In the bathroom, the icy stream of water splashed against Victor's burning cheeks, yet it seemed unable to extinguish the dry heat that surged from the depths of his heart and spread throughout his body.
Enid's soft and lethally seductive words seemed to be playing on an infinite loop in his ears.
Every word was like a small hook, scratching at the tip of his heart until it trembled.
["Let's add a little wager. If you win, you can make the loser do anything~ including the kind of thing Tyler and Miss Siren were doing~"]
"Oh, my God..."
Victor shook his soaking wet hair, sending droplets flying everywhere.
He looked up, staring at his own face in the mirror—still flushed with a deep red, his eyes flickering—and couldn't help but let out a groan.
Not only was there a sign of heat rising in his nose again, but his entire body was filled with an inexplicable, restless agitation.
A strange, indescribable impulse flowed shallowly through his veins, making it impossible for him to sit still.
"Hahaha—!"
Venom's raspy, mocking laughter exploded in his mind.
Several black tentacles even poked out uncontrollably, dancing wildly on his shoulders like seaweed to express its extreme joy.
"Look at how pathetic you are! Brother! A single whisper from your little girlfriend has you blushing like a beet and nearly getting a bloody nose! You call yourself someone enlightened by 'the succubus cultivation guide'? You're an absolute disgrace to succubi everywhere!"
Victor rolled his eyes at his reflection in the mirror—though the eye-roll was mainly directed at the gloating fellow inside him.
"Shut up! I'm not a real succubus! That guide... Sister Mavis barely understood it herself. By the end, her teaching got more and more ridiculous; it went off the rails a long time ago!"
At the mention of this, Victor's anger flared even more.
Thinking back, Sister Mavis had decided to double down and use that supposedly ancient, mysterious book from the East called 'The Succubus Cultivation Guide (Han Dynasty Orthodox Edition),' enthusiastically intending to train him into a 'heartthrob.'
And the result?
The theory sounded extravagant, talking about things like'sincerity of emotion' and'striking the heart' and so on.
But when it came to the practical parts, Mavis would get stuck herself. She'd gesture at the illustrations for ages, and it would usually end with—
"Uh... this movement might not fit modern aesthetics," or "this step sounds a bit hard on the kidneys."
The final result of the training was that Victor successfully mastered how to use the most sincere eyes to act cute for food, and how to accurately put on a pitiful face after getting into trouble to soften the hearts of Mavis and Uncle Dracula.
As for the profound chapters in the second half of the guide regarding 'the fusion of spirit and flesh' and 'attaining ultimate bliss together'... Mavis herself had blushed and become incoherent while reading them, promptly locking the book away at the bottom of a chest under the pretense of it being 'not for children, wait until you're older.'
And he had been waiting ever since.
Victor thought with grief and indignation: I *am* older now, but the key knowledge is still stuck at the basic stage of 'moving the other person with your eyes'! How am I supposed to handle a high-level game like this?!
"Gagagaga—!"
Hearing Victor's internal rant, Venom laughed even more outrageously, its tentacles slapping against Victor's sea of consciousness until it could barely breathe.
It remembered clearly how, when Victor was a child, Mavis would force him to learn those'succubus mannerisms,' and he'd have that ignorant yet hardworking, comical look while trying to imitate them.
It also remembered the scenes where Mavis would get flustered and start stuttering, eventually declaring in a fit of embarrassment that 'today's lesson is over.'
"So, my dear brother~"
Venom finally managed to stop laughing, though its tone was still full of mockery.
"A giant in theory, but a dwarf in practice? Now you know the regret of having little knowledge when you need it most? Do you need me to give you a crash course on the 'things Tyler and Miss Siren might be doing'?"
"Get lost!"
Victor snapped in embarrassment, turning off the faucet and haphazardly wiping his face with a towel, trying to physically lower the temperature of his skin.
He faced the mirror, took a few deep breaths, and tried to force himself to calm down.
No, I can't panic!
What kind of storms haven't I seen? How can I let my own girlfriend break my defenses with just one sentence!
Even though... the power of that sentence was indeed a bit overwhelming.
He straightened the collar of his floral shirt and tried to put on what he thought was a calm and composed expression, despite a trace of lingering redness at the corners of his eyes.
Victor took a deep breath and pulled open the bathroom door.
When he faced his two girlfriends in the room again, the familiar, slightly manic and brilliant smile was back on Victor's face, as if the guy who had just fled in a panic wasn't him at all.
Only the slight flickering of his eyes and the subconscious habit of touching the tip of his nose betrayed his inner lack of peace.
Seeing Victor's attempt to feign composure while being full of holes, Enid exchanged a knowing look with Wednesday, the corners of her mouth unable to stop curling upward.
And this detail was caught by Victor.
Victor's gaze swept keenly between Enid's face—which was shy yet faintly shimmering with expectation—and Wednesday's seemingly calm demeanor, which was belied by the slight curling of her fingertips.
In a flash, everything became clear to him!
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