Volume 2

I. Cunning Manipulation

Jeff swallowed hard as he watched Estelle wringing water from the hem of her skirt. An involuntary groan escaped his lips at the sight of her smooth legs. He felt like he was on trial once again.

‘How did it come to this……? I was just going to show her to the room and leave……’

Estelle kept detaining Jeff as he tried to leave. She made uncomfortable requests without hesitation—asking for clothes to wear, help with pulling strings, or unbuttoning buttons.

“What are you doing? Undo this in the back. It still hurts when I stretch my arms all the way.”

Jeff’s face turned deathly pale. Not from the cold. He couldn’t bring himself to fulfill her request to undress her.

“I’ll, I’ll call a maid to help you.”

“Haah, I’m so cold, I feel like I’m freezing to death. Can’t you just do it? I want to take this off right now.”

The water-soaked fabric clung to her like a dead person’s soul, chilling her to the bone. Estelle seemed to struggle as she took Jeff’s hand and placed it on her back.

What should I do, what should I do! Jeff’s face turned bright red.

As she undid the ribbons around her neckline one by one, the accordion-like lace pleats unfolded, revealing half of her upper chest.

Ack……! Jeff stepped back with a silent scream. His face burned hot and his insides felt parched. Estelle called out to him as he tried to escape again.

“Jeff.”

At that desperate voice, Jeff stood frozen, unable to move either way, his expression suggesting he might go mad. She was trying to pull her arm out of her sleeve, but the buttons on her back seemed to be hindering her, and she called Jeff’s name again. At her encouraging voice, Jeff finally stood before her like a well-trained dog.

Estelle is a patient. She was exposed to the cold for too long and needs to be warmed up. This is all for her sake.

After this self-brainwashing, Jeff extended his trembling hand.

‘Aaaaargh!’

As the cool sensation touched his fingertips, he shuddered violently like a fish out of water. Jeff pretended not to notice the pale exposed skin, squinting his eyes and managing to undo the buttons with his badly trembling hands.

‘God Almighty. God Almighty……’

His heart pounded as if it might burst. As soon as her clothes were freed from their constraints, Jeff withdrew his hand with lightning speed.

“Thank you.”

Estelle jumped up and down in place as she shed her dress like a molting creature. As the fabric slid down and landed on the floor with a wet plop, Jeff’s shoulders, who was turning to leave, flinched.

He desperately wanted to escape this chaotic situation, but before he could grab the doorknob, Estelle called him once more.

“Jeff. You take yours off too.”

“……”

Jeff froze in place, in that exact posture. It seemed like she was determined to make his heart explode today.

“Uh… what?”

Jeff asked back stupidly as Estelle, who had pulled down even her underwear to become completely n*ked, roughly dried herself with a towel.

“I said take yours off too. No matter how sturdy you are, you’ll catch a cold at this rate. You even lost your cloak to me.”

Estelle flung open Jeff’s wardrobe and examined the clothes hanging there.

“Hmm… yours are too big.”

Jeff, who had almost unconsciously turned his head, slapped his own cheek hard.

“Ah! You startled me, what’s wrong?”

Estelle made a dumbfounded expression at Jeff who had suddenly slapped himself like a madman. Rubbing his reddened cheek, Jeff hung his head like a criminal and muttered.

“It’s nothing……”

Estelle unfolded Jeff’s clothes. The men’s clothing, which looked about twice her size, clearly wouldn’t fit.

Jeff felt his body hair stand on end at the rustling sounds behind him. And the heat rising from below prevented him from moving. He wasn’t sure when it had started, but his manhood had swollen to the point of being painfully hard.

Reciting chivalry in his mind and forcibly thinking sad thoughts to calm his member, Jeff realized a fact that made his excitement instantly subside.

‘Damn it, she…… doesn’t even see me as a man……’

His manhood, which wouldn’t calm down no matter what, became peaceful in the face of this sad truth. It felt like someone had poured holy water on his head as if to make him come to his senses.

‘To be rejected before even confessing……’

It felt like his heart couldn’t be more painful even if stabbed with a knife. As Jeff sighed with a bitter expression, his pupils dilated.

Wait, rejection? Cold sweat ran down the nape of his neck.

How could he be so stupid.

Jeff, who belatedly realized his feelings for her, felt dizzy.

