Iris was all aflutter as soon as she re-entered the meeting room, along with Zephyr.

“Master Jae, that was truly amazing. How could you act so convincingly? It was like I was looking at a different person.”

“Master, were all the faces you’ve shown us so far just an act? Isn’t how you handle the people from the Central Administration Bureau your real self? Or are you secretly someone like the boss of a major organization?”

“It was that… impressive?”

Was it a good idea to use the alcohol as a cover?

“You were radiating such a dangerous aura, and the scent of the alcohol you used for the concept was the peak of it all! It felt like you didn’t care at all, even about the highest-ranking people from the Central Administration Bureau.”

I definitely shouldn’t tell them I actually drank real alcohol.

“And that fur coat the blond man brought? At first, I thought he was shoving some rag at Master Jae, but it actually suited you surprisingly well. That bizarre design probably doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, but it looked incredibly expensive, right? It seemed like the kind of coat only Master Jae, who spends diamonds like water, would buy for fun.”

So that’s how Iris sees me. But even if I were swimming in diamonds, I’d never buy a coat like that myself.

Since I no longer needed to keep it up, I took off the coat and the suit jacket too. It was quite stifling. I loosened my tie and tossed it onto the desk, unbuttoned my shirt, took out a hair tie, and gathered my elaborately styled hair into a single ponytail.

Now I could finally breathe. It felt like I’d just wrapped up a massive project. If this were a group assignment, it would’ve been an A+ result.

“They were talking about the Iron Beast as they left too.”

Herma, who seemed to have struggled to keep a stern expression the whole time, rubbed the corner of her mouth and broached the topic subtly.

“Ah, right. They were whispering about how someone like him ended up under Master Jae’s management. They said that even though a major guild had him on their wanted list, you boldly took on the task of reforming him, and that those walking the path to become the World Tree’s sapling are truly different.”

I didn’t see the Central Administration people out of the conference room specially. I stayed to talk with Mesquite, and only the guild members accompanied them out.

They told me everything that was discussed in my absence. I had somewhat expected talk of Siedling to come up—after all, he’s that notorious wanted man.

“They said that despite his infamy, since he’s with Jae, they might need to reconsider their assessment of him. If Ironbeast’s reputation is even slightly diluted, that’d be better for our guild, right?”

“Don’t leave out what you chimed in with—you said it’s only because she’s Jae that she’s got him on a leash, and if rubbed the wrong way, he’d bite.”

“Caught up in the moment, I said it without thinking…”

Iris glanced between Siedling and me, offering an awkward smile.

“I’m not a beast. But it’s true I won’t stay still if someone harms her.”

Siedling said calmly. Jeepers chattered on afterward, saying that Siedling standing there silently had a far greater effect on setting the mood than their own tough expressions.

“Iris instructed us to keep a stern face so we wouldn’t be underestimated. So I tried to recall incidents from my old guild to maintain an angry vibe, but no matter how much I furrowed my brows, I couldn’t match Ironbeast’s authority. They didn’t even glance at us except for Ironbeast.”

So it was Iris’s instruction after all. I think it was quite helpful in its own way.

“Now then, shall we talk about the real reason I gathered you all? It’s about the World Tree sapling and the Pilgrim discussed in the conference room.”

I set the stage and looked at Mesquite. It was her turn to explain now.

“Then we need to address this first. I should properly introduce my existence to my little World Tree.”

Mesquite smiled kindly at me. She put back on the helmet she’d removed to talk with me. The velvet Mesquite’s yellow flower stalks, standing in place of the helmet’s plumes on both sides, rose tall like victory banners on a battlefield. As she lifted the massive shield—bigger than my body—with both hands, I recalled the first time I bloomed her into existence.

“I am one of the ten Field Guardians first crafted by the World Tree, the sole tree that upholds the laws of the Desert Field. I was born from the sturdy roots of the World Tree.”

The identity of the word that people who had seen Mesquite would start with ‘Field…’ but never finish, now revealed itself. So beyond her Special grade, Mesquite was truly a remarkable being.

“‘First’ means Mesquite has existed since the beginning?”

“Hehe, not exactly. I have inherited the lineage of the previous velvet Mesquites. I too have ancestors.”

“Still, you are indeed an ancient dryad, right?”

Because Mesquite said she had only reappeared in the world after decades…

“Wow, so it seems I was right after all. The stone statues we saw were actually carvings of the Field Guardians.”

Herma clapped his hands with a dull sound and spoke in a surprised voice.

