Chapter 6

The little wolf pressing the two of them firmly down with its snow-white forepaws was none other than Hayang.

[Pooh, pooh!]

[Piiii!]

[…….]

A small, soundless sigh escaped Hayang’s mouth. Even with her pressing them down by force, the two continued squirming about without stopping their glares at each other, and Hayang gently shook her head at the sight.

As though coming to Hayang’s aid, a small figure stepped forward. It was Jien. The child continued speaking in a scolding tone.

“Ceres told you to behave and go help the people without causing any trouble.”

[Pooh…….]

[Pii…….]

The moment Ceres’s name came up, Kkamang and Irièn, who had been wildly flailing their arms and legs in an attempt to get in one more hit on each other, instantly quieted down.

The reason they had all gathered together and were moving about like this was to help Ceres.

They had happened to discover that she was restoring the collapsed buildings every night.

And Jien had first learned about it thanks to Kkamang.

[Pooh! Pooh!]

‘…Kkamang?’

Late one night, Kkamang had been biting and tugging at Jien’s hair while he was asleep, squawking at him as if to say, Is this really the time to be sleeping so peacefully?

‘What’s wrong?’

[Pooh, pooh!]

‘…You want me to follow you?’

[Pooh!]

Jien had no idea what was going on, but Kkamang kept urging him to hurry. So Jien quietly followed behind him, and that was where he saw it.

He saw Ceres rapidly restoring the collapsed buildings.

‘Are you a mage too, Ceres?’

‘No.’

‘Then how……?’

‘Ah…….’

Jien had been terribly surprised at first, but after that, whenever Ceres went out at night, he quietly followed behind her and began helping her.

‘Children need to get plenty of sleep if they want to grow.’

‘I can get plenty of sleep after I help with this.’

‘…….’

Ceres had been somewhat troubled by Jien and the other little ones toddling after her, insisting on helping. In the end, she made one request.

‘Since we’ve come this far, I’d rather you did something else.’

‘Something else?’

‘I can handle restoring the buildings on my own. So why don’t you take a look around the farms? With Irièn’s ability, I think you could be a great help.’

‘Ah…….’

At those words, Jien and Irièn immediately nodded.

Of course, Ceres was worried about sending only young Jien and the little ones, so she assigned one more person to accompany them as their guardian.

“Still, thanks to these little guys, the work should get done faster.”

That person was Cheyan, the second prince of the Debrica Empire and the Archmage. He was accompanying them.

After Herkaos was sealed away again and the magical beasts withdrew, Cheyan had stayed holed up in the Mage Tower for quite some time.

As though he had suffered some great shock…….

The one who dragged him out after he stopped eating and shut himself away in his room was—

BANG!

‘Sorry. My foot slipped.’

‘…Why does your foot slip only in front of my room every single time?’

‘Enough. Come with me. Ceres is looking for you.’

It was Kainel.

At the news that Ceres was looking for him, Cheyan finally left the Mage Tower for the first time in a while. When he went to meet her, she asked him to join Jien and the other little ones in what they were doing.

“Any hidden magical beasts left?”

Nod.

Hayang searched for magical beasts that had not disappeared and had hidden themselves throughout the village, while Cheyan and Jien used magic to purify the water and soil contaminated by the magical beasts.

[Pooh!]

[Pii!]

And whenever they needed to travel to a field that was a little farther away, even within the village, Kkamang would grab hold of Irièn, flap his wings, and take off.

“Then shall we go somewhere else?”

“Yes.”

At Cheyan’s words, Jien and the little ones nodded simultaneously.

And so, word of the restoration expedition gradually began to spread farther and farther.

“It seems like there are more and more things here every time I come.”

“Indeed.”

“Is that grapes? There are still grapes left at this time of year?”

The Three Dukes came to visit Ceres for the first time in a while.

In the meantime, all three of them had returned to their respective territories, where they had been busy checking on and dealing with the damage caused by the recent incident.

Only now had things settled down to some extent, allowing them to spare a little time to come see the children.

But the greenhouse at House Drow looked even larger and more colorful than it had during their previous visit.

There were piles of vegetables and fruits they had never seen before, and despite it being a greenhouse, fruits completely out of season were hanging from the vines in abundance.

“Please, have some of this.”

As the Three Dukes looked around the greenhouse, Ceres cut something up, placed it on a plate, and held it out to them.

