Chapter 825 |
[The gardener was a bug!]
Rookie’s message flashed urgently.
Boom!
The enormous spear slammed against the barrier. The cracks spread wider, and a hole began to open where the blow had landed.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? No, whatever it means, I have to save my brother!”
Bug, fish, bird—it did not matter. Why would the gardener’s species be an issue this late in the game? Knowing species traits would make it easier to prepare, sure, but it was not enough to justify Rookie panicking like this.
[The garden is going to take root! There’s no time to explain, Honey!]
“It’s through!”
Hyunah’s voice rang out. I saw the barrier collapsing. I did not have time either. I had to get in there, right now—
Seong Hyunjae suddenly snatched me up and gestured toward Liette. The black dragon, who had been about to charge through the broken barrier, turned away.
Wait.
[You have to run!]
Wait, wait!
“Because Han Yujin would never back down on his own.”
Carrying me, Seong Hyunjae leaped onto Liette’s back. Chief Song and Peace followed right after us.
Wait. What the hell are you doing?
“Let go! Yuhyun!”
The others must have received Rookie’s message too. Yerim looked at me in shock. Liette started running without a moment’s hesitation.
In the opposite direction from where my brother was.
Hyunah frowned hard. But she did not stop Liette.
Yuhyun was getting farther away.
[Long ago, there was a bug that devoured World Tree transcendents. Everyone thought the transcendents had joined forces and killed it, but they hadn’t! The bug played dead, became the gardener, and all the World Tree transcendents were connected to it!]
Rookie’s explanation barely registered. My breath jammed in my throat.
[The gardener used the World Tree transcendents’ power to send his garden itself over there! He’s connecting the path to the two World Trees already rooted there, and the place where Honey’s brother is will become the center of the garden.]
Rookie kept sending message after message about how dangerous the gardener was.
Even so.
Even if only for a second.
He had been right there!
I clawed at Seong Hyunjae’s arm where he held me. I knew it. I knew that even if I had run in, nothing would have changed. It would have been impossible to save Yuhyun immediately.
But that did not stop me from regretting it.
[The bug is tough, but slow. Most transcendents can even alter their original forms, but the gardener can’t. Chaos says it was a very long time ago, so he doesn’t know whether it’s still true now, but Senior Tree says he should still be the same.]
Now I could no longer see Yuhyun.
Nor the black crystal.
[It can only teleport to places where World Trees exist, because it exists to eat them. The reason it can go there now is because it placed its own World Tree there. Its main body barely moves. Apparently, originally, it couldn’t even control things like butterflies. Even now, the bug itself probably won’t be much of a threat. Not unless you’re a World Tree. They said the bug only attacks, weakens, and devours World Trees. That is the karma branded into the bug’s very existence.]
Craaaack—
Yerim froze the Han River, creating a path. Liette ran across it. The sound of shattering ice battered my ears.
[But the garden is the gardener’s territory. The closer you are to the center of the garden, the stronger the gardener’s influence becomes. So before the garden appears, you have to get as far away as possible and destroy the garden first. Once the pillar of the dream world wakes up, it should be able to help you, Honey.]
From far behind us, I felt the world begin to change.
Water flowed over land that had burned and melted until nothing was left, and grass and trees surged upward. The earth being remade in green did not suit something called a bug that gnawed away at plants. It would have made more sense if this had been the descent of a World Tree, embracing every form of life.
[The gardener’s main body carries an extremely powerful poison. Since he descended wrapped in his own territory, his power probably hasn’t been cut down by much. It’s dangerous for anyone other than Honey to approach past a certain distance!]
Then Yuhyun—
He would not hurt Yuhyun. He wouldn’t.
My teeth ground together on their own. I needed to force Rookie’s explanation into my head, but it was hard. Plants were growing rapidly all around us. Vines climbed the walls of collapsed buildings, and bellflowers bloomed through cracks in the asphalt. Long, straight trees cast shade in an instant, while every kind of grassy green and floral sweetness mingled in the air.
[The closer the garden gets, the more the surrounding environment will change too. Keep running! The garden is about to appear!]
Crash!
The windows of a building shattered, and a thick branch burst out. Bright green leaves unfolded at its tip. Rookie’s message began to warp.
[Careful Honey again]
Wind blew.
A wind so dense with forest that I almost thought it had been dyed green.
