Chapter 3

“…….”

“…….”

Even after having her book taken away, Delilah just stared blankly. Her cheeks were bright red. She was even more flushed than the night she barged into his room drunk.

“That’s….”

“My older sister wrote it.”

“I see….”

“How far did you read?”

“Uh, uh.”

Delilah, stunned, bit her lip. Her ears turned red as well, and Eric sighed. Of course, none of this showed on his indifferent face.

Delilah, on the other hand, seemed to wear her thoughts on her face. Confusion, embarrassment, shyness… all mixed together, turning her pale face red.

A short but long silence followed. It was Delilah, her face now red all the way to her neck, who finally broke it. She suddenly jumped up from her chair and slowly backed away.

“I-I’ll go now! Thanks for today!”

With that, she hurriedly ran out. Thud, the door closed.

Eric lifted the book in his hand. The open page was filled with a very detailed and delicate illustration.

Eric Briar’s older sister, Odile Briar, had written and published the ultra-explicit romance novel herself, causing a stir among readers for its boldness—this was a full-color illustrated edition.

‘You’re crazy, crazy, Delilah Erica!’

Of course, at first, she didn’t know. Like other romance novels, the cover was finished in pink cloth with the title and author’s name embossed in gold. The title wasn’t particularly unique. It looked so ordinary that Delilah thought, ‘Even if the content is predictable, as long as it’s fun, that’s enough,’ and opened the book.

But the words engraved on the page were anything but predictable or ordinary; shocking stories unfolded chaotically before Delilah’s eyes—from the very first page!

With every sentence, every line of dialogue, Delilah was hit with a new shock. A world she had never encountered before was pushing her into astonishment. ‘Goodness, oh my, goodness? Is this allowed? Is it even possible?’ Waves of shock and questions crashed over her, but what shocked her most was the illustration that appeared after she turned a few pages.

A woman in a dress that was impossible to tell if she was wearing or not, and the bodies of two men clinging to her, were drawn with excessive detail. Bright ivory, pale orange, pink, vivid red, and dark reddish tones filled the paper.

‘Ah, goodness. This… is possible?’

Delilah stared blankly, mouth half open, unable to close it, but still unconsciously examining every detail of the page—until suddenly, the page vanished. Eric had snatched the book from her hands.

Delilah blankly looked up at Eric’s somewhat distorted expression. When he opened his mouth and asked how far she’d read, she snapped back to reality.

She had been eagerly devouring an obscene book, staring at *rotic drawings right in front of someone else—Delilah Erica realized her situation quickly enough. The waves that had been crashing over her were now not shock, but a fierce surge of indescribable embarrassment.

She didn’t remember how she ran out of his room or how she got back to her own. All Delilah could think was that she wanted to hide somewhere where no one could find her. Back in her room, she dove into bed and pulled the blanket over her head. As always when she went to his room, she wore thin pajamas under a roomy, thick cardigan, so she could jump into bed without discomfort.

But Delilah felt uncomfortable somehow. Even after her embarrassment and shame had subsided, her body still felt uneasy.

Her underwear, covering her chest, felt tight. The skirt wrapped around her legs and the blanket covering her toes kept catching her attention. Curled up, she rubbed her cheek against the cardigan’s rough surface several times and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her heart pounded, nerves awakening and throbbing along her veins, a sharp sensation pricking her skin for no reason. Her mouth was dry as if she were thirsty, and deep inside, she felt a ticklish stirring. Her small hand curled up and gripped whatever it touched.

After hiding under the blanket for a long time without moving, Delilah suddenly threw off the covers. Her hand lifted her skirt and slipped gently over her underwear.

“Ah.”

She felt a faint moisture on the thin, soft fabric at her fingertips. Pressing again, she could clearly tell.

She was wet.

Delilah, absentmindedly sliding her fingers over her underwear, was startled by the strange sensation spreading through her and quickly pulled her hand away. Without bothering to fix her skirt, she dove back under the blanket.