When had he started harboring such feelings? Like the outside weather that gradually soaked through before completely drenching everything, she had lodged herself in his heart without him knowing.

Jeff was in despair. His image in the eyes of the woman he liked couldn’t be more pathetic.

“…Estelle, are you dressed?”

“Yes.”

Only then did Jeff turn around. Estelle, with a more languid face, was sitting in a chair wearing only a navy robe. Even that was too big, revealing her delicate neckline, collarbone, and half of her br*asts. Jeff’s eyes wandered in the air, not knowing where to fix his gaze.

“Jeff, why don’t you change too? You’ll catch a cold.”

“……”

At Estelle’s casual suggestion, Jeff felt like he was being executed.

‘Even if she doesn’t see me as a man, this is… too cruel.’

And a strange defiance suddenly emerged. Jeff, who had intended to have a serious conversation with her, changed his mind. He grabbed his cravat with one hand and pulled it.

Jeff’s gaze was fixed on Estelle’s face. If she didn’t recognize him as a man, he wanted to force that recognition upon her.

Until then, Estelle, who had been watching his actions absent-mindedly, began to sense something strange as Jeff dropped his gray vest to the floor and started unbuttoning his white dress shirt one by one. His gaze remained fixed on her, never leaving. That burning gaze gave her a strange illusion. The thought that he was undressing because of her—such an unsavory imagination—crossed her mind.

“……”

Estelle’s lips parted slightly, and feeling strangely thirsty, she traced her lower lip with her moist tongue. This caused a suppressed breath to escape from between Jeff’s lips.

As his open shirt revealed a firm chest and sculpted abdomen, Estelle turned her head as if pretending not to notice.

‘Something… feels very dangerous about this……’

But she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she felt this strange chill. She had never properly seen a n*ked male body in her entire life. Of course, she had seen Lexion’s p*nis plenty of times, but she had never properly opened her eyes during their encounters, and no one had ever undressed so openly, in such a way, in front of her.

“Estelle.”

His tone was accusatory. Estelle refused to turn her head completely. She instinctively felt that she shouldn’t meet his eyes right now.

“Um… yes?”

“Why are you avoiding looking?”

“What……?”

“Didn’t you want me to show you?”

“Wh-what?”

Ha, Jeff frowned and let out a low sigh.

“No matter how comfortable I am with you, you shouldn’t act like this.”

Jeff’s voice was clearly scolding her. Estelle wondered why she was being reprimanded but simply replied, “Yes, I’m sorry.” If she had angered the ever-kind Jeff who had never shown irritation before, it must definitely be her fault.

“Being alone with a man, in the same space, saying such things is no different from seduction. And then… casually undressing in front of me. What if I… pounced on you.”

But… you don’t respond to women’s bodies! The indignant Estelle was about to retort when she glanced over and quickly reverted her eyes after seeing his partially undone belt buckle.

While Jeff, being homosexual, might be fine, she, as a heterosexual woman, wasn’t shameless enough to casually appreciate a man’s n*ked body, even if he was a friend.

“…I was thoughtless. Very rude of me, wasn’t it?”

Estelle acknowledged her mistake.

“But… in the past, I often changed clothes in front of you and you never showed any reaction…… I unconsciously keep falling back into those old habits.”

“That wasn’t me.”

If that wasn’t you, then who was it? It made no sense, but Estelle didn’t want to dwell on this issue, so she just nodded.

Thinking from his perspective now, she honestly felt a bit embarrassed. She wondered how vulgar she must have appeared to him, given they hadn’t accumulated as many shared memories as back then.

“I’ll really be careful from now on…… I keep forgetting because of your special s*xual identity.”

“……”

An awkward silence descended. Jeff swept back his wet hair as if frustrated. All this trouble stemmed from her misunderstanding that he was homosexual.

He had been confused for a very brief moment. Of course, there had been events that naturally made him feel that way, and he had even said so himself.

But now Jeff could say with certainty that regardless of what had happened before the regression, his heart was directed toward her, and this was the truth without a trace of doubt.

“Estelle, about that issue……”

As Jeff, who had been contemplating, was about to speak with difficulty, there came a knock from outside the door.

“Your Highness, the bath water is ready. May I come in?”

“……”

I like you. I see you as a woman. Unfortunately, Jeff had to swallow the words caught in his throat.

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