Chapter 619: They are About to Summon a stork

I tilted my head, considering it. "It might be pretty hot too, and something might spill and stain her bed."

Erica began to tremble where she sat.

Her hands tightened on the edge of the table, fingers pressing into the wood. Her face had flushed a deep red, spreading from her cheeks down to her neck.

She opened her mouth, closed it again, and said nothing.

Aria was blushing deeply and gulping on her beer in one long pull, her throat working as she drained the glass without stopping for air.

She set it down with a heavy thunk and immediately reached for the pitcher to refill it.

Maria suddenly started playing with her nails, eyes fixed on her own hands, examining each finger like it held the secrets of the universe.

She turned her hand this way and that, catching the lamplight, and didn’t look up.

Sophia’s face had gone the full color of a red tomato. She stared at me without blinking, her lips slightly parted, her whole body frozen in place.

Sapphire looked completely normal.

He just glanced around at the others, his brow furrowed in mild confusion, wondering why the girls were acting so strange. He even shrugged at me, as if to say he had no idea what was going on.

Yuki was still sipping on her wine, calmly admiring the color of the liquid in the glass.

She tilted it slightly, watching the light catch the deep red, and said nothing. Her expression was perfectly neutral, composed, and unbothered.

Heka was still lost in a fantasy realm of her own, blushing and mumbling quietly to herself, her eyes unfocused and distant. She hadn’t touched her food in several minutes.

Weirdos, all of them. That’s why we get along so well.

"Anyway, good night!" I waved once and hopped toward the stairs, my footsteps light on the wooden floor. "We’ll try not to make too much noise and disturb you guys."

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Benjamin had just run upstairs, practically telling the rest of the party he was going to have steaming hot sex with Katana.

"Wow." Aria muttered under her breath, setting her empty cup down with a soft clink. "I did not know they had that kind of relationship."

"She had been getting very intimate with him these days. I knew this day would come." Maria shook her head slowly, the motion small but deliberate. Her expression was calm and resigned, as if she had already accepted the inevitable and had simply been waiting for everyone else to catch up. "But... I did not think Katana would be sexually interested in another woman."

[Huh...? Oh, yes. Benjamin is a man.]

Erica’s mind hugged the memory tightly, the realization landing with a delayed, almost embarrassed weight.

[Somehow I keep forgetting whenever I see his beautiful face. The almost delicate look he carries keeps tricking me.]

She shifted in her seat, her thighs pressing together beneath the table.

[Ah! That means... he is truly going to...]

The thought trailed off into something hotter and more flustered than she wanted to admit while still sitting at the table with the others.

Her fingers found the edge of her napkin and twisted it into a tight, wrinkled cord.

"What’s going on?" Sapphire looked around the table, genuinely confused.

His brows drew together and his head turned from one face to another, searching each expression for a clue he clearly wasn’t finding.

"What do you mean what’s going on?!" Sophia turned her blushing face toward him. The color was still high across her cheeks, and her voice came out sharper than usual, cutting through the low murmur of the hall. "They’re going to do it!"

"Hm? Do what?" Sapphire raised a brow, still completely lost.

"Gahhh! You’re so dense and naïve!" Sophia’s arms flailed in the air hard enough that her sleeves fluttered.

The motion was pure exasperation, all elbows and wrists, and she nearly knocked her cup off the table in the process. "Listen here..."

"C’mon, you do not have to tell him if he’s not ready to hear it." Aria leaned forward in her seat, her voice holding real concern.

She glanced between the twins with a furrow in her brow, clearly worried about the TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy’s innocence remaining intact a while longer.

"Silence! Then when do you suppose he will truly come of age?!" Sophia snapped the words at Aria without hesitation.

Her eyes were bright with determination, her jaw set, and she looked like someone who had decided that this particular battle was worth fighting.

"He and I will be forever joined at the hips if he doesn’t open his eyes." She turned back to her brother.

Both of her hands came up and grabbed his face, palms warm and slightly damp against his cheeks, forcing him to look straight at her.

"Let me tell you what is going to happen upstairs, Sapphire..." She paused for effect, and her grip tightened. "Those two will kiss each other’s privates, and a bird will bring them a baby tomorrow!"

"..." This was the reaction of absolutely everyone watching them.

The silence that followed was thick and total.

Even Heka and Yuki, who had been half-lost in their own thoughts, went completely still. Heka’s chewing stopped mid-motion. Yuki’s wine glass hovered just below her lips, frozen in place.

They were speechless because they never expected the explanation to come out the way Sophia had delivered it.

So confident and completely serious. As if she had just explained a natural law of the world, something everyone should have already known.

"Ehhhhh?! S-Something that dirty?!" Sapphire covered his eyes with both hands, his voice rising in pure shock. "I never even suspected a thing!"

His ears had gone red, the color spreading down to his neck.

"Mhm. I don’t blame you." Sophia nodded firmly, still holding her posture as if she had just delivered a profound and necessary truth.

Her chin was lifted, and her shoulders were squared. "It almost sounded as though they just wanted to make an item or something together. But remember: Benjamin is always sexually aroused by the curse! She must have struck a deal with Katana, which explains why Katana has been so docile since this afternoon."