Chapter 403

Chapter 403

Lorant emerged from the breeding room, clutching the monster egg, looking distracted. Fa Meng, who had been waiting outside, began to buzz around him curiously, trying to get a glimpse of what the little thing looked like.

Both Fa Meng and the baby were eager to meet their new companion.

Having participated in every step of Lorant's material collection, they were naturally eager to see the fruits of their labor.

The little ghost bead clung to Lorant's shoulder, its tiny claws gripping his clothes tightly, craning its neck to get a clear view of the sapphire-like monster egg clutched in Lorant's hand.

...

Lancelot had been sorting out some Black Gold Yew territory business in their room, not far from the underground entrance, ever since Lorant entered the beast warehouse.

When Lorant pushed the door open and entered, the knight immediately set aside his work, turned to look at Lorant, and gave a gentle smile.

"Did the breeding process finish so quickly today? Is it all over, or do we need to continue tomorrow?" Lancelot swiveled his chair towards Lorant, but after asking a couple of questions, he suddenly noticed that the store manager seemed to be in a bad mood.

Assuming something had gone wrong during the breeding process, he immediately stood up and walked over to Lorant, looking at him seriously: "What's wrong? Did something go wrong with the breeding? It's fine, even if it failed, it's not the end of the world. We can always try again. Since we found the materials once, we can find them again. Experiments have their ups and downs; don't let it get to you."

Lancelot placed his hands on Lorant's shoulders, speaking softly to comfort him.

As he spoke, it dawned on the knight that this might be the first time he'd seen Lorant 'fail' an experiment!

Before this, although Lorant had publicly stated that he had gone through multiple experiments to find the breeding path for the monsters, in reality, Lancelot had never seen Lorant in a bad mood after any experiment.

At least, it had never been this bad.

For Lorant, experiments always seemed to come easily.

What's more, since getting close to Lorant and moving into the monster shop, Lancelot had discovered that the store manager was indeed quite mysterious.

From what Lancelot had observed, Lorant seldom needed to endure the endless trial-and-error experiments typical of mages.

Through numerous failed experiments, they would slowly figure out the right breeding process and the correct outcome.

Lorant, on the other hand, appeared to have a natural knack for this. Though he did some basic trial-and-error experiments, more often than not, it seemed he could just think it through to pinpoint the issue.

Whether a step was missing juice from a plant root or had an extra scale that led to failure.

No matter how minor the detail, Lorant could spot the problem with just a thought, saving loads of trial-and-error time.

Whenever Lorant took charge, he could pretty much nail it on the first try.

Still, it was no surprise that Lancelot assumed Lorant was upset over a failed experiment.

Mainly because the store manager's expression and body language didn't match someone who'd just aced a long-awaited experiment.

Lorant looked up, trying to dodge Lancelot's gaze, but the knight took his face in his hands, squishing his cheeks and immobilizing him.

"No, no, the experiment was a success, of course," Lorant murmured, lowering his eyes.

Lancelot was stunned: "Then what's the matter? Why so glum? Did the results fall short?" He continued to guess, somewhat puzzled.

Truth be told, Lancelot was pretty clueless about experimental matters.

Though he had a knack for magic, this battle junkie's skills didn't extend to research.

Since becoming a mage, the only spell he'd cooked up on his own was the winter fireworks signal spell, now outdone by the firework sprite.

The difficulty of modifying this low-level spell is minimal; even a second-level mage with some talent can easily master it over time.

So Lancelot could only wrack his brain trying to figure out what had made Lorant so unhappy, wanting to comfort his young shopkeeper as much as possible.

Lorant looked up, clutching the monster egg that looked like a sapphire.

The monster egg appeared exactly like a huge sapphire, but when touched, it felt warm, and with a calm heart, even the faint heartbeat inside could be sensed.

Because of the heartbeat from the monster egg, Lorant's mood suddenly settled a bit. He looked at Lancelot and couldn't help but pout.

