034 – Who Gets the Golden Apple # 1
After roughly five years of living in a burrow I dug myself, I learned a great many things—big, important things. Chief among them was this: if someone grants you a kindness, you repay it. That way, when you need help again, a hand will reach out to take yours. And better yet, if you dole out favors in advance, gratitude has a funny way of finding you from places you never expected. People really are meant to help one another.
"So this apple—I should give it as a gift to everyone who's helped me out lately, right?"
It was an apple of absolutely horrifying taste but undeniably excellent effect. Anyone would want it. A part of me toyed with the idea of selling it, but it was my first glorious harvest, and golden apples didn't keep for long. So I decided to just give it away to someone. The problem was who.
"Oinoi, you really won't eat any? You grew the thing. You should at least try a bite."
"The master of the house…! That the master is a nymph-friendly person, this Oinoi knows well already…, but this Oinoi demands that he not offer her a nymph-phobic fruit…!"
Oinoi recoiled in horror, like a Golden Retriever catching the scent of durian. And I was flabbergasted.
"Hold on—didn't you say, back when, that the golden apple was a nymph-friendly fruit? Why has your story changed now of all times? Weren't you the one who worked so hard to grow it because you wanted a taste?"
It was true that the taste was unspeakably foul. Still, to reverse her position like this.
"If one cooks it, it becomes nymph-friendly and delicious…! However, this Oinoi never learned the art of cooking from my teacher, and therefore this Oinoi cannot eat it…!"
"I see."
"This Oinoi believed she could grow an apple delicious even without cooking…, but it was, in the end, a vain endeavor…! Therefore this Oinoi shall not eat the golden apple…!"
So she said. What about Keongkeongi and Ang-ang-i, then? The moment I offered the fruit to the beasts, Keongkeongi bristled, every hair on his body standing on end.
━Grrr…!!!!
He was clearly revolted. I still couldn't understand dog-squirrel language, but I was certain he'd just hurled profanity at me. Ang-ang-i, meanwhile, stopped mid-press on the washing machine's button and shook his head vigorously from side to side.
"Alright, alright, I won't bother you—finish your laundry."
So saying, I found myself thinking of the neighborhood elders. They brought the household odds and ends of food every morning, so maybe I should offer one of them a share. No—their numbers were many, and I had only one fruit.
"Too many mouths for a single fruit. It'd be awkward to give it to any of them."
Just then, Oinoi thrust her hand into the air.
"Then give it to Kore Yerim…! Kores like Atalante have adored golden apples since antiquity…. She would surely feel great gratitude toward the master of the house upon receiving it…!"
Seo Yerim?
It was true that giving her the golden apple seemed sensible in many ways. She had helped me save this house, after all. Beyond that, though…
Had she actually done anything for me? If anything, she'd tried to snatch me up like catching a cricket just because a bit of queen bee essence splashed on her shoes. A strict woman. Stern Yerim. Sternim. As I mulled it over, buuung—my phone buzzed.
It was a TelTalk message from Seo Yerim.
"Unbelievable. Like a ghost. Is this what S-rank intuition looks like?"
She'd clearly sensed me badmouthing her in my head and reached out accordingly.
I was, by nature, someone who loved showing off whatever I had. Click. I snapped a photo of the golden apple and sent it, and her reaction was enthusiastic.
The lustrous golden sheen had an allure that beckoned to people. Even Seo Yerim—a superstar fashion model with three million followers on her photo feed—seemed genuinely captivated by the apple.
Maybe I should give it to her after all—just as that thought crossed my mind, Yu Ari, who'd worked with me earlier that day, drifted up in my head.
"Yu Ari bought all that meat, gave me a kit as a present, ran my examination early. I owe her in plenty of ways."
Best of all, Yu Ari was someone who knew how to be grateful. If I handed her this golden apple, she might exclaim, "Senior, thank you so much!"—her round eyes going wider still, maybe even with tears of gratitude streaming down her face.
And wasn't an apple of greater use to Yu Ari, stalled at B-rank and forced off the field, than to Seo Yerim, the S-rank overflowing with mana?
"She was pretty scared watching that monster, the Assassin Scorpion. If her power grew, maybe her confidence would too. Yeah—maybe Yu Ari's the one."
At that thought, Oinoi furrowed her brow. Then she spoke.
"Yu Ari… is a nymph-phobic woman…! She had the makings of a Kore, but she is as terrifying as the dreadful witch Medaea…!"
Oinoi maintained her unwavering stance on Yu Ari. It was a bit like how cats and dogs trembled at the mere sight of their veterinarian, I supposed.
"To wash away such dread, there is no remedy but to bathe in the waters of the river Styx…! In short, Yu Ari is a woman like a minefield…. A mine-woman…!"
A mine-woman. I had a vague feeling I'd seen that exact phrase floating around the internet somewhere. Yu Ari did have a slightly passive, gloomy streak in the past, but was she really deserving of talk like that?—just as I was wondering, Oinoi spoke again.
