And I had a strange dream. It was a ridiculous dream. Why I knew right away it was ridiculous was because.

“Your Majesty, you must now find a groom.”

Not only was I sitting on a throne in a strange palace,

“Why are you all here…?”

Suddenly, Belladonna was beside me, acting as my dryad. Not just Belladonna, but many familiar-looking dryads were standing by my side. Of course, on the other side were my dryads too.

Blue Mallow, holding a crystal ball, bowed and said.

“The path of the king… is a lonely one… quickly find a consort… to assist the lord…”

“I don’t plan on dating yet. I’d rather go on more adventures now…”

“I hear an excellent candidate has just arrived here. Bring them in!”

“No, I said I’m not interested?”

“Your Majesty, rumor has it they are very handsome.”

“Alright, let’s see, let’s see! Come in!”

I had no intention of marriage or romance, but hearing ‘handsome’ piqued my curiosity to take a look. Yet when the large doors opened, the one who walked in was, absurdly, Siedling. Why is he here? Well, his dryads are here, so maybe it makes sense he’d show up.

Siedling walked over expressionlessly, then knelt on one knee before me.

While I was speechless from sheer absurdity, Belladonna suddenly clicked her tongue.

“Tch, tch, even if he’s handsome, he falls far short of our king’s standards. By our king’s side stands Elder Flower, the greatest beauty, so how could your face compete? Isn’t that right?”

Suddenly, Elder, who had been standing beside me, leaned in and pressed his body against me, shoving his face close. Ah, he’s pretty. Yes, I do have a taste for flashy faces. But no, what kind of dream is this anyway?

“Even if his face lags behind, rumors say he’s a man with a lot of money. He’s raked in wealth through commissions and could offer a hefty dowry to the king.”

This time, Rosewood, holding a violin, spoke politely. Then Belladonna shook her long staff with bell-shaped flowers dangling from it and scolded him angrily.

“Nonsense! Is there anyone with money who could surpass our king? Our king is someone who could buy a whole country with his wealth!”

“Then that man is a truly unremarkable candidate! Kick him out!”

“I’ll throw him out right now!”

As Kalmia, with her pale pink hair, shouted and pointed her finger, Cardoon, wielding a thorny club, jumped out with a cry of agreement.

“Hey, you’re druids—can you really treat him like that?”

“Wait! I’ve heard he has one more charm that suits the king’s taste. Our king likes tall men with a nicely toned, muscular body, so go ahead and show it off!”

“Hey… you’re insane! How do you even know that?”

Then Belladonna made a face as if the taste was obvious. Hearing my preferences exposed so blatantly in front of others—and especially my own dryads—made my face burn hot.

But Siedling’s actions as he stood up from his spot were ominous. At Belladonna’s words, he began to undo his thick, sturdy silver armor piece by piece.

“Hey, you! What are you doing in my dream!”

He took off the layered gauntlets, revealing the sleeves of a white shirt. Then, as if showing off, he rolled up his sleeves. Seeing his bulging, vein-roped forearms, I couldn’t help but clap my hands.

“There’s a reaction! Do more!”

“Heh heh, my master, Jae, do you like things like that?”

Suddenly, with a thud, black gauntlets grabbed both my arms.

“How about this? Isn’t this enough to fit Jae’s taste?”

“Mesquite, why are you suddenly acting like this?”

As Mesquite stood before me, she blocked the ceiling lights, casting a deep, heavy shadow.

“It’s all over! You lost to Mesquite in being impressive too, so you’re a useless guy!”

“Kick him out! Wait for the next chance, you weakling!”

The dryads of Siedling were seen charging at him, each holding a weapon.

“My King! I’ll bring the next one! They say he’s quite the looker, so that guy should be worth a look!”

Belladonna grabbed Siedling by the scruff and dragged him off as she spoke to me. Who’s the next guy supposed to be?

Distracted by that, Mesquite urged me on.

“Come on, we have to go.”

“Go where?”

“You need to eat. You’re really hard to get up.”

Suddenly eating after searching for groom candidates? Mesquite grabbed both my arms and pulled. Helpless, I got up from my seat and was dragged along.

“How long are you going to sleep?”

At that, I snapped awake. Opening my eyes, just like in the dream, my arms were held by Mesquite. And right in front of me was Mesquite’s face. Meeting those amber eyes filled with a lazy smile, my heart almost stopped.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Dream… in the dream… dream…”

Only then did I remember how bizarre my dream was, and a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over me, making me want to hide somewhere.

***

Half-asleep, I ate the food well. A feast so lavish that the phrase ‘table legs breaking’ fit perfectly was laid out, but the absurd dream content kept popping up, and even while eating well, I ended up crunching on a fork. My teeth tingled.

