Once, while talking with Yuria, Evan had told her, 'If you had a past life, you might well have been a succubus.' As he had said, she had a gift for stirring desire in males, whether they were fellow dragons or members of another species. And she didn't just have a gift for it—she enjoyed it. What more was there to say?

She had been with fellow dragons, of course, but after settling on Earth, she had reached out to human men as well, changing partners almost as often as she changed clothes. To her, it was merely a kind of game. Not once had she seriously fallen for a human man or considered making a pact of love with one. Unlike someone else.

To Yuria, then, Minjun was no different from the countless human men she'd met before—except that he had a dragon girlfriend. She looked him over with the eyes of a predator sizing up tempting prey. 'Not bad.'

She could almost see why Sia, a dragon, liked Minjun so much. That still didn't explain why she would go so far as to make a pact with a human, though. 'I wonder how long it'll take today.'

How quickly could she conquer a male? Timing herself and beating her record was one of her nastier secret hobbies.

"Welcome, Mr. Minjun. Thank you for coming all this way." With a voice that could captivate a man, Yuria gestured for him to sit. "Chris, we have a guest. Don't we have something to serve him?"

"I'll prepare it right away."

Minjun sat down, and a little while later Chris brought out tea and fine refreshments. "Please, help yourself."

"... Thank you."

Hoping to ease Minjun's wariness and tension as much as possible, Yuria smiled with her eyes as she offered him a cup. Minjun took a sip, tense as he waited to hear what she would say.

"As you've probably heard from my secretary, I'd like to recruit you to our guild. I imagine you've received offers from plenty of guilds by now. Am I right?"

"Yes, but I turned them all down. At the time, I wasn't thinking of joining a guild."

"At the time? Then things have changed." Yuria's eyes lit up as she leaned toward him, making a subtly seductive movement meant to catch his attention.

"Yes. But—"

"Which guild offered you the biggest signing bonus? Whatever it was, we'll double it."

She was offering twice as much without even asking what the other guilds had proposed. No wonder she headed one of the world's leading guilds, Minjun thought, but he shook his head. "The truth is, I've already decided which guild I'm joining. I'm sorry."

"Oh? Well, if there's a penalty for backing out, we'll take care of that too. May I ask which guild it is?" She drew her chair closer again. Without Minjun noticing, the distance between them was gradually shrinking.

"It's a guild that... hasn't been founded yet. There's no signing bonus, either. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you."

No signing bonus, and a brand-new guild at that. From everything Minjun had said, Yuria guessed he had plans of his own. But that was fine. Recruiting him to the Aura Guild wasn't the real reason she had come to meet him.

"I came prepared with some attractive terms to recruit you, but from what you've said, I don't think any offer I make will change your mind."

"... No."

Yuria nodded slowly, as though she'd expected as much. Of course, she didn't know who would head the new guild Minjun intended to join. She had simply assumed he had his reasons for staying out of a guild until now. But that was fine. She had another purpose.

"It can't be helped. I'd like to keep trying to persuade you, but that would be rude." Minjun felt relieved when she gave up so easily, though he also wondered whether she had some other motive.

"Let's leave that subject there and talk about something else. Hunter to hunter. Chris, why don't you step outside for a little fresh air?" Saying she wanted some time alone with Minjun, she sent Chris out. Now the two of them were alone in the spacious suite.

"Are you uncomfortable here?"

"N-no."

He was sitting on a plush sofa, but it might as well have been a bed of nails. Before meeting her, he'd been intrigued by the chance to meet an SSS-rank hunter, one of the rarest people in the world. Now, for some reason, he felt uneasy. It hadn't been so bad while the secretary was there. With even him gone, it was worse.

"Don't worry. As I said, I just wanted to talk, hunter to hunter. There are a few things I'm personally curious about, too. The secret behind your remarkable growth, for instance." She casually laid her hand over Minjun's. At the touch of her soft hand, he nearly jumped out of his skin, though he managed not to show it.

'If Sia were here...' She might have grabbed the woman by the collar and demanded to know why she was flirting with someone else's boyfriend, SSS-rank hunter or not. ... The thought alone gave him chills. But maybe touching someone's hand was nothing unusual in America, where people were more open than in Korea. Telling himself that, Minjun calmly slipped his hand out from under hers.

"I just had a miracle happen."

"A miracle?"

She asked as though she knew nothing, but Yuria already knew what lay behind Minjun's astonishing growth. Even accounting for that, he'd developed faster than she'd expected, so she did have some curiosity.

