Her head tilted, Parmin looked beyond Iris’s silhouette. Her anticipating smile twitched; her pupils contracted. Despite her stirred heart, she couldn’t command, not even with the full might of her mind, her legs to move.

“Ludmint, how . . . why did you come here?”

Ludmint, still watching the ripples of the lake, remained motionless. Her fine hair fluttered whenever benign chills flowed through the open windows. Her calm and cold gaze reflected off the glasses and the blue water and landed nowhere, yet Iris had a feeling that they all lingered on her, observing her expression, scrutinising her exposed flesh.

Like a sinner, Iris bent down her head. “I shouldn’t have kept it from you.”

Once those words left her, she turned around and, as tears welled in her eyes, headed out of the cottage. Coldness akin to the most extreme winter gripped her chest, froze her heart, and shattered her elegant conduct. Her fragmented emotions bled through her reddened eyes, pursed lips, and trembling hands.

She wished she’d broken into a sprint, but her legs disallowed her escape. She could only tread through the unseeable thorny field under the weight of her shame before the looks of her lovers.

A hand blocked her path. Wearing a guilty, panicked expression, Parmin caught and hugged Iris before she could reject the gesture. Though her hands and fingers clasped onto Iris and restrained her from moving recklessly, they dared not crawl around, for the silent and unreadable Ludmint was staring.

“Did Morbi tell you?” Parmin said. “Did she also tell you this is our date?”

“Parmin, don’t,” Iris said and turned to Ludmint. “I was wrong. I knew I was wrong. I’m still wrong. Please punish me and allow me to atone for my mistake.”

Her voice grew meek and miserable, drowning under her discomfort. Her speaking sympathetic words and acting pathetic were appalling, and she shouldn’t continue further, for herself, for Ludmint’s love for her.

Let Ludmint treat her with silence, like how she treated Ludmint with silence.

“No. I won’t permit your sorrow,” Parmin said. “You don’t need her forgiveness. This is our date; we promise to be for one another, not for an unannounced jealous third party.”

Iris struggled out of Parmin’s hold and met Parmin’s determined pupils with hers. Their eye contact lasted a mere instant before Iris shifted her attention to Ludmint, whose silhouette melted whatever courage Iris had gathered.

“My actions must have nauseated you.” Iris waited for the silent answer to return. “I . . . will go back first. When you return to . . . our home, I hope you’ll be willing to speak by then.”

“I’ll leave with you, Iris.” Parmin got in between Iris and Ludmint. “Since someone occupies this cottage, we shall have our fun elsewhere. I’ll deny you all reprieve until you can proudly say that you don’t regret it.”

Ludmint clicked her tongue. The cottage shook, and the curtains, carpets, blankets, everything shuddered. She sprung up from the bed, ran her hands through her hair, and turned to Iris, exposing her dimmed silvery eyes.

“Are you escaping me, Iris?” she said. “And you, Parmin, are you provoking me?”

Parmin trembled. She slowly turned around to meet Ludmint’s gaze. Her strong front collapsed like a waterfall, which splattered on the still river, creating chaotic waves that revealed mixed emotions. Although Parmin was also in the Condensation Phase, her hair stood under that ominous gaze.

“I’m . . . not afraid of you. Iris is mine for the duration. Our feelings are mutual, our happiness intertwined. It’s my obligation to protect her when she feels sad.”

“Why is she sad?” Ludmint tilted her head. “Should she not rejoice when she sees her beloved, her loveliest, most beloved, in a romantic bedroom?”

“That’s my bed!”

“That’s my fiancée!”

“Stop!” Iris stomped the ground. Her strength sunk the wooden board and the rock foundation and silenced the quarrel. “Ludmint, I was wrong for omitting this date. You should resent me, but you shouldn’t fight Parmin. It is I who requested this type of reward after completing the mission.

“And Parmin, I’m sorry. My affair has ruined our mood and soured our happiness. You don’t have to protect me; it is I who must compensate you for your wasted time.”

Parmin and Ludmint, looking at Iris, both scowled.

“What you did hurts me,” Ludmint said. “We are engaged, promised to love each other until we are no longer. But, at our core, we are Monster Girls, our desires infinite and unstoppable. I cannot and should not stop you from embracing others, for I, too, had done it.”

“But yours didn’t happen with this ring on your finger.”

“Love is not a restraint,” Parmin said. “Love is a promise, an important promise, but it does no harm to its binders. Love proliferates love, not discomfort or restriction. You love me, and you nonetheless love her the same. Right?”

“That is my promise to you and her.”

“Why, then, are you dreading her and me? Why must we punish you?”

“Because—because I betrayed her. I . . . love her the same, but I hid from her. I lied to her.”

Parmin wanted to speak, but Ludmint glared at her, sealing her mouth.

“Indeed, you’ve slighted me.” Ludmint flicked her head up, her eyes looking down at Iris. “You decided not to tell me about this date, and I have to, after noticing your pained expression, investigate the coincidence of Parmin’s and your disappearances. I even sneaked out of my job to catch you here!”

Iris tensed up. “Please punish me appropriately.”

“Are you expecting something?”

