Chapter 94: 94. Ellaine

Riki tapped his forehead after Ella’s arrow flew past for the umpteenth time. Even though Riki had made the deer stay put. Then Riki handed her the gun he had secretly bought from the system store. It was a fail-safe gun with a very cute design, pink to match Ella’s outfit.

"Now, try using this instead. Calm down so your hands don’t shake. You’ve run out of arrows because you’re too nervous," said Riki.

Ella turned to Riki, her face holding back tears.

"Don’t be sad, it’s okay, the deer won’t go anywhere," said Riki.

Ella tried to calm herself by taking a few deep breaths and then exhaling slowly.

After feeling a little calmer, she tried pulling the trigger, and finally the deer fell.

Ella jumped up and down with joy, then she hugged Riki while shouting happily.

Riki himself was silent; he was already tired of waiting for the girl. However, he couldn’t leave her. Besides the fact that Ella was a girl and weak, another reason was that Riki felt he had to protect her.

Ella had just almost been killed, so there was no way he could leave her like that.

Riki was also still curious about what made Leni want to kill Ella. And also, what did it have to do with Jack?

Was it because Hannah was jealous of her again?

[That’s right, master]

Oh, Hannah again?

[Ellaine was a girl who was once close to Leon. But that closeness was only like that between a younger sister and an older brother for Leon. However, Ella had really liked him]

[Usually young girls tend to like older men]

Hannah was really problematic. But to Riki, she was pretty great because she could make her sugar daddy do whatever she wanted. Moreover, Hannah’s reason was because she was jealous of Ella, who had been close to Leon.

Jack definitely didn’t know the real reason. If he did, Hannah might be in danger—wait.

Could it be that Leon did it on purpose? Making Hannah jealous by telling her about Ella?

Leon was really reckless if he did that. Riki had to scold the childish detective.

Leon did it, Riki had to fix it. If Riki wasn’t there, what would happen to Ella?

"Riki! How are we going to carry this deer? It’s heavy!" asked Ella, trying to pull the deer. Riki quickly stopped her.

"Don’t pull it like that, let’s leave it there. You know there’s a team to help carry the prey, right? We just have to shoot this into the air, the yellow one."

Riki shot the yellow gas, which he said was environmentally friendly, into the air. Then he attached a yellow piece of paper to the nearest tree so that the special team would know that Ella’s prey was there. He didn’t forget to write Ella’s name on the flag.

"I just found out we have to do it this way. Usually, Leni takes care of it," Ella muttered.

"I don’t know what happened between you two, but my advice is, don’t trust other people too much. No matter how close you are to them. Not only other people, even your own family can betray you. Let this be a lesson for you to be careful from now on," said Riki.

Ella was silent, lowering her head, looking very upset.

"Now, we can go hunt the next deer," said Riki.

They got back on their horses. As they were leaving, Ella saw that the special team Riki had mentioned had already arrived to transport Ella’s deer.

The deer Riki was referring to was already in sight, and Ella was very surprised when she saw its size. It was huge, the biggest deer Ella had ever seen in her life.

The deer was very agile, running away because it knew it was being hunted.

However, Riki sped up his horse to chase the deer.

Riki took out his own gun, which was white and looked bigger than the one he had given Ella.

Even from a considerable distance, Riki was able to hit the deer.

Ella shouted with joy when Riki succeeded.

"That’s great, Riki!!"

They were now close to the deer. Riki dismounted and helped Ella down.

"Let’s rest first, Ella, then we’ll take this deer to the front."

"We’re not doing what we did before? Shooting yellow gas?" asked Ella.

Riki shook his head, "We did that because it was impossible to carry two large deer. So we’ll take this one."

Ella glared at him, "But it’s heavy, Riki!"

"In that case, I’ll take you back, then I’ll carry the deer myself."

"No need, we can carry it, I’m strong enough!" said Ella.

Riki raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah?"

"Are you underestimating me?"

Riki laughed at Ella’s annoyed expression.

"I’m not underestimating you, but you’re small, and you look fragile. Look at your thin wrists."

