Night had fallen deep.
Moonlight poured down, spreading like still water over the Turg Mountains, adding a trace of sorrow to these ancient and mysterious peaks.
Nia sat on a familiar old tree branch, her hands tightly clasped together, her slender body supported by faith and belief.
“Great Elven God Yudia, if your mercy still lingers in this world, please help your child who has suffered so much… I beg you to hear my rude plea…”
Nia’s eyes were tightly shut, the light shining on her delicate nose tip, solemn and devout like an angel fallen into the mortal world.
A faint sound of water suddenly echoed without warning.
Nia opened her eyes in surprise, but what she saw was disappointment.
The one responding to her was not Yudia, but El.
El had appeared beneath the tree at some unknown time, holding a wooden bucket, scooping water from a full basin, and pouring bucket after bucket over himself.
No need to say, Nia knew exactly what he was doing.
Interrupted like this, her prayer had to be forcibly stopped.
Forget it, she’d continue somewhere else.
With that decision made, Nia stood up from the branch.
She had intended to just jump down, but then realized that El was bathing.
It felt a bit awkward to leave like this.
Better to wait until he finished.
The continuous splashing of water repeatedly struck Nia’s eardrums, inexplicably stirring a chaotic feeling in her heart.
El was definitely the most hygiene-conscious person she had ever met—how could a bath take this long?
Every second she waited felt like a century.
After an unknown length of time, the water sounds finally stopped beneath the tree.
Overjoyed, Nia lowered her gaze—and then saw a scene too shameful to behold.
Who bathes without clothes on!
Her breath caught, but her eyes seemed nailed to the sight, unable to look away.
Nia was so absorbed that she didn’t even notice her footing giving way.
When she came to her senses, she had already fallen from the tree.
It hurt—that was her first reaction.
It’s over—that was her second.
Was this divine punishment from Yudia for what she did last night?
Why did such bad luck always follow her?
“Nia?”
Countless water droplets trickled down El’s damp hair.
He brushed the dripping hair back, then looked down at Nia sprawled on the ground.
“I’m not Nia,” she buried her head low and lowered her voice.
“You have the wrong person.”
“Didn’t expect you to be such a joker, Nia,” El said as he reached out a hand toward the fallen Nia. “Get up quickly, don’t lie on the ground. It’s cold, and the floor is chilly.”
Still holding the same posture, El stretched out his hand toward her.
The warmth from him steamed her face red.
She didn’t take his hand, instead getting up on her own.
“If you wanted to watch me bathe, you could have just said so,” El withdrew his hand, squinting and smiling. “No need to sneak around.”
“Who’s sneaking around to watch you?”
Nia tried her best to stay calm.
“I just happened to come across it by accident.”
“Fine, but if it was an accident, why didn’t you come out earlier? Why did you wait until I was almost done?”
“I was thinking about other things and didn’t notice,” Nia blushed and looked everywhere but at him, her gaze darting between earth and sky. “But you—why are you sneaking around outside the house to bathe in the middle of the night?”
El’s voice remained casual as always: “If I don’t bathe at night, should I bathe in front of you two women during the day?”
“Well, if you don’t mind, then I’ll bathe during the day from now on. You’ve already seen me clean anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you see me a few more times.”
“You dare!”
“Day or night, if you don’t let me bathe then I guess I’m not bathing at all, huh?”
As he spoke, El suddenly seemed to remember something and scanned Nia from head to toe.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you and Meira bathe before.”
He wore a look of disgust.
“Elves don’t bathe, do they?”
“You never change your clothes either. Don’t tell me…”
Nia glared at him, teeth clenched. “If you say one more word of nonsense, I swear you won’t see the sun tomorrow morning.”
“Then why don’t you tell me how you bathe?”
“You put your clothes on first.”
Nia raised her hand to block her eyes. She felt like she could barely breathe.
“You didn’t mind this before, right?” El pulled on his underwear and muttered, “Just a few days ago you were so… um… carefree. Why are you so shy now?”
“Cut the nonsense and hurry up!” Nia urged.
A few days ago, the curse on her body hadn’t taken effect yet, so she naturally didn’t care about this.
Now, with the curse’s influence, such an impact nearly made her faint.
“Sigh, I really don’t understand women.”
After quickly putting on his clothes, El looked at Nia again.
“Now can you tell me?”
“Of course we bathe, but since there’s no proper place outside, we usually use magic.”
Once he was fully dressed, Nia raised her hand, and a sphere of water formed on her right palm.
She controlled the sphere, moving it to her left arm.
“By adding wind magic into water magic, you can achieve cleansing.”
“Washing clothes is a similar principle—after cleaning, using wind magic alone can quickly dry them.”
“No way, that’s so convenient,” El stared at the water sphere and then asked another question. “Can that really get things clean?”
“If you don’t believe me, bring me some clothes and I’ll wash them for you.”
El thought for a moment and then tentatively asked.
“I have a lot of clothes to wash. Can you help me with them?”
“You just bring them over.”
El’s face broke into a smile that said, “Is there really such a good thing?” He turned and ran back to his room.
When he came back out, his hands were already full of clothes.
“Are all these to be washed?” Nia’s mouth twitched.
“Yeah.”
El showed no embarrassment; he confidently dumped the clothes in front of Nia.
“Your job now, my dear.”
Nia stared silently at the pile of clothes on the ground for a moment, then gathered a larger water sphere in her hand.
She pushed the water sphere to hover in front of her and began tossing the clothes one by one into it.
These were all the recently worn clothes El had used. While silently cursing his laziness, Nia’s attention was drawn to a pair of pants she had seen one night before.
At first, Nia thought she was mistaken, but when she pulled the pants out from the pile, she realized it was no illusion.
Her expression shifted instantly, and El’s face mirrored disbelief.
“You want me to wash that too?”
“It’s not like I’m hand-washing it,” El patted Nia’s shoulder. “Since you’re using magic to wash clothes, one more piece shouldn’t be a problem, right?”