Oinoi and the Little Stationery Store # 1
Morning.
As always, I woke up to the soft warmth of a fluffy fur ball nestled against me.
━Woof-woof…!
"Hey, get up."
━Woof-woof…!
"I said I'm getting up."
━Grrrr…!
Grrr—.
According to Lee Jina yesterday, that was the sound Keongkeongi made when angry. Apparently the little guy had been seething as he watched me squirm and dawdle in bed.
"Okay, okay, I'm truly up now."
To appease the royally pissed-off Keongkeongi, I dragged myself out of bed, opened the red lid of the plastic tub stuffed full of peanuts, and poured a generous stream into the bowl that served as his food dish.
Then, just like always, Keongkeongi crammed the peanuts into his cheek pouches and zipped out of the yard.
"Where does he even go to eat them, instead of just eating comfortably at home?"
Truthfully, I knew exactly where Keongkeongi was taking all those peanuts.
When I looked out the window, about five dog-squirrels had already come into the yard, scampering this way and that. Keongkeongi trotted over to them and began handing out the peanuts from his cheeks.
━Woof-woof…!
━Woof-woof…!
━Woof-woof…!
That was how Keongkeongi shared his food with the wild dog-squirrels. As the Chief Dog-Squirrel who ruled this neighborhood, he apparently felt a certain sense of duty.
Watching him, I learned a valuable lesson about what it means to be a leader.
You share what you have. You live by giving.
That was obviously what a great man had to do.
"And that's why I shared the Golden Apples too."
The apple of the first harvest.
It had gone into Lee Jina's hands.
From what I heard, Lee Jina's older sister had been suffering from Mana Sickness, and the freshly harvested Golden Apple had dramatically improved her condition.
"That's incredible."
Unlike Yu Ari, I wasn't a doctor, so I didn't know much about diseases or viruses.
But I'd heard plenty about the sicknesses that had drifted in from the rifts—incurable, untreatable, the works.
And a fruit that could improve one of those?
"If we grow them in bulk, wouldn't that be absolutely huge?"
This dog-squirrel village. The thought of planting it full of Golden Apple trees and opening a golden orchard already had my back itching with excitement.
It tickled like ants were crawling all over my spine!
━Zzji-.
"Ah, it's you, Ang-ang-i."
Whoosh—.
I plucked Ang-ang-i off my back. In return, the little emperor honey ant dropped a single multivitamin tablet into my palm.
I popped it into my mouth, swallowed, and brushed off my hands and feet.
"Alright. Let's start another day. Ang-ang-i, did you stack the firewood like I asked?"
━Zzji.
I stepped out into the wide open lot in the yard and looked over the firewood Ang-ang-i had piled up. Drawing the Beam Saber from my waist, I channeled mana into it, and with a deep vwoooom—a rush of heat—the blade of light sprang forth.
"Asura Pacheoncham!"
Slice, slice—.
The feeling of cutting things with a Beam Saber was, as always, mind-blowing.
This sensation of logs gliding apart so smoothly!
Once you're hooked, there's no coming back, I tell you!
"Still, I'd love to use it in a real fight sometime."
Maybe I'd take a C-Rank rift commission and head out today—. I mulled it over, but in the end decided against it.
Because today, Lee Jina had made plans for me to have a meal with her father.
Granted, the appointment was for dinner—.
━Zzji…!
"Right, breakfast matters too. You say you poured your cereal? I always thought cereal tastes best when it's nice and crunchy."
━Jizj-.
Having finished a light stretch, I headed back into my room.
Then, cereal bowl in hand, I went knock knock—on Oinoi's door, and a small voice answered from within.
━This Oinoi is sleeping, she is…!
"If you're sleeping, then who's answering me right now? I'm coming in. You need to eat breakfast."
Click, creak—.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, there sat Oinoi in front of the computer. Her eyes were glazed and bloodshot—she clearly hadn't slept a wink since the night before, playing Minesweeper.
"Oinoi, you can't just stay home playing games all day. You need to go outside too!"
"This game is terribly fun, it is…! This Oinoi meant to play just one round before sleeping, but before she knew it, the morning sun had risen, it has…! Hieeek…!"
