“You like male bodies, don’t you?”

At that question, Eloise’s thoughts momentarily froze. Unable to give any answer, she blankly repeated the strange woman’s question in her mind.

‘Do I like male bodies?’

She remembered the drawing she had thrown into the fireplace when her parents visited Blissbury—an almost completed male n*de.

How hard she had worked on that drawing. And it wasn’t just that one. Recently, all the drawings she had secretly created away from people’s eyes were male n*des.

‘Well, I can’t help what I want to draw.’

With female bodies, she always had herself as a model to look at whenever she wanted, so she had drawn plenty. But with male bodies, that wasn’t the case.

Then Ryan, an excellent model, began to hover around her.

Of course, Ryan didn’t walk around n*ked, so Eloise’s male drawings had become much more detailed than before, but they still weren’t perfect.

This made Eloise even more obsessed. She wanted to see properly and draw well!

Of course, this would be resolved after marriage. The problem was that she wanted to draw right now. So Eloise, without asking what the strange woman meant, blankly answered:

“Yes… oh!”

She covered her mouth, but the answer had already escaped. Eloise was confused. What should she do? Wasn’t that too perverted an answer? But then again, wasn’t the person asking the question strange too? And why would she suddenly ask me such a question?

Just then, the woman approached, grabbed Eloise’s hand, and said:

“I like them too!”

“…Pardon?”

“I could tell when you were intently looking at ‘The First Man Created by God.’ You’re someone who, like me, wants to capture the primordial form of humans on canvas! Anyone looking at that painting would feel the same. It’s truly a work that stirs the deep creative desire in people more than other paintings. Don’t you agree?”

The woman continued to hold Eloise’s hand while rapidly pouring out words.

Eloise should have pulled her hand away and said she had no idea what the woman was talking about.

“So you thought the same!”

Instead, Eloise answered like this and firmly gripped the woman’s hand. After all, the stranger was expressing exactly what Eloise had felt while looking at the paintings.

At Eloise’s response, the stranger’s expression brightened.

“Ah, I knew it. When I saw you carefully examining the paintings I love, I thought we might have similar tastes. Hmm, what do you think of ‘The Second Adam’?”

At the woman’s words, Eloise’s heart pounded. That painting had also captivated her attention for a long time.

Eloise and the strange woman’s eyes met. Without saying anything, they both knew they had found someone who could become a friend.

The two conversed until the museum closed. Afterward, they headed to the café right next door.

The other woman, like Eloise, told her maid to wait a little longer. The maid, seemingly worried about her mistress, kept looking back and forth between Eloise and the strange woman before reluctantly turning away.

The woman took a sip of tea and then, as if just remembering, opened her mouth.

“Oh my, I haven’t introduced myself. I, I am…”

The woman who was about to say something stammered again. Seeing her hesitate to give her name, Eloise spoke first.

“Please call me Ellie. For now.”

At the words “for now,” the woman looked at Eloise for a moment. Then, with a bright smile, she said:

“Then please call me Bella.”

Though they both knew they were using pseudonyms, neither was particularly bothered by it.

The two engaged in a very naughty conversation that they wouldn’t dare share with others—a secret discussion about the beauty of the human body that they could never speak about loudly.

One might wonder how they could have such a conversation with a stranger, but it was precisely because they were strangers that they could. The conversation, free from social pretenses, was incredibly sincere.

“So this part that extends from the ilium…”

“When viewed from above, the muscles of the back when tensed…”

Their exchange of anatomical details was so technical that an eavesdropper might mistake it for an anatomy discussion.

Then Bella pulled out a catalog she had purchased that day. When the paintings they had passionately viewed appeared before them, their conversation about the human body grew even more heated.

Eventually, both their gazes lingered on one spot in the painting.

On that part visible below, between the thighs.

Both their throats moved. In truth, this painting, like others, wasn’t completely explicit. Most of the male figures in the book had their intimate parts covered with leaves.

Even among n*de paintings, completely n*ked figures were rare. Biblical scenes used leaves for covering, while others more often used cloth or hands.

Even with these coverings, there were complaints about obscenity, so what more could artists do?

‘But I’m still curious!’

Eloise recalled the completely n*ked male figures she had seen in the museum. And the sculptures too.

