“Also, don’t touch it with your hands!”
Astreia added with a laugh, her voice brimming with the anticipation of a prank about to succeed.
Wendy’s vision was completely sealed off by the black cloth, plunging the world into darkness.
With his most important sense of sight lost, the other four senses were instantly amplified to the extreme. He could even smell the lingering warm, moist air mixed with the scent of shower gel in the room, wrapping around his skin like a cozy embrace.
Even more distinctly, he could smell two completely different body scents. One belonged to Astreia—like a ripe peach sun-drenched to bursting with sweet juice, rich and aggressive, almost possessive. Just smelling it made him think of her powerful, vibrant, athletic body.
The other scent belonged to Laxana—a unique blend of violet and milk candy, delicate and sweet, yet carrying a hint of cunning. She was like a carefully brewed magic potion, luring him step by step into the sweet trap she had set.
It was like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. The bedroom had become a closed prison full of temptation. The two scents intertwined, drilling into his nostrils, making Wendy feel that no matter which way he struggled, he would touch sticky, dangerous threads.
“Then… the game begins!”
As soon as Astreia’s voice fell, Wendy heard a faint rustling sound—the friction of bathrobe fabric.
Immediately after, the concentration of Laxana’s body scent suddenly increased.
Wendy couldn’t help holding his breath, but his heart raced stubbornly. He gradually felt a soft, warm body slowly approaching, accompanied by a girl’s unique fragrance and the lingering moisture of a bath.
The next second, a warm, soft touch gently pressed against his lips.
Almost at the same instant, a strange, numbing electric current surged through the empathic link of Thorn Kiss, traveling from his lips back to his nerve center! That sensation was so familiar—it was exactly like when he had touched Laxana last night in Siren’s Embrace, the most genuine reaction of her body.
Wendy’s heart settled instantly, but on the surface he remained as steady as an old dog.
‘Got it! Astreia definitely forgot about this fatal link between Laxana and me.’
‘This game is practically a freebie!’
But before the smile could even form on his lips, another body approached.
This time, it was Astreia’s scent.
Then, another kiss landed on his lips.
Yet in that thousandth of a second, that damn, exclusive empathic current from Laxana exploded again, exactly the same, without a single difference!
And… the scent filling his nostrils had completely turned into Laxana’s?!
What the hell?
He froze stiff, his inner confidence replaced by panic.
‘My cheat… stopped working?’
“Okay~”
With a gentle removal, Astreia’s voice rang out, and the black cloth covering his eyes was taken off.
Light returned to his vision. Wendy immediately looked at the two women before him.
Astreia stood with her arms crossed, that striking, heroic face wearing a triumphant little demon’s smirk. Her emerald eyes were full of mischief, as if waiting to see a good show from him.
On the other side, Laxana’s face was bright red. Her violet eyes were wide open, filled with shock, shame, and a hint of inexplicable panic. She instinctively wiped her lips with the back of her hand, as if she had just experienced something unacceptable.
That reaction…
Wendy’s heart sank.
It seemed it definitely wasn’t as simple as having Laxana kiss him twice.
“Tell me, my Prince.”
Astreia leaned slightly forward, getting close to Wendy’s face. Her hot breath brushed his cheek.
“Which time was me? And which time was our dear Miss Klein?”
Wendy was in trouble.
Two identical sensations, the same empathic feedback, the same scent. How was he supposed to choose? It was complete guesswork.
His gaze involuntarily drifted to Laxana, desperately signaling with his eyes, hoping this “ally” who had fought alongside him earlier could give him a hint.
After all, Astreia’s punishments usually tested one’s lower back strength. If he could bluff his way through, he’d rather not take the hit.
“Wendy! Just now Astrei—”
Miss Klein seemed to receive his distress signal. Just as she came to her senses, she opened her mouth to expose the truth.
But before she could finish, Astreia quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
“Shh—game time. No outside help, little Shanna.”
Laxana, with her mouth covered, could only let out muffled “mmm” protests. Her pretty face flushed even redder, a mix of anger and urgency. She kicked her legs wildly but was easily subdued by Astreia’s body.
Wendy frowned.
‘So… what the hell just happened?!’
He decided to test it with logic.
“Does the option include both being the same person?”
Astreia immediately raised her index finger and wagged it gently in front of him, smiling like a cat that got the cream.
“No way. I said it was in turns. That option doesn’t exist.”
That meant the two kisses must have come from different people.
Wendy’s mind grew even more chaotic.
Finally, under Astreia’s oppressive, urging gaze, the Prince gritted his teeth and made a choice.
“The first… was Laxana.”
He bet on the first one. Because during the first kiss, the feeling and the empathic feedback were perfectly synchronized, natural. As for the second, even though there was also the empathic response, there was something unsettlingly off and inconsistent about it, like a forced graft.
The room fell into dead silence.
Astreia’s smile slightly faded; Laxana stopped struggling. Both women stared at him quietly.
Wendy’s heart was in his throat, nervously awaiting the verdict.
“Wrong, Wendy~”
Astreia drawled, and the smile on her face bloomed again like a flower, radiant to the extreme.
“The first one was me. The second one was Laxana.”
“So, now—”
The Princess Royal stuck out her tongue and lightly licked the corner of her mouth. Those emerald star eyes glinted with dangerous, excited malice.
“It’s time for your punishment.”
“W-wait!”
Seeing Astreia about to pounce on him like a hungry tiger, Wendy panicked. Before being tackled, he had to figure out the problem.
“How did you do that?! Why did I get Laxana’s empathic reaction when you kissed me?!”