Chapter 22

21. Garden Decoration

In one corner of Taeju's cabin, an unfamiliar pot was placed. It was an event pot. The tree inside it, true to its name, grew under moonlight rather than sunlight, so during the day, it was kept inside the cabin. In the evening, it had to be moved to the garden to receive moonlight.

"Ah! It's sprouting. It's growing quite fast."

Inside the pot, a tiny leaf, no bigger than a fingernail, had sprouted. The tender leaf, tinged with silver, was adorable. Tae-san, curious, poked his head into Taeju's side.

"Ah, it tickles, Tae-san. And you shouldn't touch this."

Tae-san was in a very curious phase, so lately, he had been biting fruits he couldn't even eat. He was also a good climber and often climbed fruit trees, seemingly enjoying knocking off unripe fruits with his paws.

"Should we make fertilizer?"

"Sure, Taeju. The moon candy tree will grow big and strong."

Taeju searched for plant fertilizers in his herbal book. There were many types. Some required such bizarre ingredients that it was hard to imagine where to get them.

'Dragon's blood? Where am I supposed to get that?'

"Star tree fruit powder is used here too. Mix star tree fruit powder with honey and vinegar, make it into small granules, and sprinkle it in the pot."

The cabin had no vinegar. Taeju, who never cooked, wouldn't have such a basic seasoning. Fortunately, he had honey, which he used occasionally for sweet tea.

"Vinegar! Taeju, let's make vinegar."

"Huh? We can just buy it from the store."

"Taeju, the garden has a lot of fruit."

"That's true."

Taeju looked up how to make vinegar in a cookbook. It wasn't as difficult as he thought. He just needed to put fruit in a large container, mash it, add sugar, and wait. After filtering out the liquid, the vinegar would be ready.

"Can we use cotton candy rainbows instead of sugar?"

"Um? It will be sweet."

"Right?"

It was a confident statement from a beginner. Taeju looked around the garden to choose the fruits for the vinegar. Apples, oranges, lemons, and limes seemed suitable.

He thought a mix of fruits would be better than just one. Taeju chose various fruits as ingredients and filled a large container. After washing the fruits at the well, he cut a lot of cotton candy rainbows.

He mashed the fruits with a large mallet and added the cotton candy rainbows. As the multi-colored cotton candy rainbows melted, the contents of the container began to change color, turning a strange greenish hue.

"Huh, this color is a bit off."

Hui alternated between looking at Taeju's face and the contents of the container. The method was clearly correct, but what Taeju had made looked like a bluish porridge.

When he closed the container, an alarm "11h 57m" appeared on top of it. Seeing the alarm, it seemed that despite the strange color, the vinegar was being made properly.

*

After getting the garden, Taeju read several books on garden decoration. He also read gardening magazines and looked at many well-decorated garden photos online. After seeing photos of beautifully arranged gardens with teatables, he felt a bit envious.

Currently, the dream garden was more like an orchard. It was filled with fruit trees, and the open spaces were completely neglected, with grass disappearing and weeds growing up to the calves. The stone walls of the garden were half-hidden by reeds and unknown plants.

'This is a bit much, isn't it?'

Tae-san and Dan-dan were playing in the overgrown bushes, covered in seeds, digging holes, and rolling around. During the time he was focused on performances and rehearsals, the garden had become wild. He mainly grew pumpkins, which could be grown once during the entry time, so he hadn't paid much attention to the garden.

Even if it wasn't as beautiful as the gardens in the photos, it needed some tidying up. At the very least, removing the weeds would make it look better.

"Hui, let's tidy up the garden today."

"Taeju, are you going to properly decorate the garden now?"

"Huh?"

When Taeju said he would tidy up the garden, Hui thought he might finally want to decorate it nicely. Until now, the garden was more like an orchard, with fruit trees planted in one area and buildings clustered near the cabin.

'This much, huh? I must have been too neglectful.'

"Um, yeah."

"Great. I'll help you."

Hui enthusiastically joined the garden management. She suggested Taeju buy a 'Seven Dwarfs Summoning Ticket.'

The seven dwarfs had different specialties. Hui wanted to summon the orange and green dwarfs, who could handle earth and tree spirits, respectively, as they would be very helpful in the garden.

Taeju decided to discuss with Hui how to decorate the garden before summoning them.

The garden had buildings like the cabin, storage, and a small performance stage. Special facilities included a slime cave and a moonlight pond, and decorations like a tea wine fountain and cotton candy rainbows. To arrange all these facilities harmoniously, a proper plan was needed.

They decided to divide the garden into sections using low stone walls, boundary stones, and fences.

First, they moved the fountain, which was awkwardly placed in the middle of the open space, to one side and planned to create flower beds and a greenhouse around it. They decided to group the vegetable garden and well storage into one section and move them to one side, then fence off the area and move the fruit trees there.

They planned to create paths connecting the sections and decided to build a maze in an empty open space later.

While Tae-san and Dan-dan were playing in the garden, Taeju and Hui were discussing the garden design.

At first, Taeju used a tablet to draw, but it was completely illegible. Hui, who had been watching Taeju use the tablet, took over and finally made the design legible. It seemed Taeju had no talent for drawing.

With Hui's help, Taeju prepared a rough design and decided to summon the dwarfs. Besides the two dwarfs who could handle earth and tree spirits, he also decided to summon a blue dwarf skilled in construction.

"Hello, I'm Kyuril. What can I help you with?"

"Hi, Kyuril. I'm Hui."

"Hello. Kyuril, we want to decorate the garden like this. Can you help us?"

Kyuril walked around the garden with the design Taeju and Hui had drawn. He quickly moved around the not-so-small garden, occasionally stopping to nod or think. Taeju and Hui followed quietly, not sure what he was doing.

