Ohanabatake No Maousama Chapter 1

Chapter – 1

Within a secluded forest near the border between demon and human forces.

It was a place that only birds and beasts ever set foot into. And now, a sudden burst of powerful energy caused it to shake.

The strangeness of the sudden change in the atmosphere caused the birds to flap their wings and fly away. A rabbit could be seen hopping from a bush in panic.

And then… A blue light shone from the cracks between the trees and then vanished.

It was finished, and the forest returned to its peaceful state. Well, except for the deep sigh and low moan that now echoed.

"Ahh. So the time has finally come. I knew it would, but not this abruptly."

It was Kuders, the man who had just been banished.

"Yes, I was aware that they all hated me, but a curse of eternal banishment?"

Even though he knew that there was no one to listen to his complaints, he couldn't help but voice them.

The middle-aged man…who had been one of the great Four Kings that served the Emperor a moment ago…now took off his gla.s.ses and touched his forehead as if he had a headache.

"The deceased previous Emperor asked me to help him… But now that I'm so thoroughly hated, surely that request is invalid?"

He said this in an attempt to prove his guiltlessness, but no one answered.

He was the only one that was here. It was just his conscience.

"Oh, I'm sure it's fine now. He picked me up when I had nowhere to go. But now, my debt is paid."

He was saying all of this to himself because somewhere deep in his heart, he could not bear to think that he had broken his promise to the previous Emperor.

In spite of having the t.i.tle of Demon King, he himself was rather good-natured.

…Though, he also knew to be careful, as a demon.

"Besides, now that I think of it, I didn't just owe him a debt. I have grievances against him as well. Yes, I remember it well. That sea of work that erased my youth."

Kuders remembered his bitter past and sighed.

After all, everyone who had ever worked for Kuders had despised him so much, that they refused to come to work.

They would use their family influence to be transferred without showing their faces even once, or they would straight up quit.

Due to this, his workload in supplying the entire country with food was beyond what one could imagine.

It was unbelievable that his efforts alone had been enough to keep things running for over 400 years.

Not only that, even if his work environment had been decent, Kuders had never really known what it was like to be popular with the ladies.

That was the final reality that Kuders was faced with as he thought back, and his shoulders slumped with disappointment.

And then several minutes pa.s.sed.

While he seemed quite depressed, he suddenly squeezed his hands into fists, corrected his gla.s.ses, and raised his sharp eyes to the sky.

And he shouted.

"…NO. I am not finished yet! My youth begins now! Yes! Thankfully, I do not look different from the humans, and if I can blend into their world, I will be able to drown in sweet, sorrowful love! Ah, how wonderful! What a beautiful future!!"

Yes. Just like his attribute, his head was also a flower field.

He had been pressed down by a tragic working situation up until now, but there was no longer anything to get in the way of his flower field of a brain.

He was now out of control.

"If there is one thing I worry about, it is who will take care of my livestock… Well, they should be fine on their own. Ah, yes. The curse that the previous Emperor cast on me has been broken. I…I… I'm free!"

Still, in spite of such cheerful words, there was a tear in his eye.

The narrow streaks of sunlight through the trees reflected on it as it traveled down his cheek and fell.

"d.a.m.n it. I knew this would happen one day, and yet I look as if I wasn't prepared."

He chuckled to himself. But it did little to heal the wound.

It seemed that only time would do that.

"Ah, that's right. I can stew in my emotions some other time. Right now, what I need to do is… No, where am I?"

Kuders said to himself as he looked at his surroundings.

According to the Demon Emperor, it should not be within the lands ruled by the demons. But that was the only information he had.

Had he had the Wind or Earth attribute, he would have been able to find out by using magic. Unfortunately, his attribute was Flower Field.

No matter how much influence his magic had had on the Empire, there were things it just couldn't do.

"I don't see any signs of human life nearby. This…could this mean I'm to build a life for myself from scratch?"

Of course, it would be so much easier if there was a town in the area.

"First, I must do something about food. Though, that should be easy enough."

Kuders muttered as he pointed to a nearby bush.

"Floracion."

In an instant, the bush seemed to turn white.

This was because white flowers had bloomed in the blink of an eye.

The bush was really a gathering of many different kinds of plants…but the flowers were all the same.

"Fruit."

But when the second spell was cast, the flowers all died, and then numerous green fruits appeared in their place.

These fruits grew as if they were balloons that were being blown into. After a while, they started to turn red.

They turned into ripe…apples.

There were large apples growing on gra.s.s and shrubs.

Had there been any other intelligent life watching besides Kuders, they would have pinched their cheeks at how strange the sight was.

There were other spells that allowed you to accelerate the rate that plants grew. But you were limited by the original framework of the plant.

However, this phenomenon ignored all of that.

It was as if numerous rabbits were growing out of a human face instead of hair.

In other words, it made no sense at all.

Someone who researched such eerie arts would be considered either a genius or a madman.

"Hmm. Perhaps I made them too fast because the taste is a bit thin. Yes, it's better to take your time when making fruits."

Kuders muttered unhappily after taking a bite of the apple.

In spite of just performing a miracle, there was not a speck of satisfaction on his face.

This was because the 'Flower Field' attribute was an attribute that allowed him to twist reality and 'make the flower that he wanted bloom on whatever thing or whatever place that he wanted'… In other words, what he had just done was very basic to him.

His personality and their prejudices had made others blind to it, but Kuders's abilities were, in fact, more than enough to make him worthy of his former position.

His attribute was actually nightmarishly frightening, and yet, it had been given the name 'Flower Field' by none other than the culprit who had raised Kuders to be a good-natured and humble person. The previous Emperor.

That dead man was really just a horrible trickster.