When Noah returned from his mind realm, plunging back into the bath where Dahlia still waited for him, Dryad saw his mood greatly changed. 

Where there was vicious anger in his burning eye before, now in the sunken-looking eyes was a sense of despair.

“Master.” She whispered, hugging him into her chest. “What happened?”

Noah embraced her back but did not speak for a long moment.

“He ruined it…” He groaned a few minutes later his face pressed deep between her breasts.

“Who? The entity inside you? What did he ruin?” She asked in a soft voice gently caressing Noah’s hair.

“Doonpines legacy. He fucking ruined it. Oh, and I know why I am not horny anymore. It’s not your fault at all. It would be no different with Tessa, Cil, or Bri. It would be no different with any woman. Hell, you were lucky I could make it stand even once.” Said Noah having a burst of hysterical laughter at the end so Dahlia hugged him stronger feeling that the situation was quite bad. “It seems that once a day is the best I can do from now on. I am eighteen but I may get erectile dysfunction before I even turn nineteen because of that plush son of a bitch.”

“WHAT!?” Exclaimed Dahlia. “Master! Is that true?”

“Yeah. It’s all his fault.”

“He ruined that? Oh no! What did he do? How can this be? This is unacceptable! We must do something immediately!” She shouted jumping up from the water, holding Noah in her hands, looking as if she was ready to dash somewhere but could not decide where.

“Stop. Relax.” Said Noah, smiling a bit after seeing the desperation on her face. 

“This is not a laughing matter, Master!” Exclaimed Dahlia, her face portraying genuine fear.

“There is a… cure so to say. Let me down please.” Said Noah.

“Sorry. I think I panicked for a moment.” Said Dahlia blushing. “So there’s a cure?”

“Yeah. Sort of. And it’s not anything permanent…for now at least. So there is no need for panic.” Said Noah.

“But this is a serious matter. For me and my sisters at least. Just as we decided to dedicate our all to you, you out and shock me with something like that, Master. Tell me you will do everything to get it better!” She said, rubbing his dick with trembling hands.

“OK. Stop, now. You sound like I am dying. I don’t want to spend my life as impotent either. So of course I am going to do everything I can to cure it. Hell, I barely started my sex life and don’t want it to end anywhere in the foreseeable future. But this is not an important matter. The branch. The Legacy given to me by the Doonpine. The one that the three of you could not rejuvenate. It’s ruined. I don’t know how to look Doonpine in the eyes when we meet again.” Said Noah sighing as he went out of the bathroom and walked to his room to get changed.

“I think, I now hate the entity inside you as well, Master.” Said Dahlia picking up Noah’s dirty clothes from the floor and stashing them in her pocket item before walking out of the bathroom after him. “E.D.? Unacceptable! Unforgivable!” She muttered. “Because of him! It’s all his fault that it was only once! Once a day! Just once a day!” She kept muttering her mood going darker and darker. Somehow Noah felt she did not even hear what he said about the Doonpine’s branch.

They still had lots of time until morning. So Noah decided to take Dryad Queen's advice and go for a hunt in the Labyrinth. God knows he needed to vent his anger now as never before. He felt he was the most angry person on the planet

But when they reached the hunting ground he felt that he was not even that angry compared to his maid. As the massacre she committed screaming profanities and silently laughing with a vicious smile the whole time sent shivers through his body.

What he was sure of was that Ugy just earned himself a lifelong enemy.

*****

“I know we should be thankful for getting us away from that evil old witch, Fumi. But is this a punishment for that? Should we have stayed silently?” Cried a girl while staggering as her legs barely lifted to make another step.

“You heard her. She was going to send us back to town tomorrow anyway. So I bet we still would have to run back just the same only after another day in hell with that demon granny.” Said Fumiko heavily panting as she stopped looking back at her team that struggled to drag their feet over the ground to take just one more step.

