Fortunately for her, Zach didn't notice her tears as her face wasn't visible from his point of view. He kept patting her back lightly as if to reassure her of his presence so she could calm down.
Zach kept her in his embrace until her shoulders stopped shaking and she became capable of voicing her thoughts once again. Such a huge change could take some getting used to. Therefore, Zach let her take her time until she was ready to let go of him.
Luna was so out of it that she couldn't tell up from down. But not because she was depressed; it was rather the kind of excitement that would not let you sleep at night. Her excitement was through the roof and as if in response her body kept shaking in anticipation of the life waiting for her.
Like a newly married wife, she was thinking of the new life she was heading towards with a human no less. Just a few days ago, if someone had told her that she was going to spend the rest of her life with a human; listening to his every whim and working hard to please him, she would probably have burnt that person to a crisp but not anymore though.
Zach had come into her life when she had needed help the most. He had not only helped her out of her trouble but had not even asked for anything in return. Being one of those greedy humans, it was a miracle that Zach was so different.
"How can my luck be so good? I won't ask for anything else in my whole life, now that I have a master who is so good to me." She raised her eyes towards the sky with a tearful smile as if communicating with the god that might be listening somewhere out there.
Even greater a miracle was that Zach had ended up becoming her fated master but despite having such a great hold over her; Zach still treated her with care and gentleness as if she was made of glass and would break upon the slightest application of force.
After she had calmed down somewhat; she unwillingly separated from Zach and looked at his knees worriedly. After all, he had been holding her close while kneeling on the ground in the same position for a long time.
She hurriedly asked him to get up as she tried to stand up herself. She used her hand to clear the dust from his clothes as she gently held his arm and offered him her support.
The way Zach treated her had touched the inner most sanctum of her heart. Luna was so moved that she was subconsciously preparing herself mentally to sacrifice herself for the human in front of her if there arose such a need in the future.
"Don't worry; I can stand up by myself. You can act like you did previously…before all this happened." Zach told Luna as he saw her worrying about every little thing.
"Why don't we go outside for a walk now that the Earth Bear has been taken care of? You deserve some open air after being cooped up in here for so long." suggested Zach in a carefree manner.
Luna was shocked to hear that the Earth Bear had been taken care of.
"What do you mean that the Earth Bear has been taken care of? Who did it?" Luna was curious as to who was powerful enough to beat the D rank strength type beast like Earth Bear.
"Isn't he standing right in front of you?" chimed Zach with an enigmatic smile on his face.
She at first felt incredulous hearing that Zach had managed to beat the Earth Bear. Doubts like, "If he had been able to do so, why didn't he take care of it earlier when we were on the run from it?" emerged in her mind but she shrugged them off as quickly as they arose.
In the end, Luna didn't say anything and believed her master wholeheartedly. Even if Zach had told her the most obvious of all the lies, she would have probably still believed him. Her faith in Zach was absolute at this point.
She appeared to be excited and nodded her head to show her approval of the idea.
She held on to his arm as they headed out of the murky darkness of the cave and into the kingdom of light.
Luna felt a little light headed and her eyes shut instinctively in the excess light as they gradually tuned to the new environment. Thankfully, she had been holding on to Zach's arm so they didn't have to stop until the temporary blindness left her.
Zach didn't notice any change either and took her to the clearing in between the forest and sat her down on a particularly clean spot.
"Wait here for a bit. I will be back soon." instructed Zach before running off into the forest.
Gathering some dry wood for a small bonfire, he returned and began to roast some of the meat of the Earth Bear. Unknowingly Zach had put in quite a bit of effort in fighting off Braxton and the Earth Bear which had left him tired and hungry. He needed to eat something in order to appease that built up hunger.
Luna tried to help him cook but Zach turned down her help the very next second. He felt that it was wrong to let her help in cooking a meal that she couldn't even enjoy.
While roasting the meat on the stick, Zach told Luna about what had happened earlier; about how he beat the Earth Bear, about how he extracted its core and how he chased after Braxton for half the length of the forest only to lose him inside that wooden cocoon mysteriously.
"Do you have any idea how Braxton managed to escape in such a situation without even alerting my senses?" asked Zach as he rotated the meat on top of the fire pit to cook it more evenly.
Luna analyzed all the information that Zach had given her and managed to figure out the possible reason behind Braxton's disappearance.
"From what you have told me I can only surmise that he was a wood element mage with strength ranging between E rank and D rank. Given the situation, there is only a single method that could have allowed him to escape. Unless that man can use spatial magic as well, he should have had a teleportation scroll on him that allowed him to slip away unnoticed by you. "
Zach was surprised that she came with the solution without wasting any time at all. Once again he felt the difficulties of not being a native. He had to ask every little bit of information and had to risk being treated like an idiot for each such question if turned to be a basic common sense in this world.
"Are the teleportation scrolls very common?" asked Zach while showing his eagerness to learn. He wasn't shy of asking dumb questions from Luna since she was his own person now and also knew his situation.
"No…not at all. In fact, the anything remotely associated with spatial magic is considered to be a high end product. Especially the teleportation scrolls which are life saving items have a considerably high demand. The prices vary depending upon the range of the teleportation scroll. For example, a scroll capable of long range transmission beyond 100km is exponentially expensive compared to short range ones that are only capable of moving a target within the range of 100 meters. No matter how expensive the scroll may be, it doesn't change the fact that it is a single use item and would be unusable after the first use." Luna explained everything in detail as she watched him cutting a portion of the roasted meat. The juices from the meat dripped down below into the fire and produced sizzling sound in defiance before being consumed by the raging fire.
"They seem useful. Maybe I should gather up some money and buy some as well." Said Zach nonchalantly as he bit into the chunk of juicy meat he had cut for himself.
Luna looked at him earnestly as if to confirm if he was joking or not. When she saw that he had in fact been serious, she let out a long sigh as if she had been suddenly burdened by the weight of the world and proceeded to educate her numbskull master.