*****

Miriette was laying in her bed with a warm feeling filling her heart.

She turned to the side and met the beautiful mysterious obsidian eyes of her attendant and lover, Zoemi.

"Hi, handsome…

"

Miriette laughed and pulled herself closer to the attendant.

"Miri.

"

He smiled in response and called her affectionately.

He raised his hand and run his fingers through her wild hair which curled cutely showing how happy and excited Miriette was.

"My, my, how lovely – should I tease you until you show me your cute expression again…?

"

Zoemi grinned mischievously embraced Miriette pressing her closer to his perfectly toned body.

"Oh my…! You brute…!

"

Miriette blushed and giggled.

It was such a pleasant change of pace, having him act so domineering and almost arrogant in contrast to his calm and composed attendant attitude made Miriette shiver in anticipation.

But it wasn't like she was going to just act all meekly and submissive.

"Oh? Do you think you have it in you to be mean to me? Mister I-was-peeping-on-the-bathing-maids-in-the-bath?

"

She looked at him with a challenge and pinched his side.

Zoemi raised his brows and laughed.

"Hey, Miri, it was ages ago! Do you still hold it against me?

"

He asked tilting his head adorably.

"I do! You should have come peep on me, not those stupid maids! Or you should have just joined me in the bath altogether!

"

Miriette scoffed at him but she felt butterflies in her stomach each time he called her by the nickname.

"Aww… Your so lovely when you're grumpy.

"

Zoemi couldn't conceal his smile and then kissed Miriette's forehead.

"Hmph!

"

Miriette still acted offended.

So Zoemi kissed her nose.

"…Hm-hmph…!

"

She tried her best to scoff at him again but she couldn't keep her act up.

Zoemi was leaning for a proper kiss after all and Miriette became tingly all over.

She stretched her neck in order to meet his lips as soon as she could and then closed her eyes.

But there was no soft sensation sending electricity down to her toes or anything.

Surprised, she hurriedly opened her eyes just to see Zoemi's laughing eyes and the pillow covering the bottom of his face!

"How dare you block me!?

"

Miriette's hair bristled in anger but Zoemi was just looking at her.

Or rather staring.

The happiness slowly thawed away from his eyes as they were becoming more and more serious. More and more scary and lifeless, like the eyes of a dead person.

"I just thought that it was in order. After all, what's the bit of teasing in the light of what you've done.

"

Even Zoemi's voice became cold and distant.

"Wh-what do you mean…?

"

Miriette was taken aback but she didn't let go of Zoemi, she even hugged him tighter as if demanding that he dropped the scary act.

"Well, you've been responsible for the disappearance of my clothes, for example, you perverted woman.

"

Zoemi's next words made Miriette flinch.

"Yo-you know about that…?

"

She cowered to his chest to hide from his accusing cold eyes.

"You have also been pleasuring yourself rather vigorously while using my clothes as the material for your wild perverted imagination, yeah, that too…

"

"…!

"

Miriette clung tightly to Zoemi's body. She became terribly afraid that the black-haired boy will now try to push her away and she felt almost as if someone has punched her in the stomach.

"A perversion like that…!

"

Miriette's body stiffened.

|Noo! I knew it! He hates indecent women…! Wait – does he know that I also…!?|

She thought to herself straining her memory to remember if she did something blatantly inappropriate.

Then she felt Zoemi grabbing her shoulders and tearing her away from him.

She was so terrified to separate from him that she even activated her enchantments though she knew she could hurt him but even that didn't help.

While her lips trembled as she was barely holding back the tears she raised her head to look up into Zoemi's eyes.

Cold, dead eyes, so dark and indifferent and therefore as threatening as the darkness itself.

|…eh…? The face doesn't quite match… and those eyes, they are not…|

Miriette furrowed his brows in realization while Zoemi in front of her opened his mouth.

"…you are supposed to be innocent! If you are Miriette then you MUST be the perfect innocent…!

