Chapter 363
Chapter 363
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 363
Chapter Title: Outdoor Activities (5)
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Fishing had been delightful.
Under the sparkling night sky.
Over the water that glittered just a touch less brightly, casting our lines together as one, sharing the same moment.
There were no risqué incidents, no teasing jokes to leave him squirming in frustration.
But it had been immensely enjoyable.
What word best captured this experience?
A tryst?
No, that carried too heavy a connotation of steamy intimacy.
A date.
Yes, that fresh, heart-fluttering term fit perfectly.
The delicate way he draped his jacket over my shivering shoulders.
The way he averted his gaze even when I tested the waters with subtle temptation.
Even the shy turn of his head, breathing only through his mouth as if embarrassed to inhale my scent.
It had been so long since I'd felt anything like it—familiar yet thrillingly new.
The night was so chilly, yet even back in my private study, warmth lingered in my body.
My heart still fluttered as if I'd returned from a wonderful trip.
"Maybe... I can indulge a little."
The years of pretending not to know what I already did, turning a blind eye, had been long.
For Diana's sake, for the countess's honor, I'd unraveled it alone in this secret study.
I didn't regret it, or feel particularly wistful about it.
"Not sure."
The countess gave a wry smile and sat down in the secret study.
Relationships between people can shift quickly and relentlessly.
Like how, after hiring that "male witch" as a tutor with no deeper meaning, I'd grown fixated on him in mere days.
A turning point in our relationship.
Lucy Yesod held the key.
I was certain how she acted would flip this dynamic entirely.
"Always so passive, honestly."
If, while we fished today, he'd suddenly hugged me from behind or sneaked in a kiss, I'd have closed my eyes and allowed it.
But he stuck precisely to what was expected, nothing more.
And yet, that very lack of savvy charmed me.
"Should I have left more room?"
But there was no need for regrets.
A touch of longing was fine like this.
Gulping hot black tea was nice, but so was sipping it cooled just enough to tease the tongue.
Especially if it had been decades since your last cup.
On the table sat Horned Beast Deliveryman Volume 3.
It had been a companion lately, soothing Countess Lucy's loneliness.
But tonight, she craved sentimental afterglow over blatant sensations.
The countess pulled out a new book.
A blank one, utterly empty.
It would likely become a secret diary she'd never show anyone.
Recalling her pounding heart, she began writing today's events like a journal entry.
But that alone felt insufficient.
Words copied straight from reality weren't a story.
The countess added some spice and alternate developments.
A witch heads out night fishing with her apprentice's tutor.
The tutor holds the rod with her from behind.
Unable to resist the lovely witch's temptations, the tutor lunges for a kiss.
She pretends to brush him off at first, but ultimately accepts his tongue.
"Mm..."
With the quill fluttering ceaselessly, the countess wrote at a furious pace.
If only he'd done this.
If only he'd acted that way.
Fiction built on such "ifs."
Unlike relying on old memories and imagination.
Even just writing it as if it had truly happened made her heart thump wildly.
"Haa..."
The countess's bare white hand slipped between her dress as she hunched forward, body twitching, lost in fantasy.
2.
It was already quite late.
Diana hurried down the corridor to the secret room.
A rare indulgence, but her heart still raced as ever.
If she had to liken the feeling...
It was like as a child, pretending to sleep before sneaking to the hidden candy jar without Mother's notice.
A sense of doing something naughty, a tiny pang of guilt, but excitement overriding it.
A subtle tension where other concerns faded to the background.
-Creak!
She quietly opened and closed the door.
On the desk, the cover of Horned Beast Deliveryman drew her eye like a red cape.
"Hoo..."
Mother had an excellent memory—no room for carelessness.
A single crease from mishandling the pages, or even a slight difference in the book's angle, could expose this secret peeking.
She pressed against the wall briefly, checking for presences, then cautiously opened the book.
Skimming prior chapters, she flipped to the latest.
"Huh...?"
Blank pages.
While Diana had held off reading, Mother hadn't posted even a single new installment in a day.
