“I know… that.”

He slowly lowered his hand and gripped it ostentatiously, stroking upward. Fluid flowing from the tip smeared glossily along the shaft as it spread across Gabriele’s palm. 

After touching all the way to the blunt end and releasing his hand, it sprang back with movement and twitched once before swelling even larger.

‘Good heavens.’

It could grow even more from there.

Rita wanted nothing more than to cover her eyes that kept widening along with his member. But.

She had to draw it.

She must draw it.

She had to face that thing.

However, Rita soon had a second dilemma.

Should she draw that thing, which looked unnaturally large no matter how she looked at it, exactly as it was? 

If she did, when this painting’s existence was revealed someday, the story that Crown Prince Gabriele had his important parts drawn larger than reality would be passed down among the people for hundreds of years.

But to reduce something actually large to an appropriate size wounded her pride. First was her pride as a realist artist, and second was her pride as a citizen of the Torre Kingdom with a Crown Prince whose important parts were also impressive.

Seemingly quickly noticing her dilemma, Gabriele said casually.

“Just draw it as you see it.”

“But…”

“You should have been faithful to your main job—why did you needlessly undertake personal work and make things come to this?”

Rita bit her lips tightly without any retort.

“Drawing a prince’s n*de—does a court painter really do such things?”

“Your Highness, please, forgive me…”

“I thought we already discussed the conditions for forgiveness.”

Perhaps his patience was reaching its limit, as Gabriele’s voice became stern. Simultaneously, that shockingly thick and long thing also rose toward his navel like it was furious.

“I… remember the conditions.”

She had no right to refuse. Rita eventually succeeded in copying his p*nis almost identically onto the canvas with charcoal in her trembling hands.

It wasn’t easy as it moved up and down the more she stared intently to see it clearly, but for her with outstanding capabilities, it wasn’t a particularly difficult condition.

‘I-I drew it!’

Having finally completed the underdrawing, she wiped her forehead beaded with cold sweat.

“Th-then… I’ll see you again at this time, Your Highness.”

She wanted to escape this place hastily. The awkward atmosphere from the difficult situation was one thing, but somehow the room that had been pleasant at first felt strangely stuffy.

Her breathing quickened, and her flushed face showed no signs of cooling. Moreover, though it wasn’t her cycle, she felt like her period had suddenly arrived, as the underwear between her legs felt damp.

‘Ugh, I need to go check quickly.’

Since she wore a white skirt today, she could be embarrassed if she delayed. 

Rita, who had put away her painting tools and covered the canvas with cloth to take with her, hurriedly paid her respects to Gabriele. Then without time to check his reaction, she turned and rushed out of the room.

“…”

That Gabriele, left alone, stared silently at the door she’d exited through was naturally something she didn’t know.

* * *

“You left the easel behind, teacher.”

“Ah, right.”

Rita scratched one side of her hair tied high and approached where Gabriele pointed. Yesterday she’d rushed out to check her underwear and hadn’t managed to take the easel.

When she actually went to her room and checked, the underwear was only stickily soaked with transparent mucus, with no blood visible. 

Rita, who didn’t know the identity of the mucus, was flustered. Moreover, a faint but sour smell rose from the underwear.

Recalling yesterday’s events made her face flush with embarrassment again. She shook her head to shake off the memory and picked up the easel she hadn’t taken yesterday.

“Huh?”

Then she let out a questioning exclamation.

What was placed there wasn’t the old wooden easel Rita had used since her apprentice days. It was an easel firmly constructed from ebony with a glossy finish, even with exotic pictures drawn on the ends. Anyone could see it was new, pretty, and luxurious.

“Your Highness. This isn’t mine.”

“The one you originally used had something on it, so I threw it away.”

“What? You threw it away because something was on it?”

Rita’s eyes widened as she hugged the new easel. Though it was just something with something on it to throw away, it was still an object she’d grown attached to after using for quite a while.

“Yes. Yesterday, after you left.”

“Ah…”

Though she didn’t know what was on it, from a royal’s perspective who always used pristine objects, it could be sufficient reason to discard it. Since she’d obtained a wonderful new easel instead, Rita decided to express her gratitude and move on.

“Thank you for taking care to get me another object. I really like it.”

When she bowed her head, Gabriele smiled slightly. Though it was a barely visible smile, his eyes were surprisingly warm.

This wasn’t their secret n*de painting time, but an official portrait painting session. Rita sat before the easel.

She thought what she’d just seen in that brief moment was Gabriele’s sincere smile. As a painter, she wanted to capture that expression on canvas. But on the other hand, she also didn’t want to.

A portrait of Gabriele dressed magnificently with a smile only he could make would radiate charm anyone could fall for. High-ranking, wealthy, young, and beautiful female rulers from countries around the world would flock to Torre to take him as their husband.

‘That kind of thing…’

Rita was immediately startled by her own feelings.

She didn’t want that to happen. But she couldn’t understand why she didn’t want it.

‘No.’

Her job was only to paint the portrait—should she be concerned with where and how that portrait spread and what it caused? No. That was presumptuous interest.