“What is this?”

Duke Elkein, the ruler of the eastern region, was the first to react. The fragrant scent had immediately tickled the tip of her nose.

“Is this an ordinary peach?”

What Ceres had brought was a peach.

A peach she had taken from the Divine Realm… No, brought from there.

She cut one up and served it.

If she served them a whole one, all three of them, being owners of Tamer Relics, would surely react immediately.

Just like Kainel, light would spill from their entire bodies, and the power they possessed would increase another level.

Ceres certainly welcomed the thought of the three becoming stronger, but……

‘Then I’ll be bombarded with questions.’

She wasn’t confident she could answer those questions properly.

She didn’t particularly want to lie to the three of them, but how could she possibly tell them it was a gift from a god?

They might even think she had gone strange in the head after being sick.

‘And then there’s the peach’s other ability.’

It would be bad enough if it became known throughout the world that this was one of the ways to obtain a Tamer Relic whose owner had not yet been determined.

She had no intention of telling anyone else about the ability contained within the peaches, either.

There would only be needless trouble if other people found out.

‘There aren’t many left, either.’

That made things even more troublesome.

Since they were hardly common items, there would surely be plenty of people who coveted them. And if that happened, her surroundings would only become more chaotic.

She wanted absolutely none of that.

‘Of course, those three aren’t the sort of people who would go around telling others about it.’

But if she intended to keep it a secret, wouldn’t it be better for even one fewer person to know the truth?

The best answer was simply not to provide an opportunity for things to become noisy in the first place.

‘But I can’t exactly keep something this good from the three of them.’

When they ate it in small pieces like this, there was no noticeable reaction visible to the naked eye.

Of course, that didn’t mean there was no effect whatsoever from sharing a single peach.

It wasn’t as strong as when someone ate an entire peach, but there was definitely a reaction.

Ceres had cut one up and eaten it herself.

The effect was weak, but she could clearly tell that the power of her Tamer Relic had increased ever so slightly.

[Eat more, more! Good grief, why are you eating such tiny little bites? That’s so unlike you! I told you to just eat it all! Come on, come on!]

…Irièn and Iriet, both Tamer Relics, had gone absolutely wild with excitement.

Of course, the Three Dukes didn’t have Tamer Relics they could directly observe, so they probably wouldn’t feel anything particularly different when the peach was served to them like this.

‘They say it’s good for the body.’

As though urging them to hurry up and eat, Ceres pushed the plate of peaches even closer toward the three.

Regardless of its effect on the power of their Tamer Relics, they had nothing to lose from eating it since it was supposedly good for their health.

And it tasted good, too.

Only then did the Three Dukes pick up pieces of peach with their forks and bring them to their mouths.

She had only cut up a single peach, but it was so much larger than an ordinary peach that there was quite a generous amount.

“…….”

The eyes of the three people widened after they took a bite of the fruit.

Even Duke Schweiss, who rarely showed any emotion, was left staring blankly with his mouth hanging open.

That alone said it all.

“Ceres, Ceres. What is this? This tastes incredible!”

“It’s delicious.”

“This isn’t merely good. I could live on nothing but this for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.”

The Three Dukes continued to marvel at the taste.

“Did that damn rabbit grow this, too?”

They already knew the taste of fruit grown by Irièn, Ceres’s Tamer Relic, better than anyone.

Even the Emperor would pester Ceres whenever he saw her, asking to have some of the strawberries grown by the rabbit.

“No. Someone gave it to me, and it tasted good, so I wanted the three of you to try it, too.”

“Who?”

“Just someone I know.”

Ceres vaguely brushed off the question.

Even if they were the Three Dukes, telling them about Gibrio, a High God, was a little too much.

“You should have some, too.”

“I’ve already eaten.”

“You can eat more.”

Despite Ceres’s refusal, they continued holding a piece out to her, and eventually, she had no choice but to accept a slice of peach and eat it as well.

‘This is seriously addictive.’

She had already eaten it several times, yet even after eating it again, the taste still felt new, and a sigh of admiration escaped her naturally.

And so, the peaches from the Divine Realm on the plate quickly disappeared.

“But what’s that?”

Duke Norua, the head of the southern region, looked somewhat regretful as he stared at the now-empty plate before pointing toward a small basket sitting on one side of the table.