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“Ha, where did you hear such a thing…”
Yulan slightly wrinkled her nose and twisted one corner of her mouth roughly upward.
But she wasn’t scared or frightened at all.
She had already sorted out her feelings, and now that things had come to this, she had even developed the determination to succeed no matter what.
Yevgenia, looking straight into her eyes, snorted and asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to say that His Highness, the esteemed Crown Prince of our Atrux Empire, was actually Her Highness the Princess?”
The response to her provocation came back in action not long after.
The hand that had been quietly pressing down on the bed had now moved onto her thigh.
“Euk…”
The sensation of the large hand gently massaging her thigh sent shivers down her spine.
Should she call it a truly strange feeling?
It was a sensation she couldn’t possibly describe in any language she knew.
Ticklish, yet the touched area felt as if it were heating up strangely…
“Hey, stop that…”
“Why? Does it feel bad?”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just weird…”
The momentum from earlier had long since faded.
When she spoke in a voice that had shrunk considerably, a rough laugh erupted from the head of the bed.
‘Did I say something… funny?’
Her face flushed red with shame.
What was she supposed to do when she had never experienced such a situation in her entire life—no, in both lifetimes?
As she gnawed on her lips, she felt the hand gripping her thigh tighten its hold.
“Duchess.”
“Uh, yes…”
“……Zhenya.”
It was a nickname she had only heard in early childhood, back when she didn’t even know what a Duke or Marquess was.
In this… situation, it sounded incredibly… indecent. Was she the strange one for thinking that?
As she tightly closed her mouth, Yulan’s hand gradually moved upward.
The hand touching her through the thin chemise felt even more secretive than if it were touching bare skin.
Her neck instinctively shrank at the touch lightly rubbing her waist.
Just when she couldn’t bear it any longer and tightly closed her eyes, praying for all of this to pass quickly.
“Open your eyes, Zhenya.”
“……Euk.”
“Even if it’s an act without affection, isn’t it proper to kiss while looking into each other’s eyes?”
Hesitating, Yevgenia slowly opened her eyes.
Her trembling red eyelashes showed just how much courage she had mustered.
Unable to bear the embarrassment, she tried to bite her lower lip again, but a cold finger rubbed over it.
“You’ll get hurt.”
Along with the low voice, the sensation of gently stroking her soft lower lip…
Being overly conscious of Yulan made even his gaze feel as if it were touching her skin.
The moment his gaze, which had been examining her lips, rose and met her eyes directly, she couldn’t bear it any longer and sharply turned her head away.
“……Don’t, don’t look at me like that.”
“How am I looking at you?”
At the question tinged with a faint laugh, she strained her voice to answer.
“You’re staring… too intently.”
“Should I wear an eye patch? Is that your preference?”
“You’re… insane…”
Had she perhaps made some huge mistake?
No matter what, how could a prince, a human being, utter such vulgar… words?
Had the Empire truly reached its end?
“Ah…”
“Focus, Zhenya.”
Yulan, as if sensing her distraction, tightly grabbed her waist.
Startled, she looked at him, and he, who had already closed the distance, brought his nose tip to hers.
Close enough to feel each other’s breath, they exchanged glances for a long while.
Something soft touched her heated lips.
It was the beginning of a long night.
“Why don’t you lie down a bit longer? Your body probably isn’t in good shape.”
“……Don’t you think it’s too shameless for the very person who made me feel this way to say that?”
Holding onto her aching waist, she barely managed to sit up.
The moment her feet touched the floor, her legs, which she thought were fine, trembled like a newborn goat.
Too flustered to even brace herself on the bed, she was about to slump down when she was caught—shamelessly—by the very person who had put her in this state.
“See? You can’t even walk properly.”
“Whose fault is that…”
The hand that naturally supported her waist and politely escorted her to the sofa was exceedingly courteous.
Just moments ago, he hadn’t seemed like such a… well, beastly… scoundrel who worked people to death.
Struggling to hold up her entire body, which felt languid as if after intense exercise, she half-lay on the sofa.
Rubbing her warmed forehead, she tried to organize her thoughts when a sudden question made her jerk her head up.
