Her head felt strangely heavy and hazy. As soon as she arrived at the mansion, Serena took a bath and entered her room. She stood in the middle of the room, staring blankly at the black book she had tossed onto her bed.

No matter how she looked at it, the book unsettled her. The owner of that vulgar shop was still a mystery, and she had no idea what he meant by “proper education.” 

The book radiated a faint magical power, yet it contained a force so foreign that her own knowledge couldn’t even begin to decipher it. Everything about it left her confused.

“Why did I accept that bet?”

It felt like something had possessed her. Still, the harsh truth remained that she couldn’t have escaped from there on her own. 

He had offered to let her go after erasing only her memories, but that sounded even less trustworthy than this bet. 

If she had to choose, it was better to read this book than to let him tamper with her memories. Serena forced herself to rationalize her uncharacteristic decision.

“At least he had some logic to him.”

His words made little sense, but the more she listened, the more his arguments seemed logical, which only irritated her further. If he had just talked nonsense, she could have dismissed him. Instead, he had cleverly targeted her weakest points.

‘You only see as much as you know.’

That was an undeniable, timeless truth.

“Maybe it’s better to settle this once and for all.”

She pulled out the contract that had been tucked under the book. The contents of the bet were absurd, but the contract itself was flawless. Even the secretaries who assisted her father couldn’t have drafted such a perfect document on the spot.

“The more I think about it, the more infuriating and pathetic it seems.”

Serena admired intelligent people. She always believed that what set humans apart from animals was their capacity to accumulate knowledge, so she constantly sought out new learning.

In that sense, the man possessed the kind of deep, novel knowledge she craved—yet he wasted it making nothing but toys for pleasure. 

Serena thought it was far more pathetic to squander great knowledge than to make mistakes out of ignorance.

“Reading a single book can’t be that hard.”

She tried to brush it off and thought about reading the book, but she felt too mentally exhausted today. She decided to leave it for tomorrow. She set the book on her nightstand and sank into her soft bed.

She had felt only a little tired before lying down, but the plush sensation wrapped around her, and sleep crept in. 

Serena’s eyelids fluttered slowly as she traced the memory of a man whose face she didn’t even know. Soon her eyes closed completely. The fluffy blanket rose and fell gently with her steady breathing.

The bedroom grew even quieter as its owner fell asleep.

Outside the tightly shut window, the shadows of trees swayed in the wind, stretching long across the room in the moonlight. The silhouettes of leaves fluttered eerily, dappled across her room. At that moment, the tip of a slender branch’s shadow twitched and slowly extended.

A black snake slipped naturally out of the shadow and slithered up onto Serena’s bed. It had spent so long there—even back when it had no self-awareness—that it didn’t need to search for its place.

Shunatz easily swallowed the fake bracelet that had been acting as a stand-in. Then it coiled itself around her bare wrist. Soon, the snake transformed into an identical black bracelet, resting on her wrist as though it had never disappeared.

* * *

While moving her utensils quietly, Serena glanced around the spacious dining hall. Except for the maid waiting at a distance to assist her, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

‘I might as well just eat in my room from tomorrow.’

She had come to the dining hall on purpose, hoping to get a feel for the mansion’s atmosphere, but it accomplished nothing. 

Other than the chef who explained the dishes, everyone else avoided her gaze and kept their mouths tightly shut, almost like they had agreed to do so.

‘I can’t figure out what they’re thinking.’

As she finished her meal and enjoyed dessert, Serena fell deep into thought. Many people tried strange tactics to gain the upper hand before a negotiation or to intimidate their counterpart. 

However, the Duke had no reason to do so.

‘He already has the upper hand anyway…’

The Bluebell Marquis family was the one desperate to secure the contract. Her father had already instructed her to accommodate the Duke’s terms as much as possible, so there was no need to draw things out and make her anxious.

Serena hadn’t come to haggle over whether the contract would happen. The contract was a given. Her task was to negotiate the details of the goods the Marquis family hoped to obtain through the deal.

“The Duke can’t be ignorant that this kind of time-wasting is pointless.”