Even though no one was watching, she was embarrassed. She tried to ignore the image of Eric’s golden eyes rising in her mind and squeezed her eyes shut, determined to fall asleep quickly.

Of course, she couldn’t sleep until dawn.

* * *

After that day, Delilah didn’t visit Eric’s room for over two weeks.

While she was sneaking around, autumn had deepened, drying and dropping all the colored leaves, and now, no matter how thickly she dressed, winter winds snuck in and made her shoulders shiver.

They didn’t run into each other even once, as if by magic. In fact, unless Delilah went looking for Eric, they would never meet. Eric still holed up in the lab and never went to the dining hall, and the lecture buildings for the administrative liberal arts and magical engineering departments were so far apart.

So, while they didn’t see each other even once, the end-of-semester exams before winter break approached.

“Delilah, about this part in Introduction to Administration, could you explain it? I just can’t understand it no matter how much I read….”

“Senior Erica, can I ask about the exam trends for the Foundations of Classics class?”

“Delilah, about this here….”

“Delilah, do you want to study together in my room after dinner tonight?”

In other words, questions like these began to pour down on Delilah like a waterfall.

Delilah was an admired friend and a senior everyone wanted to get close to at the Academy, and she received all kinds of positive attention, so during exam periods, twice as many people approached her for study help.

Delilah didn’t mind. Talking with friends was fun, and studying together improved efficiency. Teaching others helped her remember material better, so it was beneficial for her, too. She had no reason to ignore friends’ requests or invitations.

There was only one problem.

“I’m tired….”

Delilah dragged her exhausted body to bed and let out a deep sigh.

Today, she received endless praise—Delilah, you’re different, Senior Erica, you’re the best, and even that people could understand why those with the Erica name had always dominated the Ministry of Internal Affairs just by looking at her.

The moment that drained Delilah the most was when friends endlessly praised her.

To Delilah, that was drawing a line. Drawing a line between herself and them. Something they could never cross, nor even think of crossing.

Beyond that line, she was inevitably an exceptional person, someone who had to be different from them from the start. Everyone, not just her classmates, but students from other grades, professors, even family, ‘naturally’ thought that way.

Thinking this, Delilah turned over and buried her face in her pillow. She knew that thinking more would only make her feel worse.

She vaguely wanted to cry. Deep inside, she felt blocked and suffocated. At times like this, she always thought of him.

Eric Briar.

Two years younger than Delilah, the top student in magical engineering at Che Saintbre, always holed up in the lab or dorm, ignoring everything else and doing only what he wanted. Good-looking and tall, but so socially awkward that he had no friends or lovers, spending all day doing only what he liked. She missed him.

He didn’t treat Delilah kindly or offer goodwill like other friends, but he also didn’t treat her as especially special. Even when she rolled around in his room, he ignored her and focused on his magical engineering.

Maybe he just had no interest or sense for relationships. Even when the whole school seemed eager to bully him, he looked completely clueless. If Delilah had heard such things, she’d be upset and troubled, but Eric just seemed calm and indifferent.

Still, he wasn’t rude enough to ignore someone right in front of him. If spoken to, he answered, and when she cried, he comforted her. Of course, when they first met, he did ignore her… but maybe there was a reason.

A strange person. But a good guy.

Things she hadn’t thought about when she used to visit his room at night grew bigger in her heart the longer she didn’t see him. She could have imagined him badly or lost interest, but instead, she kept painting him in a better light.

And she missed him more, even though she didn’t have many memories of him.

‘But that happened, and more importantly, it’s exam season, so I shouldn’t go see him. Even if I want to talk, I should wait….’

Delilah pictured him behind her closed eyelids. Always sitting at the table, hunched over, writing something. Caramel-colored hair and white skin. His short, familiar answers, and sometimes the way he called her ‘Delilah’ in a practiced tone. The sound of his fountain pen scratching across paper.

Thinking of him, she drifted off to sleep.