"Can I touch your ears?"

Riveria reeled back from her seat and asked with obvious disgust, "...Why would you want to do that?"

Kisuke knew that he blurted out the wrong words, however, somewhere inside him, he wanted to mess with this all too serious and stoic Elf as he recalled her crying last time, 'My merchant sense is tingling~!'

If others were to know what he just said inside his head, they would retort back, 'That has nothing to do with being a merchant!!!'

"Ehem, what I mean is that the books that I gave Line-san are designed for Humans. I haven't inspected an Elf before and it might have something to do with your physiology why you can't use magic like Line does. And what's the most obvious difference between a Human and an Elf?" Kisuke asked.

With great hesitation, Riveria answered, "...It's the ears."

"See my point now?"

Riveria nodded, however, she won't hand over her ears just like that, "We Elves don't like to be touched, especially our ears. So that's a no."

"Hmm... So that's the extent of your will to learn about magic, huh? Then I'm sorry. I can't help you. But I do suggest you study your own physiology to figure out what's wrong. However, it'll probably take you a few years and you'll have become a doctor by then. But even with that, you might have to figure out how magic and the body work together and that would be another branch that you'll have to study for another few years."

Sighing, Kisuke continued, "It'll probably take you a decade or two, and that's being optimistic as I can't see any information around regarding the Elf's physiology and you would have to start from a scratch."

"Well, that also means that it's not the end of the road for you. Good luck~! I'll be cheering for you~!" Kisuke finished his words with a genuine cheerful tone.

Hearing this, Riveria's eyes widened and a few seconds later, she gritted her teeth. She could indeed take the path Kisuke had just told her, but even though she was a High-Elf with a long lifespan, a few decades just to scratch the surface of the topic which she was very interested in was still too much, "Are you saying that after you have inspected my ears, you'll have an idea of what's going on?"

"I don't know everything, so I can't promise you that I'll figure something out after just some simple inspection."

"..."

"However, I could figure out that Wallenstein-san is a half-spirit. Knowing that, it's up to you to decide whether to accept it or not."

Riveria hesitated. If it really had something to do with her physiology, then his expertise was what she needed.

Kisuke didn't continue speaking and just gave her all the time she needed to think about it.

A few minutes of silence later, Riveria finally decided what she wanted. She looked straight into Kisuke's eyes and said, "Please do it." Albeit, with a bit of a blush on her face, 'For magic!' was the only thing on her mind. However, she was wrong to think that she only sold herself to 'magic', she also sold herself to the devilish Merchant who offered that 'magic'.

Kisuke smiled and said, "Great. Then let's not waste time and start right now."

"...H-here?"

"Yep~." With a snap of his fingers, Kisuke closed the door that was left open by Ais when she ran off.

Hearing the door slamming, instead of questioning how he did it, Riveria just became nervous and conscious of the situation.

Kisuke stood up and went behind Riveria and said, "By the way, I may not just touch your ears, but also your nape and back. I need to trace where the energy is being circulated so that would be needed. Are you ready?"

Since it's nothing worse than her ears, Riveria agreed as she took a deep breath, "Alright. Please do it."

Seeing her reaction, Kisuke chuckled, "Relax~. I won't hurt you. But you may feel weird since I plan to inject some of my Mana in you, so please endure it when that happens. Well then, here I go." With his signal, Kisuke used his fingertips to trace the outline of both of Riveria's ears.

"Eep!" In response, Riveria's body shook and a small yelp came from her. Kisuke had to take back his hands, "I'm sorry. This is the first time that someone else besides my parents has touched my ears. Please understand." She immediately apologized with a blushing face, 'I made a weird sound...'

"It's fine. Are you ready now?"

"Yes, please." Riveria took another deep breath and promised to herself to not make any sound and endure everything.

"Then, please excuse me." Kisuke resumed what he was doing, 'Well then, let's see if her physiology is really the cause. How fun~. This is the first time I'm examining an Elf, a High-Elf at that!'

The moment Kisuke touched Riveria's ears again, her body shook a little bit but nothing more. He then proceeded to ignore her completely and focused on his job.

For the first few minutes, Kisuke just used his fingers to trace parts of her ears, and Riveria did her best to endure his touch as she heard him muttering, "Hmmm... So that's how it is... How fascinating... So it works this way..."

Everything, however, changed when Kisuke suddenly injected a trace of magic power from his fingertips to her ears, "Eeppp!!!" Riveria's body shook and she let out another strange sound.

But this time, Kisuke was completely focused and didn't stop what he was doing.

'He already warned me! Get ahold of yourself, Riveria!' Riveria shouted in her mind as she used her hands to close her mouth.

However, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, a few minutes later, her expression kept slipping as her face grew hot. Her eyes were glazed over with tears threatening to fall down, and the hot rapid breath came out of her mouth, "Haah~... Haah~... Mhhhm~..."

Kisuke, on the other hand, was so absorbed with his investigation that he didn't care about anything happening to Riveria right now. Although he was indeed careful not to hurt her in any way, he didn't know that he was doing something else.

A few more minutes into inspection, Riveria already gave up to cover her mouth and just hugged herself to endure the weird, but 'fascinating' feeling that was running through her whole body, starting from her ears and ending between her legs. She tried to rub her thighs together to endure the feeling, but it only made everything worse and she couldn't stop anymore once she started doing it. As she unconsciously opened her mouth, she also started drooling and let out 'strange' noises continually, "Haah... Ah~... Ah~... Haahhhh..."

And another few minutes of 'enduring', Riveria knew something bad would happen if she didn't cover her mouth immediately. The moment her hands landed on her mouth, Riveria's whole body twitched uncontrollably as a strange feeling welled up exponentially and exploded.

Silently screaming, Riveria's body fell forward and Kisuke was finally pulled out from his trance and was startled as he caught her before she fell to the ground completely. Then, he finally noticed the face she's making and thought, 'Oops... So that's also her erogenous zone, huh... Good to know.'

Riveria was in a daze for a few seconds until she saw Kisuke's face close up, making a wry smile that snapped her out of her strange state, "Uhmm... The results are out..." Kisuke muttered to her.

Riveria also finally noticed that his arms were wrapped around her. However, unlike most conservative girls who would immediately jump to conclusion, Riveria first started to analyze her situation, 'Did he try to catch me?'

However, that composure didn't last for long as realization of what just happened dawned on her, "!!!?"

Riveria immediately separated from Kisuke while keeping her head low, not showing him her blushing face. "Thank you. Also, I'm sorry, but let's continue this tomorrow!", she said, before she ran off, faster than Ais did back then.

Seeing her leave, Kisuke could only shrug his shoulders, "Well, I got the data,I should probably arrange it for her."

On that day, a new rumor sprouted about a blushing jade-haired elf who was running with amazing speed, but in a strange posture, through the streets of Orario.

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Reaction Corner:

28th00: Elves really are lewd, huh? Their ears being touched is the same as a loli getting head pats, huh? Serafall has gotten head pats, so has Ophis! Has Hestia gotten one yet? We know Koneko is trying to monopolize his lap for easy and continual head patting…

Alexander: Seems as if Kisuke never learned anything from Kuroka's case. But I can imagine what Riveria will look like on the next day.

28th00: G0yya totally did it, I just sent him it. Kuroka's case? Ouuu, that one drove Koneko up the WALL! Imagine her reaction to it happening again, and Kuroka giving her a comforting pat of sympathy…