This was all she could think of, not giving her anything in mind that was fit to appease Ethan's heart, or that was able to improve his condition, Riveria sighed for the umpteenth time, and with her hands having an almost imperceptible flicker, she reciprocated the strange embrace in which Ethan had f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y wrapped her...
But it didn't shake Ethan at all, at the moment too focused on trying to keep his emotions at bay. They were strong, so strong that they were almost able to pull his heart out of his c.h.e.s.t, and even if something like this happened, he was convinced he still wouldn't understand. This was the level of the feeling at which Ethan was undergoing, an 'intense pressure that didn't allow him to think straight, with the only objective remaining fixed being to express and pull out everything he had held back until now.
Riveria had sensed that if she would let him, Ethan would keep talking and try to express these feelings that enveloped his heart in a mixture of happiness and sadness, and although Riveria knew practically nothing about his past, a reaction so strong could only leave its mark in his mind, it could only be a trauma.
By the time Ethan entered his Familia, having forced Loki, a Goddess of her degree, to bargain with a little boy, Riveria in her heart had already fully asserted the view that Ethan was someone with unique potential, that he was someone who could close a contract with Loki so easily, in other words, anything but an ordinary person.
If he had even forbidden his goddess, the person to whom he could confide more than anyone else, to know his past, Riveria was convinced there could be two reasons for this, either his past could be a part of him that Ethan didn't want to remember, or the past was something so unimportant that Ethan didn't want to waste it on idle chatter, but just from his reaction to what she had unconsciously done that day, she abandoned all these ideas, and closing her eyes to keep her calm, she calmly released words, but these words were different from any words Riveria ever tried to utter in her life.
"You don't need to worry about the sadness you feel, about happiness, no matter if the pain is so strong to make you burst into tears... for this time, I will remain at your side."
With the kindness she had placed in every single syllable, Riveria heard her own voice, different from the classic deep voice she had always possessed, in fact for the first time, her voice seemed so light that at the thought alone, Riveria felt embarrassment spreading from the cheeks to the tip of her ears, and although this was severely damaging to her state of calm, Ethan, instead being the person whose words were addressed to, could feel the same kindness as she felt.
For the first time since he had known Riveria, Ethan could feel every word, every single part of her sentence was bursting out of sheer kindness, almost as if she had feelings she couldn't quite understand as well, and they were just waiting for him
Without even realizing it, from the completely confused state he was in without even the shadow of a solution, now was thinking in detail about what might have happened to Riveria to bring up such words, to the point Ethan was convinced that, although he couldn't say for sure, his face had to be completely red from embarrassment and, something he never expected, Riveria had almost embarrassment as her face had the same shape of red for the words she herself had pulled out of her mind.
Fortunately though, Ethan was still embracing Riveria, and so to avoid the extreme contact between their faces, Ethan was forced to place his face in a different position than normal, which made it totally impossible for him to see what kind of face Riveria was making, but the same could be said for Riveria, so the two were not aware of the other's embarrassment.
But this little moment between the two in which silence filled all the area where they were located was brought to an end by Ethan's words
"Will you really remain to my side..?"
Although Ethan had no idea how he would deal with Riveria from that day onwards, and he had no idea exactly what they were even trying to express, Ethan uttered these words almost involuntarily and with a weak voice, which didn't resembled his normal and deep tone at all.
Riveria felt as if an arrow had been pointed at her and that, by piercing her, it only increased the immense embarrassment that had been pointed at her. As the proud princess of the Elf race, Riveria couldn't simply remain this close to any man for so long without even defining their relationship. But this naturally raised a question, 'What kind of relationship do we have, then? ' and though first she might have tried to give an answer, now Riveria.. if posed in front of this question.. would have no idea what to reply at all.
"My words...meant exactly what you heard, as I said, I will stand by you for the time being..."
Although her mind remained that of the vigorous princess of the Elves, Riveria didn't even pay attention to what her rationality tried to make her understand, even if she knew distancing from him and reflect on the fact in the past she had refused many partners, and that Ethan would never be able to bear the burden of having an intimate relationship with her, Riveria just couldn't stop to think about these second-rate things.
