ログインStepping out of my dorm room always seems to lead to a payday.
I am in a great mood as I head back up to Room 306.
But the second my fingers touch the doorknob, my instincts kick in.
Hmm? I push the door open. The living room is completely dark and dead silent. To a normal person, it would seem totally empty.
But my new Reaper senses are very sharp, and they are screaming that there is a huge, breathing creature currently standing in my personal space
She steps aside to let me through the door.Hilbert is in the doorway.He finds my hand without looking for it, and we walk past her together without ceremony."Your speech, Professor Hilbert," she says. "You haven't given it yet.""The other faculty can manage." He glances briefly at the bodies on the ground, registers them, says nothing about them.His thumb moves once across my knuckles. "We're leaving early."I feel her gaze on our backs all the way to the path.---His bathroom has exactly one mirror and very good lighting, which I appreciate.I'm out of the shower and into his white shirt before he's finished putting the gift bag on the bed, and when I turn around he goes very still in the way that means I've successfully recalibrated his evening.The shirt is doing what I bought it to do.Half-sheer, buttoned just enough to be technically compliant with the concept of coverage.I hold up a glass of ice water, take a slow sip, and watch him watch me."You like it," I say.He doe
S has a small mole beside his throat.It's a very pretty detail on a very pretty person.I tap his cheek twice, light and proprietary. "You're genuinely attractive, you know."S stares at the sky and says nothing, which is the most dignified response available to him.I collect myself off the garden floor, and then I step over Roko on my way out and nudge him with my foot."Tonight stays in this garden. If it doesn't, the embarrassing story is yours to carry, not mine."I pause at the gate."Save up your credits. Come find me when you're ready to do this properly."I turn back one last time and make a heart with my fingers at all of them."Love ya."The walk back to the ballroom takes longer than it should.The succubus pheromones don't clear the way a smell clears. They dissipate from the inside out, leaving a warm residue that makes colors slightly brighter and thoughts slightly slower.I want something sweet. Something substantive.The refreshment table has those little strawberry
I spend the first three songs eating cake near the refreshment table and waiting to be ambushed.A Goblin finds me during the fourth, approaching with the body language of a man walking toward something he isn't sure he should be walking toward.He's been somewhere else since the ball started, and now he's back, eyes darting.I finish the last strawberry on my plate."Rea," he says, too carefully, "can I talk to you? Privately. The back garden—""Sure." I dust off my hands. "Lead the way."He stares at me.I gesture forward pleasantly.---The garden is pretty at night, but the nearest ground lights conveniently dead.The kind of atmospheric corner someone selected deliberately.I can hear breathing before we reach it.They've positioned themselves with their backs to the entrance—facing the far side, presumably for dramatic reveal purposes—which means they don't notice when I circle wide and come at them from the other direction.I wait until Goblin's footsteps slow to a halt. Until
The stockings go on first.Dark, bow-trimmed, and nobody's business but mine.They sit well under the cloak, which is the point—practical coverage for the two sedative syringes and the suppression collars I've got strapped to my thigh.Functional and pretty.Two knocks at the door, then Liviel, "Roommate. Professor Hilbert is here for you."I open the door.Liviel is in a puff-skirted gown with her twin tails pinned up, which is a look.But I'm not looking at Liviel.Hilbert is standing in the corridor outside Room 306, and the lighting out there is doing something genuinely criminal.He always looks like this—the composed, unhurried beauty of something that grew rather than was made.But tonight there's a quality to it that's harder to look away from. His gold hair catches the hall light and holds it. His clothes fit the way clothes fit on people who have never had to think about whether they fit.He sees me and goes very still for exactly one second.Then he extends his hand.I walk
The ten-thousand-meter warm-up lap has barely started when someone falls into step behind me."Grim Reaper, are you going to the ball? Do you have a partner?"The question lands like a stone in still water.I keep my pace steady. "Of course I'm going. Good for business. And yes, I have a partner.""Is it Professor Hilbert?" The voice tips into excitement. "I heard he never dances at these things—""You'll get to find out," I say.Someone else cuts in from my left, joking, "What about me? You take bookings, right? Could you put me on your dance card?"I glance back at him. "How many credits?"He hesitates. "...Two?"I face forward again."Five?""Physical contact is priced separately," I call back, and accelerate.Behind me, Medusa passes the boy at a clipping pace. "Five credits. Who do you think you're dealing with.""I wasn't talking to you—""She beat me," Medusa says, without breaking stride. "Insult her price and you're insulting my loss record. Think about that."Ahead, Liviel i
I spend the night in Hilbert's bed, and technically speaking, I'm on my best behavior.I make him a solemn, wide-eyed promise to be a "good student," then immediately proceed to use his chest as a pillow.I burrow into his side, hooking a leg over his hip to anchor myself, and fall asleep with a speed that is frankly insulting to his internal turmoil.When I wake up, I feel spectacular.I am glowing, refreshed, and fueled by the divine energy humming through the house.Hilbert, on the other hand, looks like he's just survived a war of attrition.He's composed after all, but there are faint, bruised shadows under his eyes that weren't there yesterday.His hair is a fraction less than perfect, a few strands falling over his forehead in a way that makes him look devastatingly human.I find both of these things deeply satisfying.He's a mature man who previously had no use for "needs" of the flesh, and yet he spent the night acting as a human weighted blanket because he refused to move me







