The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

“Ugh!”

Bell woke up from his sleep with a sudden scream. His face was damp with cold sweat, and his fingers and toes twitched as if electricity had passed through his body.

Beta tilted its head like a human and asked.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“No, phew, the dream was a good one.”

When you wake up, the memory of a dream evaporates quickly, but the feeling remains. If the content of the dream is impressive, you might remember it vaguely, even with some embellishments. Bell’s dream this time was like that.

In his dream, he had become the best craftsman in the city. He was so great that the city government trembled, the city councilors bowed their heads, and the corporations knelt. Having reached the top, he even controlled the city’s policies. He enlightened contractors, educated mercenaries, and gave craftsmen the privilege of commanding people with just their fingers.

The reason he had woken up screaming from such a good dream that made him smile was…

“He’s coming.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Allen! That ignorant bastard is coming!”

It was the body’s instinctive reaction, signaling danger. It was also an ability he had learned with his body, as if the incident of being caught gossiping in front of the Mage Tower’s school head had become a trauma.

“Damn it, of all times, he has to come when this mess has happened.”

Bell licked his dry lips as he looked around the vegetable garden. The meticulously tended garden was a mess, as if a sudden disaster had struck. It wasn’t that weeds had flourished or pests had invaded. It was just that the plants had grown too well. At some point, it had become too much for Bell to handle.

Beta said in a flat, emotionless tone.

“It is because you did not pay close attention.”

The calm tone pierced Bell’s heart more than a mockery, and he burst out in anger.

“It’s because you’re still just playing around, so I’m the only one doing all the work!”

“I will help you.”

“Don’t! You just make more work, how can I trust you with that?”

“You only get better by doing.”

“Agh! I can’t just smash that thing and redesign it.”

Bell was beginning to be convinced that redesigning the circuit was not the answer. In terms of difficulty, it was simpler to just design a new one from scratch. The reason he couldn’t do that was different. He had lost a lot of data, and he was short on funds. In the end, he would have to ask Allen for help.

‘I have my pride and self-respect.’

He would have to take back his boastful words. Thinking about the nagging he would have to endure after that, he could never bring himself to say it. In the end, Bell had almost given up on redesigning Beta, and therefore, he didn’t even expect it to be helpful with chores. The troublesome thing was that ridiculously arrogant attitude.

‘If you know you’re not good at it, you should at least be quiet.’

His motivation was sky-high, so only Bell, who was caught in the middle, was in trouble. Even after causing such an accident, like an AI, he didn’t even reflect on it. It was only natural that he felt more and more resentful.

“Huk!”

As a thirsty man digs a well, it was when Bell was about to move again. As he was about to tend to the vegetable garden, he spotted a familiar face over the fence.

Allen, he had arrived.

Like a frog before a snake, Bell’s shoulders slumped.

***

The physical reactions of a flustered person are mostly similar. The eyes widen, and the pupils dilate. The eyebrows shoot up to the forehead, and the gaze trembles. The body stiffens, and cold sweat flows.

The sensitive senses of this body, which had even undergone a complete transformation, could feel not only these outwardly visible symptoms but also the acceleration of blood flow, the expansion of sweat glands, and the increase in heart rate.

The sum of all those symptoms was in front of me.

“A-a-already here?”

His tongue was stiff, and he stuttered. The suspicious air was too obvious. At this rate, I couldn’t even pretend to be deceived.

I asked him straight out.

“Why are you so flustered?”

“No, it’s, it’s just.”

Bell slowly approached me. The sunlight reflecting off his forehead was more stinging than his unsightly, servile expression, and I frowned.

‘From now on, no matter what happens, I can’t ask him to act or lie.’

I wondered how he had managed to deceive Delight Conquem with that awkwardness. Well, he had been caught, so he had been chased.

I threw a question to the family member I inwardly considered more reliable than Bell.

“What happened?”

“Bell ruined the vegetable garden.”

“I didn’t ruin it!”

“……Move.”

