A few days later, the Gardening Department had a monthly meeting – the first of which Jurao would be attending.

“You seem excited, my lord,” Hujur chuckled, walking a half-step behind him at his side. The steward often accompanied him whenever he attended department and branch meetings, unless his schedule prevented it.

“Yes,” Jurao agreed, tail swaying as they made their way from the veranda to the Gardening Office.

His steward chuckled again, “Of course – though it is still merely a meeting.”

“That is fine,” the King said, nodding as one of the gardening staff called out a greeting. Snip and Snap trotted at his side in high spirits, perhaps due to his own good mood. However, both hounds stopped a few feet from the office door, hackles up and growling.

Jurao frowned, examining the area but seeing no threats.

“That is… concerning,” Hujur said, also looking around the area as his ears swiveled slightly.

“Probably ‘cause of the spider,” Owren called out from the cottage garden.

“The spider,” Jurao asked.

Owren leaned on the fence, nodding, “That spider the boy calls Shiny – it’s taken a likin’ ta Ebener. Likes ta follow him around.”

“The mirage spider,” Jurao hummed, then nodded, “Thank you, Owren.”

The human waved, returning to his planting.

“Since there haven’t been any complaints,” Hujur said, “I had almost forgotten about the spider…”

Jurao stepped past his hounds to cautiously open the door to the office.

“Good morning, your highness,” Demarri greeted, glancing up from her book briefly.

“Good morning,” Jurao replied, stepping inside, eyes moving to Braelin’s mostly unused desk in the back.

As the only human-sized desk in the room, Ebener sat managing the paperwork – though he did look up to incline his head to Jurao, which the King returned. He did not see Shiny at first – but as he walked further into the room, light hit the camouflaged spider’s body at the right angle to briefly outline it sitting on the wall behind the human.

“Snip, Snap, calm,” Jurao called back, then asked, “Does the spider bother you.”

“Shiny is an amicable companion, your highness,” Ebener replied, absently reaching back to pat the spider’s head, “She rather reminds me of the castle cats back home.”

Shiny dropped her camouflage for a brief moment to chitter and rub her pedipalps together at the attention before blending into the wall again.

“She doesn’t bother me, either,” Demarri said, “As long as she stays over there, anyway…”

“Very well,” Jurao nodded, his waste hounds whining towards the wall as he continued back to the conference room.

“I’ll join you in a moment, my lord,” Hujur said, making his way over to Ebener.

“Of course,” Jurao replied, knowing his steward likely meant to check if his partner’s father had any questions about the castle’s filing or general administration system.

“Good morning, your highness,” Milve greeted, the first to spot him enter the room.

“Good morning,” Jurao replied again, taking in the room. Like most demon conference rooms, it was round with a U-shaped table in the center, making it easier for an administrative assistant to collect or pass out any relevant materials. A chalkboard had been set on the front wall, at the open side of the ‘u’, with a table in front of it where most of the Gardening Department was gathered.

“Ah,” Gaele rose from fos chair, “This seat is ready for you, your highness.”

“Thank you, Gaele,” Jurao said, smiling at the excited chattering of his partner, Yheor, and Huo’a as he made his way back. His seat was behind the table, and slightly raised – the usual place for a Department Head, but Jurao already knew his partner preferred to sit at the table with his Branch Heads.

A member of the Administrative staff was present as well – Veme, assigned to taking notes during Gardening Department Meetings. They offered the King a nod, smiling and already recording what the three in the front were discussing.

A new face in a traditional demon with pale blue skin and spotted purple markings cleared fos throat, “Good morning, your highness – I am Suli, the City Council liaison for the terrestrial garden project.”

“Ah, yes, good morning,” Jurao greeted, having heard of the woman from his partner already.

“Oh, wow,” Yheor said, nudging Braelin, “I didn’t even notice you come in, your highness.”

“Highness?” Huo’a said, looking around, then nodding, “Oh, yes, right, the King was coming to today’s meeting! Good morning! We’ve been conducting a marvelous experiment in hybridizing beastkin plants with the Kitchen Garden trees, which I believe will very soon bear fruit – pun emphatically intended!”

Yheor laughed, “Though it would be better for orchard farming than the gardens!”

Braelin chuckled as he turned, “Ah, I suppose we should get started, then.”

“Orchard farming,” Jurao hummed, as the three took their seats, “I read about that before – in Lavven’s notes.”

“The first Demon King?” Braelin asked.

Jurao nodded, “When Prince Ergirri nominated me, I looked for resources on how to be King – my predecessor gave me access to the Royal Records, which contained Lavven’s original plans for the realm. Many of his ideas came from living in the Human Realm, and orchard farming was one – though records do not indicate that he was successful.”

“I was quite surprised to find your old records all written on metal sheets, your highness!” Huo’a laughed, “We elves tend to enchant our oldest records to preserve them, but that method would be difficult here, with how few mages you have! Yes, metal seems much more practical – was it for purposes of longevity, or simply what was used at the time?”

“It was the material of the time,” Jurao said, noticing Hujur had yet to appear, “It took me some time to learn ancient Demonae script, but I thought it was best to start at the beginning.”

“Ah, that explains why it translated as ancient elven script for me, ha ha!” Huo’a nodded, “I do speak and read modern Demonae, I always find it easier to locate the information I’m looking for that way. Mutual Understanding can only translate things like idioms non-literally if your language has an equivalent idiom, you know?”

“Which is good for me, with Huo’a speaking Jostian,” Braelin snorted, “Otherwise, I couldn’t understand him here.”

