Chapter 56 - Coming-of-Age Ceremony
The coming-of-age ball was a never-ending bore. Everyone dressed in white gowns and tuxedos, dancing with their partners in predetermined steps, and receiving congratulatory greetings from adults. It was nothing more than a tedious annual event.
Damian wanted to do something else, anything but this. He looked around the banquet hall, filled with nothing but white, and sighed silently. Of course, his partner stood out, even in the monotonous color.
My little white rabbit, my Shirley.
Dressed in white from head to toe, Shirley looked so adorable that Damian wanted to devour her right then and there. Now that she had come of age, he could have her anytime without hesitation, but still…
As he was lost in thought, Shirley suddenly spoke up, her face pale. “Oh no, I lost my earring.”
She touched one of her ears and looked worried. “I think I dropped it in the lounge earlier. What if someone picked it up?”
“Then I’ll just buy you a new one,” Damian replied simply.
Shirley looked like she was about to cry. “But that was the earring you gave me for my birthday. You idiot.”
“So, I’ll buy you another one,” Damian said with a smile.
Shirley shook her head. “No way. I have to find it.”
With a tearful expression, Shirley turned towards the lounge. “Come with me,” Damian said.
Shirley shook her head. “It’s the ladies’ lounge. You can’t come in with me.”
“There probably won’t be anyone in the lounge right now,” Damian insisted, but Shirley was already rushing down the hallway, not really listening.
Click.
Shirley entered the lounge through the back door and began carefully examining the floor near the sofa where she had been sitting earlier.
“Here it is,” a voice said from behind her. It was Damian.
“Huh?” Shirley turned around to find Damian kneeling on one knee behind her, holding the diamond earring she had lost earlier. It sparkled in his palm.
“Oh my gosh, Damian!” Shirley exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck in a joyful embrace.
Just then, a sudden moan echoed through the room, causing both of them to freeze in their embrace. They turned their heads towards the source of the sound and saw, on a distant sofa, a man and a woman entwined, their clothes discarded. Both faces were familiar.
It was Schultz and Sienne, each of whom had fiancés.
“Ah!” the woman beneath moaned, writhing as the man on top of her thrust vigorously, his breath ragged.
The sound of their bodies slapping together filled the lounge, stark and unmistakable.
—
“…..”
For a while, the two stayed locked together, face to face, but before long, their positions shifted into a crawling, dog-like stance.
Suddenly, a sharp gasp escaped Shirley’s lips.
“Did you— *hng*—hear that just now?” the woman asked, but the man only shook his head.
“N-No… *Hah*… I didn’t hear anything.”
Fortunately, the two were so absorbed in their actions that the man seemed completely unaware that there might be someone else in the lounge besides them.
Shirley, her hand clamped over her mouth, stared at Damian with a tense expression.
Damian, too, was equally uncomfortable at having unintentionally witnessed such an intimate moment. But more than anything, he was deeply displeased that Shirley had to see such an unsightly scene.
“Don’t look.”*
He raised a hand to cover Shirley’s eyes while pulling her up and hiding them both behind the curtains by the window.
“Damian…”
Shirley lifted her head, her eyes meeting his.
“Shh. Stay here for a moment.”
Damian looked down at Shirley, who was trembling in his arms.
Her green eyes, glossy and wide like a rabbit’s, stared back at him—so unbearably adorable that *he* was the one left struggling.
*God…*
He gritted his teeth silently, invoking a deity he rarely ever called upon.
*Please, don’t let my body react right now. I can’t afford to startle my innocent fiancée.*
But inside the curtain, in that dim and enclosed space, holding Shirley’s soft, warm body close was pushing his patience to its absolute limit.
“Damian… it’s hot, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Sorry, it’s because of me.”
In truth, the heat wasn’t from the cramped space. It was because he was using every ounce of his willpower to suppress his body’s natural reactions.
“Ngh—Ah! Mmm!”
Meanwhile, the moans of the couple—now as shameless as a pair of cockroaches—continued to assault his ears at regular intervals.
When he glanced down, Shirley’s soft chest was pressed against his own, and the sight of her wide, innocent rabbit-like eyes staring up at him filled him with crushing guilt.
Worse, the warm, living scent of her threatened to evaporate what little reason he had left.
No. Not yet.
He gritted his teeth, enduring, resisting.
In the Raten Empire, it was common for men and women to engage in free romance and intimacy before marriage. But the two of them had never gone further than a kiss. The reason was simple:
Shirley was far too pure.
If he revealed even a fraction of his darker desires, she would surely flee from him immediately.
So he had endured. And endured. Throughout their entire engagement, he had stayed by her side—as a devoted fiancé, a trustworthy friend, sometimes even a protective older brother.
He couldn’t ruin all of that in a single moment of lust.
“It’s okay, Shirley.”
No, it wasn’t okay. The one struggling right now wasn’t Shirley—it was *him*.
If he let his guard down even slightly, he might just push her down right then and there. To prevent that—
*Crush.*
He pulled her tightly against him, using the pressure to keep himself in check.
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