“Nox, you lied, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Me?”
“I don’t know much either, but you seemed the same.”
She hadn’t felt anything particularly strange during the kiss.
After all, it was her first time too, and she was too preoccupied enduring that… squishy… anyway, strange sensation.
But from then on, well, how should she put it, the movements that followed felt like applying theory to practice for the first time.
Touching here and there, observing or checking her reactions…
What confirmed her suspicion was when they got down to serious business.
Narrowing her eyes, Yevgenia asked while staring intently at Yulan’s back as he poured tea.
“You were a virgin. Why did you lie?”
For a moment, his broad back seemed to flinch.
But not long after, as he sat down with the tea set, no trace of disturbance could be found on his face.
As she quietly crossed her arms and watched him, he extended a cup to her with perfect etiquette.
“Why don’t you have some? Your throat might be hoarse by tomorrow.”
“…….”
“My, what a demanding guest.”
Finally raising both hands in surrender at her firm attitude, Yulan shrugged and confessed readily.
“You’re right. So what?”
“Ha… how shameless. You have nothing to lie about, so…”
“What an interesting thing to say.”
Without making a single sound, Yulan picked up his teacup and crossed his legs.
His words were spoken with an endlessly high-handed attitude and posture.
“If I had said I was a virgin, would you have trusted and entrusted your body to me?”
“That’s…”
“There’s something more important than this, isn’t there?”
The pitch-black eyelashes that had been quietly looking down at the teacup disappeared as if a curtain had risen, revealing the sparkling green eyes beneath.
Under his gaze that seemed to pierce through her, her hand unconsciously reached for the teacup.
The moment she hastily took a sip.
“You’re not going to say you didn’t enjoy it, are you? You liked it so much you scratched up my back.”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“Thanks to you, Duchess, I found out. That I had such talent in this area…”
“S-stop it. I get it, so stop!”
Her face flushed bright red.
It was because the moment she had embraced his back in her hazy memory came to mind.
The texture of smooth skin and firm muscles…
‘Get a grip, Yevgenia Rose Martyr! If you keep this up, it’ll really seem like I’m obsessed with his body!’
Biting the tip of her tongue secretly inside her mouth, she barely regained her composure.
After drinking tea repeatedly to calm her pounding heart.
She spoke with the most serious expression she could muster.
“……You’re not going to say something like ‘since you took my first time, you have to take responsibility,’ are you?”
“Ha! Who would say such a thing?”
His tone, which sounded displeased, oddly put her more at ease.
Yulan was handsome, but that simply meant he was ‘handsome’ as a fact.
Once she got rid of Raymond, she was determined to enjoy her life without even glancing at XY chromosomes.
“Ah, the name! Check if it’s erased for me.”
“Ah… right, the mirror…”
“No, you can just look and tell me. Hurry.”
With her flushed face, Yevgenia swept the disheveled hair near her collarbone to the other side and pushed her shoulder toward Yulan.
As she moved, her robe naturally parted.
At that moment, a courteous hand promptly straightened the hem of her robe.
“It’s definitely erased. Just one letter L, but this should be enough, right?”
“Really? More than enough! It’s a good thing the previous wound healed well. It would’ve been annoying if it was covered by a scar.”
If it had disappeared so cleanly that a glance was enough to tell, it was the perfect excuse to bring up the myth and request the annulment.
Moreover, she was so out of it that she barely remembered the pain of the name being erased—truly… unfair, but he did well—so it could be considered a satisfactory deal.
‘Come to think of it, what happens to my lifespan now?’
In the original work, it was clearly stated that when painfully erasing a name, three years of lifespan were deducted per letter.
So what happens when it’s erased in such a… gentle… way?
She was curious, but she couldn’t ask outright.
There was no benefit in letting him know she knew too much.
‘Just because I spent a night with him doesn’t mean I can trust that man.’
Yevgenia’s eyes turned cold for a moment.
Looking down at the teacup showing the bottom for a while, she asked nonchalantly.
“Being able to erase a name without pain is truly amazing? It seems like a method with no drawbacks at all. ……There aren’t any, are there?”
