Chapter 3

“A-Amber. This is… a mistake, a mistake because of the alcohol.”

Reynold, caught rolling around with a female classmate, rushed to her to explain.

“Are you crying? I got confused because I was drunk.”

“……”

“You must be shocked?”

Despite his concern, Amber neither cried nor was surprised. She wasn’t usually brave, and she hadn’t expected this even a few hours ago… but she accepted it, thinking a day like this would come eventually.

“Nothing actually happened, just the atmosphere. Really. I’m innocent.”

“……”

B*llshit. Total b*llshit. Even if Amber was clueless about relationships, she knew that was a lie. She glanced at Reynold’s crotch hidden behind his hand, then looked him in the eyes.

“You confused me with Luna…?”

‘With Luna’s flashy blonde hair, and me, whom your group mocked for looking like a stray dog?’

Reynold mumbled, “It just happened,” avoiding her gaze.

“But you promised your future to me. You know that. So, um, can’t you forgive me? Let’s keep this a secret. I won’t make this mistake again.”

Normally, Amber wouldn’t have questioned him. But now, with unexpected courage…

“What secret? That you were in bed with Luna?”

“I admit we were in bed. But it was before penetration… I swear I’m still a virgin, Amber. So to the adults…”

“Fine.”

“What?”

Reynold’s eyes widened. Amber repeated herself.

“I said fine.”

“You mean you won’t tell anyone?”

Reynold’s voice trembled as he grabbed her hand. His hand was wet with sweat or something else. Amber gently pulled her hand away.

“I won’t say you had s*x.”

“You just said s*x… No, well, you could.”

Reynold, as usual, started to argue but quickly became pathetic.

“D*mn, Amber Serentano, you’re really the best fiancée. I swear to the Belit family, I’ll be loyal to you and our family.”

“I hope you will, Reynold Belit.”

Amber wasn’t someone who spoke with a forked tongue. She kept her promise.

Instead, when her father asked if she enjoyed the party, she told him everything except for the s*x. She said Reynold was found n*ked with another girl in bed, and came running with his g*nitals dangling.

Before she finished, Viscount Serentano left the house with a red face. He returned an hour later.

“The engagement is off. I’d rather you live alone forever than marry someone like that! From now on, he’s not allowed near here.”

Unfortunately, her father’s words didn’t hold.

She ran into her ex-fiancé a few days later, while out shopping for groceries, and found Reynold with a bruised eye.

“Cowardly woman.”

“……”

She had pretended not to know, yet when he glared and blocked her path, she couldn’t help but say something.

“I kept my promise… I only said you were n*ked in bed.”

“You call that keeping a promise?”

Reynold gritted his teeth and threatened her.

Those who say “just wait and see” are never scary.

But Amber didn’t want to provoke him, so she shrugged and kept quiet, never realizing it would come off as dismissive.

Reynold, angry that she wouldn’t even talk to him, resorted to childish revenge. He spread rumors that “we had s*x before the engagement was broken, but I was surprised she wasn’t a virgin…”—which didn’t affect Amber at all.

But her father felt differently. Worried his daughter was hurt, he suggested a few days later,

“How about going to stay with your grandmother for a while?”

“Suddenly?”

“It’s for your own good, Amber.”

The plan was to prepare for marriage after graduation, but the engagement was broken and she had no other lover. Still, she didn’t want to look like she was running away, so she hesitated to answer.

“I’ll think about it.”

The conclusion had already been decided.

A few hours later. After a three-hour train journey, Amber disembarked in the port city.

* * *

Chiiiik. Chiiiik……

At the sound of the train stopping, Amber grabbed her bag from the luggage rack. As expected for the final destination, there were barely ten passengers left, and none were her age. That was why they could recognize each other without confusion.

“You must have had a hard time coming all this way. You’ve become a lady. You’ve changed so much I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“It must have been sudden, but thank you so much for accepting me so readily……”

“For my granddaughter, of course. I’ve heard most of the story. The rest we can talk about as we go.”

Her grandmother burst out laughing and led Amber to a carriage waiting by the roadside.