“We don’t really have orchard farms in the Beastkin Realm,” Yheor chuckled, returning to the main topic, “Since the trees and bushes are so bountiful that we mostly forage, but the idea of planting a tree or two nearby for easy foraging isn’t completely foreign to us, either.”

“We’ve already gotten a few acres inside the Field Wall to work with, thanks to Hujur,” Braelin said, “I thought he was coming as well…?

“Yes – he stopped to ask Ebener if he had any questions with paperwork,” Jurao confirmed.

“I’ll see if they need any help,” Gaele said, bowing towards Jurao as fos left.

“Should we start?” Braelin asked, “I don’t imagine they’ll be long getting back – and Hujur knows most of what we’ll be discussing already.”

“Yes, I think it would be fine,” Jurao nodded.

“So, then, Huo’a-” Braelin said.

The elf was up and standing behind the plants at the front of the room immediately, “As you can see, we’ve been working to create new hybrid species – the current plant-bearing trees in the gardens are already hybrids of human plants and demon plants. Thanks to the records from Milve, we know the human plants are apples, pears, plums, figs, apricots, and peaches – quite a variety! Peaches and apricots are cultivated primarily on the Zhanei continent, while figs are native to desert regions like the Southeastern Strait of the Ring continent! I wonder how they went about choosing, ha ha!

“They were all hybridized with the same demon plant, however – the River Curtain tree,” Huo’a continued, gesturing to a small sapling on the left, “No surprises why it was chosen, ha! As it’s the tree that treekings primarily live around, and thus, the most docile of fruit-bearing demon trees.”

“River Curtains rely on treekings for their defense,” Milve elaborated, “And primarily hunt by grabbing fish with their long tendril branches – though they’re too weak for large fish or animals. The hybridization process cut down the amount of water needed to survive, as well.”

“There have been past attempts at hybridization with beastkin trees, but they failed,” Yheor snorted, “Mostly because they didn’t have a talented botanist, I suspect.”

“Thank you,” Huo’a grinned, “Though I did have trouble myself at first – beastkin soil is some of the most fertile in all the Mortal Realms, getting beastkin plants to grow anywhere but their native realm is a challenge. And demon soil’s high metal content just compounds the problem – but! There was a specific issue with the fruit trees – that the River Curtains grow in high-water areas! Iron-rich soil doesn’t retain water well, and while this wasn’t an issue with the human-demon hybrids, adding beastkin trees brought out that latent high-water need-”

Jurao listened along as Huo’a continued, excitedly going into detail about his various experiments – the saplings examples of both his triumphs and failures. Ultimately, the plan was to construct a reservoir inside the Field Wall, with multiple islands for the new orchards. A similar plan was being made for the terrestrial garden on a smaller scale. Since the new expansion had already included a plan for a river, some of the new trees would also be planted in the gardens, though much fewer than the orchards.

There was also a plan to import ankle-biter frogs from the Great Western Plains, as well as a few other amphibians – Huo’a suspected they aided in making the soil there more fertile in some way.

When Huo’a was finished, Suli stepped up to discuss their progress on the city garden – which was mostly still in the planning stage, as the demolition of the current buildings was still occurring. The current idea was to match the different regions of the Demon Realm – in a style similar to the way the aquatic garden would match different regions.

“Though it would be easier if we all had more experience with other regions,” Braelin chuckled, “Milve knows much about the Wastes, of course, and Huo’a the Plains, but when it comes to everywhere else…”

“I did put out word through the temple,” Milve sighed, “And the construction of a bunkhouse for Iesculan clergy has been completed, though I could not say if the position will appeal to many.”

“You could also put out a general call for expertise,” Jurao suggested, “Perhaps through the merchant guild network.”

“Oh, yeah, that could work,” Yheor nodded, “Too bad the Agricultural Guild is so small here, they wouldn’t be able to take word far enough.”

“Well, I think that covers everything we had planned… oh, Hujur and Gaele never returned,” Braelin said, looking around the room.

“No,” Jurao agreed, getting to his feet, “That is odd…”

“I think I may know what happened,” Veme cleared her throat, “I spoke with Lord Ebener myself, and as he seems to have a similar level of passion for administrative work as Lord Hujur…”

“Ah,” Braelin nodded, “Yes, they may well have gotten distracted discussing it.”

Jurao hummed in agreement, leading the way out of the hall so they did not need to wait for his dismissal, “I had not considered that, but yes, it is possible.”

“Oh, you’re done,” Demarri said, glancing up, “Lord Braelin, I think Lord Hujur wants to fuck your dad.”

“He’s welcome to try, though I don’t think he’ll be very successful,” Braelin snorted, looking around the mostly empty office, “Where are they?”

“They talked about their personal filing system philosophies for over an hour before Lord Hujur asked your dad to go back to the Head Administrative Office to talk about it some more with this very dreamy look on his face,” Demarri waved a hand, “Gaele tried to remind them about the meeting but got sucked into the conversation instead – then Denos showed up asking for more of your notes, so Gaele helped em take them back. Probably forgot about the meeting entirely.”

“Well, it happens,” Braelin replied.

“Oh, and some responses to your call for more priesti arrived, Senior Priest Milve,” Demarri said, holding up a few letters without looking away from her book.

“Thank you,” Milve snorted, accepting them.

“So, are we getting more of your number?” Yheor asked, trying to look over his shoulder but hindered by the priest being a little over half a foot taller than her.

“Hm, this one is from the Grand Priestess,” Milve frowned, examining the metal-pressed seal on the back, “Though I did not write to her directly…”