Yulan slightly wrinkled her nose and twisted one corner of her mouth roughly upward.
But she wasn’t scared or frightened at all.
She had already sorted out her feelings, and now that things had come to this, she had even developed the determination to succeed no matter what.
Yevgenia, looking straight into her eyes, snorted and asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to say that His Highness, the esteemed Crown Prince of our Atrux Empire, was actually Her Highness the Princess?”
The response to her provocation came back in action not long after.
The hand that had been quietly pressing down on the bed had now moved onto her thigh.
“Euk…”
The sensation of the large hand gently massaging her thigh sent shivers down her spine.
Should she call it a truly strange feeling?
It was a sensation she couldn’t possibly describe in any language she knew.
Ticklish, yet the touched area felt as if it were heating up strangely…
“Hey, stop that…”
“Why? Does it feel bad?”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just weird…”
The momentum from earlier had long since faded.
When she spoke in a voice that had shrunk considerably, a rough laugh erupted from the head of the bed.
‘Did I say something… funny?’
Her face flushed red with shame.
What was she supposed to do when she had never experienced such a situation in her entire life—no, in both lifetimes?
As she gnawed on her lips, she felt the hand gripping her thigh tighten its hold.
“Duchess.”
“Uh, yes…”
“……Zhenya.”
It was a nickname she had only heard in early childhood, back when she didn’t even know what a Duke or Marquess was.
In this… situation, it sounded incredibly… indecent. Was she the strange one for thinking that?
As she tightly closed her mouth, Yulan’s hand gradually moved upward.
The hand touching her through the thin chemise felt even more secretive than if it were touching bare skin.
Her neck instinctively shrank at the touch lightly rubbing her waist.
Just when she couldn’t bear it any longer and tightly closed her eyes, praying for all of this to pass quickly.
“Open your eyes, Zhenya.”
“……Euk.”
“Even if it’s an act without affection, isn’t it proper to kiss while looking into each other’s eyes?”
Hesitating, Yevgenia slowly opened her eyes.
Her trembling red eyelashes showed just how much courage she had mustered.
Unable to bear the embarrassment, she tried to bite her lower lip again, but a cold finger rubbed over it.
“You’ll get hurt.”
Along with the low voice, the sensation of gently stroking her soft lower lip…
Being overly conscious of Yulan made even his gaze feel as if it were touching her skin.
The moment his gaze, which had been examining her lips, rose and met her eyes directly, she couldn’t bear it any longer and sharply turned her head away.
“……Don’t, don’t look at me like that.”
“How am I looking at you?”
At the question tinged with a faint laugh, she strained her voice to answer.
“You’re staring… too intently.”
“Should I wear an eye patch? Is that your preference?”
“You’re… insane…”
Had she perhaps made some huge mistake?
No matter what, how could a prince, a human being, utter such vulgar… words?
Had the Empire truly reached its end?
“Ah…”
“Focus, Zhenya.”
Yulan, as if sensing her distraction, tightly grabbed her waist.
Startled, she looked at him, and he, who had already closed the distance, brought his nose tip to hers.
Close enough to feel each other’s breath, they exchanged glances for a long while.
Something soft touched her heated lips.
It was the beginning of a long night.
“Why don’t you lie down a bit longer? Your body probably isn’t in good shape.”
“……Don’t you think it’s too shameless for the very person who made me feel this way to say that?”
Holding onto her aching waist, she barely managed to sit up.
The moment her feet touched the floor, her legs, which she thought were fine, trembled like a newborn goat.
Too flustered to even brace herself on the bed, she was about to slump down when she was caught—shamelessly—by the very person who had put her in this state.
“See? You can’t even walk properly.”
“Whose fault is that…”
The hand that naturally supported her waist and politely escorted her to the sofa was exceedingly courteous.
Just moments ago, he hadn’t seemed like such a… well, beastly… scoundrel who worked people to death.
Struggling to hold up her entire body, which felt languid as if after intense exercise, she half-lay on the sofa.
Rubbing her warmed forehead, she tried to organize her thoughts when a sudden question made her jerk her head up.
