I started making the bouquet in my room. I cut the stems, arranged the flowers in a nice pattern and tied it with a gold and red bow. I left it on the desk and went to sleep with high hopes for the few days to come. The next morning, I woke up and took the extra plant to the lab.

"Any idea about this? It seems to be changing the leaf patterns." I said curiously.

"These seem to be pretty useful in making antidotes. I shall do research on this immediately." Takira said as she took some leaves and ground them into powder.

As she observed through the microscope, I went to check up on the others. They seemed to be in a stable condition and, fortunately, they were up and running. Since they had severe symptoms, they chose to stay in the medical section and take therapy sessions to regain their strength and return to normal.

"Morning. Didn't see you come in. You seem well rested and a lot better than before. Have you been eating your daily sweets?" Yukai asked as he took a break from his vigorous and demanding treatment.

"So far so good. I have increased my sweets intake by 45% since yesterday. Ate all the ice cream I could and still have enough pudding before sleep." I said cheerfully.

"That's great. It seems like you're getting back to normal yourself." He chuckled.

"Could be. I brought something from the garden. Maybe it could help you out with your disease." I smiled.

"It's not a disease. It's a curse. Everything was fine until we drank that blood that we found near the river where we found Kaede." He sighed.

Takira bursted in like if the doors weren't there. She had a few pages of the results that were from the test that was performed on the ingredients made with the plant.

"Takira, doors can open without having to be kicked down. You know that, right?" Yukai asked in a serious tone.

"Yes but I have news. This plant can cure any type of injury, disease or curse. It hardly grows in any region here and, if it does, it only grows in certain seasons. Looks like you caught it before blooming. It's not possible to make the medicine at this time. We have to let it bloom so we can make the medicine." She explained.

"That seems like an interesting idea. We'll need to guard it so no damage can come to that plant." Kaede said faintly.

"Seems like a plan. We should grow more in case if we ever need to come across it's uses again. Where did you find this?" Takira asked.

"I found it blooming off an emerald lily pad placed on the blood pond just to the right of the garden entrance. It's a good temperature there and that's where most moonlight hits during the night. If it needs moonlight to bloom, we can definitely grow a lot more there." I explained carefully.

"That would be wisest. Most of our medical plants bloom in moonlight only. We'll make sure to plant more of its seeds whenever we harvest them." Takira nodded.

"Make sure you put this plan in motion immediately to make sure we can have enough of them blooming by next week. They shouldn't take too long to bloom with the moonlight directly hitting them. Just recreate the environment settings and you should be fine to grow several hundreds by next week." I clarified.

"With the amount of space and resources we have in the lab, it should be possible to do so. I will do as you wish, majesty." With that said, Takira bowed and left with the plant to immediately start working on the project.

We went on and started designing the new area to plant these moonlit plants. Takira designed the lake with Gotsuki, then she filled it with blood and placed lily pad pods so that they could grow.

"I will keep a steady eye on the pods as soon as I get back from the wedding." Gotsuki said as she smiled.

"Nonsense. Take as much time as you need with your man. I'm sure Takira will take care of it." I said reassuringly.

"Thank you so much. Your kindness is greatly appreciated." She said happily.

"Go get rest. You need to look flawless for your wedding day." I commanded.

Gotsuki smiled, bowed and walked out to her chambers and I was left to finish off the rest of the preparations for the wedding. I organized the seating and the activity schedule within the night.

"Done. I guess I should go rest for the night." I sighed.

"You should. You have a few days left before bringing the gifts to the deities. You know they don't like to be kept waiting." A voice mentioned from the shadows. I turned towards the sound and saw Kurai leaning against a pillar, watching me.

"W-who said anything about making a deal with the deities?" I asked nervously.

"Two things told me so. First, the glass statues in my room told me more about your story. Second, your nervous response." He smirked.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" I asked.

"I just came to let you know that I'll protect you if things get out of hand in the war. Those glass monsters are pretty easy to defeat but their strength comes from numbers, not their skills." He replied.

"Do you think we need more recruits?" I asked.

"It's best to have them just in case." He replied as he thought of strategic plans for the battle.

"I'll give word to start training them." I said gratefully.

"Can you tell me one thing?" He asked nervously.

"What is it that you wish to know?" I replied curiously.

"How many deals did you do? Which were the deities that asked for favors? What was it that you asked of them? Also, most importantly,... at what price was it all worth?" He asked with a serious look.