The alien sight of the floating, glowing panels appeared in front of their eyes. Both of them had only heard of these panels from the paired adventurers they have met in their separate travels.

It was said that through this, they could harness the powers unlocked through Marriage.

And now, these powers were one step away.

With the proposal finished, Clest's heartlight also started to fade, until they were both back, enveloped by the darkness of the forest.

"..."

"..."

Awkwardness then filled the air. This was far, far from the idea they had of a Marriage proposal.

The guy cleared his throat, scratching at the back of his head. "Uh, so what's your name? I'm Pine."

Her face was barely visible in this darkness, but her eyes seemed to light up because of his initiative. "My name's Clest."

"Clest." He repeated, before chuckling. "I guess we're engaged now, haha..."

"Haha, yeah..."

...

...

Okay, this is really awkward.

"Well," Clest cleared her throat. "If we're going to be Married, then we have to learn how to coordinate."

Now given a logical thought, Pine was suddenly able to respond naturally.

"Yeah, we definitely have to learn how to get along..."

They did, in fact, need to learn how to get along.

-----

The two found an outcrop in the forest, wherein they settled down. After setting up a fire, they agreed on taking turns to stay up and do watch duty, while the other focused on resting.

As for Clest's roasted hare, she must have dropped it in the darkness of the night, in the heat of their moment. She's already tried looking for it using her heartlight, but she couldn't find it. Plus, it's been on the ground too long. They both just had to skip dinner for now.

Around an hour before sunset, where the forest was still mostly dark, the two started getting ready to move again. The only indication that it was almost morning is the energetic chirping of birds in the forest.

"Where do we go next?" Pine asked Clest the moment they were ready to get going.

"Well," Clest took in a deep, satisfied breath. "I saw a Lotus to the west of this forest a month ago. I would wanna go there right away but..."

And as if timed comically, her tummy made a long groan.

"Yeah," Pine smiled wryly. "We need to eat."

"Oh, but even before breakfast, let's head back to the place where we met the rafflesia." Clest then brought out her heartlight, using it like a torchlight as she started walking.

"Hm, why?" Pine asked, before noticing a faint glow coming from his chest. It seemed to appear because Clest's heartlight was out.

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"What do you mean 'why'?" she stopped and turned around, shining her heartlight at Pine. She had a somehow bashful expression, but she tried to look unfazed. "It isn't official yet, but you are my keeper now. It's my job to get you as much materials you need for later."

"...Oh, okay." Pine was a bit speechless. He would be lying if he said he didn't like what was happening.

The two then started to back track their way into their previous camp grounds, and when sunrise came, they had found the remains of the fire they started last night. The meat Pine was cooking was also gone.

Clest ran her fingers along the leaves of the nearby bushes, picking up barely visible purple dust. This dust was the poison spore that the Mutated Rafflesia released last night.

"Hey, are you sure you should be touching that?" Pine noticed her action, so he asked.

Clest dusted her hands off on her pants, saying, "Yeah, it needs to enter the body to have an effect."

The two went on a search for the Mutated Rafflesia, which, according to Clest, should be dormant when the sun is up. Also, she said that it should be easier to find, because it was out of place in a forest like this.

She didn't even know why a Mutated Rafflesia would be here, since they propagate in wetlands like swamps or mangrove forests.

After just 10 minutes of searching, they found the Mutated Rafflesia, which looked just like a tall but otherwise normal Rafflesia, now that it was daytime.

"There's our guy." Clest eyed the flower from a safe distance. "It probably ate your meal."

Observing right beside her was Pine. "Is it edible?"

"Do you wanna try eating that thing?"

"No, not really." Pine made a horrified expression, imagining eating such a morbid-looking creature.



Clest couldn't help but chuckle at this guy. "Give me your sword. I'm gonna kill it."

"It's yours now."

Pine unbuckled the belt that the sheathe was attached to, and then handed it to Clest-- belt, sheathe and everything.

