Chapter 1 – The Princess of Ruby Palace

All the maids working in Ruby Palace knew that Princess Eileen of the Staerfix royal family had recently become interested in popular novels. After all, it was the maids who had given her those novels in the first place.

“How did you like the one you read yesterday?”

“It was fun.”

“Oh my, really?”

Eileen, speaking with cheeks tinged red, was elegant and beautiful. Unlike her slender arms and legs, her chest was full and her waist was slim. Her golden hair shone more brightly than anyone else’s and was soft, while the spring sunlight coming through the window flowed over her body, making it look graceful and alluring. Yet her face was as smooth as a doll’s, with innocent blue eyes, so all the maids praised her beauty.

The princess was now twenty.

She, who had been considered the treasure of the Staerfix royal family, was currently in talks for marriage with the third prince of the Hyksar Empire. Normally, a woman of the palace would learn bedroom arts before adulthood, but there was no royal elder to pass on such knowledge to her.

After the previous King and Queen died, Eileen’s brother Adrian had ascended the throne just a year ago and remained single, without a queen. With no adult to manage the inner chambers, Eileen’s maids ended up teaching her about relations between men and women through illustrated popular novels.

“I liked Eric. He was my type.”

Eileen spoke, recalling the contents of the novel.

“Eric? Isn’t he a bit rough-mouthed?”

“That’s true. Actually, Prince Iandros would make a better husband.”

“Really? But Eric seemed a bit cooler to me.”

“Princess, you must like bad boys.”

“Well, those types do tend to be popular.”

The maids chattered like nightingales beside her, but Eileen simply smiled innocently, as if she knew nothing. Eric Sidmore, in the novel, was the most arrogant character, rough in speech and completely unaware of a woman’s feelings. The maids gave Eileen worried looks for choosing Eric.

There’s a phase when one is drawn to bad boys. The maids had gone through it too, and in Staerfix, Leios Dreikan, the young Duke, was the prime example, drawing the attention of many young ladies.

But perhaps the princess shouldn’t get involved with such a man.

Since the daughters of the late Queen Edna’s maids were now serving Princess Eileen, their loyalty to the royal family was immense. They were so strict they were called the Princess’s Six Knightly Guardians, but in front of Eileen, they all became soft, like worried aunts.

“Do men like Eric exist in real life?”

Eileen asked, widening her eyes. In the largest room of Ruby Palace, the blue tapestry behind her walnut chair fluttered in the spring breeze.

“They do exist.”

“They’re famous, you know.”

“The new commander of the royal knights—His Grace the Duke.”

“Leios?”

Eileen asked, and the maids nodded.

“That’s right, he’s so cold, like ice. Whenever Duke Dreikan enters the banquet hall, everyone gets scared.”

“And yet, he’s handsome, so young ladies adore him.”

The maids gossiped about Leios as if warning Eileen not to get involved with such a man. Naturally, Eileen’s expression darkened.

‘……Leios isn’t like that.’

Eileen listened to their conversation with interest, then turned her head to look out the window, as if she had heard enough. It had been over four years since she last saw Leios. After Queen Edna first suffered a poisoning attempt and was bedridden, the palace’s gates had been closed.

Since then, Eileen truly lived like a flower in a greenhouse, only within the palace.

And now, four years later, she was in marriage talks with another man. Not her first love, Leios Dreikan.

‘……Is this right?’

The peonies that Queen Edna loved, and that Eileen liked best, were about to bloom, their buds ready to burst open. As the maids whispered among themselves about how beautiful their princess was, Eileen gazed at the pink-tinted garden.

No one knew that, contrary to her peaceful appearance, dark thoughts were growing in her heart.

* * *

“Spread them, okay? Sienna.”

Eric’s love scene in the novel perfectly stimulated Eileen’s imagination. Every time the character spoke, he made the other person blush, and as Eileen read each line, she unconsciously parted her legs a little.

“Your p*ssy’s soaking wet. Even if I brought in a horse’s c*ck right now, it’d go in, wouldn’t it?”

‘Horse’s c*ck. Was it really that big?’

Eric’s lines sounded as if they were whispered right into her ear. Last night, Eileen, feeling like she had become Sienna, twisted her damp legs together. No one had taught her, but soon she dropped the book and her fingers slid to her most private area.

Since she started reading popular novels, she began touching herself. Tonight was no different.

“Mm, ah…”

Eileen’s face was filled with pleasure as she smeared her slick fluids onto her fingertips.

Spread them, spread them wider.

