Although she didn’t know much about plants, Stella was aware that sprouts didn’t come up the day after planting seeds.

Stella stared at Ark’s back as he walked ahead, light as a feather despite his chubby frame, marveling once again at the existence of earth fairies.

Well, it wasn’t normal to be the only one who could see beings that no one else could. Why was she the only one who could see these creatures?

No matter how much she pondered, she couldn’t figure out the reason. Could her mother have had a connection to earth fairies? Suddenly, she recalled showing her mother an earth spirit as a friend in Amalrune.

Thinking back to that moment made her cheek tingle. Her mother had hit her many times, but never on the cheek.

In retrospect, it was quite an extreme reaction. Could her mother have been able to see earth spirits?

“What are you doing! Come quickly!”

Stella, lost in thought, quickened her pace at Ark’s urging voice.

“Now, open the pouch!”

Ark said with a beaming smile. Seeing his round face full of expectation lifted her spirits for no particular reason.

The gloomy feelings she had while thinking about her mother vanished without a trace along with Ark’s cute smile.

Stella crouched down and carefully opened the end of the pouch the earth fairy had given her.

The pouch, shaped like a large water droplet, spread out like a mat as soon as she pulled on the pointed ends.

“Are these carrot seeds?”

It was her first time seeing plant seeds up close. Stella examined a few fairy carrot seeds in her palm with curiosity.

She didn’t know how big regular carrot seeds were, but these fairy carrot seeds were very small.

The tiny seeds were covered in fluffy hair. Stella gently rubbed the hair on the seeds with her fingertip.

“Don’t do that! The hair won’t come off that way! You need to put the seeds between your palms and rub them to remove the hair properly.”

Not realizing she had to remove the hair, Stella nodded and poured the seeds from the pouch onto her palm.

As soon as the seeds touched her palm, her heart began to race. A feeling of happiness welled up, almost as intense as when she held the pickaxe. It was such an overwhelming emotion that she almost burst into tears.

Finding it strange herself, Stella held back the tears welling up in her eyes. Then she started rubbing the seeds between her palms.

“Wow! Well done!”

“As expected of a noble farmer! To remove the hair from so many seeds at once! Stella must be a natural!”

“Isn’t it because her hands are big?”

“Is that so? Still, she’s doing great!”

Ark and Esta stood side by side, jumping up and down, cheering Stella on as she removed the hair from the carrot seeds. It was amusing to receive such sincere encouragement for such a simple task, but it felt good.

“What do I do now?”

Stella asked, showing the now smooth seeds. Ark patted Stella’s palm with his hand, wearing a solemn expression.

“Very, very good. Now you plant them in the soil.”

It was his way of encouraging her as a teacher, but Ark’s palm touching the tips of her fingers felt very small and cute. He took one seed from Stella’s palm to demonstrate.

He pulled out a small shovel he had prepared from his back pocket, gently dug the ground, placed the seed in, and covered it with soil.

“This is how you do it. Very simple, right?”

It didn’t look difficult, so Stella nodded and then poked the ground with her pickaxe.

As the sharp end of the pickaxe softly pierced the ground, an indescribable thrill coursed through her entire body.

Stella dropped a seed into the small hole she had dug with the pickaxe. Just as she was about to cover it with the dug-up soil…

“No! It’s too deep!”

Stella paused with a handful of soil. Meanwhile, Esta went into the hole and retrieved the dropped seed.

The seed, mixed with soil, was barely visible, but Esta found it with uncanny precision.

Ark shook his head, holding the pickaxe blade with one hand.

“Carrot seeds need to see sunlight to sprout. So you shouldn’t plant the seeds too deep. You should dig only this much and plant the seed.”

“Ah! I see.”

Stella began planting the fairy carrot seeds as Ark had instructed. When she started, it felt like there were so many seeds that she wondered when she would finish, but before she knew it, two pouches were quickly emptied.

“Oh! Well done. As expected, a noble farmer is different!”

Stella grinned at Ark’s praise, then quickly composed her expression. Who would have thought there would come a day when she would be genuinely happy to be called a natural-born farmer?

