Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

He had barely escaped with his life.

He had not been in a magic shootout and he had not dodged an explosion by diving and rolling along the ground. He had simply left the bushes as silently as possible and walked back the way he had come through the dark forest. But he was still afraid of encountering a dark elf. Any of them other than Slender would get him burned at the stake, so the forest stroll seemed to take years off of his life.

But there was still hope in his face.

“It’s the smell.”

As long as he knew where his future wife went during her daily routine, he could meet her again. Hopefully.

“The smell of my hair and clothes! The forest animals are avoiding me because they can smell the artificial scents on me!!”

He recalled that naked body shining in the moonlight. Slender had been washing herself so carefully because she had to fool the animals’ noses.

She could wash her scent off.

Finding a river was easy enough. Instead of investigating the flora or the terrain, he only had to walk downstream of where Slender and the others were. As long as he didn’t encounter them along the way, that is. He relied on the information he had gained from the experts. He had to wash everything anyway, so he kept his clothes on and let himself fall into the river.

He thought his heart had stopped.

“Bwah!! Cold…cold!?”

He hopped back up in a hurry and crawled out of the river before he died. He was trembling as much as a newborn fawn while he gave the river a look of utter disbelief.

…''But the dark elves were smiling so happily. Was it this cold when I first ran into Slender too? I’d go numb after just a few minutes in water this frigid!

Were dark elves just that much tougher than humans? He felt irrationally angry about it, but then something else occurred to him. If the forest animals could avoid him by detecting the faint artificial scents on him, then why had Slender been unsure if he was there even when she was so suspicious of those bushes?

“Wait. You’re kidding, right?”

He didn’t know if he was correct. Hell, he didn’t even know if he could detect the scent after spending so long living in the city. But he still made a guess.

…''Could there be a hot spring there? Did they dig into the riverbank to guide the hot water into the cold river to create an area of water that’s just right?

He glanced through the text carved into his stick and something else came back to him. He hadn’t observed the other two closely enough, but he did not remember seeing any goose bumps on his future wife’s smooth skin. And if there was a faint sulfur scent there, it would explain how the hunter had overlooked his presence behind the bushes.

Anyway.

What would he do now? The dark elves had a specific part of the river set aside for bathing and the hot water would only be found there. And they knew where all such points were.

He would have to make do with the nightmarishly cold river.

Otherwise he would starve to death without encountering any of the forest animals.

And if he could capture some food, he would have more options for using Camouflize in the forest. He could even give some food to Slender as a gift.

This was not the royal capital. He had learned the hard way how wondrous food and other supplies could look in this deep forest. Every skewer of meat and every piece of parchment had to be handmade. The two small meatballs he had eaten and the prospect of more food to come only made him hungrier.

“Dammit.”

He shivered as he glanced back over at the dark river.

He took a step toward it. How would he ever obtain a gift for her if he didn’t work for it himself?

“Goddess dammit! This is a test of my love, isn’t it!? Well, just you wait, my future wife!!”