IVPCB 11

Chapter 11

Suddenly, my head throbbed. I could see a vision of my future gardener life getting all tangled up.

Wherever humans gather and live in an organization, there are always so-called “connections,” and depending on which line you get on, the temperature of your social life changes quite a bit.

‘So I ended up on the losing line.’

But even if I could see a bleak future ahead, I couldn’t just stand there spacing out.

“Let’s just eat this for today, shall we?”

I forced my expression back into place and spoke to Aegir.

“Very well.”

As soon as Aegir gave his permission, I started cooking.

Still, as it was a mage’s house, the kitchen facilities were quite well-equipped. There was a faucet that produced water when you pressed a pedal with your foot, neatly arranged knives, pots, cutting boards, and other cooking utensils, and even a hearth in one corner of the kitchen.

I put rice and beans in a pot, washed them, and started cooking. Then I chopped bean sprouts, tomatoes, and cabbage, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and lightly stir-fried them in a pan.

Not long after I started cooking, a savory aroma spread through the kitchen, and Aegir raised an eyebrow, looking surprised.

‘I can see exactly what you’re thinking. I may look like this, but thanks to my past life, I’m not bad at cooking.’

In my past life before possession, I’d worked part-time at a flower shop, and aside from making bouquets and trimming flowers, I was generally pretty handy. I’d also made pressed flowers from leftover flowers to create bookmarks, plaster air fresheners, potpourri, scented candles, soaps, and more.

I also enjoyed cooking, so I’d do home baking—making madeleines, cookies, and the like—and I’d try making various dishes by following cookbooks and videos.

Thanks to that, the results I laid out on the table were quite impressive given the ingredients. I neatly plated the glossy pea rice and the fragrant stir-fry, and it looked fairly presentable.

“Please, go ahead and try it first.”

Since respecting one’s elders is common culture everywhere in the world, I offered Aegir the first taste. Aegir took a graceful bite of the pea rice, then put the stir-fry into his mouth as well.

His expression was ambiguous, but at least it didn’t scrunch up in displeasure.

“How is it?”

I waited until Aegir had swallowed his first bite before asking.

“Your cooking skills aren’t bad. Unexpectedly.”

[Quest successful. Aegir recognizes you as a ‘disciple with fairly useful cooking skills.’

―Gardener performance: 1]

Despite the somewhat harsh evaluation, Aegir seemed to like the food quite a bit. The proof was that the dishes placed before him were disappearing at a fairly quick pace.

“What is this steamed rice?”

He even showed interest, pointing at my pea rice. It seemed that since “S.H.A.D.A” was roughly set in a Western-style background, rice was unfamiliar to him.

“Hmm… I adapted a dish I ate at the Earl’s estate.”

Since I couldn’t tell him the truth that it was “rice” from the Republic of Korea, I made up a plausible excuse.

“The Earl’s chef must be quite skilled.”

Fortunately, he accepted it without suspicion and continued eating.

The heartless master didn’t even offer me any food.

‘I’ll just eat well by myself.’

Swallowing my slightly hurt feelings, I scooped up the food in front of me and put it in my mouth.

‘Since I made it, it’s passable, but it’s a bit bland.’

I had a firm belief that the taste of food is proportional to the amount of fat used, but dishes made only with the ingredients in Aegir’s house tasted excessively healthy.

Besides, this body was still growing. I needed meat and protein.

‘I’ll have to go find the kitchen servants first thing tomorrow and get some ingredients.’

I made that resolution and was about to ask Aegir for directions to the kitchen.

“Now that you’ve more or less finished eating, let’s go tend to the garden work.”

“W-Wait, we just came a long way, and you’re saying we go right after eating? Without even a break?”

I’d wanted to rest a bit, but this was too much. In the Republic of Korea, they at least gave an hour for lunch, and even at the Earl’s estate, the servants’ lunch break was from twelve to one.

“There are no breaks. Quickly put your things away and come out.”

Despite my protest, Aegir’s response was sharp as a knife. I’d expected some hardship and had prepared myself, but wasn’t this a bit too much for a tyrannical boss—I mean, a tyrannical master?

But my surging grievance was buried by Aegir’s next words.

“As the new gardener, you will go and pay your respects to the sacred tree, Nebula.”

[Quest! Pay respects to the sacred tree Nebula—Difficulty ??.

Before becoming a full-fledged gardener, you will go to pay your respects to the sacred tree ‘Nebula.’ But be careful. There may be some secret hidden in the glass greenhouse.

―Success reward: ??? (Unique-grade item), Gardener performance.

―Failure penalty: Wrath of the sacred tree, Curse.]

As soon as Aegir finished speaking, a quest window appeared, displaying two question marks I hadn’t seen once since possessing “S.H.A.D.A.”

‘Ah, this must be a very important quest.’

