Kays Translations

Chapter 7: The Secret Garden

　The bushes swayed, rustling out an eerie sound. Tension ran across Gyre’s and Christopher’s faces. And then the thing showed itself.

“It’s a slime!”

“E-Eeek!”

　Gyre shouted; Christopher flinched.

“Calm down. Go for the core! It shouldn’t move fast!”

　It was a slime — a prime specimen of the small-fry monsters. Probably nothing to worry about. Proof of that was the escorts hanging back and watching how we handled it rather than stepping in. They were most likely giving us a chance to get some combat experience.

“Can you even kill it with a wooden sword?”

“You can if you crush the core. It shouldn’t be all that firm.”

“Gyre, hurry up and finish it!”

　At my advice, Gyre brought his wooden sword up into a thrusting stance. He seemed to mean to skewer the core in one go. Christopher and I took a step back.

“Chestooo—!”

　With a roar of spirit, Gyre drove his thrust into the slime. It struck the core dead on, without a hair’s breadth of error. Not bad at all, Gyre. The son of the Knight Commander indeed. For a seven-year-old, that’s more than good enough.

　With its core destroyed, the slime could no longer hold its shape, and at last it stopped moving. A complete victory.

“Well done, Gyre. That was splendid.”

“Thank you very much!”

“That’s our Gyre!”

　Both of them looked delighted. The escort knights watched the three of us with warm eyes.

　We’d had a spot of trouble, but I still had to get hold of that antidote herb clump. I dug carefully around it with the shovel and lifted it out so as not to damage the roots.

　Good, that worked. I’d really have liked some mana herb too, but I couldn’t afford to spend any longer here. We headed straight back to the mansion.

　Without stopping anywhere else, I went to call on Mother, who was in the sunniest salon in the Heine margravial residence.

“Mother, I should like to grow flowers, just as you do. May I grow some in the garden?”

“Oh my, are you interested too, Julius? I don’t mind at all. Go right ahead.”

　Mother smiled warmly. Gardening is a widely established hobby among the nobility, and Mother is one of its devotees. She had built a magnificent rose garden in one corner of the garden. I’d calculated that appealing to that side of her would get me permission.

“Thank you! I’ll start making a flower bed right away.”

“Ufufu. How lovely.”

　Well — I say flower bed, but it’s going to be a medicinal herb garden. Ufufu.

　Permission secured, I took Gyre and Christopher straight off to a corner of the grounds.

　The Heine margraviate’s garden is vast. And no wonder. Being a margraviate, as the name suggests, House Heine had established itself out in the frontier lands. As a result, land was the one thing it had in pointlessly large supply. You could declare “everything past this point is my land!” and nobody could really argue.

　Too close to the mansion and there’d be no room to expand later. With that in mind, I decided to build the medicinal herb garden a fair distance out.

“Right, let’s make it around here.”

“Lord Julius, there’s nothing but weeds around here. Surely you don’t mean to turn this into a flower bed starting now?”

“Eeek.”

　The two of them shrieked. Well, of course they would. The only tool to hand, after all, was the shovel I was holding. But there was no problem whatsoever.

“Just watch.”

　I concentrated my magical power and used earth magic to throw together a flower bed in no time at all. The soil composition had already been adjusted to suit growing medicinal herbs. Magic really is remarkable. My past-life skills — glad I have them. I’d used the ‘Potting Soil’ skill to produce rich, fertile ground.

“Right, all that’s left is planting the seedlings we brought back.”

“A-Amazing! So this is magic.”

“Eeek!”

　Christopher hasn’t said anything but “eeek” for a while now — is that a verbal tic of his? Ah well. Using my ‘Root Division’ skill, I planted out the medicinal herbs and the antidote herb. I put in the herbs I’d found along the way while I was at it. Those act as an insect repellent.

　That’s that. All that remained was to spray it down like a shower using water magic, and it was finished.

　Water produced by water magic contains magical power, and that water has the effect of accelerating plant growth. If I came to water them every day, they should be ready to harvest sooner.

“That’s today’s work done. We’re heading back.”

“That was over in a flash.”

“Lord Julius, your magic is incredible!”

“No, no — anyone who can use magic could manage this much. It’s nothing unusual at all.”

“Is that so…”

　A lie, of course. An ordinary mage probably couldn’t do the same. It would be impossible unless you were someone remarkably well versed in making fields. The only reason I can use this magic is that I grew plant-type materials in the game.

　Soothing a slightly deflated Christopher, we returned to the mansion and went our separate ways there. Back in my own room, I ordered the servants to keep out, and smirked to myself.

　In my pocket were the medicinal herbs I’d just acquired. There was no reason on earth not to use them.

“It’s been a long four years. The day has finally come.”

　I intended to use the medicinal herbs I’d obtained to make a magic potion.

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