Yuna looked down at the somewhat dark, withering, mutated Moonlit Orchid.
Although her master seemed sloppy and unreliable, Yuna still believed that she wouldn't let her keep something dangerous. Without the dimension stone releasing that horrendous energy, maybe the Moonlit Orchid's roots wouldn't have expanded and wriggled like tentacles.
Even so, Yuna had no plan to feed it blood, so she simply placed it on her room cabinet and forgot all about it—until now, when she decided to clean her room thoroughly and saw the flower collecting dust, slowly withering.
After pulling it out again, she hesitated. Should she let it die?
Ermm…
Yuna felt conflicted.
She had been tending herbs these days and had grown quite fond of gardening.
Ugh… to just let it die after not taking care of it for almost half a year, when it only showed early signs of withering—Yuna couldn't help but admire its tenacity.
Though admiration was admiration, taking care of it was another matter entirely. It was fine to care for plants that needed good soil, water, and sufficient sunlight, but a flower that needed blood… yeah, she really wasn't into that.
Sighing, Yuna poured water onto the flower and moved it toward the window. Hopefully, she could try tending to it the normal way first.
And…
"I'll respect your strong will to survive."
For a week, Yuna took care of the flower, albeit reluctantly, but… the flower showed no sign of recovery.
Ughh…
Did she really have to give it blood?
Bruh…
That evening, Yuna drained the blood from the game her grandfather caught. She carefully brought the small bowl and poured it onto the flower. The flower, which previously showed no vitality, suddenly straightened at a speed visible to the naked eye. Although it still looked decadent, it was in stark contrast to its dark, withered appearance just moments ago.
"This shit—" Yuna cursed. Anything that lived and was nurtured on blood didn't look like a good thing. Indeed, it wasn't, especially when she recalled the terrible tentacle-like roots wreaking havoc during the Moonlit expedition.
There were blood debts at the hands of that mutated thing.
Thinking of it that way made Yuna feel extremely uncomfortable.
"I'll just pour animal blood from now on then." Pursing her lips, Yuna was about to wash the bowl when the flower, which had stood upright, suddenly darkened and wilted. Its appearance was even worse than before.
"The heck!"
Yuna's eyes widened in shock. "Don't tell me it doesn't like animal blood and only likes human blood. This thing is really not good."
Wanting to verify her conjecture—and ready to let it die if it were true—Yuna pricked her finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the wilting flower.
If it truly needed human blood to survive, she didn't want to raise it.
Surprisingly—or perhaps not—the flower straightened once more. Its dark appearance receded, and even its previous red color began to change into a shade of green.
That wasn't all. The flower stalk elongated, and Yuna, lacking any sense of crisis, observed the change. Suddenly, at an unfathomable speed, the stalk wrapped itself around her hand.
"What the fuck!"
The roots of the flower split into countless thin tendrils and drilled into her hand in a way Yuna couldn't comprehend. They wriggled through her veins and bloodstream.
Terrified, Yuna roughly tried to pull the flower away as it continued to drill in. It didn't matter whether she bled or whether it hurt—she wasn't going to let some unknown species invade her body and take root in her veins.
However, the flower clung to her like super glue and couldn't be pried off at all. Yuna's heart raced as cold sweat ran down her body. She tugged desperately, refusing to give up, but the flower wouldn't budge. The stalk coiled around her hand like a snake.
"Knife… I need a knife!"
Gritting her teeth, Yuna dashed into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. She tried to cut the flower, but it was as hard as steel. Panic surged as her heart pounded like a drum.
Suppressing her fear and anxiety, Yuna tried to think of another way.
"Wait… shit!" As if struck by sudden inspiration—and scolding herself for being foolish—Yuna slapped her forehead in frustration.
She conjured fire, hoping it would burn the flower to ash.
However…
The flower, as if resistant to her element, continued its maneuver.
Stunned by her failure and with no other options left, Yuna froze in place. She closed her eyes, too scared to watch the roots burrow deeper into her veins. Cold sweat drenched her body as tears gathered in her eyes.
'This is such a stupid way to die.'
Damn her curiosity. Damn her momentary pity.
Yuna didn't forget the one who gave her the flower. 'Master! I'm going to haunt you!'
She should never have trusted her master!
'Is my body going to be taken over? …It hur— huh? Wait… it doesn't hurt at all!'
Surprised, Yuna felt the roots moving through her veins. When she focused on the flower, she sensed a faint bond—something like the flower had become part of her body.
Opening her eyes, Yuna's expression became hard to read. "Not as a parasite… but as part of my body?"
Yuna swore she could feel the flower communicating with her.
Not through language, but through shared consciousness.
After another minute, the roots settled down. The snake-like green stalk wound tightly around her hand, resembling vine-shaped jewelry. The flower itself shrank into a small bud, as if it wouldn't bloom unless commanded.
With a complicated mood, Yuna tried to move, and the vine-like stalk obediently elongated and waved under her control.
"…I guess I'm Spider-Woman… ugh."
What was she supposed to do with it? Study it? Learn to wield it like a whip?
Forget it. Her life wasn't in danger, and she didn't dare investigate further. The gory scene of the roots drilling into flesh had traumatized her, and she was afraid the flower possessed that same horrendous ability—one she might be able to command.
Just imagining it drilling into people and sucking their blood while connected to her made her feel sick.
The flower conveyed that she had an affinity with it because of the dimension stone in her chest and her pure blood, constantly refined by the elements. It didn't tell her outright, but shared the consciousness that it liked the stone and her blood. That was why it merged with her, becoming one entity.
'Who wants to be one entity with you?!' Yuna roared internally.
She didn't want to know more. She really was a coward.
If she were the main protagonist, maybe she'd be curious or boldly try to understand it more deeply. But she wasn't. She was Yuna—an ordinary person, a coward.
She decided to let life take its course for now. She wanted to live a leisurely life. If she embarked on the path of uncovering the truth, there would be no peace—only anxiety and stress. She had read enough novels to know that.
Yuna's lips twitched. Right now, she felt less and less like a Homo sapiens.
"…It's fine. It's not being in a human body that makes someone human," Yuna consoled herself as she cleaned up the mess caused by her panic.
Once again, she survived, and that was all that mattered.
This… this was a fantasy world, so she should get used to it, right?
Wrong.
Yuna really couldn't get used to this.
If this was how the fantasy world worked, she needed to prepare her heart thoroughly—or one day she might die of a heart attack.
She only hoped she wouldn't experience anything this "stimulating" again. Her heart was weak; she couldn't handle any more shocks.
Perhaps heaven took pity on her, because Yuna didn't experience any more "stimulating" events.
She devoted herself to studying apothecary and practicing her wind element. She saved enough money and finally opened a bank account in her own name. She also returned to spending time on what she loved most—reading novels.
Although the novels were written in a medieval-like era and left much to be desired, beggars couldn't be choosers.
Even if the genres were repetitive—heroes slaying evil, melodramatic romances between princes and commoners, nobles and commoners, sword masters reaching the pinnacle of swordsmanship, heroic tales of knights—it was still better than having nothing to read.
…Uhm… better than nothing.
Sigh…