Brain bloom

"Yes, it's Mori Tokika."

"That's...that's the nickname from my time, don't mention it! Its scientific name is strawberry."

"Well, strawberries—those that can bear edible fruits are very rare, but fortunately, Mori Toki is one. If you are a great hero, the strawberries you produce next year will certainly be valuable enough to persuade the Demon Queen to lend us a helping hand."

Book 1 #128: The Panacea and the Seasons

Sen Shi's gaze toward the dandelion grew colder and colder, eventually becoming somewhat piercing.

"Let me summarize: we Four Seasons Cultivators rely on transplanted seeds to have children, right? And after I flower and bear fruit, the little strawberries that grow are edible fruits, but they are also seeds—in other words, you're planning to sell my children to someone else!"

"……Um."

"Princess Dandelion, I'm not really willing to sell." Sen Shi covered his head with the lush foliage, looking a little unhappy.

Although her understanding of the Four Seasons was limited to this, according to this logic, it was inexplicably unacceptable.

Dandelion was also surprised by Mori's reaction: "Huh, but for now, it's just the two of us left among the Four Seasons. What can we do with the seeds? Since you promised to have two children for me, your seeds are useless—even if you want someone else to have your children, even if I agree, you won't be able to find anyone, right?"

“…You can also give birth for me.” She said it very clearly, word by word.

"This...this is indeed true, but..."

Dandelion's face also turned a little red, and the topic shifted to strange things, making the atmosphere awkward.

After choking back, Mori simply ate his bread in silence, personally experiencing the sorrow of being a plant. How powerless he felt; the fruit he had painstakingly produced over a year could not be used for reproduction, but could only be picked and enjoyed by others at will.

Although logically there was nothing wrong with Dandelion's request, Mori was somewhat resistant to it.

If it's for Dandelion herself to eat, there's no problem at all. But selling it to others? Forget it. It's not like we have to beg people to get through this.

"How about this? We'll keep the seeds from the fruit that can be planted with Komori's seeds. We'll only use the pulp as a bargaining chip, since the part that's truly called the 'panacea' is the pulp of the Four Seasons Fruit..."

"A panacea..." Sen Shi was taken aback.

Fufu joined the conversation, seemingly very interested in the topic: "Hey, can Sister Senshi grow a panacea? You mean that legendary miracle drug that can cure any disease?"

Yes, that's the one.

Dandelion played with Fufu's body with her fingers and began to explain, while Mori listened, pretending not to care.

"Even at the height of the Kingdom of Flowers, there were not many Four Seasons Beings with flower crowns. And their heads were mostly covered in flowers, with only a few varieties capable of bearing fruit. But once a fruit is produced under certain conditions, it means that a miraculous elixir has appeared, with effects equal to those of a Four Seasons Being."

"Wow... what are the conditions?"

Dandelion held up three fingers and explained, "First, only fruits borne before the age of seventeen are valid. Second, the girl must be a pure and innocent young woman. Third, she must be healthy."

"Is Mori-neechan's body pure?" Fukufu asked Mori-neechan.

"……nonsense."

She vaguely remembered choosing a fourteen-year-old body type when creating this account, so her purity was unquestionable. However, this level… she couldn't even achieve the "flowering" stage yet, and… she might not be able to before next year…

But her true feelings couldn't be revealed, and Dandelion, taking it for granted, said in a boastful tone:

"So, our ancestor was so powerful that the fruit must be at least as potent as a panacea. And for the Four Seasons user himself, it wouldn't be harmful—at most, he'd just have one less child. At worst, I'll just... cough, it's nothing."

Fufu innocently asked again, "If it's really that powerful, why was the Kingdom of Flowers destroyed? If you sell these fruits, everyone will treat you kindly, right?"

"This thing isn't as good as you think. Just those three limitations alone have shut down many people. In history, most people who have reached it have barely passed and only have a year to reap the rewards. And its efficacy is far from being a panacea; it's only comparable to a long-lost intermediate healing technique... It's not that valuable."

Fu Fu obediently shut up and didn't ask any more questions.

As for Sen Shi, he was secretly counting on his fingers. Based on his current physical age of fourteen, he could only expect to bear fruit for at most two years, around fifteen or sixteen. Since it was a panacea, the difficulty of producing it was bound to be extremely high; it couldn't possibly be a high-yield crop, with one bunch growing per year and eight fruits per bunch.

A panacea...?

She lovingly stroked the branches and leaves, thinking to herself that the body of the Four Seasons Hermit truly contained a treasure trove.

"Mori, if even so, you still don't want to... that's okay, I can think of something else."

"Let me think about it. After all, there's still some time before we meet, right?"

"That's right, Yuan hasn't given me an answer yet." Her eyes and tone were filled with apology. "I'm sorry, I was too presumptuous in this matter."

For some reason, Mori suddenly felt something was off, and she stared into Dandelion's eyes. It was as if she wanted to look directly into the depths of her soul through those two pale blue windows.

Then, she tried asking, "Are you really planning to sell me for a trade?"

"Did you see through it...?"

"How should I put it? The princess in my heart isn't like that. She might not be kind at all—but she's very good to me. She wouldn't take my precious fruit and sell it for a completely unequal return... so..."

“I have no intention of selling.” She nodded honestly.

For some reason, even under the warmest midday sun, Dandelion's face remained unusually cold.

"...Just bait?"

