Lucian stood in place while holding Serval in his arms, and he soon noticed that not only did she not attempt to move away, but she instead pressed herself even closer, her body subtly leaning into his as though testing his reaction.
Looking downward, he could indeed only see her face and part of her breasts, while the rest of her figure remained obscured from his angle, leaving the full scenery below just barely out of sight.
'Hmm, this woman is quite clever...'
Lucian could not help but remark inwardly, a faint trace of amusement surfacing within his thoughts.
Unfortunately, Serval's earlier movement of lifting her leg had not been withdrawn in time, so he had already seen all of her private parts, especially that 'golden-furred tiger' covering her crotch—he could only wonder which handsome man it might eventually end up biting.
"So you really just wanted to look!"
Serval tilted her head upward within Lucian's embrace, her eyes fixed on him the entire time, her expression carrying a mixture of accusation and embarrassment.
Seeing him lower his head to look at her so directly, what else could his intentions possibly be?
"I mean, I'm a normal, straight man—why wouldn't I want to?"
Lucian's rhetorical response immediately left Serval momentarily speechless, her lips parting slightly before she found herself unable to think of any immediate retort.
Indeed.
Any normal man would naturally want to look, while not wanting to would instead be the abnormal thing.
"B-But still, you shouldn't have just barged in like that. Can't you see this is a bathroom…"
Natasha's face was flushed bright red as she maintained her covering posture while reprimanding Lucian, her voice strained between embarrassment and frustration.
Unfortunately, her slender arms could barely conceal the most essential areas, leaving her in an extremely awkward and vulnerable state.
At her words, however, there was not the slightest trace of embarrassment or awkwardness on Lucian's face. In the eyes of the two women, he appeared calm to the point of being irritating, as though the situation carried no weight for him whatsoever.
"Here?" Lucian glanced around the luxurious bathroom, his gaze sweeping across the polished surfaces and spacious interior before returning to the two women. "Yeah, I know this is a bathroom, but y'know, this is my private bathroom. Why can't I come in? As for you two…"
He paused briefly as his gaze landed upon Natasha and Serval's faces, both of them flushed so deeply that they seemed as though they were about to drip blood, and only then did he continue speaking, teasing them without the slightest restraint.
"Bathing in my bathroom without permission—should I assume you're coveting my body?"
""NO!""
Natasha and Serval immediately denied it in unison, their response coming almost purely on instinct.
It went without saying that the sudden reversal completely caught both of them off guard, leaving them with no time whatsoever to even organize their thoughts.
After all, it had clearly been Cocolia who told them to bathe here, personally instructing them without giving even the slightest indication otherwise.
Yet who could have expected that this was actually Lucian's private bathroom?
If that was truly the case, then Cocolia definitely had ulterior motives behind arranging all of this.
Could it be, just as they had vaguely suspected earlier, that everything had actually been arranged by Lucian from the very beginning—that what he truly wanted was their bodies?
"If you really want something, you can just say it directly… I probably wouldn't refuse—no need to go about it in such a roundabout way. It's really awkward…"
Natasha seemed to have arrived at some kind of conclusion within her heart as she spoke to Lucian with visible embarrassment, her voice lowering slightly. From her tone alone, it was obvious that she genuinely meant those words, without even the slightest hint of evasion or insincerity.
Lucian had, after all, saved her world, protected countless civilians, liberated Belobog from its crisis, and even brought them an enormous quantity of resources.
Most importantly, he was tall, powerful, handsome, and someone who clearly distinguished love from hatred. While working alongside her to heal and save people, regardless of status or background, he personally treated everyone equally without exception.
To say she felt absolutely nothing toward him would simply be impossible.
If he truly asked her to offer herself to him, then out of gratitude, along with a certain degree of acceptance that was already present within her heart, she would most likely choose to compromise.
"Huh? I didn't ask for anything. What exactly are you talking about that you wouldn't refuse?"
A trace of confusion appeared upon Lucian's face as he asked that question, his brows knitting together slightly.
Serval had just discussed a similar topic with Natasha earlier, so she immediately understood what Natasha meant without needing any further explanation. Because of that, she instantly turned toward Natasha, her expression stiffening with disbelief as she became completely dumbfounded.