And then the ruins of the buildings began to vanish. Dull cement, cracked asphalt, broken streetlights, cars lying overturned, glittering shards of glass, fluttering plastic, bright multicolored signs.
All of it disappeared as though being devoured.
Tong—!
– Urgh!
Liette’s body shot up into the air as if she had been struck hard by an invisible fist. Everything around us distorted. Kang Soyeong cried out in alarm.
“I—I think I’m waking up from the dream—!”
Her figure was swallowed between the cracks. Before I even had time to be startled, Moon Hyunah shouted too.
“Wait for me! I’ll come back!”
This was no longer the dream world.
Those who were dreaming were being driven out of the space the garden had claimed. Somewhere, a hollow tong, tong rang out, and my vision flooded white. Just before I lost consciousness, it felt as though I had been thrown out. Like I had been flung away.
Strength drained from my whole body, as if I were sinking underwater. At the same time, it felt as though I were floating somewhere. I had the sudden urge to lie there forever, thinking of nothing at all.
‘I really am tired.’
Memories surfaced from what felt like a lifetime ago.
The days after I dropped out of school and started working.
To other people, that time must have looked like hardship—a kid who had lost his parents too early, struggling to get by. But for me, that had been the most peaceful period of my life. I had small worries, sure, but no crushing ones. Honestly, I had been confident I could make a living doing whatever I had to do. Most people had looked kindly on me no matter where I worked. My younger brother’s future had been brighter still. Back then, I had believed without a doubt that even while looking after him, I could manage my life well enough on my own.
‘Since I was turning back time anyway, maybe I should’ve gone back to then.’
If I had taken Yuhyun and gone to the countryside to hide before he Awakened…
Would I still have died?
Maybe it had been impossible to return to a time before dungeons appeared in the first place. The Wish Stone was still just an item, after all. Besides, the transcendents would never have sat quietly and waited, so it was probably better that Yuhyun and Yerim had at least been a year older.
I remembered the branching paths White Bird had shown me.
Since she was showing them to me anyway, couldn’t she have shown me the answer sheet too?
She had talked as though there was no answer. Even so, I wanted to check. I wanted to know whether everything really could turn out all right.
Yuhyun.
Yerim.
So many others.
‘And what would happen to me?’
“As you wish, hyung.”
My eyes flew open.
I had not woken up. Through dense leaves, I saw a brilliant blue sky. The shadow of a tree stretched long across my brother’s face.
I was lying with my head on Yuhyun’s lap.
…
Had something like this happened before?
My thoughts were hazy.
“…Yuhyun.”
“Stay down.”
My brother smiled as he spoke.
This was not reality.
I knew that clearly, and yet it felt strangely real. Something soft drifted lazily through the gentle air.
“Han Yuhyun.”
“Yeah.”
“Am I doing this right?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
My brother’s face looked especially grown-up. It made me feel as though I had become a child.
“You just have to do what you want to do, hyung.”
“That’s kind of irresponsible, isn’t it?”
“It’s fine.”
Yuhyun told me to rest a little longer, and his hand covered my eyes. My consciousness blurred again. His voice reached me faintly, from far away.
“You’ve already reached it, hyung.”
…
The Yuhyun in my dream felt similar to White Bird.
I could not let myself be stained by a transcendent.
Rustle.
Something soft brushed my hand. When I drew in a breath, the scent of grass filled me all the way down.
I quickly opened my eyes and sat up.
“Yerim! Peace!”
A hedge stretched out in a long line. White and yellow flowers were in full bloom. One side of my head throbbed dully.
Where was this?
“Looks like we were scattered.”
I heard Seong Hyunjae’s voice. When I turned back, he was standing beneath a tree with drooping branches. He did not appear to be injured.
“I was holding on to Han Yujin, so we were thrown to the same place.”
…
My stats were unchanged.
I opened the system window and checked the people under my influence. Everyone was safe.
The garden…
Only then did I notice my hand was clenched tight. It was shaking.
“Han Yujin.”
“Wait. Give me a minute.”
I took out the black-and-white spear and hugged it to my chest. I turned away from Seong Hyunjae. The strength left my legs, and I sank to the ground. Everything that had happened before I lost consciousness poured into my head and chest all at once.
“I’m… not in great shape right now. And you know how much I care about Yuhyun, Seong Hyunjae. I know this wasn’t your fault. I know you had to do it. I know that, but even so…”
“You’re angry.”
…
He had been right in front of me.
