TL/Editor: Butter Cat

    Status: 4/week mon-thurs

    Illustrations: none

    Join the discord! Here

    * * *

    〈 Chapter 81 〉 Chapter 81. A foolish answer to a wise question.

    * * *

    **

    Perhaps to prevent the warmth from escaping.

    As we opened and closed the somewhat stiff greenhouse door, we were met with a stark difference in air, divided by the door as the boundary.

    But that sudden change in air, instead of being unpleasant, only offered me a sense of coziness.

    Inside the transparent greenhouse, where the chilly outside weather was clearly visible, a warm air, as if the cold wind from moments ago was a lie, was gently rising and filling the space.

    —Creeeak.

    "Ahhhhh, I''m melting.... Finally, I feel alive again."

    "Heehee, we''re inside!"

    Feeling the warm air slowly thawing my frozen skin, I took in the beautiful scenery of the greenhouse.

    Before coming to the Akard Empire and experiencing so many things, I used to think, ''How advanced could the technology and creations of medieval or early modern people really be?'', but it didn''t take long for me to change my mind.

    This greenhouse, for instance, was one such example.

    With its walls and ceiling made entirely of glass, creating a sense of openness, combined with the black frames supporting the structure, it gave off a modern vibe that felt incredibly familiar to me.

    Really, at this moment.

    Even if someone told me I''d gone back to the past, I''d believe them.

    Well.

    Of course, I had never actually been to a luxurious place like a glass greenhouse before.

    Everything I knew about them was from pictures I''d seen.

    Or was it videos?

    I wasn''t particularly interested, but if I had said I wanted to go to a place like this, I would have been too busy crying while listening to my mother say, "You silly girl! Stop being pretentious and go study!" How could I have gone to such a place?

    "...Hmm."

    Anyway.

    The weight of culture and technology, painstakingly accumulated by countless geniuses over hundreds, no, if we were to trace its origins, thousands of years, was far beyond my imagination.

    I think It probably felt even fresher since this is my first time properly entering the greenhouse during the daytime, and for a leisurely purpose like sightseeing.

    Before, I had only briefly glanced at it from the outside, and when I brought Alice here to hide her, my busy schedule hadn''t allowed me the time to properly look around. Sear?h the N??elFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Lately, thanks to having the Princess''s backing, I had been able to take some time off.

    I wonder what exactly was done to create this flower garden.

    Metallurgy, the furnaces to melt the materials, the refractory materials to withstand the heat, and the other components required to build them.

    And the new technologies needed to create those components, the more I thought about it, the longer the chain of efforts grew, each link connected to the next.

    Made, born, created.

    It all started from a single human hand.

    Within everything I observed closely, the history of mankind was hidden.

    How many trials and errors must the people of the past, who couldn''t even properly start a fire, have gone through to achieve this level of technology?

    Whenever I looked at these things, the embarrassing memory of when I, in my youthful arrogance, tried to create a ballpoint pen using all my knowledge, only to fail miserably and give up, would resurface.

    ''Ta-da! What do you think, Rumi! With this, we''ll be rich!''

    ''Han… what strange thing are you up to today. Just go do the laundry.''

    ''.....So mean.''

    A sudden flashback of that embarrassing memory from the past, one that appeared without warning.

    Perhaps because of the stuffy air inside, or the chilly temperature from outside, my face flushed for no reason.

    Why were these embarrassing memories so vivid and persistent, trying to stick to my brain like unwanted gum, unlike other memories that I could easily forget, always showing up uninvited just when I want to be alone.

    It''s truly a mystery.

    And so.

    Feeling a touch of nostalgia for that embarrassing memory I could never return to, even if I wanted to.

    As I slowly took in the center of the greenhouse, there was a plum tree at its heart, surrounded by purple bleeding hearts in full bloom, and lilacs exuding their refreshing fragrance noticeable from afar, all proudly displaying their presence.

    Besides these, the greenhouse was filled with various flowers that bloomed in spring, like red and pink anemones and hyacinths with their beautiful purple hues.

    The greenhouse''s theme changes periodically.

    It seems this time, the theme was ''spring''.

    —Tap.

    "...Hmm? What''s that over there."

    And a little distance away, there was a patch of bare earth where nothing had been planted.

    The soil was fertile, as if it had been generously sprinkled with plenty of fertilizers.

    Strangely enough, that plot of land didn''t seem like an abandoned spot at all. It looked like seeds would grow on their own if you just tossed them there, yet strangely, nothing that should have been there was present.

    But seeing how the soft soil was maintained, it must be either a place where new flowers would soon be planted, or a space for visitors to experience planting themselves.

