Chapter 380: The Gardener of Withered Flowers (2)

Crimson light fell on a plastic flowerpot filled with black soil. A lily of the valley lay dormant within, its roots within the soil.

After gazing at it for a while, the Primordial Staff said, “You’ve built the sky and the earth, so it’s now time to make the sea.”

“Yesno.”

“Right, the order of creation... Wait, what kind of answer is that?”

“You’ll see,” I answered.

The Primordial Staff raised her eyebrows, but I called Estelle without elaborating further.

[The Scream-Gathering Sky has summoned his apostle.]

[Your apostle has answered your call.]

[The Scream Gathering Sky’s apostle has appeared.]

A woman once known as the Saintess of the Weak revealed herself. Before her feet even touched the ground, she asked, “Patriarch, why did you summon me?”

Estelle seemed to be in high spirits. Her excitement from the recent battle hadn’t fully subsided yet.

“Calm down, Advisor. I didn’t call you to fight.”

“

Ah

, is that so? I was disappointed that I didn’t perform well enough in the last battle.”

“Haven’t you become a little aggressive lately?”

“The head steward is like that one teammate in an online game. She tends to heighten the aggressiveness of those around her. I’m merely one of her unfortunate victims.”

I thought that was an insult to online games. While studies on whether online games increased violence showed different results, Sylvia’s ability to rile up others was a truth that could be proven time and time again. Online games relieved people’s stress, but the only thing Sylvia could relieve others of was their patience.

“Fighting spirit is good, but save it. A fight will come when it must, so it’s not too late to draw your sword then.”

“Yes, Patriarch. So, why did you call me?” Estelle blinked. Her purple eyes now seemed to reflect not only me but also the place where we stood. “Where are we?”

“This is the world I’m making,” I replied. “It’s the place where our clan will settle."

“I see. So this is our Nazarick?”

“What’s Nazarick?”

“It’s a place from an old novel in your world. The Viper recommended it[1]”, Estelle answered cheerfully.

Was the Viper trying to bring down my clan from inside?

Estelle went on. “I see. Very well. We’re fortifying this place by placing gardeners in each sector of the garden. These gardeners will each have strong Skills and items, granting them full power within their own sectors, power that even surpasses yours—”

“I’ll... have a chat with Rao Fan later.

Hmm

, Estelle, I didn’t call you here just to discuss the security system.”

“Then?”

“You can summon rain, right?”

Before becoming my clan’s advisor, the Demon King of Autumn Rain, once called the Saintess of the Weak, had drowned a world in a red flood.

“

Huh?

Rain?”

“Yes.”

I remembered Estelle’s Skill Card that the Guardian had once read to me.

Grudge Rain

Class: S-

Effects: They don’t see and can’t see. Humans believe that things don’t exist when they can’t see it. “They’re blind.” Yes, they are. “They’re fools.” If so, show them. Show them how many have died because of their ignorance. The sky will gladly return all of the innocent blood that was spilled.

※However, only as much innocent blood as you have seen being spilled will rain down.

“Make it rain in this garden, please,” I requested.

***

Estelle looked like she was praying as she closed her eyes and bowed slightly. Her platinum hair cascaded down, covering her neck and chest and pooling atop her clasped hands. Her lips parted.

“

Ah.

”

They closed for a moment, then parted again.

“

Ah.

”

And again.

“

Ah—

”

It was a kind of rumination, like when something hard to believe happened and one thought about it again and again, trying to accept it. That was why the sound that rang out each time her lips parted didn’t just come from her vocal cords but from deep within her heart. It was something I had witnessed many times in her trauma.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Thus, the first sight I had witnessed upon entering the Aegim Empire unfolded again. Red rain fell on my garden and soon turned into a flood. Water droplets clung to each hanging glass shard, scattering chaotically. Where the red rain met the red glass bits, a navy rainbow formed. I watched as blood droplets seeped into the plastic flower pot.

“That’s a lot,” the Primordial Staff said.

“Yes, it’s like a downpour, right? That rain was also accepted as an ordinary downpour at first.”

I spoke as if quoting from a book I had read long ago.

“This kind of rain has come many times before. It’s a rain that, although fierce, will stop soon, or so people thought. They held their umbrellas while talking with their neighbors or played a game of chess indoors to pass the time.”

Those were phrases I had read in many books. If each person were a book, I had been an avid reader for most of my life. Though I wasn’t a reader like Hamustra, I had many books to quote from.

“But it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t.”

The Primordial Staff took a deep breath, the broken staff clenched between her teeth. She looked like a smoker who soothed their nerves with a pipe. “Underestimating your opponent's grudge happens all the time. Failing to think that the one you’ve hurt may not be a cat but a tiger. Negligence and overconfidence lead to the leashes they hold being torn off or their insides rotting away. Every empire faces this, and no people in power can avoid it. Why are you laughing?”

“No reason.” I picked up an empty plastic bottle and cut it in half. “I just realized even Pillars put walls around their hearts.”

“Are you saying that I’m acting tough?”

“Are you not?”

The mage sighed. “My work is very fucked-up.”

