Rask watched Evangeline, lost in thought. She had turned to gaze at the setting sun, the lingering glow spilling across her jade-like profile and cloaking her in a divine light. He dazedly thought, ’Perhaps the Beast God Witch from ages ago looked just like this?’

Julian’s gaze also lingered on Evangeline for a long time. When her words reached his ears, his breath hitched for a moment.

’What on earth did she mean by that?’

"Time to head back." A flicker of indifference crossed Evangeline’s features as her red lips parted. She turned and stepped into the deepening twilight.

’Her final retirement, and she still had to waste it on a mission. How ironic. And how pitiful and tragic, wasn’t it?’

Julian’s hands at his sides suddenly clenched, his knuckles turning white. He didn’t know why, but as he watched her solitary figure retreat, a dull ache bloomed in his chest, mingled with a faint unease.

Before he could dwell on it, a swift shape rushed past him. Rask had thrown caution to the wind and was chasing after Evangeline.

Julian’s expression shifted. He frowned and followed, about to call out, but he saw that Rask wasn’t getting close to Evangeline. He was simply following at a distance, dispatching any Wild Beasts that drew near as darkness fell before silently resuming his post.

There was something about Rask’s behavior that seemed familiar to Julian.

It was only when he saw Rask push some gathered wild fruit into Evangeline’s hands that it dawned on him.

’Wasn’t Rask’s clumsy attempt at protecting her exactly the same as his own, secretly following Evangeline all this way?’

Julian stared at Rask for a long while before finally looking away and silently falling in line behind Evangeline.

The two "Flower Guardians" fell into a surprisingly effective rhythm. One would stand guard and drive off Wild Beasts, while the other would gather fruit and hunt.

Neither of them made any effort to hide, and Evangeline never told them to leave.

’She had already made herself clear. Since they were perfectly happy with the arrangement, why should she play the villain?’

Life is short; finding one’s place is its own kind of fulfillment. For Julian and Rask, simply following her and taking care of trivial tasks was enough to bring them contentment.

The return journey was much smoother than expected. In just ten days’ time, they arrived back at Blackwater Swamp.

The entire trip had taken nearly two months, and the hunting season on the Beastman Continent was already drawing to a close.

Before Evangeline could even set foot in the swamp, a swift figure swept her into an embrace.

The embrace was cool and held a barely perceptible tremor. The hug was so tight it seemed he wanted to crush her into his very being, but upon feeling the swell of her abdomen, he instinctively pulled back a few inches at the waist.

"Thorne." Evangeline looked up at the impassive curve of his jaw, a faint smile gracing her lips. She wrapped her arms around his waist and whispered, "I’m back."

Thorne squeezed his eyes shut, his Adam’s apple bobbing violently. He buried his face deep in the crook of her neck, the dark scale patterns on his own neck faintly visible. He continued to hold her tightly, the bulging veins on his arms a testament to the agony he had suppressed while she was away.

His voice was impossibly raw. "If you hadn’t come back... I would have gone insane."

Evangeline rested against his chest, feeling his heart hammer wildly against his ribs. Her fingers threaded through his long, loose hair as she spoke, her voice soft and gentle. "I’m sorry I took so long. You’re not mad at me, are you?"

The grim, vicious energy that had coiled between Thorne’s brows slowly dissipated. His dark green eyes, reflecting only her, grew impossibly tender.

The pads of his calloused fingers gently stroked the small of her back. "Eva," he murmured, "how could I ever be angry with you?"

Not far off, Rask leaned against a tree trunk with his arms crossed, squinting at the intimate embrace of the couple. He shot a glance at Julian. "So that’s the female’s Beast Husband? He doesn’t look like anything special."

’A Seven-star Patterned Beastman. He carries the dank, swampy scent of a snake, and it makes my very bones tense up.’

Julian glanced at him, a hint of scorn in his molten gold eyes.

’Snake Beastmen and Toad Beastmen, just like Goldeagle Beastmen and Snake Beastmen, are born enemies. How could they ever coexist peacefully?’

The two of them weren’t exactly quiet. Thorne loosened his embrace on Evangeline and looked over.

His vertical pupils contracted the moment he saw the two other powerful males, and his hand on Evangeline’s waist tightened reflexively.

His eyes narrowed and his jawline tensed, but he merely lowered his head to nuzzle the crown of her hair. "Come on, let’s go home. We listened to you. We haven’t been idle while you were gone. The Blackwater Swamp you see now is not the same one you left."

"Oh?" Now that he mentioned it, Evangeline was rather curious.

"Why don’t you see for yourself, Eva?" Thorne chuckled, sweeping her up into his arms and turning to head deeper into the swamp.

After passing through a thicket of reeds, she saw a tall fence that seemed to have sprung from the earth itself. Even though she had expected changes, Evangeline was still taken aback. The enclosure was a full three meters high and covered in thorny vines—Loras’s handiwork, without a doubt.

Outside the fence was a lush green bamboo forest. A breeze passed through, and the leaves rustled.

Thorne led Evangeline by the hand. Seeing her stunned expression, he couldn’t hide his pride, his voice bubbling with an eagerness for praise. "So, Eva? What do you think? Isn’t it exactly like you described? We haven’t been lazy, have we?"

A smile touched Evangeline’s lips. She pushed open the gate in the fence and stared at the staggered, overlapping bamboo houses inside, her expression one of mild surprise. "Are these...?"

Thorne raised an eyebrow and snorted. "That was Caden Albright’s idea. He said since we could build bamboo houses, we might as well build them higher. Two stories means we can store food. With Loras here, it was no problem at all. Besides, the view is better from up high. So we rebuilt all of our houses."

"Eva, from my house, you can see the sunrise and sunset over the entire swamp. It’s beautiful."

"Now that you’re back, you have to come over often so we can watch them together!"

Evangeline marveled to herself. ’Who said the people of the Wildlands were simple-minded?’

’They can build bamboo houses and even improve them into two-story structures. If they keep this up, they’ll be entering a new age of civilization.’

The small pouch at Evangeline’s waist suddenly stirred, and a little, snow-white head poked out.

Its pitch-black eyes gazed at the bamboo houses, gleamed for an instant, and then it ducked back inside.

Behind them, Julian took in the scene and pressed his lips into a thin line.

’He remembered that Evangeline had instructed them to do all this.’

"By the Beast God..." Rask stared wide-eyed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. He looked at the settlement in utter disbelief. "This... is this really a place on the Beastman Continent? Built by Beastmen?"

Thorne glanced back over his shoulder, his long brows knitting together as a sharp glint flashed in his dark green eyes.

Evangeline walked around the bamboo houses, and the area suddenly opened up before her.

The entire clearing was filled with neatly arranged bamboo racks. Hundreds of tanned beast skins were hung up to dry, most of them the soft, fluffy pelts of Wild Beasts that looked incredibly warm at just a glance.

Lachlan’s slender fingers brushed across a snow-white pelt. His long, linen-colored hair was lifted by the breeze, causing the jade ornaments woven into it to chime softly. At the sound of familiar footsteps, he froze, his knuckles turning white.

"Lachlan."

At the soft call, Lachlan spun around. When his clear, gray-brown eyes fell upon Evangeline, a tempest of emotion churned within them.

"I’m back." Evangeline gazed at Lachlan’s long, linen-colored hair, which shimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight. A small smile touched her lips as a wave of relief and joy, one she hadn’t even realized she was feeling, washed through her.