Chapter 379: The Gardener of the Withered Flowers (1)
So, now let’s plant flowers in the world.
“Okay… Let’s get to work.”
After stroking the Silver Bell Flowers of the Constellation Killer, I stretched mightily.
From now on, I would have to travel around quite busily. In this world, where nothing yet exists, almost akin to a void, a lot would be needed to bloom a single flower.
-What do you plan to do?
The Guardian Spirit inquired.
Thinking about it, the Guardian Spirit had been quiet lately. Even when I was almost sealed by the Constellation Killer, and even when I ultimately counterattacked and defeated the Constellation Killer, the Guardian Spirit said nothing. It just watched from a few steps away.
If you ask whether I felt let down by this, not really.
I had a hunch about why the Guardian Spirit didn’t interfere. Even without any conversation, I could understand the Guardian Spirit’s heart. Unlike when I was climbing the 10th floor, I am now strong. I have reached a realm barely half a step behind the Guardian Spirit.
‘This is as far as my teachings go.’
‘The rest is for you to figure out on your own.’
Had I been defeated by the Constellation Killer and trapped in eternal seal, that would have been the end. It would mean that my journey towards the pinnacle of the tower would have ultimately ended there.
Advice is unnecessary between rivals who are on equal footing.
“That’s right…”
I took off my coat and rolled up my sleeves.
“First, we need the sun.”
-The sun?
“Yes. There needs to be light. It’s quite dark here, isn’t it? Even if only withered flowers are expected to bloom here, it would be too sad for the flowers if it’s just darkness.”
The Guardian Spirit looked at me as if it were looking at a madman.
-How do you plan to create the sun? Just so you know, it might be possible to create something resembling the sun with a tightly packed orb of Aura, but maintaining it continuously would be difficult.
“Well, we’ll figure something out somehow.”
There’s plenty of time.
“And I have a feeling I might be able to get it from a specialist.”
“No can do, no can do. Absolutely not.”
Unfortunately, upon descending to Babylon and consulting with a specialist, what returned to me was a pinkish cat vigorously shaking its head in front of me.
“Is it impossible?”
“Meow. Even though we decided to bark, we should at least have some conscience, right? With your budget, ‘the sun’ is a bit, actually, quite a stretch.”
[The Cat that Bites Gold Coins] looked at me like a real estate agent looking at someone asking if they could rent a new apartment within a budget of 50 million won. It hurt because it was so realistic.
“Woof, I can offer you a long-lasting light bulb…”
“Ah, that’s not cool. Even though it’s a garden. It needs to be natural light, not artificial.”
“Hmm… How about a phoenix then? If you hang a cage from the ceiling and put a phoenix in it, it might somewhat create an atmosphere like the sun.”
“Would that be natural light?”
“Wouldn’t it be similar? It’s all about how you perceive it, and the world is essentially a series of appropriate compromises.”
Hmm.
I was momentarily tempted by the cat’s words, but no matter how much I thought about it, the image of a phoenix hung above the garden crying ‘Kee-ah Kee-ah’ seemed somewhat foolish.
‘But.’
The cat’s offhand remark that the world is essentially a series of compromises inspired me.
“That’s right. There’s no need to bring the sun just to get some light. In fact, the sun might be too dazzling for the withered flowers.”
“Yes, yes, that’s exactly the kind of self-justification a Constellation should have! Well then, let me explain in detail about the current price of a phoenix, but ever since Taotie went extinct, the price of creatures with fire attributes has dropped quite a bit…”
“Thanks for the consultation. Goodbye.”
“Meow?”
I bought a pair of work gloves, a sack, and various equipment and returned to the 81st floor.
“……You look like you’re about to go dig up potatoes or something?”
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] gave me a look that seemed to regard me as a lunatic upon seeing me equipped with work gloves and carrying a sack.
Huh. Did people make a new law in my absence that dictates they must look at me like that?
“I heard you talking about needing the sun and light earlier. You’re not going to stuff the sun into that sack, are you?”
“Something like that.”
“What?”
“More importantly, could I stop by the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary for a moment?”
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] blinked.
“What are you talking about? The sanctuary of the Constellation Killer has already been destroyed. You saw it with your own eyes just yesterday.”
“Yes. But the voice of the tower said the world would end, not disappear. From what I know, the Tower Master doesn’t completely erase a world, even if the Constellation, Apostles, and all the believers have vanished and the world has ended…… It just stops in the state of destruction somewhere. Could you let me stop by there for a moment?”
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] pressed her forehead.
“Wailing Heaven… You really are a strange person. What do you hope to pick up from a place that’s completely finished? Trash? Or the corpses of massacre dolls? I’d understand if you asked for a legendary item. What could you possibly find in a place where only trash remains?”
“Ha… Just wait a moment.”
The mage glared into the dark void.
[The Staff of Time Immemorial requests entry to an already ceased sanctuary.]
[Approved.]
[You may enter the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary.]
The mage nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“Permission granted. The Tower Master seems curious about what you’re doing. Gaining her favor isn’t always easy; you’re quite talented.”
“Just live kindly, that’s all.”
“Funny. Living like you would not only cost you your life but also rot your soul.”
What’s wrong with my soul?
“A person planning to decorate their sanctuary with withered flowers must be out of their mind. Imagine someone planted flowers on their apartment balcony, and they all turned out to be withered. Would that be normal?”
Is that so?
Hearing that made it seem a bit strange.
Perhaps there was a reason why everyone ranging from Guardian Spirit to the others looked at me as if seeing a madman, but I didn’t change my plans.
