At its words, Mesquite let out a “Hmm,” deep in thought.

“But Daisy is also a modified breed!”

The word “modified” suddenly reminded me. But the Elder, who had been following, shook his head and explained that it seemed to mean something different.

“Daisy the kid is indeed a modified breed, but since she was born from the fruit of the World Tree, her parent form likely came from mutation through grafting with another plant. She solidified as a species through repeated births.”

“What’s the difference from that one?”

“It’s mostly left to nature. After all, it uses genetic information from the parent forms in the World Tree.”

“So that’s why Jae, as a druid, wasn’t recognized right away. Now I understand.”

Mesquite, confirming the Elder’s words, added his own.

“You’ve done something forbidden in the alchemy tower. You combined the aconite mother plant with alchemy, twisting the genes to create an improved breed. In the end, since that child was born by human hands, the World Tree won’t have the mother plant’s information for it. Recognizing a small World Tree is like an instinct engraved in the souls of the mother’s ancestors born from the World Tree. Having become a dryad by chance, when that child eventually dies and returns to the World Tree’s embrace, new information will be written down.”

“That little one’s very existence violates the World Tree’s power. Every plant must be born and grow in lands touched by the World Tree’s blessing, learning nature’s order. That’s no different from the socialization of dryads taught by nature. If such creatures become numerous, they’ll fail to recognize a small World Tree like you and dare to attack, just now. That’s definitely not a dryad. Let’s kill it and send it to the World Tree’s embrace. The World Tree will think so too.”

So the conclusion is to kill it? Why drag out the word ‘kill’ so long. I thought artificial modification was common, but with fantasy alchemy added, words like forbidden or violation pop up.

Mesquite, agreeing with Elder’s words, raised his lance, ready to end its life at any moment.

Thinking back to our first meeting in the 26th terrarium, he even briefly considered not killing dryads born from the same World Tree. The aconite dryad only received the World Tree’s pollen, so does he not consider it the same race at all?

But the fact that it looked like a child kept nagging at me. Especially since it seemed around Daisy’s age. No, that kid only committed the sin of being born. From what I heard, its attack on me was done out of ignorance. More precisely, it probably acted out of fear and instinct.

Does the World Tree really want it to die and come into its embrace?

Just then, the terrarium artifact suddenly glowed and vibrated. I was about to raise my left hand to check. As my head rang with a dizzy feeling, everything went black as if I’d suddenly lost my sight.

Before I could even shout in surprise, my focus was drawn to something glowing white in the pitch-black darkness. It was a round glass marble. No, a transparent fruit. My left hand, raised involuntarily, touched the fruit. It felt ice-cold.

Suddenly, I recalled the fruit given to me by the black branch I saw in my dream. That’s this one.

“Jae?”

“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

A warm hand landed on my shoulder and shook me, making the darkness clear away completely, and my vision finally returned fully. I met Mesquite’s eyes, looking at me with concern.

And I also met the eyes of the transparent fruit clutched in my raised left hand. Everyone stared at the fruit in my left hand with shocked expressions.

No… how did this suddenly… why…. Crazy, it makes it look like I bore a fruit with my own hand.

Through the transparent fruit, I could see the distorted ground, Mesquite’s black armor, and the rabbit-eyed face of a Dryad named Wolfsbane. Her face, swollen from crying, was squashed by the fruit like a convex lens, making it look even funnier.

“Don’t misunderstand. Even though I can shoot diamonds from my hands, I can’t bear fruit. I mean, everyone calls me Little World Tree, but I’m still human, right?”

Daisy’s eyes sparkled like stars as she looked at the fruit. …Should I pretend it’s magic? Ta-da!

“That…”

Mesquite seemed to recognize it, so I stretched out my hand to bring the fruit up to eye level, and she even bent down further.

As her sand-colored hair cascaded down, a strong scent of smoke wafted over. It was an intense fragrance that instantly overpowered the damp smell of this place.

“It’s definitely not a nutrient fruit.”

Yeah, yeah, because the inside isn’t completely white.

“It’s not a Dryad’s fruit, but it is a fruit of the World Tree.”

If it were a Dryad’s fruit, it would have been filled with a golden color. But it is indeed a fruit of the World Tree. Specifically, a raw fruit just picked from a branch of the World Tree, before being placed on a Dryad pot—a fruit whose potential to become nutrients or contain a Dryad is still unknown.

“No life is felt, but a blessing is felt… Yes. It’s an unripe fruit.”

Huh? This is an unripe fruit? Well, since it’s a fruit that grows on a branch, I guess there is a ripening process. But to think the fruit that even visited my dreams was unripe… Suddenly, it feels a bit off.

Stop right there! You pulled a fast one! No, if you’re going to give it to me, you should give a fully ripe one! How am I supposed to use it as a fruit or bloom a Dryad with this? You gave me this unripe fruit that I don’t even know what to do with!

The cold fruit gradually warmed as it absorbed my body heat.

“Then why did you give me one that’s not even fully ripe?”

“Gave it to you? When and who gave this to Jae?”