Truthfully, she had never expected that the usually composed and slightly scheming Natasha was actually secretly this passionate toward Lucian beneath that calm exterior.
Had she already been willing from the very beginning, then why did Natasha still talk about conspiracies and schemes as though she were carefully weighing every possibility?
If that was truly the case, then what exactly was Serval supposed to do in response?
"Actually, Cocolia's the one who set us up..." Serval hurriedly cut in, quickly trying to explain the situation. "That's why we're bathing here. I swear we really didn't do it on purpose."
"Oh?" Lucian raised a brow slightly, a faint hint of interest flashing across his face. "What a coincidence. Cocolia invited me here, too, so I came."
Once those two statements were laid out plainly, the three of them immediately understood everything without needing to say another word.
Recalling Cocolia's earlier unusual behavior, it instantly became obvious that everything had been part of her scheme from the very beginning.
From how she had deliberately called the three of them here under entirely different pretexts, to 'accidentally' splashing Serval with ink at such a convenient moment, and then 'kindly' arranging for Natasha and Serval to use the best bathroom on the top floor, every single step had clearly been calculated in advance.
Evidently, they had been set up from the very start.
A setup specifically designed to leave them completely unguarded, stripped of all defenses, naked within Lucian's private bathroom while quietly waiting for this protagonist to 'arrive.'
Natasha raised a hand to her forehead, utterly speechless, not even knowing where she should begin reacting anymore.
'Cocolia… you truly are… something else!'
Clearly, she had overthought things.
Lucian was completely innocent!
Now that Natasha realized there had never been any deliberate intention on his part to covet their bodies, the tension that had been tightly coiled within her chest unraveled all at once, leaving behind a wave of sharp embarrassment that spread through her entire body.
Saying she wouldn't refuse if he asked—didn't that make her sound far too forward, far too shameless?
Natasha could not help but wonder how Lucian would view her from now on, whether that single statement had already shaped his impression of her in ways she could no longer change.
Would he think she was an improper woman?
'Damn Cocolia!'
Natasha cursed Cocolia inwardly, her expression subtly stiffening with humiliation and frustration.
At the same time, Serval remained silent, yet her body trembled faintly with restrained anger while her pretty face shifted between flushed red and pale white, unable to settle no matter how hard she tried to calm herself.
'So that's how it was, huh...'
One moment, she had still been Cocolia's best friend, and the very next moment, Cocolia had casually handed her best friend over without even the slightest hesitation.
Truthfully, she did not mind being given to Lucian—the thought itself did not repel her in the slightest—but the problem lay entirely in the setting and the process behind everything that had happened!
If it had been a candlelit dinner, a quiet dance beneath soft music at a formal ball, or even working side by side together inside the mechanical workshop, hands brushing accidentally while repairing machines together, then that would have been perfectly acceptable.
In fact, even a bathroom scenario could have worked—at the very least, let her be the one secretly watching him bathe. Yet instead, everything had been completely reversed, leaving her as the one being watched from beginning to end.
For Serval, the entire situation was unbearably awkward and shameful, almost suffocating to the point where she did not even know where to look anymore.
'Damn Cocolia!'
Just like Natasha, Serval also cursed Cocolia inwardly, the irritation building inside her chest refusing to subside, no matter how much she tried to suppress it. In her heart, Serval silently swore that she would absolutely settle the score with her later, regardless of what it took.
Lucian, meanwhile, observed the two women's expressions as understanding dawned upon them almost simultaneously, their shared realization reflected clearly across their faces while embarrassment and indignation intertwined into an unmistakably vivid display.
In the very next moment, the faint smile lingering at the corner of his lips deepened slightly, carrying a trace of quiet amusement that he did not bother hiding.
Inside the bathroom, steam still lingered thickly throughout the air, clinging stubbornly to the tiles and blurring the outlines of everything around them. Yet even the constant sound of running water could no longer conceal the sudden rise in tension and that subtle, awkward intimacy pressing in heavily on all three of them.