If he really didn’t know, Serena decided she’d have to lower her opinion of him. She finished her meal with that thought.

Back in her room, Serena sat on the plush sofa and stared at the cover of the book.

‘If I have time to spare, maybe I should just get through this book quickly.’

She felt more at ease dealing with suspicious matters before the Duke arrived. Besides, since the incident had happened in Azure, if she won the bet, she might be able to use this situation to her advantage in the negotiations.

When her hand touched the cover, she felt a surge of magical energy ripple through the book. She tried to figure out how it worked, but the method was so unique that none of her current knowledge could decipher it.

‘If I get the chance, I’d love to study this in detail for research…’

The book’s suspicious nature only made it more valuable for research. She wanted to dig into it, but she barely suppressed her curiosity and opened the cover.

* * *

Serena’s fingers hesitated, hovering in the air several times. Her heart had been pounding wildly for a while. She felt so anxious that she kept glancing at her locked door. 

She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet she felt like a child sneaking a look at her parents, weighed down by a mysterious sense of guilt.

The first chapter of the book was a novel about a young girl’s first encounter with s*xual pleasure. Serena started out scoffing at the story, but as she turned the pages, the explicit descriptions and raw depictions of s*xual desire made her blush. 

By the time she finished the chapter, she was breathing hard, unsure whether she felt angry or excited, and tossed the book aside in irritation.

There was no one watching, but she developed a compulsion to prove just how much the book’s contents angered her. Otherwise…

Serena’s thoughts, which had been drawing close to a certain truth, faded away, chased off by a chilling warning from her rational mind.

“Hmph, it’s all lies anyway.”

She exhaled slowly and cautiously brought her hand to her chest. According to the contract, she had to perfectly understand and replicate every experience described in the book.

She felt a bit overwhelmed at the thought of imitating such vulgar acts. The bet wasn’t going to be as easy as she had hoped.

She decided to try out the least provocative part of the book. Hesitantly, she pressed her hand over her chest on top of her clothes.

“I don’t feel anything.”

She poked her chest lightly and, reassured, muttered to herself. Her anxious heartbeat began to settle.

What had she been so afraid of? 

Serena’s cheeks flushed slightly. Determined to shake off her embarrassment, she grew a little bolder. She didn’t want anyone to say later that she lacked experience or understanding. 

She needed to prove to herself that she was different from the rest.

With a smirk of confidence, Serena kneaded her own chest. She hadn’t realized that, with her chemise, garter belt, slip, and even a heavy indoor dress layered on, the sensation would be so muted.

“Why do people even like this?”

In the novel, the girl moaned and writhed under her own touch. But when Serena tried it herself, nothing like that happened. The tension she’d felt, worried something indecent might occur, simply evaporated.

Relieved, Serena rubbed her sore neck and called for her maid to prepare a bath. She undressed with the maid’s help and stepped into the bathroom, which was filled with warm, steamy air. 

The gentle heat rising from the tub was something she could never experience at the northern Marquis’s estate, and it made her lips curl into a relaxed smile.

The bathwater, colored by bath salts, was a mysterious, slightly opaque shade. Serena sat on the edge of the tub and dipped her toes in.

“Is the temperature to your liking?”

“Yes. It’s nice. I like the scent of the bath salts, too.”

She playfully stirred the water with her toes. Several maids waited behind her, but Serena paid them no mind. She was so used to this that being n*ked in front of them didn’t faze her at all.

After washing, she finally sank into the warm bath, folded her arms on the tub’s edge, and rested her cheek on them. 

With nothing to do but relax in the mansion, her body felt sluggish. She even considered exercising to shake off the lethargy, turning around in the tub to lean against the back.

Ripples in the water brushed against her pale skin. After sending the maids away, she remained alone in the bath, swirling the water with her fingers. 

The gentle tremors of the water barely tickled her skin.

The subtle, elusive tingling, like a drizzle soaking through clothes, slowly seeped into her heart. Serena’s hand, which had been splashing the water, stopped.

‘Something feels strange.’