Mandy was a short woman. Her slender build, and large chest made her feel like a parody when she wore a dress, but she believed suits and uniforms helped her look good and attractive.

She usually wore her long chestnut hair tied into a bun and carefully maintained a strict professional look, which was what landed her the job at the Mission Hall.

That formal-looking person didn’t seem to have anything in common with the slovenly twenty-five-year-old woman sitting at the table, eating her breakfast. The sharp clerk would only have to appear in two hours, once Mandy starts working.

She sat in a comfortably tied bathrobe, her hair still wet after her morning shower. Even after the shower, her eyes were still half closed. She’d attended the weekend classes, and had all the energy drained out of her.

Sometimes, she wondered why she did stuff like that to herself. As she munched on butter and raspberry jam generously spread on a slice of dark bread toast, she once again tried to solve this conundrum.

Another part of her brain, still half asleep, enjoyed the leftover feelings from her dreams.

Since her already lacking attention was as scattered as it was, a bit of jam dripped on her breast.

The unexpected cold sensation forced Mandy to snap her eyes open. She loosened the robe, so as not to get it sticky, then scooped up the jam with her finger. She was about to eat it, when a forceful knock came from the door.

Jolted, Mandy dropped the jam from her finger, right between her breasts.

Dammit Daria! I know I told you I’ll pay you back on Monday, but it’s not even seven in the morning, the woman inwardly cursed and frowned as she stared at the door.

Then she looked down, but the jam situation was already beyond salvaging.

Look at this, I’ll have to take a shower again, she grumbled, hoping she wouldn’t be late for work because of that.

She thought for a moment about loosening up her robe even more, to save it from the pink stain, but if she did, her breasts would fall right out.

Dammit, I’ll have to wash it anyways, she grumbled, tightening the robe and covering herself up completely.

Her eye twitched at the sticky feeling spreading, but there was no helping it.

“Coming!” Mandy got up, a half-eaten raspberry jam toast in her hand.

She reached the door and put on her professional smile as she opened it wide.

***

“Coming!” Wolf heard the sound of petite bare feet slapping the wooden flooring a couple of times before the door opened in an aggressive, or maybe overly enthusiastic way.

Mandy stood before him. For a split second the woman’s face showed that smile she wore at work, but then her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

Mandy appeared rather comical. Her hair was wet, her eyes wide open as she gawked at Wolf. Her mouth was gaping and she had a bit of pink jam smeared above her upper lip.

The fluffy baby-blue bathrobe didn’t help much either.

Suddenly, the piece of bread she had in her hand fell down on the floor with a wet plop. It naturally fell on the buttered side, but that wet sound snapped Mandy out of her shock.

“Um—” She wanted to say something, but her mind was overloaded.

Am I dreaming? Is this a nightmare? Why did he come so early in the morning? Why didn’t he come earlier, before I smeared jam all over myself like a clumsy pig?

While Mandy was plagued by weird and practical thoughts one after another, Wolf looked at her. Thankfully, the experience of talking with brothel owners helped him stay calm.

“May I come in?” Wolf said, helping Mandy out by breaking the awkward silence.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but notice that Mandy was still a bit taller than him. Also, she definitely wasn’t wearing a padded bra, unless she took showers with it.

Wolf did his best to cover up his foul mood, and only a tinge of his anger leaked into his voice. Mandy was blissfully unaware of this, for one reason or another.

“Yes… sure… come in… I was… having breakfast.” Mandy’s voice was shaky and trailed off as she looked down at the piece of toast that was stuck to the floor.

Shit! She quickly bent over to pick it up, but suffered a wardrobe malfunction, so she squatted instead while grasping her bathrobe to cover herself up.

She looked at Wolf with embarrassment, but the young man pretended he hadn’t noticed anything.

Suddenly Mandy’s mind was flooded with various thoughts. Did I pick up all of my undies? Where’s the laundry? Did I leave it to dry? Which books are visible on the shelf? The kitchen is a mess, I can’t let him see it…

In a fluster the woman stood up, forgetting about the piece of toast for a moment.

“No, wait. My place is a mess. I have to clean up. Give me five minutes.” Mandy tried to run her fingers through her hair, but realized her hair was a mess as well.

Worse still, she loosened up the robe a bit and revealed the sticky pink patch on her sternum.

Mandy tried to cover up the raspberry stain while Wolf shook his head. “There’s no need.”

He stepped into the apartment, kicking aside the piece of toast so that he could close the door.

Mandy’s breathing quickened as she took a step back, not knowing what was happening. Am I still dreaming?

Wolf was right in front of her, less than two steps away. He tugged on the sticky bathrobe and a plump breast appeared in front of him. He was about to grasp it, when Mandy hastily covered herself up again.

Wolf suddenly sighed.

“You’re not willing?” he asked.

It was only natural. She wasn’t Anna, and Wolf came here in a fit of anger, to show himself and Anna that someone really cared for him. It was only normal for the woman to cover up. In fact she should’ve started screaming as soon as he violated her like that.

“I’m sorry.” Wolf muttered and turned around to leave.

Suddenly a petite hand, slightly sticky with pink jam, and wet from her hair caught his wrist.

“I’m happy,” Matilda whispered into Wolf's ear as she hugged him from behind, smearing raspberry jam on his student uniform.

***

While Wolf found a way to release his pent up anger and frustration, Anna had no idea what to do with herself.

