The Seed Thief

More than that…

“…now you don’t even sleep with me.”

If Ervandas heard, he might have jumped up, worried someone would misunderstand. But it was true. For the past few days, Ervandas had been saying it was too hot and pushing Lulu away to her room. Despite Lulu’s repeated objections, Ervandas remained resolute.

She briefly considered ordering him to stay but realized doing so would only confirm to Er the ongoing weakening of her magic.

And this morning, Ervandas spoke to Lulu as if he had made a great decision.

“You’ll be out all day today.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to clean your room.”

Lulu’s bedroom was the last area of the house untouched by Ervandas.

Strangely, as the house got cleaner, Lulu felt a growing unease. She sensed that once the entire house was spotless, Ervandas, who would spend the whole day cleaning, would have no further reason to stay here.

‘So I insisted he shouldn’t touch my room…’

She repelled, but Ervandas ignored her disapproval as if it was out of the question. He handed Lulu the food prepared at dawn, wrapped in cloth, ushering her outside and shutting the door.

Seeing the door slam shut before her, Lulu turned around and walked away without knocking on it to ask to be let in.

As if sensing Lulu’s distress, the stone golem and bone crow waddled after her in tow.

In the past, she might have wandered all over the forest, but now Lulu found it rather dull.

‘I should have simply agreed to sit still and observe…’

Perhaps, if Er had let her be inside, she could’ve observed his movements. Watching him would be more interesting than wandering the forest.

Unable to find elsewhere to go, Lulu headed to the stream. Laying in the shade, listening to the flowing water, she soon felt hungry and unwrapped the cloth Ervandas had handed her. Inside was a wooden bowl containing boiled potatoes and wild fruits he had picked near the house.

As Lulu ate, she soon covered it up.

“Tasteless.”

The food tasted good when eating with Er, so why was this so bland?

Lulu handed the lunchbox to the stone golem sitting beside her and ordered.

“Take this back to Er.”

But the stone golem swung its head sharply, ‘Don’t want to. Too bothersome.’

“Hey.”

“…….”

When Lulu called the stone golem again, it did not respond. She looked at the bone crow. Just like the stone golem, the bone crow turned its head and ignored her.

“These guys are really…”

Lulu’s eyes perked up for the first time in a while. Only when Lulu spoke in a harsh voice did the stone golem and the bone crow finally look at her.

“Quickly bring this back and come back!”

As Lulu placed the lunchbox in the stone golem’s hand, the golem seemed to sigh, slumping its shoulders and lightly tapping the bone crow with its other hand. ‘What are you doing? Hurry up and go.’

The bone crow squawked, flapping its bony wings at the stone golem’s gesture. ‘What? I need to go too?’

When the golem made a fist as if to say, ‘Wanna fight?’ The crow grumpily kicked at the ground before going with the stone golem.

As the stone golem and the bone crow disappeared, Lulu confirmed they were out of sight and quickly walked in the opposite direction of her house.

After walking for a while, she leaned against a large tree and deeply breathed.

“Haah.”

A long sigh escaped. These days, Lulu’s mind had been complex all day long. The magic will soon dissolve. Then what should she do now?

‘I could cast the magic again, but…’

However, Lulu shook her head. Repeatedly casting mental magic had a high probability of permanently damaging the target’s mind.

She wanted to keep Er, but causing him harm or becoming abnormal was absolutely no.

‘Er is a good person.’

He cleaned the house, fixed things for her, and often made delicious food. Moreover, he found needles and thread from somewhere and neatly repaired the old clothes in the house, even adjusting them to fit Lulu’s body.

‘Er’s family must be waiting for him.’

So, she should send him back…

‘The seed.’

Lulu finally recalled why she brought Er there in the first place—a long time ago. The human seed. If she could obtain that, then she could send Er back.

Lulu contemplated how on earth she would get it from Er. Then, her eyes slowly closed due to the refreshing breeze.

How much time had passed? Lulu heard the sound of rustling, hopping around her. When she opened her eyes, she saw a scarecrow jumping around her.

‘How long did I sleep?’

The sky was turning orange in the distance. Realizing she had slept longer than she thought, Lulu abruptly stood up.

“Dinner time!”

Er was strict on mealtimes. He insisted on eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at fixed times. And if she missed those times, he would nag her ears off about living more diligently and disciplined.

As if its purpose was to find Lulu, upon seeing her awaken, the scarecrow leaped into the forest and disappeared.

Left alone once again, Lulu walked toward the direction she had come from. But after not too long, she heard a strange sound coming from the forest.

“Hmph, hmph, uggh, hngh!”

“……?”

A man’s voice, but it wasn’t Er’s.

“Could it be a villager?”

But people from the village wouldn’t come this far. Could it be an occasional wanderer who had lost their way in the forest?

Piqued by curiosity, Lulu held her breath and headed toward the source of the sound. As she walked a bit further, she caught sight of a man standing among the bushes.

“Uh, uh!”

The man stood there, with pants lowered, shaking his hands. With each movement of his small hand, the meager penis would briefly appear and then disappear.

