Joining Iris’s party, I could hear the detailed story on the way back.

When they went to find Zephyr and Herma, they said those people had already encountered the ones chasing me before heading here. It seemed they had stirred up all the nearby druids with the information that I had left the terrarium with the druid party.

Herma quickly caught onto the suspicion, and the other side seemed to sense something too, suddenly turning the atmosphere hostile as they faced off before battle.

“I quietly informed Zephyr and Herma that there was a group chasing Master Jae. We decided to resolve it on our end before finding Master Jae. It seemed that side had already figured out we were the ones moving with Master Jae.”

Then, the quiet Zephyr muttered.

“Strange… Something’s off, I tell you.”

“What’s off?”

“I think I saw people who weren’t druids over there. Aren’t you curious why ordinary people are moving together? They can’t handle dryads. That wouldn’t be helpful in battle.”

“Is that so?”

Non-druid ordinary people. Indeed, outside the terrarium where fire runs rampant, it’s dangerous without a dryad by your side.

“Anyway, I was about to start a fight, but suddenly they looked at my wallet and hurriedly turned back. It seems they received some kind of contact. I wanted to chase after them and finish them off, but Herma stopped me, saying it might be a trap. We had plenty of potions, so it was worth a try!”

“Ah, that was me!”

It felt like question marks were floating above their heads as they looked at me. Their expressions were peculiar.

“You sent the bees after them, Jae…? But then the bees could reveal your location, couldn’t they?”

In an instant, I became the weirdo who personally contacted the people chasing me. I calmly explained about my wasps and parasites—how I approached close enough to eavesdrop on their situation and intercepted and distorted their messages.

“Alchemists are amazing. Being able to create such things.”

“If the wasps you have, Jae, become widespread, it could get really dangerous. It’s an impressive but too hazardous function.”

“Ah… that’s not a function anyone can use.”

The diamond drain is no joke. Only someone like me with diamonds to spare can use it. What kind of expression would they make if they knew over a thousand diamonds were broken in just a moment?

“So you did take Notos to get the Viburnum colony info first! The place we went only had flat land. With camping traces in between, it wasn’t that remote an area.”

“I got some help from Jae’s dandelion dryads.”

After walking for a while, we arrived at the spot where Iris and I had split up.

“Even though they turned back, there’s a high chance they’ll chase us again. Around here, we should use Zephyr and Herma’s dryads to cause some trouble.”

Iris pointed toward the cave exit. At her words, Zephyr summoned a dryad from the artifact.

I thought the cocklebur I sent back to the artifact at Iris’s scolding might come out again, but it didn’t. From Zephyr’s artifact, a male dryad with blue-purple curly hair resembling monkshood appeared. He wore attire straight out of a Greek mythology comic and carried a large, cotton-swab-like flower staff.

Uh… I think I know what that flower is?

That dryad was an incredibly handsome youth, comparable even to Elder. A dazzling face—completely my type.

“He’s Hyacinth, Zephyr’s dryad. True to his species’ myth of a beauty that captivated gods, his looks are stunning, aren’t they? It might not meet the standards of Jae, who’s been with Elder Flower… but ah, it seems he looks handsome to you too, Jae.”

When I stared blankly at the Hyacinth dryad, Iris chuckled softly. Then Elder, as if jealous, pulled me into a hug from behind, gripping my shoulders.

“Look, Elder. I thought you were the most handsome among the dryads, but that one is no joke either! It’s like they stepped out of a painting, isn’t it?”

At my words, Hyacinth looked visibly smug.

“Dryads are originally flowers. We are born with dazzling appearances to catch the favor of the little World Tree gods. It’s an honor that you find me pleasing. Please look kindly upon the other Hyacinth dryads as well and form soul bonds with them.”

“That’s just the opinion of those narcissistic flowers. A dryad’s beauty is merely because they’re born that way as flowers.”

Elder grumbled. For someone saying that, aren’t you yourself full of confidence in your looks? Anyway, it was fascinating that each dryad had a different view.

“Our Hyacinth is amazing, right? This is actually the first rare grade I got from the free fruit handout at the orchard! Kkeu… Just recalling how all the nearby druids looked at me with envy back then still gives me chills.”

“Little World Tree god, please don’t hold my hand as it displeases me.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I’ll be careful.”

“But please don’t wander too far away either.”

The relationship between Zephyr and Hyacinth was peculiar. It was a world of difference from how they reacted with Cocklebur, who kept tossing feathers around wildly.

“Well… Hyacinth dryads don’t have very good affinity with men. Even though they’ve spent a long time together, Zephyr still hasn’t managed him well. Those Hyacinth flowers often have the myths of their origin strongly ingrained generation after generation… Since their origin met a tragedy due to love quarrels among male gods, they dislike men.”