“No! You mustn’t . . . cuddle and comfort me. You need to be angry and cry and slap me. You won’t talk to me for a few days, and you should move out to a friend’s place and . . . you can’t move out. I won’t allow it!”

Ludmint shook her head. “Do you know what your mistake is?”

“I secretly dated Parmin.”

Ludmint snickered. “Indeed. You should’ve dated me and invited Parmin as a secondary partner. I’ve been with you longer and more tenderly than her. She has her Morbi, and I have you.”

Iris’s bizarre expression made Ludmint chuckle, but Parmin wasn’t having it.

“Ludmint, she’s mine, and I won’t let you interject into our relationship. She invited me because I can give her love, not because she wanted to provoke you.” Though scared, Parmin stepped forward and blocked Iris from Ludmint’s view. “If you’re forceful with me, Morbi won’t let you off!”

“Of course, she will take good care of you, so you should hurry to be by her side and ask for her forgiveness. You aren’t our lovely Iris who can do no wrong.”

“What?” Iris pushed away Parmin and, with distress showing in her widened eyes, looked at Ludmint. “Do no wrong? Ludmint, why must you . . . forgive me?”

“If my love for you is so little such that this matter can soil it, I don’t deserve to love you.” Ludmint eyed Parmin and flashed a confident smile before her sight returned to her one and only. “Still, you need to be punished. For a moment, you waver and choose Parmin, despite my always waiting with an open embrace.”

“That’s because I’m delicate and know how to please her. You might be stronger than me, but your ghostly power cannot satisfy her like my Red Threads.” Parmin snapped her fingers. “I know where her happiness is and can reach it at any time.”

“Carnal pleasure pales in comparison to emotional pleasure.”

“You aren’t the one to decide!”

Iris quietly retreated to the door and twisted the handle. There was a muffled creak, but the door refused to open. Her face paled when her two lovers turned their heads to her. Their sparkling yet terrifying eyes peered into her soul, and her hair and skin and flesh stirred.

The curtains fell, the doors and windows sealed. The only place Iris could see herself in was the large fluffy white bed, along with two other people, who, with their insatiable desire, grasped her hands, her arms, her shoulders, every part of hers. The withering flower in her palpitating heart bloomed, filling her body with whispers that she denied being her yearning.

“Shouldn’t . . . shouldn’t you ask me first?” Iris said. “This . . . this is Parmin’s cottage, and she’s dating me.”

Parmin pulled her hands to her chest and inhaled sharply. “How can I refuse?”

Iris shivered. Her warm breaths clouded her vision. “But this is your place. You date me, and you should protect me!”

“But you, Iris, you’re licking your fingers so slowly and deliciously that I can’t deny your intention.”

Iris took out the fingers with which her tongue played. The slimy saliva glistened in her eyes as if it were the most valuable nectar. Her vision grew pink and murky as she swayed, her back leaning onto the chilly wooden door. As she jolted, her moans resounded so loudly yet pleasingly that even she felt strange hearing them.

That wasn’t her. She could only embrace one of them, or she might lose her mind forever. But such a chance, such a pleasure . . . was too alluring.

“Please don’t go overboard,” she muttered.

Her clothes gradually came off, and the three plunged into the bed, into each other, and into endless fussy noises.

...

A lady donned in silvery dress and white cloche raised her head. Despite her otherworldly beauty and noble disposition, giving the impression of untaintable purity, no passerby noticed her. Her solitary existence radiated a soothing ambience, which compelled the passing couples to nudge closer to each other, hold one another tighter, and feel their heart racing faster than ever.

While their seeds of love flourished, so did the gentle smile on the white-haired lady’s face. She walked along the street, sowing endless affection unto those struggling to find or keep it.

Although her power disrupted all laws and orders of Donhalgen, The Grand Formation detected nothing, not even a hint of her existence. But another existence caught her.

A pitch-black carriage rolled out from an intersection ahead of the white-haired lady. Its insignia, a dying black rose held by a feminine skeleton hand, exuded no oppression nor comfort.

The white-haired lady stopped before the carriage, beamed at the young lady driver, and entered it. She pressed her right hand on her lips and sent a kiss to a mysterious lady in black, who, sitting on the opposite, returned the greeting by gently nodding.

“Like the eternal night, your beauty never fades,” the white-haired lady said. “Against this evening, your eyes appear to be the darkest of night.”

“I thought you were at Jenkin. Are you not preparing for Ten Night Festival?” Aspera, the Founder of Court of Indulgence, said.

“I found out that you’ve been taking care of a cute little girl. As your long-time friend, I’ve come to take a look.”

“Why not come over to our side if you want to be with her?”

The white-haired lady giggled. “This side has the support of the world. Although I want to see her love blossom, I also want to transcend my mortality.”

“How did you find her so fast?” Aspera narrowed her eyes.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have any fortuitous encounter. She read my books.”

“Your luck may have improved.”

“Her luck led her to me.” The white-haired lady reached out her right hand. “Shall we cooperate, like old time?”

Aspera caught that hand and kissed its back. “Delicate Snow, your words have always been irresistible.”

Delicate Snow bashfully lowered her head. “I’ve been practising them all my life, Aspera.”