Brain bloom

After that, Dandelion didn't need any ancient words to remind her; she closed the book and sat down beside Mori. Her voice was barely louder than the turning of the pages—

"Tu Mi's magic destroyed the two ancient mages who came to punish her, as well as the armies of the two countries; they were all extremely terrifying. But then, she sprinkled something on all the Four Seasons that could wither plants."

So everyone uprooted the plants, spreading their poison across the ground, polluting the entire land to its extreme. This was a death trap, untouchable by anyone except the Four Seasons, for that poison was the very evil of our 'darkness'.”

Hearing this, Mori wiped his face, thinking he could wipe away the sweat. But his face was only pale and cold, not soaked in sweat.

Fu Fu's light flickered, and whenever it dimmed and the dandelion's beautiful face was no longer visible, a sense of unease would arise.

Fortunately, every time the light came on, she and that pretty dandelion were safe and sound.

She continued speaking—

"People's bodies were destroyed by Tu Mi's magic, but their true souls were liberated—evil spirits so wicked that nothing in the three worlds could rival them. However, Tu Mi accepted everyone's evil souls. She was a great harvest priestess—no, the greatest of all time."

"It seems that it's no coincidence that you were assigned to another place and survived..."

“Nothing in this world is a coincidence. These are all things that Tu Mi told me later.”

"So, is the magic that makes nightmares come true the evil spirits of these fellow countrymen?"

"Yes, it is the result of all the seasons that have broken free from their bonds—no, all the 'darkness' that has enveloped the world."

"Why did you do this... I... I mean... I don't even know what I want to ask. I need some time to process this." Mori pressed his forehead, then quickly made some water to water the leaves before he could finally calm down.

She was as agitated as a ball of yarn that a cat was playing with.

Dandelion's gentle voice still came from beside my ear, along with her soft breathing.

"The Holy Coffin Kingdom is stronger than us. After all, the Four Seasons Beings are evil and are naturally countered by the Holy Power of the Coffin Bearers. They deserve to die, so... we really can't win! Even if we fight hard, we'll be purified and won't be able to be resurrected. Ugh, how can the dead take revenge?"

"Yes, those damned coffin bearers. So our plan to restore our country is probably quite unique, isn't it?"

……

(P.S. I've filled in a huge gap, but there are still ninety-nine plot holes... But please, dear readers, don't abandon this book! This really is just an interesting slice-of-life novel.)

Volume 1 #130: Plans and the Present

Dandelion wholeheartedly agreed and continued:

"The plan is nothing special. We just pretended to be fighting to the death, but in reality, we spread all the darkness around the world, waiting for the opportunity to turn the tide in humanity's nightmare. Waiting for dawn in the darkness—we are the same."

"So, the people of the Land of Flowers are all still alive." Mori Toki murmured to himself, lost in thought.

"That's right, it's just living in a different kind of retro way."

It's really retro, transforming from a four-season structure back to something from thousands of years ago.

At this point, Mori finally understood why Dandelion wasn't worried about the country's population problem. Those terrifying evil spirits still resided in humanity's dreams. Perhaps the nightmares coming true were caused by these fellow beings known as "Darkness."

"This is what I've been keeping from you. Now it's up to us. Politics, force, anything is fine, as long as we can get all the major powers to accept the revival of the Kingdom of Flowers. Then, at the most opportune moment, we can launch a campaign against Wing Cloud and slowly rebuild it. That would be a happy ending for everyone."

"Wing Cloud..."

Dandelion thought that Sen Shi must know about Yi Yun, so she didn't give her a chance to ask further and continued her story—

"As long as Sen Shi is here, this plan will be fine and will go smoothly. You will be a hero of the restoration of the country."

She took Senshi's hand and leaned on her slender shoulder.

"As long as the plan goes smoothly, I can avoid using my trump card... which is what I told you, 'the world will eventually return to nature.'"

"The one that destroyed the world?"

