In the middle of summer and spring, on a lazy and warm day.
“On a day like this, going for a picnic would be perfect.”
“What do you mean? This is practically a picnic already.”
“That may be true.”
It has never been this quiet in Luke Forest before. After holding back the Wave, such calm days usually continue, but today feels even quieter than usual.
There’s nothing much to see during the reconnaissance; monsters are hardly visible.
Listening to the birds chirp, I occasionally spot a deer or a rabbit munching on some grass. Continuing my reconnaissance feels like I’m truly out for a picnic.
I wish I could spend this time playing with Luke.
“But Luke hasn’t been coming to the forest lately. Is it because Yerna hasn’t been around?”
“Well, he’s probably busy. I heard he’s going back to school. That’s good. It doesn’t seem like anything major has happened.”
“Yeah, that’s true. I was surprised last time, though.”
“Right.”
When Sorbi refers to ‘last time,’ she’s talking about when Luke had cut his wrist.
Because of that incident, I kept an eye on Luke for a few days. Thankfully, he hasn’t been any different from usual, so I was relieved.
“Still, I can’t help but wonder what’s going on inside Luke.”
“That is true.”
Sometimes he does strange things casually, which is a bit cute, but the wrist-cutting is alarming. I really hope he never does that again.
“I think I’ve checked everything here. Everything seems normal.”
As we chatted away, our leisurely reconnaissance came to an end quickly.
There were no special footprints or traces, no anomalies, and nothing particularly strange about the mana.
It was an entirely ordinary day.
…Until I saw ‘that.’
——-
Bang-!
Sorbi burst into the break room, making a fuss.
“Sis, Kirke! Something big has happened!”
It’s not unusual for Sorbi to make a scene, but I couldn’t completely ignore her. Daphne put down her tea, and Kirke, who had been stretching lightly, stopped and looked at Sorbi.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“What do you mean it’s serious?”
Sorbi huffed and puffed, catching her breath, and replied with a puffy face.
“The flower bed that Luke tended to is a complete mess!”
“What?”
——
The beautifully arranged flower bed was trampled and torn apart, looking horrendous.
“This is pretty terrible…”
“Wow, did some wild animals get in?”
Daphne immediately looked for signs of intrusion.
“Looks like the mana barrier on this side has weakened.”
“That’s true.”
Just as Daphne said, the mana barrier near the back fence was indeed weakened.
Was it a lack of upkeep?
Kirke picked up some torn petals and thought about how hard and sincerely Luke had tended to this flower bed.
Come to think of it, Luke has loved flowers since the beginning.
He knew the meanings of most flowers and the stories behind the fairy tales tied to them.
Not only that, but he was also highly knowledgeable about how to care for different flowers and when they bloom.
Someone who loved flowers that much must have devoted immense care to this flower bed.
He always woke up early to check the sunlight and the wind. Whenever it was too windy or bright, he would build partitions, and if it seemed like there wasn’t much rain, he would water the plants. Sometimes, he would even play music in the flower bed while chatting with them to help them grow.
That’s why the flower bed was always beautiful and vibrant, often drawing other forest keepers who sought comfort in its beauty.
Occasionally, they would greet Luke as they watered the plants or chatted about flowers.
Besides, the plants and flowers here were all brought from Luke’s walks, one or two at a time.
Naturally, they must have held a much deeper affection for him than regular flowers.
Yet now, that flower bed is in shambles.
Kirke sighed and shook her head.
“It seems like they were eaten; most of the plants are gone by the roots.”
Whether it was wild animals or monsters, I had no idea which creature was responsible.
“Daphne, what should we do? If Luke sees this, he’ll be really disappointed…”
“What can we do… We’ll have to buy some plants and replant the bed…”
However, since most of the plants there were mana plants, replanting them would certainly be quite expensive.
Faced with unexpected expenses, Daphne sighed deeply.
‘No wonder it’s been so quiet lately…’
Why is it that when I think there’s nothing going on, something else happens?
Daphne couldn’t understand this bizarre reality.
—–
In the morning, the kids who arrived early in class were chatting away with their friends and goofing off to pass the time.
During this, someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder.
The boy immediately turned his head to see the face of the person who had tapped him on the shoulder.
It was Luke Irushi, a somewhat famous honor student who didn’t come to school often.
Since he rarely attended, it would have been easy to forget, but his cute face and peculiar physical features, along with his unique name, made it easy to remember him.
“Good morning, Bill.”
Luke smiled cheerfully and called out his name.
Bill felt his face redden for some reason and avoided eye contact, answering in a small voice.
“G-Good morning… but why all of a sudden…?”
Then Luke took something out of a basket slung over his arm and handed it to him.
“Here, take this.”