Now you see why I never taught Oinoi any game besides Minesweeper. If she stayed up all night even over this, what would happen if I introduced her to something else?
She would never set foot out of the house again, that much was certain!
"Fine, that settles it. Oinoi, I'm going to teach you how to have fun outside. Come to my place. Now, go brush your teeth, wash up, and come out!"
I took the subway toward my parents' home.
But Oinoi, it seemed, still hadn't let go of her attachment to Minesweeper.
"If this Oinoi had played just a little longer, she might have cleared Minesweeper, she might have…! But…! If she lingers in one place for far too long, this Oinoi will become a Stagnant Water Nymph, she will…!"
A Stagnant Water Nymph—now what on earth was that?
When I asked, curious, Oinoi explained.
"We brook nymphs, the ones like this Oinoi… are blessed with tremendous potential, we are…! And so, upon acquiring a special situation, condition, or object, we evolve, we do…!"
"Like dog-squirrels? Nymphs evolve like dog-squirrels do?"
"Muhhehe, to be precise, it is the reverse, it is…! Dog-squirrels evolved to be like nymphs, they did…! In any case, the Stagnant Water Nymph is one of the worst evolutions a nymph must avoid at all costs…!"
From brook nymph to Stagnant Water Nymph, huh.
What would actually happen if Oinoi became one?
Even Oinoi didn't seem to know much about that.
"This Oinoi has never seen a Stagnant Water Nymph with her own eyes, she hasn't…! But according to the rumors…, they laze about without ever leaving their caves or hovels, they do…!"
I see, that tracks.
It was the kind of moment where all sorts of pictures painted themselves in my head.
Still, by Stagnant Water Nymph standards, Oinoi was fairly industrious.
After all, she had to tend the Golden Apple tree and roam the neighborhood collecting snacks from all the grandmas and grandpas.
Then a question popped into my head.
"The apples just fruited, right? Once more apples grow, could we grow a whole bunch of trees from the seeds? Like an orchard."
"Impossible, it is…!"
Impossible?
At the sound of my golden orchard dream receding into the distance, it felt like the sky was tearing apart with a kaa-krak.
Soon Oinoi explained the reason.
"The Golden Apple tree consumes a considerable amount of the mana from the land around it, it does…! And so a Golden Apple tree must be planted only one per region, it must…!"
So that's how it was.
My plan to mass-produce Golden Apples had evaporated in an instant.
Nothing to be done about it, I supposed.
Unlike my disappointment, Oinoi somehow looked delighted, her face brimming with anticipation.
"The Golden Apple tree…! It is a singular and strange tree that grows tall and proud, it is…. If it keeps flourishing like this, the nymph sisters will surely see those golden fruits and come flocking to find Oinoi, they will…!"
"I hope they do."
Chatting away like that, before I knew it I'd arrived at my old neighborhood.
I thought about heading straight home—. But my feet, of their own accord, turned toward somewhere else entirely.
"Wow, it's really still here."
The school-run hour.
The time when kids who'd only just started elementary school toddled along with their oversized backpacks, heading to class.
"Eilena! Let's go together!"
"Arwin! Hurry up!"
"I need to buy a recorder!"
There did seem to be an awful lot of half-elf kids around, but there it stood, proud and unmistakable: the Alpha Stationery Store, steeped in my elementary school memories!
The signboard had faded with age, but the inside glowed bright even in the morning light, and the small children swarming about were nostalgia itself.
"So many long-eared halfbloods there are, there are…! All with backpacks, heading somewhere they go…. This Oinoi senses the sinister scheme of the wicked long-eared fairies, she does…!"
"They're just kids going to elementary school. There's an elementary school around here that I went to. Anyway, you know what school is, right? A place where people gather to study."
I explained the concept of a school to Oinoi.
Children gathering in one place to learn all kinds of lessons.
Soon Oinoi thrust both hands up in the air and cried out proudly.
"Muhhehe, this Oinoi has attended one of those 'schools' as well, she has…! We nymph sisters learned this and that from our Teacher, we did…!"
"Really, now?"
Her Teacher.
Oinoi would sometimes bring up her Teacher like this. I was intensely curious about who a nymph's Teacher was and what she had taught them, but I never asked.
