“Hmm…?”

She had been drawing Captain Alain in the n*de, arms braced on either side of the heroine, leaning over her in a suggestive pose, but it looked more awkward than she had expected.

Riley began tilting her head this way and that.

“……What do a man’s back muscles actually look like when he’s got both arms propped like that?”

Her own back was too lean to find any muscle worth referencing, so solving it herself was out of the question.

She could certainly draw the human figure in the right proportions, but drawing it attractively was an entirely different matter.

“I’m going to have to look at a reference for this.”

Riley was not worried. She had the kingdom’s finest model right in front of her, and he took his clothes off with remarkable frequency.

She did not agonize over it the way other artists did when they hit a wall.

‘I’ll just observe during his bath later.’

She had endless opportunities.

She set down her pen at leisure and rubbed her tired eyes, then looked out the window. Dawn was already breaking.

‘He’ll be calling soon.’

Sure enough, before long the bell pull connected to Andrea’s room rattled sharply.

Riley rose as though she had been waiting for it, rewound her chest bandaging snugly, buttoned her shirt, and straightened her clothes.

She put on her jacket as well, then muttered quietly at the impatiently jangling pull.

“Coming, I said I’m coming.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A smooth, muscular arm rested over the edge of an ornate marble bathtub trimmed with ivory and gold relief.

Riley had rolled up her shirt sleeves and set the fresh bath oils, soap, and towels on the shelf nearby before settling into her place beside it.

“I’ll start with a massage.”

“……Do as you like.”

The reply came in a thick, sluggish voice, still carrying the remnants of drink.

The crown prince tilted his head back languidly, and Riley’s hands began moving across his face in slow, gentle strokes.

She had not been giving such attentive massages during his baths for very long.

It had been Riley’s own quiet initiative, reasoning that touching the skeleton and muscles directly would help with her figure drawing, and His Highness had seemed, unexpectedly, to find it agreeable.

On the occasional days she skipped it out of laziness, he would snap at her for leaving it out, which suggested he had grown rather fond of it.

Riley slid her fingers across the firm planes of his face and committed the precise structure of it to memory.

The deep-set eyes, the artful line of his nose, the masculine jaw. Every feature, flawless.

Four years had passed, and the lines of his face had grown considerably stronger.

She was aligning what she saw with what she felt, quietly studying the crown prince’s features, when a rebuke came swiftly.

“Move your breath.”

“Oh. Yes.”

Riley leaned back slightly.

She felt a little sheepish for having gotten carried away in her ambition to capture that beautiful bone structure as faithfully as possible and deliver it to the women of the capital.

“Next is the scalp massage.”

It was Andrea’s favorite part, and his expression eased back into something relaxed.

Riley slipped her fingers through the fine platinum hair and applied steady, firm pressure. Andrea let out a low mmm of a groan almost immediately.

But when she moved on to kneading his shoulders, back, and arms to her heart’s content, he found fault again.

“Hah…… you call this a massage, boy.”

She had heard that complaint more than once or twice, and she had genuinely been working to build up her grip strength, yet it seemed she still fell short of what His Highness wanted.

Against a body packed with solid muscle, her hands probably felt like nothing more than a light tickle.

Reluctantly, Riley withdrew her hands from kneading the crown prince’s upper arm and announced the next step.

“Your Highness, I’ll be lathering you now, so would you mind standing up for just a moment?”

Everything up to this point had been the usual routine, but Andrea was unusually reluctant today.

“Skip it today. Just do more of that neck massage. Put some actual strength into it.”

“……”

Riley did not give up.

The deadline was closing in and the work was not coming together, so she needed to find her solution here.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Your Highness currently smells of alcohol, cigars, perfume, and something that suggests someone was sick nearby. You’ll draw disapproving looks if you attend the morning assembly like this. Stand up and I’ll soap you down quickly.”

She threw in a lie for good measure. Andrea exhaled a long sigh and flicked a droplet of water at Riley’s nose.

“And who exactly would dare give me a disapproving look?”

Even so, he reluctantly rose, sending water splashing around him.

Riley’s eyes lit up as she took in his bare figure.

It felt like only yesterday that she had been mortified at the prospect of attending His Highness’s bath.

Now here she was, straining her eyes to make sure she missed nothing.

The passage of time and her own moral decline struck her as freshly remarkable.

The years had dulled whatever girlish sensitivity and shyness Riley once had.

She was not sure she had been particularly sensitive to begin with, but either way, she could now soap down Andrea’s more exposed areas without batting an eye.

He was always finding fault with her, but somewhere in the back of her mind she had always known he was surprisingly lenient with her, and that gave her the confidence to make bold requests.

“Could you lean forward just slightly, Your Highness?”

“What, why.”

Andrea, who had a cigar between his lips, glanced back at his attendant with an air of mild irritation at the unusual number of demands today.

Then he spotted the soap foam sitting on the bridge of Riley’s nose, flicked it off with one finger, and snickered.

Riley was relieved that His Highness was in a decent mood this morning and pressed her case again.

“It’s just that…… you need to lean a little for the lather to spread properly.”

“Hah…… honestly.”

Andrea let out a low sigh but obligingly curved his back slightly.

Riley seized the moment and quickly committed to memory the way his trapezius, shoulder blades, and vertebrae shifted and moved.

“What are you doing standing there? I’m busy today too.”

“Oh, yes, yes.”

Taking in the elegant sweep of muscle and bone, Riley hurried her hands along.

But when the soapy sponge traveled down toward his backside, her hands stopped again.

She wanted to observe in detail what the firm, well-defined gluteal muscles would look like with the body bent forward over a woman.

Riley cleared her throat with a small ahem and made one more shameless request.

“Um…… would it be possible, just for a moment, to tilt your upper body forward in a sort of crouching position?”

“……What?”

Andrea looked back at his attendant, who had been unusually demanding today, with an expression of pure disbelief.

But then he looked at those violet eyes gazing up at him so earnestly, and his resolve softened as it always did.

“Bothersome little……”

Muttering something that was almost a curse, he braced both hands on his knees. Delighted, Riley mirrored the pose.

“Yes, yes. That’s exactly it. Just like that, leaning forward like that…!”

Perhaps she got a little too carried away.

“Ah!”

Riley, who had been demonstrating the pose herself, lost her balance and tumbled straight into the marble tub with a splash.

Andrea looked down at his attendant flailing in the water with an expression of pure exasperation.

A moment later, hauled out of the water, Riley grabbed onto Andrea’s bare body without thinking as she coughed and spluttered.

Perhaps it was the pitiful sight of her still clutching the sponge through all of it.

Andrea pushed the wet, limp strands of hair off her forehead and scolded her.

“Why are you so careless? Making strange requests all morning, and now this. Sounds like you’re the one who’s been drinking.”

Riley had no choice but to go back to her room and change.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Returning to Andrea’s bedchamber, she found he had dressed himself and was standing before the full-length mirror in the dressing room, tidying his appearance.

Riley hurried over and began straightening his elaborate cravat.

“Did Mr. Jayden not come? I asked him to help with dressing in my place.”

Jayden was the head attendant of the Eli Palace and handled the crown prince’s schedule and movements overall. She had asked the senior attendant to step in so that His Highness’s morning would not be delayed on her account.

“I told him not to bother. I don’t like people fussing over me.”

Even as he said it, Andrea let Riley straighten his appearance again without protest.

For reasons she had never quite understood, he did not allow any other attendant to assist with dressing or bathing. Only Riley.