Caught off guard, Bill accepted it and confirmed it was a neatly wrapped cookie.
“W-What is this?”
At Bill’s question, Luke smiled gently and replied in a kind voice.
“I made too many yesterday, so I decided to share with everyone. Don’t hesitate to eat it. Oh, there’s also bread. Do you prefer bread or cookies?”
“Ah, no, I’ll go with this.”
Bill was too embarrassed to ask for a switch, so he just took what was given to him.
Hmm, is this a cookie?
As Bill tucked the cookie into his desk drawer, a girl next to him who had been watching spoke up in a slightly excited voice.
“Really? You made this yourself?”
“Is it strange?”
“No! It’s amazing! Do you have any for me too?”
“Of course! Ah, do you want bread or cookies?”
“I’ll take a cookie too! Thank you!”
After that, it went roughly along these lines.
Luke went around sharing cookies and bread with the kids.
“Th-Thank you! I’ll enjoy it!”
“I’ll certainly enjoy it!”
“Wow! This is really delicious!”
“That’s a relief.”
The children’s reactions were quite positive, and Luke felt a sense of accomplishment.
The peppermint, cinnamon, and red ginseng candies were surely delicious, but since Shirud and Mary had turned them down, he was worried that his taste might not align with the children’s.
“If you want more, just let me know. I have plenty.”
Shirud watched Luke and thought,
‘Just how much bread did he make?’
Even after distributing to all the kids, there was still a decent amount left in the basket.
As he stared blankly at that scene, Mary Aydel came over and nudged Shirud with her elbow.
“What’s wrong, Shirud? Are you disappointed?”
“Why would I be disappointed?”
“But your expression doesn’t look very good?”
“Uh.”
Well, of course not, right?
I thought he was giving it to me alone, and it feels like I jumped to conclusions too early.
I was wondering what I should give him in return if he gave me bread.
‘That’s right…’
Luke never said he was giving it ‘only’ to me.
I was worrying for nothing.
“Ugh…”
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s fine.”
Shirud was rather bothered by Mary’s ambiguous expression but decided not to pry since he didn’t want to dig deeper.
As he avoided Mary’s gaze, Luke spotted Shirud and waved.
“Oh, Shirud. You’re here.”
“Ah, hey, Luke.”
Shirud inadvertently averted his gaze from Luke’s basket as he greeted him.
“Haha, when did you arrive? I didn’t see you while I was handing these out.”
“Um, yeah. I see. What’s that?”
“Oh, this?”
Feeling a little embarrassed, Shirud looked away when Mary cast a glance that seemed to say she had been watching since a while ago, causing him to feel warmth rise to his cheeks.
Luke, without noticing Shirud’s red face, rummaged through his basket for a while and then exclaimed, ‘Ah, found it,’ before pulling out a specifically wrapped item with a bright smile.
“Here, this is something I made ‘especially’ for you.”
Although Luke didn’t emphasize the word ‘especially,’ it rang more clearly to Shirud.
“Especially…?”
“Yes.”
Luke had no choice but to pay special attention to Shirud.
After all, the experiment had begun with a promise made to Shirud.
However, due to someone eating all the finished bread, there was no melon bread left to give Shirud.
‘But I couldn’t get more ingredients, so remaking it was impossible.’
So, I put a little extra care into making this special.
“I added real melon to that melon bread. So, it’s special.”
“R-Really?”
“I’m sorry for not keeping my promise. That’s why I didn’t want to give you just regular elf-style melon bread.”
Seeing Luke’s apologetic expression, Shirud nodded.
I see, this is something special.
‘This feels strangely enjoyable…’
“Haha, is it really that good? I guess you were hungry.”
“Uh, yeah. Well…”
“Then eat it quickly. Oh, Mary, you should take one too. Bread or cookie?”
“I’ll have bread! Thank you!”
With that, Luke turned to distribute the bread to other kids.
Meanwhile, Mary observed him with a subtle smile as she looked down at Shirud.
“Hmm~.”
“W-What?”
“Nothing at all!”
A little later, as Luke handed out the last pieces of bread to everyone and sat down, Shirud asked him.
“Hey… Is there any more of this?”
Luke smiled brightly and replied.
“Oh, you want more because it’s delicious? But I’m sorry; the one with the melon is the only one.”
“I see…”
“How about I give you some other bread?”
“Ah, no. I’m fine. Thanks.”
Shirud looked down, avoiding Luke’s gaze.
‘So there was only one bread…’
——
‘What a pity.’
I didn’t mention that there was only one because I ran out of ingredients after eating too many melons, which tasted better than I expected before making them.
‘These days, even melons have a lot of flesh.’
They didn’t used to taste like this back in the day.
