Chapter 2624 – 2624. Dark Moon

I looked at the cherry tree in the center of the garden.

365 days a year. Regardless of the season, the cherry tree, always in full bloom with pink blossoms, was the pride of this mansion.

The cherry tree also had its own will and protected the mansion from intruders. In the case of very strong intruders, it couldn’t repel them and could only alert the servants. But that alone was enough to fulfill its role.

Its appearance was quite beautiful, and it was known among the nobles as a rather pretty cherry tree.

I reached out to the cherry tree and tried to communicate with it. Usually, I could feel the cherry tree’s will when I did this.

But this time, I couldn’t feel the cherry tree’s will.

‘It’s not dead. I can still feel the movement of mana and a subtle current in the tree. Is it distracted by something else?’

I used magic to get the cherry tree’s attention.

[Electric Spark]

An electric sphere generated from my hand.

The cherry tree devoured high-quality electricity. It especially liked the electricity I created. If it were the usual cherry tree, it would have absorbed my electricity immediately, but the current cherry tree didn’t react.

My brow furrowed.

‘What’s the problem?’

I thought hard. A phantom beast cherry tree. It was perplexing that this was happening when there had been no problems until now.

‘There’s… hardly any information about phantom beast cherry trees.’

When an unknown problem arises, what is the fastest and most reliable way to solve it?

The answer is simple.

‘Call an expert.’

There are two professions related to phantom beast cherry trees.

‘Summoners and druids.’

Both are rare professions. Summoning is a branch of magic, but because it requires special talent and magic, there are hardly any mages who enter the summoning field. Druids are quite different from magic from the very beginning.

‘It’s hard to see a druid in a megacity like Neo London.’

Fortunately, I knew one druid. And a druid who was close enough to overlap bodies with.

Aisa Gomes. I invited her, a reporter for the Liberals, to the mansion.

* * *

Aisa Gomes came the next day.

A woman with green hair and tanned skin. With a coke bottle figure, she showed off her toned skin in a tank top and hot pants. She exuded health itself.

“Wow. I’m getting invited to the mansion of the CEO of LK Corporation, who’s been making waves lately.”

“In the old days, the Liberal reporters used all sorts of tricks to try to get over the mansion’s wall. Thinking about that time makes me feel stressed. And LK is a private company.”

“When will LK Corporation go public? If it does, everyone will come with bundles of money, you know?”

“There are no plans to go public for now.”

Even though I am the CEO of LK Corporation, I can’t make all the decisions alone. I also have to talk to the Magic Association and the Neo Round Table Council, who hold shares in LK Corporation.

‘It’ll probably remain private. What’s important to them isn’t the mass supply of superconductors, but a monopoly. There’s no need to increase the size of LK Corporation.’

It’s better for me to remain private. If I go public, I can raise investment funds quickly, but various regulations will be attached.

‘Unless other countries or companies develop superconductors, there’s no need to rush.’

I took Aisa to the cherry tree.

Aisa’s eyes lit up as she looked at the cherry tree.

“Wow. It really is a phantom beast cherry tree. It must have been quite a struggle to bring it from the phantom beast realm. How did you manage to get it?”

“It’s a trophy I got from killing a summoner.”

“…Ah, um. You’re lucky. But it seems like you’ve raised it well. At least, it looks very healthy on the outside. I can feel its spirit well too.”

“Spirit?”

“Phantom beast creatures usually have both the characteristics of living beings and spirits. Spirit is the power and source of the spirit. For phantom beast creatures, it’s their power and life force.”

“I don’t really know about that spirit thing.”

“You need special training to feel the spirit. But I think you, Eugene, would figure it out on your own and feel the spirit without any training. Ah, just kidding.”

I focused my mind.

Spirit. A power different from mana. If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have known, but now that I knew, I couldn’t just ignore it.

After focusing my mind a few times, I roughly understood.

‘I can definitely feel something different.’

I asked Aisa to confirm if what I felt was the spirit.

“It feels a bit like cool water. Is this the spirit?”

Aisa’s eyes widened as if they would tear. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead of a voice, only a gasp was heard.

“Is it that surprising?”

“Is it that surprising? I did a corpse play for a month to feel the spirit. I didn’t just lie down, I actually stopped breathing. It was a state of suspended animation with the power of magic… I experienced astral projection five times before I could barely feel the spirit? And you did it in less than 10 seconds. Ah. Seriously. I knew the world was messed up, but I didn’t know it was this bad…”

She, who had been spitting out words like a machine gun, sighed and shook her head.

‘Spirit. I didn’t just realize it. It was somewhat familiar because it was similar to when I practiced black magic.’

I only muttered to myself without saying it out loud. Saying it would only sound like a boast. There had been a few times like this since the old days.

After grumbling for a while, Aisa regained her composure and reached out to the cherry tree. Her palm gently stroked the trunk of the cherry tree.

“It’s growing pains. This cherry tree has reached the limit of its growth. It’s trying to break through the limit and grow. Right now, it’s enduring the growing pains caused by that.”

