“Eh?” Her voice faltered, barely a whisper as she was caught off guard by the tone of his voice. She had closed both eyes, trying to block him out, hoping today would be the day she could hold him accountable for his insatiable cravings.
However, curiosity won out, and she cracked one eye open to sneak a glance, her inner resolve crumbling at the sight of him.
“You look like a fish,” Ryuk said, arching his eyebrow. He slowly deactivated Shunya and let his charisma leak out, attempting to see what effect it would have on her.
Typically, due to the presence of different races on the blue star, not everyone feels attracted to a handsome human, as they all have varying preferences and standards of attractiveness.
Consequently, the main measure of one’s attractiveness is often evaluated through the aura emitted from their body, their pheromones, scent, and similar factors.
This is why Ryuk consistently suppressed his aura and charisma, showing only his facial traits.
Although humans regarded him as attractive, other races held different ideals of beauty. To them, he merely resembled an appealing human, not fitting their definition of ultimate beauty.
Of course, this was only the case while he had suppressed his charm.
However, at this moment, he chose to cease holding it back to observe how it would affect Esme.
Badump
As soon as he stopped suppressing his aura, Esme froze.
Her brain short-circuited.
‘Huh? Huh? Hehh?!’ She blinked rapidly, feeling like she’d just been slapped in the face by his beauty.
thump thump
Her heart raced like it was in a sprinting competition, and she could hear the thumping in her ears.
His skin seemed to glow, like some otherworldly being had just stepped out of Gaia. She squinted, shielding her eyes dramatically, as if his beauty was literally too blinding to handle (her over-the-top imagination).
His features suddenly looked carved by the gods, every line of his jaw and perfectly symmetrical nose shimmering with some kind of supernatural glow.
‘Is… is he shining?’ she muttered under her breath, her voice barely audible over the wild thumping of her own heart.
She wanted to scream at herself to snap out of it, but her body wasn’t listening. Her hands slowly lowered, revealing her awe-struck expression, pupils dilating as if they were camera lenses zooming in for a better look.
drip
Blood began to trickle from her nose.
“Huh? Again with the illusion, Esme?” Ryuk’s deep voice broke through her daze, shaking her just enough to realize the embarrassing situation she was in. But instead of retreating, Esme felt a surge of chaotic boldness.
“No, it’s not an illusion!” she mumbled as she wiped the blood with the back of her hand, squinting through her fingers like she was staring at the blinding light. She tried to play it cool, but the nosebleed betrayed her.
Swish
Without warning, Esme lunged forward, not toward his face this time, but grabbing wildly at his collar—except she missed he was naked, slapping her palm squarely against his bare chest instead.
“Heuk?!” Her eyes snapped down to her hand, now resting on his firm chest, and she let out a high-pitched squeal that sounded more like a kettle boiling than anything human.
“Give me!” she blurted, as if demanding compensation for this beauty-induced attack on her senses. Her brain wasn’t even forming coherent thoughts anymore. It was pure instinct and chaos.
Ryuk, caught off guard by her wild flailing, let himself stumble backward, landing in the bathtub with a splash.
Before he could process what had happened, Esme was on top of him, staring down at his face with eyes full of utter confusion and feverish intensity.
“I LOVE YOU!” Her voice cracked as she declared it, but it sounded less like a confession and more like an involuntary outburst, like her body had gone rogue under the overwhelming influence of his looks.
For a moment, Ryuk just stared at her, blinking through the water splashing around them. His eyes slowly turned downward, realizing Esme, drenched and disheveled, was lying on top of him in the bathtub, her eyes locked on his face with a desperate, almost possessed expression.
“…You’re bleeding, Esme,” Ryuk managed to say, completely deadpan, his eyebrow twitching at her ridiculousness.
But Esme didn’t care. At this point, she was too far gone. She was done playing it cool. With both her hands, she gave a tight slap to his face, more like clasping his face, but due to her mind in a haze, it landed very hard as she declared, “Let’s do it here, now!”
Without even realizing it, she was not fearing anything, and due to the water splashing around, the level of water in the bathtub was low. She, without making sense of things, began to search for his clothes to remove his robe.
But all her delicate fingers did was glide through his firm chest, while the curves of his abs, muscles, and spotless skin only kept making her go lower and lower, as she slid from his chest to abs, and finally gripped something. “What? Did you also bring your sword along with you?”
‘!?!’
Ryuk’s eyes widened.
“Stop, Esme! That’s not a sword!” Ryuk was earlier slightly taken aback due to her sudden nosebleed. When he tried to nullify her illusion, it became evident that she was really bleeding, causing him to focus on that while she pushed him, confusing him. Now she had gripped his resting shaft inside the water.
“No excuses, throw it away!” Esme retorted, using her force to grip the sword hilt in her hand tighter.
Initially, it appeared soft and was molding to her hand, but after a few struggles, it started to become hardened, making her try to pull it from his robe and throw it away.
ALERT!
[ Host, suppress your aura; it is reacting violently with Tenerbi Bloodline. Further analysis is needed to understand the reason… ]
‘What?’ Ryuk glanced toward Esme, who appeared normal as she kept looking toward his face while her hand gripped his shaft tightly, unknowingly stroking it due to his muscular strength being far stronger than hers, leaving her only able to give it strokes.
“Esme, that’s enough.” Though he had thought she was simply attracted to him, appreciating the attention after all; he was a man as well. However, upon hearing the system’s alert, he felt that it could lead to some consequences, causing him to suppress his charm before firmly declaring.
“Huh?” Esme, whose eyes were stuck, glued to his face, suddenly felt the charm, the light she was seeing vanishing, returning to his usual self, which in itself was a shock for her. Her mind was now calming down, causing her eyes to turn downward, following a straight line of sight.
In the water, it reflected the thing she held in her hand—expanded to a point where it wouldn’t fit in her palm, packed with nerves, with the flushed tip seeming to glance at her.
“W-what’s this?” Esme, without moving her face, lifted her pupil again to look at Ryuk’s face as she inquired, while her brain was definitely registering the thing’s identity but her heart was rejecting the fact, trying to save itself from the looming embarrassment.
[ Baby Maker <(￣︶￣)> ]
‘….’
