The sky cracked open with thunder.
A tremor shook the estate grounds. Servants screamed, noble maids fainted, and three of the rosebush topiaries caught fire simultaneously.
High above the Velvet Kingdom's inner capital, a silhouette cut across the cloud-dappled heavens — a massive winged shape, black against the crimson twilight. Its tail whipped the clouds into spirals. Its claws raked through the sky like a war herald's horn.
The dragon had returned.
And she was angry.
Rei, still recovering from the soup trauma inflicted by his big sister Lilia, had barely lifted his head from the pillow before the air pressure in the room shifted. The stained glass windows rattled. The floorboards groaned. Mana flared like static electricity crackling through the golden runes etched across the walls.
Then, she crashed through the roof.
Literally.
"—WhAAAGH!?" Rei shrieked as debris and daylight exploded across his bedroom. A giant clawed foot crushed the heirloom bookcase beside his bed. Dust, feathers, and splinters rained down as an eight-foot woman stomped into the room like a vengeful deity who didn't believe in doors.
"REI!" she bellowed, her voice somewhere between a lion's roar and a thunderclap. "I SMELLED YOUR HEARTBEAT."
The maids fainted on impact.
The flames in the fireplace extinguished themselves out of sheer intimidation.
Rei, barely conscious and mostly wrapped in blankets, stared up at the intruder as the dust settled.
Red scales shimmered across her limbs, fading into smooth mocha skin. She stood tall — statuesque — with curvaceous hips, corded muscle, and a tail that coiled protectively around the bedposts. Her horns curled backward like an ancient crown, and her sharp golden eyes locked onto Rei's like heat-seeking missiles of draconic possessiveness.
It was her.
Drakana.
Childhood friend #3.
The daughter of the Crimson Brood, heir to the Emberwyrm Throne, and the only girl who could chew through iron bars as a toddler.
She had returned.
And judging by the way she growled like a mating hydra, she hadn't calmed down in the years Rei had been in a coma.
"Y-you—" Rei gasped. "You… got taller."
Drakana didn't answer.
Instead, she leapt — gracefully, terrifyingly — landing on the edge of the mattress with enough weight to crater the entire bedframe. Rei let out a muffled grunt as he was jostled under the sheets, suddenly eye-to-eye with a dragon girl whose face was now inches from his.
"I knew you'd wake up," she whispered, her breath hot and smoky, laced with faint traces of embers. "The moment your soul stirred, my flame did too."
"Fl-flame?" Rei croaked.
"My soulflame. The one I gave you."
Drakana reached into the front of her armored corset, pulling out a crimson crystal pendant glowing faintly with inner fire.
She pressed it to his chest.
It burned.
Literally.
"Gah—hot! Ow, ow—" Rei flailed, slapping the pendant away. "What the hell?!"
"The bond must be rekindled," Drakana declared solemnly. "You faded. You forgot me. But I never forgot you."
"I was in a coma!"
"I waited," she said, kneeling with her clawed fingers gripping the sheets. "I meditated atop a volcano for five years. Slept on magma. Trained by wrestling wyverns with my tail. Every heartbeat was for you."
"That seems… excessive," Rei squeaked.
"I branded my name into the moon."
"You did what?"
She grinned, sharp teeth flashing. "When the clouds are right, it says 'Rei x Drakana 4ever.'"
Rei slowly buried his face into the pillow.
"I want to die again."
[System Notification: Warning. Dragon girl has entered Bonded-State Obsession Mode.]
[System Advice: Do not make eye contact. Do not resist licking. Do not suggest polygamy.]
"Wait—licking?"
Too late.
Drakana's tail coiled tighter around his waist like a python of affection.
"In dragon culture," she said, lifting his limp hand with reverence, "to renew a soulbond, one must taste the essence of the other. A ritual of fire and flesh."
Rei screamed internally.
"Nope. No thank you. Let's not—"
Her tongue, warm and unsettlingly precise, traced the back of his hand.
"I hereby renew the Pact of Ash and Heart," she intoned, golden eyes glowing. "Our fire is eternal. Our souls entwined. Death will not part us. Nothing will."
"I'm calling the police—wait, do we have police?!"
The door burst open.
"Stop right there, lizard!" shouted a voice dripping with regal fury.
Princess Seraphina stood in the doorway with her rapier drawn, her royal bridal entourage fanning out behind her like an angry parade float of silk, roses, and weaponized jealousy.
"He is mine!" she screeched, her tiara tilted slightly from sprinting.
Drakana rose slowly, still perched on the bed like a hunting cat.
"You. Fire-flicked tiara girl. Still clinging to your little rapier?" she sneered.
"It's made of starsteel, you overgrown gecko!"
Rei's soul left his body.
[System Alert: Yandere Clash Imminent! Suggest hiding under the bed.]
He obeyed immediately.
As lightning crackled between princess and dragon, Rei crawled beneath the mattress like a terrified mouse. Beneath the dust and a forgotten chamber pot, he whimpered.
"Why me? I just wanted peace..."
Above, the battle escalated.
"You renamed your army after him," Drakana growled. "Pathetic."
"You branded his soul!" Seraphina snapped. "That's borderline necromancy!"
"I have legal documentation!"
"You burned it with fire!"
"I'm a dragon. We do that."
Sparks flew. Mana flared.
Meanwhile, from under the bed, Rei muttered:
"Can I reincarnate again? Maybe as a tree this time?"
Then—
[New System Quest Unlocked!]
["Prevent Bloodshed: Convince the Dragon Girl and the Princess Not to Kill Each Other."]
[Reward: A meal without poison.]
[Failure: Immediate beheading.]
He sobbed.
To Be Continued…