“Are we building a staircase?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought Ermine would just say ‘poof’ and use magic to expand everything at once.”

“I’d love to do that, but first, we need to make a staircase.”

According to Ermine, once we build a staircase, we can add another room above it.

If we have a recipe for a “door,” it seems we can also create a room next to it.

“So, does that mean that the parts where they connect are something Ermine can’t make?”

Both staircases and doors are places that lead to different spaces.
As long as we can forge those, we can secure new rooms.

“Huh? But you were able to expand the bathroom, right? Why was that possible?”

When Mei tilted her head and pointed at the bathroom, Ermine blinked his black eyes.

“Well, because a bathroom is a bathroom, you know.”

“So, in the case of the bathroom, it’s considered a single item, which allowed it to be expanded with magic?”

“I think that’s about right.”

Ermine tilted his head as well.

It seemed that even Ermine, who created it, didn’t quite understand the difference.
As usual, he was pretty clueless.

Mei decided to give up asking for any more explanation.

“Oh well. Let’s just build the staircase for now.”

Wondering what she would need, Mei looked at the forging book.

“Uh, five branches of Yggdrasil and three drops of World Tree Dew.”

For some reason, the ingredients were written in red, which made Mei furrow her brows.

“Ermine, why are these ingredients in red?”

“That means they’re hard to obtain~.”

“What? Seriously?”

Up until now, whenever she wanted to make something, she could forge it with materials gathered in the garden.
But it seemed that Yggdrasil and the World Tree weren’t in the magical garden.

“Where can I find them?”

“The World Tree Dew can be gathered in the garden. Look, that tree that bears tiny golden fruits is it~.”

“Huh? That’s the World Tree?”

When she thought of the World Tree, she pictured a massive trunk with sprawling branches, but the tree in the garden was spindly and didn’t look particularly impressive.

But Ermine wouldn’t lie, so it must be true.

“So, does that mean I’ve been eating World Tree fruits this whole time…?”

“Exactly. That’s why Mei is so healthy, you know~.”

Eating the World Tree’s fruit sounds like it would have some amazing effect, like granting eternal youth, but maybe it doesn’t work that way in this world.

However, perhaps because she’s been eating World Tree fruit, Koko is that strong.

It felt like one mystery about Koko was solved, Mei thought.

“Well, I can get the World Tree Dew, but where is Yggdrasil?”

It’s often said that the World Tree and Yggdrasil are the same.
That might mean Yggdrasil is the parent tree, and the World Tree is an offshoot.

If that’s the case, it would make sense why the garden tree was so spindly.

“I wonder where it is now.”

“Huh? Is it around?”

When Mei asked, picking up on Ermine’s peculiar phrasing, Ermine’s tiny wings fluttered on her back.

“I think it’s somewhere in the forest.”

“…Does Yggdrasil move?”

In her mind, Mei pictured an enormous tree, as big as a hill, stomping around.
It probably wasn’t that big, but she couldn’t imagine a moving tree.

Maybe it wasn’t a tree but a kind of monster.
Like a treant, for example.

“Of course it moves. It’s Yggdrasil, after all.”

“I thought it was a tree.”

“It is a tree.”

“What? A tree that moves?”

“Yes, because it’s Yggdrasil.”

“Doesn’t that make it a monster?”

“Nope. Yggdrasil is Yggdrasil.”

All Mei could do was tilt her head, wondering what on earth Yggdrasil actually was.

(TRANSLATOR NOTE: No idea why but the author decided to change the stories perspective.)