The Seed Thief - Vol. 1 Chapter 3.5

“…….”

“Hmm…”

“…….”

“Uhm.”

The witch tossed and turned several times, making noises, but she never opened her eyes. Ervandas was dumbfounded.

The sun had already risen high in the sky. It was undoubtedly past lunchtime. Yet there were no signs of the witch waking up.

“Did she stay awake all night?”

Either that or incredibly lazy.

Even so, could a human still sleep at this hour?

Throughout his life, nobody, except the sick or collapsed ones, had ever slept so late.

Regardless, the witch seemed like she would sleep much longer. Ervandas, pondering whether he should continue waiting, glanced at the book he had set beneath his feet before sitting down.

Due to his haste, the books were piled up messily. Ervandas stooped down and neatly stacked the books. He didn’t want to turn his head toward the witch, but the books were innocent.

After tidying up the books, he paused for a moment, stood up from his seat, picked them up, and placed them on the desk. He arranged them according to size.

“That’ll do.”

Just as he was about to sit back down on the chair after organizing a bundle of books, Ervandas saw another pile of books next to the desk. He hesitated for a moment before reaching out for those books.

Leaving this place was impossible anyway. If there was nothing to do, it seemed better to make some movements and try to accept the current situation. Above all, it was excessively dirty.

Tak tak tak. Wherever Ervandas’ hands passed, the stacked books were neatly arranged by size.

After organizing the books, Ervandas noticed feather pens, dried inkwells, crumpled old paper, and a finely sharpened lump of graphite. It seemed to be writing tools used by the witch. Ervandas gazed at them for a moment before reaching out his hand once more.

‘Is there such a thing as organized?’

Upon opening the desk drawer, an old wooden tray appeared. He had intended to put things in it, but after wiping the accumulated dust on it with his fingertips, he sighed.

To put things in something like this was no different from throwing trash into a garbage bin.

He searched for something to use as a mop, desperately ignoring Lulu, who snored loudly. Fortunately, he found a piece of cloth nearby that seemed slightly less dirty than what he had slept on. And there was water in a tin can.

Splash.

Dipping the cloth into the metal bucket and wringing it out, he put items aside and began to wipe the desk surface.

“Goodness…”

The spots the mop had passed revealed a completely different color. Dark and deep, the luxurious color of aged wood. To treat such furniture this casually. Ervandas clicked his tongue and kept working with his hands.

‘How much time has passed?’ Ervandas stopped his hand and looked at the living room.

The place resembled a decaying warehouse, was densely packed with stuff that he barely cleaned about half of the living room, despite his efforts for hours.

After his touch, the house, which was more chaotic than a pigsty, had transformed into a somewhat decent-looking home.

Properly arranged books on the bookshelf. A spacious desk with only a pen tray. Even the junk that littered the floor regained their identities as the dust had been wiped off, and placed in its proper places.

Even the folded carpet was neatly spread under the chair, and the cloth that seemed to have been hung up to block the cold was folded and placed on the floor because it seemed better to be washed once.

Observing the living room that had undergone a complete transformation compared to a few hours ago, he felt a sense of great accomplishment like never before.

The place he had lived until now was always well-organized. Even when he lived in the palace with many possessions, the servants cleaned and organized everything meticulously, leaving no speck of dust. During his time as a temple knight, the room contained no more than five simple and minimalist furniture, and his belongings did not exceed ten items.

It was so clean that no major change was noticed even after cleaning. So cleaning Lulu’s house brought him immense satisfaction beyond his expectations.

‘Somehow I feel proud…no, what am I thinking?’

To find pleasure in cleaning amidst this situation…He vigorously shook his head, suspecting that the witch’s curse had paralyzed his sanity.

Ervandas, after repeatedly glancing at the living room he had organized, instinctively walked toward the door with the desire to wash himself.

“Hmm?”

As he opened the front door, he realized that, unlike in the morning, there was no issue with him stepping outside.

“So, if I have no intention to leave, I can move freely.”

Ervandas clicked his tongue and listened to his surroundings. He could hear the sound of running water from a distance. It was unmistakably the sound of the stream that he had passed by on his way to this house.

He headed toward the stream with an old cloth in his arms. For now, the witch or whatever, he just wanted to wash away the sweat and dust that dirtied his body. He also needed to wash the mop and discard the dirty water.

When Ervandas reached that point, he realized what he had been thinking and grew serious.

Wasn’t the witch’s curse meant to enslave him from deep within his consciousness? Otherwise, how could he even think about cleaning in this situation?

“I need to gather my thoughts.”

With that in mind, Ervandas picked up the mop and water bucket and began to walk.

***

“Yaaawn…”

Lulu let out a long yawn, stretching herself awake. The warm afternoon sunlight, almost bordering on hot, bathed her back.

She had definitely felt the satisfaction of sleeping curled up in a warm blanket all night, but now she felt empty. Why was that?

Rubbing her swollen eyes, Lulu looked around, searching for the reason behind her emptiness. Suddenly, her drowsy eyes widened.

“W-What’s going on?”

Trembling like someone who had witnessed the most terrifying thing in the world, Lulu quickly got up from her spot.