“Now, just sprinkle a little water so the seeds don’t wash away if it rains, and you’re done.”

This didn’t seem too difficult either. The problem was that there wasn’t anywhere nearby to fetch water from. However, the worry didn’t last long.

“I’ll sprinkle the water for you.”

Esta was the one who stepped forward.

“Really?”

“Of course. I said I’d help, didn’t I?”

“That’s right! Esta is an earth fairy with strong summer energy. He knows where the water channels are and is very good at watering plants!”

At Ark’s additional explanation, Esta’s chin lifted higher and higher. His smug look was incredibly cute.

“Wait a bit. I’ll quickly bring some water.”

A moment later, Stella couldn’t help but gape in amazement at the scene that unfolded. Esta came carrying a round water pouch like a tray in both hands and began dropping water onto the soil where the seeds were planted.

It wasn’t a container he had brought water in, nor was it enough to sprinkle on all the seeds.

Yet, from the transparent water pouch Esta was holding, small droplets kept falling endlessly. The soil where the seeds were planted quickly became moist.

“Finished!”

After dropping water on the spot where the last seed was planted, Esta gulped down the remaining water and threw his hands up in celebration. It was truly an amazing ability.

“Can you control water at will?”

When Stella expressed genuine admiration, Esta blushed slightly and scratched his head.

“I’m just a low-level earth fairy, so I can only do this much for now. When I get stronger, I’ll be able to make a light drizzle fall on the field you’ve made.”

“You’re much more awesome and amazing than I thought!”

As Stella clapped her hands in admiration, Esta shrugged his shoulders and smiled shyly. Ark, who had been watching this scene intently, approached the soil where the fairy carrots were planted and stood with his legs wide apart.

“Stella, now watch what I can do! I can do something really cool too.”

As Stella stopped clapping and looked at him, Ark spread his petal-sized palms wide and stretched his arms up as if cheering.

Then he tightly closed his eyes and puffed up his cheeks as much as he could, filling them with air. Ark’s already round cheeks swelled up like a frog’s.

“What if his cheeks burst like that!”

Stella, worried, nudged Esta as if to say he should stop him. But Esta just shook his head with his arms crossed.

“His cheeks are smaller than last year. Try puffing them up a bit more.”

Far from stopping him, Esta encouraged him to do more. Ark’s cheeks started to swell even bigger than before, and now it seemed like it was really time to stop him.

“Stop it, something bad might happen!”

Just as Stella’s urgent cry ended, Ark bent down toward the ground where the carrot seeds were planted.

Hoooooooo! Hoooooooo!

He pursed his lips into a circle and blew air toward the ground. Turning his head left and right to evenly distribute the air, Ark looked like a pufferfish.

After blowing air for a long time while circling around the place where the seeds were planted, Ark finally stopped. One might think he would feel dizzy after exhaling for so long, but Ark actually looked refreshed.

“Are you okay?”

Stella asked, closely examining Ark’s face. Ark shrugged his shoulders just as Esta had done earlier and pushed out his lower lip.

“This is nothing. So, what do you think? Isn’t it cool?”

Ark asked, pointing to the ground where he had been blowing air for a long time. Honestly, Stella couldn’t really tell the difference from before he blew air, but she clapped anyway.

“It’s really amazing. I’ve never seen anyone exhale for so long. This is my first time seeing something like this.”

Stella clapped loudly on purpose to boost Ark’s spirits. But as she did so, she felt a strange energy, and her clapping gradually subsided.

That strange energy was emanating from the ground where Ark had just blown his breath.

A faint light rose from the soil where the seeds were planted.

“Huh? What’s this?”

Stella asked, bringing her face close to the ground to get a better look at the light.

The thought briefly crossed her mind that Milla would be horrified if she saw her with her nose almost touching the ground, but that wasn’t important right now.

What was happening right in front of her was too fascinating and surprising.

“I thought Stella would be able to see it. That’s the blessing of spring. It’s the power I can give to the cute seeds.”

Stella carefully placed her hand over the softly rising light. The light touching her palm was warm and gentle, and at the same time, so brilliant that it brought tears to her eyes.

“It’s beautiful.”

A tear dropped from Stella’s eye.