Teleportation.
[You have entered the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary.]
Thus, I set foot in the world I had destroyed yesterday.
The landscape hadn’t changed.
The wind was bitter, and time had stopped. The setting sun had vanished, and the red of the shattered glass sky had broken into countless pieces.
In the void, trash crumbling and shattered glass-skies were preserved like still frames.
“Here you are, as you requested.”
This time, [The Staff of Time Immemorial] followed me. She had stubbornly refused to show herself when other companions were around, but now that I was alone, she readily appeared.
“What do you plan to take from here? I must ask once again.”
“The sky.”
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] furrowed her brows.
“Ha? The sky…?”
“Yes. I will take the sky with me.”
I began to rummage through the mountains of trash in the frozen world.
What I was looking for was glass. Originally, it was the sky marked by the sunset, but now shattered, leaving only fragments.
The world had been destroyed, but the glass still retained the red color it had been dyed at that very moment.
I carefully picked up each piece.
The very small shards of glass were hard to use. I looked for pieces at least as large as the upper half of a human body. I carefully placed them in the sack, and within the dark sack, the glass shone red and yellow.
[You have been transferred to the 81st floor.]
I returned to the 81st floor, the sack filled to the brim with sunset.
This place was still empty, except for the Silver Bell Flowers.
In a space filled only with darkness, I ascended through the air as if stepping on stairs using [Aerial Movement Technique]. It didn’t take long before I reached the pitch-black ceiling.
“Good.”
I took out a piece of glass from the sack and carefully made a small hole in it with my fingernail. The hole made by Aura was impeccably clean.
I threaded the hole with the string I had prepared in advance. [The Cat who Bites Gold], who I had commissioned instead of buying a Phoenix, had assured me this string would never break. I guess I could trust it.
“Tying it like this and hanging it from the ceiling… Done.”
Swing—
The glass of today’s sunset hung in the darkness.
It was as if a candle had been lit in the middle of a basement without a single light, shining faintly but distinctly in red and yellow, illuminating the remnants of a sunset.
“It’s still too dim, but it’ll be fine soon.”
“…….”
I continued to collect fragments of the sunset, traveling back and forth between the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary and the 81st floor.
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] silently observed my actions, no longer grumbling, but strangely silent with lips tightly sealed.
[You have entered the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary.]
[You have been transferred to the 81st floor.]
[You have entered the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary.]
[You have been transferred to the 81st floor.]
[You have…..]
How much time had passed?
Strings dangled from the ceiling.
At the end of each hanging string swayed a sunset. Ranging from glass shards as large as a person to pieces as small as a palm. But all of them retained the sunset light of a world that had perished, shining quietly.
Despite the varying lengths of the strings and the different sizes of the glass,
“Looking up from below, it’s just like a grapevine.”
I was satisfied.
The 81st floor was no longer dark, but if you ask about it being bright, it wasn’t. The once brilliant sunsets had lost their grandeur, merely fading.
Faded sunsets.
That’s why I liked it.
With such light, even the withered flowers would not find it burdensome and would gladly accept it.
“….Right.”
Looking up at the hanging glass sunsets in the sky, [The Staff of Time Immemorial] murmured,
“So this is the light of the world you create.”
And so there was light.
I was probably the only Constellation who gathered such unsightly light to decorate the sanctuary. My believers were lost flowers’ corpses, and my sun was a trace of a world that could no longer shine upon anyone.
Trash.
Ruins.
A place where life doesn’t bloom, but the remnants of life linger, existing rather than truly being.
“Yes, it’s not too bad, is it?”
“…….”
[The Staff of Time Immemorial] did not respond. I hadn’t really expected an answer, so I just shrugged.
I brought a PET bottle from the Constellation Killer’s sanctuary for the last time. Among the heaps of garbage, it was one of the few intact plastic bottles.
“Hmm. It’s been quite a while since I’ve made one of these.”
I sat cross-legged and held the scissors.
Snip.
The scissors cut through the waist of the PET bottle crisply. It split cleanly in half. As I shaped it, memories flooded back.
“I used to make these quite often when I was at the orphanage…”
What I was making was a flower pot.
A vessel for holding flowers.
Flower pots are surprisingly expensive when you try to buy them. So, at the orphanage, we used to cut PET bottles and turn them into flower pots. They’re pretty when made, you see.
“I’ll fill this with soil…”
I pondered quite a bit over which soil to use for the flower pot.
In the end, I chose soil from the world where Kim Yul had lived, the world where Kim Hwang Tae was struggling through his studies.
I went to the landfill where Kim Yul’s house had been, dug a hole, and brought back the dark, withered soil.
“Phew.”
After compacting the soil into the flower pot, I carefully planted the Silver Bell Flowers. Thankfully, the Silver Bell Flowers were safely transplanted into the flower pot.
The red light flowing from the glass in the sky slid across the transparent surface of the plastic flower pot, brightly shining.
“Okay.”
Thus, I hung the light in this world and planted the first flower.
After placing the flower pot with the Silver Bell Flowers in the center of my sanctuary, I turned to look at [The Staff of Time Immemorial].
Smiling broadly at the still silent mage.
“In this way, I’ll create the sky here, carve out waterways, and plant more flowers, lots of them. It might not be an exciting sanctuary to visit, but, um, I think I’ll come to love it here.”
“Shall we move on to the next? Mage.”
[Light has come to your world.]
[The 81st floor has been cleared!]
[Land has come to your world.]
[The 82nd floor has been cleared!]
It’s time to ascend to the 83rd floor.