“There’s no train station in Napolia. We still have to go another hour by carriage.”

“I’m fine.”

Amber nodded quickly. At that moment, she was sweating nervously, not knowing what to say. A grandmother she hadn’t seen since learning to walk was, in truth, just a blood relative and nothing more.

But her worries were unfounded.

“I grow tomatoes and a few other things in the yard. Do you like tomatoes? I heard from your father that you enjoy cooking.”

“Yes. I’ve cooked since I was little.”

“That’s great. I’ve been trying for over fifty years, but I never get any better. I think it must be a talent… When my husband was alive, he did all the cooking.”

“Grandfather cooked?”

“He was amazing. Isn’t a man who’s good at everything bound to be loved?”

Grandmother was bright and cheerful. She didn’t seem like someone who had lost her husband twenty years ago and her only daughter nine years ago, and thanks to that, Amber, who was shy at first, quickly adapted.

They talked nonstop until they arrived at the house, and by the second day of Amber’s stay, she ended up telling her grandmother about her ex-fiancé’s misdeeds.

Grandmother clicked her tongue.

“There’s never a decent man who obsesses over a woman’s virginity. When I was your age, there was a similar guy in our town. He tried to marry me just to stain my honor.”

“So what did you do?”

“I kicked him right between the legs!”

“I should have done that too. To someone who would lie so crudely……”

“In my case, it was true.”

“With grandfather?”

“No, with a knight who stayed in our village for a while.”

…She really was an incredible woman.

“Anyway, it’s infuriating that he tried to ruin your reputation just because you weren’t a ‘virgin’… But think about it, Amber. Even if you weren’t a virgin, would it matter?”

Amber found her grandmother to be from another world. She herself didn’t believe in the abstract concept of virginity, but even her father had never told her it was okay not to be one.

“Losing virginity because of a man… How old-fashioned. There are so many good tools these days. They’re better than people.”

“Tools? Grandmother, have you tried them?”

“Of course, I even gave them names. There were times when your grandfather wasn’t up to the task.”

Her grandmother showed Amber her treasured items. From sticks shaped like male g*nitals to small magically vibrating objects… All sorts of fascinating tools.

She even suggested Amber visit an adult goods shop, but despite the shock, Amber didn’t have the courage to try, so she shook her head.

Instead, she focused on blending into her new daily life and soon became quite adept at tending the garden.

Those peaceful, carefree days continued until news arrived of her grandmother’s close friend passing away. The cheerful grandmother shed tears for the first time.

“I’ll have to attend the funeral. You’ll have to look after the house alone. You’ll be fine, right, Amber?”

“Of course.”

“Oh my, how many times has this happened now.”

Being at the age to hear about friends’ funerals… For Amber, who had just become an adult, it was unfamiliar.

Unable to offer easy comfort, Amber watched as her grandmother, saying, “It’s nice to have a housemate to take care of things at times like this,” calmly prepared to leave. The very next day, she boarded the train Amber had arrived on and said goodbye.

“My lovely Amber, take care of yourself. I’ll write if I’m going to be late.”

“Have a safe trip.”

Amber felt fine as she saw her grandmother off, but once the train left, she felt lonely.

‘Maybe I should buy a new teacup since I’m out.’

Amber, who disliked the empty house, thought of the cup she had recently broken by accident. So she changed her destination to a general store in the middle of town. It was a purposeful visit, but… what caught Amber’s eye there was something entirely different.

‘That’s……’

A column with bulging veins and a thick, large mushroom-shaped tip. Hideous in shape, but compared to Reynold’s, it was so beautiful that it made her grandmother’s collection seem trivial. It radiated an overwhelming presence.

“It’s really big.”

Amber, unlike herself, approached it as if hypnotized and stared at it.

It was impressive, but that was all. She meant to turn away… If only she hadn’t felt frozen in place as if by magic. Amber wondered if this was what people called fate.

She was definitely bewitched. Since she couldn’t be recognized as a virgin anymore, she decided, oddly enough, to try a tool that was said to be better than a man.

“……How much is this?”

That was how everything began.