 “I can’t, Fumi. I just can’t go anymore.” Said The girl falling down to her knees. “Leave me here. I don’t care anymore. That old witch can do with me whatever she wants. I just can't go on anymore.”

“We are almost there, guys. Just a little bit more. There it is. The town is just over there. We are almost in town. Come on final dash.” Said Fumiko walking back toward the sitting girl. She hunched at the girl's side grabbed her hand and put her arm over the shoulder before pulling the girl up and helping her to get back on her feet.

“Lean on me. We can do it. All together. Let’s go.” Said Fumiko struggling to take a step while bearing additional weight.

“I can’t Fumi. I am a mage for God’s sake, why am I training to run cross country on two hundred miles races? This is just crazy. That fucking grandma is crazy.”  The girl whined as they struggled to go another step.

“I understand, but think about it. The town gates are right there. Once we get there we won’t see that psycho granny for a long time. So come on. Do it for me. Walk just a bit more.”

Battered, dirty, in ripped clothes, and smelling like horse shit, the Heroes Team reached Greenville Town managing the trip through the Labyrinth that should have taken the usual adventurer team almost a week of travel. 

*****

At midday, Noah and Dahlia returned from the hunt taking another bath before going to the palace tree. This time with no sex, although not for Dahlia’s lack of trying to make him hard. Try as she could, the only thing that grew was his intoxicating smell but not his dick. Which made her bite her lower lip in frustration, muttering ‘His fault, His fault’, the entire time as they walked to the huge tree in the center of the Dryad’s Core forest, which served the same role as a Royal Castle in the human Kingdoms.

When they reached the Palace, Noah was met by the very interested eyes of Dryads with smirking faces that followed him with their gazes as they giggled and whispered to each other half covering their mouths. 

Dahlia explained to Noah that now that they had intimate contact, she had a thin smell belonging to him on her body, which would indicate other Dryads of their intimacy. She however spread a thicker smell upon him, that served several purposes. One to mask his intoxicating foresty smell at least to some degree. And second to indicate that he was taken and could not be touched without Dahlia’s approval, which should hold at bay even the most intrigued Dryads. Or at least it would do that for some time. She could not be sure when her sisters would start jumping him, as his smell kept growing day by day.

Once they were inside the Palace, however, they were met with another reaction as well. The Bullmen clan’s women who had been awakened from an induced dream, had a panicky expression, their eyes growing wide at the sight of a male. Only when the women who lived with Noah at the Threadweaver mansion came out at the sound of commotion and explained to everyone who he was and what he did for them, did the fear in them abate to a tolerable degree. Even then they were fidgety and scared the entire time they were in his presence.

One of the women who came out to meet Noah was Firria. Noah was glad to see the previously rugrat-like-looking girl regained her spirit that he saw in the flower field of Dream World where she was happily running like a silly little girl.

Her white as a snow skin was now clean and healthy without any scratches and bruises. Her hair now looked silky and shiny instead of the dry twig-like bush on her head that she had when he came to save her.

But most wonderful was that she seemed to regain the trace of her happy silly girl smile when she looked at Noah. Her long furry ears seemed to be fluttering a bit as she greeted him, making Noah happy to know that at least she was not afraid but on the contrary looked glad to see him.

“Count McDaniels.” Said Firria with a gentle voice coming forward. “It is a pleasure to have you come to check up on us.” She added before taking a deep bow. It was clumsy as the custom of bowing to the nobles was alien to Beastmen. And even though Firria was of no common blood she seemed to have just a slight bit more knowledge of etiquette, almost nil practice in courtesy. It may have offended some other high noble in the Kingdom but not Noah. Just her attempt to be courteous and respectful brought a smile to his lips.

“Mmm. And it’s totally not for the great view.” Commented Ugy’s voice inside his head making Noah’s eye slightly twitch at the corner.

