Chapter 1 – A Secret Hobby

The faculty office, filled with nothing but the scratchy sound of pen nibs, was tranquil. Behind an assistant quietly crossing the room with documents in hand, a female student in the Imperial Academy uniform followed after them.

The wind coming in through the half-open window brushed against her vivid blonde hair. She swept back the long hair touching her chest and lowered her blue eyes softly. Right now was the time to wait for an answer.

“Please continue just as you have been, Miss Elott Persia.”

At last, at the words that were finally given, Elott nodded her head. The once-a-year consultation with her supervising professor affected how she would proceed into the next semester. Even for Elott, who had nothing at all to be caught on in a consultation that evaluated many aspects such as grades, character, and relationships with peers, it still made her a little nervous.

“Thank you, Professor.”

On the topmost sheet, her own information was written.

The eldest daughter among one son and two daughters of the Persia family. The grades from the classes she had personally chosen and registered for. Demerit points, merit points, and special notes. The documents, written up in meticulous detail, contained the outward facts about her.

“You’re already becoming a fourth-year student. Congratulations.”

“It’s all thanks to your guidance, Professor.”

After the light exchange of well-wishes, the consultation seemed to be drawing to a close. She answered the congratulations naturally, but somehow her mouth tasted bitter. Once the short yet long winter break passed, she would finally bear the title of a graduating class student. But whether that would have a positive effect on her was something she could not know.

“Then I’ll be on my way now.”

The longer the consultation went on, the more something inside her heart was sinking. She could maintain a smiling face all day if needed, but that was only one of the acts most extremely opposed to how she actually felt.

With the professor’s permission, Elott rose from her seat. Even as she pulled the chair back, it made no sound. She held the ends of her skirt and bent her knees. The movement, free of unnecessary excess, was full of refinement and courtesy.

The hallway she stepped into after leaving the faculty office behind was as quiet as a dead mouse. She walked carefully along the corridor and turned around a bend.

“Haa.”

Only after turning the corner and confirming there was no sign of anyone ahead did a sigh finally escape her. She had four or five classes again today, and with the consultation added on afterward, exhaustion had piled up heavily. Relationships in which she had to keep up appearances always left Elott drained.

I should hurry back to my room. If she took off the corset cinching her waist inside her uniform, she would finally be able to breathe again. And then she meant to relieve her stress through her hobby. She was walking briskly while thinking of that way to end her day.

“……”

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. At the very end of the corridor. The door at the farthest end of the wall was slightly open. Light leaking through the crack drew a long red line across the floor. On the upper part of the door was a sign that read Third Archive Room.

‘Was there a place like this here?’

It was so tucked away in the corner, and the shadows fell so thickly there, that it was hard even to notice there was a door. After hesitating, she carefully pushed it open. The sunlight flooding in was dazzling. The bright red sun reflected by the large window. The light, turning everything red, seemed almost eerie.

“Ah.”

Creak. At the sound of the door closing, her body stiffened on its own. By the time she came to her senses, she had already wandered inside as if bewitched. The long table and chairs, the kind one might see in a library, were all stained red by the sunset, and the bookshelves towering far above Elott’s height cast deep shadows.

Elott slowly looked around. Drawing a large circle around the five bookshelves, she stepped between them and ran her fingertips over the spines of the books. The shadows, contrasting with the red sunset, were deep and dark enough to seem as if they could completely hide her form. Suddenly, the events of today came back to her.

-Miss Elott, you seem so very calm.

It was something one of the young ladies she moved around with in a group had suddenly said. The others giggled and nodded their heads. A young lady who was always calm, kind, and refined. That was the outward appearance of Elott Persia.

Surrounded by the young ladies, Elott had merely answered with a smile. While pressing down the stifling frustration boiling up inside.

By nature, she had once had a lively personality. When she was young, one of the happiest parts of her day had been running around with dogs and rolling through the garden.

But happiness had been brief. Her mother had died suddenly in a carriage accident, and her father had taken a new wife in a very short time.

-Just how did your former mother raise you?

The little girl had no time even to grieve. The new Madame quickly took control of the mansion, and if Elott made even the slightest mistake, she would pick up the rod. Her cheerful nature was quickly erased under suppression, and one day, an incident in front of other young noble ladies, where she was deeply humiliated, left Elott with a great trauma.

A young lady of a noble house must always possess refinement and dignity. She must be thoroughly trained in etiquette and custom, and her own mistakes were the shame of the family itself. Those who failed to uphold this were, naturally, cast out from the group.

Stop.

The suddenly resurfacing past seized hold of her ankle. She could no longer even remember when she had last laughed freely. The cruelly aristocratic oppression had made Elott lose herself, and it remained the same even after she entered the Academy.

Something inside her was burning and boiling. A flame unable to come out pooled in her lower belly, and that hot heat kept flowing downward.

“……”

Elott stepped out, leaving the shadow behind her. The red sun had heated her pale white skin into a bright flush. Click. When she pressed the button on the handle, the door locked. With that small sound, the inside and outside spaces were completely cut off from one another.

Gulp. Dry saliva slid down her throat. The blazing sunset was bewitching people.

Elott turned her back to the sun and walked in between the bookshelves. Pitch-black shadows swallowed up her body. Even now, she still could not feel the slightest sign of anyone.

The moment she confirmed that there was no one at all around her, her fingertips trembled and her pulse began racing rapidly. Her pale white fingers moved in the darkness. Gradually, they moved lower and touched the hem of her skirt.

The discovery of her hobby had begun from somewhere very close at hand. It happened after she had adapted to life at the Academy to some extent. She had been doing an assignment in the library as usual, and was cleaning up her things to return to the dormitory.

-Huh?

Tap. The pen she had absentmindedly knocked rolled far away. The table was long and wide, and to retrieve the pen she had to lean in close and bend at the waist. At that moment, the corner of the table touched between her legs. The sensation of the sharp triangular edge pressing against her lower part was vivid.

A subtle and thrilling, pleasantly smoldering feeling.

Even after gripping the pen, she remained dazed for quite a while. If the other young ladies had not spoken to her, saying they should leave now, she probably would have stood there much longer.

‘What was that?’

Even after returning alone to her dormitory room, the thought continued to trouble her. The delicate sensation from when the edge had touched that place. Recalling that feeling she could not fully put into words, Elott eventually sat upright on her bed.

There was also a small table in her room. Even the very corner that was the source of everything.

She walked over to the table. Then, carefully, she pressed her lower body against it. When she merely touched it, she did not understand much. But once she began applying pressure and pressing her private area against it, the story changed.

‘Mm……!’

The corner mercilessly pressed against the inside of her legs. But it was thrilling. Like when eating a cake that was excessively sweet. No, an even sharper sensation than that was winding through her entire body. Before she knew it, she was clutching the table tightly and moving her waist. That was the beginning of her hobby.

A hand slipped inside the skirt she carefully lifted. Her slightly parted thighs were already burning hot. Her delicate flesh, which had barely ever seen sunlight, twitched even from the touch of fingertips. The fingers that had been gently caressing her skin had already reached her panties.

“……Ah.”

A feverish warmth spread from the edge of her lips. Her fingers felt as though they might be scorched, as if they had touched the wick of a candle. Heat even hotter than her flushed skin. The source of the flame. That place was like the bank of a boiling river.