Chapter 36

35. Angel?

Deciding to follow the minimum schedule, they planned their vacation in order. Taeju was also taking a break in the garden for the first time in a long while, not practicing but resting.

“Taesan, do you want to catch this?”

“Meow.”

‘Ah, it’s different from a dog.’

Taeju tried playing frisbee with Taesan in the garden, but it failed. Taesan chased the ball well but ignored the frisbee. Taeju, who had a romantic notion of playing frisbee with a dog in the park, was a bit disappointed.

“Taeju!”

Hui flew over quickly from the treehouse and called out to Taeju. Hui was holding a white feather as tall as herself.

“Hui, did you find a feather too?”

“Yeah, I found it in the treehouse.”

Excited, Hui’s wings sparkled, and the glittering powder fell like snow. Taeju was worried that the sparkle on her wings might fade.

“Calm down, Hui. Let’s go to the treehouse together.”

“Okay.”

“Meow!”

Taesan joined them, and they headed to the treehouse. It was already the third time. This time, they hoped to uncover the truth.

“Here, I found it here.”

“Sniff, sniff.”

Hui pointed to the gap between the round cushion and the wall. It seemed she had picked up the feather that had fallen into the crevice. Taeju couldn’t imagine how it managed to avoid the gaze of Hui, the manager, and Taeju, the gardener.

“Grrr!”

“Taesan?”

Suddenly, Taesan started growling at something outside the treehouse. He raised his fur and tensed his body, as if preparing to attack.

“Oh, oh. Young white tiger friend, you don’t need to be so tense.”

“Huh? Who are you?”

“Ah! I see the gardener is here too. Let me introduce myself. I am Agent S.”

The one who entered the treehouse was a robust man with a bright red crest on his head. He had a new face and large white wings on his back. He also had a magic rope hanging from his side.

“An agent?”

“I am an investigator for the Gardener’s Association.”

“Huh?”

According to his explanation, the Gardener’s Association had recently received a missing person report. A guest who was invited to the Fairy Forest disappeared after the festival. At first, everyone thought it was a mischievous fairy hiding the guest. However, when the missing guest didn’t reappear after a long time, the Fairy Queen officially reported the disappearance to the association.

Agents were dispatched to investigate in various areas, and he was searching for the missing guest in the nearby gardens.

“There’s no one else in our garden. It’s just the three of us and Dandan.”

“I know. The suspicious place is not here but the garden after the next. I heard there was a fall there.”

“Huh? A fall?”

Could someone fall from the garden? Taeju always returned to reality through the garden’s entrance but had never felt like falling.

“Anyone who enters the garden without formal permission will fall at the garden’s entrance.”

“Taeju, that’s scary.”

“It’s okay. No one has fallen from our garden.”

‘Wait. If Dandan had gone out through the entrance before becoming a worker, could he have just fallen?’

It seemed that other beings could enter the garden besides occasional visitors and the gentleman who loved tea. Taeju was confident that his guess was correct, considering Dandan’s case.

“How can someone enter the garden without permission?”

“Sometimes people are swept into the garden by floods or typhoons. Sometimes those who take the wrong wind path end up in the garden. The most common intruders are due to the mischief of the gem mirror.”

“A gem mirror?”

“Yes. The gem mirror sends people who have dirtied their bodies somewhere. It also gives gifts to those who clean themselves properly. According to the investigation, there was a gem mirror in the Fairy Forest.”

Still, it was strange that falls were occurring. Taeju had met unexpected visitors a few times. There were the crow clan Tendo and the occasional deer. Dandan, the intruder, had also hidden in the garden without falling.

“How do falls happen if there are visitors?”

“Hmm. I thought you knew, but you didn’t. The garden is entirely the personal domain of the gardener.”

If the visitor rejection setting is activated at the statue of the book under the large tree in the center, no visitors or intruders can enter. The next and the one after that were both set to reject visitors. Taeju had skipped over this setting without looking, a habit from skimming through manuals and terms in the real world.

“If they were blown to that garden, they would have fallen at the entrance before entering the garden.”

“Hui knew, but Taeju likes visitors.”

“Oh, right. Visitors don’t come often, and when they do, it’s nice to have tea together.”

Taeju had no intention of making excuses. Since Hui became the manager, he hadn’t managed the garden at all. He did like receiving visitors, as Hui said.

Now he understood what Pelican had talked about regarding visitor permission. The gentleman who loved tea could probably enter gardens set to reject visitors. It seemed he was from a clan that could enter rejection gardens through the moon gate, which was quite troublesome.

“So, what happens if someone falls from that garden?”

“They fall into the world of the gardener of that garden.”

“Huh? So if an intruder falls from here, they fall to Earth?”

“Earth? You call the gardener’s world Earth. Yes, if they fall from here, they go to the world called Earth.”

The garden after the next didn’t seem to be connected to Earth. Taeju had always thought the items sold in the shop were strange. While there were items similar to those used on Earth, there were also many items whose uses he couldn’t imagine. Those were probably from other worlds.

“I used this treehouse to rest during my investigation. It’s understandable that the white tiger is on guard, but it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

“Huh. Taesan!”

While Taeju was thinking about the new information, Taesan had gone behind Agent S and was biting his wing. Taeju hadn’t seen him move, and he had caused an accident.

“I’m sorry. Did you get hurt?”

“Ha ha. I’m fine.”

