We finally saw Akantayena's true appearance and realized that she wasn't aggressive anymore, so we all heaved a sigh of relief. We also found a water source nearby, which was perfect for washing our bodies and clothes. My wife and I waited for them to finish washing before we joined in.

I carefully washed away the dirt on my wife's tail with water, as it had been a long time since we took a bath together and I felt a bit shy about it. One of the main reasons why Medusa didn't like bathing was because the living conditions were not good - the water was cold, and it became even colder after bathing when the wind blew. So, I tried to heat up the water as much as possible, quickly dried ourselves after washing, and then cuddled with her in bed for a while to warm up before sleeping. Although Medusa couldn't catch a cold, prolonged exposure to low temperatures would affect her physical condition.

Although my wife always complained about feeling cold, I still wanted her to be clean and neat, and not covered in dirt. We would wash the dirty clothes later when we had time, and for now, we would change into spare ones.

After we finished washing, we planned to make a fire, but it wasn't dark yet. Park had been hugging the mud girl for almost the whole afternoon, and I didn't know if sparks of love had ignited between them. Wolfrang sat calmly, while Leya was on the side applying medicinal powder on him and scolding him at the same time. Simmon had disappeared somewhere.

"You can't run if you can't win."

"It's not that I can't... completely beat them..."

"What about the injuries? It'll take several days to heal."

"It's not a big deal... it's not that severe..."

"Oh, it's not severe? Then I won't care about you."

"No, Leya, I admit that I acted impulsively, but the situation was critical."

"Why didn't you call me for help?"

"I, uh... didn't want you to, you know."

"To do what?"

"I... didn't want you to be in danger."

"Oh, so now you're worried about me being in danger?"

"Yes, because, after all, this life-threatening battle is for us werewolves to handle. You're a succubus..."

"Do you even know how worried I am about you?"

"I..."

My wife and I exchanged glances and decided not to disturb this desperate couple. We sat in the car to take a rest.

Herbs, panacea, and applying ointment on Wolfrang's injury. My mind wandered, and I remembered the time when I had a bad cold and Medusa chewed herbs for me to eat. 305 days had passed, and if I stayed at home, these more than 7,000 hours would have passed in the blink of an eye. But here, it felt like I had experienced 3,000 days - from not being able to speak at all when I first arrived, to now being able to astonish the nobles of the kingdom; from having one ab muscle on my stomach to having six; and from roasting rabbit meat with a big sword every day to finally being able to eat warm buns.

But has our life really improved? Have we achieved our initial goals?

We were constantly dragged into one chaos after another, and the calm and peaceful life I had hoped for never came. Instead, we became puppets manipulated by fate, and no one could guess what dangers and surprises would come next.

"Wife, let's go back home."

"Husband, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, I just want to go back home with you."

Regret is like a drop of red ink, dripping onto the seemingly calm surface of the heart, staining all anxieties and unease. I held Medusa tightly, and my nose rested on her shoulder.

Everyone lives in regrets, even if you were given countless chances to make different choices, you would still regret not doing this or that. People always have to make choices, and when choosing a direction, we are all the most foolish. Because from that point on, there is no turning back. Compared to the mild word "choice," a high-stakes gamble is more fitting.

"If I could go back, I wouldn't have taken you on this journey."

"If I could go back, I wouldn't have left you, and I wouldn't have gone to the kingdom."

"If I could go back, I would always live with you in that cave..."

But a person cannot be divided into two. If the left foot goes left, the right foot must go left as well. Regardless of glory and frustration, they are all choices we made, and no one forced us.

"Wife, let's go back home, okay?"

"Okay."

"Then let's go now..."

"Yeah, let's go."

"But we can't leave..."

I buried my head in Medusa's chest, tears circling in my eyes. I tried my best to hold back the whimpering and forcefully sniffed my nose, meeting her gaze with a smile on my face."Wife, do you remember the song I used to sing before?"

"Lalala?"

"Haha, yes, lalala."

She amused me, so I cheered up and taught her how to sing. It's the only thing I want to do now.

As we sang, it felt like time was going back. We were just like before, looking at the sunset, full of hope even though we didn't know what kind of future we would face.

"Oh, singing, huh?"

Park came over, holding the mud girl. They were both covered in mud.

"Well, just sing a few lines when you have time, how about that? Can you have a conversation with her now?"

"No, she can't speak."

"Oh... then let's send her back, it's getting dark."

Even if the beef had gone down the drain, I didn't know if the multi-headed dragon could survive. This mud girl seemed to be the owner of that multi-headed dragon. She usually didn't show up, only appearing when the multi-headed dragon couldn't handle things. Let's think back, I don't even remember how this battle happened, maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

"Raul, do you really want to send her back? Shouldn't we let Simmon know...?"

"No need, everyone has their own home. Let's send her back early."

