Chapter 114 – Arbor Day

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Changes occurred bit by bit.

Piling up little by little.

If there was a most prominent change among them, it was the separation of day and night.

It was foreseen from the moment the God Who Makes Stars, Star Creation, demonstrated the sun with his halo.

The sky became a silent battlefield where the black sun and the blue sun tumbled back and forth.

The sight of stark purple radiance and stark blue radiance sharply shooting at each other appeared several times.

A war that would never end forever unless the main bodies themselves fought.

At first, the people were startled or trembled in fear, but as time passed, they began to change.

Young children were no exception.

Especially if they wanted to follow around the craftsmen and learn even one more skill, they had to be even more diligent.

Den was dozing off before shaking his head and stretching with all his might.

“Hwaaahhhhm.”

A shabby tent made with thick cloth draped over wooden pillars.

Through the damp and musty smell, the freshness of the clear sunlight was rushing in.

Morning had come.

Seeing the sunlight, Den busily moved around inside the tent with a grubby appearance.

Because the days of entrusting their fate to weak flames had now passed.

Puff.

The candles that dimly lit the inside of the tent extinguish one by one.

Even so, people didn’t abruptly wake up.

Of course, at first they suddenly opened their eyes wide and got up, but if it repeats several times, one naturally adapts.

Now, a shadow was neither a place where a predator laid in ambush, nor evidence of a gloomy end of the world.

It was just a cozy blanket helping them close their eyes and sleep easily.

Far from getting up, people wiggled and rolled around on the floor.

There wasn’t even a speck of a sign that they would organize their bedding on their own.

To the point where Den frowned and had to shake them awake one by one.

Naturally, it didn’t work at all.

“It’s morning, morning. Get up already.”

“Keo-eok… Keoheoheok, keok! Kek, keu-heum. Smack…”

Exhausted from hard labor and the long journey, the people couldn’t escape from their rest.

The proof was their peacefully sleeping faces even though there were people snoring as if their breath was about to stop.

Among them, Den’s uncle, Shek, was also mixed in.

If left alone, he looked like he would lie down like this for the rest of his life.

Den stiffened his face with a sense of duty and approached Shek.

“Uncle. Uncle. Dad.”

It was worth whispering in his ear for a long time.

Shek, with half-open eyes, looked around this way and that before discovering Den.

Shek rubbed his eyes with his right hand and asked in a drowsy voice.

“…Huh? Den? Why, do you need to pee?”

“Oh man, really. What are you saying. It’s morning, morning.”

Naturally, an annoyed answer returned.

Even so, Shek only smiled happily with sleepy eyes.

“Uncle… finished all the work yesterday so it’s okay to lie down a bit. Can you wake up the other people first?”

“You told me to wake you up today because you have an important task.”

“Hmm. Important task, what was it again.”

Before he knew it, he even closed his eyes and was dozing off.

In his heart, he wanted to just let him sleep more, but remembering how he earnestly repeatedly requested yesterday, he couldn’t.

The words telling him to even slap his cheek to wake him up if he couldn’t wake up on time shimmered in his mind.

Fortunately, Den was a child whose words came out before his hands.

“You said you were going to plant trees today, Uncle!”

Only then did Shek suddenly open his eyes.

“Ah! Right!”

Strength entered his limbs which had been limply intoxicated by sleep.

Shek hurriedly threw off the blanket and stood up… then looked at Den with a thought that suddenly occurred to him.

“Den, you wanna come too?”

“Not really. I’m helping the carpenters with their work these days.”

“I heard Debra is coming to plant trees too.”

“De, Debra is?”

The sullen eyes that showed annoyance sparkled.

Roughly estimating, maybe around twelve years old.

It’s natural for Den, with a precocious nature, to slowly show interest in girls his age.

Shek looked at the hesitating Den with a pleased smile and gently coaxed him.

“It’s not a problem if a kid’s helping hand is missing from the carpenter’s work anyway. Today is the day we bring the people who usually play around and plant trees.”

“Hmm.”

“Alright. I’ll tell them for you on the way. How about that?”

“Hnnng.”

The longer the groan, the more certainty arose.

Shek figured it wouldn’t be long before Den nodded.

Unexpectedly, Den gently closed his eyes and made a different decision though.

“No, I’ll go and ask. It’d be better if I asked them myself if it’s okay to go.”

There was a reason this polite and sociable kid received the affection of the craftsmen.

A sense of responsibility rare for his age made even his immature uncle marvel.

“If that’s the case, it can’t be helped. I’ll go ahead and be planting, just bring yourself.”

“Yes. See you later, Uncle.”

Den exited the tent with strangely excited footsteps.

Shek let out a laugh at his nephew’s retreating figure, which was bouncing just a little bit, slightly more than usual.

“This kid. Pretending not to be.”

Of course, today was a special day for Shek as well.

Two days had already passed since the stark blue fluorescent solar wind swept the world.

Over the past two days, people witnessed marvelous miracles one after another, and finally cast away all doubts and disbelief toward the last god.

Because they were certain that even if the Great Pantheon had remained intact, they could never have done this much.

And the god, noticing everyone had cast away their doubts, sent down a new message.

Shek, the most outstanding holy knight, couldn’t miss this.

“Shall I do some shoveling for the first time in a while.”

Today was the day to plant trees.

The day to cultivate a forest with trees that repel dragons.

***

Which animal in the world plants trees the best?

The answer is humans.

The intelligence to use tools and solid organizational skills overcame the limits of their fragile bodies.

They just cut down more trees, but if they firmly make up their minds, they could plant as many as they wanted.

Stories about moving or crushing mountains don’t come out for nothing.

