Gardenia’s Heart

The soft glow of crystals gently illuminated the room. The air, infused with the subtle scent of medicinal herbs, created an aroma that seemed to ease the pain of those who entered, even before treatment began.

"Klara, I'm fine already! You don’t have to go this far!"

Amidst the various beds serving as makeshift cots and the glass flasks lined up on shelves carved directly into the wooden walls, a green-haired boy shouted in protest as yet another needle was plunged into his arm.

"You came back being carried last night, so don’t you dare tell me how to do my job, Kelios." With a thin smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, a woman in a white coat with pointed ears examined the dark red liquid contained in the syringe in her hands.

Once she confirmed the small vial was full, Klara withdrew the needle from the boy’s shoulder, tucking a stray strand of her black hair behind her ear before removing her gloves.

After ensuring all the vials were filled, she let out a long sigh of relief. "Do you have any idea how worried I was this time, Kelios?"

Turning the chair she was sitting on, Klara observed the sulking boy on the hospital bed. Seeing the elf’s gaze on him, Kelios furrowed his brows, clearly considering some form of protest, but eventually gave in.

"...I know. I'm sorry."

Finally receiving the response she wanted, Klara adjusted her hair behind her ear before rising to her feet, her white coat fluttering slightly.

"I’ll call you both when the results are ready. It seems to be just mild exhaustion, but just in case, avoid any excessive physical activity until tomorrow." With a slight wave of her hand, she exited the infirmary, a faint smile playing on her lips, accentuated by her red lipstick.

Once the elf had left the room, Kelios glanced at the numerous needle marks on his arm before finally turning his head and speaking irritably. "What are you looking at?"

On the bed beside his, using a white sheet to cover her mouth, a pink-haired elf was struggling not to burst into laughter.

"Coward." Zaylin teased, watching as Kelios' expression soured.

"Shut up."

Grabbing the pillow he had been using, Kelios hurled it at Zaylin with impressive speed. The elf, without losing her smirk, caught the projectile with ease before taunting him again. "You’re still half a century away from landing a hit on me."

Proudly swinging the pillow back and forth, the pink-haired girl sat up in bed, her smile gradually fading.

Taking a deep breath, Zaylin’s gaze drifted from the floor to Kelios, her fingers intertwining as she rubbed them together.

"...You know, Kelios—!?"

"I didn’t say anything during General Riari’s interrogation, if that’s what you’re about to ask."

Just as she was about to speak, however, he cut her off immediately.

Lifting her head, Zaylin saw the elf getting out of bed and adjusting his clothes. He had spoken indifferently, as if unwilling to meet her gaze again.

"Kelios..."

Murmuring his name, the girl reached out slightly, as if about to say something, but hesitated and pulled back, biting her lip. Even with his back turned to her, the gesture didn’t escape Kelios’ notice.

"Zaylin, I’m not going to ask why you lied." He began, glancing over his shoulder before fully turning to face her. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

The elven girl pressed her lips together at his words, unsure how to respond. A tense silence filled the infirmary, with only the soft dripping of water in the sink breaking the stillness.

"Secrets. Lies, and more deception. You’ve always acted strangely, but protecting a human is stupidity beyond any of the reckless things you’ve done before!" Kelios shouted, clenching his fists.

More seconds passed without an answer. Seeing Zaylin merely turn her face away, refusing to meet his gaze in silence, only made the anger rising in his chest burn hotter.

"See? You’re not even trying to defend yourself." Kelios scoffed. "If you won’t explain why, the only thing I can assume is that you don’t trust me."

He tried once more, but when she still remained silent, he clicked his tongue impatiently.

“…I expected that.”

Pulling on his green cloak, Kelios headed toward the infirmary door. He hesitated for a few seconds at the threshold, waiting—hoping—to be stopped. But when no words came, he clenched his teeth and left.

Now alone in the room, Zaylin curled up on the bed, wrapping her arms around her knees. The silence and the fresh morning breeze would have been comforting in other situations, but now, they were nothing but unsettling.

“Trouble?”

A small pink orb floated in through the window and approached the girl.

The fairy brushed against Zaylin’s cheeks, her rosy eyes bare of makeup, revealing the dark circles beneath them to anyone paying close attention.

“It looks like I messed everything up, Maple.”

Zaylin murmured, resting her chin on her knee.

“I shouldn’t have come through the main gate. I should have found an excuse to keep her in the forest or looked for a gap in the walls to sneak her inside. Now, not only does General Riari know about her existence, but Kelios hates me because I can’t tell him what’s going on.”