"Yes. As the princess of the Four Seasons, I have an ancient pact with nature itself. If I satisfy the price of nature, its will will be happy to help me destroy everything on the surface."

"Wait... Nature itself? Will? That's a bit too grand... But after all the civilizations on Earth are destroyed, the four seasons..."

“When the time comes, you, the only one who survived after taking the panacea, will hold a ‘reverse Blackwing Cloud’ event, and we will be able to reunite. And rebuild the Kingdom of Flowers in a place where there is nothing left, that would be a happy ending for everyone—but... the world would be very boring, so I want to avoid going down that path.”

Dandelion's disappointed tone proved that she didn't like this ending, as did Mori Toki.

Her head, which had just calmed down, started buzzing again. She felt that Dandelion could effortlessly conjure up something surprising at any moment…

"The price is extremely high, and it cannot be considered unless absolutely necessary. I also cannot use it to threaten our enemies, as they will not give me time; this requires a long period of preparation."

"...That's enough for now, my brain is a bit overloaded."

"Okay, actually, I've already told you everything I've been keeping from you."

As she spoke, Dandelion carefully observed Sen Shi's reaction and cautiously asked him questions.

"...You won't hate me for this, will you? I kept it from you, and...we Four Seasons People aren't actually that wonderful. In your time, these secrets certainly weren't public knowledge."

"Yes, I didn't know any of this."

Mori didn't know how to react. Gradually, she realized that her heart wasn't actually that turbulent. It was as if everything was just as it should be. And rightly so, she had already experienced the evil of the Four Seasons herself.

After digesting it for a while, Mori felt a sense of relief. At least, some of the worries in his heart had been resolved.

Moreover—he now had a legitimate goal and realized that restoring the country wasn't actually that complicated.

All that's needed is to get the consent of those countries.

Originally, Mori had prepared to destroy those two countries and secretly studied a lot of knowledge from his previous life, such as how to quickly build up the country's infrastructure, how to recruit refugees, and how to promote education. In the end, it wasn't that complicated after all.

As for the Holy Coffin Kingdom, we can use our identity as the coffin deliverers to resolve the issue. Once we control the entire country, we can form alliances with several other forces that have also been severely corrupted by the SB Cult, and together we can threaten the Peda Empire to agree to the revival of the Flower Kingdom.

She breathed a sigh of relief, because none of this was difficult.

"—Oh, right, Princess Dandelion, I have one last question. Is it recorded in the book? Why did we 'Darkness' acquire plants and become the Four Seasons beings we are today?"

"There's no record of it, nobody knows." The dandelion gently shook its head, and the dandelion swayed accordingly.

……

Back in the sunlight, Mori reluctantly agreed to Dandelion's suggestion to seek help from the Demon Queen.

Anyway, Dandelion has stated that the strawberries it produces are the last bargaining chip it can offer, and once used, it's at most a verbal promise, an empty check, and it won't actually be handed over.

Mori felt this was a bit suicidal, but she had no intention of making a deal. After all, she harbored hostility towards the queen and simply didn't want to offend Dandelion and Wish by going through the motions.

Then we'll say we couldn't reach an agreement and ruin the whole thing.

It took Sen Shi more than ten minutes to barely sort out his thoughts and remember the most urgent matter at hand.

"Princess, take off your socks," Mori said to the dandelion on the chair.

"Why? Because in your time, asking someone to take off their socks was a sign of intimacy?" She squinted, her gaze piercingly strange.

Sen Shi pretended not to understand: "No, no, no, I'm going to fix it for you. There are some wires that I haven't fixed yet."

"Oh well, the enemy isn't here anyway, so there's no point in wearing them."

She handed the white socks, still slightly warm from her body, to Morishita, who then ran to her room and took out the black pair from the closet.

These socks are probably unwearable now. If we were to actually collect the complete remains of the first Pope, who knows what would happen?

