After a long effort, Eleazar finally untied the strand of hair that was tied in a dead knot.
Relieved, the freed hands shifted positions.
Fina only whimpered and buried her face into the pillow, biting down on the pillowcase.
A gasp hidden in the countryside chirping of insects gently stirred the night, and it was a long time before everything fell into place...
Fina curled up in his arms with tears in the corners of her eyes.
Gently stroking that smooth spine, Eleazar subconsciously tightened his arms again, and suddenly it felt like he was hugging the world.
That spurt of reassurance finally squelched the feeling of sadness that hadn't known where to start.
"Don't you meditate anymore?"
Fina quietly lifted her head from his arms.
Eleazar pressed against her forehead and silently spoke the truth, "I've been so rambunctious lately that I can't settle down to meditate."
Is it the aftermath of that spell from the witch?
Fina thought thoughtfully for a moment, then pressed her face against the chest that was emitting a strong heartbeat.
"Then go to sleep~"
"Uh..."
...
Late at night, there were suddenly a few more scents in the room.
Next to their bunks on the ground, inexplicably, sat a few men, their gazes incomparably greedy and full of primal desire.
Fina was awakened if anything, and with a flutter of her eyelashes, she was ready to open her eyes.
But just then, the arm around her body tightened, and the warm palm gently patted her bare back.
"Mmmm~" Fina gave a dreamy cry, shrinking back under the covers.
Eleazar, who had sensed the intrusion, silently twirled the silver ring on his finger.
There was a slight vibration coming from the floor, and the three seemed to be very full of annoyance as they walked around their beds, as if they wanted to do something but were trying to suppress it.
It wasn't until the sudden howling of wolves outside the village that the men quickly jumped away from the balcony.
"These people, they aren't afraid to die..."
Eleazar sat up with a cold face.
As the covers were lifted off the corner, a shocking snow-white bloomed around them.
White crystalline skin is covered with a layer of bright moonlight, black silky hair like a waterfall spread, slightly sideways body, arm powerless blocked in front of the chest, that absolutely beautiful face is full of pouting at the moment.
Those trash have no business watching, not even the dying.
If he hadn't had to protect Fina, he would have gotten up and sliced the heads off all of those guys with a knife.
Turning back and tucking the covers in, Eleazar draped a shirt over his head and walked out to the balcony, gazing indifferently into the distance.
It was assumed that the blood had not been cleaned up properly during the day and had attracted the prying eyes of hungry wolves at night.
Returning to his room, he sat down quietly beside his bed and rubbed the head that was scrunched up under the covers as he spoke softly:
"It's okay, go back to sleep."
"Oh~"
Having been provoked to kill, Eleazar found himself able to meditate instead.
The snow goblin inside had no intention of getting up and getting dressed either, so he meditated and guarded it for the rest of the night.
...
The next day, visitors to Silver Pine Village woke up.
Everyone didn't seem to notice at all, that they were almost eaten last night, and continued to talk and laugh and greet each other when they came downstairs.
"Hey, where are those two vegetarians?"
"They said they would sleep some more and come down later."
"Geez, these two don't have any manners at all."
The people had no intention of waiting for those two, and after breakfast, they wandered around the village.
The man with the video camera kept filming the scenery around him.
The village in the early morning, covered by a light white mist, a wet wooden bridge flooded with morning dew, surrounded by all the green lotus leaves, serene, peaceful, and beautiful.
"How strange, doesn't this village even raise some livestock?"
A female looked strangely at the quiet village.
"This place, it should be good for ducks."
In the morning mist, sparse figures were walking back and forth, not knowing what kind of farm work they were doing.
A villager passing by with a water basin smiled and spoke to them.
"Because there are piranhas kept under the water. Oh, the ducks are all eaten up."
"Haha, how can that be, how can there be piranhas in a river pond."
One of the tourists laughed and retorted, but saw that the villager was still smiling and didn't seem to be joking.
Everyone's faces slowly stiffened, and a person who was crouching by the bridge, trying to reach out and lift the lotus leaves, even retracted his hand in fear.
"Haha, just kidding with you guys."
The villagers slowly raised the corners of their mouths like a prank, "We stopped farming a long time ago because the livestock would defecate everywhere affecting the aesthetics."
"Whew, that scared me."
"Nasty, how can you joke about that."
"Excuse me, excuse me, and to apologize, let me show you around." The villagers put down the water basin.
Visitor: "Huh? Is that okay, won't it interfere with your work?"
"We don't have much farming here, and our main livelihood is hosting you tourists."
That villager showed the excited group around.
First, we came to a round platform connected to eight wooden bridges, "This is our slaughtering platform, whenever we hunt big game, we will slaughter it here in public."
"Well, it's a bit bloody."
"It's normal, we also have a crowd around us when we kill a pig back home."
Visitors nodded and commented before moving on to the next one.
"This is our village shopping street, this is the kiosk, and now and then we send someone to town to get some trendy new goods."
"This is the souvenir store, all the little things we handcrafted."
"This is the herb store, where all kinds of plants are picked from the forest, and every year merchants from out of town specialize in buying them."
"It's a hunter's lodge, processing all sorts of leather, and all sorts of little wild pets."
"This is the registration office, if you want to participate in our hunting or medicine-picking activities, come here and apply, or if you want to go into the forest and play you have to come and apply as well, and we'll send out guides and hunters to accompany you all..."
The three remaining tourists around the villagers looked up at a large bell outside the registration office.
Everyone else had already dispersed to the store to pick up their favorites.
The villager smiled and said, "This clock is hundreds of years old, and I heard that it has been hanging here since my grandfather's generation."
"Rin, guess who I am~"
A tourist, wearing a wolf's head mask, sneaks out of the hunter's lodge, finds his girlfriend, who is looking at trinkets at a stand outside the house, and gently taps the back of his shoulder.
"Ah!!!"
Girlfriend looked back and realized it was a hideous wolf's head, She was really frightened, subconsciously closed her eyes and stretched out her hands to push hard.
The man was caught off guard and pushed to the edge of the pool of water, his body staggering a few times as he tried to regain his balance.
"Pfft~"