To Be a Power in the Shadows!

It smelled like wood.

Alpha, who was sorting out the paperwork, looked up in the wooden leak day as she plugged it through the window.

Standing up and heading to the window, a large street tree rises outside the window, beyond which the streets of the king's capital stretch.

The season ends in autumn. The street tree brightly leaves and carries the scent of a tree with the wind.

Back then, I was always wrapped in the scent of a warm tree.

Alpha closes her eyes and remembers the old days.

Those days we all lived together. I miss it, the smell of wood...

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Alpha lived in the woods when Shadow Garden was just two people, Shadow and Alpha.

Alone in the cabin he built during the day.

The inside of the cabin was always filled with woody scents. It's a cabin he cut a tree and built from scratch. Alpha learned how to build a two-by-four.

At first, I could only watch, but I helped a little bit and she almost did the finishing by herself.

Him and her, memorable cabins built by the two of us.

I loved Alpha for that cabin full of woody scents, although it was a primitive and a little snarky.

He could only come here at night. That's why Alpha looked forward to the night coming every day.

During the day he hunted small animals with magic and sword training and mountain vegetable picking and trapping.

At night, he brings bread and meat and Alpha cooks it. He always made me listen to a lot of stories while the two of us ate alone.

"Hot air has the power to move huge chunks of iron."

One day he mentioned that while eating a stew made by Alpha. Alpha watched the hot air coming up from the stew for a while.

I don't think this weak hot air holds such great power.

But the knowledge he's talked about so far was a fact of any kind. His story was right, though he denied at first that this world was not a plane but a sphere, and that this world was around the sun rather than the sun revolving around it.

So there is always a great deal of power in this hot air.

"How can I draw such power from the hot air?"

He was silent for a while, eating Alpha stew looking delicious.

He always thinks about what to tell and what not to tell.

"When you warm the water, it becomes steam. That creates great power. The tip was, uh... piston exercise and turbine."

That's what I say and smile deeply.

He doesn't tell everything. Give Alpha a hint and make sure Alpha thinks.

"That's not all I know."

Much harder than usual. I was going to get to work on steam research as soon as possible tomorrow, but with just so many tips it would take too long to get to the answer.

"With the power of steam, you can run a giant iron car or an iron ship"

But what he talked about was an example of the use of steam engines, not tips.

If you can really move an iron car or ship, that's outrageous. And if he says he can do it, he can do it.

"Which means the steam engine deserves to spend that much time..."

All he had to do was smile deeply. He always makes Alpha think.

That's how you give her knowledge, build her ability to think and solve problems. And it dramatically improved her abilities and gave her many times more knowledge than when she was educated in brilliance in the country.

Force is a great force. But more than that, intelligence is an important force.

Alpha thinks she's a smart kid herself. In my hometown, no one was any match for her.

But still - he was at far altitude in the Alpha at the same age.

There's a top up there.

Alpha glared, staring at his side.

"Hmm? What's going on?

"... nothing"

The two of us eat stew, then ask him to give us sword and magic guidance, and drop him off before the sun rises.

Every day she waved until she couldn't see him.

She was happy.

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The season flowed and the time for just the two of us marked the end.

Beta, a crying girl with silver hair, joined her crew.

Beta was familiar, scared of him, always hiding behind Alpha. From the time I was in the country, Alpha knew about Beta, and Beta knew about Alpha. We weren't friends, we only had greetings on social occasions, but the two of us in the same situation quickly broke it down.

Immediately afterwards Gamma and Delta joined, and the cabin, lonely by itself, became much busier.

With the techniques learned from him, the Alphas built additional cabins and a splendid house. It was a warm house, full of woody scents.

One day he pulled everyone together by cutting up Delta and Gamma instruction early.

Delta stares down at Gamma, and Gamma stares at Delta with a half a bare. It's the usual sight.

"Delta is stronger."

"Wow, I'm older... I'm more senior... gu..."

"I'm busy with gamma."

"Hey, no..."

Delta pushes down the gamma and covers it from behind. This is also the usual sight.

Anything, the dog says he rides up to make sense of the up and down relationship.

"Yes, yes, no more"

Alpha pulls the two apart. Delta listens honestly to Alpha. No matter how bad they are, they are loyal to the relationship up and down.

That's why I don't care that I have a weaker gamma up there than I do.

Gamma doesn't care about brain muscles like Delta either.

The two were friends of a dog monkey.

"Force is not just force. It's always intelligence to rule the world of men."

He assembled everyone and said so.

"Boss......?

"Dear Shadow..."

Delta and Gamma look up to him. Delta has a face she doesn't quite understand, as if Gamma were looking to his word for salvation.

The wind brings the scent of a tree.

"Let me tell you something. The power of knowledge that only one gold coin swells many times. The art of manipulating gold and dominating the world's economy…"

Then, he talked about a never-ending plan: banking and credit creation.

"Wow......"

Spilling out of Alpha's mouth was feeling like a little kid.

To the magnitude of that scale, to his tremendous intelligence, Alpha was trembling.

Beta was behind the alpha, trembling in fear of Shadow.

Delta was shaking as she slept in the cold night breeze.

And the gamma was - trembling with emotion.

In her dark, weak eyes, a strong force was returning.

"Dear Shadow, I… have found a way forward"

He just nodded.

Since that day, gamma has changed. I greedily sought his knowledge and spared no time sleeping to encourage research.

Alpha also had more opportunities to discuss it with Gamma, and beta was added there to portray the shape of the future organization.

Eventually, Epsilon was added, Zeta was added and finally ETA was added.

They were happy in a house surrounded by the scent of a tree.

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Since that day, Alpha has been running.

I've lived so grumpy that I don't notice the smell of trees.

Beautifully dyed indoors with a cedar leak.

"Dear Alpha, it's time"

I heard a knock, and Gamma entered the room.

"Remember? In the scent of a tree, the two of us talked..."

"Woody scent......?

Gamma stands next to Alpha and looks up at the big street tree.

And I sucked in the scent of the tree the wind carried and narrowed my eyes.

"I miss you......"

"The dream I drew that day takes shape... but I'm still in the middle of a dream"

"... right"

"We keep running along the path we believe in. I will not forgive those who block me. Let's go."

"Yes!"

The two left the room on their way.

The smell of the tree that day will always remain in the back of my chest