“Oh… Interesting.”

I had heard about the myths of origins from Dandelion, the king of the dandelion dryads.

She said that the reason she could use the flower language of ‘divine revelation’ was because, as a Lord, she inherited the myths of her ancestors. Unlike her, who could inherit it as a Lord, it seems Hyacinth had it as a default. I also knew the story of Hyacinth because I had diligently read Greek and Roman mythology comics.

“That Hyacinth dryad is a support type. He has the flower language of ‘play’ and can use its power. If he uses his ability to bloom Hyacinth flowers in a direction different from where we’re heading, all who smell their fragrance will linger there, feeling like they don’t want to do anything. It traps the enemies’ feet.”

“Oh…!”

“Probably, if the enemies don’t have a dryad who can dispel this power, they’ll keep being affected as long as the Hyacinth flowers remain.”

In other words, without a dryad like Wolfsbane who can remove debuffs, they could be helplessly caught? Hyacinth’s ability was, in a word, a debuff type. If used during battle, it was a useful skill to temporarily halt the opponent’s attacks and pummel them one-sidedly.

“Hide the flowers in a place where they’re hard to see and bloom them.”

“Yes, little World Tree. I shall do as you command.”

“Hyacinth! That spot looks good!”

“No. I will bloom over there. But I will consider it.”

Unlike how Hyacinth often heeded Iris, she frequently ignored Zephyr. Such was the relationship with a Dryad of abysmal affection. I looked at the Elder, whose affection I had fully filled with diamonds, and the Begonia, which I was still working on. It felt far from being someone else’s problem.

Herma also summoned a Dryad from the artifact. Along with a yellow glow, a male-type Dryad appeared, with long blonde hair reaching down to his thighs and wearing a laurel crown.

He wore a long, star-shaped pleated skirt at the bottom and held a staff entwined with several tree vines. Unusually, the Dryad had his eyes closed, only revealing soft yellow eyes when Herma spoke to him, then closing them again.

Seeing me staring at him in wonder, Iris explained.

“That’s Herma’s Dryad, the Laurel. If that Dryad were female-type, Herma would have been on bad terms with it, just like Zephyr. That Dryad was also born from a free fruit obtained from the same orchard as Zephyr, but it seems that branch gathered Dryads of a similar disposition. In the case of female-type Dryads, the mother’s myth tends to be strongly inherited through generations.”

“It’s interesting, since the Dryads I know say that the Lord inherits the myth.”

Do our little ones have any myths too? Suddenly, I became curious about my Dryads’ myths. I must ask them next time.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but my Dryad is the turn-over type…”

“Ah! I know that! Mine is also the turn-over type!”

In response to Herma’s words, I brought out Begonia to show her.

Turn-over is a form where a Dryad can select and use only one of its inclinations. If you pull out the Dandelion’s Staff piece stuck in Begonia’s head, a grenade explodes. So I’ve been forced to lock it into support and recovery types.

But that Dryad of yours doesn’t seem to have anything stuck in its head.”

“Right now, it’s in recovery type like this, but if I change it to turn-over, it can use support-type skills… Since you already know, the explanation can be quick.”

“The Laurel Dryad is more often used in its recovery form, so it’s usually kept like that. That Dryad can use different flower languages depending on the two inclinations. Unlike the recovery type, which focuses on the power of leaves and trees, in the support type, which uses the power of flowers, it can wield the power of the flower language ‘distrust, betrayal.’”

“Laurel, I’ll switch you to support type.”

At Herma’s words, the Dryad’s previously closed eyes opened. As he raised his wooden staff high, a strong yellow glow began to swirl at its tip.

Soon, small yellow flowers began to bloom densely at the staff’s end. Yellow flowers also bloomed from the laurel crown he wore. Oh… so its appearance changes a bit.

“Laurel can use its power to grow small laurel saplings around it, which can influence their surroundings. By harnessing the meaning of its flower language—‘distrust, betrayal’—it temporarily causes discord among dryads. If they lack resistance, it can even force them to fight each other. Without a dryad to dispel this power, it becomes a very troublesome situation for enemies.”

Laurel’s ability was also a debuff type. In games, I often saw situations where such debuffs were applied to enemies to make them fight each other. Of course, if allies were affected, they’d attack each other too, making it quite a troublesome debuff.

“The abilities are really impressive.”

“Right? Let’s do some work around here and then move on.”

So I quietly waited for Zephyr and Herma’s dryads to set up traps. Besides the poison debuff, there were quite a few others. I felt I could really understand Iris’s words about not taking dryads out of artifacts being like hiding a trump card.

I should grow the monkshood well and quickly unlock the debuff removal ability. Just imagine if Mesquite or Elder got hit by Laurel’s ability—it’d be hell for me.