‘They all seemed to be different sizes?’

While some could be adequately covered with small leaves, others revealed their presence slightly even with large cloths.

This made Eloise even more curious. She knew well from medical books that this part varied in size. But she wanted to know what the average actually looked like.

Then she remembered Ryan’s words.

Both when she first met him and recently, he had said it wasn’t that small. When drawing the picture she eventually burned, Eloise had thought, “This size should be about right.”

But Ryan had simply smirked. If only she could see it properly once, she could draw it well.

As that desire began to creep up again, Bella, watching Eloise’s expression, lowered her voice and whispered:

“Ellie, perhaps…”

Bella closed her eyes tightly, then opened them and said:

“Would you like to see the real thing?”

***

At the same time, Richard sat in a hotel room with an expression of someone nearly dead.

The view of Bringport through the window was beautiful. Especially the sea at sunset, which was a magnificent sight that would captivate anyone. But Richard had no leisure to appreciate the sea right now.

With his back to that sea, Ryan was glaring at him with a look that could kill.

Richard dragged his hand down his face and said:

“I know you feel terrible. I know.”

Of course he would. He had come to Bringport with Eloise to spend some sweet time together, only to deal with an impersonator—a marriage swindler, no less.

“But that guy is holed up in Baroness Surrier’s house and won’t come out.”

The impersonator was staying at Baroness Surrier’s house. The problem was that the house was so heavily guarded that it was nearly impossible to see the man.

At Richard’s words, Ryan replied with a biting tone:

“Of course. It wouldn’t do him any good to show his face. And all the luxury he’s enjoying in the mansion would disappear!”

Plus, he would try to stay close to Arabella Primrose, keeping her captive with sweet talk. That’s why he was hiding in the mansion and not coming out.

The problem was that if he didn’t come out of the house, they couldn’t catch him.

What would happen if they went to Baroness Surrier’s house right now and said, “The Ryan Wilgrave in this house is a fraud, hand him over”?

‘We’d just be treated like lunatics.’

That wasn’t the only issue. They could hire people to shout outside the mansion, loud enough for everyone to hear, that he was a fraud. Then Baroness Surrier would have no choice but to face the truth, whether she liked it or not.

But if the truth came out that way, what about her honor?

Moreover, experience showed that when such humiliating revelations occurred, people often became even more susceptible to fraudsters.

‘Because it’s hard to accept that they made the wrong choice!’

So Ryan wanted to resolve this as quietly as possible. For Baroness Surrier’s honor, and for her own as well.

Ryan Wilgrave was dead. But his beloved still worried about him.

So he needed to be killed off!

In fact, it would be easy. Just meet the guy, beat him up, drag him out, and get a confession. It wasn’t exactly legal, but when dealing with someone who disregarded the law, did they need to follow it themselves?

As Ryan continued this line of thought, his face grew even more contorted. He remembered Eloise’s tired face after completing a mission in the past. Truly, if it weren’t about this subject, he would want to embrace her and kiss her right now…

“Ryan, control your expression. You’re about to drool.”

Richard, watching Ryan, pretended to retch as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have. At his comment, Ryan quickly composed his expression.

“So, there’s absolutely no way to handle this?”

At Ryan’s sigh-laden question, Richard’s eyes lit up.

“Actually, there is one way.”

“Why are you only mentioning this now?”

Ryan’s voice rose. If there was a solution, why hadn’t he mentioned it?

As Ryan’s eyes dangerously narrowed again, Richard hurriedly pulled out a piece of paper and waved it.

“This is the fastest way to enter the Baroness’s mansion right now. Can you do it?”

At Richard’s action, Ryan clicked his tongue and said:

“What is it that’s making you act like this? Whatever it is, we have no choice but to do it.”

He wanted to catch the impersonator as quickly as possible and return to Eloise’s side. What wouldn’t he do to achieve that?

“Good. Then it’s decided.”

Richard said this as he placed the paper he was holding into Ryan’s hand.

“Why are you smiling so unpleasantly? What kind of method is this…”

Ryan, who had been quickly reading the paper, stopped. His eyes, which rarely showed surprise, widened.

“No, wait. This is…”

Seeing the look of astonishment spreading across Ryan’s face, Richard grinned.

“You definitely said you’d do it, right?”