Reniel said that while trembling. He touched the towel with a relaxed smile.

At that, Reniel seemed to tense up even more.

Originally, he wanted to tease and torment Reniel a bit more. However, her face was flushed bright red, seemingly from genuine nervousness.

“I’m joking. Turn around.”

“…Yes.”

It was Reniel who felt relieved at those words.

In truth, she wasn’t very excited by a man’s body. Even when she had transformed into a man, she didn’t find it particularly interesting or special.

After all, she had lived as a man for quite a long time.

And yet.

When Thanasis teased that he would show her, it felt truly strange. It sounded almost like he was saying he’d show her something she shouldn’t see.

So she obediently turned around.

The soft sound of him untying the towel seemed to ring clearly in her ears as if it were right next to them.

She found herself unconsciously tensing up and focusing on that sound.

Along with the soft rustling of fabric, she heard what sounded like someone touching an even smaller piece of cloth. Then, Thanasis sighed and said,

“You dress me from here on.”

She slowly turned back around. There stood Thanasis, wearing only drawers.

“You used to dress yourself well before.”

“That was because I had to back then. I don’t want to now, do I?”

Originally, Thanasis had never changed clothes alone in the imperial palace. And now he wanted Reniel to dress him.

He liked the feeling of his magic settling down every time she touched him.

Moreover, her flustered and nervous expression.

It was very pleasing to see.

He thought that the beautiful appearance, which was the defense mechanism of a magic purification ability user, looked lovely in new ways each time. So every expression was fascinating and interesting.

Though she didn’t know his thoughts in detail, Reniel could instinctively tell that he treated her quite comfortably.

“Please put on your pants.”

“Alright, fine.”

Thanasis generously thought he would at least put on the pants himself at her words.

“You fasten the belt.”

“…Yes.”

So as she said, he picked up the white pants and put them on.

He put them on so skillfully that Reniel doubted his claim of never having dressed himself.

Soon after he roughly fastened the buckle and pulled up the zipper, silence fell.

As if coming to her senses in that silence, she quickly moved to get the belt. Then realizing the shirt came first, she brought the shirt over.

The pure white shirt was quite beautiful, with a texture like silk when it brushed against her hands. Even Felix’s clothes weren’t this soft.

The fabric, with its subtle sheen yet soft texture, seemed to make a rustling sound every time it touched her hands.

She approached Thanasis and put the shirt on him. He matched his arms to how she fitted it on him.

Soon came the moment to button it up. She tried to fasten his buttons nonchalantly.

Though the bandages visible under the clothes bothered her, she pretended not to notice as she buttoned it up.

“From now on, every day. You will treat my wounds.”

“I will.”

“And sleep here at night.”

“Because I’m the bedchamber maid?”

“That’s right.”

Thanasis couldn’t know what she had done when putting Felix to bed, but it irked him that she thought of him while with himself.

He could somewhat guess what might have happened. That crazy monster must have simply used the pretext of being a bedchamber attendant to torment people.

As her hands finished buttoning up his shirt, he felt a little disappointed.

After roughly tucking the shirt into his pants, he put on the light gray vest she brought over. The vest had only two buttons.

Now he was focusing on the purification ability mixed in her exhaled breaths.

“By the way, how do you want to spend your first night?”

He thought that intimacy was necessary to form a bond with her.

After all, those who had bonded with purification ability users in the past had been their husbands.

“Suddenly? You won’t even let me date?”

Reniel wondered why he was asking such a thing. The question was quite startling.

At the same time, she thought it might not be such an impossible thing to say, given that she was serving a master who preferred men.

Of course, Thanasis being homosexual was purely her misunderstanding.

“So. You won’t answer?”

Not wanting to upset Thanasis, she pondered before continuing.

“I’m… actually a bit scared. Everyone says the first time hurts…”

“…Ah, right. I’ve heard that.”

At that moment, Thanasis unwittingly realized the fear she might feel. He had momentarily forgotten that a woman’s first time was painful.

