Riley settled her mind with that easy reassurance and steeled herself.

‘Right, what’s stopping me. The moment I drew that intimate scene, I crossed the river. Besides, I have the perfect model. A model too good not to use.’

The thought of Andrea’s center, which she had seen again that very morning, made her scratch the bridge of her nose with mild awkwardness.

He displayed it with great authority every morning at bath time, and while she had no other specimen for comparison, His Highness’s was undeniably large and impressive.

But the day she had first seen it, how she had recoiled in shock.

She had nearly fainted at the thought that a human body could carry something like a weapon attached to it.

She had even felt a creeping despair about how much longer she could hold out while disguised as a man.

But with nowhere to go and no means of survival, she had gritted her teeth and feigned composure for four years.

Now it no longer fazed her, and she soaped him down without batting an eye.

On the mornings after he came home heavily drunk, she had made a point of washing him more thoroughly.

She had scrubbed away with the considerate thought of ‘he must have had a lovely time with the ladies……’ until His Highness had scrunched his face and slapped her hand away with considerable force.

After that, he had made it very clear she was not to touch it unless necessary.

It seemed he disliked it because touching it made it grow.

The fact that she had found it fascinating to discover that touching it made it grow, and had scrubbed away with extra enthusiasm as a result, was her secret.

In any case, she had been observing whenever the opportunity arose, so drawing it was not the problem.

The problem was summoning the nerve to push past the last line of conscience still standing in her way.

Back in her room, Riley dropped onto her bed and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Right. I’m doing it.”

She had already decided to go down this road, so she was going to see it through properly.

With that resolution made, the poses from the illustrated collection and Andrea’s n*ked body merged creatively in her mind.

The publisher’s special note came back to her at the same time.

「Please keep in mind that the larger and more formidable you draw it, the sharper the spike in sales will be.」

Riley swallowed hard, sat up, pulled out a sheet of paper, and sketched a rough pose.

For one of the illustrations, it would be best to draw Captain Alain alone, fully undressed.

Seated languidly on a bed, in a pose that invited the reader in.

Gripping his magnificent manhood while gazing at the reader with burning eyes.

For those burning eyes, perhaps she could use the look His Highness wore while reading the morning newspaper.

She would observe His Highness more closely tomorrow morning and finish the drawing then.

“Haaah.”

Riley yawned and lay back down without a care in the world.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

But the following morning, before dawn.

“Hey.”

“……Mmnh……?”

“Wake up.”

Riley registered someone growling right beside her ear and opened her eyes.

Her mind had not fully surfaced from sleep when she heard a tongue clicking above her head.

Her vision sharpened gradually, and a large silhouette loomed over her.

It was Andrea.

“Y, Your Highness?”

“Now I have to come wake you myself.”

Riley shot upright at the familiar voice, wiped the corner of her mouth, and frantically checked the time.

“Wh, what time is it?”

She saw it was a full half hour past when she normally woke and her mouth fell open.

“I pulled the bell cord over and over and you never came. Good grief. Hurry up and get dressed.”

Andrea said it as though he intended to wait, then dropped onto the edge of Riley’s bed.

But in that moment, none of it reached her ears.

The manuscript she had been drawing the night before was still sitting on the desk by the window.

She launched herself across the room, crashed into the desk with a thud, shoved the manuscript out of sight, and crammed it into the drawer. It was over in a matter of seconds.

“Ow!”

But she had knocked her shin against the desk leg, and it hurt badly enough to bring tears to her eyes.

She rubbed her leg with a pained expression, and Andrea shook his head with an air of pure exasperation.

“What are you doing, just get dressed already.”

“……”

Having barely managed to hide the drawing, Riley ran straight into the second problem.

Of all days, why had he come all the way to her room and was being this impatient?

She had been making a deliberate effort to keep her distance since that incident, and now this.

Riley smoothed her disheveled hair with her hands and tried to steer things in a different direction.

“I’ll, um, get dressed and come right over. Or I can let Jayden know to attend to you this morning instead.”

“What?”

One eyebrow lifted, something clearly not sitting well with him, and he cut her off shortly.

“Never mind that. Just get dressed now.”

She was still fidgeting with the buttons of her nightclothes and not moving, and something like dawning suspicion crossed Andrea’s face.

“Don’t tell me…… you don’t want to change in front of me?”

“Of, of course not! How could I possibly undress in front of Your Highness?”

This was not a spacious room like Andrea’s. Everything was visible at a glance.

There was no screen or corner to hide behind.

But whatever had gotten into him, coming here at this hour of the morning and making things so difficult.

“You see me undressed all the time. Why can’t I see you?”

“……”

Andrea had no idea why he was wasting precious morning time making pointless jokes.

But there was something satisfying about seeing the boy, always so perfectly put together, stumbling around with his hair in a complete mess. The softly puffy face was quite endearing too.

What was this ache in his chest.

He realized he had genuinely wanted to watch the boy get dressed, just for a moment.

But faced with his teasing, Raul only gripped his collar tighter and stepped further back.

“That’s my job, isn’t it? I’d rather not pollute Your Highness’s eyes by changing in front of you.”

“You never let me win a single argument.”

Which was exactly what made it fun to tease him.

Smiling to himself, Andrea rose from the bed with deliberate slowness.

“I have no interest in watching a man get dressed either. Hurry over, there’s an early schedule.”

Riley watched her master’s retreating figure and let out a sigh.

That was close.

‘Falling asleep with the manuscript just sitting on the desk.’

She had let her guard down because Andrea rarely came to her room.

But thinking back, he had shown up unannounced before. Her vigilance had clearly been slipping lately.

Riley changed quickly into her uniform, tied her cravat neatly, and hurried across to Andrea’s room. She made a silent resolution on the way.

This morning she had to observe his manhood more carefully than usual.

She had been looking at it for four years and was thoroughly familiar with it, but as an illustrator, she had a duty to either soften or exaggerate it into something her female readers would love.

Because ‘Lord Andy’ was a precious resource, a goldmine.

‘Lord Andy’ was the pet name Riley had secretly given to Andrea’s manhood.

Armed with this resolve, she crossed into Andrea’s bedchamber to find that he had apparently grown impatient waiting and climbed into the marble bathtub himself.

Then again, he had always managed everything on his own during his military years.

Riley picked up and folded the robe and sleeping trousers he had tossed aside, sneaking glances as she worked.

The white steam and soap foam rising from the tub partially obscured her view, but when Andrea stood up, she was reunited with Lord Andy.

‘Good morning, Lord Andy.’

Riley murmured inwardly and approached with a fresh robe in hand, stealing glances.

True to form, it being morning, Lord Andy had his head held high and gave a little bob up and down, as if in greeting.

Her cheeks went slightly pink, and she turned her mind to the question of how to translate this into art.

The conclusion was simply: draw it exactly as it is.

How could she exaggerate something already this outrageous?

Something this large and thick, practically reaching his navel, how could she possibly draw it any larger?

The upper limit of exaggeration already existed here in the flesh.

Go any further and it would look like a monster.