Looking down at me, his gaze seemed to radiate the warm comfort of budding life. When I stared back blankly without any response, an even more tender voice than before rang out.

『Eliat….』

“Yes… Master….”

I didn’t really know who he was. I hadn’t even thought about it, but those words just came out naturally. Pleased with my answer, a languid satisfaction appeared at the corners of his mouth.

『I’ll be waiting for you there.』

After finishing his words, the man slowly moved away. I wanted to chase after him immediately, but my legs felt heavy, weighed down like lead. I couldn’t move my body.

‘Where is this place you’ll be waiting for me, Master?’

I wanted to cry out desperately, but my mouth wouldn’t move freely, like someone was holding it shut tight. I felt like one of those stiff wooden dolls displayed in the puppet shop I’d seen by chance on the street. When his figure gradually blurred and I could no longer see him, my eyes suddenly snapped open.

“Hah, hah, hah….”

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the tediously familiar ceiling. My heart raced like someone who’d just run up a high mountain in the middle of the night. My hands trembled and my breath came in short gasps. Strangely, I couldn’t calm down.

What on earth had that dream been about, and had it even been a dream at all? 

Everything was confusing. The images of people leaving their rooms like they were under a spell and Rebecca’s excited state kept coming back to me.

A worry crept up from deep in my heart that maybe I would become like them too. I knew it didn’t make sense, but the fact that people kept disappearing from this estate was an undeniable truth.

‘This won’t do. Tomorrow when Emily wakes up, I need to tell her everything I saw. Of course, she won’t want to believe me… but if I speak seriously, she’ll worry about it with me.’

Looking out the window, a red moon hung high in the sky. I couldn’t gauge the exact time, but it still seemed to be the middle of the night. I deliberately thought of other things to erase the endless chain of worries that followed me.

Cute Maria’s face, or maybe Sheril’s mischievous smile. After thinking about them for a while, I shifted to change my uncomfortable position, and my n*pple brushed against the blanket, reacting with indescribable sensitivity.

“Hngh…!”

A strange sound escaped without my knowing. I covered my mouth belatedly, but the sound had already come out. I looked around anxiously, but fortunately no one seemed to have woken up.

‘What was… that just now?’

Puzzled, I rubbed my n*pple with my finger, and hot heat swirled around it. It was a place I usually felt no sensation from, but just a brush of my hand made my breath come short and hard to bear. Following the circular movement of my finger, my n*pple, which had been quietly in place, stood up straight.

The thought flashed through my mind about what I was doing in a place where I lived with other people. Strangely, I couldn’t stop my hand. I drew circles with my finger, going round and round the area around my n*pple. That wasn’t enough, so this time I used my other hand too, stimulating the peaks of both br*asts together.

“Mmmngh….”

I felt the deep, secret place below gradually getting wet. While still rubbing my br*asts with my hands, I slowly rubbed between my legs. With each squelching sound and friction in that area, tremors like electric shocks ran through my whole body. My stomach tingled inside, and I was overcome with a thirst that needed immediate relief.

‘But how…?’

I had never even m*sturbated before. To me, everything men and women did at night was nothing but filthy, vile sin.

But now I had to relieve this burning heat. I thought about what more I should do here, but no good method came to mind.

Then suddenly, what Emily had secretly told me before flashed through my head.

“Eliat, you really… have no experience spending the night with a man?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to do such filthy, dirty things.”

At my words, Emily looked at me like she was seeing a naive child who knew nothing of the world. Soon after, pity, puzzlement, and curiosity appeared in her eyes in turn.

That look made me feel both burdened and very displeased.

“Then you haven’t tried things like m*sturbation either, right?”

“I haven’t. Do I have to do that?”

“What? No, what are you… don’t you have s*xual desire? Does this make sense?”

“There are so many people in the world, there could be people like me too. Let’s stop talking about this and go eat.”

Emily gaped at me like she couldn’t believe it. Like someone deep in thought, she frowned heavily, then seemed to make up her mind and clenched her fist.

