Terrarium Adventure - Chapter 43

Fortunately, it was the same as when I had my dryads bloom in the greenhouse.  Hopefully, this means the makeshift greenhouse is doing its job.

I touched the sprouted fruit with my left hand filled with artifacts, but it felt different from before. I felt that the small energy of life was constantly trying to hide inside the fruit.

The warm energy from my heart flowed through my left hand and tapped the fruit, but the energy in the fruit seemed to refuse to connect with me.

No, it seemed to me that it was scared and didn’t know what to do. The energy kept squeezing into the deeper part of the fruit, avoiding my touch.

I became stubborn with my efforts now that the situation became like this. In terms of time, it should have already blossomed, but this thing is just playing hard to get now. 

Look here, fruit child. A new owner full of capital has come to pick you up. I’m a little World Tree that even Elder recognizes.  

I was barely able to touch the edge of the energy. The artifacts vibrated little, and the connection quickly became solid. As if grabbing a handful of algae out of a water pool, I grabbed the energy and pulled it out.

The scent of flowers similar to that of Daisy’s filled the surroundings. Red petals swirled, and the fruit wrapped in light floated up.

The light steadily grew in size and stopped growing when it reached the height of an average adult. The widespread petals shook and swept into the center of the light cluster, and the light faded.

A male-type dryad with short, red hair, that looked like Daisy appeared. He had red flowers in his hair.

I saw a lot of dryads of the same kind in the dandelion colony and realized that hair color and eye color are fixed depending on the species.

Even though he’s a male type, I hope Daisy looks as neat as him when she finishes growing up… but that’s just my wish. The newly blossomed dryad wrapped his head with his hands in a frightened expression and crouched. Did anyone say they were going to hit you…?

“Calm down. We’re not here to hurt you. My master, Jay, no matter how much I look at it, it looks like a dryad that once bloomed.”

“You know the special power engraved on the soul of the Red Daisy breed, right? It seems like it already died once and has been resurrected.”

Daisy was shining her eyes, seeing a dryad of the same kind as her for the first time. On the other hand, the newly blossomed dryad continued to crouch down despite its bigger figure.

“Ah… how did this happen… ah…”

The dryad finally calmed himself after trembling for a while. He raised his head, looked at us, and frantically rolled his eyes around to assess the sudden situation.

“I see that I died when those debris fall. Hm… I remember that the back of my head hurt a lot… but…”

“Hello! I’m a Red Daisy too!”

Yes, it would be nice to become friends with each other, seeing they are the same species and such. Daisy couldn’t hold back her curiosity and snooped around him. The new Daisy dryad began to mutter, moving his mouth quickly as if he forgot he was crouching in fear moments ago.

“It’s a cozy soul. My new owner has a great soul. It’s awesome. Everything is awesome. My whole body is full of strength. Well, hello. There are awesome people standing in front of me that it’s hard to even make eye contact. Oh, you are a Red Daisy, like me? It doesn’t look that way at all. You are probably the best of the Red Daisies out there. Red Daisy with such a strong soul. You are a pride of our species.”

“Uh, what did you say before? Didn’t you say Daisy had to subjugate him to form a forest?”

I couldn’t stop the Daisy dryad from talking to me, so I asked Mesquite for her opinion. The dryad’s mouth suddenly stopped, then he started talking again.

All the daisies are so lively… and that dryad has the liveliest mouth.

“Oh, what do you mean by subjugate? As you can see, I’m a poorly rated dryad. Are you going to fight me like this? Show some consideration for the weak. Oh, if we’re going to fight, you must be my opponent. Well, I surrender. Please take care of me. I can tell just by looking that you are full of qualities to be a king. If I can add my little strength to you, it’s would be an honor.”

The new Daisy dryad bowed to our Daisy. Somehow, I felt as if the size of our Daisy’s soul connected to me had swelled up.

At that moment, the two daggers tied to Daisy’s waist began to glow brightly. The dagger became curved and elongated, and a red pattern started to become engraved on the blade.

“I use these weapons, which are different from yours.”

He pulled out a boomerang with two blades made of iron.

“With the power of my soul, you will be able to use the same power as me now.”

At his words, Daisy pulled out her two transformed daggers. When the handles clashed, they became a boomerang similar to his. Wow, long-distance attack, huh. 

“My soul has been arranged to you, so the strength of your soul has doubled. You will be able to resurrect twice now. I hope my weak strength is somewhat helpful to you.”

He had eyes like a friendly dog ​​and was eagerly appealing himself to Daisy. It seemed as if he was saying ‘praise me!’

Daisy’s face became somewhat regretful. Was it because she made the forest too easily? It was true that the accomplishment was in vain compared to how much she mentally prepared for it. When I said, “Good, now our Daisy…” two Daisy dryads stared at me. It was kind of cute.

