The Beast That Licks Me - Chapter 3.3

Rosette murmured, turning to her side to look at Evan. His closed eyelashes were quite long. Was she attracted simply because his face was nice? He did have that kind of appearance, but… Rosette pulled at Evan’s cheek while lost in thought. While stretching his cheek like bread dough, Evan, whom she thought was sleeping, suddenly embraced her tightly.

“…!”

Rosette gasped in surprise. Evan, still embracing her, spun around and placed her on the opposite side of the bed. Then, opening his blue eyes brightly, he looked at Rosette with a playful gaze.

“Good morning, Rosette.”

“W-when did you wake up?”

Flustered that he might have heard her question, Rosette asked.

“Just now? Didn’t you just wake up too?”

There was no sense of deception in Evan’s counter-question. Rosette let out a sigh of relief.

“Mmm, that’s right. I just woke up too.”

“How’s your body? Are you okay?”

“Yes… I feel light now.”

“That’s good.”

Evan said with a grin, keeping Rosette captive in his arms.

“Levit will be here soon. We agreed to start teaching him letters today, so I need to wash up.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Despite quickly agreeing, Evan showed no signs of moving away.

“Evan, you need to move so I can get up.”

“Okay, okay.”

While she was frowning, thinking he was teasing her, Evan gradually moved closer to Rosette’s face. Rosette opened her eyes wide in surprise. Did he think he could keep kissing her just because they kissed yesterday? But it was morning. She hadn’t even brushed her teeth yet! While all these thoughts raced through her mind, Evan drew closer. His eyes, unreadable in their intent, curved beautifully. Rosette blinked rapidly before squeezing her eyes shut.

With a soft sound, lips touched her forehead and then pulled away. At the same time, her body felt a little lighter. When she opened her eyes, she saw Evan beside her with a playful smile. Thump, thump. Rosette’s heart pounded loudly.

“Get away, you fool.”

Rosette pushed Evan away and got up. Before entering the bathroom, Rosette glanced back and saw Evan wrapped in the blanket, watching her. When their eyes met, he smiled brightly again.

“…!”

Rosette slammed the door shut and leaned against the bathroom door. Her flushed face was clearly reflected in the bathroom mirror. Rosette cooled her heated cheeks with the back of her hand and turned on the faucet. The lukewarm water, purified from seawater, had a faint smell of salt. Despite washing her face for a long time, the heat in her cheeks showed no sign of subsiding.

***

Levit brought breakfast at the exact time again today. But something was different—his companion. Rosette, who had opened the door herself, opened her eyes wide. A girl with brown hair and brown eyes stood next to Levit with slight tension.

“Welcome, Levit. Is this your friend?”

“Hello, my name is Ariel. I wanted to study with Levit, so I came along.”

She was a bold child. Yet she seemed nervous, tightly clenching her fists.

“Yes, I see. My name is Rose. Come in first.”

Rosette opened the door and let them in. Ariel quickly entered. Levit looked at Ariel with a troubled expression.

“I’m sorry, I bragged about learning letters from a guest, and since then she’s been begging to learn too…”

“It’s fine. It’s good to learn together.”

Rosette smiled reassuringly. Ariel, looking around, met eyes with Evan, who had just finished washing. Fortunately, Evan was fully dressed, but the middle of his top was wet and partially see-through. Just as Rosette was about to tell him to change clothes out of embarrassment, Ariel murmured in a daze.

“An angel…”

Rosette laughed softly at the child’s innocent words. They always wore their robe hoods pulled down, so this was the first time they had shown their appearance right away at a first meeting. Even Rosette, who had grown up seeing all sorts of beautiful and wonderful things, was surprised by how dazzling Evan was when she first saw him, let alone a child.

“Rosette, who are they?”

Evan asked, drying his wet hair with a towel. With just that gesture, Ariel’s expression became even more dreamy.

“These are the children I’m going to teach starting today.”

“Children?”

“Yes, there’s one more now.”

At Rosette’s words, Ariel seemed to come to her senses and shook her head. Then she took something out of her pocket and held it out. It was a somewhat grimy silver coin. As Rosette stared at it with a puzzled look, Ariel’s cheeks reddened.

“It’s a bit dirty, I’m sorry. But it’s real silver.”

Ariel lifted her skirt hem and began to polish the silver coin. In doing so, the child’s thin calves and ankles were exposed. Flustered, Rosette approached Ariel and stopped her.

“No, it’s not because it’s dirty. I agreed not to take money from Levit. And I don’t intend to take it from you either.”

“That won’t do!”

“That’s right, ma’am. That won’t do.”

Both shouted in loud voices. The booming voices echoed around the room. This room had never been so noisy before. Rosette pressed her finger above her lips. The children who had been speaking stopped abruptly.

“There’s nothing free in this world. You have to pay for everything.”

How does one grow up to know such worldly truths at such a young age? Something Rosette herself didn’t fully understand yet. With the two being so adamant, Rosette felt somewhat intimidated and said.

“Alright. How about 1 silver per month?”

“What if you starve to death before then?”

“Levit, what kind of rude thing is that to say!”

Ariel smacked Levit’s back. It must have hurt quite a bit, as Levit made a tearful face.

“Ma’am, you lost your wallet. So you don’t have much now.”

“What? Which bastards stole it?”

Ariel’s language was rougher than expected. Her voice was also strong and sharp, making it feel like hearing even worse words.

“Yeah, real sons of b*tches.”

Levit also spat out profanity with familiarity. Rosette felt a slight headache coming on. Can I really teach these children well?

After 30 minutes of discussion, three rules were established:

1. Classes will be held three days a week, one hour each.

2. Tuition will be 2 silver per week from each.

3. No profanity will be used during class.

When deciding on rule number 3, the children competed to say every profanity in the world, asking if each was a swear word, causing Rosette to nearly lose her mind. Teaching children was more difficult than expected. Only after Rosette couldn’t bear it anymore and seated Evan as a teaching assistant did things quiet down. This was because Ariel was entranced, staring only at Evan.

“It’s good that I prepared plenty of notebooks and pencils. But I’m worried about the location not being suitable.”

“The location?”

“Yes, this place is too small, and the lounge is too noisy for studying… I’m not sure where would be good.”

Rosette looked at the table, lost in thought. The table was just big enough to hold a breakfast tray. It was fine for eating meals and having tea, but it was too cramped for three people to study. The lounge was inevitably noisy as a social space, and she didn’t want to attract attention by teaching children there.

“Ah, I have a good idea. We can use the old cleaning supply closet near the second-class section.”

“Huh? A cleaning supply closet?”

“It used to be a staff break room. It’s too small and dirty for anyone to rest there. So they started storing old cleaning supplies there one by one. That’s why no one goes there. Though it’s a bit worn down, it wouldn’t be bad for the three of us to study.”

“Rose, can I join too?”

Evan, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, suddenly asked.

“Huh? What do you want to study?”

“Just, I get bored staying in the room alone, so I thought I’d go to the library and borrow some books.”

There was a small library on the ship. Of course, due to the scarcity of books, there were separate collections available for first, second, and third-class passengers. Unfairly, third-class passengers could only read books on-site and couldn’t borrow them. As a second-class passenger, Rosette could read and borrow most books.

“Alright…”

Ariel spoke with a dreamy voice before Rosette could even give permission. Seeing his dazed expression once again, Rosette briefly wondered if having Evan by her side would actually help with the lesson.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Upon Rosette’s permission, Evan smiled brightly. Ariel, captivated by that smile, ultimately collapsed.