The pink-haired girl bit her lips repeatedly. She had done it so many times that all she could feel now was a dull, numbing pain, even when she bit down hard enough to draw blood.

“… Perhaps I'm the coward, huh?”

Her chest felt heavy, as if a weight she wasn’t sure she could bear was pressing down on her shoulders. Every word Kelios had said was true—she had lied, acted recklessly, and couldn’t even tell him why.

Conflicting thoughts continued to pile up in her mind, but before they became unbearable, the small pink orb pressed against her with even more insistence.

“…Maple.”

The fairy’s warmth against her cheek was gentle. Even if Maple couldn’t do much or say many words, having her by her side was one of the few things that kept Zaylin moving forward.

“I can’t involve Kelios in this. I can’t make the situation any worse than I already have. Everything depends on this.”

Zaylin swiftly rose from the bed, grabbed the small box containing her belongings from the counter, and began putting her outfit back together.

“Act?” The fairy’s voice was soft, her speech short and delicate.

“As long as my story and Kelios’s match, they haven’t sent a report to the palace yet. That means they haven’t received orders to start interrogating the human.”

Wiping away the tears that had begun to form before they could spill, the elf stepped toward the door, her pink eyes burning with determination.

“I can still complete my mission.”

---

Inside the dimly lit cell, a silver-haired girl sat on the bed, her palms facing upward and resting on her bent knees.

After taking another sip of her advanced mana potion, Lily meditated for several hours in deep concentration.

She couldn’t do this every day without overloading herself, but by following a schedule of repeating the process every three or four days, she had been able to significantly increase her mana reserves.

As she had suspected, even after repeating this process multiple times, her growth curve hadn’t slowed down. Each session still allowed her to double her small mana reservoir.

When the discomfort finally became unbearable, she opened her eyes, breathing heavily despite not needing oxygen.

“…I think I lasted longer this time.” Lily murmured, the comforting sensation of air filling her lungs helping to ease the fatigue of having expanded her mana reserves once again.

Since not a single drop of sweat escaped her body no matter how much physical effort she exerted, she simply stretched her arms above her head, loosening up her muscles. But as she did, she noticed the silence in the cell.

“Nia?”

It felt strange that her wife hadn’t spoken even after she finished training. Concerned, Lily called out to her, but before she could say anything else, she felt a slight movement on the bed beside her.

“!?”

She shouldn’t have been surprised to see her beloved, but that logic was immediately shattered the moment her heterochromatic eyes focused on the girl crawling toward her.

Her usual black cardigan barely covered the upper part of her body, leaving the curves of her chest and collarbone exposed. Her long, bare legs moved in a way that made it painfully obvious she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

That alone would have been enough to make Lily’s face burn, but what was unfolding before her eyes made it impossible for her to think rationally.

Two triangular, pointed ears twitched atop her lover’s violet hair—furred on the outside in deep purple, soft and white on the inside, clearly canine in nature.

A long, thick tail extended from the base of her spine, its purple fur gradually fading into a silvery hue toward the tip.

The fox girl with crimson eyes moved closer until she sat on Lily’s lap, both arms wrapping around her neck as an adorable smile formed on her lips.

“I didn’t want Lily to get bored down here, so I thought of something that might be fun.”

Nia spoke close to the girl’s ear, her words carefully measured so that the warmth of her voice could reach the depths of Lily’s being.

“You’ve always been able to create this, Nia?”

Before she could even think, both of Lily’s hands were already sliding curiously over the soft fur of Nia’s tail. The strands were thick and silky, yet they yielded to her touch like a field of wheat swaying in the wind.

Lily could feel the subtle warmth she would never mistake. As an extension of her wife’s body, every touch felt natural, as if she had done this a thousand times before.

“Well… it’s not as efficient as innate abilities, so I limited myself to just clothing… Mhnn...” Nia started to explain, but somehow, the fingers running up and down the length of her newly formed tail made her body shudder and her lips struggled to suppress a moan.

Just as she did with Nia’s tentacles, Lily stroked the tail from base to tip, her unblinking eyes tracking every spot that made Nia react, increasing the intensity of her touch until the metamorph lost strength and had to lean against her breasts.

“Your ears are so soft~”

When her hands reached the pointed ears, the delicacy of the fur became even more evident. The base was covered in shorter, velvety fuzz, topped with slightly spiky tufts of longer hair.

“Mhnn... Ah... Aahh...”

