Since the work of imbuing power into the bullets was done, I gestured to the elder, who was still sulking inside the glass tube. The elder walked out of the glass tube as if having been waiting.

“Where’s the bullet with my power?”

I pointed to the bullet that had been handed over to Romgato.

“The accuracy was low, so I couldn’t condense it completely. It only contains a vague mist-like fluctuation, so it won’t have much of an effect, they said.”

“That’s nonsense. How could it be lacking when you and I made it together?”

“You probably did well, but there might be an issue on my end. I suppose I couldn’t properly channel your power since I’m not a researcher.”

“You’re the problem? That can’t be. Let’s use a graft. Then the power should be properly infused.”

“Using a graft to infuse power? That’s a remarkable idea.”

Romgato chimed in with an intrigued tone, but I pretended not to notice.

“Hey, it’s fine. Those people will research more later and eventually produce results with fully infused power. It’d be too wasteful to use a graft for something like this.”

What in the world got you so worked up? You look like you’re about to snort steam in frustration.

Could it be that you were jealous of the other colorful beads looking pretty? So you wanted a pretty bead with your own power infused?

I pulled a diamond that was rolling around restlessly in my pocket and pressed it into Elder’s hand. It was meant to calm him down, but his reaction was unexpected. He bit his lower lip with his even, white teeth and then jerked his head away.

Still, his hand reluctantly but thoroughly took the diamond, but seeing him—who used to smile whenever given one—react like this made my heart sink.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick? Is one not enough? You nearly stopped my heart just now, you know.”

I straightened Elder’s head, took off my glove, and pressed my hand to his forehead. Do dryads even get fevers? It feels a bit hot. Elder still looked down at me with a sulky face.

“You’re not feeling off because of Marguerite’s curse… are you?”

“It’s not that.”

In a petulant voice, Elder tried to push my hand off his forehead but instead pressed it firmly against it. Since he couldn’t beat a dryad’s strength, I ended up stuck close to him, unable to move an inch. Elder’s sweet scent lingered around the tip of my nose.

“It’s just… we made it together, you and me, and it didn’t turn out right, so…”

Strictly speaking, Romgato and the researchers helped, so it wasn’t just the two of us.

“Aww, we can try again next time. It looks like there’s only one empty bullet today, so even if it’s disappointing, let’s be satisfied with just succeeding in the attempt.”

Ah, I think I roughly understand how Elder feels. It’s like a kid who drew a picture with their mom for homework, but it didn’t get chosen as the best drawing to hang at the back of the classroom, right?

He’s really like a kid. Sulking over that. I was genuinely worried thinking he was sick.

“Then…”

Elder moved my hand from his forehead to his cheek.

“You have to do it with me next time too.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re the only unique-grade dryad I have, so I’ll do it with you next time too.”

My answer seemed to satisfy him, and the strength in Elder’s hand holding mine loosened, as if his mood had lifted a bit. Thanks to that, I could pull my hand out without trouble.

But this time, my other hand was grabbed. Compared to how lightly Siedling held my left wrist, he was quite roughly pulling the ring off the artifact.

“Hey…! If you handle it like that, it’ll break! That would be a disaster!”

A startled researcher ran over and stopped Siedling. At the commotion, all eyes focused on Siedling. Everyone’s expressions were frozen stiff. The ring device attached to the artifact must have been really expensive.

“It’s not good to keep affecting the artifact for long.”

“I’ll do it! I’ll take it off! Please don’t put so much force, it’ll really break. It’ll snap clean off! Then our month of effort will also snap clean off!”

With my left arm dangling in Siedling’s grip, the researcher tremblingly began to remove the ring. Putting it on was quick, but taking it off seemed quite tricky.

Since Siedling tried to work on the device at eye level, the researcher had to stand on tiptoes to match that height while fiddling with the ring. He couldn’t even bring himself to ask to be put down.

Having successfully and safely retrieved the ring, the researcher wiped off cold sweat. On his face was the pride of someone who had protected the past month’s effort.

“Why are you shaking your hand?”

Suddenly, I felt Siedling’s hand supporting my arm tremble slightly. At my words, Siedling looked at his own hand, then at me. He seemed unaware he was trembling.

“If I put force into it, I might break your frail wrist.”

“You’re not a dryad, you know. Ah, no. If it really breaks, it’s my loss. Let go of my hand.”

I pulled my hand away quickly and examined the artifact. Despite all the fuss, it seemed unscratched, so that was a relief.

Siedling withdrew his hand a beat late. By the way, he said he was being careful, but was he really worried my wrist would break?

