Gardener of Eden

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Shopping

Rowan turned to his parents with a thoughtful smile as they stepped out into the night. ”Since everything with the store and domain is running smoothly, we should start looking ahead. Mom, you’re five months away from welcoming my little sister—we ought to start shopping for her before things get too busy.”

Martha’s face lit up with a brilliant, motherly warmth, while Arthur eagerly nodded in agreement. With plenty of time and financial freedom, Rowan guided them toward the Citadel’s grand Luxury District, where marble-paved walkways were illuminated by soft, enchanted streetlamps.

Their first stop was an exclusive, high-end nursery boutique catering to noble families and high-ranking guild masters. Stepping through the arched entryway, Arthur and Martha were immediately drawn to a handcrafted crib sculpted from rare, mana-infused white oak, designed to automatically release a soothing, restful aura.

”Look at this, Arthur,” Martha murmured softly, gently tracing the polished timber. ”It’s so beautifully crafted.”

”We’re taking it,” Rowan said without hesitation, signaling the shopkeeper. He also arranged for a set of ultra-soft swaddling blankets woven from enchanted silkworm threads—hypoallergenic, temperature-regulating, and capable of warding off mild drafts.

They spent the next couple of hours strolling through the district’s finest shops:

An Enchanted Stroller: Built with lightweight mithril-alloy framing and levitation runes to ensure an effortlessly smooth glide over any terrain.

Warded Nursery Mobiles: Crafted from polished river-gems that softly hummed gentle lulling melodies attuned to an infant’s natural rhythm.

Plush Protective Companions: Stuffed animals enchanted with low-tier spatial protection barriers to keep the baby safe from accidental bumps.

Arthur carried several sleek, silk-tied packages with an unshakeable grin, while Rowan arranged for the larger furniture pieces to be delivered directly to the estate under the protection of the farm’s Earthen Ward.

For Arthur and Martha, picking out top-tier baby supplies without worrying about the price tag was a profound joy—a sweet, quiet celebration of the peaceful future their family had built together.

Arthur tapped his card against the merchant’s payment crystal without so much as blinking at the final tally—a staggering figure that, just months ago, would have crushed their family beneath a mountain of debt for years. What once would have been an astronomical, completely impossible expense now felt entirely natural and effortlessly affordable.

As the boutique owner bowed deferentially and confirmed that the full delivery of enchanted nursery furniture would arrive at their estate tomorrow evening right after the store closed for the night, a quiet stillness fell over Martha. She looked down at the sleek, silk-wrapped bundles in her hands, her eyes brimming with a poignant blend of deep relief and bittersweet nostalgia.

”When you were a baby, Rowan...” Martha whispered softly, her voice trembling slightly as they stepped back out into the cool night air of the Luxury District. ”We couldn’t give you any of this. We couldn’t even afford proper thermal blankets when the harsh winter drafts hit our old cottage. Every single copper we scraped together went strictly to basic rations and your fever potions.”

Arthur nodded solemnly, wrapping a heavy arm around Martha’s shoulders as a shadow of old regret crossed his weathered face. ”It hurts thinking back on it, son. We wanted to give you the world, but we were fighting just to keep a roof over our heads.”

Rowan stopped in his tracks, turning to face his parents with a warm, unwavering smile. He took his mother’s hands in his, feeling the pure, vibrant vitality from the domain’s harvest pulsing gently through her skin.

”You gave me everything that actually mattered,” Rowan said softly, his voice rich with grounded affection. ”You gave me your unconditional love, your sacrifice, and every breath of strength you had to keep me alive. You fought for me when I couldn’t fight for myself. That is worth more than all the mithril strollers and enchanted cribs in the entire Citadel.”

He gently squeezed her hands. ”This isn’t about making up for the past. It’s about celebrating what we’ve built together. My little sister gets the best care possible because we earned this as a family.”

Martha wiped a stray tear from her cheek, the lingering phantom guilt of those lean years completely dissolving under her son’s reassurance. Arthur let out a chest-heaving, proud laugh, pulling Rowan and Martha into a tight, warm embrace right under the glowing streetlamps.

With their grand nursery order officially finalized for tomorrow evening’s delivery after shop hours, the family began their relaxed stroll back toward the estate. Rowan walked beside them, feeling a deep, quiet contentment settle over his spirit—knowing that when the sun rose, a bright new dawn of expanding trade, loyal squad allies, and utter peace awaited them.

***

The morning sun broke over the estate in a brilliant wash of amber light, casting a warm glow across the lush fields protected beneath the invisible canopy of the Earthen Ward. With a renewed spring in his step and a hearty whistle on his lips, Arthur headed out into the farm plots.

Armed with wooden crates and a harvesting sickle, he set to work gathering the morning yield—plucking plump Verdant Crown Tomatoes, harvesting golden sheaves of Golden Spirit Flour grain, and carefully picking glistening Azure Dew Berries.

Years of grueling, exhausting labor had once made farm work a painful chore, but filled with the restorative mana of their recent harvests, Arthur felt lighter and stronger than he had in decades.

Inside the cozy warmth of the estate’s study, Martha sat at her desk with a steaming cup of herbal tea, her fingers moving briskly across her keyboard. Armed with Arthur’s sharp commercial guidelines from the previous evening, she was drafting formal cooperation agreements to send out to Seraphina’s estate and the family of Caelen and Mirei.

The emails meticulously outlined the mandatory requirements to host an official Eden’s Regional Franchise:

Mana-Preservation Vaults: Every branch had to be outfitted with enchanted climate-control display cases to ensure that fragile, mana-dense produce like the Sun-Gilded Jade Avocado maintained its peak potency without degrading during store hours.

Tier-1 Security Measures: Given the extraordinary value of the domain-grown yields, each storefront was required to deploy reinforced defensive arrays and dedicated guard details—a condition Squad 07’s tower-climber expertise was uniquely suited to fulfill.

Unified Pricing & Exclusive Rights: Franchises would hold exclusive regional distribution rights for Eden’s produce, strictly adhering to baseline price controls to prevent black-market gouging while securing a generous, fixed profit split for local management.

When Rowan walked downstairs, he found his mother clicking ’Send’ on the final transmission with a look of quiet triumph. She looked up, offering her son a bright, radiant smile. ”The terms are officially delivered, Rowan. Your teammates and their families will have everything they need to begin securing storefront locations by this afternoon.”

Rowan smiled warmly, looking through the window at his father easily hoisting two heavy crates of fresh produce into the transport wagon. The foundation was set, the standards were established, and the empire of Eden was ready to take root far beyond the Citadel’s borders.