Between Nia’s moans, Lily rubbed her thumb in small circles over the center of the ear, gently massaging the inner part. Nia clung even tighter to her, as if Lily were stimulating an erogenous zone she wasn’t even aware of.

“To come up with something like this… you never stop surprising me, my naughty girl~”

Humming playfully, Lily tilted Nia’s head so that her lips were aligned with her neck, her eyes pulsing as if hearts beat inside them, struggling to hold back.

“You asked me the other day if I wanted marks, didn’t you? I want them right now. As many as you want.”

Murmuring through heated breaths, Lily didn’t need to say more before feeling Nia’s small fangs sinking into her neck, her lips leaving a trail of warm saliva down her collarbone.

“Hgnnn... Nhmm… Hnmm”

At the same time her ears were being massaged, Nia latched onto Lily’s neck as if her life depended on it. Her teeth pressed into the skin, her lips damp with heat before sealing in a gentle suction.

At first, Nia sucked slowly, as if testing the limit. Lily’s soft, sensitive skin carried a scent that welcomed her with love—something exclusive to her, meant only for her. That intoxicating thought made her crave even more.

She was drawn to this thought. Lily's moans as she sucked harder sent thrills through her. Nia could feel her wife's breath quickening with pleasure, the twitches of her ears and tail growing more erratic with each lick between marks—as if tender kisses could soothe the burning. It was enough to drive her mad.

Nia wanted to leave more marks on Lily, but her body betrayed her plans. At some point, her hips had begun grinding her swollen clit against her wife’s thighs, chasing friction. When she finally pulled her lips from Lily’s neck, she surveyed the five vivid marks scattered across her skin. Pride pulsed hot in her veins.

“Mhnn… Lily… I’m gonna cum!”

The whisper barely escaped before Nia bit it back, but the way the purple-haired girl rutted against her told Lily everything. Acting fast, Lily sealed their mouths together, tangling tongues to smother the moans while matching Nia’s frantic pace.

Wet sounds spilled into the air—from their joined lips, from the slick heat pumping desperately against Lily’s thighs. Nia never closed her eyes. She stared into Lily’s gaze, raw devotion burning as pleasure crested—

“Nhmmmmm!”

Back arched, her newest fox tail stiffening straight up, Nia came with a silent scream against Lily’s mouth. A flood of love juice drenched Lily’s dress, warmth spreading as Nia clung tighter, knees buckling while her throbbing core pulsed out every last drop.

“Lily…” Boneless and spent, she collapsed against her wife’s ample chest. Lily smiled, stroking the sweat-damp purple hair. Her mate’s idea of “entertainment” might be excessive, but the sight of that bliss-dazed face erased all complaints.

The tail, acquired from the genetic code of ice foxes, continued to sway in front of her even after everything. The cheerful way it moved was proof of how much Nia had enjoyed their loving session, which filled Lily with joy.

Gently stroking Nia's purple hair, Lily continued to pamper her as she nuzzled against her chest without a care. At that moment, Lily caught the sound of voices coming from the other side of the door in the hallway leading to her cell. Though she couldn't make out the words, it was obvious what was about to happen.

“Nia! Someone’s coming!”

Lily shook the blanket-covered bundle, expecting Nia to dissolve into her. Instead, pouting cheeks emerged.

“No. Only I got to feel good—now it’s Lily’s turn!”

Sliding beneath the covers, the fox-tailed metamorph crept toward Lily’s core. Even in total darkness, the penis and vagina now before her eyes revealed themselves in such vivid detail that heat instantly flooded her cheeks.

“Nia!”

Lily whispered desperately as she felt her wife’s fingers begin to move. She wouldn’t have minded this in another situation, but she wasn’t sure if she could stay composed with Nia doing this now.

“It’s okay, I’ll do it in a way that no one will notice.” Nia replied. Though Lily couldn’t see her face at the moment, the silver-haired girl was certain she was smiling.

Biting her lips to stifle a moan, Lily hurriedly adjusted the blanket over her legs, wrapping her feet around Nia’s back to keep her intense movements from being visible.

Stacking her wrists together, Lily watched as the wooden shackles formed again, crafted from Nia’s ‘material.’ When they had brought her food the previous night, none of the guards had noticed anything strange. She was already confident that the fact she could use her mana again wouldn’t be discovered.

Slowly, the sound of the door creaking open filled the room. The light from outside spilled in for just a moment before the door shut again, and the echo of boots on the floor followed.

Approaching the bars of the cell, a girl with rose-colored hair gazed at her with determination before kneeling in front of her in a single, fluid motion.

“I’d like to talk for a bit. Would you please hear me out?”