“I’m glad to have a new strength, but for now, there is something more important. Are you the one who called me?”

“I don’t know what you mean. What should I call my new druid master?”

“I am Jay.”

“Yes, master Jay. I have been deep asleep in the fruit. The power of the soul is weak, and it is not great enough to call you from far away.”

I see. Then who was it that called me? 

“What happened to your former owner?”

“I was a dryad from the 28th terrarium in the World Tree and did chores in the orchard. After the administrative officer made me bloom, he tied my soul with his special power to one of the twigs of the World Tree. Thanks to this, I can live without difficulty, but I can’t develop my strength. The owner… If you refer to the person who made me bloom, the administrative officer would be the owner, right? What happened to him anyway? In the middle of evacuation, I was killed by debris…”

“If you had died from fire, you would not be able to have been resurrected.”

Said Mesquite. It would be weird to say that he got lucky, but he died from something other than fire, like debris, which enabled him to be resurrected, right? And by administrative office, he is probably talking about Scarecrow we met outside. 

“He is… well… no. Let’s talk about something else for now.”

As I switched the subject, the Daisy dryad looked at me then closed his mouth.

“I came here to see what happened in the 28th terrarium. What happened here? Mesquite told me that the branches of the World Tree could not have been burned so easily. I want you to tell me everything you know.”

Mesquite agreed to my question and nodded.

“Well… although it was originally a secret in the 28th terrarium… now that you are my master, there is nothing to hide. Yes. The original World Tree would not have allowed the fire intrusion. Of course, if it were the original World Tree. Come to think of it, this place is also miserable. It’s all burned out. How could it have become like this?”

He kept getting side-tracked, so I quietly urged him with my eyes.

“… Sorry. This branch of the World Tree has been ill with an unknown disease since several years ago. It has dried up and lost light. As a result, it has not produced fruit until recently. It’s been a while since the orchards weren’t able to provide fruit and as a result, druids have stopped coming to this place as well. We hid this from other terrariums, but… the villagers who had heard of the news felt fear and left this place.”

“This branch of the World Tree is ill? From what?”

“I do not know the exact details, either. They said it could be contagious to dryads, so they blocked access to the branch. But I have been bound by the branch to the World Tree from when I bloomed. One day, I started to become weaker and weaker. It felt like my body’s essence and blood were being sucked out of me.”

“Why didn’t you ask for help from other terrariums right away? It seems like other terrariums don’t know about this situation.”

It’s really a big deal that this branch of the World Tree is ill. The blessings of the World Tree branches are the only things that can stop fire. Shouldn’t they have asked for help right away? 

“It’s because others might pick faults and management rights could be taken away. There must be some circumstances in the world of adults. Anyhow, the administrative officer seemed to have firmly believed that all could be solved without letting others know. When anxiety grows in the terrarium, everyone leaves and a terrarium without residents cannot be maintained. He wanted to prevent that from happening I presume. Of course, they have asked for help from other terrariums. It was not a terrarium in the 20s, but a terrarium higher up. I know for sure they requested help from the 16th terrarium, where the Alchemy Tower is located. They decided to send us a solution… but it’s been a long time since we received any news from them. Again, this was two years ago. Maybe they turned away from us…”

Maybe it was the overturned carriage we saw…?

“Visitors to this place have also suddenly been cut off for a year now. Even the whereabouts of the outgoing people became unknown. There is a problem with the supply of diamonds as well… No one came back even if I dispatched a druid in a hurry. This place has been isolated by some unknown external factor. Then, the fire attack suddenly happened. There were not a lot of people who could resist fire in the terrarium. I last saw the administrative officer go out to protect the orchard… then died.”

“Mesquite, what do you think?”

“There is nothing but fire that can threaten the World Tree. An illness? That doesn’t make sense.”

She said firmly. But that dryad is saying the World Tree is ill. Who is right?

“Come here…”

This time I could clearly hear where it was coming from. The faintly heard song. It’s to my left, in the middle of the town. Now that I listen closely, the voice is different from this dryad. There’s someone else in this town. 

“Is there an orchard over there?”

I pointed to where the song was heard. The Daisy dryad nodded. I have to go to the orchard. I might be able to find out more about the World Tree’s illness there.

“Can you guide me?”

“Although I spent most of my time in the orchard, I have a thorough knowledge of the geography of this terrarium. I have been in charge of chores here for a long time, so I know mostly everything about the village.”

“There’s something dangerous going around here. Maybe it’s a huge fire. You have to avoid it on our way to the orchard.”

“I see… The fire eventually… We will have to go around a little, but there is a way.”

The Daisy dryad swept his hand over his face and slapped his face to focus. He momentarily made a very painful expression when I talked about the fire, but eventually became fine.