Chapter 35: The Sprout’s Feast

In the dark room, a round table two meters in diameter stood alone.

A bluish glow shimmered around the table, and a figure in a robe appeared.

Then, more robed figures materialized one after another, quickly filling the seats around the round table.

The first person to appear clasped his hands together and exhaled deeply.

He seemed to be pondering how to begin speaking.

After a few seconds, as if his thoughts had come together, he spoke.

“‘Bat’ and ‘Centipede’ are dead.”

Even though half their faces were hidden, it was clear that the people gathered at the round table were shocked.

A person sitting opposite the one with clasped hands voiced the group’s confusion.

“How did that happen?”

“Bat died while playing in the Ant Nest.”

“That idiot.”

Each of the people sitting at the round table spat out a curse of their own.

“Centipede failed while carrying out a task I entrusted.”

“A task you entrusted?”

“Bringing Yoo Jae-yi here.”

At that, they all groaned at once.

Perhaps because this time it wasn’t just a case of dying while fooling around, none of them cursed.

“Is it that Baek Do-hee woman again?”

A younger-sounding voice than the other two raised a hand to ask.

The person with clasped hands shook his head and answered.

“No, it wasn’t Baek Do-hee.”

“What? He wasn’t taken down by the White Witch?”

“She’s going to be angry.”

The younger voice let out a sigh and shook his head.

Those gathered around began to jeer, each voicing something negative.

“Angry? Why would she care if a few of those guys died?”

“Yeah, right. They were the weakest among us. She’ll just let it go.”

“That’s right, you’re all making sense.”

They showed no sadness at the death of their comrades.

The one they called “Her” surely wouldn’t be mourning, either.

“…She was startled.”

Then, the person with clasped hands said something none of them expected.

They showed more emotion than they had at any point so far.

It was bewilderment.

“Startled? She was?”

“Yes. With my meager insight, that’s how it seemed. She was surprised and dumbfounded.”

“Huh… Are you telling the truth? Do you know why she reacted that way?”

“She didn’t tell me.”

The one who asked didn’t seem to expect an answer, simply nodding in understanding.

The others also nodded, following suit.

“However….”

The one with clasped hands drew everyone’s attention and tapped the round table.

To be precise, it wasn’t the round table itself, but the keyboard on the desk where he was sitting in reality.

A bluish hologram appeared at the center of the table.

“I only know that she reacted that way after seeing this.”

Inside the hologram were four figures.

One was Centipede, whom they all knew well, and the other three were humans they’d never seen before.

Yet, they immediately understood what they should focus on in the scene.

The human man with a sprout growing from his head instantly caught their eye.

“A sprout… What on earth is he wearing that for?”

“I don’t know. I only know that she was shocked and shouted, ‘Why is that thing there?!'”

That thing, what could that thing possibly be?

They leaned forward, staring at the man with the sprout on his head.

The man was holding a giant conifer leaf in his left hand, plucking off one needle at a time and throwing them like spears at Centipede.

The group let out awkward laughs as they watched.

A single leaf, thrown like a spear, stabbed deep into Centipede’s body.

After one stabbed in, more followed.

Eventually, Centipede, tormented by the leaves embedded in his body, crashed to the ground.

“This is ridiculous…! The body gifted by Her is getting pierced by some measly leaves?!”

“They’re probably consecrated leaves.”

“Consecrated? Who in their right mind would consecrate something like that?”

“Think about it. There’s only one person who would.”

“…The White Witch?”

Again, the one with clasped hands nodded.

Meanwhile, the person sitting opposite tilted his head in confusion.

“Who is that man, that the White Witch would bother to consecrate leaves for him?”

“Baek Do-woon.”

“Baek… Baek?”

“Yes, he’s Baek Do-hee’s older brother, Baek Do-woon.”

“…!”

The people at the table turned their eyes to the hologram again.

By now, the sprout was gone from Baek Do-woon’s head, and with a giant leaf slung over his shoulder, he grinned brightly down at the Centipede, who lay crashed to the ground.

He looked as refreshed as someone swatting a buzzing mosquito on a summer night.

*****

The night air of Seoul brushing against my cheek was pleasantly cool.

Driving slowly through the alley, I glanced at Yoo Jae-yi sitting in the passenger seat.

She rested her chin on her hand, gazing absently out the window, deep in thought.

“……”

Yeonhu had called his right-hand man Oh Juhan, choosing to stay behind alone at the Crowd hideout.

As he sent Yoo Jae-yi and me on ahead, he wore an unusually sly smile, which made it clear he’d misunderstood something.

He kept grinning wickedly until he was out of sight in the rearview mirror.

“What do you think that key is, anyway?”

She scratched her pale, round forehead with the hand she’d been resting her chin on, muttering regretfully.

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have lost my temper. I should’ve at least checked the blueprint.”

So she’d been thinking about the key all this time.

What could that key be, the one that terror organizations all over the world were trying to make?

I tried to figure it out myself, but for once, not even a half-plausible idea came to mind.

“No idea.”

All I could do was give a limp answer.

She let out a long breath and slowly nodded.

“Yeonhu said he’d look into it, so let’s just wait.”

“Yeah…”

Right before we left, he’d called people in early in the morning, saying he’d track down the blueprint.

He must be just as curious about the key as we are.

He’d also said he’d look further into the Crowd.

Despite being skeptical about my guess that they might possess S-rank power, he agreed to check it out.

As for Yongdusik’s corpse, we decided to hand it over to the Association.

To inform them about the connection to demonkind.

Since he was an A-rank Hunter and vice president of a major group, even if they thought it absurd, they’d at least take a look.