It’s not like I have twig-like skinny wrists—how easily could a person’s wrist break? Siedling’s hand, much larger and thicker than mine, caught my eye.

With that guy, it might be possible. Crazy, how much did he dump into strength stats to think like that?

I imagined snapping villains’ wrists just by grabbing them. Not bad, this.

After finishing the business with Romgato, I was about to leave the alchemy tower when someone grabbed me at the first-floor desk.

“Druid! You’re Druid Jae, right?”

It was a person holding an armful of pamphlets and documents.

“Yes, I’m Jae. What’s up?”

He picked out one pamphlet and a newspaper-like folded paper and handed them to me.

“This is the new product catalog and the Alchemy Tower newsletter for Jae, a Tree Level 1 supporter. Normally, we would send it to the terrarium where you reside, but since your residence is unclear, I waited for you to visit once more.”

I recalled that I had achieved the Tree level by sponsoring as a convenient way to visit Pila’s lab. I wasn’t particularly interested back then, but now that I think about it, there seemed to be various benefits.

“If you don’t happen to reside in the 18th terrarium, where should I send it from now on?”

“Um… Send it to the orchard in the 28th terrarium.”

“Ah, you’re an orchard employee? Even though you’re a resident of another terrarium, you’ve generously supported our Alchemy Tower… If a Alchemy Tower is ever established in the 28th terrarium in the future, we’ll strive to maintain a good exchange relationship. Thank you once again for your sponsorship!”

I have a feeling that in the 28th terrarium, a secret organization of researchers, not a Alchemy Tower, will be established… When I nodded, he vanished as if he had other urgent business.

Since I had received them, I thought I might as well look, so I first opened the Alchemy Tower newsletter. It was mostly about which alchemist had succeeded in research or which researcher’s paper had been prominently featured in a journal of a certain terrarium.

But on the very next page, I was so startled by a newsletter article that took up an entire page like a large signboard that my heart pounded.

Shock! Illegal artificial modification had been underway for years at the alchemy tower of the 16th Terrarium!

The supreme dean of the alchemy tower of the 1st Terrarium, ‘Monoph,’ officially stated that under the protection of the benevolent World Tree, a horrific illegal artificial modification violating the World Tree had been secretly conducted in the protected terrarium.

Although the birth of plants is solely under the jurisdiction of the World Tree and the nature it embraces, it is reprehensible for humans enjoying that benefit to commit such shameless acts.

Upon obtaining information on this artificial modification, the 1st Terrarium quickly dispatched inspectors and succeeded in arresting seven related individuals, including the supreme dean of the alchemy tower of the 16th Terrarium, ‘Creacion,’ who was the mastermind.

Furthermore, they disposed of all materials related to the artificial modification on the spot, demonstrating the true aspect of the supreme terrarium that safeguards the World Tree and knowledge.

Meanwhile, although some opinions deemed it excessive that the strongest ever punishment of revoking the research qualifications of all intellectuals belonging to the alchemy tower of the 16th Terrarium was imposed, positive opinions prevailed as it showed the 1st Terrarium’s clear intention to punish illegal acts in the future.

The 1st Terrarium announced that it would establish a Heresy Inspection Corps to professionally monitor all research violating the World Tree, using this case as an example.

“That’s unsettling…”

Siedling seemed interested in the newsletter I was reading, so I handed the paper over to him.

Naturally, the 1st Terrarium took all the credit. Of course, it wouldn’t be good if the things I did inside there leaked out.

But all the 1st Terrarium did was come after everything was finished to validate my position as Administrator and take away the Creacion they pushed on me.

Moreover, even though Papillion quickly pinned all the blame on Creacion and severed the connection with the Alchemy Tower, it was written as if the entire 16th Terrarium had condoned artificial modification.

Since it was an inferno den inside, that’s somewhat accurate, but now that it’s my Terrarium, having its public reputation fall this low is not good.

It’s as if they’ve turned their backs on the 16th Terrarium without a single word of defense… The Olive Tree Dryad thought so highly of me—isn’t this too much?

It would be better for the 16th Terrarium to be seen as incompetent, not knowing what the Alchemy Tower was doing. But this way, it’s easy to be misunderstood as the Terrarium leading the artificial modification itself. This is a really bad situation.

And despite having someone transport all the materials to the 1st Terrarium, the newsletter wrote that the materials were all discarded on the spot.

In principle, it seems they should be discarded on the spot, right…?

Lastly, this newly established Heresy Inspection Unit. A group with an ominous name; I have a foreboding feeling that, like it or not, I’ll end up entangled with them.