"Yes, we just wanted to get through the current crisis. We also wanted to confirm whether Mori could really produce a panacea—it seems it can." Dandelion breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, it did produce one, just as I thought."

A cold sensation crept up Morishi's back, coursing through her skin, making her feel very uncomfortable.

"What exactly are you planning to do, and why do you need to confirm this?"

She hugged her knees, her lazy eyes looking at Mori: "Don't worry, since you can produce the panacea, you can eat it yourself. So... at least it won't hurt Mori. Besides, this plan might not even be needed..."

For some reason, Mori thought of that sentence—the Four Seasons People are a race of nature, but from a certain perspective, this may make them more extreme.

Mori Toki was a pessimist during his lifetime, and he never hesitated to think of things in the worst possible light.

What extreme thing are you going to do?

Dandelion looked around to make sure no one else was listening, and then she spoke.

"It's just a trump card. Mori probably doesn't know that the first Rose Queen left behind a legacy. A hidden destiny magic known only to the Four Seasons Royal Family—'The world will eventually return to nature.'"

Fate magic? Mori had never heard of it.

However, she still cautiously tried to guess the meaning behind it, and finally put forward the absurd idea that came to mind.

"You want to destroy...this world?"

"It's more like a rebirth than simply returning it to its original state."

Volume 1, Chapter 129: The Dark

After hearing Dandelion reveal the secret, Mori, for some reason, felt it made perfect sense. It wasn't surprising that Shiki-zake would do something like this…

But she was indeed quite surprised. She hadn't expected that Dandelion would be holding something like this, just waiting to be blasted out and take revenge on the world.

"But what does this have to do with my strawberries?"

"Of course it's related. You can survive as long as you eat it. Perhaps you'll even be the only survivor in the whole world, so I'm relieved as long as Mori is safe and sound... Of course, I haven't planned to use it yet."

I've figured it out a little, but it's far from enough.

Mori closed his eyes, thought it over in his mind, and decided to continue asking for clarification, since he had already said so much.

“Princess, to be honest, I’m a little worried about our business. I’m willing to do anything for you, even if you really want to sell me, I’ll obediently be sold, then plunder the buyer’s wealth, and run back to you to share the riches with you…”

She opened her eyes and stared at the dandelion—

"But I still feel like you're hiding something from me."

"...There are many."

Tell me everything.

Dandelion hesitated. Looking at Mori's curious face, she hesitated for a long time before speaking, "Mori, can you promise me that after you hear this, you will still treat me the same way and still be willing to kiss my dandelion?"

"As long as you treat me well too..."

"No matter what happens, I will treat you well."

Mori remained silent, for her secret was no less significant than Dandelion's. Dandelion, taking this as tacit agreement, continued speaking directly—

"It's time to talk to Sen Shi about the blueprint for restoring the kingdom." She softened her tone with a helpless smile. "We Four Seasons possess three Destiny spells, but even so, we still can't defeat the Holy Coffin Kingdom. They will trample our land and slaughter us; it's all true."

Mori had already gained a considerable understanding of everything, and therefore, a question lingered in his mind.

The Kingdom of Flowers, possessing the radiant rose, three spells of destiny, three ancient artifacts, and a group of powerful warriors, even in its decline, could still take a significant bite out of its enemies. So—why did it so easily destroy itself?

She asked the question, and the dandelion gave her the answer.

“We can’t win, but we still want to reproduce and then destroy these enemies—so we chose to endure, since the survival cycle of the Four Seasons is in harmony with nature.”

"So the magic of the 'Tu Mi' that destroys a country... is a tactic?"

Dandelion nodded, looking very serious.

She took out a small piece of bread, broke it into small pieces, and put it in her mouth, letting the sweet jam soak onto her little tongue. It was as if doing so would make what she was about to say less unpleasant.

“Death is never the end, we can get through it—I told you before, there are 'nightmares come true' left by the Four Seasons People all over the world, right?”

“Yes, there are many ghosts…” Mori listened very attentively.

"Actually, the inside story is more complicated than I can tell you... Where do I even begin? Well, a great hero like Mori Toki should know about the history and origins of us Four Seasons, right? Like, what we are."

"Uh... I have a deep and ancient relationship with the devil. The plant on my head is actually for purifying and suppressing the evil in my soul."

Sen Shi recounted everything he knew in one go, paused for a second, and then concluded—

"That's all I know..."

Dandelion was quite surprised: "You know so much, but you don't know the most crucial part? Actually... come with me first, I don't remember it very clearly either."

She pursed her lips, packed up the basket, got up and led Senshi back to the cabin, then opened a room that seemed to be used to store miscellaneous items, and went through a hidden door inside, arriving at the end of the Four Seasons Kingdom's culture.

The entire history of the destroyed Kingdom of Flowers is contained in this room, in the form of a book.

In the darkness, Dandelion took out Fufu and, with the help of the salt spirit's light, uncovered an incredibly old book.

While flipping through the pages, he said to Mori Toki—

"When the first monarch of the Kingdom of Flowers, the Rose Queen, accepted that rose, we were no longer the rulers of the night, but the beings of the seasons, bound by the seasons and nature. But even so, you who wear the crown in the future should remember one thing—we were once evil souls."

Could you be more specific?

"Before the Rose Queen accepted that rose—we were all 'The Dark' wandering in the nightmares of mankind."

The word "nightmare..." made Mori Toki's eyes light up. She quickly said, "Is there some connection to the magic that makes nightmares come true?"

"Just as you expected, that's how it is."