Editor 67

The Queen’s Garden (4)

Now, Arthur’s back was nowhere to be seen.

How many more seconds passed?

In the distance, a clear flash of sword energy flickered three times.

A massive cherry tree, likely over a hundred years old, was cut down along the sword’s trajectory and collapsed.

Soon after, all the fragments of petals filling the space between Cleio and Arthur began to scatter like grains of sand.

Shaa―

It was, indeed, like watching the rapid corrosion of a mineral rather than a living creature.

Beyond where the pale pink dust scattered and disappeared, Arthur, gripping Beg’s sword, turned back.

The boy, his cheeks flushed with excitement, had his limbs torn here and there in a mess, but his wide, bright smile never faded.

Soon, the mica shield in his hand reached the end of its lifespan and crumbled.

Arthur shouted.

“Ray! There’s a magic stone here too!”

Waving his arm broadly, the boy retraced his steps exactly as he came. His feet were so fast that he was in front of Cleio in no time.

‘He’s just a kid at times like that, a real kid. Not even an elementary schooler, just so excited. He must really like dungeons.’

The defensive magic formula on Cleio’s side also faded away.

All the flowers vanished, and the cherry trees, too, had rotted black. In the eerie path, the two boys faced each other.

Arthur proudly opened his fist in front of Cleio. The dungeon displayed a message.

“The Rose Quartz of Cherry

: Magic stone of safflower. Possesses gentle energy.”

What Arthur brought with his bloodied hand was a gemstone, inside which petals seemed to be solidified in a round ore.

“Look at this! How do you use this?”

“Let’s treat your wounds first. Hold still.”

Ether was gradually running low, but Arthur’s wounds were severe enough not to ignore.

‘I’ve circulated whenever I had time, but it’s still not enough. I’ll only use double activation of magic formulas when absolutely necessary.’

As Cleio opened a new field and cast [Healing] magic, Arthur continued talking, clearly still thrilled by what just happened.

Cleio replied absentmindedly while finishing the treatment. After wiping the blood with Arthur’s hem, he saw the boy’s rough hands were covered in scars.

‘These aren’t wounds from just today or yesterday.’

Unlike his still-boyish face, the hand that gripped the sword was mottled with old scars.

Torn, bitten, and scratched marks extended up to his wrist, as if revealing the life the third prince had led.

As Cleio shook his head to scatter such ill-timed thoughts, Arthur fussily rummaged through his trouser pocket. Then he took out the amber from earlier and handed it over.

“Keep it with the rose quartz. You really need to use this. I never understood what was so great about magic stones, but… so this is it! That shield was amazing. It blocked all those shards without a hint of weight!”

Of course, Cleio accepted the magic stones without hesitation.

He stored them well in the wallet where he kept the magic ore bronze and magic ore cast iron.

“A kid who grew up in the military camp finds everything fascinating.”

“You don’t know a thing about the border garrison! There, you hardly ever get to hold a sword made of magic ore, let alone see a magic stone!”

“Is someone embezzling the budget or something?”

“What are you talking about? Weapons that only work if you can use ether—would they be distributed to the barony of Kishion, which only has twenty knights at best?

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Calm down and turn around. Let’s see if there are any more wounds.”

Fwoosh—

At that moment, Cleio, who had been checking Arthur, froze as he was.

Behind Arthur, the 10-story tower that had been intact until just now was burning fiercely.

The massive flames shot up to the sky, illuminating the opposite side of the garden.

‘Why is that… happening?’

Boom boom boom boom! Crash!

The burning tower’s first floor finally gave way and it tilted.

With the burning tower behind them, two figures approached at incredible speed.

Dududududu!

Arthur also sensed something strange, turned around, and shouted.

“Ishiel! Chel!”

A familiar voice burst out from the direction of the tall shadow.

“We came because we saw flashes and heard crashing sounds! Should’ve brought a flare or something!”

Chel, whose clothes and skin were as tattered as Arthur’s, shouted with a big grin.

Cleio, thinking Chel really would have done it, replied sternly.

“If you carelessly set off a flare and attract the attention of a monster, we’d be left with nothing but bones and corpses. Don’t say such reckless things.”

“Our future great mage gives us another serious warning. Ray, you’re completely fine, aren’t you?”

Ishiel, who arrived a step behind Chel, said calmly.

