woman's beauty.

When he finally took a step, Desire felt that it was hard for him to move.

When he looked down, something small was growing out of him and pointing in the woman's direction.

"What's this?"

He said as he touched it. He soon took his hands off it as he felt weird doing so.

"A human's body is hard to handle...Oh, wait."

[Skill: Body Control skill!]

Using this skill to control his body, he forcefully made the once growing small thing into its original size.

"Whew."

He sighed in relief as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Now ready to take another step, he lifted his foot once again, but...

"I-it's there again?!"

The small lump of meat has now grown into something sharper, still pointing at the woman's direction. The shape of it was truly grotesque.

"W-why you!"

Sparks flew around Desire as he continued using the Body Control Skill. It seems the little thing doesn't want to go back.

A harsh push and pull battle was currently ongoing within and outside of Desire. And because of that, the woman noticed that he wasn't moving.

"Hey, I said to follow me!"

The woman seemed to be still angry, judging from her harsh tone of voice.

"A-ah, sorry!"

And so, Desire ran while using the Body Control Skill to make sure that thing never grows again.

****

"Let's introduce ourselves to smoothen out the talk, shall we?"

The woman with Desire talked as they entered the real house and saw some chairs and tables with some food.

The food was hot as smoke was still being emitted out of them. This would be Desire's first real meal.

As such, his attention was completely on the deliciously looking food.

"Ah, those are the meal that we will be eating. Don't worry, there are lots of it."

He swallowed some saliva down his throat as he imagined himself thinking about eating those foods he hadn't seen before.

"A-anyways, I am Desire."

The woman who kept walking then turned around to Desire as she bowed down like a graceful woman. Her fingers pinched a piece of her white dress as she lifted it up.

"I am Jarina Welfreim. I am pleased to meet you finally."

"Y-yeah."

"What's wrong?"

Desire hesitated, seeing the innocent look on Jarina's face. Her face was something one wouldn't expect from someone who has the blood of a Succubus running in her veins.

Her aura and the dignity flowing out of her was just like an innocent princess.

"I-it's just you changed so suddenly?"

Jarina smiled, knowing the meaning behind those words. However, her eyes were definitely not smiling.

"Please, take a seat."

Trying to change the subject, Jarina pointed to the table and the two chairs.

She walked off to one while gesturing for Desire to sit on the other.

However, as Desire could be described as someone from the woods, Desire didn't know her intentions.

While walking towards the seat quite awkwardly because of holding the small thing down, he talked with a worried tone.

"Are you perhaps sick in the head? Are you okay?"

"..."

Jarina couldn't answer the question. The worry was evident from his face and tone, and Jarina could quickly pick those signs up.

'He's not messing with me? I thought this was payback for before...'

Jarina picked up a cup and swirled the contents around before answering.

"I am fine. I just played with you before. Besides, the things that we will be talking about are official matters."

"Official matters? What do you mean?"

"Well, let's eat first, shall we?"

Desire readily nodded his head. In fact, he was waiting for those words to come out of her mouth.

That was how much of an appeal the food have to him. As a baby, the only thing that he could 'eat' was flavored water.

This time is a variety of meat, soup, bread, and even some fishes. He didn't know any of these, but all of these could only taste good to his tongue.

As he looked over the food on the table, he noticed something else.

"Uhm, Jarina. What's this?"

He said as he picked the odd thing. It was a metal that was shaped like a stick.

"That's a spoon, you know. It's a tool made by humans to help with eating."

Desire knew about this as he read this in the book, but he never expected that the Suckus has something like this.

'Humans have their uses, don't they?'

While being completely shameless, Desire happily took the spoon and ate.

They exchanged some small talks while eating, but it wasn't anything big. They were just asking each other: why did Jarina do something like that, what happened to Desire, something along those lines.

It was a joyous moment for Desire and also for Jarina as she wanted to know Desire.

"By the way, Desire, there is someone interested in you."

Jarina's questions seem to be out of the blue, but in truth, Desire has already expected this. Lyra told him that people in the Skinjur were interested in him.

"Who is it?"

"A human."

"No."

Desire narrowed his eyes, which are looking straight at Jarina. He didn't expect to hear the word human here.

Desire's reaction was one thing that Jarina knows all too well. Her mother, Varyce, has already told her about the special 'feelings' of Desire.

"Well, don't be like that. He is human, but to be precise, he has some monster blood running in him."

Then, as if a switch has been turned on...

"What kind of monster is he?!"

Desire asked happily with his body leaned forward. It seems he took great interest in that the person has some monster blood in him.

"Haaah. I know it's not my place to say something like this, but...you won't live a long life if you're like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Even if you hate or like something or someone, you mustn't show it on your face, your words, or even your actions. Because…"

Jarina put her index finger up and pointed it to her neck. She was expressionless as she continued talking.

"You'll die on the very first day you set foot on a country."

She then drew a line with her finger, which made a faint light in the air with some magic.

An eerie silence ensued, and in the midst of all that, Desire's throat was busy swallowing his saliva.