My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode : 68

Chapter : 135

"Duly noted, Lady Faria! Ghostly displeasure is a powerful motivator! Right up there with 'not being turned into a meat smoothie'!" Lloyd shot back, already turning and scrambling away from the epicenter of the battle, Fang a grey streak at his heels, looking significantly less like a harbinger of doom and more like a very fast, very frightened dog. "Everyone else, try to keep up! And for the love of all that's holy, try not to trip over any conveniently placed evil roots! Galla seems to specialize in those!"

They ran. A motley crew of terrified nobles, grim-faced guards whose professionalism was being severely tested by foes several orders of magnitude above their pay grade, and one extremely stressed Arch Duke’s heir who was seriously reconsidering his career choices, fleeing for their lives through the treacherous, shadow-choked depths of Galla Forest. The cataclysmic sounds of the colossal battle – monstrous roars, sickening crunches, the shriek of stressed earth and tortured metal-like carapace – faded slowly, reluctantly, behind them, replaced by their own ragged, desperate breathing, the frantic pounding of their hearts, and the occasional yelp as someone inevitably stumbled.

Why me? Lloyd’s internal monologue wailed as he dodged a low-hanging branch that seemed to actively try and clothesline him. I just wanted a few easy coins! Enough to awaken a dormant bloodline, maybe upgrade Fang from 'terrifying lightning wolf' to 'slightly more terrifying lightning wolf with better dental insurance'! I didn't sign up for ‘Monster Island Survivor: Galla Forest Edition’! And why, oh why, is Faria Kruts always involved when my life takes a sharp left turn into utter chaos? Is she some kind of walking disaster magnet? Does trouble follow her around like an overeager puppy with a penchant for property damage and existential threats? That flower… she called it Dark Vein too. Was it the Midnight Serenity she was after? The one for her mother's alchemist? Did that alchemist specify needing something that looks like it wants to suck your soul out through your eyeballs? Tasteful.

They didn't stop, didn't dare to even slow down, until the sounds of the titanic struggle were a distant, muffled rumble, and they reached a small, relatively clear stream cutting a silver ribbon through the dense undergrowth. The sound of rushing water, clean and natural, was a blessed relief after the cacophony of monstrous rage. They collapsed onto the damp, mossy earth by the water’s edge, chests heaving, limbs trembling, clothes torn and stained.

Faria, her crimson-violet hair now thoroughly disheveled, matted with sweat and leaf litter, and clinging to her flushed brow in a way that was still somehow distractingly attractive, rounded on Lloyd the moment she could draw enough breath to speak. Her amethyst eyes, usually cool and assessing or blazing with competitive fire, were now wide with a potent cocktail of residual terror, simmering anger, and a grudging, almost bewildered curiosity.

"Ferrum!" she panted, jabbing a trembling but still imperious finger accusingly in his direction. Her usual aristocratic poise was in tatters, replaced by the raw, frayed nerves of someone who had just narrowly avoided becoming a smear on the forest floor. "What in the blighted, festering realms were you doing here? In the deepest, most cursed part of Galla Forest, a place sane people actively pay cartographers not to mark on their maps? And why," her voice rose, a tremor of its usual haughty command returning, "did you snatch that flower? The Dark Vein! Don't you dare tell me you were after it for… for decorative purposes! Or to press it in a book of bad poetry!"

Chapter : 136

Lloyd, still trying to convince his lungs that they weren't, in fact, about to stage a hostile takeover of his ribcage, leaned heavily against a moss-covered rock. Fang, equally exhausted, collapsed at his feet, panting like a steam engine, his tongue lolling. "Decorative purposes?" Lloyd managed, forcing a weak, slightly manic grin that probably looked more like a grimace of agony. "Lady Faria, with all due respect, which is currently quite a bit, considering you haven’t tried to skewer me for leading you on this merry chase through Hell’s back garden, my current aesthetic goal is primarily focused on 'not being a dismembered corpse'. The flower," he gestured vaguely back towards the direction of the ongoing monster mash, "believe it or not, was supposed to be a get-out-of-being-eaten-by-the-Mire-Monster-free card. A handy little 'buzz off, you oversized bug' token." He kept his true, now-fulfilled objective for snatching the flower – the vital System reward – entirely to himself. "The plan, and I use the term 'plan' with the loosest possible definition encompassing 'wild, desperate gamble based on cryptic information from a source I'd rather not discuss', was that its aura would make Big Ugly, our charming friend from the Mire, take a permanent vacation. Clearly, the plan had… unforeseen complications." He shot a pointed look skyward. "Like a fifty-foot-long, highly territorial, flower-loving snake with a serious anger management problem deciding to join the party uninvited."

"So you weren't after it for its actual medicinal or alchemical properties?" Faria pressed, her gaze sharp, analytical even through the layers of dishevelment and residual fear. The investigator in her, the seeker of knowledge, was reasserting itself. "You don't need the Dark Vein for some nefarious Ferrum scheme?"

"Need it?" Lloyd snorted, a genuine laugh, albeit a slightly hysterical one, escaping him. "Lady Faria, right now, I 'need' a stiff drink – make that several stiff drinks – a very long nap, preferably in a bed not located in a cursed forest currently hosting a battle of titans, and possibly extensive therapy to deal with the sudden onset of giant-monster-induced PTSD. That flower? It can stay with its oversized, scaly guardian and live happily ever after in their mutual, terrifying, probably quite damp ecosystem for all I care. My primary objective, once the Mire Monster decided my fifty-silver ecological survey was an invitation to a buffet, was simply not becoming part of the local food chain. Preferably the top of it, not the bottom."

Faria stared at him, processing his words, her expression slowly shifting. The anger seemed to drain away, replaced by a complex mixture of emotions. Her shoulders, which had been rigid with tension, slumped almost imperceptibly. "Then… you truly don't require it?" A note of raw, desperate hope, so incongruous with her usual icy composure, entered her voice, making it tremble slightly. "Because I do, Ferrum. Gods, how I need that flower. Urgently."

One of her guards, the older, grey-bearded man who had exuded an air of calm competence even amidst the chaos, stepped forward respectfully, his breathing still heavy but his voice steady. He had a kind, weary face, the face of a man who had seen too much but still held onto his duty. "My lady speaks the truth, Lord Ferrum," he said, his tone grave. He offered Lloyd a slight bow, a gesture of respect between warriors who had, however inadvertently, faced a common, overwhelming foe. "We seek the Dark Vein – or the Midnight Serenity, as it is known in some older texts – for my lady's mother. Her alchemist believes its essence is key to combating a persistent ailment that drains her strength. This bloom… it is our last, slender hope." He looked directly at Lloyd, a profound gratitude softening the lines of worry around his eyes. "And frankly, my lord, if you hadn't… intervened… as you did, and provoked that colossal serpent by attempting to take the flower first, we likely would have tried to procure it ourselves moments later. And that guardian… it would have crushed us all without a second thought, without even registering our existence as anything more than bothersome insects. Your… unorthodox actions… however reckless they may have appeared," (he offered a slight, wry smile here) "inadvertently saved us from a far worse, far swifter fate, even if they did lead us into this current, rather unfortunate, predicament of being hopelessly lost and hunted in Galla."