Dain pulled the trembling Liana’s waist close and hugged her while kissing her neck. Both their heartbeats were pounding loudly enough to be heard in each other’s ears.

That day too, the annex bedroom was filled with lewd sounds until dawn broke.

After having s*x, Liana, who fell into a brief sleep, dreamed of the snake again.

She was again wrapped tightly by a large white snake. This time the white snake playfully pressed her neck and cheeks with its chin. The slightly cold but smooth scales somehow weren’t unpleasant.

Liana also played along without fearing the white snake.

“Haha, that tickles. Who are you?”

When she spoke to it, the white snake paused for a moment then turned its vertically long red pupils toward her.

“Where did you come from?”

Liana spoke to the still white snake once more. But there was no way an animal could speak. The white snake that had been still stuck out its long tongue and licked her face.

“Haha, I said it tickles.”

The white snake’s tongue was cool and soft. The cool sensation gave Liana a strange sense of déjà vu, but she couldn’t identify what it was.

The white snake continued playing until she fell asleep again.

* * *

The next day, Liana woke up late in the morning. Perhaps the duke had given separate instructions, because Kelly didn’t wake her either.

“Ugh, it hurts.”

Today too, a pained scream burst from her mouth. But it wasn’t as difficult as the first day.

‘Is it because of the pleasure fluid?’

Liana, who sat up on the bed, tilted her head. Despite having intense intercourse all night, she only hurt a little when waking up, and her body felt light and comfortable rather than tired. It seemed to be because of the pleasure fluid Dain had put into her body.

Thinking back carefully, last night Dain had bitten her shoulder a little longer than the first night. He had probably injected more pleasure fluid.

She looked around. Her hands weren’t tied, the sheets seemed freshly changed and fluffy, and her body was cleanly wiped.

Had the duke taken care of the cleanup?

“Dain?”

She carefully called the name of the man who couldn’t possibly be in the bedroom. Predictably, there was no answer.

Of course he wouldn’t be here. There’s no way he’d like a swindler’s daughter.

From how he didn’t show his face and disappeared before morning came, he must hate her very much.

But since that wasn’t something she could do anything about, she could only hope to remain safe without incident until she could leave the ducal castle.

That afternoon Liana went out to the balcony and looked at the sunset scenery.

She didn’t know it, but her room was positioned where it could be seen well from Dain’s office. She didn’t know that the white-haired man was watching her the entire time.

Glossy golden hair that curled down to her waist, mysterious pale blue eyes resembling sapphire diamonds, a straight nose, a small and slender face.

Standing on the balcony with her long hair fluttering in the wind under the red sunset, she looked like a fairy who had descended from heaven.

Dain filled his eyes with her appearance.

Yesterday she had lost consciousness from the s*x that continued all night. But the fact that she, a human, could receive him, a snake clan member, was itself remarkable.

On the first day he had roughly embraced her with the intention of punishing her in place of her father, but now he somehow felt like he was doing something wrong to her. Though there was no reason for that, somehow he didn’t feel completely at ease.

“Your Grace, what shall we do with the lady?”

Today too, Aaron asked the duke the same question with an anxious heart.

“Keep her in the ducal castle.”

Dain answered without hesitation while not turning his gaze from the window.

He felt his body gradually improving after spending nights with her. He intended to keep Liana by his side for pheromone relief. She was a woman with no value beyond that.

“Yes, I understand.”

Though Liana was nothing more or less than a pheromone relief tool to Dain, she was currently the most important existence to him since he could lose his life if he couldn’t relieve his pheromones.

So he had no intention of casting her out. Especially when he thought of her body.

“Make sure she lacks nothing. Treat her well as a guest.”

Dain ordered once more.

“Yes, I understand.”

* * *

Liana recovered quickly. She mixed bodies with Dain when night came and had nothing particular to do during the day, so she only stayed in the bedroom.

Dain didn’t come to the annex every day but came at intervals of two to three days. For her, who needed time to recover her body exhausted from intense intercourse each time, this was fortunate.

However, except when having intercourse, she had nothing else to do in the ducal castle and was bored. It would be nice to have books during times like this.

“Kelly, is there a library in the ducal castle?”

