“Sleep, dude.”

Vivian, who had  rebelled and said she would never sleep till she caught that bastard of a scammer, in the end couldn’t win against her exhaustion and fell into deep sleep.

***

Vivian had tried her utmost best. She had temporarily bought a second notebook from a stationery shop and wrote down all she could remember.

However, just as she had thought, she couldn’t create the same atmosphere and feelings from before. Rather, she had written according to her usual habits so the same dialogue that Thatcher had criticized kept coming up.

No, just a little more vulgar…… no, this isn’t it either. I went too far.

She wrung out her brains and moaned in suffering before she ripped the notebook into pieces and threw it away in the trash. She couldn’t be satisfied at all.

Perhaps it was because she was unable to write her novel, but her anxiety only grew as more time passed. Those two vibrantly intimate sexual affairs that had occured in the library felt like salvation back then.

If I wait, will they come once more?

Vivian wished that one of either the Emperor or the Duke would show up again. However, when she thought of Carden who was stuck in between two whales as a small shrimp, she couldn’t help but feel sorry.

If she decided to ignore Thatcher’s words and shamelessly write as usual, there was no doubt her fourth novel would be published as well. In any case, Vivian’s erotic novels were unique and the market was overflowing with demand.

However, having been stimulated once by his taunts, the stubbornness to see to end her victory had already taken root inside of her. Not to mention, she had seriously considered the direction of her novels, so it wasn’t easy to go back to her usual writing as before.

Vivian floundered in a sea of despair and rage. The strategy she took was to wait for the conman every morning. To be honest, there wasn’t any other way.

As if he was taunting Vivian, not even a blip of Ray could be seen. It was the same the next day. Then the next day. Soon, it had been 3 days since she’d waited for the scholar.

Vivian looked at the large grandfather’s clock with half closed eyes. 5 in the morning. She felt as though she would collapse and sleep, but Vivian barely fought off her drowsiness and started to bustle about.

She paced in circles as she read the book she held in her hand. It was a book that held the references and opinions of 100 scholars from the Scholar’s Tower and just looking at it made her want to fall asleep.

Waaah! No! I can’t sleep! Vivian threw the book in her hand to the side and started to dance. Now that she moved her body, this time, sleep started to sweep over her. She panted and hurriedly took a deep breath and started to sing. She did everything in her repertoire to stay awake, but her head continuously dropped down to the floor.

Perhaps it was a result of her effort, but at 6 o’clock sharp, she saw Ray walk in through the front door. He still had his hood draped all over him.

Gasp! He came.

In a total of three days! Before he reached the front of the counter, she walked up to Ray angrily.

She saw how the ends of his lips were raised as if in innocence. However, it was still a smile so beautiful it appeared to be a piece of art.

“I don’t know what to do with myself when you welcome me as such, Vivian.”

“Ha, that’s right. I didn’t sleep and continued to wait for you.”

“No wonder. Your appearance is terrible. It appears you’re always suffering from sleep deprivation.”

Ray’s hand approached without permission and neatly arranged Vivian’s messy hair behind her ear and then he rubbed the darkened areas under her eyes.

“Pitiful.”

The skin below her eye prickled at the rough fingertips.

“Why didn’t you sleep a little?”

Vivian, who had been made speechless by his contemptible and shameless skinship, shook away his hand, glared at him, and shouted.