"This Oinoi also believes gifting the apple to Kore-in-waiting Lee Jina would be good…! For Lee Jina let this Oinoi ride in a truck…!"
Apparently the ride in the back of a one-ton delivery truck had been so tremendously fun and thrilling for Oinoi that it had become an unforgettable memory.
"No nymph anywhere has surely ever ridden in the bed of a vehicle called a truck…. This Oinoi, in representation of all nymphs, has received a great and mighty debt…!"
It was true that I owed Lee Jina something as well. Her surprising sweetness toward my mom and dad had been quite unexpected. And thanks to her playing the fake girlfriend, my parents' relentless nagging about marriage had eased up somewhat.
"So that narrows the gift list down to three. One of three, then."
Should I draw lots for it?
Just as I was thinking that, Oinoi spoke.
"Three women and one golden apple…. This Oinoi, something has come to mind…! There was the shepherd story my teacher once told…!"
"Shepherd?"
"The tale of a shepherd who had to give a golden apple to one of three women, and who in the end brought about a terrible war and died miserably…. The master of the house must be careful…!"
Was she talking about the golden apple and the three goddesses?
Since meeting Oinoi, I'd read plenty of nymph-related lore, so I knew the rough shape of it.
"Hera, Athena, Aphrodite. The three goddesses each bombarded the shepherd with gifts so he'd name her the apple's owner—that story?"
Of course. Now that I thought about it, my situation resembled that prince Paris, the chooser of the golden apple, in more ways than one.
And then a very wise idea came to me.
"Oinoi, do you know what lesson the story of the golden apple and Paris teaches?"
"This Oinoi heard the lesson was this: do not let a moment's greed ruin an important choice or decision…!"
"Nope. When you're dealing with multiple people at once, you open a bidding war and pick whoever offers the terms you like best. Yes—exactly this."
The ancients truly were wise. The golden apple and Paris. His story had clearly been written for the sake of my future.
"I'll give the apple away, so I'll just ask everyone what they can do for me. I really am clever. Whoever presents the best terms gets the gift!"
"Hieeek…! This Oinoi senses only ill omens…! This Oinoi now knows nothing of what will come…. The master of the house may do as he pleases…!"
Whoosh—. Oinoi retreated into her room.
Such a simple creature!
Whether Oinoi feared the outcome or not, I grouped Yu Ari, Seo Yerim, and Lee Jina together into a single group chat.
Ha Ildo has invited Sternim, Ari, and Iljin Jina to the chat.
Then I uploaded a photo of the apple above it.
"Ha? What the hell are you saying, you little punk!"
Seo Yerim was furious the moment she saw her phone. Whoom—. The temperature shot up in an instant, and An Yeongeun, who was behind the wheel, panicked.
"Yerim, it's hot in here. Are you angry at me because traffic's going to make us late leaving work?"
"Oh—sorry. No, forget that, look at the message Ha Ildo sent! He's refusing to just give me the golden apple and auctioning it off like some bidding war…! Obviously it should go to me, no?"
"Should it? I don't think anything's that obvious here. It's his property. Whoever he gives it to is his business."
An Yeongeun, a C-rank awakener, was Seo Yerim's secretary but never hesitated to speak her mind. When she asked why Yerim should be entitled to the apple, Yerim herself faltered.
"Because—I'm the one who found him that house!"
"That was originally a rift site. He could have eaten every apple there without telling anyone, if he'd wanted to."
"Well, yes, but—do you have any idea how good I've been to that guy? How dare he, ignorant of everything I've done for him, stab me in the back like this?"
Yerim fumed, though the fact that her secretary hated the heat made managing the car's temperature an ordeal for her. Even so, there was no helping her anger. She had, unquestionably, heaped favors on Ha Ildo in all sorts of ways.
The car was jammed solid in traffic. An Yeongeun lifted her hands from the wheel for a moment and began, "Well, well."
"The Telos Corporation funneling all that work to Ha Ildo—that was at your instruction, wasn't it? Back when he was still D-rank."
"Wh-what are you talking about? Those were errands anyone could have done."
"Sure, Yerim. Just like you say, they were errands anyone could have done. But you dumped every last one of those errands onto Ha Ildo. So you were thinking of it as doing him a favor, weren't you?"
"What's that supposed to mean? No. I just felt a little sorry for him—stuck at D-rank, filtered out, about to vanish from the industry. Besides, he always did handle his work conscientiously."
"……."
An Yeongeun looked at Yerim in the passenger seat and slowly narrowed her slender eyes. Then, instead of saying anything, she reached out and switched on the car's air conditioning.
It was hot in more ways than one. Beep, beeeep—the moment the light changed, the car behind them blared its horn, and Seo Yerim spoke.
"Yeongeun, let's head to Ha Ildo's house for now. I'm not sure exactly what the golden apple is, but if it's a miraculous crop, then Telos should get its hands on it first and study it. Don't you think?"
"Look at you, worrying about the company too. How unlike you."
So saying, the seasoned secretary An Yeongeun turned the wheel.