This was painfully awkward—a kind of awkwardness that made my skin crawl, a discomfort so intense it felt like my whole body was cringing. All I wanted was to get the hell out of there, but I couldn’t. Gabrielle was absolutely fuming.
I didn’t even know it was possible to piss off a woman who was already dominated. When a woman was fully dominated, she was supposed to be yours completely—only having sex with you, loving you, offering herself to you, body and soul. But apparently, that didn’t come with a perk for dealing with Gabrielle’s… uh, simmering anger that was bubbling just below the surface. I guess you can’t really dominate those kinds of feelings, huh?
“Have I told you why I hate her so much?” she suddenly asked.
“No,” I replied.
I couldn’t remember. Maybe she had mentioned it before. No, I was pretty sure she hadn’t. But even if she did, she might not have given me all the details.
“Irene and I used to be close—friends, even. Rose too. There was one more, but she left the academy in her third year. Unlike the three of us, who stayed in the gold class through our fourth year, she only managed to reach it for half a semester before crashing down to the bronze class,” she explained. “But to be honest, she didn’t really need to become a magic knight. Her status is… quite royal, you know.”
“Quite royal,” she said. Meaning she was part of the royal family. From this country? Or maybe another. I had no idea.
“Rose also dropped in the rankings at the start of our fourth year. She was already at the bottom of the gold class—100th place, the last position—so she was always fluctuating between gold and silver,” she continued. “Irene and I, on the other hand, stayed in the gold class all through our fourth year. But just before graduation, she fell to silver. I told her to keep pushing so she could graduate with me in the gold class, but she couldn’t keep up and missed out on making it to gold.”
I didn’t fully understand her obsession with becoming a magic knight, and I probably never would. But the depth of her frustration back then must have been immense. I knew all too well the crushing disappointment of waiting for something only to see it disintegrate in a heartbeat.
“I really let her have it at graduation,” she said, her voice tight with lingering resentment. “I told her she should have heeded my advice. I shamed her publicly in front of the entire graduating class. It was a dramatic scene that everyone from our batch probably remembers. I made sure she felt the full weight of her failure. That public humiliation was the spark that ignited our mutual hatred and shattered our friendship.”
So that was the crux of it. It was a gripping story, but without the full backdrop, Gabrielle just came off as a vindictive bitch toward Irene. At least, that was the impression based on what she’d shared.
“I went absolutely ballistic back then. I mean, how dare she accuse me of having it easy just because I had Guardian? She claimed that my skill was the only thing keeping me in the gold class, that I was just benefiting from a privileged advantage. She had no idea how hard I’d worked to get to where I was, pushing myself day in and day out, constantly training to improve. Her mind was consumed with nothing but plants and flowers. You probably don’t know this, but Irene had a notoriously big mouth and cursed like a sailor when she was a student. Right before graduation, she let all her frustration out on me, telling me to stop giving her orders, and she spewed every swear word I knew—and even some I’d never heard before. She even called me a suck-up.”
Now I was torn. Back then, they must have been real pieces of work. They were only 22 at the time. It was only two years since then. It made sense they couldn’t let bygones be bygones—the wounds were still too fresh.
“You get why I don’t like her, right? You saw her real self earlier. It was a far cry from the polished, professional Irene you see at school. She’s… yeah, she’s what you’d call a bitch, right?”
That description hit the mark for Irene. But honestly, Gabrielle wasn’t far off from that label herself. They were both in the same bitter league, if I’m being blunt. I didn’t want to slap that label on Gabrielle, though. If I did, she’d probably blow up even more than before and retreat into her sulking, and I really didn’t want to deal with that—especially since she was actually talking to me now and sharing this stuff.
I reached out and gripped her shoulder firmly.
“Stop the car,” I told her with a commanding edge.
“Eh?”
“Just stop the car,” I said with a firm tone.
She pulled over to the side of the road, where the area seemed empty and quiet. It looked like the perfect moment to finally reward Gabrielle for her efforts.
I reached for the nape of her neck, pulling her in close. Our lips met in a kiss that was both demanding and tender. Gabrielle didn’t flinch; she simply surrendered to the kiss, letting it happen without resistance.
Our tongues collided, slapping and clicking together with wet, rhythmic sounds. Saliva exchanged between us as we slurped and fed each other with our mouths, like a pair of birds sharing a meal.
“M-Master? Here?” she stammered.
“What, you don’t want it? I’m pretty sure I’ve fucked you in public before,” I said, a smirk playing on my lips.
“T-This is different. Sure, that was outside, but this feels way too public.”
“Well, you’d better keep those moans to yourself, then,” I told her firmly. “Because I’m planning to make amends for what you saw earlier.”
This wasn’t just a reward; it was an apology, a way to make things right. And of course, it meant getting laid at the same time.