The odds were vanishingly small, but if he happened to confide in her about dragon power, asking her to keep it secret, she would have a legitimate reason to kill him. Either outcome would suit Yuria. And if she could seduce Minjun while listening to him, so much the better. Most males blushed if she held their gaze, agreed with them now and then, and added a little casual physical contact.

Meanwhile, Minjun was trying to decide how to edit the story of what had happened. Naturally, he had no intention of telling anyone the truth about dragon power or dragon speech—not even his family. So what was he supposed to tell this woman?

"... I can't go into the details, but let's just say one miracle followed another."

He had no obligation to explain it in the first place, so he settled for a vague answer.

Yuria dangled the bait once more. "I was prepared to pay you well if you'd share your secret. I thought it might help us train our guild's rookies."

She wouldn't ask him to join her guild; she only wanted to know exactly what that miracle was. But if he mentioned dragons, she intended to kill him at once. Revealing that dragons had already settled in this world was a "legitimate" reason for murder in the eyes of any of her kind. Once again, though, Minjun didn't take the bait.

"I'm sorry. It's a little complicated."

"Hmm. That's a shame."

Separate from her plans, the conversation left Minjun wondering if she had asked to meet him not just to recruit him, but to learn the secret behind his rapid growth. If that was true, everything made sense. He felt a little more at ease, as if he'd cleared one hurdle. But the real challenge was only beginning.

"I don't have any plans after this, so now that we're here, feel free to ask me anything you've been curious about." Playing the kindhearted guild master, she began preparing to seduce him in earnest. By chatting about personal matters, she would bring them closer and send him little signals to unsettle him.

Minjun didn't realize that the room had also been secretly enchanted. There was a spell to inflame a male's desire and a curse to dull its target's awareness. If the curse worked too quickly or too strongly, the other dragons might catch her, so she'd set it at a subtle level. She had also mixed a specially made aphrodisiac she liked to use into the tea she'd first served Minjun. Her preparations were complete. Conquering him was only a matter of time.

Oblivious to all this, Minjun was earnestly trying to decide what to ask her. When else would he get to speak privately with an SSS-rank hunter and ask whatever he wanted? Yet no matter how he thought about it, nothing came to mind. If he were an ordinary hunter, it might have been different, but he wasn't. There was no guarantee her advice would apply to him. 'Still, I ought to ask something.'

He could have asked nothing at all, or gone with a predictable question about recent gate activity or the future of the hunter industry. Either would have been fine. But under the influence of Yuria's curse, he asked something quite unexpected.

"What would make a good gift for a woman?"

Yuria stared at him in disbelief. That was what he asked someone known as one of the strongest hunters in the world? Even as the words left his mouth, Minjun couldn't understand why he'd asked. Yuria burst out laughing at the question.

"Uh... I'm sorry. Asking something like that at a time like this..."

"Not at all. I did tell you to ask me anything. It caught me off guard, that's all. What made you ask?"

"Well... I want to get my girlfriend a present, and since I had the chance to meet you..."

Minjun had already been thinking of giving Sia a surprise present to cheer her up after the recent incident. He had intended to ask other people to help him choose something for her if he got the chance. But why had he brought up such a personal question here, of all places? His face grew hot. It never occurred to him that a curse was responsible. Whatever the cause, he was so embarrassed by what he'd said that he squeezed his eyes shut.

"I'm sorry. Please forget I asked!"

"It's all right. It's a fair question. At first, I thought the woman you were curious about was me, not your girlfriend."

"W-what?"

His cheeks began to redden at her blatant remark. To Yuria, his flustered reaction was rather cute. 'It'd be a shame to play with him once and throw him away.' A possessive urge rose within her.

At first, she'd only wanted to separate Sia and Minjun, playing with him along the way before discarding him like the other men. But she sensed a strange, indescribable appeal in him, and a new desire began to stir: she wanted to keep him by her side a little longer. She sipped her tea in an alluring pose, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed steadily at him.

Throughout their conversation, she asked Minjun personal questions. Though something felt odd to him, he answered each one sincerely. As their exchange went on, Yuria noticed his eyes beginning to close. He'd been tired even before coming, and her curse had left him thoroughly dazed.

"Are you getting sleepy?"

"N-no."

Minjun waved a hand as if the idea were absurd, but he couldn't hide the weariness in his eyes. Yuria smiled at the sight and whispered softly, "Then would you like to lie down on the bed and close your eyes for a bit before you go?"