Besides, what’s the point if I went to all the trouble of making a forest, but everyone’s stuck in the city and can’t see or feel it.

In the first place, if I wanted to create a new ecosystem, I could create as many as I wanted.

It was much more efficient and rational to thoroughly sculpt it for war from the beginning.

Just like the classic game [Creatures Impossible] where you fight with creatures made by mixing all sorts of living things.

Nevertheless, I cultivated it into a familiar and accustomed appearance for the living people, so if I put in this much effort, it’s courtesy for them to take a look, courtesy.

Instead of confining themselves saying they’ll pray with sincere hearts for no reason, I want them to sightsee what I made.

Naturally, I couldn’t overwork the people with only these inner thoughts.

This Arbor Day was a small event holding significance and giving motivation to the people.

The purpose was to serendipitously plant Deep Root Trees all over the place to pre-emptively prevent dragons from approaching.

Even if I didn’t give separate instructions, I had to make them take care of defending their surroudings on their own.

…It also included a little bit of the intention hoping that the people exhausted from the long journey and arduous fights would find stability in the scenery they missed.

Fortunately, perhaps there’s a reward for the effort, the reaction is quite good.

People wandered the forest with smoothly flowing streams and let out continuous exclamations.

“Wow, the beasts are just staring blankly at this way.”

“Is that… a rabbit? Its tail is fluffy.”

“Amazing. Even though it’s such a dense forest, it doesn’t feel dark.”

They carried around shovels, hoes, baskets, and the like, chattering and babbling.

Amidst the leisurely relaxing crowd, the only ones who were tense were the housewives.

They even showed the meticulousness to call the children separately and hand them baskets.

“Should we have a contest with mommy to see who can find more fruits?”

“Wow! Really?!”

“Since we came out for a change, mommy should play too.”

“Then I’t find them first!”

“Ma’am, let’s play with me too!”

“There you go, there you go.”

If the children also enjoy it together, it wouldn’t be extortion of labor but a happy play.

Since a delicious meal will be returned as a reward anyway, it wouldn’t be unpaid either.

The children ran around vigorously, perhaps because they liked the forest so much, poking around everywhere.

Some people immersed themselves in sentimentality with faint gazes.

Bartol and Fwen, this elderly couple who followed the people out, was still stuck tightly together.

“To think I’d see this kind of sight again in my lifetime.”

“Even though you didn’t even like the forest, old man.”

“Wandering only desolate places, I naturally became like this. I know why hermits seek the forest.”

“Hmph. Just thinking about wandering around again.”

“No, Fwen. What I mean is.”

Bartol was just sweating in front of the snorting Fwen.

A single word can pay off a thousand-nyang debt, and a single word can create a thousand-nyang debt.

I’m a god in name, but getting involved in such trivial personal matters didn’t look good at all, so I just watched.

But oops.

Perhaps because he suffered often from being startled usually, Bartol seemed to have prepared a countermeasure.

A softly glowing Starflower could be seen inside that shabby robe.

And the Starflower always had the characteristic of looking at the nearest star, meaning when I got close, it looked at me.

“Th, this is. Star Creation, are you nearby?”

“Ssssp. What trick are you playing!”

“Fwen, it’s not that, I’m being serious…”

“Ahem. Seeing as he doesn’t come out even if he’s nearby, he must have no thoughts of it. Do I, who’s not a priest, have to say this?”

“St… Star Creation!”

He must have been held tightly quite a bit even in his youth.

I swiftly escaped from near the two people at a slightly faster pace.

Acting like that is only possible after one’s mind has relaxed in a comfortable place.

Just as there are all sorts of people, there are all sorts of methods to relieve tension.

Unless someone got stabbed and died, I didn’t really feel like intervening in every single thing.

Still, everyone seems to have remembered their duties.

Even while chattering noisily amidst this and that commotion, there was a voice that roused the atmosphere.

Holy Knight Shek.

Having only done dreary guard duty normally, he was the guide who came running hurriedly when an occasion to go to the created forest arose.

“Now, now! I know everyone is excited, but let’s do our work while we do this! Do you see the fruits piled up here? This is the tree we have to plant today!”

When you pile things up, it’s bound to make you sick of it.

Some people’s motivation was completely crushed upon seeing the seeds piled up profusely in the middle of the forest.

“Why is there so much? What kind of tree is that?”

“Is it edible?”

Shek raised his voice toward the murmuring people.

“It’s Dragon Repelling Trees, Dragon Repelling Trees!”

“Dragon Repelling Trees?”

“They are trees that chase away and defeat dragons crawling from underground! They are divine trees personally sculpted by Star Creation, so let’s all treat them with a reverent mind!”

Only then did a consenting atmosphere arise.

Dragons that ambush from underground and attack in an instant were subjects of fear for the people.

“Huh. There’s a lot of divine items. Repelling dragons, you say?”

“I never heard of chasing dragons with a tree even when the Great Pantheon was here.”

“Ahem, didn’t you all see? Those fake angels exploding. Since then, I believe it even if Star Creation says he makes dirt clods into gold nuggets. Tsk tsk tsk.”

As chatter increased again, Shek also moved quickly.

“Let’s all take them by yourselves in groups, don’t move alone. And don’t play too much!”

Is Dragon Repelling Tree much more intuitive to people than Deep Root Tree?

Seeing the Deep Root Tree that was even listening sway its branches, it seems it liked that one better.

When I glared slightly, the swaying branches stiffened rigidly, but wondering what I was doing, I stopped.

If you want to change your name, change it.

Then it shook its branches again as if it liked it.

I couldn’t hide my complicated feelings while looking at the Deep Root Tree, no.

The Dragon Repelling Tree.