I stopped the car and turned off the ignition.

“Oh, we’re already here?”

Yoo Jae-yi murmured in surprise.

I hadn’t expected to arrive this quickly either.

I’d driven slowly for safety’s sake on the night roads, but with no traffic, we arrived in less than an hour.

She opened the car door, then turned to ask.

“It’s a bit late, but… want to come in for a moment?”

“Mm?”

I was planning on going in anyway.

“…Payment! I need to pay you for completing the request!”

“Of course, I’ll take it.”

Getting out of the car, I followed her into the forge.

The forge was quiet.

Had someone visited this late at night? On the counter sat a bundle of yellow bills and a slip of paper.

They hadn’t been there when we left.

Apparently, someone really had bought a kitchen knife and paid on their own while she was out, just like the sign on the door said.

Come to think of it, I also needed to pay for the Arcara light armor I’d had made.

“Wait a bit. I’ll whip it up in no time.”

She started scribbling furiously on a notepad left on the counter.

It was clear she was making a lifetime pass for the forge.

“…Aren’t you being a bit too sloppy with this?”

“It’s not like I have to show it to anyone else, so what’s the big deal?”

Still, she pressed the forge’s mark next to the POS terminal, as if to make it more official.

The forge’s mark, J.Y., was engraved on weapons and kitchen knives alike.

In less than thirty seconds, she handed me a simple pass.

[Lifetime Pass for Jae-yi’s Forge – J.Y.]

“…Can I use this to ask you for appraisals?”

Cautiously, I took out a leaf from the World Tree from my magic pouch.

Along with five needles that had been stuck in Yongdusik’s body.

She grinned and said, “Of course you can.”

Phew, I’d been worried she might say no.

While I was at it, I also took out the fist-sized lump I’d found in the Ant Nest, still mysterious in its identity.

“I thought it might be, but… it really is a World Tree leaf.”

Yoo Jae-yi appraised the item on the counter, muttering as she did so.

I simply shrugged, saying nothing.

I’d already brought her a branch and sap from the World Tree.

If I now brought leaves, wasn’t it obvious they were from the World Tree too?

“Where do you even get your hands on things this rare?”

After finishing the appraisal, Yoo Jae-yi jotted down the results and handed them over.

[World Tree Leaf. S-rank.]

[Repels unclean energy.]

[When ingested, restores stamina.]

Oh, stamina recovery?

I could use that instead of a healing potion.

The property of repelling unclean energy stood out, too.

That must be why it had been so easy to kill Yongdusik.

For those with unclean energy, the leaves were powerful weapons in themselves.

Crowd members were made up of beings tainted by unclean energy.

“Keep these.”

“The leaves? Why?”

“I mean, so you can make all sorts of things with them, obviously.”

I shrugged as I said it.

When she’d seen the World Tree branch and sap, Yoo Jae-yi had nearly lost her mind.

She just couldn’t hold back her creative urges.

Once she’d rested a bit, it was clear she’d burn with the urge to make all sorts of things with the leaves.

“…Why?”

She stared straight at me.

Feeling a bit awkward, I looked away, but she chuckled softly.

“Mm, I’m just grateful, that’s all.”

Then Yoo Jae-yi picked up the round lump.

“This isn’t from the World Tree too, is it?”

I didn’t know how to answer, so I stayed quiet.

The lump was made of dirt saturated with the World Tree’s energy, mixed with ant corpses.

It could be considered a World Tree-related material, or not.

“An elixir… Wait, no? It’s fertilizer.”

“What?”

Fertilizer? As in, plant nutrition?

Come to think of it, when that thing was made, Sprout seemed extremely satisfied…

It must have been because it was food for him.

Good job, me, for not eating it. I’d felt uneasy about it and refrained from trying it.

I almost made a fool of myself, thinking fertilizer was some kind of elixir and eating it.

“This is A+ grade fertilizer. If you sell it to the Farming Guild, you could easily get several billion for it.”

“This stuff?”

“Yup.”

As she set the fertilizer down on the counter, a message popped up in the corner of my vision.

[The World Tree Sprout wishes the caretaker would give it the fertilizer.]

[Sprout warns that if the caretaker sells the fertilizer, it will be deeply saddened and sulk.]

It seemed Sprout was worried I’d sell it off.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

What kind of relationship did Sprout and I have?

The stronger Sprout got, the more power I gained—in short, a symbiotic bond.

There was no way I’d do something stupid, like making Sprout sulk for some short-term gain.

But… how was I supposed to give it to him?

[Sprout says that if the caretaker gently strokes both the fertilizer and Sprout with warm hands, it will be transferred.]

Gently, with warm hands?

So I just needed to touch the fertilizer with my finger, then touch Sprout.

Following Sprout’s instructions, I put it into action right away.

The fertilizer floated into the air.

“Eh?”

Yoo Jae-yi made a startled sound.

It was only natural—the fertilizer rose as soon as I touched it.

Watching this, I suddenly remembered all the times Sprout had handed me items in the same way.

“Wait, no way—”

Of course way.

As if confirming my thought, the fertilizer shot toward my smartphone.

Straight toward the Sprout, who was dancing joyfully on the screen.

Thud!

The fertilizer smacked into the smartphone’s screen.

Then, it quickly disappeared into the screen.

It looked just like the phone was greedily gobbling it up.

“……”

“……”

Yoo Jae-yi and I silently watched as the fertilizer vanished into the smartphone.

Once it was all gone, a white light shone out.

It was coming from Sprout on the screen.

After a moment, the light faded, and Sprout came into view again.

“Sprout’s status…?”