“Arthur, you’re safe too.”

Ishiel quickly checked Cleio’s condition as well and added quietly.

“…You too, Cleio. If you can’t use magic on yourself, at least put on some medicine.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll treat it once we’re out.”

Cleio, too, had shallow blood stains on his arm and face from being cut by a monster.

They weren’t serious wounds. Compared to the other three, he got off lightly.

“Ishiel, are you okay? Need treatment?”

“Save your ether.”

As Ishiel and Cleio politely looked out for each other, Arthur cut in.

“By the way, Chel, why’s the tower like that?”

“Ray said for the flower petal monster, you either grab its head or burn everything if that’s not possible. There was no way to grab the head with all those shards pouring down.”

Chel said brightly, wiping the blood from his forehead.

Cleio quickly opened a circle and cast [Healing] on both Chel and Ishiel at the same time.

Despite their outwardly fine appearances, the injuries must have been severe, as more ether was consumed than expected.

“Sorry the prediction was off. The scale was much bigger than I thought.”

“What’s there to be sorry for? Thanks to your protection, Ray, we managed to escape somehow. And you even healed us!”

Arthur urged Chel again.

“Can you finish the tower story before you start bragging?”

“You impatient guy. I set fire to the tower while Ishiel covered me. We barely got out while it was burning.”

You can stop bleeding with magic, but you can’t regrow cut hair. Chel, whose luscious indigo hair was raggedly cut, shrugged with pride.

Cleio responded with delight.

“You managed to activate [Ignition] magic formula?”

“The result’s right there. But it took ages to light it up, trying to draw the formula by hand and inject ether! For the first time, I regretted becoming a knight!”

“You pulled it off, though.”

“Barely! I was just staring at the magic formula in that chaos.”

It was easier said than done. It was impressive that Chel, who wasn’t even a mage, showed such determination.

‘True. In the previous manuscript, Chel was the most reckless among Arthur’s companions…’

Looking over Chel’s shirt, which was slashed down the back, Cleio clicked his tongue.

“But just drawing a magic formula couldn’t have destroyed the tower, could it?”

“I threw in a few rounds of magic ore gunpowder to break the pillars, and doused it with magic ore white phosphorus. We split it up earlier and brought it in!”

“The bullets, okay, but a handful of white phosphorus can’t burn down the tower… you brought more, didn’t you? How much?”

“About a pillow’s worth? Good thing I packed all sorts of things in my subspace bag.”

At Chel’s nonchalant answer, Arthur whistled.

“You burned 150,000 dinar to kill one monster, Sir Tanpete de Neige. Did you recover the magic stone?”

“No? The whole area was burning, so I couldn’t retrieve it!”

“Whew, your spendthrift ways never cease to amaze me.”

“Admire all you want. Most of my fortune’s invested in you, so have some awareness.”

Now, with his head busy glancing between the dying tower, the flower beds behind it, and Chel, Cleio couldn’t help but sigh.

‘Fifteen million just turned to ash there? What is happening….’

“Ray, what’s wrong? Out of ether?”

“No, just thinking about the amount of money you burned is making it hard to breathe.”

“Is that something to say as the son of Aser, the richest baronet and landlord in Oreils?”

“The only property under my name is just that….”

“Ray, stop teasing. Chel inherited directly from her grandmother, so she’s the wealthiest among our peers.”

“What on earth did your grandmother do?”

It was a mutter, omitting the question of how a granddaughter could sprinkle magic stones like water and even raise private soldiers.

“Haven’t you heard yet? Geez. I thought Aser Trading’s investigation team would know. My grandmother was the secret fund manager of the last Carolingian dynasty, the Etenzel royal family.”

Cleio blinked in surprise at Chel’s sudden revelation.

“You’ve been to the de Neige Hotel in Novantes, right? That was a castle prepared for the Etenzel royal family’s exile. But when the whole family was beheaded, my grandmother, the nominal owner, swallowed it all up.”

“That’s not all, is it?”

“Of course not. Even my mom didn’t know the full scale of the inheritance until it came down. I still don’t know everything, nor does Albion’s tax office. My mom started the hotel business, so we only pay taxes on Novantes Castle and the Camellia Mansion! Hahaha.”

.

.

.

“Is it there?”

“That’s it, right, Ray?”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

The remaining time was [10:14:53], plenty to spare.

