My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode : 74

Chapter : 147

The silence in the glade was so profound it felt like a physical weight, broken only by the faint, incredulous whimpers still emanating from Fang, who was now attempting to fuse with the mossy earth beneath Lloyd’s boots. The acrid smell of vaporized ancient serpent and flash-incinerated Galla Forest undergrowth hung heavy in the air, a bizarre, unsettling perfume of overwhelming power. Faria Kruts and her remaining entourage were statues carved from sheer, unadulterated shock, their faces pale, their eyes wide and glassy, fixed on the spot where a mythological horror had, mere moments before, ceased to exist with a casual, sun-like intensity.

And in the center of it all, radiating a heat that still made the air shimmer, stood Ken Park. Or rather, Ken-Redborn. The Demon Lord butler. The walking, talking, impeccably mannered inferno. Lloyd stared, his mind still struggling to reconcile the image of the stoic, discreet retainer who fetched his books and announced his visitors with this… this crimson-armored, horned harbinger of elemental annihilation.

Two Transcended spirits? The knowledge, an echo from his previous, tragically curtailed life, resonated with fresh, mind-boggling clarity. In the Ferrum Duchy, after his father, Arch Duke Roy Ferrum, Ken Park was whispered to be the next strongest, a pillar of hidden might. But two spirits at Transcend level? That was a secret known only to a vanishingly small, incredibly select few. Roy Ferrum knew, of course. And now Lloyd, thanks to the dubious gift of reincarnation and eighty years of accumulated, often useless, trivia, knew it too. This display, this casual erasure of a creature that had made Stormwing look like a startled pigeon, was just one of Ken's aspects. Redborn alone. The implications were staggering. The sheer depth of power Ken usually kept concealed, veiled beneath layers of butler-ly discretion and stoic professionalism, was almost incomprehensible. No wonder Father trusts him implicitly, Lloyd thought, a new level of respect, bordering on outright awe, dawning. He’s not just a bodyguard; he’s a walking strategic deterrent. A one-man Praetorian Guard with a built-in incinerator.

Just as Lloyd was trying to process the sheer, mind-bending scale of Ken’s true capabilities, a familiar, almost smug chime echoed solely within his mind, cutting through the lingering shock.

[Urgent Task: Retrieve the Bloom of Shadows – Flower of Dark Vein]

[Objective Achieved: Flower procured prior to external aid intervention. Threat neutralized (albeit by external aid after procurement, satisfying the letter, if not the spirit, of the task parameters).]

[System Analysis: User demonstrated initiative, resourcefulness, and a commendable willingness to risk life, limb, and sanity for relatively minor System Coin rewards. Flower successfully used as bait/temporary macguffin. Points for creativity, even if the primary threat resolution involved calling in the orbital death laser… er… Transcended bodyguard.]

[Reward Issued: 40 System Coins (SC)]

[Current System Coins: 63 (Previous) + 40 (Reward) = 103 SC]

One hundred and three! Lloyd’s mental jaw dropped. He’d… he’d actually done it! Despite the chaos, despite the near-death experiences (plural!), despite having to sacrifice the flower itself (which, technically, he hadn’t, he’d gifted it, a subtle but important distinction his internal lawyer was already preparing to argue with the System), he’d hit the magic number! The hundred fresh coins needed for the Maternal Bloodline Awakening!

[Congratulations, User Lloyd Ferrum!]

[Primary Goal: Awaken Latent Maternal Bloodline - Funding Threshold Reached!]

[100 System Coins successfully accumulated and designated for this purpose.]

[Bloodline Awakening Ritual now available for initiation. Proceed?]

The mental prompt pulsed invitingly, a beacon of potential power amidst the lingering smell of ozone and vaporized snake. Lloyd felt a surge of fierce, triumphant elation, so potent it almost made him dizzy, momentarily eclipsing the lingering terror and the sheer, mind-numbing weirdness of the past hour. Yes! Finally!

He ruthlessly suppressed the urge to immediately initiate the awakening. Now was hardly the time or place, surrounded by traumatized nobles, a smoking patch of ex-serpent, and the lingering possibility of other Galla Forest horrors deciding to investigate the sudden, violent vacancy at the top of the local food chain. Later, he promised himself, mentally filing the notification away with a grim sense of satisfaction. Priorities. First, ensure we all get out of this cursed, monster-infested death trap in one piece. Then, power-ups.

