Chapter 42

41. The Forgotten Garden

Creak.

A pelican mail carrier sliced through the sky over the garden and flew in. As before, he inserted a rolled-up letter into the mailbox and flew away again. Hui didn’t wait for Taeju this time and immediately checked the mail. The ribbon tied to the mail was black, indicating bad news.

“The garden has been forgotten.”

Hui looked around the garden she and Taeju had been taking care of. There were many empty spots, but they had been tended to with care. The fruit trees had been harvested at the right times, and the vegetable garden had not been neglected; they had cultivated crops every day. The greenhouse was built but not used much, but the wildflowers in front of it were collected daily.

“I’m scared, Taeju.”

A forgotten garden is a rare occurrence. Gardeners who dream can enter their garden once a day whenever they want.

Taeju’s time sometimes changed, but he never missed coming back.

The main reason a garden is forgotten is when something significant happens to the gardener or when the gardener refuses to enter the garden for a long time.

They needed to find out what kind of situation the garden that requested help through the mail was in. If something had happened to the gardener, the gardeners who came to help would have to take turns taking care of the garden or divide the garden’s creatures and send them to a new owner.

“Taeju, when are you coming?”

‘Hui, is something wrong?’

“Mail has arrived. A garden needs help.”

‘Huh? A garden needs help? Got it. I’ll come right after 12 o'clock.’

Taeju immediately went to the garden after 12 o'clock, as he had told Hui. Taesan was asleep in Taeju’s arms.

“Hui. I’m here.”

“Taeju, look at this.”

Hui showed Taeju the black ribbon and the letter. Taeju’s expression changed as he read the contents of the letter. The words “forgotten garden” were unsettling.

“A forgotten garden. How could it be forgotten?”

“Taeju, are you going to help?”

“Yeah, I will. Other gardeners will come too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go, Hui. Let’s go and see what’s going on.”

As Hui perched on Taeju’s shoulder, Taeju tore the ticket that came with the letter. As a bright light enveloped Taeju and Hui, the sleeping Taesan suddenly leaped at them, causing Taeju to cough violently.

“Choke. Cough, cough.”

Despite Taesan’s sudden intrusion, they successfully moved to the forgotten garden.

The place where Taeju and his group arrived was a garden that had lost its green. They seemed to be the first to arrive, as no one else was there.

The forgotten garden was more densely packed with buildings, trees, and flowers than Taeju’s garden. However, due to a long period of neglect, the flowers and trees were withered, and the vegetable garden had yellow, dried-up crops.

‘The vegetable garden and flower beds are a mess. How long has it been neglected?’

“Taeju.”

Hui, disturbed by the eerie appearance of the garden, called Taeju’s name and grabbed his collar. Taeju gently stroked her head with his fingers. Hui let go of Taeju’s collar and held his fingertips.

While Taeju and his group were looking around, a cluster of light appeared in the garden, and people they had never seen before appeared.

“Hello.”

“Huh? Humans. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a human gardener. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while for me too. Nice to meet you.”

The two people who called Taeju a human gardener also had human appearances. When Taeju looked puzzled, the other person laughed and explained.

“This is the appearance I changed to while hanging out with human friends. My original form is much larger.”

“Our species usually walk on all fours. So when we meet other gardeners, we change our appearance like this.”

“I see. I thought you two were humans.”

“Human gardeners are rare, right?”

“Yeah, humans have short lifespans.”

While Taeju was talking with the other gardeners, another cluster of light appeared, and a new person arrived.

A girl in a green dress and Agent S, whom Taeju knew, appeared. Agent S waved to Taeju, recognizing him.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for responding to the association’s request.”

“No problem, Inata. We should help in such situations.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

Taeju nodded in agreement. The girl called Inata expressed her gratitude to the gardeners and explained the situation.

Agent S had visited this garden for an investigation. Upon discovering the desolate state of the garden at the entrance, they reported it to the association. The association had called the gardener multiple times, but the gardener never appeared.

‘So this is the garden where Agent S suspected a fall had occurred.’

“The association issued an emergency code and confirmed that the garden is currently in a forgotten state.”

“In a forgotten state. What about the gardener’s survival?”

“Presumed dead.”

“Oh. What’s the situation?”

According to Inata, someone was needed to take care of the gardener’s pets and trees.

“I don’t know if there’s a gardener who can take a pet. I can take trees or other things, but my garden is already full of pets.”

“Same here. I already have three. Don’t tell me to give up my pets.”

“I have no intention of suggesting such an unreasonable thing. What about the other gardener?”

As everyone’s attention turned to Taeju, he cleared his throat and spoke.

“Our garden has room, but it’s impossible to take a pet. Our garden level is too low, and we can only designate one pet at this level. And that spot is already taken by Taesan.”

“Ah, Inata. Taesan is this white tiger friend.”

Agent S turned around to show Taesan, who was biting her wing.

“Ah! Taesan.”

Taeju was surprised and apologized to Agent S, removing Taesan. He felt extremely embarrassed; it was already the third time. Taesan, unhappy about being removed, growled. Taeju felt like he wanted to find a mouse hole to hide in.

“Ha ha. The little white tiger is brave.”

“Indeed. Attacking a Red Crested Falcon.”

Inata calmed everyone down and asked Taeju about his garden level.

“Level 1.”

“Hmm. We need to raise it by two levels.”

“Huh?”

