“Every word he uses is vulgar.”

Moreover, no matter how unconscious it was, it showed how much she considered him beneath her level. The man made her shudder by using various crude words every day.

“No. Don’t think about it.”

As the man’s voice from her nightlong encounters naturally came to mind, Serena hastily shook off the thought. 

Just recalling his distinctive melting voice made her feel her entire body’s senses standing on edge reflexively. While deliberately ignoring the ticklish heat rising within her and fanning herself with her hand, she heard a light knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The secretary who carefully entered the room was holding a package. Knowing that Serena had recently been very reluctant to have anyone approach her, he stopped on the opposite side of the table.

“What is it?”

“A package has arrived for you, Miss.”

“A package? All the way here? From my father?”

“No. Since the sender is unclear, I brought it to ask if you might know who it’s from.”

Anyone with business with her should naturally have contacted her at her home. Her stay at the Duke’s mansion was merely part of her work, after all. 

Not many people knew she was staying here, yet someone of unknown identity had sent a package all the way here. Serena stared intently at the package with suspicious eyes.

“Please don’t open it for safety reasons, just check the signature written by the sender.”

Gesturing for the secretary to step back lest they touch, Serena leaned slightly toward the package on the table. In the sender field, instead of a family name or association name, there was only a single casual signature.

“I’ve seen this somewhere… Ah!”

Serena’s expression instantly turned pale while tracing her memory. Though not familiar, it was a signature she could never forget. The signature written on the contract she had hidden away.

Lust, the owner of that bizarre shop.

“Do you know this person?”

“It is indeed for me, so you may leave it.”

The attendant had accompanied Serena here as her secretary. However, strictly speaking, he was one of the Marquis’s secretarial staff, so he didn’t know all of her acquaintances. 

Therefore, without much suspicion, he obediently left the package and exited the room. Serena, who had barely maintained a composed face, immediately rose from her seat, unable to hide her anxiety once the secretary disappeared.

“How dare he send a package?”

He didn’t know his place at all. Although they were in a contractual situation, Serena was still the daughter of a Marquis family, while he was merely the owner of a low-quality secret shop. 

Especially considering he was doing business secretly, hiding his background and past, he should not have officially sent a package to Serena like this.

Since the sender was that man, she didn’t dare ask someone else to open it. Serena lightly detected magical power and then opened the package herself. She felt only very faint magical energy with no aggressive aura, so it didn’t seem to be a dangerous item.

“What is this?”

As expected, inside was just a small device of unknown purpose in a small box and a letter.

A strange device with a round protrusion attached, and on the opposite end, a thin, flat plate slightly wider than the protrusion. For a moment she suspected it might be a toy sold at the shop, but compared to the fake g*nitals she had seen there, it was much smaller. 

It was roughly the thickness of three fingers put together, and the length barely exceeded two finger joints.

The enthusiastic clerk had proudly explained the manufacturing standards, saying, ‘The fake g*nitals sold in this shop are never made smaller than this.’ 

However, this clearly fell far short of the minimum size for fake g*nitals. Moreover, rather than resembling g*nitals, it looked exactly like a stopper for a bottle. It even had a soft, firm jelly-like texture.

“What’s he playing at?”

Nervously putting down the object, she opened the letter next. Written in elegant handwriting, too beautiful to be wasted on making such toys, was a concise message.

[It seems you’re unable to progress due to lack of necessary supplies, so I’m sending you an item needed for the next chapter. Hoping it helps you discover a new world.]

“What?”

There was no other explanation no matter how she turned the letter around. Serena, who was about to casually ignore and tear up the letter, hurriedly unfolded the crumpled paper again. 

Looking alternately between the letter with the clearly written words “next chapter” and the book on the shelf, she realized something.

‘He’s saying he knows which part of the book I’m reading.’

No wonder he hadn’t written a clear deadline on the contract. Somehow, perhaps because of that strange magic circle, this Lust person seemed able to know how far she had read in the book.

If she didn’t fulfill the contract quickly, she would gain more time, which would be advantageous for none other than Lust. If it were her, she would have been destroying evidence as much as possible without violating the contract. 

But he confidently sent a letter pressuring her to fulfill the contract quickly, certain he would win the bet.

He could come here anytime if he wanted.

She didn’t know what made that man so confident. But Serena, who hadn’t yet gathered proper evidence, needed to avoid being publicly associated with him until she won the bet and got his confession.

<This is a matter of pride. A matter of belief.>

Recalling his smug, arrogant face, Serena took out the book. Thinking about the content she had read previously, she steeled herself and opened the next chapter. 

But contrary to her expectation that it would contain all sorts of lewd stories with promiscuous content like before, the new chapter contained only short text written in a very simple and dry style.

[People with overly sensitive constitutions often get excited easily from small stimuli. Men who ej*culate too quickly. Women who get easily aroused during daily activities, causing excessive secretion of fluid. In such cases, the body’s responses can be corrected through the following device.]

Below the short text were illustrations along with simple instructions for use. There was a thin, long needle-like device that appeared to be for men, and a picture of the device that had been included with the letter.

“So this is a correction device?”

It was a disappointingly dry manual considering how mentally prepared she had been. 

The principle was simple. People who find daily life uncomfortable due to excessive fluid flow should block the entrance of the opening with the stopper-shaped device.

The logic was quite straightforward: fluids naturally decrease as the body’s sensitivity dulls, but until then, the opening should be blocked with a device that absorbs the fluids to prevent them from flowing.

“I understand how to use it, but…”

While the logic was flawless, the fact that the sender was suspicious made her reluctant to try it. The soft texture was the only positive aspect. After fiddling with the stopper, Serena closed the book and neatly wrapped the device, putting it back in the box.

“If the book’s content is true, then my body will improve if I just wait.”

Just as she had predicted, it seemed her symptoms occurred because her body, which had no immunity to this kind of stimulus, had temporarily become overly sensitive.

“I’ll have to wait for my body to adapt while minimizing stimulation.”

It was the first time since meeting Lust that his knowledge had been even marginally helpful.

* * *

Serena, slumped in her room, barely managed to steady herself on the floor with trembling hands. Her slippers lay haphazardly on the fluffy carpet. Even the soft touch of fur against her bare feet felt like an agonizing stimulus at this moment. 

Writhing on the floor, she repeatedly tried to bring her hand between her legs but clenched her fist and grabbed only the innocent carpet.

“Hnn, ungh, mmm…”

Serena’s waist, kneeling on the floor, moved slightly. The area between her thighs felt itchy and hot to the point of pain. A strong urge to rub her lower parts with her hands gnawed at her brain.

For days, she had been careful to avoid any stimulation. She deliberately chose loose clothing to prevent fabric from touching her skin and minimized contact with people.

But perhaps such caution had backfired. Her body, remembering the moment of climax, raised its sensitivity even higher, craving the pleasure it wanted when only weak stimulation continued that didn’t reach that point.