“It’s a bit awkward to say when, but it was first given to me in a dream long before I came here… and I actually touched it just now? Oh, the World Tree’s branch gave it to me. In my dream, a black branch appeared with this dangling at its end. It kept hovering in front of me as if telling me to pick it, so I grabbed it quickly.”

Mesquite and Elder’s faces turned serious.

Gasp! What if it wasn’t given to me but I picked it on my own…? Crazy, am I not just a thief? Come to think of it, it didn’t really tell me to pick it back then. Bad Jae, Thief Jae.

I’ve lived my life somewhat morally, even if not perfectly… Can I compensate you with diamonds? Your 28th branch is sucking my diamonds in real time, so couldn’t we work something out with that?

“Usually, we don’t pick unripe fruit from the branches. There’s a bad omen associated with it. A very long time ago, when the world was destroyed, a story circulated that unripe fruits would fall like rain from the branches of the World Tree.”

Whoa! What did you give me? No, what did I even pick?

“Of course, it’s just a rumor, my lord Jae. The Elder kid’s words are just scary tales the mature trees tell to frighten the young saplings. You don’t need to worry. Fundamentally, it’s better not to pick unripe fruit. You never know what kind of dryad might bloom from it.”

“So I crushed a dryad’s dream…?”

It feels like I’ve done something worse than just stealing the fruit…

“There’s no life in it, so you don’t need to make such a sad face. This fruit hasn’t been assigned dryad information yet. It might have just been a nutrient fruit, after all?”

I was on the verge of trembling, but Mesquite gently touched my cheek and calmed me down. Seeing her kind eyes, I immediately felt relieved that it wasn’t a big deal.

“Unripe fruits are the ones that grow at the very tips of the World Tree’s branches. Dryad information flows from the inside toward the branch tips. Also, growth is fastest on the inside and slowest at the tips. Fruits that ripen without receiving dryad information become nutrient fruits.”

I looked at the fruit in my hand. It seemed no different in size from the ones I had picked. It wasn’t like an apple, where unripeness shows as a different color on the skin. This one was simply so transparent that I could see the palm of my hand holding it.

“The reason the Elder kid’s story is just a rumor is… actually, they do pick unripe fruit in the orchards. It’s because fruits that miss the blooming season due to slow ripening can’t be processed. A dryad that fails to bloom inside the fruit returns to the embrace of the World Tree when the fruit’s blessing power fades.”

So it rots…? No, putting it that way sounds kind of creepy.

“If we lowered the price or gave them away for free to dispose of them, everyone would deliberately visit the orchards after the blooming season. That’s why they harvest before the fruit ripens and before dryad information is imbued.”

“Then what do you do with the unripe ones?”

“Though unripe fruits seem useless at first glance, they are still born from the World Tree and possess blessing power. They have their uses. They are used to establish soul connections with wild dryads. We sell them separately to druids who work toward that purpose.”

Mesquite said this, looking down at the banyan dryad with a dry gaze. At that look, the banyan dryad jumped in surprise.

“The World Tree… knew about that sapling kid.”

She sighed as she said this, then closed her eyes long and slowly opened them again.

“Even if it’s a being born in violation of the World Tree’s power… it seems you’ve decided to embrace it without care. To the point of visiting my master, Jae, in your dream and making such a request. Why would the World Tree wish for me to willingly take in something that endangers my little master?”

“Refuse it. It’s ultimately a decision made by the World Tree on its own. You don’t have to follow it.”

The Elder said bluntly. Then he reached out his hand. That couldn’t be a gesture asking for diamonds….

“That fruit, if you don’t want it, give it to me. I’ll break it. If you hesitate to kill it because it’s small, just leave it as is. Once the World Tree’s blessing ends, it will return to the World Tree’s embrace according to natural order.”

No, isn’t the World Tree an incredibly significant being to you dryads? This is practically a revelation from a god-like entity like the World Tree. How can you speak about it so casually?

But even without asking, I felt I could guess the answer. Mesquite only looked surprised when she discovered the fruit in my hand. Other than that, her face has been one of discontent all along.

The Elder wore an expression of displeasure. Daisy quietly listened to our conversation, her face as calm as ever. As if she had simply realized, ‘So that’s how it was.’

It’s because… you’re more important than the World Tree… my little master.

“It’s fine. No, having a debuff dryad would be great! It’ll help the team!”

“Jae….”

Mesquite called out to me with a voice laden with a question, as if to ask whether I should reconsider.

“Well, it’s not like I have some grand intention to carry out the World Tree’s will. It’s just that that kid was born that way, right? It’s not like they chose to be born like that.”

Just as no dryad is born choosing to be a low rank. There was something I decided on when I came here. Something I resolved upon seeing Daisy.

Even if Daisy was born as the lowest rank, Normal, her potential isn’t limited to that. No one should look down on her for being Normal rank. I’ll make sure of that.

Even the bastard dryad, judged by words like forbidden and transgression, can’t be defined as doomed for life just because our first meeting was somewhat unpleasant.

To me, the background of that bastard child’s birth was no issue at all.