“To take a pet, you need to raise the garden level. You can take one pet at Level 3 and another at Level 5. So you can only have three pets in total.”

Taeju needed to raise his garden level by two levels to take another pet. Since Taeju had no intention of taking another pet, it didn’t matter to him, but Inata was quite disappointed.

“Can’t we take a worker? My garden has two worker slots open.”

“No, pets and workers are completely different.”

Everyone looked around the garden with troubled expressions. It seemed none of them wanted to leave their pets in this desolate place.

“What if we transfer the items in this garden to the gardener’s friend? We can move the garden decorations and trees to raise the garden level.”

“Do you even think that’s possible?”

“Tsk. It’s a waste.”

“Hmm. What about trees and flowers? Since we’re here to help, we can move them to his garden and have him take care of them. If it reaches Level 2, we can issue a temporary pet registration.”

Inata carefully considered the proposal. Since Taeju’s garden was at a low level, it seemed reasonable to move the trees that needed care to his garden. If moving the trees raised the level to 2, they could explain the situation to the association and issue a temporary pet registration.

“Will moving the trees from here raise the garden to Level 2?”

“Hmm. It’s lacking decorations.”

“We’re a new garden. We don’t have enough decorations.”

When Hui said it was impossible, Taeju continued the explanation. The number of trees in this garden was much more than all the trees in Taeju’s garden combined, probably two or three times as many. However, to reach Level 2, they needed to add at least three more decorations.

“Unlike pets or trees, you can’t touch the buildings or decorations in the garden.”

Inata explained with a regretful look. While living trees and pets could be rescued, the structures in the garden, even in a forgotten state, belonged to the original owner.

“Then I’ll give you decorations.”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t it a problem that can be solved by gifting decorations to the human gardener?”

“Right. That would work. I’ll give one too. The association will give one. That’s three.”

Inata thought for a moment and agreed. They started discussing what gifts would be good. Taeju found it a bit absurd. He thought they should first show him what the pet looked like.

“Um, I’d like to see what the pet looks like.”

“Oh, I haven’t shown you yet. This is the one.”

Inata took out a small cage. Inside the silver cage was a creature slightly larger than a foot, a golden unicorn with a long horn on its forehead.

“It’s a Golden Unicorn.”

“Oh, the human gardener is male.”

“The belief that unicorns prefer virgins is a misconception.”

Hui couldn’t take her eyes off the cage from the moment Inata took it out. The small, shiny golden unicorn was incredibly cute and adorable.

Taeju honestly didn’t want to take another pet. He was worried that if he had another pet, he might neglect Taesan.

“Taeju, Taeju. It’s shiny. It’s beautiful.”

“Hui?”

“Will it live in our garden now?”

Hui, clearly taken with the unicorn, flew from Taeju’s shoulder toward the cage. She then attached herself to Inata, asking various questions. Seeing Hui’s reaction, Taeju decided to accept it. Since they were here to help, he decided to take the pet.

The Golden Unicorn was registered as a temporary pet. It was necessary because Taeju’s garden level was too low. They agreed to register it officially when the garden level was raised.

A temporary pet couldn’t be taken to the real world and could only stay in the garden. Since Hui and Dandan always stayed in Taeju’s garden, it seemed fine to leave the pet there.

“What was the garden level here? Was the unicorn the only pet?”

“Hmm. No, the garden level was 4. The other pets were probably with the gardener.”

Agent S answered for Inata. Taeju felt this situation was too close to home. Still, his garden was in slightly better condition than this. If something happened to him, Hui would be the caretaker, so his garden wouldn’t end up like this.

Inata opened a door connecting to Taeju’s garden. With the help of others, Taeju moved all the trees from the forgotten garden. The other gardener, who had reverted to his true form, helped with moving the trees.

He had the appearance of a large lion, with a beautiful body of silver and blue and a blue mane that emitted mist.

Taesan, surprised by his transformed appearance, clung tightly to Taeju. Taeju, while comforting the startled Taesan, hoped he would behave a bit better.

“Ha ha. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a garden.”

“Right. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a human’s garden.”

The other two gardeners were delighted to see Taeju’s garden. They commented on how different it looked from their own and asked if they could visit occasionally. Taeju readily agreed and asked if he could visit their gardens too.

They allowed him to visit but advised him to be well-prepared. They explained that their gardens were very different from a human’s garden.

Taeju didn’t dismiss their advice. Just seeing the lion in his true form showed how different they were. The garden environments were likely to be quite different as well.

“I’ll tell the fairy about the location and precautions for my garden. When you visit, you must bring meat. My pets will make visitors slobber if you don’t bring meat.”

“When you visit my garden, you must bring flowers. The garden caretaker doesn’t give cookies to visitors without flowers. Don’t forget.”

After hearing that they would remember, they said they would send the gifts by mail and returned to their own gardens.

Inata, from the Gardener’s Association, gave Taeju several flower-shaped garden lanterns after they left. These lanterns would emit various colors of light at night and fly around the garden. They were enchanted to fly freely and light the way when someone passed by.

“Thank you, Inata.”

“No, we are truly grateful that you took the Golden Unicorn. It’s sad that it lost its owner, so please take good care of it.”

“I will.”

“And please try to reach Level 3 as soon as possible.”

“I will.”

Taeju also said goodbye to Agent S. They thanked Taeju again and left.

Taeju sighed as he looked around his garden, now filled with more trees. It seemed he would spend all his time taking care of the trees for a while.