Diana stared blankly at the empty sheets, feeling like a raccoon washed in cotton candy water.
"Haa..."
After dragging her exhausted body here post-hike and dive, all for nothing.
To think the wait ended like this.
Slumping into the chair in emptiness, Diana's eye caught something unusual: a desk drawer slightly ajar.
When she'd meticulously searched the secret room before, it had been empty, but today a single book peeked out.
"......"
Her heart sank.
Until now, sneaking in had felt natural, but suddenly Mother's constant presence here felt real.
Diana carefully withdrew the book from the drawer.
No title, no gold-embossed decoration on the spine.
-Rustle!
Opening it revealed about thirty pages of writing.
Oddly, it skipped straight to Chapter 3, with space left blank for Chapters 1 and 2.
"When did she write this?"
Chapter 3's title: Beneath the Orion Constellation.
Resigned to make do, Diana began reading from the start.
Her eyes widened hugely.
Her pulse spiked to over 200 in an instant.
The opening scene matched perfectly the spot where she'd fished with Siu that afternoon.
"Wh-what... what, what is this...?"
Muttering to herself in fine vibrato, Diana read on, unblinking.
The shock was so great her lips and lashes quivered.
The gist: A witch puts her apprentice to bed and heads out on a rendezvous with the tutor, just the two of them.
Somehow, Diana already sensed who the heroine and hero were, but her reading didn't stop.
In a romantic atmosphere, the pair presses close, fishing as if one body.
The witch endlessly flirts with the man.
Like coquettishly craving his affection.
Finally, the tutor—who'd resisted her touches—moves.
His hand, over hers on the rod, slyly slips into her clothes, invading a forbidden secret place.
Unable to contain their hidden lusts, they toss the rods aside, kiss, and dance to a nearby grassy patch.
Stripping, mouths locked until breathless, bodies entwined nude.
Against the sound of river crashing on rocks and chirping crickets, they explore each other dreamily, passionately.
Climaxing in hot release.
Diana closed the book with trembling hands.
She couldn't tell her expression, but spasms tugged at her mouth.
"......"
The apprentice's tutor.
The perfectly depicted night by Rabbit River.
The salmon fishing details, the man's personality.
Even a fool in her seat could guess the inspiration.
"No..."
Was this really a "novel"?
Even with imagined flourishes, the tutor's portrayal matched Diana's image too closely.
Moreover, scattered descriptions—crimson eyes, ash-silver hair—were unmistakably her mother.
Up to here, it could be coincidence.
But the meticulous details were hard to fabricate without witnessing them.
Mother's Horned Beast Deliveryman or other sensual novels projected some of herself onto witches, but they were distinctly different characters.
This was different.
Mother favored sparse dialogue, heavy on inner thoughts.
But this brimmed with lines, like a transcript.
Speech patterns, habits, even baffling jokes—Mother's voice rang vividly in their exchanges.
Diana reached the logical conclusion.
This book was no novel.
After lessons, Siu received private tutoring from Mother.
Mother proposed night fishing first, and they went on that rendezvous.
She tempted him until they spread clothes on the grass for sloppy lovemaking.
And that was...
Just.
Tonight.
It was around 2 a.m. now.
Siu's private lessons started around 9 p.m., time-wise it fit.
Mother had returned here after, recording it.
This wasn't fiction—it was an autobiographical essay of tonight's events.
"Ah..."
To think their relationship was this.
Suddenly, all the puzzles fit.
Why Mother, who always warned to avoid men, suddenly assigned a male tutor to Diana.
She liked him and wanted him close.
Why lessons nightly in the private study.
To be alone with him.
Fictional sex between characters felt different from real.
Imagining two familiar faces rutting like beasts turned her stomach.
Betrayal, disappointment.
Attempting to understand Mother amid it.
Uncleanness.
Dangerous curiosity.
And...
The man's body loomed far more vividly than in any novel.
Shin Siu's body.
All that swirled in her head like mush, so Diana stumbled out of the secret room.