“……In short. It’s getting stronger.”

“Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say it’s evolving into a higher being? It’s a phantom beast, after all.”

“That’s all good, but suddenly evolving? Is that how all phantom beast creatures are?”

“Of course not. It’s when the conditions for growth are met. Moreover, this isn’t even the phantom beast realm environment, so its growth should be slow. Has the cherry tree done anything recently? Like giving it a special elixir?”

“I’ve been steadily supplying it with electricity. It liked the electricity I supplied with magic. It’s connected to the mansion’s electrical system, so it can absorb electricity even when I’m not here. The gardener has been steadily managing it, and except for occasionally asking for cola and pouring it on it…”

One thing suddenly came to mind.

A letter I received from Yuria sometime ago. Yuria was trapped in a certain space during the Dark Moon, and the cherry tree was with her at that time. To be precise, it was a clone that was imbued in a brooch made of a cherry tree branch.

‘…The clone would have shared its experiences with the main body when it returned to its original form. Could that be the influence?’

Dark Moon.

When you think about it, the cherry tree is always outside in the garden whenever the Dark Moon rises. The energy of the Dark Moon must have affected the cherry tree.

“Is there a Dark Moon in the phantom beast realm too?”

“I haven’t heard of that. Ah. The cherry tree might have been affected by the Dark Moon.”

“It looked fine the day after the Dark Moon.”

“The Dark Moon mostly has negative effects on humans… but it surprisingly has positive effects on non-humans. This is the first time this has happened, so I don’t know much about it either.”

“What do I have to do for the cherry tree to regain consciousness?”

“It’ll regain consciousness if it overcomes the growing pains and evolves.”

“……Is it possible that it won’t overcome it?”

“Yes. It won’t die unless it’s the worst case scenario. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“No. The information you gave me was helpful enough. At least I know it’s not a serious problem.”

Still, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. I am the owner of the cherry tree. At the very least, if I gave it something like a nutritional supplement….

“Wait. You said phantom beast creatures also have the characteristics of spirits? Does that mean it’s a spirit?”

“Yes. That’s right. It’s a bit ambiguous, but you can call it a spirit. This cherry tree also eats and uses electricity. Well, spirit mages would never admit it.”

I took out a small blue gem from my inventory.

“…I can feel the pure power of nature. As a druid, I might be a bit greedy. What is that?”

“A spirit orb.”

I found it while rummaging through the items in my inventory.

[Purchase a spirit orb for 200 inventory points.]

200 inventory points.

In gold, that was 2 kg.

It seemed that spirit orbs were consumables, so they couldn’t be rented and had to be purchased.

‘I could naturally understand how to use the items in my inventory, except for a few that seemed to be locked. The spirit orb is one of them.’

A stone that spirits like. It can also be used as a kind of elixir for spirits.

I threw the spirit orb at the cherry tree.

The unconscious cherry tree quietly absorbed the spirit orb. Crackle! The cherry blossoms glowed, and a slight current sparked.

That was the end of the reaction.

‘It’s working. Its spirit has become a little stronger. It might be okay to give it as a nutritional supplement.’

A nutritional supplement worth 2 kg of gold.

“I can feel the cherry tree is happy. You called it a spirit orb? That’s a really good treasure.”

“Happy, huh. I don’t really know.”

“I’m a druid, after all.”

It was the word of an expert. If I didn’t trust an expert, who would I trust? I was about to nod at her when.

A rapid movement of mana was felt not far away. A sudden increase in the number of people. A murderous intent that was surging from somewhere. The mage’s senses grasped all of that at once.

‘Astral Open.’

The mage’s mind was awakened, and his senses were heightened even further.

[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 11]

I put everything else aside and used Flash. The code of conduct that if I felt something was wrong, I should use Flash first was engraved in my body.

‘Barrier.’

As soon as the thought acceleration ended, a translucent barrier unfolded, enveloping me, Aisa, and the cherry tree.

Clang!

A bullet fired from behind collided with the barrier. Instead of panicking, Aisa took a fighting stance, and I turned around.

The bullet that collided with the barrier did not lose its power and rotated, trying to penetrate the barrier. The barrier actually cracked. It wasn’t an ordinary bullet, but a magic bullet. On top of that, the marksman had used a technique.

‘Barrier triple layer.’

Three additional barriers were created. Immediately after, 11 bullets flew in and hit the barrier. Two barriers were torn apart in an instant, and the third was on the verge of breaking.

[Magnetic]

A level 3 magic that manipulates magnetism was activated. The bullets that were trying to penetrate the barrier were drawn to the ground by the magnetic force.

“Ugh. Can’t we go a little easier?”

Along with the grumbling, the maid I hired appeared. Her name was Shea, I think. A triple-level maid who was hard to hire.

In addition to her, butlers and maids formed a siege net from all over the garden and approached. Also, my senses caught those approaching from outside the mansion.

“Who is behind this?”