Although the materials available are insufficient to make a new one, modifications can be made. The socks attracted the bones of the first pope because of her divine power. Therefore, simply wiping them away is sufficient; it's not complicated.

But now that there are two pairs, it seems that black and white can also achieve a set effect, so Morishi decided to keep one of each pair that can summon bones, and then give the black and white ones with the power erased to Dandelion.

While working on his needlework, Mori's thoughts stirred once again—his current situation remained dangerous.

Who knows when the three heroes of Silvermoon City might come to demand an explanation? Although Yuan would definitely lend a hand, the two of them would also need to prepare some strength to protect themselves.

And just then, the afternoon had just begun, and Mori had a rare moment of leisure.

She then began to prepare: "Fufu, go and call Elsalia over for me."

"Mori-neechan, I'm still wondering what 'darkness' is? Could it be related to the Four Seasons? Are they relatives?"

"Well, just listen to this as a story, don't think about it, it's a waste of time anyway..."

Fufu felt that what Senshi said was right, so she quietly flew away.

“Princess, could you please give me your oak staff? I’ll modify it for you. By the way, you must have some empty wine bottles here, the standard 750ml bottles. I’d like to use them to store energizing potions.”

Volume 1 #131: Leisure Time for Two

For Mori, stamina potions are an important consumable that he can use at any time.

Although we still have plenty of materials from the grocery store and it's not difficult to prepare them, containers have always been a big problem.

Logically speaking, the glass bottles for these medicines need to be specially ordered, but as soon as you ask, the other party will know what it's for and will become suspicious, so this has always been a big problem.

It wasn't until she saw cases of wine being moved away that she suddenly realized why she was so fixated on small glass bottles. After all, her princess was a winemaker, and her family must have a lot of bottles stored up.

"Wine bottles? We do have some, but how many do you need?"

"Give me four or five bottles, that would be fine."

"Oh, no problem." Dandelion went upstairs and brought down a small box full of empty bottles. "They're all clean... I used to drink them and couldn't bear to throw them away, so I wanted to keep them for reuse... Is that okay? I promise they're clean, there's no trace of my saliva, they're all washed away."

Sen reluctantly accepted it, and then found a few more cheap corks. He didn't expect them to prevent the liquid inside from oxidizing in the air, as long as they didn't spill and were easy to remove.

She then copied out a unique recipe with precise proportions and added some special ingredients for Dandelion.

"This recipe will make a very effective energizer. Could you please make it for me, Princess? You seem to have a lot of free time, and besides, Princess's brewing skills are excellent."

"I'd be happy to, and thank you for trusting me."

"Hmm, why do you say that?" Mori looked up, somewhat puzzled.

"This is your private recipe, isn't it? It must be very valuable. Thank you for showing it to me and for trusting my rudimentary skills..."

There were other hidden stories mixed in with these words. Her sense of security also stemmed from Mori's attitude; even after learning such complicated details, he was still willing to stay and help. Dandelion could entrust her heart to her and trust her without reservation—this was truly invaluable.

With this sense of reassurance, Dandelion took the necessary medicinal materials and excipients and quietly prepared them according to the prescription beside her.

Kesen wasn't as calm as she seemed; she was simply forcing herself into a state of mind focused on life skills to clear her head. She tried not to think about anything other than the needle and thread.

Otherwise, she will begin to waver and constantly doubt herself.

Because beneath these lush strawberry vines lurks a great deal of evil that even she herself is unaware of... If she thinks too much or explores too deeply, everything will collapse.

This silence lasted only a few minutes.

Aisalia, summoned by Fufu, gently knocked on the window to indicate her arrival. Senshi copied down a list and gave it to her along with several gold coins. Aisalia accepted the large sum of money with a bewildered expression, feeling apprehensive.

"Could you please go to Silvermoon City and buy the items mentioned above for me? It shouldn't be hard to find; just look for a general store. Be careful on the road."

These materials were in preparation for a possible war; she intended to arm herself from another angle.