Lulu observed and thought.

‘It’s different from Er’s.’

She had thought all human male genitals looked the same, but the one he was holding was so different.

First of all, they were different in size. Er’s was long enough to be held in his large hand, while the man’s was half that length or perhaps even less.

The next difference was the color.

‘Er’s has a pretty color, but what’s wrong with that one?’

The one the man was holding had a mixture of black and dull red. Not only his penis but also the testicles hanging beneath had a weird, unnatural color. Lulu frowned.

Surprised by the difference in size and color, Lulu continued to observe the man’s actions.

The man, making thudding noises as he masturbated, trembled and let out a final moan. Soon after, a sticky white liquid dripped from his hand. Lulu closely observed that sight.

With curiosity shining in her eyes, Lulu heard a rustling sound from behind. Startled, she turned around, only to see the scarecrow sprinting past her toward the man.

“Ahhhh! What, what is it?”

The man screamed in surprise as the scarecrow suddenly popped out. He tried to run but got his ankle caught in his pants, causing him to stumble and fall.

“Scarecrow, you!”

Annoyed by her scarecrow startling the man, Lulu yelled. But the scarecrow just flinched, then ran off as if not hearing anything.

Watching the scarecrow getting farther away, Lulu sighed and then approached the man.

‘It would be troublesome if he gets hurt here.’

Lulu stood next to the man sprawled on the ground. She frowned again as she looked down at the man’s thing.

‘Not pretty.’

It was unappealing from afar, but up close, it was even worse. And it wasn’t solely because the man’s thing was short and unattractive.

‘Smell.’

A sour stench emanated from the fallen man. The smell one would get when sweating in summer and not changing clothes in a very long time, plus the stench of filth. Moreover, there was a smell of the alcohol from the heavy drinking.

Lulu took a step back from the man, repulsed by the subtle mixture of various odors. At that moment, the man groaned and struggled to rise. Seeing that he wasn’t dead and appeared capable of standing on his own, Lulu felt relieved and was about to turn away. If she stayed, he would probably run away screaming like the other villagers.

“Wait! Hold on! You, you’re the forest witch!”

The man urgently called out to Lulu, and she turned to him with a puzzled look.

The villagers usually cursed and ran away when they saw her, so it was strange that this man was calling out to her, knowing who she was. Lulu blinked in confusion at something that happened for the first time. The man hastily pulled up his pants. He looked at Lulu, who was staring at him and thought.

‘Is this… girl an idiot?’

The man recalled the words of his mother, who used to take ore from the forest witch. She had said that if you treated her well, she would be obedient and cooperative. She had also mentioned that the forest witch seemed stupid.

Initially, he had doubted those words, but now, seeing Lulu, he realized his mother’s words were true.

He was fully exposed, and not just that. Just a moment ago, he was soothing his angry bottom. If it were the women of the village, they would have screamed or wielded a club, berating him for engaging in filthy acts.

However, the forest witch was neither of those. She merely glanced at him with a slightly furrowed face before turning away. It was an indifferent gaze.

‘That was unexpected.’

Faced with an unfamiliar reaction, the man was perplexed and pondered how he should act.

‘Anyway, I have to hold onto her.’

Over the past few weeks, the man had roamed the forest after selling the ores entrusted to him by his mother. How could only his mother benefit from it? He had to obtain even bigger and better ores than his mother had received from the forest witch.

However, since that night, not a single strand of her hair had been seen. Even his mother expressed her worry with a concerned voice, saying, “She hasn’t been absent for this long… Could she have died alone in the forest?”

Of course, it wasn’t the witch herself that his mother was worried about. Her concern was solely about the money she had been receiving from the witch.

The man, too, was impatient and ventured deep into the forest where he wouldn’t normally go. It didn’t matter to him whether the witch was alive or dead.

If she were alive, he could sweet-talk her and obtain something valuable that could be turned into money. And if she were dead, he would gather whatever she had in her possession.

‘But she’s alive.’

Now, he had to coax and appease the witch, making her develop a fondness for him.

‘Coincidentally, I have something to offer her.’

She was a witch who would even appreciate cheap bread. In that case, she might like what he had in his pocket.

It was then Lulu asked him a question.

“What were you doing?”

“…What?”

“A little while ago, you were grabbing your genitals and shaking them.”

It was the man who felt embarrassed by Lulu’s casual remark. Then, he became certain of something from her words. This witch was ignorant about sexual intercourse between men and women.

‘Good, she’ll be easy to trick.’

The man’s gaze quickly scanned Lulu. The last time he had seen her, it was a dark night, and her long hair had made her look like a wild beast. But now, as he looked at her under the light, she possessed a more impressive appearance than he had imagined.

Though the red color was unpleasant, her hair was lustrous, and her eyes were round and gleaming. Below her prominent nose, her red lips made his mouth salivate involuntarily.

The witch’s face, which had been partly hidden by her hair before, appeared quite youthful and adorable.

‘The village women can’t even compare to her.’