Chapter 1 – Shall We Pretend It Never Happened? (Part 1)

How she returned home, she couldn’t remember. Anasha hurriedly left the Shakers’ Duke’s residence and locked her door as soon as she arrived. She changed into her favorite white silk slip and lay haphazardly on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

‘Have I lost my mind, completely?’

If she had been in her right mind, she never would have done that. Anasha wrapped her head around the events of that day that kept surfacing.

In the dark room, as they kissed and undressed each other, Karcian wrapped his arms around her waist, grinding his erected manhood against her lower abdomen. Anasha eagerly took the swollen part, as big as a child’s fist, into her mouth. She licked and sucked on the tip, stretching her lips until they might tear, several times. Soon, a small hole twitched and began to drip fluid. Whether it was due to the alcohol or the mood, she found herself sucking it up with a slurping sound, not wanting to waste the clear fluid falling to the floor.

“Crazy.”

Why did I even consume that?

Just recalling last night, the slimy, sour taste vividly came back to her. Even the salty taste of his erect shaft…

Overwhelmed by a sudden rush of shame, Anasha buried her face and shook. Then, her crotch and abdomen started aching, preventing her from making any disturbance.

“Ugh…”

A moan she couldn’t completely swallow escaped her lips. Anasha groaned as she still felt a dull ache in her lower abdomen.

‘How much did we even do!’

They really went at it like madmen. She would never see such a crazy person again in her life. How could anyone keep going endlessly? Despite feeling disgusted, Anasha blushed.

It seemed to have been extremely painful, yet also pleasant due to sensations she had never experienced before. She tried begging him to stop, and also pleaded for him to go deeper. As the night deepened, Karcian, becoming more and more lively, charged forward like a tank that had lost its gears. By the time the sun was rising, she was so exhausted that she couldn’t even speak and just let her body be swayed.

“…Kar, ah, huh!”

Every time she cried out his name and desperately scratched at the bed sheets, Karcian, panting, pushed her further. The thrusting inside her was as rough as an angry bull, yet his tender lips gently explored her skin.

‘I slept with Kar…’

Each time she recalled that night, warmth gathered in her private parts. As if trying to relive the intense stimulation, her body reacted on its own. Her excited nipples poked through the thin slip, and the unresolved heat below built up layer by layer. Unknowingly, Anasha’s hand moved to her heated lower body. She scratched the protruding clitoris over her underwear.

“Hoo.”

As she reminisced about the night with him and scratched the nub quickly, her aroused body responded immediately. Anasha rolled up the slip and bit it to suppress the emerging moans. She grabbed her exposed breast and kneaded it roughly.

‘Haah… This isn’t it.’

Engrossed in the tingling sensations coursing through her body, she played with her hand, but something was missing. The orgasm seemed imminent yet elusive. Accustomed to Karcian’s large, rough hands, her body couldn’t reach the peak no matter how much she scratched and pinched.

Anasha furtively looked around before pushing aside the underwear that was covering her below. She parted the firmly closed flesh and inserted her index finger into the exposed hole. Her lower part greedily sucked in the finger as she pushed through a slight resistance. The wrinkled interior bubbled up with sticky fluid, much like the mucus of a snail. Each time her finger moved in and out, the private area cried out with wet sounds.

“Hah…”

It felt good, but still, it wasn’t enough.

Driven by her restless desire, Anasha inserted another finger and began to thrust. Faster, deeper. Her awkward hand gradually found a spot to stimulate inside. She straightened her fingers, pushed them in all the way, curled them like a hook, and scraped the inner flesh as she pulled her hand out. The tight hole stretched tinglingly, and her two fingers ruthlessly scraped the inner walls.

Lifting her upper body slightly and raising her legs, Anasha fiercely clung to the faint stimulation and scratched the flesh inside. Unaware of the passing time while indulging in her hand play, a hot heat soon enveloped her entire body as the loosened hole quivered and expelled the fluid.

“Hah, uh, ah! Hah… Kar, Kar…!”

Even as she twisted her excited body, Anasha didn’t stop probing her lower hole. The moment she recalled his fullness inside her, she arched her back in climax.

“Hahuh!”

A tingling heat rose from her groin to the top of her head. The sensation of her lower abdomen contracting vividly transmitted, making her vision flash white. However, the climax was brief. Like a wave crashing over, the overwhelming pleasure quickly evaporated like a receding tide.

Anasha lay back, her strength drained, letting her mind wander. The afterglow of her escapade mixed with her heavy breaths, while the incoming breaths gradually cooled her head, restoring her reason.

