I’m Jealous
I asked Tom the gardener to clear a spot in the greenhouse, planted a single twig there, and sprinkled it with water using my spell, “Growth Acceleration—Grow Big!”
Three days later, it had grown into a tree with lush green leaves, but when I asked the gardeners, none of them knew what kind of tree it was.
When I reported, “The gardeners say they’ve never seen this kind of tree before,”
Brother Gerald suggested, “Hardt, maybe you can look it up in one of the library books using your Blessing.”
He said the white fuzz on the underside of the leaves might help narrow it down, and while I was at it, I should try to find out about the caterpillar too.
“Seems like your Blessing includes making you study as part of its function,” Grandfather remarked.
Dear gods, I don’t need that kind of thing—just send me a note or an email if you want me to learn something.
Since it would take too long on my own, I roped Brother Gerald and Georges into helping.
They’d check the books on our family’s shelves, while I’d look through ones from the royal capital’s library.
I had more books overall, but with the help of my Blessing, I could read much faster, so it’d be fine.
“Ahh, I thought finding it would be easy—red eyes and three dots on its back should stand out! But there’s nothing!” Brother Gerald groaned, scratching his head.
“I also thought it’d be simple to narrow down the leaf with white fuzz on the underside, but I can’t find anything at all,” Georges agreed as he flipped through pages beside him.
I was already on my fifth book, but still hadn’t found anything that matched.
“Hardt, can’t you just use your tablet to search?” Brother Gerald said—probably bored of the hunt.
“Good idea. Maybe I’ll find a clue.”
I pulled out my tablet and tried searching for [caterpillar / red eyes]—no hits.
[red-eyed insect]—no hits.
[leaf with white fuzz]—also no hits.
Switching to the library database, I got five hits for [red-eyed insect] and three for [leaf with white fuzz].
But none of the five insect entries matched, and none of the three plant references had a similar leaf.
Could this be… a new species that doesn’t exist in this world?
“Young Master Hardt, could this caterpillar be a monster from the Great Forest, perhaps?”
Georges suggested—after all, if it couldn’t be found anywhere and we were in Westland, it might be a monster.
A fifteen-centimeter caterpillar, a monster?
Could it be a baby?
When I asked Atre and Lucas, “Are these monster children?” they said, “We can’t say if they’re children, but they’re definitely monsters.”
When I asked why, they said they could feel a faint mana coming from them.
Had they ever seen one before? “No,” they both answered.
Well, that was a dead end.
We decided to keep investigating later, but everyone had other things to do, so we called it a day.
It had been a while since I last practiced magic with Canal.
Lately, one of us was always away from the capital, so we hadn’t had many chances to train together.
Canal had recently visited Lux Village and said that about a dozen Goosh were eating leaves near the settlement, that the double earthen walls were incredible, that he wanted to build something similar in Shinana Village someday, that he’d been defeated by Mr. Marcus, Mr. Logan, and all the men from Golden Wings, and that they’d trained him afterward. He even caught a Rainbow Fish with a net—apparently, he’d had all kinds of experiences.
Next time, he said, he’d be heading to the Eminira Dungeon with Golden Wings and the beastkin trio—Linda, Ramon, and Ed.
Originally, they’d planned to stop by on their way back, but since the beastkin hadn’t registered as adventurers yet—and they wanted to visit the hot springs again—they decided not to.
The three beastkin had never been to a dungeon before, so they were really looking forward to it.
She said the hot springs were a huge hit too, and that everyone was hoping the new town would be finished soon.
Canal kept talking nonstop—until Archland, the head of the Mage Corps, finally scolded him to take practice seriously.
So lucky… Meanwhile, I’ve just been working nonstop.
What do you think about this chapter?
