The Seed Thief

As he was trying to hide his identity, the clothing Ervandas wore was also rough and worn from his travels. Because of that, Lulu assumed that all fabrics were naturally coarse.

However, the clothes Ervandas had brought from the city shattered Lulu’s preconceived notions. They were smooth and soft to the touch.

“Is this made by magic?”

Lulu questioned while gingerly touching the intricate lace, which made Ervandas chuckle.

“No, it’s not magic. It’s craftsmanship. Made by human hands.”

“This? Made by hand?”

Lulu knew that people outside the forest hardly used magic. To Lulu, whose food and so many other aspects of life were impossible without the aid of magic, the skills of people from outside the forest felt far greater than magic.

As she repeatedly ran her fingers over the lace, Lulu came to her senses and quickly withdrew her hand. If she continued touching it, this thin, beautiful thing would wear out.

She would wear it anyway. But…

“How do I put this on?”

Lulu, fidgeting with the clothes for a while, looked at Ervandas with a pleading face. Seeing her like that, he couldn’t help but curve his lips. He had known this would happen.

Unlike the clothes Lulu had worn before, this expensive summer outfit had many buttons and required tying numerous straps. It was a garment that would be difficult to put on alone and need someone to assist her.

So, when Ervandas first saw this outfit, he hesitated about buying it. It seemed to suit Lulu’s red hair and fair skin well. However, he knew that Lulu’s impulsive nature would struggle with unbuttoning and fastening it, and she wouldn’t be able to tie the straps at the back on her own.

Then he realized. Couldn’t he just help her put it on?

“Come here.”

He held out his hand, and Lulu took it without hesitation. Satisfied, he took the clothes back from her hands.

“Would you take off your clothes?”

The words were unscrupulous. To ask a woman to undress herself in broad daylight. Even the most promiscuous of the capital’s prostitutes would not make such a request lightly. Despite knowing this fact well, Ervandas smoothly uttered the words without hesitation, as if exercising a right he had possessed from the beginning.

And Lulu didn’t hesitate to comply. As she unbuttoned her shirt right in front of him, he felt his deviousness satisfied.

Lulu quickly became naked. Ervandas reached for the other clothes he had prepared.

“What’s this?”

“It’s underwear.”

“They don’t look like the ones I wear.”

Suppressing those words, Ervandas simply smiled and dressed Lulu one by one. A white cloth covered the wadding between her smooth legs, and a soft cloth wrapped around her fair breasts.

The rustling of the cloth stirred Ervandas’ throat.  In the space where his saliva had passed, he felt a tense anticipation.

The hands that pretended to help stroked her thighs and waist. Moving upward, his hands grasped the breasts he had coveted countless times, hiding them beneath the soft fabric. Only he could see.

No longer was he the revered knight of the temple. The prince who considered everyone but himself as impure was gone.

The being in the forest, Er, was merely a lowly human who lusted after his companion’s every move.

And Ervandas was pleased with this self of him.

“Er, hurry!”

Impatiently patting his shoulder, Lulu urged him on, but his hands moved slowly over her body, leisurely fulfilling his desires until the very end. He took pride in swallowing his embarrassment and asking how to wear the women’s outfit in the dressing room.

After spending what felt like an excessive amount of time dressing her in underwear, Ervandas slipped her into a white dress, slowly buttoning the back. Then, he turned Lulu around and carefully tied the ribbons and bows around the neck and sleeves.

As he dressed her, memories of his daily routine in the temple surfaced.

Every dawn, in the temple, they would cleanse the statue of Gods using freshly drawn water. It was a ritual that both priests and knights eagerly performed, as it represented the purest moment of service and devotion, carried out with their own hands.

Ervandas’s touch while dressing Lulu felt even more reverent than before. After tying all the ribbons on the dress, he retrieved something else from the bag. It was a bright green silk ribbon, intricately decorated and adorned with sparkling jewels at the end. It looked expensive to anyone who laid eyes on it.

Her fine and voluminous wavy hair, under his touch, was neatly arranged and soon tied with a green ribbon.

Finally, when he was finished, he picked her up, covered her eyes, and led her to her room, where he stood in front of a large mirror in the corner and lowered his hand.

Lulu blinked for a moment, then looked into the mirror with her mouth open.

“……”

“Lulu?”

He called her as if urging her to express her thoughts. Lulu slowly raised her hand and touched her face.

“Is this… me?”

Uttering words that a female protagonist in romance novels would say, Lulu examined herself in the mirror.

She had never worn such a flawless white garment before. It was also her first time wearing something so beautiful. The sheer sight of it brought immense joy. And in the mirror, with her hair neatly arranged, she looked like the portraits of women she had seen in old books.

Although it wasn’t her first time seeing her reflection in a mirror, Lulu suddenly realized the extent of her transformation.

How many times had she looked into this mirror before Ervandas arrived? Before he came, it had been hidden amidst various objects, covered in dust. The reflection in that mirror was strikingly different from the people in the village.

