They were walking for miles. They had just passed the kingdom borders and entered the monster zone, where every kingdom has equal access to it. The rain wasn't letting up and the deeper they got into the forest, the worse the rain got. They found a giant tree with a hollow inside and took shelter inside of it. It was quite a dry inside of the tree and spacious for temporary use. Akashi stuck his hand into a floating black hole and pulled out pre-lit firewood. They sat there in silence until Akashi broke the silence.
"Aren't you cold in those wet clothing? Sickness is a thing too, know?"
Her travel-ware is considerably soaked due to the heavy rain and she shot back
"What about you? Aren't you soaked too?"
"No, I changed out of my other tailcoat. They're just the same color."
She was stubborn about taking her soaked traveling clothes off but then Akashi quickly unbuttoned her clothes and threw them into the void and pulled out a heavy towel to serve as a dryer and a blanket at the same time.
"T-Thanks..."
"I don't want you to catch a cold on me, that would be even more bothersome."
They sat there in a bit more silence, then Akashi asked a question
"Namo, what is your true name?"
"What do you mean?"
She was looking at him as if she knew nothing but he got straight to the point
"Your true name is not Namo, it is a cover name, I know that much by now. So, if you don't mind me asking, what is your true name as a royal in Elfheim?"
She looked down and hesitated for a moment
"It's... Syvis... Syvis Elaris..."
This piqued his interest immediately. The king and queen of Elfheim have the family name of Elaris
"So you're a princess?"
She looked slightly annoyed
"Yes, I'm a princess. Does that matter?"
"Not really, it was good information though."
Not only did this calm her down, but she felt a bit relieved.
"I'm relieved to hear that... Most of the time, when people hear the name Elaris, people tend to straighten up and treat us like we are on display or something... they don't act like themselves..."
She looked down as she tried to clean her memories of those who were looking to take advantage of her royal status and getting chummy with the family until she felt a sharp flick on the head
"Ow!"
She looked at Akashi and was about to complain until she saw the soft smile he was wearing. This was the first time she saw it in the days she had spent with him, but that smile dropped in a few seconds.
"Don't expect any mercy from me, because there is no such thing in my vocabulary"
She rubbed her head and giggled a bit. They both were on the verge of aging to twenty. At this age, a princess needs to find a fiance and marry them to give birth to an heir. Unlike the fairy-tails that the humans tell of how elves are hundreds of years old. They have the same lifespan as humans in reality. Only some have the chance of surpassing the hundreds by hundreds, but those types of elves are rare.
This deep thinking reminded her about her early questions when she woke up in the morning
"Hey Akashi, how was I clean and dry with a new set of clothes on me when I woke up? How did my wound heal without any scarring or marks?"
He looked out to the rain
"To answer your second question, I have a certain type of magic that can heal large-scale wounds without leaving a scratch or scarring. The downside is that it takes a lot of time and I have to be next to them to recover them."
He gave an acquit enough explanation to her that she nodded in satisfactory and now she was worried about the answer to the first question
"What about the first question I asked?..."
Akashi was sweating bullets and his eyes dilated
"Don't get mad... but, I bathed and changed you."
"Eh?..."
This took her a moment to process and then she concluded. Her face was red as an apple
"S-S-So... y-you saw me naked?!"
He sighed
"Sorry but there was no other way to have you cleaned and clothed. Plus, you were out of it, how the hell are you going to wake up after being deprived of blood?"
He did have a point and they sat there in silence as she was silently screaming on the inside. It was at least five minutes until she broke the silence again, but this time, it was an unexpected question that Akashi did not account for.
"Thanks for taking care of me and all... but I have a question for you..."
Akashi picked up his jug of water
"Sure..."
"Did you find my body stimulating when you were bathing me?..."
Akashi was drinking at this point when she said her question. This caught him off guard and caused him to spit the water out
"PFFFT-..."
He wiped his mouth and looked at her in disbelief
"You're asking me that?!"
Both of them fell silent for a few seconds
"You know I lose either way I answer right?"
She was still looking at the ground and he sighed as he got up
"I would be lying if I don't find your body gorgeous, who wouldn't see the beauty of that? Though, that wasn't my priority at that moment. At least you kept your virtue."
He walked out to climb the tree and observe the area, while Syvis was sitting there all blushed up and pouted.
"Geez... how can he say that in such a straightforward manner..."
Despite how annoyed she sounded, she was smiling a bit
"Well... I'm glad he's like that... With those looks and attitude, I bet he can land any girl in the continent... Though I have to get married to a noble of the elf race anyways, or the king and queen would be upset... although it doesn't have to be an elf... I wish I could just marry the man I want!", she squeezed her legs in her arms as she thought of this.
This was the sad truth about her. She didn't get to decide on who her husband was going to be, her parents do. It was going to be royalty no matter what, and to her knowledge, all of the candidates are either too weak-willed or too caught up in their egotistical fantasies that they are the best of the best at everything they do. Her brother seems like the only male royalty who is levelheaded, but that is just wrong to think of a brother like that.
***
"ACHOO!"
A white-haired young man wiped his nose and looked out the window
"Is somebody talking about me behind my back?"