10

The autumn festival was a major festival both in Beth’s Village and in the Royal Capital.

On this day, old and young alike each dressed up, thanked God for the harvest, and offered the crops to the Temple.

It was the great entertainment that came once a year in Beth’s Village, where there was little amusement.

It was no exaggeration to say that young men and women struggled for an entire year to find someone of the opposite sex to go on a date with on this day.

That was true for Beth, and it was true for Amy, too.

“You’re kidding, Amy. You were dating Carter???”

Beside Amy, who had curtly refused Beth when she said they should go around the autumn festival together, was Carter, standing there looking bashful.

“A lot happened after you went to the Royal Capital. It was completely Carter’s fault that you got thrown in jail, but when I listened to him, it sounded like an adventurer’s life was difficult in all kinds of ways too, and he said when he came to see me at a time like that, the medicinal herbs in the field next door were right in front of him, so he gave in to impulse and…”

“I really was sorry back then, Beth! But during that whole uproar with you, I got to talk with Amy properly for the first time, so I’m glad!”

Leaving Beth behind as she nearly foamed at the mouth, Amy and Carter linked arms and went off to the festival together.

Carter, who usually worked as an adventurer in town, had come to the village today to pick up Amy. Since Carter had started living in town, he had become a little more polished, and that must have met Amy’s standards.

“You heartless traitor!”

Beth had planned to go around eating snacks that could only be eaten during the festival with Amy, but after seeing off the two happy backs, Beth, left behind alone, felt a little relieved.

(After all, I’m going to be busy today, too.)

At the same time, in the Royal Capital.

Unlike the simple, rustic autumn festival in Beth’s countryside, the Royal Capital’s autumn festival was truly extravagant.

Red flowers were decorated all over the city, and during the autumn festival period, a total of fifty-two beautifully decorated floats paraded throughout the Royal Capital.

Many envoys were also sent from foreign countries, and after this autumn festival, the social season began.

The floats represented each district of the Royal Capital, and were, so to speak, the pride of their districts.

With each district’s honor at stake, they were decorated beautifully.

After the great celebrations of the elixir’s completion and Eugenia’s awakening, the autumn festival was livelier than usual as well.

In the middle of this nationwide festival, only Noel was inside the greenhouse as usual, tending to the plants.

The greenhouse Noel had arranged had changed greatly from what it had been when Beth was there.

Noel, who had previously grown only plants useful to him by forcibly feeding them magical power and rare compost, changed his ways and, in his own manner, tried to create a paradise like the one Beth had made.

(Even if I recreate Beth’s paradise-like greenhouse with my own hands, that would only be a cheap imitation of Beth’s. I want to try making my own paradise, in my own way.)

Having decided that, Noel began by expanding the flower garden.

Large hydrangea bushes, sunflowers, bellflowers, roses, and forget-me-nots. They were all flowers Noel liked.

By next spring, it would surely become a beautiful flower garden.

(Now that I think about it, I liked flowers.)

Noel had been a boy who loved flowers.

But as his talent as a magician blossomed, he had spent his days needing to think only of flowers’ effects rather than their beauty, and he had stopped feeling joy from their beauty.

But now, at last, he was allowed to admire the beauty of flowers.

Having remembered that he had been a boy who loved flowers, Noel decided to accept the Noel of his boyhood himself.

(No one needs to acknowledge me. I only have to acknowledge my own heart.)

Noel deployed luxurious water magic and watered the flowers unstintingly.

For some reason, as though he had remembered it, he suddenly wanted to draw, so he tried drawing the flowers he had grown.

(Ugh, I can’t even tell whether this is a flower or a bug.)

The finished picture was one he himself thought was unbelievably terrible, but Noel was satisfied.

And beside the flower garden, he decided to plant eucalyptus and herbs.

Beside the herbs, he also decided to make a field of the medicinal herbs Noel loved and a field of vegetables for Noel to eat.

Noel liked medicinal herbs, too.