"Wait, are you sure?" Clest held the sheathed sword, but she didn't really take it yet.

"Yeah." Pine then let go of it, leaving it in Clest's hands. "It was more of an intimidation tactic for me anyway. So that people would never imagine that I'm actually a keeper. I didn't actually know how to use that."

Clest found him a bit strange. She didn't understand why he'd pretend to be a seeker, when he wasn't one. However, she just shrugged it off for now.

She tied the belt around her waist, drew the shortsword and carefully approached the creature, so as not to wake it up. And then, when she was right beside it, she brought down the blade into the center of its gaping hole, twisting it afterwards.

The beast made a gargling noise, its tendrils rising outwards, which made Clest jump back. The tendrils shook and looked around, as if panicking. Some also wrapped around the sword hilt. It was a pretty bizarre sight to behold.

After a few seconds, the tendrils all became unmoving.

"Phew, well that looked creepy." Clest mumbled, approaching the dead Rafflesia. "Come here. Help me dissect this thing."

Pine quickly walked towards where the Raflessia was. Clest then told him to hold the edges of the mouth, while she sliced downwards with her knife, to easily reveal the inside of its mouth.

"Okay, hold down that part open, but make sure your face doesn't get too close."

"Got it." Pine nodded rapidly.

Opening up the sliced mouth like a banana peel, the Rafflesia's digestive organ was fully revealed. There were rings within rings of small, worm-like protrusions on the bottom, covered in thick slime. On the edges, there were dark purple sacks, with a few puckered tubes coming out of it.

Clest used her knife to carve out the spore sac from the digestive wall, but to both of their surprise, the creature shook for a bit and made a short gargle.

The spore sac opposite of Clest shivered, its puckered tubes twitching, before it shot out a fume of spores into Clest's face. It was a direct hit.

Clest quickly let go of the Rafflesia and retreated, making sure she did not breathe any spore at all.

She used the hem of her tunic to wipe the majority of the spores from her face, and using the corners to clean her nose and eyes from any spores that might have been inside.

"Shit!" Pine cursed, grabbing his shortsword and using it to stab the flower a couple more times. He then ran towards in front of Clest. He tore off a hanging piece of cloth from his tunic, and used it to help wipe the spots Clest missed.

"Clest, here, wait, don't open your eyes yet."

Clest stopped moving and just allowed Pine to do the job for her. She was still holding her breath while Pine gently, but quickly brushed off any remaining spores from her face, her hair, and her clothes too.

"There, I don't see anymore purple." Pine told her, which instantly made her exhale sharply, and then breathe back in deeply.

She also opened her eyes, squinting them.

"Oh, no..." she mumbled, her expression turning sour. "I got some in my eyes."

"...Is that bad???" Pine worriedly asked her.

"It depends on how much entered my eyes." Clest bit her lip, her eyes still squinted. Her sclera was starting to develop redness. "Quick, get me a waterfruit. We have to wash my eyes."

"Okay, okay. Sit down." Pine helped her sit down on the ground, before hurriedly climbing a watertree to get a water fruit. The moment he got down, he rushed back to Clest's side and made her turn her head backwards.

"Hold your eyelids open." Pine told her, which she did without hesitation. Pine then poured a stream of water directly into her eyes, one at a time.

After that, Clest straightened her neck and said, "Okay, that's enough."

She had closed her eyes now, and it was obvious her eyelids were swollen, especially her right eye.

Pine knelt down before her and brushed some wet hair away from her eyes. "What's gonna happen now?"

Clest forced a smile. "It should only be some swelling and redness. I think I'll be fine."

Pine breathed a sigh of relief.

But that wasn't the entire truth.

Clest was not sure at all if swelling and redness was all that could happen to her eyes. With enough spores that got into her eyes, she could start to bleed from her eyes. And worse, she could even be visually impaired permanently.

She just didn't tell Pine that, because one, she didn't want him to worry; and two; she didn't even want to consider that possibility.