Flower Dream Chapter 1

In a far distant past, in the primeval age when heaven and earth were still one, the divine beasts—auspicious and spiritual creatures—and humans, creations of the Creator God, lived together in harmony in the same world.

The divine beasts cherished and loved the beings who resembled the Creator who governed all creation, and the people also revered and worshiped them for possessing the power of gods.

As their interactions deepened, some divine beasts even took humans as mates, and the children born between the two were called “god-men” to distinguish them from ordinary people.

The god-men, who possessed the divine blood of the divine beasts, had physical abilities far superior to ordinary humans and could use divine powers that brought about all kinds of miracles. They also aged slowly and lived long lives, enjoying longevity for generations.

However, the price for possessing power not permitted to humans was great. The blood of the divine beasts caused the god-men to periodically suffer from divine fever.

As a result, countless god-men were tormented by insomnia, headaches, extreme destructive impulses, sexual urges akin to heat, intense thirst, madness, and more. When god-men intoxicated by divine fever fell into madness and rampaged, the world was thrown into great chaos.

Unable to bear seeing their precious children suffering and going mad, the divine beasts joined forces to find a way to calm the divine fever.

Thus, they eventually created new humans with the ability to soothe the rampage of divine blood using flowers and trees, and these were the “fragrant people.”

Once the fragrant people could use their innate body scent to control the divine fever tormenting the god-men and even calm their pleasure periods, the world finally regained peace.

People revered the fragrant people, who possessed mysterious eyes like the color-eyed people and an enchanting fragrance, as mates of the noble god-men. In addition, those with the scent of flowers were called flower people, and those with the scent of trees were called tree people.

「Ancient Records — Excerpt from the Biographies of the Fragrant People」

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The sun rises late in the mountains. Dan Yuha, who had left home early in the morning, walked familiarly along the forest path still shrouded in the dim light of dawn. Climbing the mountain before sunrise to gather wild greens, medicinal herbs, mushrooms, and the like was a daily task for him, the perfumer and pharmacist of the Honghwa clan.

Jingle, jingle…

Whenever Yuha moved, the bell attached to his scent pouch made a clear sound. The pouch at his waist was stuffed full of dried herbs, flowers, fruits, and other things that wild animals disliked. Using scent and sound like this to prevent animals from approaching was the only way to safely roam the mountain.

Splash, splash.

Dan Yuha quickly moved his steps toward the sound of water. It was to wash the medicinal herbs he had gathered today.

“Phew.”

Soon arriving at his destination, Yuha placed his bag on a large rock. Besides herbs, it was full of wild grapes, hardy kiwis, and chestnuts he had picked here and there while roaming the mountain. Taking out today’s harvest one by one, he shook off the dirt clinging to them. Then he lightly dipped them into the flowing water.

“Ah, it’s so cold…”

The valley water, cool enough to make one’s hands ache even in summer, had become even colder now that autumn had arrived. Dan Yuha wrinkled his brow slightly and then diligently rinsed the herbs.

“Haaa…”

Starting with the herbs and finishing washing all the wild grapes, hardy kiwis, chestnuts, and fatsia shoots, his fingertips had turned red. Dan Yuha rubbed his numb hands together and blew on them. Only after repeating this several times did his body temperature return a little.

After shaking the water off the cleaned harvest, Yuha sat down on the rock with a tired face. In the meantime, the morning sun, which had completely driven away the bluish darkness of dawn, was pouring sunlight through the branches of the trees.

Chirp, chirp.

Dan Yuha took a short rest while listening to the various chirping sounds of the birds greeting the morning and the trickling sound of the flowing water. He liked this time of day the most. Because only in these moments could he be free from the insults, rude pointing, malicious ridicule, and sharp gazes directed at him.

“…I should go back.”

Yuha, who had wrapped the herbs and the rest in a cloth he took from his bosom, carefully placed the items back into his bag. Then he descended the mountain as usual. Even though he was on his way home, his footsteps lacked the vigor he had when briskly climbing the mountain path. As if he didn’t want to return.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Yuha!”

“…Cheongwoo?”

Dan Yuha, who had opened the wattle gate and stepped into the yard, rounded his eyes at the voice calling him. His gaze turned toward the young man sitting on the wooden floor.

“Where did you go?”

The one called Cheongwoo approached Dan Yuha like a puppy greeting its returning owner. Ju Cheongwoo, he was one of Yuha’s few friends.

“To gather some herbs… What brings you here?”

“Hey, do I need a reason to come? I just came because I missed you!”

Pouting his lower lip, Ju Cheongwoo soon laughed merrily and pulled Dan Yuha into a tight embrace.

“We saw each other the day before yesterday… Hm?”

Suddenly enveloped in Ju Cheongwoo’s arms, Yuha furrowed his brow minutely at the plum blossom scent that wafted strongly at once. Unlike Dan Yuha, who had almost no body scent and had been classified as a scentless person, Cheongwoo belonged to the deep-scented people, the fragrant people with the strongest fragrance. Because of that, his body scent was normally quite strong, but today it was particularly intense.

“Get away from me a little. Why is your body scent so strong?”

“Huh?”

When Dan Yuha gently pushed him away, rejecting the embrace, Ju Cheongwoo opened his eyes wide as if flustered. Then, as if realizing something, he let out an “Ah.”

“It’s because my ‘flower bud period’ is coming soon. Since yesterday, my scent hasn’t been well-contained. Is it that strong?”

Sniff sniff, Ju Cheongwoo lifted his arm to smell himself and made a sheepish face. The flower bud period, meaning the time when flower buds form, was a special physiological phenomenon that came to flower people like him and Cheongwoo about two or three times a year. In simple terms, it was a sort of heat.

“Your flower bud period, isn’t it usually around summer?”

Dan Yuha tilted his head. As far as he knew, Ju Cheongwoo’s flower bud period came once in summer and once in winter.

“I skipped it this summer, so I guess it’s coming now.”

“You didn’t have it this summer?”

“You didn’t know? That hurts. Don’t you care about me too little?”

“Sorry… As you know, I was a bit busy this summer.”

At Ju Cheongwoo’s grumbling, Dan Yuha apologized with an awkward face. Having completed the three-year mourning period for his father, he had been devoting himself to his studies for the past year to inherit the family business.

Yuha’s late father, Jeok Hyangrim, was a famous perfumer whose name had once resounded even in the imperial capital. At the same time, he was also an outstanding herbalist and pharmacist.

Dan Yuha had learned many things from him since childhood, including herbalism, chemistry, dendrology, and other plant-related studies, as well as pharmacology and basic medicine.

Determined to succeed his late father and become a perfumer and pharmacist, Yuha went to the imperial capital and took the civil examinations. Since both professions involved handling poisonous plants in addition to medicinal herbs, one had to pass the state examination hosted by the imperial family and receive a license in order to practice freely.

Thus, Dan Yuha passed both examinations with top honors, proving his skills with confidence, and had his name registered on the official roster as a dual artisan with skills in both perfumery and pharmacy.

Furthermore, because he had passed as the top candidate, he received the title of special-grade artisan and also gained the qualification to take the higher examination held every three years, which would allow him to receive a government stipend.

Yuha, who had returned home in glory, began his work as a perfumer and pharmacist in earnest starting in the summer. Thanks to that, he had been so busy over the past few months that he could barely remember whether his friend had gone through his flower bud period last season or not.

“Oh, right. Well, large-hearted me will understand.”

“Anyway, what’s the matter? You should be at home during your flower bud period.”