But now, she didn’t need to compare herself to the village people. She could already tell that her current self was even more “human” than them.

Lulu was well aware that she was different from the people in the village. She knew that changing her appearance would make it easier to reach them, but she didn’t. No, she couldn’t.

She feared that if she tried to change, it would blur the forest witch’s existence. So Lulu remained alone, unable to blend in, though she longed for others.

But not anymore.

‘If Er helps me…….’

If he could make her like other humans, she could meet others.

Ervandas gently set Lulu down, who still couldn’t take her eyes off the mirror, and reached into his pocket. Soon, he retrieved a small box adorned with velvet cloth. He opened the box and took out what was inside.

It was a pair of rings.

Although hastily commissioned from a skilled urban artisan, they had a satisfying appearance. The delicate goldwork alone was worth a fortune, but the tiny flame ornament on top of the rings bestowed immense worth upon them.

Originally, the small ornament was attached to his status emblem. Protected by ancient magic preserved in the royal palace, others couldn’t replicate or damage the ornament.

It was an adornment exclusively reserved for the direct royal family and their partners. The former king and queen possessed it, as did the current king and queen. And Ervandas had two of these ornaments.

He only needed one, but his brother had half-jokingly, half-seriously requested two, and told him to give them when he found a good match.

When he first got it, he thought it was a stupid thing to do, but if he were here now, he’d want to hug him for how helpful it was.

Ervandas leaned down and locked eyes with Lulu.

“Do you know about the human ceremony called marriage?”

Marriage. Lulu searched through her memories. It was a word she remembered. Though she didn’t have an exact explanation, it appeared in various magical grimoires. Reading between the lines, Lulu understood that marriage referred to humans continuously being together with someone.

“Being together?”

“Yes, that’s correct. But it’s not just that.”

Ervandas explained the concept of marriage to Lulu in a way she could understand.

Lulu was not a young child, nor was she ignorant. The grimoires she read often were beyond the comprehension of even the most highly educated Ervandas. Lulu reads them with aplomb. Her weakness lay only in understanding “humans” and “relationships with humans.”

Fortunately, that was something he could explain to her.

As Lulu listened to the explanation, the hint of a smile faded from her face. Observing her reaction, Ervandas nervously interlocked his fingers.

After a while, Lulu cautiously spoke up.

“So, if I marry Er, we can stay together?”

His lengthy explanation was quickly reduced to a single sentence by Lulu.

“…Yes.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Her response was unexpectedly quick and short compared to his serious explanation. It was he who asked for permission, yet Ervandas found himself at a loss for words.

“Lulu, please be a bit more serious…”

“You said that if we marry, Er will be mine, right?”

“Yes.”

“And I’ll be Er’s.”

“That’s correct.”

“And you said we have to stay together all the time? Eating together, bathing together, sleeping together.”

After saying that, Lulu turned serious and continued.

“That’s what I want most.”

“…”

“If Er will always be by my side, only look at me, and build a family with me, then that’s what I want. So, marry me.”

At those words, Ervandas felt an indescribable sensation rush down his throat, akin to warm water and bubbling lava. What was certain was that he was engulfed in that feeling.

It was he who courted her, yet suddenly it was she who proposed to him. Ervandas felt worried for the first time.

Thus, he wanted to bind Lulu to him in a more concrete way, according to his world.

With a ring in hand, Ervandas knelt before Lulu and took her right hand. Lulu looked at him curiously, following his lead.

“Lulu, I, Ervandas Richard Arsipen, request of you. Please grant me the privilege of walking beside you throughout the time bestowed upon us by God, as your companion.”

Ervandas’s words were the oldest form of marriage proposal in the kingdom. They conveyed a simple yet profound truth, encapsulating the fundamental concept of marriage and companionship.

Lulu’s face turned slightly awkward at his proposal. She whispered in a small voice.

“What should I say in response?”

“Just tell him that you accept his proposal.”

Upon hearing his guidance, Lulu’s face assumed a serious expression, extending her hand to Ervandas as if she were a king granting her a great favor.

“I, Lulu, accept Er’s proposal.”

Her voice attempted to mimic Ervandas’ tone from earlier, albeit somewhat clumsily.

When Lulu finished, he slipped the ring onto her finger. Then he handed Lulu the other ring.

“Put it on me too.”

Lulu took the larger ring he handed her and slipped it on his finger in the same position as hers. The rings fit their fingers snugly.

Seeing the matching rings on their hands, Lulu was delighted with a newfound sense of pride. Ervandas was a completely different human from her—a man from outside the forest. Unlike her small stature, he was tall, and unlike her late risings, he was active from dawn.

They had nothing in common, yet now they possessed something identical. 

Gazing at the ring on her finger for a while, Lulu turned her head.

“So the marriage is over, then?”

“Yes. Though it’s a short one.”

“Good. Then…”

Lulu hugged Er’s neck and whispered in his ear.

“Now, give me a child.”

“…!”