Her long, flowing hair and rounded shoulders distracted him with every slight movement of her head.

He felt thirsty, even though he didn’t need water.

His fingertips were stiff as he gripped his clothes carefully.

Erf unbuttoned his cloak with a firm grip and slowly pulled it down.

“But, Doctor, doesn’t something feel a little off?”

Just then, Pandora clapped her hands and turned her head.

Erf flinched and pulled back the garment he’d dropped to cover himself.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw him turn around.

As his gaze locked with her panicked gray eyes, his heart dropped to the floor and fluttered.

“Oh, look at me, I’m sorry, I won’t look at you anymore, I swear.”

Pandora stumbled back to face the wall and patted her cheeks. She giggled awkwardly and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the reddened tip of her ear.

She scratched her cheeks in embarrassment, fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, releasing it repeatedly, and then buried her face in her hands and squatted against the wall.

Erf nibbled at the delicate flesh in his mouth, wanting to bite her in response to her lovely appearance.

The urge to scoop up the twitching creature and run straight to her bedroom was overwhelming.

Erf bowed his head and pressed down on the tireless pounding of his heart.

He doubled his pace as he dressed.

As he cursed Frederick for charging at him like an animal without a care in the world, Erf realized that perhaps he was the scum of the earth.

“Pandora. I’m fully dressed…….”

At his words, Pandora shrugged and turned around, feeling more comfortable.

But the sight of Erf dressed was a little disconcerting.

“Your clothes are a little…… small.”

“…….”

“Haha, what can I do.”

Erf bowed his head again.

He doesn’t know if he’s going to become a ripe rice plant because he can’t look up.

The slim, middle-aged butler’s clothes were too tight for the sturdy Erf.

The barely buttoned shirt buttons screamed for help, and his broad shoulders and thighs threatened to burst the garment.

Pandora was suddenly aware of Erf’s great height and bulk.

The doctor’s clothes were too small for him, but that was a good thing. The butler’s clothes were a sight to behold.

“How in the world did you get to wear these clothes? They don’t seem to fit.”

“Roughly by force…….”

Erf fiddled with his collar in frustration.

‘Though he’s tall, I thought Erf was on the slender side since he has a thin waist and narrow hips…’

Pandora remembered Erf’s naked body from earlier, and hid her blushing face under her hands.

She knew he was tough because she’d held him so often, but she hadn’t realized how much muscle he had.

There was a huge gap between what she’d always imagined and what she saw with her own eyes.

‘This is not the time.’

Pandora pushed away the disturbing images that were forming in her head.

‘Still, when this is all over, I’ll ask Erf to model for a painting. Nude…….’

At that moment, the button of his shirt, pulled taut across his chest, popped off and slapped Pandora across the forehead.

“Ouch!”

The button’s vicious assault seemed to be accompanied by a voice saying, “This content is for all ages, wake up!”

“Pandora!”

Erf grabbed Pandora’s face with both hands and lifted it up to check her forehead.

There was a slight redness in the center of her forehead where the button had hit her squarely.

A small tear had formed in the corner of her eye from the pain.

Her eyebrows were arched pitifully.

She looked up at him with a puppy-dog expression and moistened eyes, and for a moment Erf felt the cords of reason snap.

Erf resisted the urge and kissed her reddened forehead.

Tsuk.

Her lips parted lightly, then heavily, and Pandora looked up at Erf, dumbfounded.

“Ah…….”

Erf’s heart tickled unbearably at that cute face.

He nibbled on his reddened lips before finally pulling her into a tight embrace and sucking in his breath.

“Erf……?”

Pandora called out to him in a questioning voice.

“Doctor?”

“Just call me Erf, it sounds better that way…….”

Erf spoke in a husky voice, pulling Pandora’s body deeper into his. Pandora lost her balance and leaned into him as if she were about to collapse into his arms.

His strong arms tightened around her waist, and their chests pressed together.

Erf hoped the sound of his steady heart was out of Pandora’s earshot.

But that made him even more reluctant to release her from his embrace.

After a moment of silence, Pandora lifted her hand and gently placed it on his back.

“Erf.”

Her voice, like the sound of a clear bell, flew like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings and landed in Erf’s ear.