"I plan to divide the garden into four sections, with a large tree at the center. The first section will focus on fruit trees and a treehouse, the second on the vegetable garden, storage, and greenhouse. The third will combine the small performance stage, fountain, slime cave, and maze. The last section will be decorated with the cabin and flower beds."

Kyuril explained while drawing the design on a large piece of paper.

A white feather pen moved on the large paper, drawing the design as Kyuril spoke. Taeju and Hui watched in amazement as the design was completed quickly, much cleaner and easier to understand than their own.

"Hui likes it."

"Me too. It will be really cool if we make it like this."

"Thank you. However, even with this design, there will be a lot of empty spaces. For example, the maze will have only a few places reachable from the entrance. It's a bit disappointing, but filling it up gradually can be fun."

"Sure, Hui and I will work hard to fill it up."

Taeju and Hui bought the materials Kyuril mentioned from the store and immediately summoned the orange and green dwarfs.

"Hello, I'm Doril."

"I'm Eryl. Nice to meet you."

"Doril, Eryl."

"Our big youngest."

A strange title, but they seemed to be siblings. After a brief greeting, Doril and Eryl looked at the design Kyuril showed them and discussed it for a while.

Taeju and Hui initially listened to their conversation but left when they started talking about the slow pace of ice crystal trees and the shortage of earth spirits on vacation.

'Hui, let's prepare snacks.'

'Sure, Taeju. Let's prepare a lot. Dwarfs are all big eaters.'

They talked in low voices to avoid disturbing the dwarfs and returned to the cabin.

*

While Taeju and Hui prepared tea and snacks for the dwarfs, the dwarfs started dividing the garden into sections, marking the four areas with small sticks.

Tae-san and Dan-dan watched the unfamiliar visitors from a distance. They didn't seem harmful, as they still smelled of Taeju and Hui, but they kept a slight guard.

"Gardener, can I use some tree fruits?"

The orange dwarf Doril asked Taeju if he could use the fruits. Taeju, not knowing what they would be used for, allowed it.

"Earth spirits love fruits that grow from the ground. They especially love peanuts, but they also like walnuts, chestnuts, and fruits."

"Oh, you're going to give them to the earth spirits?"

"Right, even spirits need to eat delicious things to gain strength."

"Haha. Go ahead. You can eat any fruit you want."

Doril, pleased with the permission, asked Eryl, who could handle tree spirits, to get many fruits. Doril then distributed the fruits to the earth spirits, who were only knee-high.

"♩♪~♬."

"♬~♬♪~♩."

The spirits' conversation sounded like a song. Though they couldn't understand what was being said, the brown spirits' expressions seemed happy, so it wasn't a bad conversation.

'Wow, the spirits are so cute.'

Hui, like Taeju, was watching the spirits with her mouth open. The spirits, who bit into fruits as big as their faces, were quite adorable.

"Gardener, we're going to have a snack too. Can we use the oven? I want to make a delicious pie."

"Of course. Use it as much as you want."

Pleased with Taeju's permission, Doril whistled and brought the ingredients to the cabin's kitchen. Soon, a sweet aroma began to waft out.

"Come on, trees, let's walk together. Left foot, right foot. Let's go to our new home."

Eryl, who could handle tree spirits, was moving the fruit trees in the garden. The tree spirit, a translucent green girl, was whispering to each tree. The trees, listening to the spirit, gently pulled their roots from the ground and started walking slowly.

Eryl was encouraging the trees as she moved around them. She then approached Taeju and asked if he had any fertilizer.

"Sure. I have a lot of fertilizer. I also have advanced fertilizer made from the slime king."

"That's great. After the trees move, they need fertilizer and water. Walking is really hard for them."

"I've never seen trees walk before."

"Hehe. Not everyone can see it. But it's fortunate that the trees in this garden are healthy enough to walk."

The trees moved very slowly. Tae-san, who had run back and forth several times to urge them, but they moved very slowly. Eryl occasionally sprayed water on the roots with a large sprayer, probably to prevent them from drying out.

After watching the trees move for a while, Doril called Taeju, Eryl, and Kyuril. The snacks seemed to be ready. Taeju, slightly excited by the delicious smell, approached the table made of earth, which was low enough for the dwarfs. Sitting on the ground, the height was just right.

"This table is a bit low for the gardener. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Doril."

"Doril, what's this?"

"Fairy lady, this is a meat pie. It's for the white tiger."

On the table, which was filled with pumpkin pie, nut cookies, and fruit cakes, there was a meat pie that didn't fit in, apparently prepared for Tae-san. Taeju, who only knew jerky as a pet snack, learned something new today.

The dwarfs, as Hui said, were big eaters. They each ate a large slice of cake and dozens of cookies and fruits. Taeju, feeling full halfway through, watched them eat. Hui, in the middle, played a few songs on the guitar at their request.

The dwarfs, holding large cookie pieces and juice glasses, danced or sang along to the easy songs, enjoying the time.

After the lively snack time, the dwarfs returned to their professional mode. The trees were still moving, but they were tidying up the designated areas.

The earth spirits pulled the weeds that had grown between the grass back into the ground. After repeating this several times, the weeds that had grown up to the knees disappeared, revealing the grass. The small brown spirits, pleased with their work, were talking in song-like voices.

'It feels like a scene from a fairy tale.'

The dream garden itself had a feeling of fantasy and reality intertwined, but with the spirits moving around the garden, it felt even more fantastical. It was like stepping into a scene from a fairy tale.

'If I get the chance, I should definitely act in a fantasy movie.'

Taeju was disappointed that he couldn't show this scene to others. He was very regretful that he lacked creative talent. He decided to remember this scene well so as not to forget it.