In the serene villa on Meriel Island, a physical lesson was in full swing.
As Marlene had declared, Caeron, who was good at everything physical, was the instructor, and his student was Idel, who was awkward with her body compared to her intellect.
The two were closely aligned in front of a wide table. From a distance, their bodies seemed to intertwine into one.
“Relax your body.”
Caeron held Idel’s slim waist, which was rigid with tension, and positioned her.
Following his guidance, she bent her body over the table, leaning forward with her backside sticking out. The gentle curves of the woman’s body were enchantingly beautiful.
“It’s my first time in this position…”
Idel’s face heated up as red as the wool carpet on the table, with the unfamiliar posture she was experiencing for the first time.
He had said to relax her body, but… Due to the unfamiliarity of the situation, she was tensed and her muscles involuntarily tightened.
“If you apply so much force, it will be problematic.”
“I unknowingly tense up…”
“If you exert too much force, you could get hurt.”
Caeron slowly swept down Idel’s stiff shoulders and arms.
“Relax. It might be awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it with practice.”
To his comforting voice, Idel let out the breath she had been holding and tried to relax.
Feeling all her trembling from behind, Caeron held her hand and tightly pressed his body against hers. In the vicinity of her ears, flushed bright red, he whispered softly.
“Concentrate without missing a single moment.”
Struggling to keep her consciousness from becoming distant, Idel focused her trembling eyes.
Caeron held Idel’s hand, pulled it slightly back, and then forcefully pushed it forward.
‘Clack.’
The ivory ball touched by the cue tip collided with another ball. Surprise and the joy of a successful shot were evident on Idel’s face at her first stroke.
It was almost as if he had made the shot himself by adjusting her posture from behind, but… Even so, Idel rose with a much brighter expression.
“The ball hit!”
“Yes, you did well.”
Seeing Idel’s face blooming with pleasure, Caeron’s expression also softened.
The conversation might evoke secret imaginations if taken out of context… but they were simply enjoying a game of billiards.
It all started when Idel, touring the villa with Caeron, discovered the billiard room and showed curiosity.
Although the equipment in the billiard room reflected the passage of time, it was well maintained.
A billiard room.
If you wish, you can try it.
Ah… Actually, I’ve never done it before.
Idel looked down, making an awkward face. She had never set foot in the social world, so she had never tried billiards, a common pastime among the nobility.
Since she stepped out of the Earl’s house and into the world, she had been discovering many new things.
Even though her knowledge was deep from books, she realized that her handson experiences were shallow, even at this moment.
After watching her face cast a light shadow for a moment, Caeron offered:
Let me teach you.
Billiards?
Yes. It would be good for the Duchess of Elyos to know how.
Upon his words, Idel gently nodded. An impromptu lesson began under the guise of cultivating the culture of the Duchess.
There was a strange tension as he helped adjust her body, which knew nothing of the basic stance, but the lesson proceeded without incident.
Through several repetitions, Idel was now able to take a pretty decent stance by herself. Once she got the hang of the stance, calculating the angle for the stroke was easier.
Idel, with her sharp mind, grasped the trajectory of the ball and confidently made a stroke, but there was another problem.
“Ah…!”
Idel let out a low sigh.
She failed to maintain consistent force while striking, causing the ball to fail to reach the cushion properly.
Upon seeing her expression change from excited anticipation before the stroke to disappointment after, Caeron’s eyes curved.
Usually quiet and demure, she inspired him to smile when she applied herself wholeheartedly to a task she set her mind to.
“It’s okay. You did well for your first time.”
He lightly patted the head of his extraordinary apprentice. The warmth spread across Idel’s cheeks at his kind words.
“My duchess learns well when shown physically.”
At his words, Idel’s relaxed facial muscles tensed momentarily.
Could it be a misunderstanding to think that his words held a different implication…?
Idel, who was about to express her gratitude for Caeron’s encouragement, licked her lips with an ambiguous expression.
His gaze, which had fully detected the change in her emotions, subtly flared up.
“I just thought of something else I could teach you physically…”
At his soft words, Idel’s body jolted. Like a warning bell, her heart began to beat faster.
“Shall I teach you, Idel?”
What exactly is he going to teach…? Her mouth dried up, and Idel couldn’t dare to ask.
[This is the time separator]“Oh… what should I do.”
Idel was troubled by a problem unusually difficult for her to solve.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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