Invisible Eric was whispering to her. The chemise rode up over her fully spread legs, exposing her pale, transparent skin in the bright moonlight. If someone were to look directly, everything would be exposed. The thought made Eileen even more excited, as if Eric himself was watching her.

“Ah, oh. It’s strange.”

Eileen’s fingers began moving faster. The cl*toris, stimulated by her own touch, swelled and peeked out as if it were aroused. Each touch sent a thrill down her spine and made her toes stiffen, just like when she first learned the royal dance of Staerfix.

‘Help me, someone, help me.’

Eileen mumbled at the ceiling, but there was no one to help her. The sticky wetness trickled between her hips and soaked the bedding, and her cl*toris grew hotter than ever, making her dizzy.

‘I want something inside.’

Around then, Eileen thought so. If she could fill that small hole, she might reach the peak of pleasure like Sienna. In her frustration, she widened the area she rubbed with her fingertips, struggling harder. She pressed her slender legs apart as far as she could. The novel said something was supposed to go inside, but Eileen couldn’t even find the hole with her own hand.

Burning with desire, Eileen felt herself melting inside. She instinctively knew that just a little more, just one more thing, would quench her thirst and bring the joy of rain in the desert, but everything was clumsy, and all she’d learned about s*x was from books, so it was hopeless.

Then, one of Eric’s actions in the novel flashed through Eileen’s mind.

He had grabbed Sienna’s peak with his large, strong hand and squeezed it. After that, Sienna couldn’t even straighten her back, overcome with pleasure.

Recalling this, Eileen instinctively touched her cl*toris. Slick with her own fluids, it was so sensitive that even a slight touch made her eyes squeeze shut. What would happen if she pinched it? Naturally, Eileen followed the story and pinched it between two fingers. Then, twisting it hard—

“Hnnng, ah!”

A huge wave of stimulation and pain hit her at once. Even if someone woke up and knocked on Eileen’s door, she couldn’t explain the loud moan that burst from her throat. Surprised, she covered her mouth with the hand that had been pinching her cl*toris. Her legs were still spread wide, and as her heat cooled, a chilly sensation swept between her thighs.

‘No one woke up, right?’

Eileen held her breath and stared at her door, then finally let out a shaky sigh. She hadn’t expected such intense stimulation. It even hurt a little, but Sienna in the story had accepted even more and dripped with desire.

Surely, real relationships must involve more than this.

But thinking that her partner would be a third prince from a faraway country whose face she had never seen made Eileen’s pretty brow furrow. Just then—

Crack.

The sound of a breaking twig pierced her ear. Startled, Eileen got up from bed and hurried toward the source of the sound.

“Ah.”

Unfamiliar black hair, whipped by the wind, stopped at the sound of Eileen’s voice. The man’s back was broad as the sky, and the sword at his waist was engraved with an orchid, the symbol of Staerfix’s glory.

Eileen recognized him easily. But she wondered whether she should call his name. If he had witnessed everything, what should she do… And clearly, he was wondering the same. Even though he heard her, he didn’t turn around, only took a deep breath, his shoulders rising and falling.

Now that she’d been caught, would it be strange to pretend nothing happened and just let him go?

Eileen gathered her courage and called out the name of her childhood friend and first love, whom she had met several times while Queen Edna was alive.

“Le-Leios.”

“…Princess.”

“So, um…”

At Eileen’s call, Leios instantly wiped his expression and turned around. The knight’s eyes were firm and calm, as if nothing had happened, but the tips of his ears shone red in the moonlight.

“I was on patrol. I apologize for waking you.”

Leios clearly intended to pass by as if nothing had happened. Eileen thought that was the right choice too. Even if Leios had seen her pleasuring herself, Eileen would have pretended not to notice. Still, she didn’t let him go so easily.

“Did you… see?”

The end of her curiosity. Young, yes, and her burning desire needed someone to soothe it—her first love, Duke Dreikan, who resembled Eric from her novels.

“Princess… I will not say a word about this. So…”

The face that seemed unbreakable crumpled at Eileen’s question. Then, after a short breath, he gave the best answer a knight could offer.

“Help me.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Help me, Leios.”

Suddenly, the princess’s chemise fluttered in the strong wind, revealing all her pale skin. Without any underwear beneath, her wetness was visible to the knight’s gaze. Leios looked into Eileen’s pure green eyes, holding his breath and swallowing. The scene he’d just glimpsed through the window filled his mind. The thing hidden by his uniform swelled thickly, threatening to burst through.

“Leios.”

For the commander of the royal knights to defy the princess’s command was unthinkable. Yet what she wanted was something that absolutely, definitely should not happen.

“Eileen.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Leios’s lips parted and her name entered with the wind.