"By the way... why didn't you two just run out and quickly put on clothes?"
Lucian suddenly asked a pointed question, his tone calm yet direct.
Yes.
A normal woman's first reaction would have been to slap him, yell at him to get out immediately, or hurriedly flee in embarrassment.
Yet neither Natasha nor Serval had done so.
Instead, both of them remained exactly where they were, as though they had already made up their minds from the very beginning.
"Because it's you… there must be a reason..." Natasha said with a flushed face, her gaze remaining steady despite the faint redness rapidly spreading across her cheeks. "I wanted to talk face-to-face. If I ran off to get dressed and you ended up leaving afterward, then I probably wouldn't be able to sleep all night."
"If I ran away, you'd feel embarrassed too, right?" Serval added, her voice softer than usual but still carrying that familiar confidence and clarity. "I didn't wanna make you feel like that, and I definitely didn't want things to get awkward between us afterward."
Hearing their reasons, Lucian was genuinely moved, a rare softness quietly appearing within his eyes.
He truly had not expected that they would rather remain like this, allowing him to see them exactly as they were, than risk him misunderstanding the situation or feeling embarrassed because of them.
It seemed that these really were the 'helpers' Cocolia had carefully chosen for herself.
He had to admit that her judgment in this particular matter was surprisingly good.
Still, deliberately scheming to have him come here and accidentally watch beauties bathing was something that very clearly deserved punishment.
"Alright, I get it. I'll go find Cocolia and deal with this."
Lucian slowly closed his eyes, deliberately avoiding looking any further, then gently pushed Serval out of his arms before activating Absolute Hit and teleporting directly to Cocolia's office.
Even though it had only been a small and almost trivial action, that subtle detail of Lucian deliberately closing his eyes instead of taking advantage of the moment caused an unexpected warmth to quietly rise within Serval's chest.
'Our second meeting actually ended up being awkward, huh...'
Even though she was thinking that way, Serval was still genuinely happy to finally meet Lucian face-to-face again after everything that had happened.
After all, the main reason she had returned to work as a researcher in the first place had been because of him.
It was just that the setting and timing had been completely wrong, making it impossible for the two of them to build any real rapport between them at all, all because of Cocolia!
*Splash!*
Natasha splashed cold water onto her own face in an attempt to cool herself down, the chill helping her gradually steady her thoughts and emotions.
"Why would that woman do something like this?" Natasha said with a deep frown, droplets of water still dripping slowly from her fingertips. "What benefit does she even gain from this? Or was all of this simply to make fools out of us in front of Lucian?"
"We'll question her later," Serval said with a sigh, rubbing her temple like she was trying to fight off the headache coming on. "By the way, Lord Lucian mentioned that Cocolia invited him here to meet... and since the meeting spot was literally a bathroom outta all places—and he actually came—it looks like they're already... y'know... together and already did it..."
Indeed.
Why else would a man and a woman deliberately arrange to meet inside a bathroom of all places if not for doing 'that' together?
"If they're already together, then why involve the two of us as well?" Natasha continued, her frown deepening even further. "Could it be that Cocolia wants to share him with us, too?"
"Share?" Serval raised her brows in surprise, clearly caught off guard by the suggestion, before quickly shaking her head in disbelief. "No way. A perfect man like him... would Cocolia really wanna share him with other women?"
Hearing that, Natasha smiled faintly, a subtle knowing look gradually appearing within her eyes.
"You know, the most likely reason a woman would willingly share a man is that she can't handle him alone anymore and wants others to help share the burden. I'm a doctor, so I'm probably not wrong about this."
As a doctor, she naturally understood such matters quite well.
"Handle what?"
Serval asked thoughtfully, her brows knitting together even tighter in confusion as she looked directly at Natasha.
Natasha's smile deepened slightly with a hint of mischief as she leaned closer, lowering her voice before whispering something directly into Serval's ear.
In the very next moment, Serval's face flushed bright red, the color spreading rapidly across her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.
"O-Orgy? No way..."
"All three together... wouldn't that be way too embarrassing?"
"He's so refined and upright—there's no way he would actually agree to something like that."
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[A bonus chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
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