"Oh, right. And those pureblood wizards."
Leonard let the chill slip from his face and asked with curiosity, "What's the Ministry's take on all those purebloods disappearing?"
"What take can they have?" Midgard complained. "Whether they find them or not, they're going to raise hell either way. Lately they've even come through Knockturn Alley to cause trouble more than once."
"And Lucius Malfoy?" Leonard asked. "Is he behaving?"
"Him? He's been busy," Midgard said. "His manor gets hit with surprise inspections several times a week. Oh, and I've demanded a lot of things from him recently. Enough to stock a few shops in Diagon Alley."
"He really can sit on his hands," Leonard said, shaking his head. "I'll go ask him later. See how long he plans to keep bottling it up. Things feel unsettled lately, so be careful."
"No one's coming back to pick a fight with werewolves," Midgard said. "Maybe before, someone would've tried to take revenge, but now they don't even have that idea. We're safe."
Leonard's expression soured immediately. "That's way too careless."
"Careless?" Midgard said helplessly. "Besides stepping up patrols now and then, what else am I supposed to do to improve security? The pups get tired too. I can't have them patrolling nonstop. They still have to work."
"In that case, I've got an idea." Leonard stood up and led Claudia and Midgard over to the bitterthorns that formed the Botanical Garden's outer defenses.
These bitterthorns had been trait-enhanced, their vines turning nimble and mobile, carrying venom with a numbing effect. After a second enhancement, the vines had become even faster and hit even harder.
But the bitterthorns looked a little different now. A few of them had changed in size, and two in particular were noticeably smaller.
Leonard pointed at those two smaller bitterthorns. "Come on. One each. Touch them."
Midgard and Claudia, one tall and one small, both looked surprised, but they obediently reached out.
"Ow!" Claudia squeaked, yanking her hand back. She puffed up her cheeks, aggrieved, and stared at Leonard with huge, watery eyes while pointing at the bitterthorn. "It stung me!"
Leonard smiled at the bitterthorn. Claudia had pulled back too quickly for it to form a symbiotic bond, and Leonard could practically hear the plant's flustered little "voice."
"Huh? Where's my host? My host was right here. Where'd she go?"
Symbiosis was a mutual relationship. Both sides had to accept it. It wasn't one side preying on the other. So plants that evolved toward symbiosis tended to react a little slower, and it couldn't keep up with Claudia's speed.
And once symbiosis was established, whatever faint awareness the bitterthorn possessed would sink away, leaving it in a purely passive, defensive state.
But with Claudia looking like she was about to cry, there was no way Leonard was going to blame her.
"It didn't sting you on purpose. That's just part of the process," Leonard said gently. "Look at your big sister Midgard."
Claudia turned to Midgard and saw the bitterthorn that had been rooted in the ground rise like a snake and coil up Midgard's arm.
At Midgard's fingertip, a thorn pricked through her skin. Midgard didn't pull away. She simply watched it wrap around her.
She wasn't a little girl like Claudia, afraid of a bit of pain. A tiny wound was nothing.
Midgard watched the color shift along her arm, from vivid green into a dreamy, pale pink translucence.
Then scale-like patterns shimmered across its surface. A moment later, the bitterthorn vanished completely, disappearing right in front of all three of them.
"Whoa! It disappeared!" Claudia's eyes sparkled. "Where'd it go?"
"It's still here," Midgard said. She focused for a moment, and the bitterthorn surfaced again along her arm.
The pale pink, translucent bitterthorn looked like an energy body now, its surface marked with flame-like scale traces.
"It's so pretty," Claudia said, bouncing on her toes as she stared up at it. "Big sister, can I see?"
Midgard crouched and offered her arm. "Go on."
Claudia reached out and touched the energy-like bitterthorn. It didn't hurt. Encouraged, she patted it again. "That's so weird. So cool."
"Okay, Claudia, your turn," Leonard said. He took her hand and guided it toward the bitterthorn that still seemed at a loss.
This time, the bitterthorn finally moved, slow and tentative, as though relieved to have found its target again.
It drew a single drop of blood, then climbed up Claudia's palm. Its body shifted into the same pale pink translucence, and then it gradually faded from sight.
"It worked!" Claudia shouted, then frowned in confusion. "But why can't I see it?"
"You have to call it out in your mind," Midgard said, already getting the hang of hers. "If you summon it, it'll appear."
"Call it out… in my mind?" Claudia tilted her head and tried it. Sure enough, the pale pink, energy-like bitterthorn appeared along her arm.
Now Claudia treated it like a brand-new toy, summoning it, dismissing it, and giggling as it flashed into view and vanished again.
Claudia was just having fun. Midgard, on the other hand, was testing a new weapon—or rather, a new ability.
She studied the bitterthorn on her arm and experimented with controlling it.
It felt, strangely, like the tail she grew after transforming as a werewolf. Guiding it came naturally, without any resistance.
Midgard glanced at the ground not far away and flicked her arm. The energy-like bitterthorn cut through the air with a shrill crack, and a deep gash opened in the earth.
The cut was blackened, as if scorched by intense heat.
"This is a bitterthorn reinforced with fire dragon scales," Leonard explained. "Even if you don't pay attention to it, it'll protect you on its own. It devoured fire dragon scales to form phantom scales, which buffer and reduce magical damage. And when you use it to attack, it carries burn and paralysis effects."
"Sounds great," Midgard said, eyeing the bitterthorn wrapped around her arm, clearly reluctant to part with it. "This kind of plant must be hard to cultivate."
"Not really," Leonard said. "But I'm not giving it to anyone else. For now, you two can use these to protect yourselves."
Then he added, "Oh, and it can block four instances of magical damage. After that it'll die and drop off. When it does, throw it far away. It'll explode."
"Explode?" Midgard laughed. "The plants you come up with really are dangerous."
Her gaze on Leonard softened, unusually gentle.
"What are you being polite for?" Leonard said, patting her arm. "Just… be careful. About everything."
"Mm," Midgard said quietly.