“So, what exactly did we get lost and discover? If this is a place where all ten stone statues of the Field Guardians, passed down as legends among the ancient dryads, are located, doesn’t that mean we went somewhere we shouldn’t have?”

“They said there was a single tree guarding the field, and it was real? I really thought it was just an old story.”

“To think one of those legends is here. The most amazing things among all the adventures we’ve had so far have all happened recently.”

Iris and Zephyr chimed in on Herma’s words, chattering in high-pitched voices. I want to go see that dungeon-like place where they saw the stone statue too. How cool would a Mesquite carved into a stone statue be?

Come to think of it, Field Guardian… I wondered where I’d heard it before, and it turned out to be the promotional phrase for the Temple of the Sun, one of the artifact houses I gifted to Mesquite.

It said it would make my dryad feel like a Field Guardian. I thought it was just using fancy words, but to think it was actually quoting a real legend….

Then isn’t the Temple of the Sun really Mesquite’s home, since she’s the Field Guardian? What must Mesquite have thought when she saw a fake…? Or if I had been a bit quicker to catch on, wouldn’t I have been able to figure out his identity sooner?

“Everyone keeps talking about legends, but how great is this Guardian? Is it like a god of the dryads? They say the Guardian upholds the rules, but what exactly does it do?”

I know Mesquite is a really amazing being, but I wanted to know more details. Tell me more.

People of the world! The dryad who is the Field Guardian is none other than my dryad! It seems even more amazing than a special grade! I want to run outside with a megaphone and shout it.

“As for that, there’s someone who can shout on her behalf.”

The unflappable Siedling spoke, even though Mesquite had just revealed a huge secret. At the same time, his artifact shone brightly, and a dryad who made a big fuss appeared. It was Cadon Dryad, who had acted like a huge fan of Mesquite since our first meeting.

When introducing that dryad, whose native field was clearly the Desert Field, I think they called him the Prince of the Desert?

“Ooh! It’s a true honor to meet the great Field Guardian!”

He shouted loudly the moment he appeared. She had clearly also been stopped while saying ‘Field…’ to Mesquite before. Seeing his behavior, I could imagine how desperately he had wanted to say it all this time.

He was even more of a big talker than Zephyr, who liked to chatter. At the dramatic appearance of Cadon, who seemed like he might even kneel down, everyone except Siedling involuntarily frowned.

“The Absolute Ruler of the Desert Field! The Guide of all desert flowers! The great being who upholds order by their very existence!”

“I wondered if he’d get sick from holding it in—he was anything but quiet. The praise flooding out toward Mesquite like a bursting dam was so grand that even I felt embarrassed.”

But Mesquite said nothing and just let Kadon carry on as he did. In that manner, I could sense a mature composure befitting an elder.

Ah, the way she treated Kadon was exactly… similar to how she treated the Elder. So he was really looking at Kadon like a young sapling dryad after all.

The Iris party that had talked about the stone statue in the dungeon, Kadon who praised Mesquite like a zealot… As I recalled past events that held hints about her one by one, I also remembered the conversation Papyrus and Mesquite had in the seed storage.

“It means the identity shaped by the Field’s order is to ensure that no place remains untouched by the World Tree’s blessing.”

“Too long an empty history has passed, and that identity has crumbled greatly…”

And then, what Mesquite said to the people of the Central Administration Department.

“I will gather and awaken all the Guardians who have turned away from overlooking and closed their eyes, including myself.”

“Mesquite… does that mean the path to becoming a World Tree sapling… is that I have to gather all the Field Guardians like you? And it sounds like I need to do something so those dryads can do their jobs…”

At my question, Mesquite’s face turned apologetic again.

“Uh… Master Jae. That means there are ten natural fields total… so there are ten Guardians too… And a Guardian would definitely be a Special Grade, right? Doesn’t that mean you have to find all nine other Special Grade dryads besides Mesquite?”

Is that possible? Mesquite was a Special Grade that appeared in the orchard of the 26th terrarium after ten years. Pulling her was truly a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck.

“My master, Jae. That is the pilgrim’s duty. This is why I didn’t want to tell you anything. The moment you took on the responsibility, a truly arduous trial would await my master. I have no idea where the Guardians, who have turned away from their status and wandered, live their lives, whether they have perished and await a rebirth to take their place, or whether they sleep an unbroken sleep within the World Tree’s embrace.”

Can I even gather them all before I die? Is this quest even clearable?