I wanted to set up a temple of the sun in the artifact and ask Mesquite for a favor as soon as I woke up, but that was impossible until this dream content completely left my brain.

Eating the small bread served as dessert, I patted my full belly. Even though I was full, it went down well. There’s always a separate stomach for dessert.

“You mentioned you wanted to find something with the druids. Could you tell me about that, Jae?”

Mesquite, who had been watching me, said. Ah, that?

“There’s supposed to be a viburnum grove near the 18th terrarium. Someone’s looking for that grove, but it seems no one has found it yet. So everyone treats it like a legend, and I got curious to find it myself! The druids I agreed to form a guild with will join in. Didn’t you say you wanted to meet them, Mesquite?”

“Viburnum… Why are they looking for that tree?”

“From what I read, it’s a fire-resistant tree that doesn’t burn well in a Baron fire, so it’s also used for hedges. I think that’s why.”

“Hmm, those trees certainly help humans a lot in that regard.”

The elder, who was quietly listening, had a strange expression. What’s wrong?

“Those trees aren’t very close to us. They’re all stubborn and rigid in personality, and not fun either.”

“You little elder brat, it’s only you who isn’t close to them. I think there’s a lot to learn from those trees. You must not see the virtue of being upright, honest, and quietly devoted to cultivation, since you’re still not fully grown.”

“I am fully grown.”

I found it fascinating how Mesquite and Elder, whom I mostly knew, reacted whenever the story of a new plant dryad came up.

“Did you meet the Viburnum dryad at the World Tree too?”

“The World Tree contains information about all the plants in this world. I encountered the Viburnum quite often since it’s relatively numerous.”

“Mesquite has lived so long that there’s no dryad she doesn’t know. Unless humans create them separately like that one.”

Elder pointed at Wolfsbane. Why do you have to provoke someone who’s just sitting still? Seeing Wolfsbane’s sore spot being hit, the child visibly became gloomy.

“Oh dear, did that good-for-nothing handsome dryad act up again? He only ever thinks of himself, relying on his looks. Don’t get too down, though. You’re still the one the World Tree personally gave a fruit to, asking you to be taken along. In a way, that makes you a unique dryad, doesn’t it?”

“Mesquite is the unique one—there’s only one of her. That one was born the wrong way.”

Hey, you pretty-faced jerk! Did you have to crush the kid’s spirit like that? Did you really need to flaunt both your pretty face and your hellish mouth just to feel satisfied?!

“So, Jae, how do you plan to find the settlement? It might be really hard to find, you know. There’s a high chance it’s already gone.”

“Gone?!”

“You know it’s very rare to encounter a naturally occurring dryad, right? Even though a settlement is a place with a high probability of a dryad being born, the chance of a dryad being born naturally is very low to begin with. If no one was born to protect the settlement, it might have already been burned down and disappeared.”

“I see… So that could be why others haven’t found the settlement all this time? I was really curious about how other druids handle this kind of request. I wanted to see their methods. Well, if that doesn’t work, I have Mesquite with her excellent detection ability! You know, that thing where he puts down roots to find stuff! I was thinking of trusting in that.”

“That could be a bit dangerous. If Mesquite tries to search a wide area, it’ll cause a massive earthquake.”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, there was an earthquake when Mesquite put down roots to find a dryad before. If he were to dig up all the ground without knowing exactly where it is—only that it’s around the 18th area…

“Jae, if the settlement still exists, you might be able to get some unexpected help regarding it.”

Mesquite pointed at the terrarium artifact on my wrist.

“I checked in briefly, and the dandelion kids have grown quite a bit. At that level of growth, you might be able to use it.”

“Use what?”

I looked at the artifact as Mesquite spoke. Despite it being late at night, I could see Daisy 2 and the dandelion kids diligently clearing away the debris.

“You’re working without sleeping? Ah, right, dryads don’t need sleep. Still, seeing you work day and night like that pains my heart…”

“Do you remember the technique used by the king of the dandelion colony?”

“Hmm…”

As I rested my chin and fell into thought, Mesquite smiled and patiently waited. If it’s about Dandelion, he would surround the colony with mist to hide it. He also created Panacea. What else did he do?

“These flower seeds were sent out for reconnaissance to identify intruders.”

“If we had known you were the druid, we would have sent welcoming flower petals instead of warning seeds.”

I recalled the white flower seeds that clung to Daisy’s red hair like cat fur.

“Ah! I think you scattered dandelion seeds! And with those, you pointed out the fire locations too.”

“Yes, you remember after all. Although they are still saplings, they were raised by the king’s side, so now that they’ve grown, they can try to imitate it.”

I looked back into the artifact. The dryads, who had been clearing debris moments ago, were now sitting on a bench and waving at me.