Rita quietly immersed herself in her duty. But because the unpleasant feeling clearly existed, the speed of moving her brush and mixing paints slowed to a degree only she could notice.

As she broadly applied dark colors to the canvas to depict Gabriele’s uniform, she suddenly tilted her head in puzzlement.

‘Was the shape of the pants originally like this?’

The wrinkles forming in the pants from below the waist were strangely different from yesterday. Like there had been a clear change in the structure inside.

“…Don’t draw this as you see it.”

Having said that, Gabriele coughed and turned his reddened face. Rita, who was concentrating on the painting, nodded without bothering to guess his meaning.

‘He wants it drawn just as it was on the first day.’

With her exceptional memory and sharp observational skills, replicating the shape of Gabriele’s pants from that first day was an easy task for her.

After the session for painting the official portrait ended, the Crown Prince and the court painter gathered in the adjacent room, a space quietly prepared next to Gabriele’s chambers.

When she placed the canvas she’d been hiding on the re-installed easel, Gabriele undressed himself without needing to be told. Seated before the easel, she unconsciously focused on his form. 

If there was a difference from last time, it was that the place in question that had gradually risen as she painted was now greatly swollen from the start this time.

To Rita’s sharp eyes, she could see his lower underwear was circularly wet. Because of that, Gabriele was unusually ashamed. 

But thinking that bringing it up would make the atmosphere more awkward, Rita just stayed quiet. What would she say to comfort him? That she was the same yesterday?

‘…’

Come to think of it, the white underwear soaked with mucus resembled hers from last time. Rita’s face also flushed recalling that incident.

Somehow, she also recalled the old easel that was “thrown away because something was on it.” What was on it, could it possibly be…

‘N-no.’

She shook her head internally several times. The other party was the Crown Prince. What an irreverent thought.

When Gabriele finally lay down on the bed draped with the teal satin canopy exactly like the first day, Rita moved her brush with sparkling eyes.

She had already painted all the base colors in the room for things like walls and bedding that took a long time due to their large area. Since she’d also roughly drawn the protagonist Gabriele’s form, what remained was detailed depiction.

She concentrated on completing Gabriele’s form. 

While she could come alone later to finish drawing the rest of the background’s form, the only time she could draw Gabriele’s accurate form was now while they were together. With that thought, her work speed increased enough for others to notice.

But that speed felt only slow to Gabriele.

“How long must I pose, teacher?”

“Well…”

Rita hesitated as she lifted the brush with purple paint from the canvas.

Was it her imagination that he seemed to be looking this way with eyes somehow twice as intense as at first? 

Thanks to that, depicting his impressive gaze was easy. But even after drawing his eyes, the overall depiction of muscles and skin remained, and… the depiction of that place. 

No matter how excellent Rita’s skills were, capturing the actual form without giving too rough a feeling required some time.

“I think I need to draw for at least several more hours.”

“…”

Gabriele burst into rapid breathing without words. Rita also stood up thinking the air was somehow hot. Between her legs also seemed dampened with sweat. Moreover, she felt an alien tingling sensation.

“I’ll open the window a bit.”

“…Do so.”

Since heavy curtains were drawn, even opening the window slightly wouldn’t make what happened in the room visible outside.

Rita, who opened the window and sat back down, loosened the cloth tying her apron waist and also undid two or three buttons of the dress fastened to her neck, opening the collar. It was to cool the sweat beaded on her skin with the breeze due to the weather entering early summer.

“…What are you doing now?”

“Ah, I’m hot.”

“Don’t. Unless your purpose in doing this is to tease me.”

“Pardon?”

She asked back without understanding, but his violet eyes looked ready to devour Rita immediately. So Rita timidly asked while covering her sticky skin again with the thin fabric.

“Then may I tie my hair, Your Highness? The room was so sealed. Your Highness is completely undressed, but…”

“…”

Gabriele breathed deeply in and out for quite a while, seemingly enduring something.

“Fine. Do so.”

“Thank you.”

When she then took out a hair tie from her bosom and held it in her mouth while gathering her abundant hair high, the wind entering through the window carried fragrant air toward where Gabriele was.

“This is driving me crazy.”

He muttered in a voice like scratching his throat.

“Pardon?”

“Ha…”

He sighed like he’d lost the will to explain to Rita. Simultaneously, the thing below also wriggled and dripped fluid, so she flinched in surprise and hastily raised her gaze upward.

“When is the painting lesson?”

“Ah, the lesson.”

Rita immediately recalled the condition he’d mentioned. This time, using her as a model to teach the Crown Prince painting. Thinking about it again, it was an absurdly merciful condition.

“Let’s schedule the very next session as a lesson. Otherwise, I won’t pose as a model anymore.”

“B-but…”

She trailed off, but Rita soon nodded.

That he was granting her request was nothing short of heavenly luck. But she couldn’t keep demanding only her purpose while indefinitely postponing his condition.

Thus, only at their next meeting could Rita clearly realize what he had wanted.