[makes a "hmmmmm" noise as he thinks. his eyes mostly stay on the clouds as they chat, but he is looking around. she can tell when she's sitting this close. he tilts his head to listen to distant sounds and very casually turns his head to watch some movement out of the corner of his eye.]

I'm honestly used to dungeons, so it's hard to compare fighting at home to fighting here. In a dungeon everyone has something to do. There's a damage dealer to take out the big monsters, and of course there's usually a few people to offer support by acting as distractions, giving buffs, healing, or taking out smaller monsters in the area. But there are also people doing research, gathering supplies, looking after the injured, and keeping everyone on target. Helping out Miss Apothecary covers a few of those and it's something tangible, so it sounds like what you're looking for.

Maybe as a test you can ask Red about the sakura trees and see what kind of quest he gives you. If it's a pain you don't have to take it, obviously. But that's part of gathering data too! If we know for sure that he just gives easy quests for things he thinks are funny, we'd just have to give him an explanation that he finds amusing for whatever we want. Like, "I want to grow some sakura trees because I think it'll make Styx and Minuet get emotional and cry, which is funny."