A voice suddenly rang out with no warning.
Garde, who was busy washing clothes, was taken by surprise, and the clothes in his hands were swept away by the river.
Seeing this, Garde's heart sank. When Gavial came back and saw the clothes were gone, she would definitely scold him. Getting scolded was one thing, but ruining the clothes while washing them would be even worse. It could lead to misunderstandings.
With these thoughts in mind, Garde didn't hesitate and dashed towards the river.
The water wasn't deep, and he could still catch up to the drifting clothes.
However, before he could even jump into the water, he saw that all the clothes that had been carried away were retrieved.
"Ta-da! Mr. Crocodile, did you lose this boot, or this stocking?"
The clothes disappeared, but in their place, Garde found a boot and a stocking in front of him.
A white-haired river goddess stood on the water, her left hand holding the boot, and her right hand holding the stocking. Her crimson eyes looked seductively at Garde, blinking enchantingly.
But Garde noticed that the clothes that were about to be carried away by the water were now under the feet of the white-haired girl, floating in the direction of the current.
Garde's heart was relieved.
Garde asked, "Laurentina, why are you here? Isn't your home far from here?"
Standing on the river's surface, the white-haired girl wore form-fitting clothes that accentuated her curves. Her long white hair cascaded behind her, sprinkled with dewdrops brought up from the water.
"Mr. Crocodile, you haven't answered my question yet," Laurentina said, looking at Garde reproachfully, as if scolding him for being crude and lacking manners.
'Can I have both?' Garde mumbled in his mind, staring at the boot and stocking in Laurentina's hands. It was clear that they had just been taken off.
This was evident from Laurentina's bare feet.
Dancing gracefully in the rushing river, the girl standing on the water's surface wasn't affected by the river's flow. Instead, the water seemed to follow her rhythm, creating a harmonious and melodic dance.
"My teacher always told me, 'Laurentina, when you dance, you must keep the rhythm, take light steps, and be careful not to throw your partner out.'"
"But I won't become a dancer in the future. My tribe members love dancing, and she often invites me."
"She's my boss."
The girl dancing on the water's surface looked like a noble lady.
Such girls couldn't be raised in the hot and humid rainforest.
So, the girl must have come from a very distant place. Garde knew that to the south of the rainforest was the sea, separated by vast rifts and cliffs.
No one living in the rainforest had seen the sea.
But Laurentina claimed to have come from the south, from the sea.
Garde asked, "How long is your vacation this time?"
Garde sat on the water, and his large figure resembled a mountain.
In comparison, Laurentina's physique was genuinely petite.
It seemed as though Garde could hold her in his hand with just an open palm. Although Laurentina was above average when compared to other girls.
"It's unfair. Won't you ever doubt it?" The girl complained, showing that she didn't recall ever revealing whether her boss was a man or a woman.
"This time, it's just a stopover for rest. My captain and teammates are still waiting for me."
Laurentina took off her belt, removed the other boot from her foot, and put on the stocking, all while asking, "Mr. Crocodile, do you really not want my stocking?"
Sometimes, Garde couldn't help but wonder if the reason girls around him never seemed to mind whatever he did was because his appearance had no resemblance to humans.
From the toe to the ankle, up the calf, over the knee, into the thigh, and to the shapely buttocks, whether intentionally or not, the flesh-colored black stockings gradually climbed upwards. It was as if they were scaling a perilous peak.
Every centimeter the stocking rose, it felt like something in Garde's heart shifted a centimeter, and his rationality was stretched to the limit, like an overextended rubber band.
Garde could only flee.
But when he stopped, the image of Laurentina putting on stockings involuntarily appeared in his mind.
Garde quickly picked up the waterproof box he had placed behind the rock. "Laurentina, this is what we agreed on last time."
As Laurentina had said, in their area, finding suitable wood for carving wasn't easy. So, the last time they parted ways, he promised to prepare some practice wood for her the next time they met.
However, when Garde turned around, he saw Laurentina had already finished putting on the stockings.
The girl bent over, pulled the stocking cuffs over her hips, and gave a playful pat. "Thank you, Mr. Crocodile, or should I say, Teacher Garde?"
Taking the waterproof box from Garde, which wasn't too heavy and wouldn't hinder her movements, she must have known Garde had taken into consideration her ease of carrying the wood. For Laurentina, wood carving was a novel craft because in her underwater world, stone carving dominated, followed by jade carving and clay sculpting.
In her youth, Laurentina had dreamed of becoming a sculptor but ended up becoming an Abyssal Hunter when she was summoned. She never thought she would have the chance to practice sculpture again.
That changed when, on one hunting expedition during a storm, she became separated from her team and found a crocodile resting by a rock. Initially, she had considered it just another land-dwelling creature, a potential source of food to replenish her energy.
To her surprise, the crocodile turned out to be an intelligent being, similar to herself.
Had all land-dwelling people looked like this?
Years passed, and the stranded baby shark grew into a young woman, while the young crocodile also grew up. Now, she couldn't even reach the crocodile's chin by tiptoeing.
"I've accepted the wood, Mr. Crocodile. I promise to create sculptures that satisfy me next time we meet."
"Are you leaving already?"
"Oh, are you going to miss me? But I didn't expect to see you again. If you hadn't stayed here waiting for me, our meetings would have been destined to end in tragedy. Isn't that romantic?"
With each step, Laurentina retreated into the deeper part of the river, waving goodbye with a few small, sharp teeth visible in her smile.
"I'm not lying, my captain is still waiting for me."
"Swimming from a few hundred kilometers away is exhausting, especially when going against the waterfall. I thought I might fall to my death every time."
"Sometimes I wonder, why is it always me who comes to find you, Mr. Crocodile, and not the other way around? Hehe, you don't even know where my home is."
No, he does know.
Garde waved goodbye as Laurentina disappeared into the water. Garde felt a strange emptiness in his heart.
He patted his crocodile face and didn't think too much about it. Laurentina and he were probably friends, but since their first meeting, three years had passed, and they hadn't seen each other that often.
Each time Laurentina stayed for no more than half a day, and occasionally, like this time, they met briefly and then parted ways. Who knows when they could meet again? Perhaps the next one would be in a month, perhaps two?
Turning around to walk back to the shore, Garde didn't notice a female figure quietly approaching him.
Then—
Splash!
As the sound of water splash reached his ear, Garde felt something soft planted to the side of his cheek.
He looked at Laurentina, who is now swimming away in the water after giving him a peck on the cheek, but by the time he's about to call her, she's already gone.
Garde continued to stare at the water for a moment, before a smile appeared on his face.
He was already looking forward to their next meeting.