Saving My Childhood Friend Through... Questionable Means... - Chapter 7
‘What is this… soft thing?’
As Seria lay next to the Duke, she mustered the courage to feel between his legs, only to be startled by his complete lack of reaction. She knew from common knowledge that for intercourse to take place, a man’s part needed to stand firm.
Yet, whether it was due to nerves or his reluctance, Lucas showed no movement whatsoever below.
‘There’s no way my friend is impotent… Or is he? Could he actually be impotent? Maybe his insistence on chastity was because…’
Her head filled with a flood of rational suspicions. Could his vow of premarital chastity have been because he couldn’t get it up to begin with? If that were the case, all of his unusual behavior over the years would make perfect sense.
Still, she couldn’t just let him die. Even if he couldn’t stand, she had to figure out a way to make it happen. Determined to save him, Seria tried everything she could.
She attempted several clumsy touches, even pressing a little harder with her hand, but his unyielding center didn’t so much as twitch.
It seemed almost certain now—he was truly impotent.
‘Or… could it be that he really doesn’t want to do this, and that’s why? Should I just give up here? No, if I back down now, I can’t save Lucas…’
At that moment, Lucas let out a quiet sigh and spoke to her in a low voice.
“I’m sorry… I just can’t get aroused. It’s not that I’m incapable… just, ugh.”
“……”
Seria silently stared at Lucas, who was still blindfolded. She couldn’t respond—if she did, he would recognize her voice. Realizing no reply was coming, Lucas spoke again in a heavy tone.
“I don’t think I can do this. I suppose this, too, must be the will of God.”
“No…”
Seria blurted out in shock but immediately clamped her mouth shut. She had gone through so much to make this decision and had only just begun trying, and now he was saying it wouldn’t work? The will of God—what kind of nonsense was that?
Overcome with disbelief, she forgot about the need to hide her identity and spoke out without thinking. Recognizing her familiar voice, Lucas quickly removed the blindfold. When he realized that the woman touching him was Seria, his jaw dropped in shock.
“You… you…”
“Ack!”
As Lucas took off the blindfold, Seria panicked and hurriedly covered her chest with her hair.
Lucas instinctively lowered his gaze, only to notice that Seria was completely undressed except for her undergarments. He squeezed his eyes shut, his face burning hot. Not only his face but his ears and neck turned bright red as he struggled to process the situation.
Trembling, his long eyelashes quivered as he spoke. The thought of his friend being naked and touching him overwhelmed him with a mix of shame and dizziness.
If he had known it was Seria, he would never have let her lay a hand on him. His voice wavered with embarrassment and confusion as he asked how this situation had come about.
“Seria, what… what is going on here?”
“Well, there was no one else who met the conditions except for me…”
Seria mumbled awkwardly, stumbling over her explanation. A strange bitterness welled up in her chest. She was doing this to save him, yet here she was, making excuses like she had done something wrong.
As the awkward atmosphere thickened, Seria hesitated and instinctively pulled back slightly. Then, without thinking, she glanced down—and her eyes widened.
Beneath Lucas’s robe, something was now unmistakably bulging.
There was no need to touch it to confirm. It was clear at a glance that he had become aroused.
“Wait… that wasn’t like that a moment ago…”
Seria muttered to herself without realizing it. Lucas, of course, understood what she was referring to. Seeing her soft, fair body and realizing that his friend’s hand had been touching him earlier had sent blood rushing southward in an instant. Flustered, Lucas hastily pulled up the blanket to cover himself.
He fidgeted with the blanket for a while, biting his lip in frustration. As mortified as he felt, he also couldn’t help but think about how desperate the situation must be for Seria to have stepped forward herself. Even so, the idea of using the body of someone he’d known as a friend for so long to break the curse filled him with dread.
‘I can’t do this with someone I’ll see again. I don’t want things to become awkward between Seria and me.’
Finally, Lucas made up his mind. Narrowing his eyes, he fixed his gaze somewhere beyond Seria’s shoulder, unable to bring himself to look at her directly. After briefly glancing at her face, he quickly averted his gaze and spoke in a low, gravelly voice.
“Ha… I just can’t do it. Of all people, how could I do this with you?”
“What? Lucas, there’s no one else. You have to do it with me.”
At Seria’s response, Lucas’s brow furrowed. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a series of deep sighs.