Masturbating. And to a friend, no less!

The shock of her first masturbation felt like a heavy blow to the back of her head. Although they had already done everything imaginable, Anasha still couldn’t escape the word ‘friend’. Especially since Karcian wasn’t just any friend. They were an inseparably close pair.

Anasha still remembered the young boy who was smaller than her. She remembered the young girl who laughed and playfully tapped his black crown with a tree branch.

Of course, both families already treated them as betrothed. Even when Anasha, drunk in the middle of the night, entered the Shakers’ Ducal residence, the Duke and Duchess didn’t mind. Not only that, they instructed to prepare a breakfast that was good for a hangover for their “daughter-in-law.” Her father, who would usually scold her fiercely for breaking curfew, allowed her to stay overnight at the Shakers’ Ducal residence.

“No way!”

Anxious about the possibility of marrying him and even having a child, Anasha kicked off her seat and stood up. She absolutely, under no circumstances, wanted that. With determination in her eyes, she hurried to her desk. She quickly scribbled a letter, handed it to the maid, and engraved a firm resolution in her heart.

‘Who would marry someone like you? Hmph!’

The plan was simple. It was called Operation <Forget a Man with Another Man>! Anasha thought of the recipient of the letter and laid out her plan.

Altino von Norelea, the Marquis’s daughter.

Norelea was known as the queen of the social scene, maintaining wide connections with people of all ages and genders. However, not just anyone could enter her circle. Anasha Lialli Roymond, the young viscountess, was one of the few with whom she formed a deep relationship.

Anasha decided to ask for help from Norelea, who had become her close friend during the 6 years Karcian was away.

[Lady! Please introduce me to a decent young man!]

The letter was three pages long, filled with flowery language and roundabout expressions, but that was the gist. Anyone listening might think she spent nights with one person and dated another, but in the rather liberal Radier Empire, there were hardly any nobles who hadn’t had relationships. So Anasha decided to cast aside the last bit of conscience she had. If things continued as they were, she would inevitably end up marrying Karcian, so what did a little conscience matter?

Anasha brazenly cleared the space and picked up one of the books stacked on the desk. Nothing beats reading to clear a complicated mind. As she opened the book to the bookmarked page, the part she read before caught her eye.

[Ah! Your Grace! Ahng, ah!]

Damn it.

It was her fault for not checking the cover before opening the book that was lying upside down. Why did it have to be an erotic novel she picked up? And why did the male protagonist have to be a Duke again? Anasha carefully closed the book, shoved it into a corner, and crawled into bed.

‘Let’s just sleep.’

The following days were a series of trials.

Habit turned into addiction, drawing her back to the erotic books. Her mind, already experienced, overlaid Karcian onto whatever she read. Her body, aroused by the books, soon soothed itself by thinking of him. Perhaps because she couldn’t forget that night. Even in her dreams, she was doing things to him, almost constantly in heat, day and night.

Thus, on the fourth day after spending the night with Karcian, the long-awaited reply arrived. Lying in her bedroom, Anasha opened the letter bearing the seal of the Marquis of Norelea. It was five pages long, but the conclusion was okay. However… something seemed off. Staring intently at the reply detailing the simple background and meeting place of her prospective partner, Anasha felt a sense of doubt. Don’t they usually send a portrait of the young man too? Moreover,

“The meeting is tomorrow?!”

Anyone would think she had caused some trouble and was urgently seeking a partner.

‘Don’t they usually set the date a bit more generously?’

Anasha scrutinized the letter from Norelea, tilting her head in confusion. Just then, someone knocked on her door.

“Miss, Young Master Shakers has arrived.”

“What?”

What nonsense is this now? 

Anasha asked incredulously.

“Who did you say came?”

“The Young Master Shakers has arrived.”

Hearing the same news without a hint of error from the old butler, Anasha crumpled the letter she was holding. She was supposed to meet the young man introduced to her tomorrow, and he showed up today of all days? The situation, fitting together suspiciously well, made her narrow her eyes.

‘Tell him to get lost!’

Though the words rose to her throat, Anasha couldn’t bring herself to say them and sluggishly finished her simple preparations. The process of applying basic makeup and changing into comfortable indoor clothes passed in an instant.

‘I don’t want to go….’

But what could she do even if she didn’t want to? She had to go. Anasha was the only one in the Earl’s household who could dare to kick out the esteemed Young Master. No matter how close they were, the strict hierarchy of a class-based society still existed. With weakened steps, Anasha trudged towards the drawing room.

‘If no one else can send him away, then I’ll do it myself.’