"

The black-haired attendant's mouth spewing the furious and annoyed voice that Mireitte had never heard Zoemi use – her Zoemi never sounded that close to losing it, and he certainly never had tried to force her to act according to his likes and dislikes.

"Ah. Ghosts of Bellcephora, I presume? Or not? You feel kind of weak, don't you?

"

"!!!

"

But before they even properly told Miriette her final sin, the dark-haired girl pulled away from the black-haired boy and scoffed, leaving him speechless.

"So, you have the ability to enter dreams… Talk about bull**… or is this supposed to be hypnosis…? Suggestion? Either way, it's quite annoying. You have guts to be calling others perverts…

"

Miriette ended up getting up from the bed and walked towards the window, opening it and breathing in the night breeze – which didn't actually feel like a night breeze because she was indeed dreaming and in reality, she was calmly sleeping in her bed.

"Say… even if you managed to sneak in, this is still my dream, is it not…?

"

"Wha…? How strong is your will…?!

"

The dark-haired girl gritted her teeth as her anger was at the boiling point, making the person who disguised himself as Zoemi flinch and back off…

"Stop.

"

"!!!

"

Miriette demanded in a furious voice and a single strand of her hair lost its color, which resulted in the disguised individual getting stopped right in his track as the words got stuck in his mouth.

"I am already extremely pissed about the current situation, so I don't need some creep messing with me while I rest! How dare you try to use my Zoemi's appearance to influence me?!

"

She shouted, waving her hand in a domineering way, and the space around her shattered like a broken mirror revealing her and the Zoemi-lookalike…

"AAAAHHHH…! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"

…and the seventy foot-tall Zoemi that appearead right behind Miriette's back, making the Zoemi-lookalike start to shout in absolute horror.

"You better not have a strong connection, or the mental damage will transfer back to your original body, freak.

"

*click*

"W-wait – No! – Miri! I am not a member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora – I'm A…!

"

*SLAM*

Miriette scoffed and snapped her fingers, at which the gigantic Zoemi raised his foot and crushed the imposter like a filthy bug, despite the audacious intruder's attempt to come up with an explanation, turning it into a splatter of blood and gore.

*******

And then…

Miriette woke up.

"…huh… true, he seemed to be trying to make himself look like a member of the Ghosts, but with how much SHE is scared of them, he definitely was way too weak to be one…

"

The dark-haired girl opened her eyes and muttered to herself before raising her head from over the desk by which she fell asleep the other night.

She stood up while stretching and approached the window – opening it and feeling the morning breeze tickle her face.

"…so the spell has a lot of range, or he is hiding something nearby…

"

She also looked down at the ground checking, just in case, whether the person who sneaked inside her dreams hadn't been lying there unconscious but there was no such luck.

"Figured.

"

She scoffed to herself before moving to the door and opening it to check in the corridor just in case.

"Oh? Mistress, good morning.

"

But the only person she spotted was the short brown-haired girl in a butler's uniform walking towards her while carrying a tray with food.

"…yeah, morning. You didn't happen to pass someone who looked as if they were stepped on by a seventy-foot-tall Zoemi on your way here?

Miriette nodded at her absentmindedly and moved to the side to make a room for her to pass.

"…a… a what…? N-no, I don't think that I did…

"

Teo blinked a few times in confusion in response.

The two girls got into the room and Teo left the tray with food on the desk that Miriette left a moment before.

"Miriette, sir Zoemi would be worried that you didn't get a proper rest because of him…

"

As the door closed, Teo breathed out and pointed at the made bed that clearly wasn't slept in during the night.

"As if I could rest easy when he is kept in a cell in a dungeon! Did they allow you to talk with him at least, or did you got blown off like me? It's so annoying that the dungeon has some weird wind-magic blocking capabilities and I can't talk with Zoemi myself and my message spell can't make it to Horeo in such an important situation either…! Why in the world it is so easy to block the message spell?!

"

The dark-haired girl breathed out and complained while taking a seat by the desk and pulling the tray towards herself.