The young man suddenly spoke with great frustration, pouring out his heart like a flood: "The set of jewels you gave me was eaten by this little one during the breeding! That family heirloom set of jewels was eaten by this little one!"

"I didn't want to, but I had no choice. The situation was different from what I imagined, so I had to use the jewels as bait," Lorant said, pouting. "And I think this little one might have wanted to eat those jewels all along. If I hadn't brought the jewels, the breeding might have stopped."

What Lorant didn't say was that he sensed if he hadn't brought the jewels into the breeding room, there was a high chance the breeding would have failed on the spot, becoming the only monster breeding failure under his hands.

He almost sounded like he was tattling when he complained to Lancelot about the little one still inside the monster egg.

He even held up the jewel-like egg for Lancelot to see.

Lancelot, after a moment of surprise, exhaled deeply.

He finally understood what Lorant was so upset about.

The knight couldn't help laughing, looking at the rarely aggrieved Lorant, who was pouting and nearly in tears, and reached out to ruffle his hair.

"What's this? You scared me! I thought something went wrong with your experiment, or something else upset you! It's just a set of jewels. If you're upset, I'll have another set made for you."

"Didn't you say that if everything goes well, the new monster might be able to rival Fa Meng in power?" Lancelot relaxed, pulling Lorant's hand and stepping back, sitting on the swivel chair, positioning Lorant in front of him.

Lancelot looked up at Lorant and teased, "Are you really going to cry over this?"

Lorant widened his eyes, pulling his hand away from the annoying knight, loudly retorting, "No! You're the one crying!"

"Good, no tears," Lancelot said, smiling as he gently pinched Lorant's nose, not minding when Lorant shook off his hand, and firmly wrapped his arms around the young man's waist, holding him in place. "Even if it's not a strong monster, as long as a new one is bred, that set of jewels was worth it."

"Besides, that set of jewels is already yours. You can do whatever you want with it."

"But it's not the same! That set of jewels is your family heirloom!" Lorant felt Lancelot was just comforting him, and his mood didn't improve at all.

"It is a family heirloom, but at its core, it's just a set of jewels. It became a family heirloom because when our ancestors were first granted the title, the family wasn't well-off, so they passed down this rare set of jewels as a treasure to their son. After two or three generations, it became a tradition to pass it down."

"But in reality, this set of jewels is just an expensive piece of jewelry. Over time, the number of so-called family heirlooms has grown, and this set is just one of the more special and ancient ones."

"Its purpose is to bring joy to the wearer. If it makes you so unhappy, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?" Lancelot finished with a smile, his sapphire-blue eyes full of sincerity, not at all dismissive.

Like a calm blue water surface, it had a soothing energy.

Lorant's anxious heart finally calmed because of these words.

Just as Lancelot said, he didn't care at all about this matter.

He didn't think his so-called family heirloom jewels were that important, at least not as important as making Lorant feel better now.

Looking at Lorant, who still looked troubled, Lancelot secretly shook his head. He held Lorant, letting the distracted young man naturally sit on his lap.

One hand pressed against his thin back, caressing the distinct butterfly bones, while the other subtly held his waist, making it impossible for him to escape even if he wanted to.

When Lorant used to spend all day underwater, even though they saw each other every day, they didn't have much time together.

Lancelot flexed his fingers and realized that his boyfriend had indeed neglected him for a long time, so it was a good chance to distract him.

Using some plausible excuses to disguise his somewhat mischievous intentions, Lancelot buried his head in the boy's neck and gently planted a kiss.

Lorant was startled and came to his senses, pressed the knight's head, trying to push him away.

But before he could exert any force, the knight made his waist go soft, and he instinctively reached out to wrap his arms around the other's neck, tilting his head back unconsciously.

Meanwhile, Fa Meng skillfully disappeared from the room with the baby.

Ugh, humans are so boring!