She asked Kelly who had brought afternoon tea.

“Yes, there’s a large library in the main castle and a small library in the western annex too. If there are books you want to see, I’ll borrow them for you.”

“No. I’ll go look around slowly myself.”

“Then I’ll go with you and guide you.”

Kelly offered to help, but Liana shook her head.

“No, I’ll go alone.”

“Yes, please do. And don’t go to the back of the main castle.”

Kelly gave a warning in a deliberately low voice.

“Why?”

“I don’t know the reason well either. All the servants are forbidden from going to the back of the main castle. The head butler asked me to tell you too, my lady.”

“Alright, I understand.”

Why won’t they let me go there?

She was curious about the reason, but Kelly really seemed not to know, so she didn’t ask further.

I should go to the library.

If she continued staying only in the bedroom doing nothing, she felt like she would become a shut-in.

“Then I’ll fix your hair.”

“Alright.”

While Liana drank tea, Kelly tied her long blonde hair into one. After finishing her cup, Liana left the room dressed in everyday clothes.

She said there were two libraries……

Going to the main castle library where the duke was felt somehow burdensome, so she went to the western annex.

‘Is this the western annex?’

Liana, who walked along the path beside the garden, stood in front of a beautiful palace-like building that seemed like it would appear in a fairy tale.

The building across from the eastern annex where she was staying seemed to be the western annex.

She entered the lobby and slowly looked around the first floor corridor. There was a soldier guarding the front of the annex, but he didn’t stop her, perhaps having been told about her in advance.

Beautiful, high-quality paintings hung in the corridor. They were mainly landscape paintings of mountains, rivers, and flowers.

‘What’s this?’

Liana, who had been walking slowly while observing the paintings, stopped in front of one.

It depicted a massive white snake descending from the sky. A golden sun illuminated the red-eyed serpent, and a brilliantly glowing rainbow hovered beside it.

‘It must be some kind of creation myth.’

Every noble house in the Mancus Empire had animals that symbolized their family. Since a white snake was drawn on the knight uniforms of Duke Pruis’s house, the white snake in the painting must be the animal representing House Pruis.

She looked at the white snake in the painting for a while, then went up to the second floor. The library Kelly had mentioned was on the second floor.

‘She said it was a small library……’

I didn’t expect it to be this big.

Liana’s pale blue eyes widened like a full moon. The entire second floor of the huge annex was a library.

If this is small, just how big is the main castle library?

She entered the library with her mouth open. The soldier guarding the front of the library also said nothing when he saw her.

“Wow……!”

Inside the library, hundreds of large bookshelves lined up, and the shelves were packed full of books.

In the Empire, books were expensive items that were not only costly but also hard to obtain. Yet to have so many books, Duke Pruis’s wealth was beyond easy estimation.

“Where would books about theater be……”

She looked at the lists written on the bookshelves and went inside. She looked around left and right to ask someone, but there was no one who appeared to be a librarian. She had no choice but to search for herself.

“Literature, theater, scripts.”

Fortunately, each bookshelf had labels indicating the types of books. Looking at the labels, she quickly found the books she wanted.

But the book she wanted to see was stuck at the very top of the bookshelf.

‘What should I do?’

She stretched her hand up and jumped repeatedly, but couldn’t reach it at all.

That’s when it happened. A large white hand suddenly appeared from behind her head and grabbed the book.

“Huh?”

When she turned around, a white-haired man was looking down at her.

He was a handsome man with a high nose bridge and slender jaw that you might see in Greek mythology. His red eyes looked a bit scary, but his snow-white hair and skin were like an angel who had just descended from heaven.

Liana glanced sideways to see if he had wings on his back.

“……”

The man silently held out the book.

“Oh, thank you.”

She took the book with a face that looked bewitched. She couldn’t take her eyes off his unrealistically handsome face.

The man raised one corner of his mouth slightly, then strode out of the library.

“Oh, wait……”

She tried to call the man, but it was already too late. She ran out to the corridor, but his figure was nowhere to be seen.

“A librarian……?”

She wanted to know at least his name, but he had disappeared without giving her a chance to ask. She was curious about the identity of the strange man, but since she didn’t even know where he had gone, Liana just took the book and returned to the annex.