A Crown?

"Huaaa…!" Raymond yawned.

Vivian was taking her time to scrub his back. Even Jasmine wasn't this attentive when she was doing it for him.

Raymond turned around suddenly, splashing water everywhere. "How long are you going to keep doing that? I even finished washing my clothes, yet you're still not done."

"Tell me honestly, do you like washing my back that much?"

"Whaa— No!" Vivian took a step back. When he turned around abruptly, she wasn't alert, and that caused her face to be right in front of his face.

Their breaths were tickling each other as they spoke. Vivian's cheeks flushed red as she made some distance between them.

To be honest, she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing and was completely immersed in appreciating his lean and ripped body.

It was the first time she saw a man's body up close. It was so different from hers that she was curiously checking him out.

"You didn't say when to stop. That's why I kept washing your back. It's not like I like it or anything!" Vivian defended herself with a blush adorning her face.

"I am just doing this to repay you, alright?" She snapped. "Don't get any wrong ideas!"

"If you say so…" Raymond said, his voice thick with suspicion.

It seemed like another one was falling for his charms, but Raymond didn't seem to care about it for now since he was distracted by her twitching ears that were turning red from embarrassment.

They were a great source of amusement for Raymond, who had never found himself this close and intimate with an elf before.

Since she really wanted to show her gratitude and repay his favour, it wouldn't hurt to ask her to let him touch that pair of ears, right?

"Can I touch your ears?" Raymond asked with a straight face. If he appeared nervous it would only make things more awkward.

"Huh? Touch what?" Vivian asked, just in case she heard it wrong, though her body already knew what he had asked as her feet carried her to the edge of the pond without her knowledge.

Raymond cleared his throat and gently asked again:

"I am not satisfied with just getting a back scrub. If you want me to call it even, let me touch your ears."

"Hell no! Not in a million years…!" Vivian ran out of the pond screaming and didn't dare to look back at Raymond.

"Well… that went spectacularly." He chuckled dryly and got out of the pond but his hands were still itching to play with her ears.

It couldn't be helped. His curiosity was piqued. His mind turned to scenes of her face morphing in a spectrum of expressions.

Raymond started shaking and waving the wet, washed clothes at inhumane speed while cursing his curious mind for coming up with such strange thoughts.

He wrung the clothes to the point that all the water was squeezed out of it by the time he was done. He was very careful to avoid ripping them in the middle by using too much force.

These clothes were worth a gold coin each. If he ended up destroying them because he couldn't wait till they were dry, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

That was nothing short of a nightmare for him.

Raymond quickly wore the dried clothes and was about to go look for Vivian. She was still recovering from her previous exhaustion. It would be pretty bad if she ran into a strong magical beast.

"Aaaaa…!"

As if on cue, Vivian's high pitched cry reached his ears before he saw her running straight in his direction with her arms flailing around in fright.

"HUMAN…HELP!"

Vivian hurriedly ran past him and stopped dead in her tracks as if she realised something important.

That is, she had to stay with him if she wanted to live.

While crying internally about the situation she had found herself in, she turned around quickly and ran to Raymond's behind.

"Human, please help me," Vivian said, her voice easing somewhat now that she felt safe by hiding behind his back. "There are Treefolks in the forest!"

"Hell no! Not in a million years!" Raymond replied curtly, repeating her words for words.

"Waaa~ why are you so petty?" Vivian broke down into tears which only added to his amusement. She couldn't be blamed; it was her first time acting like a damsel in distress.

"My life is at stake here!"

Her palace was nearby— something she couldn't just abandon everything and run away from here. Who knows what these monsters might do to it if she didn't defend her home?

It was a gift from her grandfather. She would be sad if that cabin got destroyed by these rampaging Treefolks.

Her plan was to lead them all towards Raymond so that he could take care of them while she ran far away from here.

But she realised during her mid run that staying with him was the safest option she had at the moment. That's why she was putting on an act to ask for help.

"Hmph, I will only help if you let me touch your ears!" Raymond said seriously.

He tried to get away from her but Vivian was grabbing his freshly washed shirt in a death grip and wasn't willing to let go.

"You're heartless! Do you know what it means to touch my ears?" Vivian sobbed, her grip tightening on his shirt.

Raymond's brows furrowed in irritation. He clicked his tongue and was just about to knock her out when he heard the low rumbling sounds from the forest.

"KRAAA…!"

A deep thudding of footsteps echoed out followed by a shrill cry and Raymond looked around in surprise.

These tree monsters were really good at hiding. Not only these Treefolks, but even the Treemen were also no slouches when it came to using the trees around them to completely hide from others.

Raymond nodded in admiration as he saw several gigantic trees— some, as tall as 30 metres and some, as short as 15 metres— rushed out of the forest towards the pond where he was standing and let out a guttural roar.

It seemed they were really hungry as they showed their sharp, yellow teeth and licked their cracked lips with their long tongues.

Their roar seemed to have awakened something in the normal trees nearby as they started shaking in their roots before they detached themselves from the ground and started following the Treefolks.

"No, save me, human! They are going to eat me alive!"

Raymond's lips twitched as Vivian started to tug at his shirt furiously.

"Leave my shirt alone, will you?" Raymond snarled. His mana surged towards his glabella as he glared at the oncoming tree monsters.

"Fight between yourselves. I need to discuss something with this elf here!"

"Human, don't be delusional! They are monsters, why would they listen to your words? Just punch them already—"

Vivian's mouth clamped shut as Raymond turned towards her. She could see a faint shape of something akin to a majestic golden crown, that extended from the drop of mana on his forehead, adorning his head.

She could hear her heart throbbing loudly as the crown became more and more visible to her as she gazed at his head, wide eyed and utterly mesmerised.

Raymond looked like a king of heavens descended on earth in her eyes. There were simply no other words she could find to describe him.

-Thud! -Thud! -Thud!

Vivian blinked as she heard the sound of Treefolks being tackled to the ground by the very trees they had animated before and the crown on Raymond's head was gone.

Only a drop of mana remained between his eyebrows that proved she was not imagining things.

"How… How did you do it? Why are the trees obeying y-your commands?" Vivian stammered and subconsciously moved closer to him.

"Never mind that, now let me touch your ears or else I will release the Treefolks!" Raymond asked with no particular expression on his face.

"Y-you! Do you know the importance of touching an elf's ears?" Vivian asked.

"No, do tell me."

"Our ears are the only thing that physically distinguishes us from you humans and we are very proud of that fact. No one is allowed to touch them except our parents, spouse, and children…" Vivian paused and took a good look at Raymond.

She felt the butterflies fluttering their tiny wings in her stomach and lowered her head shyly.

"You will have to take responsibility if you want to touch my ears."

"Is that so…" Raymond shook his head.

"Do you still want to touch my ears?" Vivian asked, fiddling her fingers in nervous excitement.

"Too much trouble. Not interested anymore." Raymond flat out refused and started walking towards the fallen Treefolks that were struggling to get free from the trees that were holding them down.

"Uwaaa~ you're so mean!" Vivian dove towards his legs and grabbed his legs for dear life. "Why don't you want to touch them anymore?" She bawled.

'Because you're a drama queen.'

Raymond already had his hands full with Jasmine annoying him every second she was free.

He could already guess what kind of stunt Vivian would pull if he touched her ears.