It tasted sweet in his mouth and tickled down his throat and all over his body.

Erf swallowed hard and jerked Pandora up.

“Argh!”

Pandora let out a short scream as her feet suddenly left the ground, clinging tightly to Erf.

Erf wrapped his arms around her hips to steady her, then walked over and set her down on the desk.

Then, bending down and placing his hands on the desk on either side of her, he kissed Pandora on the left cheek.

Tsuk.

Then her right cheek.

Tsuk.

Her lips were next.

His button burst open, leaving the upper part of his shirt completely undone, and he seems not to care at all about looking like a ragamuffin.

Pandora’s face flushed as she watched the Erf approach, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Erotic fantasies raced through her mind.

“Aaah! No, no, no, wait! Erf!”

Pandora shouted, squeezing her eyes shut as she slammed her palm into Erf’s face.

“This is not the time for us to do this!”

“Why?”

“We have to get the crown prince and the priest, and Frederick is waiting for us in the workshop, and we have to go and finish the job!”

“I don’t want to go.”

“……!”

“I don’t want to.”

“W, why?”

“Because you know that rude guy. And that you seem to be quite close. And that you call each other by name.”

“…….”

“And that his gaze is constantly on you.”

Erf’s violet eyes sparked with cold fire. He glared coldly at the door.

“I hate all of it.”

Pandora looked up at him, dumbfounded.

‘Is this jealousy? No way.’

Erf’s jealousy, she couldn’t understand.

Pandora had plenty of reasons to be jealous when he was with someone else.

On countless June 9s, Pandora had kissed Erf, made eye contact with him, and spent time with him.

No wonder Pandora’s heart was boiling over.

But Erf doesn’t know that.

He doesn’t remember all those time.

From his perspective, he’s only been by her side for two days, yesterday and today.

If so, his kiss was more of an impulse than love.

He was just following his instincts, swept along by the insidious waves of Pandora.

If Erf is good to Pandora, it’s because that’s just who he is.

He can’t stand up to Pandora, who is skilled at lying, manipulating, and bullying.

He’s a gentle, sweet man who does what he’s told and pushes back when he’s pushed.

‘I’m sure Erf wouldn’t mind kissing me, so he’d do it.’

Erf’s time with Pandora was too short for jealousy.

Pandora looked at Erf with wide eyes.

“Why are you whining?”

“…….”

Erf closed his mouth, sighed, and rested his chin on the crown of her head.

He added weight to the top of her head so his pointed chin wouldn’t hurt.

Pandora had to roll her eyes to tear them away from Erf’s long neck and chest, which filled her vision.

Pandora gently grasped his wrist, exposed beneath his short sleeve, and spoke.

“I think you should find something else to wear.”

“Yeah.”

“And can I finish what I was going to say earlier?”

“?”

“I said earlier that something was off, and that’s…… because if I remember correctly, my workshop should be sealed off.”

Erf removed his chin from Pandora’s head and stood up straight, focusing on her story.

“But the doors weren’t locked, there were no soldiers, and I didn’t see a single servant in the hallway the whole way here, and I didn’t even see a single person outside the window.”

Pandora was right.

The servants, the soldiers besieging the gates, and the clamoring reporters all seemed to have evaporated.

“And best of all…… I can see so well now.”

If her eyesight was improved by entering the painting, it should be worse again when she escaped.

But Pandora’s vision was still crystal clear.

“Look, my eyes are really clear.”

“I see.”

Erf replied, looking into Pandora’s eyes.

“They’re beautiful.”

“!”

Pandora’s cheeks turned bright red in an instant.

“Erf, you’re not paying attention!”

“I’m focusing better than ever.”

Erf groaned at Pandora’s cuteness in turning shyness into scolding and lowered her down from the desk.

“So, Pandora, you’re saying we’re not out of the painting yet?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s right, or more accurately…….”

Pandora took Erf’s hand and spread it out so that his palm was visible.

She drew a square on it with her index finger, then a smaller square inside it, and explained.

“I think we’ve entered a picture within a picture.”

“A picture within a picture…….”

“Like a lucid dream.”

Guided by Erf’s hand, Pandora’s pace quickened slightly.