Park and the mud girl were together, not like a couple, but more like father and daughter. Well, let it be. Regardless of whether Simmon still wanted those precious herbs or not, this girl has suffered so much. Maybe what we did was a bit excessive. Let it be.

"I'll take you home now, let's go~"

I watched the two of them walk into the rainforest, and suddenly remembered the black market emblem.

"Wait, Park."

I ran over and showed the emblem to the mud girl, hoping she would recognize this antique.

When the mud girl took the emblem with her coffee-colored hands, she made a sound that we couldn't understand, but we could be sure that she recognized the black market emblem. Hey, what's the big deal? If we had taken it out earlier, we wouldn't have had to fight her. But at that time, everyone was in a panic and no one thought of it.

The mud girl jumped out of Park's arms, pulling the big hand of the craftsman and running towards the swamp. I signaled Park to follow her and if possible, talk to her about the herbs. Watching the muddy footprints left by the girl on the ground, I felt inexplicably happy. It was like my wife holding my hand and leading me to find delicious wild fruits.

While smoking a cigarette, it's easy to develop esophageal cancer. I understand the reasoning, but I just can't quit. I blew out a smoke ring, perfectly framing a star. It turns out that the night sky here is not as starry as I imagined. The night sky, starry night sky, crescent moon night sky... I don't even know what I'm thinking.

"Wife, have you seen 'My Little Monster'?"

"What's that?"

"Nothing, I'm just talking nonsense."

"Don't talk nonsense anymore..."

Lying on the ground, I let my wife rest her head on my chest. The Chinese mixed with the language of this different world sounds like a spell.

If my wife knew that I used to be a shut-in, would she still like me?

I couldn't help but laugh at my own thoughts.

After yawning twice, right when I was about to close my eyes, the black merchants started to stir.

It was Park coming back, and he brought back a big bunch of herbs along with the muddy soup on his body. Rather than saying they were herbs, they looked more like flowers.

Park probably explained the situation, it was actually a misunderstanding. It had been a long time since they traded herbs with the multi-headed dragon, and the creature had forgotten the old trading rules. The multi-headed dragon wasn't intelligent enough, it only knew how to take the meat, and the mud girl couldn't remember what she should use to exchange with. So there was no progress. When the multi-headed dragon heard my lyrics, it thought there was still meat to eat, so it came out again, and then a series of battles ensued. After everything was clarified, the mud girl picked some herbs for us. As for the foolish, cute, and violent multi-headed dragon, it was surprisingly healed and could now run around with small steps again.

Park's explanation matched my guess, so I pointed at his forehead.

"Clean your face first, it's not good for people to see you like this~""It's okay, this mud... Um, are you talking about here?"

"Yes, you didn't even realize you were kissed?"

The craftsman brother remembered something, slapped his forehead to cover the kiss mark, and went to find water to wash his face.

Everyone gathered around the scattered herbs on the ground. A few older uncles bent down to examine them under the light of the bonfire, but none of them dared to easily pick up the plants with strange patterns by hand. It wasn't until Simmon arrived with a lantern that we learned the purpose of the herbs.

These herbs only grow deep in the Great Bog, right in the territory of the Multi-Headed Dragon and the Mud Lady. They were originally discovered by a group of black marketers, who encountered the Multi-Headed Dragon during their exploration of the Great Bog. After feeding the seven-headed creature with all their food, the black marketers received a reward - precious herbs.

The herbs look like money plants, with two leaves unfurling at the top, each leaf splitting into eight. The leaf veins under the firelight are tinged with the purple-red color of cockscomb flowers, inevitably associating this healing herb with the poisonous blood of the Multi-Headed Dragon. Simmon said that this herb can revive the dying, and each herb can be refined into two bottles of Elixir. Only nobles with a level one territory in the kingdom have the right to use Elixir, and each bottle costs two thousand dollars.

I picked one up and looked at Simmon.

"Can we eat this directly?"

"Raul, don't be silly."

"If it is such a precious thing, why should we sell it to the kingdom?"

"Because we don't know how to turn it into medicine..."

"Then how do you know that this herb can be refined through magic?"

"A long time ago, we could still return to the kingdom and rely on those advanced magic spells."

"Heh, well I'll try eating it."

The process of turning the herbs into potions is interconnected. If a herb has never been eaten by people, how can it be determined that it is a medicinal herb and not just a common weed? The questions left by the senior black marketers are too many. These topics worth exploring are now being ignored. If we had a deeper understanding of those unknown things, Night Fall Town might not be what it is now.

"Wife, do you think I will die if I eat this thing?"

"Well... I don't know."

"Then I'll taste it first~"

"Husband, maybe we should wait..."

Before my wife finished speaking, I stuffed the purple-red leaf into my mouth.

Because I had a 90% certainty that I would still be alive after eating this unknown herb.