My face hardened without me realizing it. The voice that flowed from between my lips was so cold that even I was surprised. The startled Bell carefully stepped aside. The full view of the vegetable garden he had been trying to hide came into sight.

“Well, you know how people are. I got used to it, so I got a little lazy. But in the moment I let my guard down…”

This was a small piece of land I had barely obtained after rolling and tumbling in this city. After dozens of playthroughs of effort, I had finally become a druid and created my own vegetable garden. From the moment I started the request, I had no choice but to neglect it, but in my leisure time, I had cherished and cared for it more than my own body. I never forgot to water it, even if it meant skipping my own meals, and I even kept a daily journal to manage it, in case it got sick.

Dividing the sections and digging the ground, arranging them harmoniously, pruning the branches to shape them… It was all the result of my trial and error. In other words, they were like my own children.

“So I paid a little less attention. And then this happened?”

Bell stealthily watched my expression.

“……Should, should I kneel?”

“……”

I didn’t say anything and just quietly listened to Bell’s confession. It was funny to see him groveling, saying he had committed a mortal sin.

‘It’s no big deal.’

Unlike Bell’s fuss, I wasn’t angry at all.

***

Anyone who has grown a few plants at home can relate to this fact. It’s clearly the same plant, but the one grown outside is thriving, while the one touched by human hands dies for some trivial reason. In most cases, it’s due to the lack of management by beginners who have only learned from books.

‘They do all sorts of things.’

Don’t water it on a schedule!

That’s not a variegated species, it’s a disease!

Repot it!

A dying leaf is different from a normal lower leaf!

With experience, you can diagnose it with your eyes closed, but people grow through trial and error. Thinking about it now, it was just an episode to laugh about. But that didn’t mean one should overlook the fact that living things are naturally finicky.

‘Especially plants that can’t talk.’

No matter how much of an expert you are, when you see a plant that you’ve given everything to, wither and die for some trivial reason, you can’t help but agree with the old saying that you have to raise your children tough.

Especially alpine species. These guys die even if you go through all sorts of trouble with temperature, humidity, ventilation, water, mold, air conditioning, and so on. When you think, ‘I should be able to handle it,’ and try to grow one, it’s the kind of plant that soon drops all its leaves and drives you crazy.

In that sense, the vegetable garden being on the verge of becoming a jungle?

‘It’s not something to be angry about.’

He hadn’t killed the plants, and for a novice gardener lacking knowledge, it was something to be praised as having potential. First of all, not killing the plants was the greatest talent. Other senses could be developed through experience.

‘The fact that there are a few plants that weren’t managed as I had taught… are they species I didn’t plant?’

Perhaps because the conditions were met, plants that were not in the World Tree’s knowledge also grew in the vegetable garden. These were the plants I often used in battle. Considering those as well, it was a passing grade.

‘I thought he had forgotten and kept watering a succulent he had already watered.’

Then I would have smacked him on the back of the head and asked if he was out of his mind. In any case, I let Bell’s confession pass as no big deal.

‘Still, is this a bit much?’

Everything else was fine, but the fact that the vegetable garden was overflowing with crops was a problem. If they weren’t harvested, they would rot on their own. And then, bugs would be attracted. It was a problem for aesthetics, but most of all, it had a bad influence on the plants.

‘They don’t usually grow like that.’

I hadn’t given them fertilizer, and I had thinned them out and pinched off the side shoots less. But they were hanging there, plump and luscious. To say that Bell had grown them well, the yield was beyond common sense.

‘Come to think of it.’

Special crops grew in the World Tree’s vegetable garden. The fact that the essence of the paired elixir had formed was an exception. Usually, it was just that the fruit was a little sweeter or more resistant to pests and diseases.

‘As Bell was appointed as the manager of the vegetable garden, the characteristics of the special crops became permanently applied to the corresponding species.’

It meant that the change in species through breeding, which should have taken several generations, had occurred in a short period.

‘Are these really the same as the plants I first planted?’

Probably not. That’s why it was overgrown like a jungle.

Suddenly, an inspiration struck me like a lightning bolt.