“But I think it would all be fine if it’s with someone I love.”

“Does loving make it not hurt?”

“It’s not that, but they say it hurts less.”

“Is that based on something?”

“Yes.”

Reniel answered with certainty.

Until now, Thanasis had thought consummating with Reniel was most important.

He needed to form a bond before she returned to the Nirnberg ducal family.

Moreover, he had been someone who didn’t need to consider others’ feelings or conditions until now.

But the magic purification ability user was different.

She was someone he needed to keep by his side for life.

Was there any need to deliberately distance himself from such a person’s feelings? Besides, the choker around her neck was proof that she belonged to him.

No one else could touch her, and she couldn’t get away from him.

Then couldn’t he afford to take it slow?

“Mother said that even you could be the crown princess if you bear my son. It would be enough if you became an adopted daughter of Mother’s close associate.”

“Honestly, that part doesn’t really resonate with me. I’m clearly a commoner, aren’t I? And even if my status is resolved, I’ve just turned twenty, so children feel distant to me. It’s scary too.”

“Why? Usually, nobles my age all have at least one child. Aristocrats start marrying around that time too.”

That was often the case for aristocrats. They would get engaged as minors and marry as soon as both came of age.

However, Reniel was a commoner, and commoners didn’t get engaged as minors, so it was natural to start looking for a partner after coming of age.

Reniel understood what Thanasis was saying, having spent a long time at the Le Pelique ducal residence despite being a commoner, but she didn’t want to do that.

“I didn’t live as a noble, you know.”

“Then at what age do you want to have children?”

“I don’t know. If I get married, I think it might be nice to enjoy newlywed life for about a year and then try slowly.”

She spoke of what she had vaguely but often thought about someday.

She believed that even Thanasis’s probing about children wasn’t sincere.

She thought he was just having these concerns because, as the crown prince, he had a duty regarding succession.

Moreover, Reniel knew. He wasn’t aroused by the sight of naked women.

That had been mentioned several times in the original work she had read.

“You have quite romantic thoughts, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

“It’s impressive you had such thoughts even while living as a man.”

Thanasis genuinely thought so. For men, it doesn’t matter whether it’s their first time or not.

Besides, royalty were often urged to sow as many seeds as possible. Those were the things Thanasis hated most.

He knew that he was the black sheep of the imperial family.

Yet he seemed to vaguely understand why he had been so averse to women and unwilling to share a bed until now.

As if she had spoken the answer to something only he didn’t know.

“Actually, I think I feel the same as you.”

The moment he heard her words, he felt like he understood why he had acted that way.

His mother who bore him without love, his father who never showed any affection.

Both of them looked at him with contempt, as if seeing a monster, every time they saw him.

If that was what being a couple meant, he didn’t want to create such a relationship.

“Really?”

Thanasis nodded casually. She looked at him with a small smile.

And then she finished putting his coat on him.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Around that time, the head servant and other servants entered his room pushing a trolley.

As soon as Thanasis saw the head servant, he frowned and said,

“Clear all that off the bed.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Perhaps because Thanasis didn’t trust the head servant at all, unlike how he treated Reniel somewhat humanely, his eyes were filled with contempt when dealing with him.

That was natural. The head servant was the First Princess’s man.

Even after cutting and cutting again and dismissing them, they were always replaced with the First Princess’s people, so Thanasis had just given up.

“By the way, Head Servant, I’m curious about something.”

Reniel smiled and spoke as the head servant entered with the other servants.

“Isn’t it proper to clean the room thoroughly before the master returns? Why is there dust under the lamp in this room?”

“Pardon?”

“Perhaps you didn’t think Thanasis would return? The fine dust visible in the room doesn’t seem good for His Highness.”

Reniel said this while smiling at the head servant. From the start, she knew through the original work.

How the head servant and other staff here had subtly tormented Thanasis.

Her goal was promotion. To remove the choker.

To do that, it was important to show loyalty. After all, the head servant wasn’t even the superior of the bedchamber maid.