Chapter : 148

His focus snapped back to the present, to the crimson-armored figure of Ken-Redborn, who was now slowly, deliberately, allowing the incandescent power to recede. The fiery aura around him dimmed, the crimson armor seemed to flow, to retract, to solidify back into the familiar dark, practical livery of the Arch Duke’s head butler. The menacing horns dissolved, sinking back into his temples as if they had never been. Within moments, he was once again Ken Park, impassive, stoic, radiating quiet competence rather than apocalyptic flame. He adjusted his perfectly knotted cravat, a gesture so incongruously normal it was almost surreal given what had just transpired. If it weren't for the still-smoldering patch of earth and the lingering scent of cosmic barbecue, one might almost believe the past few minutes had been a particularly vivid, stress-induced hallucination.

Ken Park met Lloyd’s gaze, a silent question in his eyes. Threat neutralized, Young Lord. Further instructions? Or shall I just… go back to polishing the family silver and pretending I don't occasionally moonlight as a mythological creature exterminator?

"Thank you, Ken," Lloyd managed, his voice still slightly hoarse, but filled with a profound, heartfelt gratitude that went far beyond mere employer-employee appreciation. "That was… exceptionally timely. And remarkably… thorough." He gestured vaguely towards the smoking patch of nothingness. "Considerably more thorough than my fifty-silver Guild contract implied was necessary for an 'ecological survey'."

Ken inclined his head fractionally, the barest acknowledgment. "My apologies for exceeding the mission parameters, Young Lord. The threat assessment indicated a… significant deviation from expected resistance levels." Understatement of the millennium. "Standard containment protocols were deemed… insufficient."

"Insufficient," Lloyd echoed, a dry, slightly hysterical chuckle escaping him. "Yes. I’d say a creature that makes an Ascension-level Griffin look like a startled sparrow qualifies as ‘significant deviation’.” He shook his head, still trying to process the sheer scale of the power he’d just witnessed. "Right. Well. Best you… resume shadow protocol, Ken. Before someone, say, the local Galla Forest Conservation Society, shows up and starts asking awkward questions about the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of a legendary, possibly endangered, definitely quite large, guardian serpent."

Ken nodded once, then, with that disconcerting fluidity that always made Lloyd wonder if he was part-solid, part-actual-shadow, he simply… wasn't there anymore. He melted back into the deep, oppressive gloom at the edge of the glade, vanishing as completely and silently as mist in sunlight, leaving behind only the lingering scent of ozone and the faint, almost subliminal hum of immense, carefully re-leashed power.

The departure of the overwhelming, supernatural presence seemed to allow air, and a semblance of terrified sanity, to flow back into the clearing. Faria Kruts, her face still ashen but her eyes now fixed on Lloyd with a new, profoundly bewildered intensity, finally found her voice. It was shaky, stripped of its usual imperious cadence, raw with the aftermath of abject terror.

"Ferrum…" she began, then stopped, swallowing hard, as if the name itself tasted strange, unfamiliar, associated now with events that defied all rational explanation. She gestured vaguely towards the smoking patch of earth, then back at Lloyd. "That… that man… your… your butler?" The word sounded utterly inadequate, almost comical, in the face of what they had just witnessed. "He… he just…?" She couldn't seem to finish the sentence, her mind clearly struggling to reconcile the image of a discreet household servant with the reality of a being capable of casually atomizing mythological horrors.

"Ken Park," Lloyd supplied helpfully, his own composure slowly, shakily, reasserting itself. He offered what he hoped was a reassuring, if slightly strained, smile. "Head Butler of the Ferrum Estate. Excellent at polishing silver, ensuring the wine is properly chilled, and, as you’ve just witnessed, occasionally engaging in… advanced pest control. Very advanced. Top tier, really. Five stars. Would definitely hire again for any future giant-monster-related emergencies, though I sincerely hope this doesn't become a recurring theme in my life." He was babbling, he knew, the adrenaline demanding an outlet, but the sheer absurdity of it all was almost intoxicating.

Faria stared at him, then at the empty space where Ken had stood, then back at Lloyd, her expression a battleground of conflicting emotions: residual terror, dawning awe, profound confusion, and a grudging, almost infuriated respect. "Your butler," she repeated slowly, as if trying to convince herself the word still held meaning, "is capable of… that?"

"Ken has many talents," Lloyd said with a masterfully understated shrug that he hoped conveyed 'oh, you know, standard Arch Ducal household staff capabilities, nothing to see here'. "Loyalty, discretion, an impressive ability to remove stubborn wine stains, and a rather… energetic approach to conflict resolution when pressed. You should see him deal with mildew in the lower cellars. Terrifying."