“Miss, it’s time to wake up… huh!”

“Oh, good morning.”

“Did you not sleep?”

“Well…”

Ariel smiled bashfully at the maid who had rushed in and quickly hid the booklet under her pillow. She had gotten so engrossed in reading that she lost track of time.

‘Wow. Really…’

The romance novel she encountered for the first time, especially one depicting explicit physical relationships, was an immense stimulus for Ariel, who had been solely focused on studying until now. At the same time, it offered her a new kind of inspiration.

‘To exchange holy power by doing that…’

A sudden realization hit her.

‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’

Yes, there was indeed a way to increase holy power by making skin contact. Just like when she first created holy power with the help of priests during her childhood.

‘Just like that…’

Couldn’t she ask Lionel to help her? If her holy power increased, joining the subjugation team would be a breeze. After all, they were going to get married someday…

‘When we get married, we’ll naturally do things like this.’

Ariel’s face flushed as she recalled the explicit descriptions from the romance novel. The transition from physical to emotional connection in the story didn’t quite match her relationship with Lionel, but imagining such explicit acts with Lionel…

Gulp.

She swallowed involuntarily. Ariel had never seen Lionel’s n*ked body, but she was sure it would be as beautiful as his face.

“…Like the male protagonist in the novel.”

Coincidentally, the male protagonist in the novel was a prominent holy knight with silver hair, much like Lionel. The only difference was that the protagonist had indigo eyes mixed with purple, unlike Lionel’s lilac eyes.

‘They really do look alike.’

The descriptions were so similar that Ariel kept rereading the parts about the male protagonist’s body.

The delicate and strong features like sculpted marble. The bulging veins on his forearms and the rock-hard muscles that seemed capable of breaking stones with his bare hands. And above all, the enormous and writhing…

“Huff.”

The scenes where he pressed down on the female protagonist with such a body were vivid no matter how many times she read them. Ariel’s pajamas were slightly dampened.

“He said there are other series too.”

Even while groggily getting ready, Ariel thought about the other books Caelo said he could get for her. She justified it to herself as a way to relieve stress.

“……”

Over the next few days, Ariel managed to get her hands on other books, and it brought new shocks and dilemmas.

At first, she tried to get the other series through Caelo, as he had suggested. But it was hard to meet him for a while. When she asked his other friends, they said he had to return to his homeland urgently.

‘He left in such a hurry, he barely had time to say goodbye to us.’

‘Don’t be too upset, Miss Ariel. He said he’ll be back soon.’

Hearing that made her feel a bit sad, thinking he left without a word. And there was the problem of not being able to get the books. Her curiosity about the other series grew day by day.

‘Since I can’t see Lionel… I want to feel satisfied through these books.’

Since the day she first read the novel, Ariel had a few dreams. In her dreams, the male protagonist, or rather, Lionel, would approach her and give her a passionate kiss.

In the dream, Lionel would smile a smile he rarely showed her and gently swallow her lips.

‘I’ve always wanted to do this, Ariel.’

‘Lionel.’

‘I was just too shy to do it.’

His lips, whispering sweet words, would finally touch hers. As his soft flesh brushed against her teeth and tapped on her palate, Ariel would unknowingly open her mouth wider, her shoulders trembling.

‘Mmm…’

His persistent tongue entwined with hers, pushing into her mouth until her cheeks puffed out, pressing against her inner walls. Ariel forgot it was a dream and moaned.

‘Lionel…’

Waking up from such dreams often left her feeling ashamed. In reality, they hadn’t even had their first proper kiss.

The last time she clung to him and kissed him daily was before her twelfth birthday when she first awakened her holy power. Since Lionel felt uncomfortable with physical contact, it rarely happened afterward.

‘Yes. He’s shy, so I should understand.’

She tried to be mature about it and avoided physical contact with Lionel since then, which naturally meant they hadn’t kissed. Perhaps that made her dreams overly sweet.

‘Even though the novels go all the way, my dreams always end with a kiss.’

But reading other books might be different. Her curiosity kept growing. However, Caelo was absent for quite a while.

Unable to wait any longer, Ariel started searching for and reading the books herself.

And then she discovered a problem.

“This villainous young lady…”

Of course, the novel series had a female protagonist and a villain. The female protagonist was a pure and kind lady with golden hair. The villain…

‘Black hair and golden eyes?’

She looked a lot like Ariel. At first, Ariel didn’t pay much attention.

‘A villain who harasses the saintess female protagonist… a character without holy power but destined to become an official in the Holy Kingdom, always following the male protagonist.’

From this point, a strange sense of déjà vu began to creep in. The more she read, the stronger her uneasy feeling grew.

The villain was always studying in the library or academy classrooms. While the female protagonist built a physical and emotional bond with the male protagonist, the villain was alone, mentally triumphing with thoughts like ‘I’ll be the real wife anyway!’

“Could it be…”

Could it really be that she was the inspiration?

For Ariel, who was generally optimistic and positive, this realization was a bit shocking.

Many people thought she was oblivious for consistently showering Lionel with affection regardless of his reactions. But Ariel believed that was a complete misunderstanding.

‘Even when he was chased by a dog, he was never straightforward.’

If Lionel truly disliked her, he would have ignored her without a word. Having observed him for a long time, she knew that much.

‘If Lionel disliked something, he would say so clearly.’

Ariel knew a few young men Lionel had cut off for being excessively rude or teasing them harshly.

Even then, Lionel had never openly told her he disliked her.

Above all, whenever he returned from a subjugation, he would drink tea with her, accompanied by almond cookies. Even if he didn’t talk much, he would sit quietly and listen to her. It might be her exaggeration, but sometimes it felt like that was enough.

‘If he truly hated it… he would have walked away.’

Having been by his side for so long, Ariel believed she wouldn’t miss any genuine signs of his dislike. So she didn’t think their relationship was that bad.

Eventually, when marriage talks began, all misunderstandings would be cleared.

But the more she read the novel series, the more it seemed evident that she was the inspiration. Realizing this, some words started to bother her.

‘Oh, by the way, the villain in this novel… it seems like the inspiration is…’

‘You know, Ariel, the contents of books aren’t always true.’

When Caelo said that, she thought he was talking about the physical relationships in the romance novels. She thought he was advising her as a friend that reality didn’t have such intense physical relationships or passionate affairs.

But now, it felt different.

What if Caelo, having read the romance novels, noticed that she was the inspiration for the villain and was telling her not to worry about it?

‘Is it just my imagination?’

Ariel suddenly wondered if she was the only one feeling this way. Was there no one she could talk to about this?

As she thought that, she was hit by a second shock.

‘…I don’t have anyone?’

She couldn’t discuss this with her father or her maids. The maids would just look at her with pity. Marquis Tenia, who cared for his daughter, would be upset and furious. She didn’t want to see that.

And she couldn’t talk to Lionel, who wasn’t even here.

That left only trustworthy friends like Caelo. But with Caelo gone, there was no one to consult.

‘Huh.’

Ariel pondered if she really had no friends. That couldn’t be. Until she was sixteen, she had friends she interacted with, some of whom were particularly close and considered each other dear. Due to her naturally easygoing and positive nature, Ariel had many people around her.

‘So why do I have no one to ask now?’

Digging deeper, the problem seemed to stem from when she was sixteen.

Since she first missed the November Ball, Ariel had been studying relentlessly. When her academy friends or childhood friends from noble families invited her to hang out or chat, she couldn’t join them.

As a result, she became somewhat distant from them, making it awkward to have heartfelt conversations. Now, the only ones she could fully open up to were her maids.