Eann looked down from the ice walls as if staring at it made his eyes hurt. He could also see the balcony from there, only for him to find Fenris and Rodnir gazing in their direction. Since he already noticed them, Rodnir crossed his arms on his chest. The king even seemed to laugh after.
However, Eann didn't notice as he was more focused on the ward's angry face. He shrieked and grabbed Natucha and Kanaru off the brick railings of the tower's viewing deck. The lizard cried as he gently pushed them back to the hatch. "Kanaru, I'm so sorry! His Majesty and His Grace saw me looking at them! I'm really, really sorry!"
"Oh, my…!" Natucha hurried them to get down to the tower's entrance. "You should avoid going up there, Kanaru! Rodnir might even get angry if he catches you snooping around!"
"Okay…" Kanaru only giggled as he went with them. He didn't fear Rodnir finding out about the roof. He even felt like Rodnir wanted him to find the place. It was just not meant for others to find, as well. He would just talk about it with Rodnir again.
…
The daytime and nighttime duties were switched in Middlemist. As long as the moon was in the sky—even if it was supposed to be night; the people performed better at this time. The moonlight was enough for most of them to skip sleeping until it had become widespread. However, it was not enough for the garden to thrive. After all, plants needed sunlight.
When Kanaru and Eann joined the outer court members in the garden, the two realized that the flowers were actually dying. Most of them were even dead. It was just not noticeable when they were meters high in the sky. It didn't help that the outer court members were not gardeners.
Natucha only stared at the crying plants. She then turned to the others who had their hands on their noses. "Okay, His Majesty wants us to revive the garden. If you're lucky, this might only be the task for us for the following days. Let's get to work."
"Seriously, who put her in charge?" One murmured as she feared for her dress. The soil would dirty the edge of her skirt for sure. Moreover, her shoes would have to be thoroughly cleaned again. She even destroyed some décor because she didn't know how to clean her shoes properly.
"You heard His Majesty earlier, didn't you? He asked for her in particular." Her friend sighed and hissed at the matter. "We're supposed to be concubines, but this palace only treats us as additional servants. I can't believe they made it sound so elegant…"
Kanaru caught their conversation, but he didn't want to join. He knew what was waiting for them in the harem court, but he never saw this coming. If only he knew they would be gardening, he should have learned the basics. He wondered if someone knew how to fix the problem.
At the look of things, no one from the outer harem court knew what had to be done. That was when Eann whispered to Kanaru, "I think we should pluck everything out now. The soil looked dry from the cold. The flowers won't grow anymore. Without good soil, those flowers will only die again."
"Erm, okay… where do you want to start?" Kanaru didn't know if they could just start taking out all the flowers. After all, some court members only walked around and tried their best to make the fallen flowers stand up again. Some even decided to water the flowers without doing anything else.
"…the way they do it angers me…" One of the female newbies—standing next to Eann—grumbled. The two males heard her, but she only huffed and contained her tears. "We should take out everything and restart from scratch. This place is a mess. Watering the flowers won't do anything if the seeds are already done for. Someone… someone, make them stop…"
Eann then turned to her and took in her golden appearance. Her hair was braided to show off her pretty face, yet the most attractive feature was how her dog ears drooped on her head. The way she puffed her cheeks was even like a huffing dog.
He then looked at Natucha, who was only biting her nail. Eann spoke, "Natucha, can we take care of the entire left side of the garden? No one seems to be working on it."
"Erm, yeah… that side belonged to the male members, but they didn't know what to do, either. Their flowers are even dead days before today." Natucha was thinking about that side because no one wanted to salvage it. Since someone asked for it, she just gave it away. "How many of you will work on it?"
"Everyone who wants to help out should be good enough. The garden is really wide." Eann chuckled before turning to the dog princess. "Hey, do you want to help us? We're restarting the whole side from the soil to the seeds. It's a little laborious, but maybe we can save the garden?"
"…oh, okay…" The dog princess nodded slowly, not knowing how to react to someone who heard her grumbles. Then, she just watched Eann and Kanaru walk to the garden… and started plucking out whatever was there. Even the weeds and grass came out with the dead flowers. She then twitched and gathered her skirt. "I help!"
The rest didn't realize the two would eradicate the whole left garden. The dog princess was only left to push a wagon to collect the dead plants. She was even talking about how they should crush those for the fertilizers. Since the three had a plan, some of the male concubines started helping out in plucking out the plants. Even their supposed very leader, Henrik, went to help first.
In the end, the other members also cleared the right side of the garden. During the whole five hours they were in the garden, the members worked on the most important aspect. When the shovels and rakes came, the female members tested their charms on the males. After all, they didn't want to grow muscles from working on the soil. The males had a lot of those, anyway.
Natucha started a little kitchen at the side. She was making the bystanders cook for those who worked in the garden. She also had some others cut up the dead plants for easier processing. The entire time, Eann and Puri—the dog princess—directed the activity.
As for Natucha, she was designing the garden, noting all the kinds of flowers they should be planting. She also computed their forecasted expenses since they would be buying things. There was no way the materials would be paid for by their own pockets. Others also joined her in discussing the look. After all, the design should be facing the king's balcony.
Unknown to them, two unicorns—cloaked with invisibility—were watching them from the king's balcony. One was swirling a wine glass, and the other was busy getting annoyed by them.