Chapter 59

“Yuck…” “Ew…” But their disgusted expressions were nothing more than praise to the masochist. “Yeah, I don’t really understand…,” said Rino. “It’s better that way,” replied Shinichi with a relieved sigh. Arian brought her face close to his and whispered in his ear. “By the way, what was her story about?” It was possible Clarissa was upping the ante, pretending she didn’t want her secret to be revealed and cementing an opportunity to get chewed out—which was basically what she wanted. Shinichi had hoped to keep it a secret until he’d broken Clarissa, and Arian couldn’t hold back her curiosity anymore. Shinichi took her hand and replied using Telepathy so the others couldn’t hear. “It’s a self-insert romance between the main character, Clara, and a handsome prince, modeled after her ideal man.” “Ugh…” Arian cringed. But that wasn’t even the juicy part. “In her small village, Clara doesn’t have any luck with romance. She decides to transfer to a school in a large city, where she happens to run into a hot guy. That isn’t totally absurd, but…” Out of hatred for her own small village, Clarissa had written about the city, but she had never been to one. Her only reference was records left by her ancestors from the ancient civilization. That made the details unrealistic. But that wasn’t the problem. “The guy kisses her on the first day. On the second day, he forces himself on her. On the third day, she realizes she loves him, even though she hates him. Maybe it’s an issue with me; maybe this is something boys just can’t understand…” “No, I’m a girl, and I definitely don’t get it.” Some say sex can lead to love, but this story developed faster than a rocket in takeoff. “On the fourth day, she meets some other hot guy, and he ties her up and does…ahem…stuff to her, but the first guy finds out on the fifth day and starts shouting at her. Like, ‘You wanted it, didn’t you?!’ And then he puts a collar on her and does…things to her, and…” “Where does her imagination come from?!” cried Arian in her head. She couldn’t wrap her head around why someone would write that as an ideal romantic encounter, but Shinichi’s face was a mixture of expressions as he defended Clarissa. “If you think about her environment, it’s really not that surprising.” “What do you mean?” “Well, she’s related to everyone. Being with her was dangerous, and all the men avoided her like the plague.” From the perspective of the male elves, there was no reason to pursue Clarissa as a romantic partner since there were so many other women. The men wouldn’t give her the time of day. Meanwhile, other than her two friends and family, the rest of the elves treated her like garbage since she couldn’t help them increase the population. She found respite in books because she was lonely. Her ideal prince developed into a man who would force his way past her shell and save her. “From the erotic novels, she latched onto the concept of force, blowing it wildly out of proportion. Plus, she wanted people to pay attention to her. Combine those two, and you have a huge masochist,” explained Shinichi. “I guess I get it when you put it that way…” Arian could sympathize with Clarissa’s feeling of loneliness. After all, she had experienced the same thing for being a half dragon. Besides, Shinichi had pulled her into league with the demons, and she had been attracted to his forcefulness. She did sort of see its charm. “I still don’t know what I think about that novel,” she admitted. “Yeah, I wish I hadn’t read it,” said Shinichi. But it had been like an ominous grimoire, sucking him in and whittling away at his sanity with every page. Arian thought about everything that Clarissa had gone through and called out to her in support. “Good luck.” “What? Don’t take me for a fool!” Clarissa shouted back, almost as if to say Arian should have insulted her instead. Everyone sighed at the elven masochist.