The mage, who had served as the underworld’s judge for a long time, put her staff in her mouth again and then took it out. The falling rain was much colder than blood. The mage’s annoyance showed as white steam coming out of her mouth.

“Yes, but regardless of what I was doing, it’s true, am I wrong? The Aegim Empire fell before because it became the strongest it could be. Instead, it grew lax.”

“No, you aren’t wrong. But that isn’t all.”

The autumn rain pouring from the clouds that covered the entire sky drenched the land. It didn’t take long for the rising water to seep into my shoes. Each drop had its own weight. With the spilling water from the plastic flower pots, the rain became heavier and heavier. The once-flat ground rose evenly at first, then began to undulate according to the varying force of the impacts against its surface. This was this world’s sea.

I stood with my feet submerged in this sea of tears.

“They also forgot two things. That a person was crying, and someone else was crying for that person. Just as the Tower Master does.”

The Primordial Staff flinched. Heat gathered in her broken staff. True to her fame as a great mage, she immediately understood what I was implying.

“Are you saying that anyone can do the Tower master’s work?” she asked.

“Isn’t that why you all are drawn to her?” She couldn’t say anything, so I replied in her stead, “Yes, it is.”

Even if there was a world of despair somewhere out there, a world ruled by a merciless entity, someone would still weep, and someone else would cry for that person.

“We shouldn’t forget that.”

The Aegim Empire was founded by Lefanta Aegim, the Constellation Murderer. The founding emperor had always wept for someone else in a garbage dump where no one was ever invited.

A person was weeping, and someone else was crying for that person. The Aegim Empire fell simply because its people forgot that.

“—————...”

Within the flowerpot where the empire’s founding emperor bloomed, the tears of the demon king who destroyed the empire overflowed. The autumn rain mixed with the sea, leaving red streaks on the translucent pot’s surface.

Though new, the sea did its work, taking everything that spilled from the world and giving back what it had in return. I bent down and scooped seawater into a new plastic pot.

I spread my hands. “

Myriad Flower Garden Reincarnation.

”

[Activating the Skill.]

Within the pot where water rippled, a tiny lotus blossomed. Like a torn curtain in a lone house, the tattered lotus was light. As the heavy and light raindrops hit the sea, creating waves, the lotus gave itself to the water.

The Primordial Staff instantly recognized who the lotus was. “That flower is...”

I pointed to the pot with the lily of the valley. “If this world must have a sky and land, it’s solely because that person needed them. Likewise, if this world must have a sea, it’s for this person.”

I set the pot in the water, which was now rising to my ankles. It was the first ship to float on this world’s sea. Like the lotus it held, the pot seemed weightless, yielding to the pull of the waves. It rose as high as the hill that the waves created, then slid down smoothly, repeating the cycle. Though it looked unstable, as if it could capsize at any moment, it gradually found its rhythm and began its voyage. Drifting away, it soon vanished from my sight.

***

[A sea has been created in your world.]

[The eighty-third floor has been cleared!]

I kept on decorating my holy ground.

“

Myriad Flower Garden Reincarnation.

”

[Activating the Skill.]

“

Myriad Flower Garden Reincarnation.

”

[Activating the Skill.]

First, I made the flowers bloom, then I moved them one by one into the pots I had made. After that, I called my vassals and gave them jobs.

Uburka frowned. “

Ugor.

Daddy, you’re asking me to punch the ground?”

“Exactly.”

“Since you asked me to do it, I’ll do it... but why?”

“Because this flower loves high places,” I said, holding a tattered Akarkara[2].

My clan’s chief warrior stared at the white plastic bag pot filled with soil and the flower within for a while before letting out a loud snort.

“Alright. Yeah, your work is always hard to understand.

Ugor.

Step back, Daddy.”

“Thank you.”

Uburka swung his fist.

Thud!

The flat ground and the rippling sea soared. After the spray of the sea drenched the world like rain, the surface of my holy ground was no longer flat.

[A mountain range has been created in your world.]

[The eighty-fourth floor has been cleared!]

That was how I went on with decorating my holy ground.

[Spring has been created in your world.]

I brought spring for a flower that loved spring winds and another that fell under the weight of endless winter.

[Summer has been created in your world.]

My summer was for a flower that considered the scorching sun its home. Another flower longed to see the sea with its family on a summer day.

[Autumn has been created in your world.]

For a certain flower.

[Winter has been created in your world.]

Just for a certain flower.

[Congratulations! Seasons have been created in your world!]

[The eighty-fifth floor has been cleared!]

[Your world...]

I filled my world with only what the flowers needed.

“Bloom.”

I then made the flowers bloom.

“Rest among the things you cherish and feel at ease with.”

I planted the flowers.

“As long as you wish.”

They could rest forever if they so wished.

“When that time comes someday...”

However, when the day came that tattered petals healed, the holes in their leaves mended, their broken stems regained strength, or if they wished to bloom again on their own...

“... then you’ll come out of your pots.”

That was how I tended to my garden.

1. They’re talking about the novel

Overlord

written by Maruyama Kugane. ☜

2. Also known as Spanish chamomile ☜