With the rucksack in his hands, Ashton forcefully shoved the man in front of him away and hurriedly stood in front of the little Stemman to protect it.
"What the hell is that?" Mail suddenly shouted.
"Loner... Crazy Loner... is harboring a monster," Liam added while taking a few steps back.
Ashton felt quite shocked by how scared they were since the Stemman doesn’t look that scary; it can even be considered extremely cute.
But unlike the image Ashton had in his head, the Stemman behind him appeared differently to the two. Its mouth was wide open while its face slowly began seeping out a strange fluid.
The two brothers were about to lose their minds in fear.
"Lord Marlus... will... hear of this." They dropped a threat before they both scrambled off.
"That’s strange," Ashton muttered before turning around to look at the Stemman, but all he saw was a cute and curious face and nothing else. There wasn’t anything at that sight that should scare them that much.
Being slightly shocked was fine, but that level of fear isn’t natural.
But that wasn’t the scariest part of this confrontation; it was the aftermath.
"He would probably realize that I have become a lord too," Ashton muttered.
’That is a lot of trouble,’
He repositioned his hold on the sack in his hand and proceeded to pick up the cloth on the floor; he was about to rewrap the Stemman.
His hand suddenly froze mid-hair as he felt he saw the world grow brighter even though it was by a lot less; his Willforce had grown.
This increase managed to upset some of the losses he had accrued since last night.
Instead of waiting in the middle of the road to analyze, he shoved that feeling aside for a bit and continued what he was about to do.
With two other times of experience, Ashton managed to do this one faster than ever before; in less than one minute, he was done, and they were already heading back home.
Except for the little hiccup they had, the rest of their journey was smooth, and soon they had arrived back at the entrance.
Ashton expected to open the door to a peaceful house or at least not an attack, but once again, his expectations were subverted.
He opened the door, took a step in, and immediately tripped and fell flat on the ground, face first.
’What?’ he thought before looking back at his legs.
They were currently stuck in tiny vines that ran from both sides of the door. The vine stalker had placed them in such a way that opening the door didn’t affect it, but walking him was sure to get you to fall.
’Did it do this as a way of protection, or was it just pulling a prank?’ he thought while looking at the Vine guy.
The face he saw gave him all the answers he needed. It was absolutely hysterical at the sight of Ashton on the ground, and he almost couldn’t laugh.
’So this guy is playing a prank on me,’
He didn’t stress that too much; he just sat up and tried pulling the vines apart, but despite how much stronger he had gotten since becoming a lord, he still couldn’t tear a single one apart.
’This thing is strangely strong.’
While he struggled, he watched the Stemman walk over the vines and even over him and enter the living room.
"Please unwind it," Ashton finally gave in and begged.
In response, the Vine guy had a look of contemplation before nodding. The tiny vines that were all around Ashton’s legs were now slowly receding back into it; in the end, he was free again.
"Thank you,"
Ashton didn’t even have the time or will to even chastise it for that action; he just stood up, closed the door, picked up the sack, and entered the kitchen.
Selene had waited long enough.
About ten to twenty minutes later, he was ready. He carried the bowl of mashed bananas with tiny flakes of oat. He managed to scrape off the bottom of the container and approached the room.
While he walked, he noticed a slightly green color of the mashed bananas, but he quickly discarded it, concluding that it was probably the effects of Plant Blessing on the plants.
Inside the bedroom, he looked at the Guardian Sprout still lying on the bed; he dropped the meal first before giving his order.
"Open the root cradle," he said.
There was no response even after a few breaths had gone by, but before he repeated himself, the guardian finally listened. The roots slowly began unwinding, and soon the peaceful Selene was back in view.
He bent over to pick her up before telling the guardian to leave that spot.
Ashton looked at the deep squish that had occurred on that side of the bed, so he changed his mind and moved her to the other side.
He laid her back down and got to the business of feeding her.
Spoon after spoon disappeared down her throat, but Ashton didn’t stop until the plate was empty.
"That should be enough to last you for a while," he said while standing back up.
He didn’t use all of the bananas since he planned on giving her more of them again tomorrow.
Since the most important tasks of the day were done, Ashton now had some free time, so he decided to read the book again, and he was doing this for two reasons.
He wanted to see if there was any explanation for the increase in Willforce he got on the way back home and also because he had skimmed through most of the previous night.
He moved to the living room, where he sat down with the four plant sprouts that were currently doing their things.
The knights remained prideful and just stared off, but now it seems to have discovered what windows were and was now looking out the window.
The Guardian was resting on the ground with a blank face; the Vine guy was leisurely playing with its vines, while the Stemman had moved close to him and was now staring at the boom in his hand.
He ignored it and began searching for what he needed; after a few page turns, he found it.
"How do Lords Progress?"