Ella clicked her tongue in annoyance. She couldn’t argue with Riki’s words.

"You go ahead, and I’ll carry the deer behind you."

"But—"

"I’ll help you later, you still can’t ride a horse, right?"

Ella fell silent, lowering her head, suddenly feeling sad again.

Riki sighed deeply, then moved to sit next to Ella.

"Why? Did my words hurt you?"

Ella shook her head, "No, it’s just... you treat me so well. Even though this is our first meeting, right? I mean—actually, we’ve met before, but this is the first time we’ve talked this closely. I didn’t expect you to be this nice to me. You helped me not get killed, you also helped me hunt deer, and then... you treat me so well. Riki."

Riki leaned his back against a large tree trunk behind him, then looked up at the blue sky decorated with white clouds.

Ella also leaned her back against the large tree trunk, which was so big that it was five times the size of an adult man.

Riki was a little surprised when Ella rested her head on his shoulder.

Ella’s hair smelled very nice, like flowers and fruit.

"You don’t have an assistant anymore, Ella," Riki muttered.

"I have to find another one."

"How about I find one for you? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but we have to be careful so you won’t be betrayed again, right?"

Ella looked up, bringing her face very close to Riki’s.

She was very beautiful.

The girl smiled, "You’re so nice to me again."

"I think I’m always nice to everyone."

"If I were ugly, would you still be nice to me?"

Riki furrowed his brow, "So, if you were ugly, you wouldn’t be worthy of living, not worthy of being helped, is that it? Of course not, right?"

Suddenly, Ella climbed onto Riki’s lap, pressed her forehead against his, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Riki was shocked and froze.

He never expected Ella to do that.

"The people around me say it, Riki. You’re lucky because you’re beautiful, so people like you. Because you’re beautiful, all the boys like you. Because you’re beautiful, you have many followers. You can do this only because of your beautiful face, but you don’t have any talent. Those are the words I always hear. Even my family often says things like that. You may not know this, but Kaivan, Liz, Angeline, and I used to be close. I chose to distance myself from them because I was jealous. They had families who always supported them and—"

"You’re wrong, Ella. Angeline and Liz also experienced what you experienced. Well, maybe you’re right about family. But they were still looked down upon at university. In fact, Angeline recently started working at Little Heaven because her parents thought she had no talent. You don’t need to feel insecure, you’re not alone. Instead of thinking about other people’s expectations, which are very toxic, you’d better focus on yourself and other positive things."

Suddenly Ella hugged Riki tightly, for quite a long time, until Riki didn’t know what to do. He also didn’t know if he could move or not. However, Riki was an ordinary and normal guy who could get flustered if suddenly hugged like that by a girl.

"Ella? Are you crying?"

Then Ella loosened her embrace and looked back at Riki.

Their faces were very close, too close, to the point that Riki was mesmerized. However, Riki tried not to think badly of the girl.

"I like you, Riki."

"What? But we—"

"Even though we just met, I like you."

Before Riki could respond to Ella’s words, the girl had already pressed her lips against his. Ella’s kiss was awkward, as if it was her first kiss.

Riki lost his mind for a moment and kissed her back, enjoying it. Until he remembered that he was still on earth.

He gently pushed Ella’s shoulders to break the kiss.

"Ella, I’m sorry, but I can’t get involved with a girl I just met a few hours ago."

Ella smiled and nodded, "I understand, we don’t have to rush. I’ll try to win your heart from Liz."

Ella’s words surprised Riki.

"You—"

"I know you’re close to Liz, right? But didn’t she refuse to have a relationship with you because she wanted to pursue her career? How about trying with me first—oh, it doesn’t have to be now. I’ll try first, you can think about it later. One thing’s for sure, I won’t give up like Angeline did."

Riki didn’t know how much Ella knew, but he felt bad that he couldn’t return her feelings.

But maybe Ella’s feelings were just temporary, only because Riki had helped her. Riki would let it be for now. Because he was sure that Ella’s feelings would only last for a short time.

That’s what Riki thought, until that night, when Ella came to the cottage.