For her, in fact, it wouldn't have made sense to try to protect Ethan if the latter would end up collapsing on himself by feelings that he did not understand, and it was here that Riveria decided where she had stopped, inhaling a sharp breath before adding
"But my question is.. will you be able to face the consequences..? You're not powerful enough to defend yourself right now..but even though this is what's waiting for you, are you still sure you want to stay?"
Riveria had considered the fact their relationship was uncertain. From her point of view, Riveria had plenty of reasons to refuse going further, precisely because the risk was high, considering that Ethan was a 'mere human' and therefore would hardly be accepted by the Elven community, and having these worries in her mind, and similarly a strange feeling that asked her to protect Ethan at any cost and means necessary, Riveria was in the same situation as Ethan, without a way to understand her feelings, but even if that was the case, Riveria was too old to not understand what she was beginning to feel.
Instead of letting her feelings put Ethan's life on the line, which she could never do by herself, Riveria had decided to let Ethan make the decision, and even if he left now without saying a word further to her, Riveria wouldn't hold any grudge against Ethan, since It was only wise to worry about his own safety.
But what he actually said and did, was totally different from what she expected.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ethan squeezed Riveria even harder against himself, almost as if he even let go for a second, Riveria would vanish from his sight, and even though instinct told her to point out that she wasn't going anywhere until she heard what he had to say, remained silent as Ethan answered her questions with a grin she couldn't see
"Of course that may be true now, I may not be strong enough for yours, and the expectations of others, but that doesn't mean it won't change over time.. If strength is the only problem, I'd say the only solution is to become stronger.."
To Ethan's words, Riveria's brows rose just a bit, but then her eyes narrowed warmly while she looked towards the floor, and she replied in an exasperated sigh.
"How can you be so careless. Your life may truly be in danger.."
Although nowhere near the kindness with which she expressed her feelings earlier, Ethan felt her words were again filled with kindness but, different from before, this wasn't the only thing he could discern. There was a veil of concern that enveloped the whole, but right at the centre between kindness and concern, there was an imperceptible happiness, which brought Ethan's lips to curl up.
"I would rather die knowing that I have no regrets and that I gave my best instead of dying with the regret of having left the situation unresolved, just for fear that my life might end before its... natural course."
Towards the end of his words, Ethan took a pause as he had found himself reflecting on the length of his life, but from what Light had told him, there was a skill in his status, called [Infinite Regeneration] that by endlessly continuing to regenerate the cells of his body, allowed Ethan to be unable to die of age, and this obviously meant the natural course of his life could be seen as 0, since it didn't exist, or as infinite, since if it existed, it would have to continue indefinitely.
But leaving aside for the time being this theory, Ethan focused on his heart, which was now beating strangely regularly, but at the same time he could hear every time it beat, and he didn't know if it could be love, and if it was indeed love, what kind, but this wasn't really the moment to lose himself in unnecessary thoughts...
"May I take these words of yours.. as your answer..?"
Feeling extremely nervous at Riveria's request, Ethan nodded slowly and, while the embarrassment on Riveria's face didn't cease to be present, with her state of calm destroyed long ago, Riveria had decided, 'Since you made your decision, I will respect it'.
To these very thoughts, Riveria responded with some scepticism. She certainly was still insecure about the relationship they were going to have from now on, she didn't know whether this feeling, which most likely could be defined as love, would blossom or not, and she had no certainty that Ethan would hold up to his words, and all these things put together led Riveria to be the one to hold Ethan tighter.
But unlike his rather obvious way in doing so, the way Riveria was slowly tightening her grip was so different from how she normally acted that Ethan for a moment worried maybe Riveria was under the same effect Lefiya had felt back then in the Lychee Inn. But these thoughts were soon clarified, he was convinced that as Lefiya had done, if Riveria would have felt such strange and different sensations, she would surely have been alarmed, and the fact she didn't seem to be in that state at all, meant only one thing.
'She..is acting on her own will.'
(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)
(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox) | Are you liking the interactions between Maple and Ethan?)
(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)
(Alternate Titles: "Love, yes, but what kind? That's the question now", "Be prideful, Ethan. This one time around you managed to almost slip in Riveria's heart all at once, but it won't be so easy!!", "Riveria's motherly instinct is slowly changing? I don't think it's the answer. So Riveria will only feel she's like Ethan's mother? I think it's wrong as well...So, what will these two become, I wonder?")