Chapter 379: The Gardener of Withered Flowers (1)

Now, it was time to plant flowers in the world.

“Okay. Time to work, I guess.”

I stroked the lily of the valley, what was left of the Constellation Murderer, and stretched with a groan. From now on, I had to work hard. This world was still empty save for this flower. Making a single flower bloom in this place would require a lot.

The Guardian was watching me.

—What do you plan to do?

Come to think of it, he had been quiet lately. He hadn’t said a word even when the Constellation Murderer had nearly sealed me or when I successfully counterattacked and defeated him. The Guardian had only been watching from a few steps away.

If I was asked if I felt upset, my answer would be no, not really. I understood why the Guardian hadn’t intervened. Even without him speaking up, I knew what was going on in his mind. Unlike my time on the tenth floor, I was strong now and was only half a step behind the Guardian.

His lessons were over, and the rest was up to me. Had I been defeated by the Constellation Murderer and gotten sealed for eternity, that would have been the end of my journey to the top of the Tower. Between equal rivals, advice wasn’t needed.

“I suppose so...” I took off my coat and rolled up my sleeves. “First, we need a sun.”

—A sun?

“Yes, we need light. It’s super dark here. Even if only rotten flowers are meant to bloom here, the flowers themselves will be sad if the place is too dark.”

The Guardian looked at me as if I were slightly insane.

—How will you make a sun? I guess you can compress aura into a bulb to reproduce a small sun, but keeping it lit would be hard.

“Well, I think things will work out somehow.”

I had a lot of time.

“And I think a professional can help me find a solution.”

***

Unfortunately, after visiting Babylon and asking a professional, all I got was a cat fiercely shaking their pink paw pads in front of me.

“No way. Absolutely not. Never.”

“Is it too hard?” I asked.

“

Woof.

Even though we’ve decided to bark despite our feline identities, we still have some conscience. With your budget, creating a sun is a little—no, it’s

way

beyond your reach.”

The Goldcoin-Biting Cat looked at me as if I were a client asking a real agent how to find a

jeonsae

lease[1] of a brand new apartment on a fifty million won budget[2]. The cat’s gaze was so realistically sarcastic that it hurt.

“

Woof

, we can get you a light bulb that lasts for a very, very long time.”

I shook my head. “No, that’s not cool. This is a garden, after all. It needs natural light.”

“

Hmmm...

How about a phoenix? We could hang a cage from the ceiling and put a phoenix inside. It’ll create a sun-like ambiance.”

“Is that really natural light?”

“It’s close enough. Everything depends on how you think about it. The world is all about compromising.”

The cat’s suggestion briefly tempted me, but no matter how I thought about it, the image of a phoenix squawking above the garden seemed absurd.

But...

The cat’s casual remark about how the world was all about compromising inspired me.

“You’re right. There’s no need to go out of my way to bring a sun just to get natural light. In fact, a sun may be too bright for these withered flowers.”

“Yes, that self-justification is the trait a Constellation should have! Now then, Scream Sky. Since Taotie got wrecked, the worth of fire-type Constellations has dropped.”

“Thank you for your input. Farewell.”

The cat tilted their head. “

Meow?

”

I bought work gloves, a sack, and all sorts of other gear before going back to the eighty-first floor. Seeing me with work gloves and a sack slung over my shoulder, the Primordial Staff looked at me as one would at a slightly insane person. Did people pass a new law on how they should look at me without telling me about it? Why did everyone look at me like that?

“You look ready to dig up potatoes. I overheard you say you wanted to get a sun for natural light earlier. You’re not really planning to travel somewhere and return with a sun in that sack, are you?"

“Well, sort of,” I answered.

“What?”

“Can I visit the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground? It’ll be brief.”

The Primordial Staff blinked. “What do you mean? The Constellation Murderer’s holy ground is already doomed. You saw it get destroyed with your own eyes just yesterday.”

“Yes, but the Tower’s voice said the world ended, not that it was erased. The Tower master I know wouldn’t erase a world even if the Constellation, the apostles, and the followers of the world are all gone. It would likely stay frozen in its doomed state somewhere. Please let me visit it for a moment.”

The Primordial Staff pressed a palm on her forehead. “Scream Sky... You’re really weird. Why would you go to a doomed world? Are you trying to bring back trash from there? Or are you trying to bring back the body of a killing puppet left there? I could understand if you asked for a legendary item, but what can you possibly find in a place where only trash remains?”

“Please.”

“

Phew...

Wait a moment.”

The mage stared into the dark void.

[The Primordial Staff requests entry to the frozen holy ground.]

[The request has been approved.]

[You may enter the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground.]

The mage nodded, not looking pleased at all. “You got permission. It looks like the Tower master is curious about your plan. Gaining her favor isn’t easy, but you’re good at it.”

“Just be as kind as I am.”

The mage scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I lived like you, not only would I die fast, but my soul would rot.”

What was wrong with my soul?

Her frown deepened. “There is no way a sane person would want to turn his holy ground into a garden of withered flowers. Just imagine someone planting rotten flowers on their balcony. Do you think that’s normal?”

Was it? It did sound strange when she put it like that. Perhaps that was why everyone, starting with the Guardian, looked at me like I was a lunatic. Still, I didn’t change my plan.