I could tell intuitively just by looking at the quest window.

“Okay… I’ll put my things away and be right there.”

I had no choice but to answer with tears in my eyes.

A red path leading from the cabin to the glass greenhouse. The well-maintained garden, divided into sections, was filled with all kinds of roses.

The colors ranged from the common red, pink, and white to the rare purple, blue, and black, and the petals came in many varieties, from single-layered to densely packed multi-layered blooms.

Then suddenly, Aegir, who had been walking ahead, stopped in front of a cluster of flowers.

A deep pink flower with five single-layered petals. It looked very similar to a rose, but strictly speaking, this flower was somewhat distant from being a rose.

Evidence of that was that, unlike the roses in other sections that seemed to have been cultivated for horticulture with large or abundant blooms, this one had relatively many leaves and a lower proportion of flowers.

In other words, it looked like a wild flower tree had been transplanted as-is. And I knew the name of this flower.

‘Isn’t that… a rugosa rose?’

It’s a flower that blooms in sandy coastal areas in spring, and I remembered seeing it when I went to the beach in my past life.

However, I pretended not to know and asked Aegir a question. There was no guarantee that this flower had the same name here.

“Master, what’s the name of that rose?”

“…This is not a rose. It’s a wildflower called ‘Rosa rugosa’ that I transplanted from the coast.”

A hint of loneliness and sadness passed over Aegir’s muttering face. It looked exactly like he was reminiscing about a happy past he could never return to.

“You were looking at it with particular attention. Did someone precious give you a Rosa rugosa as a gift in the past, perhaps?”

His expression looked so sorrowful, unlike him, that I deliberately made a joke to lighten the mood.

At my words, Aegir’s lips tightened, and a moment of silence followed.

‘Oh no, did I hit a nerve? But why? Doesn’t Aegir fall in love with Luna later?’

Of course, because Aegir was a difficult character to pursue, in some ending routes, he didn’t develop feelings for Luna and things ended with him as a supporter.

Moreover, since his original setting was “a mysterious reclusive master gardener who has lived for 300 years,” he didn’t reveal all of his past either.

In short, he was a somewhat unfriendly romanceable character.

Recalling that point, one hypothesis crossed my mind.

‘Maybe there was someone he loved before that.’

The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

Because if it was a route where Aegir didn’t end up with Luna, there’d be no reason for him to bring up his old love story to Saintess Luna, who came to help the North. And if it was a route where Aegir and Luna did end up together, given his personality, he wouldn’t talk about his past love to someone he liked.

It was Aegir, surprisingly, who broke the silence first.

“When I first met that precious person, these flowers were blooming in abundance there.”

He brushed the petals of the Rosa rugosa with his long fingers and continued quietly.

“Time is truly heartless. Now that person is gone, and only I and these flowers remain.”

‘Who was that person? Where and how did they meet?’

Curiosity stirred in a corner of my mind, but I decided to keep it buried.

It was just my guess, but he must have felt comfortable with me, someone he’d just met, and that was probably why he could speak so calmly about it.

Sometimes, old memories can be diluted just by having someone to listen.

Instead, I quietly stood on my tiptoes and patted Aegir on the shoulder.

“What is this?”

Aegir frowned and looked at me.

‘I know, you fool.’

As if telepathic, I gazed intently at Aegir and conveyed my thoughts with my eyes.

“I spoke out of turn. Now I’m in a bad mood.”

He shot a glare at me and spat out those words, then turned around and strode away first.

‘Sigh, for someone who was being all pitiful just a moment ago, he sure gets shy.’

For an old man, his lack of honesty was rather endearing.

“Master! Wait for me~!”

I called out cheerfully and trotted after Aegir toward the glass greenhouse.

“Huff, huff.”

By the time I caught up to Aegir and arrived in front of the glass greenhouse, I was gasping for breath.

‘For being so slender and delicate-looking, he’s unnecessarily fast.’

Unlike my disheveled appearance from chasing after him in a hurry, Aegir’s back was perfectly composed, which made me a little annoyed.

After finally catching my breath, the view of the glass greenhouse before my eyes was no different from when I’d broken in to steal a branch of the sacred tree.

The massive door still boasted an engraving of a giant sea monster, the silver branches of Nebula and colorful flowers were visible through the translucent glass dome, and the forsythia hedge surrounding the glass greenhouse was also unchanged.

And just in case, I peeked to the side of the forsythia hedge where the dog hole used to be.

‘Just as I thought, it’s blocked.’

After I confessed the method of my infiltration into Heliwyka Castle, Aegir must have blocked it, because the dog hole was gone, and only neatly trimmed forsythia remained.

‘Without a key, I had no choice but to break in.’

I quietly made a small excuse in my mind, as if trying to ignore my guilty conscience.