4

“Um, I did bring them, just in case… but what are you going to do with these?”

The young lady of the duke’s family staggered back into the greenhouse with a washtub she had apparently borrowed from the laundry area, filled with young pine leaves.

It was obvious that the duke and duchess had their reasons for strongly opposing Eloise entering the Magic Institute.

Beth did not even seem to realize that she had been in a state of intoxication.

Apparently, she had regained her senses at Eloise’s words.

“Thank you, Eloise-sama.”

Beth answered Eloise that way.

Then Beth grabbed a handful of the pine needles Eloise had brought and, without a moment’s pause, scattered them over the Divine Lily seed.

“Hey! Beth!”

It was a precious seed that had been strictly managed inside a special box, sealed with many layers of magical locks, deep within the Magic Institute.

It had been treated so strictly that even the inside of the storage container had been lined with cloth made from special fibers so that not even external vibrations would affect it.

Noel was flustered by Beth’s sudden behavior, which looked like an outrage, such as throwing in ordinary roadside black pine needles that had not been sterilized or processed in any way, but,

“It seems this child will not take a full, deep breath during its first breath upon waking unless it is with the green scent of pine needles.”

Beth told Noel that with a serious face.

“What are you saying, Beth?”

Beth was not very good at explaining things.

Beside her, Naranda, perhaps because he had experienced a little of the world he had seen through confession magic, seemed to digest Beth’s words before Noel did and managed to twist out an interpretation with a deep sigh.

“Yes… That is true. The tundra region is a deep coniferous forest. It is said that the dragons living there also like eating pine leaves. Perhaps the healthy germination of the Divine Lily requires a trace amount of volatile oil in the air from pine needles that exist in its habitat.”

It was a method written in none of the Divine Lily cultivation methods tried by countless sages, but Naranda somehow managed to swallow what Beth was trying to say.

“I do not know.”

Even when difficult things were explained to Beth, this was usually her answer.

With a wry smile, Naranda patted Beth on the head and apologized, saying, “Sorry, that was difficult, wasn’t it?”

Beth seemed as if she was certain of something.

Ezra, who had been silent all this time, finally opened his mouth after deep thought.

“…In other words, it is the same as a baby’s first cry, is it not, Beth?”

Beth showed a bursting smile.

“Yes! As expected of Ezra-sama.”

“Elder Ezra. What do you mean?”

Ezra seemed to have understood something Beth wanted to say.

Noel asked Ezra for an explanation.

Even when Beth was made to explain, it was rare for words Noel could understand to come back.

“Noel-sama. You know that both human children and magical beast children, lives born from a mother’s body, change the structure of their bodies in an instant during their first breath after birth, from creatures of the water-world to creatures who live in the outside world, from gill breathing to lung breathing, do you not? I have always been fascinated by that as a miracle of living things.”

This old sage, who was also known for his research into human-body alchemy, sighed.

“Plants, too, if their first breath at germination does not go well, do not successfully switch from the dormant world of the seed state to the growth stage and become frail individuals. And for this seed to take a deep breath during its first breath, it needed to be surrounded by the good scent of pine. That is what you mean, Beth.”

“That is right! The first deep breath at the beginning of life is important.”

After saying that, Beth gazed lovingly at the seed buried in black pine needles.

“Come to think of it, Beth’s bath has bundles of eucalyptus hanging in it, and when I borrow the bath and get in, it fills with such a nice scent. Drawn by the scent, I end up taking a deep breath without thinking.”

Eloise, who had been anxiously watching how things unfolded, said that.

“I am sure the good scent of pine will make the seed take a deep breath too.”

The two young girls smiled.

Eloise had suffered from terrible headaches caused by shallow breathing due to stress, but lately she seemed to be doing well.

Noel wondered if it was because she often borrowed Beth’s bath with its good scent, and somehow, from the bottom of his heart, he envied Eloise’s position, as she apparently even borrowed the bath in Beth’s room and was healed to her very core.

(If only Beth would stay beside me from morning until night.)

“I baked a lot. Since we have them, let’s eat.”

Beth said that and, with a beaming smile, handed everyone the muffins she had brought earlier for Rodney.