His system was right of course. The last several weeks of good conditions seemed to do magic not only on the girl's appearance but her astonishing breasts that were as fluttery and jiggly as he remembered. But now also seemed larger. Her every gesture sent them in motion making them bounce and swing like two big jumpy rabbits. Making him hold his breath when she straightened after the bow, sending her breast upward so hard Noah was almost sure they would jump out of the simple clothes that Dryads provided to the women.

It had to be mentioned that Dryads were not known for making well-covering clothes. All their get-ups seemed to be as revealing as all those gorgeous women had been in the pictures posted in the Comment section, where girls were standing on the beach of the ocean. Bikini, if Noah remembered the word right, would be the surest way to describe common Dryad’s clothes. 

Just for the Beast women's sake of course the clothes were less skimpy as it was clear they were not happy to wear something so revealing. But it was still clothes provided by Dryads. They either barely covered any buttocks or had such deep cleavage cuts you would see their navel. Which made Noah look skittish from the moment he came to their living area. He did not wish to ogle the Beast Women to not make them more uncomfortable in his presence. However, with a crowd of them coming out to see what all the commotion was when he just walked in, there really wasn’t much spot to look at where he would not see some revealed body parts, gazing at which would have been considered crude in higher society.

Firria saved him by coming forward letting him concentrate his gaze on her, but there were lots of places to see through her clothes that were inappropriate to ogle at as well. At that moment he was even glad his dick would not come to life anytime soon after having one round of rowdy sex with Dahlia in the bathroom at night, spending up his once-a-day quota. Otherwise, he was sure the tent in his pants by now would have been quite prominent to not be noticed.

Anyway, the springy tits fortunately or not fortunately managed to cling to Firria’s clothes still remaining hidden as they settled down with a few mesmerizing sways up and down, making Noah gulp heavily before letting him regain his senses.

“Oh..khumm. Hello Firria. How have you been?”  Croaked Noah making a coughing motion to cover his blunder of staring inappropriately long at her breasts when Ugy made him glance toward them with his reminder. It was not intentional but just as anyone asks you not to look at the elephant, you would immediately concentrate your gaze on it, Ugy’s reminder made him concentrate on the wonderful view she provided bowing deeply enough to see the heavenly valley of her cleavage from the best possible view spot. The girl was slightly higher than Noah and her bow brought her tits right into his direct view.

“We have been treated well, Lord McDaniels.” She answered with her musical voice. 

“Please. I told you that just Noah is alright.” Said Noah scratching his blushing cheek as his eyes looked into the ceiling just to not tempt him to look at inappropriate parts.

“Umm…have you come to talk to us about Her Majesty's wish to let some of us relocate from this forest?” Asked Firria her soft voice going a bit despondent at the mention of the topic.

Noah looked around seeing many fearful and despairing eyes that seemed to be quite uncomfortable with the idea of leaving.

“Her Majesty has talked about it with you, I see. Very well. Lady Firria, could you please gather all your awakened tribeswomen in that big hall over there, where we could all sit down and discuss the topic?”  Said Noah

“Dahlia, would it be possible to provide everyone with some nice tea?” He asked, turning to his maid.

“I will see to it.” She said bowing slightly and disappearing through the wooden wall.

Noah sat at what served as a window in the wide hall, looking down at the greenery below. Although there was no glass in this forest, it was more like a portal into the outside letting a soft warm breeze pass into the hall. He sat for a few minutes waiting for the entire group together, including those that were awakened just recently as they still looked quite shocked and despondent and had to be hugged by several women from both sides to let them feel protected. Some of them most likely were awakened just this night, right after Noah left the Gardens.

These women did not react to the previous commotion occurring in the hall. Most likely still not gaining even the will to keep living yet. As Dryad Queen said, many of them had to be monitored day and night after awakening in fear of them turning to commit suicide.

“This is everyone.” Said Firria after the last batch of women supported by several women at the side, had entered the hall. 

“Well then let me explain a few things to all of you.” Said Noah.

“First of all, I have to announce what most of you already know. Many of you would have to leave this forest in the near future.” He said, raising commotion and even anger among the crowd of women.