At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 180

“Thank you.”

Jiwoo felt good about the magic that helped her husbands, stood on her tiptoes before giving him a kiss on the lips to send Helka off.

After Helka left, for some reason, Lanceil was the last one remaining.

“Here, I made this for you.”

He gently brushed Jiwoo’s hair aside with one hand and placed something near her ear.

It seemed that Lanceil, once again, had used resin to create a hair accessory, just like when he had made the wedding rings.

“Jiwoo, I wonder…”

Lanceil, who had been quietly fixing her hair, whispered.

Judging by his hesitation, it seemed like it was a difficult question for him to ask.

“…Will there be benefits for the first one?”

“Yes. There will.”

Jiwoo smiled, trying to suppress her laughter.

No matter how many husbands she had here, Lanceil would always be the first. He was the one who had introduced her to these men, the forest race. Everyone was special, but this particular specialness was unique.

“Lanceil, let’s judge together.”

Jiwoo linked her arm with Lanceil’s and walked in the direction the others had gone.

Then, suddenly, she realized something.

“But… can’t we just kiss whenever?”

“…Actually, I was going to say that earlier, but I held back.”

He didn’t need a competition or to desperately win; he could just ask for it.

After all, that was what they were to each other.

Jiwoo gazed up at Lanceil, then gently grabbed his face and lowered it.

Their lips met naturally. Perhaps because of the warmth, his breath seemed unusually visible.

“Like this, right?”

“Yes…”

What started as a light kiss quickly deepened into something more passionate.

With no one to interrupt them, they planned to kiss for as long as they could.

“Seo Jiwoo, hurry up. Quickly. It’s urgent!”

They broke the kiss abruptly, as though caught stealing and wiped their lips with the back of their hands.

“What, what’s going on?”

“Just come!”

Following the call, Jiwoo and Lanceil moved toward a wide open area.

“Wow…!”

Even though it was night, there was a faint green light shimmering in the air. The night sky was lit up with a brilliant, almost unreal curtain of light.

It was the aurora. The emerald glow shimmered and rippled like waves.

“I’ve never seen anything like this…”

As Jiwoo gazed up at the sky in awe, something suddenly appeared in front of her.

It was a flower, about the size of her palm.

“How is it?”

“Are we really judging this?”

Jiwoo chuckled as she took the flowers they had gifted her. They hadn’t even checked the size of her palm before setting out to find flowers, but surprisingly, all the flowers were about the same size.

“Once everyone comes.”

At that moment, Helka used magic to illuminate the path with light in the air. He seemed to be guiding the other husbands over, and soon, everyone would gather here.

“Haha…!”

Jiwoo laughed, her smile bloomed like the thirty flowers they had brought.

“Come here. I’ll do it for everyone. I’m not going anywhere.”

In the end, the decision about the youngest was forgotten, but it didn’t matter.

This moment was simply too precious to worry about such things.

* * *

One day, when Jiwoo opened her eyes, she found herself in the middle of the forest.

‘Huh?’

That was strange. She had just been sleeping in the warm bed her husbands had prepared for her. The clothes she had been wearing before going to bed were still on her.

‘There’s no way I should be waking up in a place like this.’

Jiwoo had collapsed from exhaustion the previous night, and now she found herself in a completely unfamiliar location.

She needed to get back to the village, but she had no idea where she was. This wasn’t exactly a place she could easily move through.

If her husbands realized she was gone, they would come looking for her, so it was better to wait in one spot rather than wander around alone.

As Jiwoo hesitated, unsure of what to do, she suddenly heard a rustling sound.

It was coming from nearby, so she decided to walk toward the noise.

When she saw the creature, she was taken aback.

‘A dog?’

….That seemed impossible.

And there was no way a dog could be that big.

Grrrr….

The creature resembled a wolf. Or maybe a fox—its appearance was a mix of both.

But what set it apart was that it had pristine white fur, like Ellandos. What was even more surprising was that the fur had tree-like tendrils growing through it, and flowers and leaves were blooming on its body. The tail was especially thick, with small, delicate flowers hanging from it like snowdrops.

The tree-like tendrils weren’t tangled in the fur but grew harmoniously with it. From a distance, it could have been mistaken for a deer.

If it had just been a regular wolf, Jiwoo would have been frozen in fear. But this creature was so mystical and beautiful that she couldn’t help but stare at it.

Woof! Woof!

The wolf suddenly twisted its face into a snarling grimace and barked, startling Jiwoo.

‘It’s injured.’

Only then did Jiwoo notice that one side of the creature was bleeding. The wound wasn’t visible, but it seemed like a serious injury since the bleeding wasn’t stopping.

The creature wasn’t barking to attack. It was terrified.

‘It’s like the old Lanceil…’

That made Jiwoo feel even more sympathetic.

But, of course, she wasn’t reckless enough to approach an aggressive wild animal.

Jiwoo moved away from the creature’s location and sat down somewhere at random. Her husbands would come looking for her, and she didn’t want to create confusion by moving and crossing their paths.

However, no one seemed to be passing by, no matter how long she waited.

As the sun began to set, the temperature dropped, and she started to feel the cold.

‘I need to find a place to shield myself from the wind.’

Jiwoo started to move and, to her surprise, ended up passing by the spot where the wolf was.

The wolf, having bled a lot, was either too weak or possibly dead. It had its head pressed to the ground and didn’t move.

‘Will it be okay?’

Living with her husbands had taught Jiwoo a few things about this world.

Akarna’s power was based on mental strength, and it reached its peak when she was happy.