16 — 5

It seemed Beth’s feelings had reached her, and Mitch, who had shut herself away alone in Noel’s greenhouse for three whole days, gradually had her wounded heart and body healed. On the fourth day, she was able to let Beth into the greenhouse, and by the time a week had passed, she was able to return to the home where her husband was waiting.

“Noel-sama, thank you for waiting. You may go into that greenhouse now.”

Beth said that without the slightest shame to Noel, who had calmly come to the communal greenhouse to get ingredients.

“You know, it is fortunate that there were no medicinal herbs over there that I suddenly needed, but what do you mean, even the owner could not enter? Just what did you intend to do about caring for the plants inside?”

After being made to wait for a whole week, Noel had finally been allowed into his own greenhouse, but the things in Noel’s greenhouse were all plants that required delicate care. Most likely, several of them had gone bad.

But even if the condition of the plants inside had fallen compared to a week earlier, he had no intention of blaming Beth at all.

And ever since that day, the dazzling image of Beth declaring, “I am happy because I am alive,” had been strongly burned into Noel’s mind and would not leave him.

To Beth, plants were companions and friends who possessed the same life.

Noel felt a little ashamed of himself for having always seen plants as nothing more than potion ingredients.

Noel entered his own greenhouse with a little resolve, but when he saw the inside of the greenhouse, his breath stopped.

(…Splendid.)

For some reason, every plant inside the greenhouse was displaying power beyond its potential.

It was not something brought out by crossbreeding plants, giving them excessive compost, or forcibly drawing it out with magic power.

In one potted plant, a branch that should have split into two had split into three, beautiful jewel-like fruits overflowed from a plant that had stopped bearing fruit, and its life force itself had increased.

As though it were only natural, Beth told Noel.

“Mitch truly wanted to get well, so the plants lent her their strength. Because they wanted their vitality to reach her, everyone squeezed out as much of the vitality held by life as they could.”

“…I do not understand a single thing you are saying, but I have never, truly never, entered a greenhouse in such splendid condition.”

Noel looked around, then collapsed onto the sofa as though he had lost his words.

A pleasant medicinal scent rose from the sofa.

It was a mysterious space where the rare alpine plant called dragon’s beard and ordinary violets were both treated with exactly the same care, and yet with the same casualness.

And every plant without exception was brimming with vitality, and even the small birds that visited through the tiny skylight looked happy.

A dizzying sense of security welled up in him.

Noel let out a sigh at the word that had surfaced in his heart.

(That’s right, this is a sense of security.)

An overwhelming sense of acceptance toward his own existence.

When he felt peace from the bottom of his heart, a powerful drowsiness came over him next, making him nod off.

It was a drowsiness he had felt so long ago he could not remember it, one that did not require the purple medicine.

Beth seemed not to mind Noel’s condition at all.

“Oh my, Noel-sama, you must be tired. Please take a nap.”

“No, I have a visitor… coming… this afternoon…”

Noel, unable to resist the drowsiness, somehow tried to get up, but Beth smiled.

“Whenever Rodney-sama gets sleepy, he always asks Eloise-sama to handle his work and sleeps to his heart’s content. I will ask Naranda-sama to handle your guest, Noel-sama, so please sleep slowly. If your heart and body are saying they are sleepy, then shouldn’t you let them sleep?”

Without waiting for Noel’s answer, Beth left the greenhouse.

“Hey, wait… Beth…”

Noel could not resist the gentle temptation that was coming over him, and for the first time in several years, he fell into a deep sleep.