The woman sobbed in her room, while Matilda sat on the other side of the closed door, trying to console her.

“Annabelle, calm down,” she said. “Just because he did what he did doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. It’s not uncommon for men—”

“I don’t care about other men! Why did he have to do something so, so… repulsive!” Compared with when she’d first arrived, Anna had already calmed down a great deal.

When she first closed herself in her room, she screamed that she would kill Wolf and then commit suicide. Naturally, the hallway monitor showed up, threatening Anna with a fine for causing a disturbance in the early hours of the morning.

After Matilda assured her, the woman left muttering about girls acting like it was spring in December.

“I can’t believe he almost talked me into it,” Anna shouted. “Men are bastards!”

By now she was more angry than sad. As far as Matilda was concerned, this was much better. Anger could be channeled.

“Do you want me to tell the others that today’s mission is canceled?” Matilda changed the subject as soon as she had the chance.

It worked. Anna immediately stopped shouting. Matilda heard a loud sound as Anna blew her nose, then a moment of silence followed.

“No. We need the training,” Anna said, rage still in her voice. “I’m fine. I just need to take a bath and then we can go. If push comes to shove, will you help me neuter that son of a bitch?”

“Sure thing,” Matilda said with a reassuring smile, even though Anna couldn’t see her.

What in the world was he thinking? He proposed to a girl and then went to a brothel in broad daylight! Matilda grumbled inwardly. I thought that he was supposed to be a genius!

Oddly enough, Matilda was just as angry about this whole absurd situation as Anna was.

She’d been working really hard for more than a year to get those two across the finish line. Annabelle, despite her numerous character flaws, was a really good friend once you spent some time with her, and Matilda really wanted her to be happy.

As for Wolf, he was really odd. He acted like he was raised in the wilds by a pack of beasts.

***

Wolf lay on the bed, staring at the unimpressive ceiling, which had a couple of water stain patches on it.

Mandy lay on top of him, her cheek against his chest. She absentmindedly listened to the thumping of Wolf’s heart and gazed at her finger as she drew circles on Wolf’s firm pectoral muscle. While Mandy breathed in deeply, trapped in the world of her own imagination, Wolf thought about how he had felt these past couple of hours.

Wolf found this whole experience to be strange and novel.

It was completely different from using brothel women, then snatching their Soul Force to improve his Mind Palace.

Mandy had a warm genuine smile the entire time. The throaty sounds she made were of general pleasure and happiness, rather than feigned ecstatic screams he’d gotten used to hearing in the brothels.

Now that he’d been through this warm, loving experience Wolf felt that what happened in the brothels was dirty. However, harvesting Soul Force, and growing stronger in general, was always a dirty job you had to do.

Thinking of that, Wolf couldn’t help comparing this with how things went with Anna.

He had the feeling he was forcing Anna. She always kept her legs crossed and tightly clenched, as if he would assault her. She seemed uncomfortable both with Wolf’s body and her own.

Mandy on the other hand…

Wolf stared at her one brown eye he could see, and felt… shame and regret.

He couldn’t understand why this woman, with whom he only had a superficial relationship, felt this way for him.

Can you even call it a relationship? he wondered as he replayed what had happened in his mind. I take missions from her. We’ve spoken less than half an hour in total up until now. What have I done for her, to deserve such deep feelings?

Wolf didn’t know. He went through all of their encounters so far, and didn’t find anything worthy of her admiration.

Suddenly, Wolf realized that noon had already passed. Mandy skipped work, while he skipped meeting his friends and leaving for a mission.

Damn, I need to hurry. What should I do about Anna? Can we be like this? Wolf had stray thoughts swarming his mind as he sat up, throwing the dreamy Mandy off of his chest.

Seeing her hurt expression Wolf had to say something.

“I have to go on my mission. The rest of my party’s waiting for me,” he said, feeling awkward as Mandy stared at him.

He now had the nasty feeling he’d used her like a thing and was now discarding her. Wolf’s uniform appeared in his hand, and at that moment a single tear ran down Mandy’s cheek.

Woman’s intuition was indeed a terrifying thing.

She instantly knew what had happened. From now on, Wolf would probably avoid her, but in a different way from that scumbag from before. After a moment she wiped away her tear. She bodily pressed Wolf with all her might, but couldn’t make him budge. As their bodies were pressed against each other, she looked him in the eye.

“I might get fired because of skipping work like this. So, stay with me until tomorrow morning. You owe me that much at least.” She didn’t beg. She didn’t try to seduce him. Nor did she try to blackmail him. She just said what she thought was the truth, and Wolf didn’t have the face to deny it.

“But I thought you’ve had enough?” Wolf said, trying to find an excuse. Contrary to his expectations Mandy just smiled sorrowfully.

“We don’t have to have sex, silly. I really liked things just the way they were just now. We can hug, kiss, or nibble each other. I can listen to you breathe, or we could just sleep. Once I rest a bit we could go for one more round, if we feel like it. I just hope you’ll be a bit gentler this time.” The last line was said with a playful grin, as Mandy bit Wolf on the nipple. “You don’t have to tone it down too much. I just don’t want to feel like someone is pounding my butt with a gavel.”

“You know that I have a woman, and that this is a one time thing?” Wolf poured cold water on Mandy’s head, completely ignoring her gentle bite and playful expression.

“I know,” she said, and hid her face so that Wolf couldn’t see her silent tears.