The group reached the greenhouse without much trouble.

‘Didn’t think seeing the Kew Gardens map would help this much.’

The book about the garden never came out in the end.

Professor Kim Young-hwan got excited about using imported paper for the hardcover, printing the text in four colors, adding special paper, and so on, but the company didn’t have the staff or the production budget for such a luxurious book.

‘Funny how life sometimes rewards you for failed projects.’

Cleio examined the familiar shape of the greenhouse. In the original world, it was a conservatory for tropical plants.

A hemispherical round dome, an old white iron frame stained with rust, and aged, clouded glass.

They had found it.

Of course, the model greenhouse in the real world was much smaller. This one looked over five stories tall, with an immense width and breadth.

‘So this is the final stage. Ugh….’

While searching for the dome, minor monsters like ‘Day of the Silver Grass’ or ‘Tulips That Bite Your Instep’ were easily handled by the three swordsmen.

Arthur, Ishiel, and Chel didn’t seem tired at all; in fact, their swordplay grew sharper and their steps lighter as time passed.

Chel was almost shouting with joy. She said she felt more nimble by the minute. Arthur nodded in agreement, so it seemed the main goal of coming here was achieved.

Cleio, the only one among the four with barely any injuries and intact clothes, trailed at the very back.

“So, before we tackle ‘Master Clock,’ let’s…”

“Take a break?”

“Yeah. You’ll collapse if you don’t. Sit down, quick.”

Chel, Ishiel, and Arthur divided roles smoothly: one kept watch, one set up the spot, and one took out food and water.

The kids seemed used to physical fatigue, wetting their throats with cold water and munching on biscuits, dried fruit, and jerky.

Even Ishiel easily nibbled on the preserved food with her small mouth, but Cleio, tense and with a weak stomach, found it too much.

“Not eating any more?”

Ishiel checked on Cleio, who couldn’t even finish one biscuit.

“I just can’t eat.”

“Oh dear. It’d be trouble if the mage collapses~.”

“…Then at least drink more water. We should’ve brought sugar.”

“I’ve got some marzipan in my pack. Want some?”

The three’s genuine concern only made Cleio more embarrassed. The lively swordsmen kids were sincerely worried about him.

Which made it all the more awkward and embarrassing.

‘Man. I need to get out of here quick. It’s over once we get out.’

Fortunately, this first dungeon, ‘Queen’s Garden,’ didn’t have the 72-hour time limit like the previous manuscript.

It was a checkpoint designed to help players adapt to the system, level up if things went well, and build friendship with companions.

‘Those kids could go for three days straight and never get tired…’

But with Cleio’s stamina, he couldn’t keep up with the demands of the story.

He considered sleeping more, but knew his back would only ache, so he just endured.

‘I’m seventeen too—how can there be such a difference with them?’

“Thanks. But we’ll be out soon, so you don’t have to worry.”

Leaving the barely crumbled biscuit aside, Cleio began the final briefing.

“In this remembered world, the ‘Master Clock’ appears on the floor when the round metalwork in the center of the dome ceiling catches the light. So we need to break the ceiling.”

Arthur said regretfully.

“If we use [Circle of Assault], it’d be over in no time. It’s a shame guns don’t work and we have to use ether.”

Upon hearing this, Chel proposed a typically extravagant solution.

“If we use bullets plated with magic stone silver, wouldn’t they hold ether?”

Cleio rejected Chel’s idea.

“Bullets made of magic stone silver could hold ether, but they’d be blocked by the carnivorous plant monsters waiting under the dome. We need to keep cutting with sword energy, nonstop.”

“True, and it’s not like we can get magic stone silver bullets right now anyway. So this is why we need an area-of-effect attack.”

“As you know, my circle’s range is only twenty meters, so first, we need to get rid of those nasty things down there.”

Looking in from the outside, the greenhouse’s inner stairs were entangled and broken by tropical plant vines.

Shaa.

Thud thud thud thud. Sizzle.

As people approached, carnivorous plants in red and blue, of all shapes and sizes, opened their mouths and dripped acid. The soil sizzled where the monster’s liquid touched.

“There’s nowhere to step outside. The dense iron frame looks climbable, but there’s a thin film on it, so hands just slip off.”

Ishiel, after circling the greenhouse’s exterior, reported back. It meant they had no choice but to go inside.