The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 66

#66.

Victor reported the situation like a machine gun.

“Yes, yes! That ferret’s whale [referring to Tebi, who is in the form of a fish] ate all the pheromone poison at the scene of the rampage! S, surely my mission was a success……!”

He tried to make excuses afterward, but the other party cut him off.

― The success or failure of the mission will be discussed later. Tell me the details of the situation first.

Victor, relieved by the other party’s somewhat softened voice, began to babble.

“That’s…….”

* * *

Zachary took me to the front of the secret garden’s door.

Why did he bring me here?

Zachary had a thoughtful look on his face, with me tucked under his arm.

His dazed expression revealed a complex state of mind.

Is it because he almost died from the rampage?

Or is he relieved to have survived?

I forgot about struggling and stared at Zachary. It didn’t seem like I should interrupt him now.

After a while, he put me down. I jumped down and distanced myself from him to see his expression more clearly.

Tebi, back in the form of a fish, was leisurely swimming beside me.

Zachary glanced at Tebi and asked,

“I’ve been wanting to ask since earlier, what is that?”

You’re asking that so late.

He probably didn’t even have the mind to ask that. I shrugged and replied,

“It’s a friend I found in Hebel.”

“Hebel? Then you really did steal it?”

“No! I didn’t steal…… I think?”

I couldn’t be sure and tilted my head. After all, it was an act of swiping the sacred object from Hebel’s well.

Besides, I snatched something that should have belonged to Ella, so wouldn’t that be closer to taking it away?

As I kept tilting my head, Zachary asked irritably,

“So, did you steal it or not?”

“Does something change a lot depending on the answer?”

Zachary chuckled at my hesitant question. It was a sneer.

“If you stole it, just say you didn’t, and if you didn’t steal it, just say you didn’t.”

In the end, my answer doesn’t matter, does it?

I looked at Zachary with a slightly dumbfounded face. But the truth was, his answer made me feel relieved.

I put my hands together neatly and said,

“Actually, I found it in Hebel’s well. Tebi appeared after I swallowed a marble there.”

“The well? Then were you the one who reopened that well?”

“I guess you could say that?”

If I hadn’t taken out the Pearl of Purification that was stuck there, it would still be blocked, so it wasn’t a lie.

“Hoo.”

Zachary smirked as if he had heard very interesting news.

“Then we’ll have something to show off on our side too.”

It was like the smile a villain makes when plotting something. His smile was so unsettling that I grabbed his sleeve and asked in an anxious voice,

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you think I’m going to do?”

“I don’t know, but can’t you not do it?”

“No, I can’t.”

Zachary chuckled, exuding an eerie aura. I wondered why Zerachiel was crazy, but it was clear that the Black Lion’s genes passed down craziness from generation to generation.

“I wondered why you suddenly became so good at handling pheromones. That thing was helping you.”

Zachary seemed to glance at Tebi, then clapped his hands.

“Then let’s finish with that whale here.”

Zachary sighed and suddenly grabbed the doorknob.

“Oh!”

Before I could even realize it, the door opened. I was immediately blinded by the light and entered the secret garden, looking up at him with a dazed expression.

This is where I promised to come with Zerachiel…….

I felt uneasy about breaking the promise unintentionally and glanced around.

It was like nighttime here. Only the soft, moonlight-like lighting illuminated the flowers in the glass cases. It was a place that reminded me of a memorial hall.

‘It’s just like I read in the novel.’

The flowers in the glass cases were withered, with only the stems remaining. The names of the successive heads of the Jabesi family were written under each glass case.

‘It’s really like a tomb.’

I didn’t know when I only heard the descriptions in the novel, but now that I actually saw it, I understood why Zerachiel called this place ‘Jabesi’s Tomb.’

The atmosphere was so bleak and gloomy. I was blankly frozen when I belatedly discovered that Zachary had gone far ahead.

“L, let’s go together!”

Zachary didn’t seem to hear my voice and was moving quickly with his tall legs, as if he was in a hurry to check something.

I moved my legs diligently with a determined look on my face. But he was too fast, and the distance didn’t narrow easily.

Thump, thump, thump.

It was when I barely managed to catch up to him with my short legs.

Bang!

I groaned as my nose slammed into Zachary’s back when he suddenly stopped.

“Ouch!”

My nose was tingling. It was the same shock as when I bumped into his leg on the day we first met.

Could his body be made of stone?

I was thinking that when I finally saw Zachary’s face. My eyes widened.

“Father?”

Zachary was motionless even at my call. His golden eyes were shaking as if there was an earthquake.

Naturally, I turned my head in the direction he was looking, and my mouth dropped open.

‘What is that?’

One of the glass cases was sparkling. The light was emitted from the flower.

What was unusual was that the color of the flower was white. An alien white flower among all the black flowers.

The sparse petals, as well as the stem and stalk, were pure white, emitting light on their own, like an ice flower frozen as it was.

Underneath it was written Father’s name.

[Zachary Avron Jabesi]

And next to it was Zerachiel’s flower, which had not yet bloomed. Unlike the other black flowers, the lively black flower bud seemed to contrast with the white flower.

‘How did this happen?’

I had never heard of a white flower in the secret garden in the novel. Zachary’s flower should also be black.

That’s when it happened.

Thud.

Zachary knelt down in front of the flower, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably as he clenched his fist tightly.

“Ha, haha.”

Zachary let out a hollow laugh like a crazy person. Then he started to unbutton his clothes like he was really insane.

“Gasp!”

Surprised, I covered my eyes with my hands. But I clearly saw through the gaps in my fingers.

Zachary’s firm chest and abdomen were covered with dense muscles. And on his chest, a white flower was blooming.

‘What is that……?’

When Zachary was rampaging, strange black vines were growing all over his body. The increasingly black vines looked dangerous at a glance.

But now, all those vines had disappeared, and only a clear white flower remained on his chest, as if nothing had happened.

Well, the vines were fading right after I used pheromones. When Tebi swallowed all the pheromone poison that was spread in the sky, they disappeared.

The tattoo engraved like a medal felt harmless, unlike the vine tattoos that were engraved all over his body earlier.

Zachary groped here and there on his body, not caring about my gaze. I was puzzled by his actions, as if he was looking for something.

‘Could it be that he can’t see it?’

It was when I took a step closer to Zachary, who had hardened like a stone.

The white flower engraved on his chest seemed to fade away and then disappeared, as if it had finished all its work.

“Ah.”

I shouted without realizing it at what happened in an instant.

At that moment, he raised his head sharply and looked at me. His eyes, which were always dull and hollow, seemed to be sparkling today. Zachary muttered softly with a face full of joy.

“It’s gone.”

“Yes?”

“The Madness Flower is gone.”