“Nox, you lied, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Me?”
“I don’t know much either, but you seemed the same.”
She hadn’t felt anything particularly strange during the kiss.
After all, it was her first time too, and she was too preoccupied enduring that… squishy… anyway, strange sensation.
But from then on, well, how should she put it, the movements that followed felt like applying theory to practice for the first time.
Touching here and there, observing or checking her reactions…
What confirmed her suspicion was when they got down to serious business.
Narrowing her eyes, Yevgenia asked while staring intently at Yulan’s back as he poured tea.
“You were a virgin. Why did you lie?”
For a moment, his broad back seemed to flinch.
But not long after, as he sat down with the tea set, no trace of disturbance could be found on his face.
As she quietly crossed her arms and watched him, he extended a cup to her with perfect etiquette.
“Why don’t you have some? Your throat might be hoarse by tomorrow.”
“…….”
“My, what a demanding guest.”
Finally raising both hands in surrender at her firm attitude, Yulan shrugged and confessed readily.
“You’re right. So what?”
“Ha… how shameless. You have nothing to lie about, so…”
“What an interesting thing to say.”
Without making a single sound, Yulan picked up his teacup and crossed his legs.
His words were spoken with an endlessly high-handed attitude and posture.
“If I had said I was a virgin, would you have trusted and entrusted your body to me?”
“That’s…”
“There’s something more important than this, isn’t there?”
The pitch-black eyelashes that had been quietly looking down at the teacup disappeared as if a curtain had risen, revealing the sparkling green eyes beneath.
Under his gaze that seemed to pierce through her, her hand unconsciously reached for the teacup.
The moment she hastily took a sip.
“You’re not going to say you didn’t enjoy it, are you? You liked it so much you scratched up my back.”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“Thanks to you, Duchess, I found out. That I had such talent in this area…”
“S-stop it. I get it, so stop!”
Her face flushed bright red.
It was because the moment she had embraced his back in her hazy memory came to mind.
The texture of smooth skin and firm muscles…
‘Get a grip, Yevgenia Rose Martyr! If you keep this up, it’ll really seem like I’m obsessed with his body!’
Biting the tip of her tongue secretly inside her mouth, she barely regained her composure.
After drinking tea repeatedly to calm her pounding heart.
She spoke with the most serious expression she could muster.
“……You’re not going to say something like ‘since you took my first time, you have to take responsibility,’ are you?”
“Ha! Who would say such a thing?”
His tone, which sounded displeased, oddly put her more at ease.
Yulan was handsome, but that simply meant he was ‘handsome’ as a fact.
Once she got rid of Raymond, she was determined to enjoy her life without even glancing at XY chromosomes.
“Ah, the name! Check if it’s erased for me.”
“Ah… right, the mirror…”
“No, you can just look and tell me. Hurry.”
With her flushed face, Yevgenia swept the disheveled hair near her collarbone to the other side and pushed her shoulder toward Yulan.
As she moved, her robe naturally parted.
At that moment, a courteous hand promptly straightened the hem of her robe.
“It’s definitely erased. Just one letter L, but this should be enough, right?”
“Really? More than enough! It’s a good thing the previous wound healed well. It would’ve been annoying if it was covered by a scar.”
If it had disappeared so cleanly that a glance was enough to tell, it was the perfect excuse to bring up the myth and request the annulment.
Moreover, she was so out of it that she barely remembered the pain of the name being erased—truly… unfair, but he did well—so it could be considered a satisfactory deal.
‘Come to think of it, what happens to my lifespan now?’
In the original work, it was clearly stated that when painfully erasing a name, three years of lifespan were deducted per letter.
So what happens when it’s erased in such a… gentle… way?
She was curious, but she couldn’t ask outright.
There was no benefit in letting him know she knew too much.
‘Just because I spent a night with him doesn’t mean I can trust that man.’
Yevgenia’s eyes turned cold for a moment.
Looking down at the teacup showing the bottom for a while, she asked nonchalantly.
“Being able to erase a name without pain is truly amazing? It seems like a method with no drawbacks at all. ……There aren’t any, are there?”
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