‘If I keep improving the species like this, won’t they be able to thrive even in the barren lands of this world in the future?’

It was the same as the environmental movement of planting trees in the desert to create green spaces. Even in a barren land where the spirits had left, what if the plants themselves had the vitality to survive?

‘There’s already the precedent of the elixir.’

Since there was a precedent, it wasn’t a concept to be dismissed as nonsense. If I improved the species not on the small scale of a vegetable garden, but on a large scale like a farm…

“But what do we do with this?”

Bell, who had cleared up the misunderstanding, asked as he voluntarily harvested the crops, as if some uneasiness remained. The amount already in the basket exceeded what a single household could consume.

A gift? At most, once or twice. In this city, there were few people I was close enough to to show such kindness, so it wasn’t a suitable method.

So what could I do?

“We have to sell them.”

“……You’re going to do business?”

“Originally, the most basic way to make money in this city is through business.”

From the way he couldn’t even think of such a simple method and even doubted it, I realized once again how ignorant of the world this guy had grown up. That’s how all the nerds who only studied in their rooms were.

As I looked down at him with eyes of pity, the incensed Bell, who had been holding it in, burst out in anger.

“You think you can do business with your personality!”

“Why can’t I?” Thıs content belongs to novｅlfire.net

He was talking nonsense. It was ugly jealousy and an inferiority complex.

“If you can say that after seeing my face, I’ll acknowledge it.”

“……”

Even if I set up a stall on the street, people would flock to it. Bell fell silent.

‘But there’s no need to sell them by rule of thumb like that.’

Since there was already a stable potential sales channel, why would I volunteer to be a peddler? Unlike the ill-tempered Bell, who had no one to call a friend but me, I had connections.

‘People who know each other should help each other out.’

The fact that I could realize the concept of mutual assistance was proof that I was an intelligent modern person who had not been tainted by this vulgar city.

***

“Oh my, welcome.”

The female owner of the restaurant in District 3, with whom I had a free-use contract, was overflowing with vitality day by day. Even after bringing in the domestic laborer named Bell, I had continued to visit. It was a perfect choice to skip a meal without thinking during a request.

“I heard you’re expanding the store soon. Congratulations.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s all thanks to someone.”

“Apart from the promotion, it was your skill that grew the store, ma’am.”

“Oh my, you say such pretty things.”

As we exchanged pleasantries, the atmosphere was harmonious, with laughter that didn’t cease. My friendship with the female owner had absolutely nothing to do with the brutal contractor industry. Since I didn’t have to put up a wall and be calculating like when I was on a request, she was a rare person with whom I could speak without sharpening my tone.

“But what brings you here? It’s not mealtime yet.”

“Well, it’s not for a meal.”

“Then?”

“First, take a look at this.”

“What is this…? A gift?”

“It’s a sample.”

I handed her a bag. Inside were freshly harvested crops.

“The quality is… good. This is so rare that you can barely find it for sale even if you go up to the upper districts. Where did you get it?”

“I can supply you with the same quality.”

“Really? I was just thinking of making some changes as I expand the store, and this is perfect!”

The female owner, who had the ambition to grow her store, quickly became interested.

“By the way, where did you get this? Did you get a job as a salesman for some company?”

“I just grew them in my vegetable garden. It’s too much for me to consume alone.”

“You get that much of a harvest from a vegetable garden? No, can you even grow them properly?”

“It’s not that difficult. You just have to choose a good variety and grow it in a good environment.”

“Hmm, I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds.”

She seemed very skeptical. If she had been tempted, I was thinking of supplying her with some seeds.

Leaving my disappointment behind, I signed a contract with reasonable conditions. After signing the contract, the female owner was beaming with the unexpected harvest.

“For now, it’s a personal contract, but if you start a distribution business later, please give me a heads-up first. I have a tight grip on the sales channels around here.”

A distribution business. I had no intention of starting something on a large scale, but if I improved the seeds and expanded the scale of the vegetable garden…

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

I just stored it in my memory. It was still a distant story.

(End of Chapter)