Inside a quiet villa on Meriel Island, a hands-on lesson was in full swing.

As Marlin had asserted, Caeron, who was good at anything physical, was the teacher, and his student was Aidel, who was awkward with her body unlike her mind.

The man and woman were closely positioned in front of a wide table. From afar, their bodies looked as if they were overlapping into one.

“Relax your body.”

Caeron grabbed Aidel’s slender waist, which was completely stiff, to adjust her posture.

Following his guidance, she bent over the table, leaning forward with her hips pushed back. The soft curves of the woman’s body were captivating enough to mesmerize the eyes.

“This posture is a first for me……”

Aidel’s face flushed as red as the carpet on the table, experiencing this posture for the first time in her life.

He said to relax her body…… but she kept tensing up due to nervousness from the unfamiliar situation.

“It’s troublesome if you tense up like that.”

“I can’t help but tense up……”

“You could get hurt if you’re too tense.”

Caeron slowly stroked Aidel’s stiff shoulders and arms.

“Relax. It’s awkward at first, but you’ll get better with practice.”

At his soothing voice, Aidel took a deep breath and tried to relax.

Feeling every tremor from behind her, Caeron enveloped her hand and pressed his body close. He whispered softly near her bright red earlobe.

“Focus without missing a single moment.”

Struggling to hold onto her fading consciousness, Aidel strained her trembling eyes.

Caeron grasped Aidel’s hand, pulled it back slightly, then pushed it forward forcefully.

‘Clack.’

The ivory ball touched by the cue stick collided with another ball. Surprise and joy at the successful shot appeared on Aidel’s face after her first attempt.

Although it was practically the same as if Caeron had hit it himself since he guided her posture from behind…… Aidel still raised her body with a much lighter expression.

“The ball hit!”

“Yes. Well done.”

Seeing Aidel’s smile spread across her face in good spirits, Caeron’s expression also softened.

If one only heard their conversation, it might have raised misunderstandings leading to indecent imagination…… but they were in the middle of enjoying billiards.

It started when Aidel discovered the billiards room while touring the villa with Caeron and showed curiosity.

The equipment in the billiards room captured the passage of time, but was clean and well-maintained.

− It’s a billiards room.

− You can try it if you want.

− Ah…… I’ve actually never played before.

Aidel lowered her gaze with a troubled expression. Having never set foot in high society until now, she had never played billiards, a common pastime for nobles.

From the moment she left the Count’s residence and entered the world, she was learning one by one how many things she was encountering for the first time.

She realized even in this moment that while her book knowledge was deep, her firsthand experience and insight were shallow.

After briefly observing her face with a faint shadow cast over it, Caeron made a suggestion.

− I’ll teach you.

− Billiards?

− Yes. It would be good for the future Grand Duchess of Ellios to know how to play.

Aidel nodded gently at his words. A sudden lesson began under the pretext of cultivating the Grand Duchess’s refinement.

There was a strange tension as he guided her body, which was completely unfamiliar with the basic posture, but the lesson proceeded without much trouble.

Through several repetitions, Aidel could now strike a fairly good pose on her own. Once she got the posture down, calculating the angles for the stroke was even easier.

Aidel confidently stroked with her clever mind grasping the trajectory of the ball, but there was another problem.

“Ah…!”

Aidel let out a low sigh.

She lacked the ability to maintain consistent force when pushing, so the cushion wasn’t hit sufficiently.

Caeron’s eyes curved as he watched her expression, which had been full of anticipation before the stroke, become dejected afterwards.

Her usually quiet and gentle demeanor, now filled with enthusiasm and effort once she set her mind to something, made him smile.

“It’s alright. You did well for your first time.”

He lightly patted the head of his praiseworthy student. Aidel’s cheeks flushed at his words which felt kind.

“My Grand Duchess learns well when taught with her body.”

At his following words, Aidel’s relaxed facial muscles suddenly tensed.

The thought that his words might imply something else must be a misunderstanding……?

Aidel, who was about to express gratitude for Caeron’s encouragement, moved her lips with an ambiguous expression.

His eyes, which fully sensed such a change in her mood, smoldered subtly.

“I thought of something else to teach with the body……”

Aidel’s body flinched at his low words. Her heart rate began to quicken like a warning signal.

“Shall I teach you? Aidel?”

What on earth was he going to teach…… Aidel’s mouth went dry and she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

“Haa…… What should I do.”

Aidel was uncharacteristically struggling with a difficult problem.

That problem was inside the trunk Marlin had packed for her.

Aidel, who had been carefully examining the luggage in the trunk, briefly lit up when she found the item she was looking for, but soon her expression was filled with bewilderment.

“Is this really right……?”

With no maid accompanying her, there was no one to answer.

Worried that she might wander alone, Marlin had kindly included a catalog. Looking at the catalog’s publisher, it was from Charlotte’s Clothing Shop as expected.

She sighed deeply, recalling Madame Pomfenu who gave her trials, following the negligee she wore on her first night.