And I had been held back.
Honestly, I resented Seong Hyunjae. Rationally, I knew retreating had been the right call, but my emotions kept surging up anyway. At the same time, a deep sense of self-loathing rose in me. I felt pathetic.
“After all the times I stood in front of you and shouted about how amazing I was, I fall apart this quickly. Pretty embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“No one is perfect. As long as we continue living, we continue to lose our way, waver, and fall. The only difference is that as we grow, we become a little faster at finding the path again and getting back on our feet.”
“…I think I need about five minutes. No, ten.”
“I would like to tell you we could take our time and arrive a day or two late, but the situation is not favorable.”
“I couldn’t stand waiting that long anyway. I’d be too anxious.”
I drew in a deep breath. The cool feel of the spear lingered in my palms. Beyond its solid surface, I could sense the flames flowing within.
It was all right.
I had done my best.
And in the end, I would get him back.
“You said no one is perfect. Do you ever waver too, Seong Hyunjae?”
“To think Han Yujin would ask me that. I’m disappointed.”
“What? Why?”
“I have wondered what to do with what stands before me many times, even before time was turned back.”
“Well, you did make a whole mess of things, erasing my memories and your own emotions.”
“I am still not certain.”
“I thought you decided to trust me.”
“About myself.”
Now that was rare.
I leaned on the spear and stood again, then turned to look at Seong Hyunjae. Unlike a moment ago, I did not feel like hating him. His face, of course, was as radiant as ever.
When I thought about the situation Seong Hyunjae was in, it made sense that he would waver. An ordinary person would have collapsed dozens of times over. Just enduring this far was already incredible.
“I still don’t have a clear plan that pops into mind, but White Bird, the one who can see the future, told me this: things will go the way I want them to. So you’ll live safely and well too, Seong Hyunjae.”
I had been burned by transcendents more than once, so I could not trust them easily. But I wanted to believe that much.
Seong Hyunjae smiled.
“In that case, I suppose I have even more reason to trust Han Yujin and follow him.”
“Yeah, yeah. Follow me, then. I won’t throw you away just because you’re heavy.”
I looked down at the spear once, then carefully placed it back in my inventory.
The area around us was quite literally a garden. Plants of every kind grew thickly, but the landscape was orderly, as though shaped by someone’s hand.
And.
“It’s too quiet.”
There was no sound at all.
Seong Hyunjae nodded.
“No animals. No birds. Not even a single grasshopper.”
“Hatred of its own kind, maybe? I mean, there aren’t many bugs that help when you’re raising plants. Earthworms, bees, maybe? Still, this is a little…”
I had disliked the gardener from the beginning, but now he gave me an eerie, visceral disgust. Just looking at the garden he called his territory told me he was not normal.
For now, we decided to look around, and I slowly started walking.
“Did you get Rookie’s messages?”
“Only that we had to run immediately, and that he was entrusting Han Yujin to me.”
“The gardener’s original form is apparently a giant bug that devoured World Tree transcendents.”
The system was down again. This damn system cut out every time something happened. If this had been a paid service, I would have called customer support at least a hundred times and demanded to know what kind of garbage quality control they were running.
White stepping stones were laid through the grass, and the trees and flowers along the path were all flawlessly beautiful. Not a single blossom was wilted. They were all open to exactly the right degree. It was enough to make me suspect they were artificial.
The scenery was undeniably beautiful, yet the longer I looked at it, the more it made my skin crawl.
“Hm. You have a garden too, don’t you, Seong Hyunjae? I’d like to hear your thoughts.”
“Let us settle on horrifying.”
“Don’t you catch bugs in yours too?”
“One cannot perfectly control something that grows. Growth is, by its nature, change.”
Seong Hyunjae slowly looked around the garden.
“I feel no change here.”
A world frozen in place so it would please its owner’s eye.
This garden was the gardener’s territory.
In other words, his world.
“…I think I’m starting to understand what kind of transcendent the gardener is.”
He definitely did not seem like someone I would get along with. I also had the feeling talking this out was out of the question. Not that I had any intention of ending this peacefully after he kidnapped my brother.
“For now, we should find everyone else—”
– Hyung, Yujin hyung!
Something called to me from somewhere.
When I approached the direction of the voice—
– It’s me, hyung!
A large flower was smiling brightly and swaying like a car ornament.
Is that… Hayul?
–TL Notes–
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