Because I knew that whenever the subject of her Teacher came up, Oinoi's expression would fade into wistfulness and quiet loneliness.
Rumble, rumble—.
By nine o'clock, once all the children had gone off to school, Oinoi and I stepped into the now-quieter stationery store.
"Welcome—hmm?"
The owner, wrinkled of face yet still fairly large-framed, looked at Oinoi and me and opened his mouth in mild surprise.
I was a little surprised too.
Why hadn't the owner aged at all?
And I was struck by how narrow and small the store had become—back in my childhood it had seemed so vast, but now a single glance took in the whole of it.
A cramped interior.
Which meant all the merchandise pressed in on my eyes, packed tight and tidy.
"Ahh…! This bears the very same name as the god of the sun, it does…!"
Whoosh—.
Oinoi picked up a snack in a plastic-wrapped stick. Sure enough, now that she mentioned it, Apollo was indeed the same name as the sun god.
How much did it cost?
"Seven hundred won."
You've got to be kidding me.
Apollo costs seven hundred won now?
More than the store shrinking as I grew taller, the swelling price made me feel the dizzying weight of the passing years.
Back in the day, five hundred won bought you a snack and a drink.
"How much is the slushie?"
If I remembered right, a small cup used to be about five hundred won.
"Three thousand won a cup."
That's a bit brutal.
It felt like my inner child was dying on the spot.
Of course, in an era of runaway prices, a neighborhood stationery store had to do what it had to do to survive.
Was the stationery store of my childhood already gone for good—.
As I stood there feeling like Qu Yuan, the poet who supposedly wrote verse mourning his fallen homeland, something caught my eye.
It was a card pack!
Legend of the Blue-Eyed Fairy.
Good grief.
To think a place still selling this card pack actually existed.
As if in a trance, I bought a pack.
One thousand won.
I tore it open, and a familiar card stared back at me.
★★★★
ATK : 700
DEF : 2000
"Ooooh."
This was the card I'd always liked—high defense, pretty artwork.
Maybe Oinoi would like it too?
"Oinoi, check this out. This card is awesome, right? Its defense is two thousand."
"Hieeek…! That 'card' thing is utterly nymph-phobic, it is…! A 'Holy Elf'…! The long-eared fairies have infiltrated even the play culture of humans, they have…!"
Apparently Oinoi disliked the elf pictured on the card too.
The stationery store owner, on the other hand, was deeply impressed.
"An elf card? Give that to me, and I'll throw in the Apollo for free. My son married an elf, and my daughter-in-law loves collecting elf cards!"
What a strange hobby to have.
I traded the elf card for the Apollo snack.
Soon Oinoi tore open the plastic wrapper and crunched away, shouting between bites.
"To bite and devour the sun god like a mere snack…! At last this Oinoi can avenge the grudge of Nymph Daphne, she can…! Nymph Secret Technique: Non-stop Snack Munching…!"
Oinoi munched her snack with gusto.
Seeing her out and about doing something after being cooped up at home playing Minesweeper was honestly reassuring.
Kids really do need to play outside.
Just as I was thinking that, the owner spoke up.
"Can't believe my son's already married—time really does fly, huh? And to think Professor Ha's boy got this big. Ildo, I barely recognized you."
I thought he'd forgotten my name, but no—he knew me all along.
I had been the neighborhood alley-captain back in the day, after all.
Then the owner asked me a question.
"You here to see the moving center owner, by any chance? He's been saying for years now that he needs to see you. Go have a talk with him, Ildo—see if you can't sort something out for the man."
The owner of the moving center was Lee Jina's father.
When I heard he'd been looking for me since years ago, I assumed it was probably about the marriage his parents and hers had arranged between us without asking anyone—. But I was wrong.
"President Lee, that man. He still insists his wife is alive. A pitiful soul, truly. Says that whenever he drinks, his wife appears in his dreams, begging him to save her."
"……."
"Ildo, did you ever actually see the madam yourself? Back then, at that rift."
That rift.
Which rift he even meant, nothing came to mind right away.
But whether it was the smell of the stationery store gently stirring old memories, or the texture of the card pack still in my hand, something—piece by piece—began to surface in my mind.
It was the first time I had ever laid eyes on a rift.