After pondering over that item for a long while, she made a decision, thinking she shouldn’t delay too much.

She put it on according to the catalog and looked in the mirror. Soon, a flushed Aidel couldn’t look straight at the mirror and lowered her gaze. The reflection in the mirror was too embarrassing.

“Is this really right? Marlin…… Madame Pomfenu……”

As she desperately whispered their names that wouldn’t answer even if called, there was a knock from outside.

A startled Aidel quickly put on a nearby nightgown.

“Aidel. Are you ready?”

It was Caeron, who had come to greet her directly as it was taking longer than expected.

“I-I’ll be right out!”

Aidel fumbled about, not knowing what to do, then tightly tied the nightgown’s waist sash and opened the door.

“Sorry for being late.”

He, who had been leaning against the door in a loosely worn nightgown, looked at her who had just opened the door and come out.

Aidel, grasping the front of her gown tightly with a completely stiff face, looked like a knight going to war. She wore the knee-length nightgown solemnly like armor.

“Are you going to some battlefield?”

When Caeron asked in a voice full of laughter, Aidel turned her gaze to a distant place in embarrassment.

“Let’s…… go.”

“Alright. We’ll set out now.”

At his words that still seemed to tease her, Aidel glared at Caeron, though not unkindly.

Following his guidance, Aidel came out of the villa and began walking carefully.

Caeron chuckled at her taking small steps, worrying that her gown might open.

Bundling up like that makes one want to see more…… The innocent Grand Duchess still didn’t seem to understand men’s psychology well.

Caeron smiled leisurely. There was no need to hurry at all. She would take it off anyway.

Aidel, completely unaware of what he was thinking, was walking while minding her clothes when she naturally stopped at the scenery that appeared before her eyes.

An exclamation of admiration escaped her lips. Unknowingly, the hand tightly grasping her front loosened slightly.

The water’s surface sparkled like crystal in the warm afternoon sunlight. The sea was so clear and transparent that everything underwater was vividly visible, beautiful enough to dazzle the eyes.

Rocks sculpted by waves over long years surrounded the area, with clear seawater gathered in a round shape. This was a natural pool in its original state.

It was Caeron who awakened her as she blankly stared at the scene that held the primordial mystery like a sea garden of the gods.

“Shall we start now?”

At those words, Aidel gripped her front again, tightening her slightly loosened hand. She swallowed dryly with trembling eyes.

“The second lesson, I mean.”

The second lesson he would teach directly with the body, following billiards, began.

Caeron took off the loosely worn gown. His smoothly extended collarbone, the finely carved and sleek muscles of his chest and abdomen were fully revealed.

With his upper body completely bare in the dazzling natural sunlight, he looked for a moment like the sun god who had descended to the human world.

Aidel was dazed at that brilliant sight that felt surreal, blending with the scenery unfolding behind him.

“We need to start the lesson. Now take it off.”

At the words to undress, Aidel’s slightly relaxed pupils dilated tightly. Her hand grasping the front trembled finely with the tension flowing through her body.

“Can’t we…… just do it with clothes on?”

The student asked in a desperately trembling voice, but the strict teacher’s answer was utterly firm.

“If you go in wearing that as is, you’ll sink like a water-soaked cotton ball.”

She understood that well enough theoretically.

‘How foolish to know one thing but not the other……’

She had been stupid to choose the thickest and longest nightgown among those hanging to cover her body as much as possible.

As Aidel stood in place, not knowing what to do, Caeron who had been watching took a step closer to her side.

“Should I help you undress?”

“N-No! I’ll…… I’ll do it myself!”

Surprised by his words, Aidel staggered slightly and retreated a step or two.

She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and slowly untied the tightly fastened gown’s knot.

‘It’s okay. I’m not completely undressing…… This is just another type of clothing.’

Even if she tried to convince herself it was fine……

The bathing suit she had changed into for the second lesson of “sea bathing” was different from her common sense.

Of course, times were changing rapidly. The era when women secretly enjoyed sea bathing in women-only beaches wearing long bathing gowns that showed as little skin as possible in the absence of men had passed.

But even so…… She had never heard of or seen this kind of form. If it weren’t for the catalog from Charlotte’s Clothing Shop that was with her, she would never have believed this garment was a bathing suit.

‘Do people all wear this to swim……?’

Having never gone sea bathing before, she didn’t know what others wore…… but she tried to convince herself that this must be a popular design these days since it was made by Charlotte’s Clothing Shop.

Unfortunately, however…… Aidel was completely unaware that Madame Pomfenu, an innovative designer ahead of her time, had given her a bathing suit design she was trying for the first time, just like the previous tailored jacket.

Eventually, following her hesitant hand, the nightgown slid down her smooth white shoulders.

“……!”

Caeron, who had been waiting for her with his arms crossed leisurely, widened his eyes in rare surprise.

He paused his breathing for a moment and stared intently at her vividly revealed figure before him.