“I wasn’t going to go this far, but you’re hopeless. Wait a moment.”

Emily rummaged through the boxes under the bed for quite a while. When she couldn’t find what she was looking for easily, she muttered to herself, then looked back at me with a triumphant expression.

“Finally found it! I bought this when it was on special discount last time, but I’ll give it to you. Try using it when you’re bored.”

What she handed me was a small box with a bumpy surface. When I carefully opened the box, inside was a small bead and a small glass bottle containing brown liquid.

“What is this?”

“A m*sturbation device that women can enjoy alone at night.”

“What…? Why are you giving me this? I don’t need it, so Emily, you keep it.”

My expression crumpled immediately at the mention of m*sturbation device. I shook my hands in disgust like someone who’d received something horrible. Even what I was holding felt filthy, so I tried to give it back to Emily, but she shook her head and stubbornly refused to take it.

Instead, she spoke to me in a resolute voice.

“This is a limited edition product that came out cheap from the magic trading company this time. It’s a bit disappointing that it’s single-use… but definitely try it once. You’ll discover new pleasures too.”

Threatened by Emily’s words that she’d charge me ten times the price of the m*sturbation device if I secretly threw it away, I had no choice but to accept the item. She personally explained to me, who had said I didn’t want it, how to use the bead, the best times to use it, and ways to maximize the enjoyment.

‘Right, back then… Emily gave me that bead. If I use that, it might be relieved.’

I’d never thought I’d use this bead someday, but now my whole body was burning hot and I felt like I’d go crazy if I didn’t relieve this desire immediately. I thought if I just did a little more, if I just touched a little more it would end, and my heart grew anxious.

After looking around once to see if anyone was awake, I reached for the bundle under the bed. I must have put it very deep because even when I fumbled around, I couldn’t catch it. Then I felt a box with a bumpy surface at the very corner.

Urgently pulling out the box, I saw the round bead Emily had shown me before and the brown liquid in the small glass bottle. I slowly recalled the usage method she had taught me.

‘So… I apply this brown liquid to my cl*toris and then place the round bead on top, right?’

Worried that other people might see me like this, I pulled the blanket all the way up to my face. Then after taking off my underwear, I spread my legs slightly.

Doing this in a shared dormitory felt like I was going crazy. My heart beat fast and my face grew hot with shame. I felt disgusted and revolted by myself, but ironically, I was endlessly overcome with the thirst to relieve this heightened sensation.

“Hah….”

I let out a deep breath and spread the brown oil so it would absorb well into my cl*toris. Soon after, heat rose hotly from there, and just staying still made my toes tremble with excitement. Finally, I placed the bead that came with it on top of my cl*toris.

The bead melted fluidly like water and changed into a round shape that wrapped around my cl*toris. Soon after, it began to move in earnest.

Zing, zing, zing—

Something that had completely swallowed my lower area continuously sucked and stimulated that place without rest. Each time my lower body hummed and vibrated, my head went completely white. 

My legs trembled and my waist jerked involuntarily. I felt like something would happen from the unbearably distant sensation. Pleasure kept crashing down like a raging storm, and moans escaped past my lips without my knowing.

“Hngh… haah… aah…!”

The stimulation grew increasingly intense. My body filled with strange sensations it had never known. Hot lava somewhere deep inside my body bubbled up, then finally burst out as a cluster of sparkling stars at the highest point. At the same time, like exploding lava, a hot stream of water also gushed out from the deep hole.

“Mmmngh…. Aaah…!”

This sensation was a first in my life. My limbs trembled and all the strength drained from my body. Without the strength to move even a finger, feather-like languor dominated my whole body. 

My head, where stars had been exploding just moments before, went completely white and blank. I couldn’t understand what had happened, but the bed sheet I was lying on became damp like I’d wet myself.

But the unbelievable fact was that my body was heating up again unbearably. The hot night was just beginning, it seemed to tell me.