    Considering the neatly arranged tools like watering cans and rakes nearby, it seemed like the latter was the correct assumption.

    It must be a space specially prepared for children like Alice, who would want to try planting flowers themselves.

    —Tap, tap!

    "Ah, found it!"

    "...Oh, there are seeds too."

    And this thought was confirmed when I saw Alice run towards the container where the tools were gathered, as if she was familiar with it.

    I wonder if this was Alice''s goal from the beginning.

    Alice, who had only visited the flower garden a few times before meeting Remi Akaia, now seemed to recognize the place and understand its purpose, cutely handling various tools with her one hand.

    Next to her were even seedlings that had already sprouted, ready to be transplanted into the ground.

    It was nothing short of a perfect experience zone for children.

    Tap.

    "—Oof!"

    Alice put various tools, including a small shovel, into the basket placed beside her, then slung the basket over her shoulder with her small hand.

    Alice''s actions, which seemed so familiar, didn''t look like the movement of someone who had only done this once or twice.

    Come to think of it, Alice had said that when she was still a princess in the kingdom, she used to enjoy gardening as a hobby.

    Seeing Alice''s unchanging nature, both then and now, perhaps memories reside not in the head, but in the heart.

    I had thought that for a princess gardening was just a hobby for entertainment, but seeing her prepare so diligently, it must have been something she was quite passionate about.

    Well, Alice wouldn''t do anything half-heartedly.

    "Hmm....."

    If someone who didn''t know Alice’s identity saw her now, they would probably think she was the energetic daughter of some farming family.

    That''s how enthusiastic she looked.

    —Crackle, crackle.

    "Ahhh... so comfortable."

    In one corner of the glass greenhouse, there was a stove to maintain the air temperature.

    I pulled a chair nearby and sat down near that warm space, listening to the mysterious sound of well-split firewood gradually crumbling into the flames, while observing the cute Alice.

    There didn''t seem to be anything particularly dangerous around, and honestly, it didn''t seem appropriate for a woman in her thirties to participate in the child''s own garden that she was creating by hand.

    Although others'' evaluation of me had long since plummeted through the earth''s crust and into the abyss, I still wanted to be treated as a minimal human being.

    Well, I was already beyond repair anyway.

    —Rustle, rustle.

    "Hmm.... This one, and this one..."

    ".........."

    Alice, seemingly having gathered all the tools, went to the area where the flower seeds were displayed and started examining them one by one.

    It seemed that each basket contained different types of seeds.

    The fact that she wasn''t just picking up the already sprouted seedlings meant that she wanted to do everything herself, from start to finish.

    With a serious expression I had never seen before, her lips pressed together, she busily moved her one hand, touching the various seeds, sometimes rolling them around in her palm, and at times spending several minutes staring intently at a single seed with narrowed eyes, completely engrossed in her task.

    Seeds were carefully selected and gathered in Alice''s hand one by one.

    If there was a painting depicting ''happiness and peace'', the scene before my eyes would be it.

    But.

    Something was different.

    ".......Huh?"

    "Heehee~?"

    My face slowly hardened.

    Like the parched earth cracking, fissures began to appear in my expression bit by bit.

    Like a rotting fruit, my face was slowly decaying with each passing moment.

    Denial?

    No, that wasn''t it.

    Surprise?

    No, not that either.

    Sadness?

    It might be similar, but no, not quite.

    This was something else, something more than those one-dimensional emotions.

    It was closer to the fear one feels when encountering something unknown.

    A clear abnormality (??).

    The actions, the movements unfolding before my eyes.

    It was a reaction born from my inability to genuinely understand what I was seeing.

    "Hum, hum~?"

    ".....Alice?"

    Alice picked up a seed and carefully placed it in her basket, as if it were something precious.

    It was covered in black mold here and there.

    Alice picked up another seed, seemingly pleased with it.

    Its shell was cracked and broken.

    Except for the seed that Alice had picked, she returned the other seed to their original containers.

    They were faded and shriveled.

    Anyone could see they weren''t normal seeds.

    It wasn''t a matter of whether they would grow well or not, but whether they could sprout at all in the first place.

    But despite my questioning attitude, Alice, as if having obtained the seeds she wanted, hummed a happy tune.

    She made no move to throw them away, instead hugging them close.

    —Tap, tap.

    "Hum, hum~?"

    "........"

    She was only picking the broken and rotten seeds.

    One by one, carefully.

    Streeeetch

    "........"

    I simply leaned back in my chair.

    And stared blankly at Alice''s incomprehensible behavior.

    **

    * * *