Agent S laughed and showed his wings. The part Taesan had bitten was only slightly damp from saliva, fortunately without any injury. Taeju felt like he had aged ten years because of this fearless young white tiger. In the real world, he would be considered a criminal, yet he had attacked without hesitation.

Taeju asked Agent S what he planned to do next. He said he would continue searching for the missing guest. He had applied to visit the garden after the next through the Gardener’s Association, but had received no response despite multiple requests.

“I was planning to fly from here.”

“Is it far?”

“Yes, it’s quite far.”

“Feel free to use our garden whenever you want. You can eat the fruits too.”

Agent S thanked him and asked if he could eat the cotton candy rainbow. Taeju readily agreed. After all, the cotton candy rainbow was renewed daily. Hui occasionally nibbled on it, but it was originally prepared for winged guests.

“Grrr.”

“Taesan.”

Taesan growled, still wary of the agent. Fortunately, the agent had a broad mind. Taeju carried Taesan out of the treehouse, thinking the agent needed a rest before flying to the garden after the next.

*

“Hui, did you know about the gem mirror?”

“Yeah. The gem mirror is shiny. It spins and whooshes.”

Hui’s explanation was too obscure. Sometimes she was hard to understand. Taeju decided to look it up in a book later.

“Taeju, your DP is very low.”

“Ugh. Did I use a lot?”

“Taeju, let’s look for a request. Check the bulletin board.”

He had been drinking recovery potions daily while filming busking. As a result, he had used a lot of DP. He needed to complete a delivery request on the bulletin board and register items to sell in the shop. He had been collecting herbs, goldfish scales, and other skin cream ingredients, so making and selling them seemed like a good idea.

The bulletin board content was similar to when he first entered the garden, mainly delivery requests for items.

“Look. Taeju, look at this.”

“Let’s see. A bouquet of red roses?”

It was the first flower delivery request. Usually, there were only fruit and crop delivery requests, but a new paper was stuck in the usual spot.

“Can we make perfume from flowers?”

“Yes, we can.”

Cosmetics and perfumes.

It seemed they had found items to sell in the shop. Taeju and Hui recalled fragrant flowers and chose seeds from the shop.

Flowers took almost the same time to grow as crops. The selling price was a bit higher. Taeju researched perfumery while the flowers were growing. It required a lot of skill and precision.

“It’s difficult. It’s been so long since I studied anything other than a foreign language. My brain is rusty.”

Just looking at the chemical formulas made him dizzy, so he gave up on making it himself. He tried to find ways to use the herbs and fruits he had collected.

“Fresh sea worm fragrance? Roasted mole fragrance? Is this what I can make?”

The recipes he could make were quite limited. Making high-end perfumes was difficult at his current level. The fragrances he could make had names that made him wonder why anyone would make them.

“Add it to the food of a picky pet?”

“Sea worm?”

“Yes. Raccoons, hedgehogs, and badgers like it.”

With his DP running low, it wasn’t the time to experiment. Taeju decided to make the suspiciously named fragrances.

Taeju’s face twisted as he looked at the ingredients listed in the recipe. It included fruit peels, slime juice, fallen leaves, and carp bones—things rarely used as food seasonings.

‘Ah, I really can’t make this without auto-crafting.’

Taeju set the fragrance crafting to auto and left the cottage. He planned to practice the violin at the small performance venue. Holding the practice violin, he felt a bit regretful. If he had more DP, he could have bought a top-tier violin that was hard to get in the real world, but with his current DP, it was impossible.

♩♩♪♬~~

Clap, clap, clap.

“Excellent performance.”

“Thank you.”

“Hmm. If you’re done practicing, could you take this friend with you?”

Agent S turned around and showed his back. Taesan was hanging from his white wings, biting them.

“Huh!”

Taeju hurriedly came down from the stage, shocked. While he was focused on practicing, Taesan had attacked Agent S again. Feeling guilty, Taeju apologized, but Agent S waved it off.

“He’s just a young one. Let him be. His sneak attack is quite impressive. I’m just worried I might hurt him if I use too much force.”

‘Well, he does look strong just from his muscles.’

Seeing Agent S’s muscular upper body, Taeju nodded in agreement.

“He could become quite strong after his second growth. He’s still young but growing well.”

“Second growth? He hasn’t even finished his first growth yet.”

“Ha ha. It’s a distant future.”

Agent S was giving Taesan a compliment. Despite being attacked twice, his tone still showed affection for Taesan. Taeju was curious about his species with large, strong wings, but he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask.

“Agent S, this.”

“Huh? This!”

Hui handed a feather to Agent S. It seemed to be his feather, which she was returning. However, Agent S’s face turned red when he received the feather from Hui.

“Why are you blushing?”

“Ahem. Where did you find this?”

When Taeju said it was found in the treehouse, his face turned even redder. After listening to his stammering explanation, Taeju didn’t know what expression to make.

Hui and Taesan had found the feather of a legendary flying rooster. It was a special being loved by many in a dimension, even deified. It was described as having a soft D-shaped body line and a small beak, which was very charming.

‘Chicken is cute, but did a rooster come to our garden? I don’t understand what’s going on.’

Agent S carefully wrapped the feather in a clean handkerchief. Taeju was speechless at his tender handling of the so-called ‘chicken feather.’

Agent S finished his maintenance and set off again for his investigation. After hearing about the feather found in the treehouse, he seemed reluctant to leave.

It was hard to believe that a rooster was known as such an attractive being. If it was a joke, it didn’t feel like one.