Fuyuki City, House of Dolls.
A few wisps of pale golden sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains and into the dim room, heralding the arrival of a new day.
"Yawn..."
With a lazy exhale, Samael slowly awoke from his light sleep, his eyes instinctively turning to either side.
A beautiful sight filled his view.
To his left, a certain Crown Puppeteer displayed a sleeping posture utterly at odds with her personality. Her delicate body had curled into a ball, like an armadillo shrinking from danger, every inch of her radiating intense wariness, as though she feared something.
Her long orange hair lay carelessly over her exquisite, fair collarbones. Rose-colored marks covered her translucent skin, faint remnants of the storm from the night before. A lingering ache from having been thoroughly ravaged still remained between her tightly furrowed brows. Without her glasses, her features—normally softened by a gentle air—appeared colder and more valiant, stirring an irresistible urge to cross the boundaries of personal space and invade.
Yet judging by how guarded she remained even in sleep, and how she reacted the moment his skin touched hers—clamping her legs shut and instinctively leaning back—she clearly would not be easy to approach anytime soon.
The ancient serpent sheepishly withdrew the hand he had raised to cover Touko Aozaki with a silk quilt. Looking at the Crown Puppeteer curled in the corner like a hedgehog with steel quills raised, he could not help feeling a little guilty.
Well, it seemed he had gone a bit overboard last night.
He had forgotten that this girl still retained a human body.
A trace of pity then welled up in his deep, serpentine pupils.
As a Crown Puppeteer, Touko Aozaki naturally had countless ways to replace her organs and grant herself lasting endurance and an