From now on, he did not need to prioritize their effects and raise them through forced crossbreeding or by cramming magical power into them.

He simply cared carefully, delicately, and with all his heart, using his hands, as Beth had done, so that the medicinal herbs he loved would slowly grow healthily.

The more love Noel gave them, the more the plants gave back.

Noel finally realized that until now, he had only demanded things from the plants and had given them nothing himself.

Noel had never grown vegetables and the like before, but even with Noel’s clumsy care, the vegetables and fruits that bore small fruit were dear to him.

He also tried planting an amusing grass that supposedly made a pop! sound when it bloomed.

It served no purpose, but he had thought it sounded interesting when he was a child.

He also tried planting loofahs. He had never gone out of his way to grow something like loofahs, which could grow anywhere.

With their tremendous daily growth rate, Noel began to look forward to morning coming.

He even deliberately transported and planted fire-eating grass, which dragons were said to enjoy eating, from a high mountain.

There was no particular meaning to it. It was because it was cool.

Besides that, he pulled in spring water with magic and tried making a small waterfall, floated small boats in the waterfall and competed with Rodney to see whose boat would reach downstream faster, hung a hammock between medicinal trees, and tried sleeping while gazing at the moon with Dora.

He borrowed and read from Eloise a poetry collection that was not an academic book, but was simply filled with beautiful words. He decided not to tell anyone that it had been so beautiful that tears had spilled from his eyes.

This country’s hero was, for the first time in his life, playing with this greenhouse as his heart led him.

He used magic unstintingly for himself alone, and planted plants for himself.

Beetles and large spiders that had not appeared in Beth’s greenhouse seemed to like Noel’s greenhouse, and freely made their nests there.

Every morning, Noel sprayed the large spiderwebs with mist water, and they shone in rainbow colors in the sunlight, beautiful to behold.

The gecko he had once seen had, before he knew it, found a mate and was nurturing tiny eggs beneath the iris flowers Noel had just planted.

They would likely hatch in just a few more days.

Noel gently put up a small magic circle so that they would not be harmed by mice.

Though Noel’s greenhouse could not compare to Beth’s, he was still very happy in this greenhouse, where the plants he had raised with great care and the creatures he adored were growing freely and healthily.

As a result, Noel’s pale face became sunburned, and color began to appear in his cheeks.

A gentle smile had begun to spill over Noel’s doll-like, beautiful face, which had once been stiff and unmoving.

“It’s become like the secret base of a mischievous farm boy out in the countryside!”

Rodney, who had only recently left childhood behind, seemed to like Noel’s new greenhouse very much.

He brought in things like a toy magic sword magical tool he had used when he was a child, and a model of a star-shaped throwing weapon said to be used by spies in distant foreign countries, then stayed there constantly and seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Yes. Rather than raising what I need, I thought I would raise what I want to raise into a happy state. …And then, for some reason, it turned into this.”

Rodney looked in the direction Noel pointed and, startled, jumped back a little.

“Ugh, gross! Noel-sama, I seriously don’t understand this. It’s disgusting, so shouldn’t you hurry up and get rid of it??”

The greenhouse was steadily being arranged by Noel’s hands into a fairly good state, but only one thing had become strange.

In the corner of the greenhouse, Nana-chan the banana slug, who had grown too large and had probably reached her limit, was spitting white thread and making some kind of huge cocoon.

Nana-chan, trembling as though she was on her last breath and desperately spitting white thread, was honestly extremely disgusting, and from Rodney’s perspective, she was something he wanted incinerated as soon as possible.

“Don’t say that, Rodney. That thing is living as hard as it can in its own way, too. Besides, I’ve never heard of a banana slug becoming a cocoon. You were also considering magical insect research in the future, weren’t you?”

Noel acted calm, but even he seemed creeped out, as expected.

“There aren’t any weirdos who would care enough about banana slugs to research them! Ah, honestly. If Beth doesn’t come back soon, this greenhouse is going to be full of weird creatures and weird plants…”