Where am I? The ceiling and windows were unmistakably those of her long-lived home, but the living room looked completely unfamiliar.

“Why the…Huh? It’s gone?”

Stumbling backward, Lulu screamed upon realizing that Ervandas, whom she had hugged while sleeping last night, had disappeared. Just then, a shadow cast on the window. When the golem leaned its face in, Lulu hurriedly inspected its fist in case there stuck Er’s blood. Fortunately, the golem’s fist was clean.

But that wasn’t something to feel relieved about.

“Golem! Where is Er!”

The golem pointed toward a section of the forest and mimicked wiping its body with its hand. He’s washing himself.

Lulu pressed her pounding heart upon seeing the Golem’s actions.

“I got scared, thinking he had gone.”

Lulu thought her magic had worn off quickly, causing him to flee. But if he went to bathe…She sighed and looked at the living room once again.

The forest witch who raised Lulu wasn’t good at organizing either. Her excuse was, ‘I used to do it when I was young but as I grew older, it’s bothersome’. So Lulu had never seen this house looking neat and tidy.

“This is what my house looks like.”

She constantly bumped into piles of books as she walked. If she didn’t hear the creaking sound under her steps, she wouldn’t even know whether the floor was wood or stone.

Lulu stood dumbfounded, staring at the living room that looked completely different. She could tell who had done this without asking. Er.

“Amazing!”

Lulu puffed out her chest as if she had done the cleaning herself, making her body even more visible beneath the thin clothes. Of course, Lulu paid no mind at all.

“I caught him after all…… No, it’s the human I brought!”

The stone golem shrugged its shoulders at Lulu’s shout. Yes, yes, of course.

Lulu had thought he was only tall and pretty, but to possess such incredible skills. If Er were here in front of her, she wanted to kiss his face all over, just like the forest witch had done to her before.

Filled with excitement, Lulu, who was about to go find Er, stopped in her tracks and patted her body. Due to sleeping in Er’s embrace despite the heat last night, she had sweated. Furthermore, there were traces of drool around her mouth.

After a moment of thought, Lulu rushed back to her room and grabbed the soap she had found yesterday. Ignoring the golem’s questioning gaze, she dashed toward the direction the golem had pointed, her thin clothes fluttering in the wind.

I need to wash! And I need to wash Er too!

***

“Hoo…”

Ervandas let out a contented sigh as he sat slightly deep in the stream, shaded by big trees. The clear, cold water cleansed his body of sweat and dust. With each splash, his previously confused mind seemed to regain clarity.

Scooping up the flowing water to wash his face, he looked at the glistening ripple of the stream a bit farther and thought.

‘Beautiful.’

When studying doctrine in the temple, the high priest told the knights to imagine the paradise that would await them one day. Each time, Ervandas painted a landscape. A deep forest untouched by human presence.

The scenery before him now resembled the paradise he had always envisioned. From perching on branches, beautiful birds singing with lovely voices to squirrels busily scurrying around nearby, collecting fruits.

Truly, if you removed just one thing, it would be a perfect paradise.

“Haa…….”

Thinking of that one thing, a sigh resembling a lament escaped his lips.

“The witch.”

How to break the witch’s curse, and what to do with her afterward? More importantly, why did she bring him here?

‘Whatever the reason, the events of last night absolutely cannot be repeated.’

A shiver ran down Ervandas’ spine at the memory of last night. The carnal torturing of the night before had muddled his mind. But more than that, what bothered him was the fact that what he felt after the witch’s act wasn’t just unpleasant.

‘Why…….’

Ervandas’ hand unknowingly moved downward. Unlike last night, it had regained its usual form, gently swaying in the clear water.

He stared at it for a long time. What did the witch say? Big and pretty…….

At that moment, from a distance, the voice he least wanted to hear reached his ears.

“Er!”

“……!”

Alarmed, Ervandas lifted his head. And there, he saw Lulu running through the forest, her thin clothes billowing in the wind.

“That witch!

What frightened him more than the fact the witch was approaching him was she wore nothing more than undergarments.

“I’ll wash you!”

He wanted to yell at her to get rid of that filthy body.

“Thank you, master.”

He replied courteously, uttering words completely contrary to his thoughts as the witch’s curse still lingered on him.

‘What is there to be grateful for? Rather than that, being washed?’ As Ervandas panicked, splash! Water sprayed with a loud sound. Lulu, who had jumped into the deep, approached Ervandas with a big smile.

The sight of her fluttering toward him froze him in place. When he woke up in the morning, he thought her attire was very sloppy. However, now, with the thin fabric clinging to Lulu’s body, soaked in water, Ervandas couldn’t catch his breath for a moment.

In the morning, only the contours of her body were faintly visible. But now everything was vivid. Splash. Splash. He couldn’t take his eyes off Lulu as she cut through the water at a brisk pace.

Her slender figure, along with her ample bosom, extended down to the triangle between her thighs. The body beneath the damp fabric, though obscured, ignited one’s imagination even more than complete nudity.

Ervandas’s face flushed instantaneously. Since when had he become so imaginative? As if he possessed the ability to see beneath her garments, Lulu’s approaching body was vividly portrayed in his mind.