[You have entered the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground.]

I set foot in the world I had destroyed yesterday. It was the same as when I left it. The wind was still because time had stopped. The sunset sky was gone, reduced to red glass shards. The falling trash and shattered glass shards were frozen like a fixed frame.

This time, the Primordial Staff followed me. She had refused to show herself when I had been with my comrades, but since I was now alone, she revealed herself.

“Now, I’ve brought you here as you requested. I really have to ask you one more time what you’re planning to take from here.”

“The sky,” I answered.

“

Huh?

The sky?” The Primordial Staff narrowed her eyes.

“Yes, I’ll take the sky with me.”

I began to search the trash heaps of the frozen world for the glass shards that had once been the sky, engraved with sunset. Though the world had ended, the shards still held the same crimson hue they had been dyed with when the sky shattered.

I carefully picked them up one by one. The shards that were too tiny would be difficult to use, so I looked for the ones at least as large as a human torso and slowly put them in the sack to avoid breaking them. Even inside the dark sack, they still glowed red and yellow.

[Teleporting you to the eighty-first floor.]

There was still nothing here except the lily of the valley. Using Lightness Art, I rose through the darkness as if climbing real stairs. Before long, I reached the dark ceiling.

“Okay.”

I took the glass shard out of the sack and used my fingernails to make a small hole in the glass with my aura. I threaded the string I had bought from the Goldcoin-Biting Cat. The cat had guaranteed that the string would never snap, so I presumed I could trust it.

“If I twist it like this and hang it on the ceiling... it worked,” I muttered to myself.

The glass, tied to the string, hung in the darkness. Like a single candle lit in the middle of a dark basement, it glowed faintly in red and yellow, showing the remains of a certain sunset.

“The light is still weak, but I guess it’ll be better in time.”

I kept going between the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground and the eighty-first floor to collect fragments of the sunset. The Primordial Staff watched me in silence. Even though she had been grumbling just moments ago, now she stood with her lips pressed tightly together.

[You have entered the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground.]

[Teleporting you to the eighty-first floor.]

[You have entered the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground.]

[Teleporting you to the eighty-first floor.]

[You have entered...]

After who knew how long, many threads dangled from the ceiling. At each end of the threads, sunset light trembled. Some glass shards were as large as a person while others were as small as a palm. Yet, they all held the light of sunset from a doomed world, giving out a soft glow. The lengths of the threads were uneven, and the sizes of the glass shards varied.

“Looking up from below, it looks like wisteria.”

I was satisfied. The eighty-first floor was no longer dark, but it wasn’t really bright either. The once bright sunset was now fading. That was why I liked it. Light like that wouldn’t be a burden on the withered flowers.

“I see.” The Primordial Staff gazed up at the glass sunset hanging from the sky. “So this is the light of the world you’re making.”

And let there be light.

No other Constellations would have gathered such weak light to decorate their holy ground. My followers were dead flowers that had lost their way while my sun was a remnant of a world that could no longer illuminate anyone. Trash. Ruins. This was a place where the leftovers of life bloomed. They lingered rather than lived.

“Yes. It’s not too bad, right?”

The Primordial Staff didn’t answer. It wasn’t like I was expecting an answer, so I just shrugged.

Lastly, I brought a plastic bottle from the Constellation Murderer’s holy ground. It was one of the few relatively intact plastic bottles in that place that was filled with nothing but crumpled trash.

“

Hm.

It’s been some time since I made one of these.”

I sat on the ground and picked up the scissors. I cut the middle of the bottle, which split neatly in two. As I shaped it, I found myself lost in nostalgia.

“I made these often when I was back at the orphanage...”

What I was making was a flowerpot. Store-bought flowerpots were surprisingly expensive, so at the orphanage, we cut up plastic bottles to make pots. They actually looked prettier than expected when we finished them.

“Time to fill this with soil...”

I had also given plenty of thought to the soil I would put in the pot. In the end, I went to the world where Kim Yul had lived, the same one where Kim Pollock was enduring hardships to continue his studies abroad. I headed to the dump where Kim Yul’s house had been, dug a hole, and brought back rotting, black soil.

“

Phew.

”

After putting the soil into the pot, I carefully planted the lily of the valley. Fortunately, the lily of the valley was unharmed and successfully transferred to the pot. The red light streaming down from the glass sky shone brightly, reflecting off the plastic pot’s clear side and sliding across it.

“Good.”

Like that, I brought light to this world and planted the first flower. After placing the lily of the valley in the center of my holy ground, I turned and looked at the Primordial Staff with a smile.

“This is how I’ll make the sky and the streams. I’ll then plant more flowers. My holy ground won’t be fun to look at, but,

hmm...

I think I’ll grow to love this place. Shall we move on to the next floor, Lady Mage?”

[A sky has been created in your world.]

[The eighty-first floor has been cleared!]

[Land has been created in your world.]

[The eighty-second floor has been cleared!]

Now was time to rise to the eighty-third floor.

1. It’s a type of lease that can commonly be found in South Korea. The tenants pay a large sum of deposit in advance to the landlord and live there for one to two years. ☜

2. It depends on the region, but a brand new apartment usually costs more than four hundred million won. ☜