The Sweet Taste of Strawberry Ice Cream
“Se-ha-ya?”
“Yes?”
“Isn’t it such a waste to give me just one bite of ice cream?”
“No, that’s not it…”
Am I overthinking a mere indirect kiss?
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to voice the embarrassment.
At that moment, my eyes met Jiyeon-hyeon’s.
He had forgotten even to eat his own ice cream and was simply watching us bicker.
Then he spoke to us.
“The purpose is finished, so I’ll be leaving soon. I hope you two reach a smooth agreement.”
‘No running away!’
Jiyeon-hyeon left the short remark and vanished.
Only I and Sol remained.
I hurriedly began my excuse.
“I just didn’t feed you dessert first so you wouldn’t lose your appetite.”
“Is that so? Then it’s a shame.”
Sol seemed to accept my words and nodded obediently.
Even I saw it as a flawless, perfect improvisation with no logical gaps.
After all, if I wanted to eat, I could have ordered my own; there was no need to steal someone else’s.
Just as I was about to savor the last of the berry-berry-berry strawberry, Sol suddenly slammed her chair down and rose.
She immediately walked over to me.
Flipping her short hair back, she said “Mmm” and took the ice cream from my hand, biting in with a single bite.
“Huh?”
“Sorry, it looked too delicious, right?”
Sol apologized to me with a trace of ice cream on her lips.
Looking at her awkwardly smiling face, I found it impossible to hate her.
“The ice cream is fine, but… that thing that touched my lips…”
“Ehh, Se-ha is surprisingly sensitive about that? Between same-sex friends, it’s nothing.”
‘Am I overthinking too much?’
Yeah, since we’re both women now, it shouldn’t be a problem.
A mere trace of saliva—what’s the big deal?
Resigned, I tried to eat the ice cream again, but the trace on her lips kept nagging at me.
“That… there’s ice cream on the right side of your lips.”
“Really? Thanks for telling me.”
Sol wiped the ice cream on her lips with her slender fingers and then put the same finger straight into her mouth, sucking it.
“I wanted to eat even the part that got on my lips because it tasted too good. You’re not disappointed, are you?”
‘I’m not disappointed at all.’
I felt strangely like I had witnessed something forbidden.
Sucking a finger was a meaningless action, yet it carried an inexplicably lewd feeling.
‘Am I the only one thinking weirdly about this?’
Looking around, I didn’t feel any gazes on us.
Sol was simply muttering to herself as if unaware of her own actions.
“Ugh! I was eating carefully on purpose, but the lipstick got all over. I didn’t even bring tint.”
Just as she said.
A distinctly foreign red color stood out on my strawberry ice cream.
‘Can I really eat this?’
I had been given permission by Sol with no strings attached, yet a guilty thrill of breaking a taboo consumed me.
“Se-ha, if you’re not eating it, you can just give it to me.”
“No, I’ll just eat it!”
In the end, I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed the ice cream in one bite.
‘Ugh, it’s cold!’
The moment it touched my tongue, my head went numb from the cold.
I couldn’t even chew properly because my mouth was stuffed full of ice cream.
At that moment, a rich strawberry scent rose from the tip of my tongue.
‘Is this ice cream taste? Or Sol’s taste…?’
For some reason, it felt sweeter than the first time I tasted it.
***
“I need to calm down first.”
The most impressive breakfast I’d had in ages.
Even after returning to my room, the memory of the indirect kiss kept swirling in my mind.
Lying face down on the bed and kicking my feet for a moment, a sudden thought came to me.
‘That’s right, because Se-ha has become a proper young lady.’
Was that it?
At those words, an inexplicable defiance rose in me and I shot up from the bed.
‘…’
As soon as I sat up, there was nothing left to do.
I had just parted ways with Sol, and meeting her now felt too soon.
Originally, the only person I could face without lingering embarrassment was Jiyeon-hyeon from the other day—or Cho Hwan-seok, who taught me martial arts.
Both of them were unsuitable as conversation partners since they would find me boring.
“Sigh, my fate is like this.”
Since there was no reason to venture out, the only thing left to do was… nothing.
※ Unidentified notification: 57 messages.
‘I wonder what new posts have appeared today.’
The community that made up half of my in-game life.
Grateful to Rigor who had created this function, I checked the accumulated notifications.
‘For now, accept all friend requests.’
Only now did I understand the cause of the explosive friend requests that had poured in since I logged in.
Had others seen my figure on the second floor and sent friend requests out of curiosity?
For a moment, looking at my account with over ninety friends felt a little gratifying.
A vague sense of emptiness stirred within me.
“My account, anyone would say it’s not a faked account, right?”
Here, “faked account” meant a blank account.
In other words, an empty account with no traces at all.
The representative example was my account with no profile picture, no background image, and no posts.
Of course, within the Tower that had introduced internet real-name verification, I wouldn’t be rejected solely for having a blank account.
Yet the feeling of unease was impossible to shake off.
[Post registered.]
The photo I had just posted was this:
[A wooden cat-shaped figurine that looked as if every single strand of fur was alive]
It was a surprisingly realistic result for something hastily made on the spot.
“This is nothing special.”
The power that had arisen from eating the World Tree seed.
I didn’t need a staff or clothes; as long as it was related to wood, I could summon anything.
‘Actually, I hadn’t planned to make a cat on purpose…’
Imagining an adorable, cute image, a baby cat naturally popped out.
In the end, like magic, this ability was shaped by my own heart, so it was only natural.
Somehow I had become a cat mom without realizing it.
‘Well, cat moms have even entered the martial world in web novels these days; no big deal.’
Thinking “cat mom in the Tower” made me smile involuntarily.
After posting the photo and changing my profile picture, I successfully escaped the blank account stage.
Next, it was time to handle the homework I had been putting off.
“Was this how it was supposed to be?”
I adjusted the surrounding mana and sent it flowing into the center of my heart.
The voice I had missed so much echoed once more.
“What do you mean, what was missing?! Trapping me in that dark, freezing abyss!”
‘Oh my ears…’
A headache threatened to split my skull from the World Tree’s voice ringing inside my head.
It couldn’t be helped.
Originally, I had never planned to negotiate with terrorists.
I would have to keep the World Tree sealed inside my body for the rest of my life.
“Wait a moment! I will explain everything that my existence can offer you.”
“Help?”
Of course I had never intended to truly seal the World Tree, but the promise of help piqued my curiosity.
I leisurely savored her begging-like voice.
“First, the ability you are using right now is only the tip of the iceberg. As the owner of that power, I can give you advice.”
“A World Tree who lived her entire life in the forest calling herself the tip of the iceberg sounds rather odd. Then what about the next?”
“Second, my current state is one of incomplete memory. As your divine power connected to me rises, I will also recover the lost memories.”
“Wait a second!”
The logic of the second claim sounded strange.
If my divine power rose, the World Tree would recover her lost memories?
That would be good for the World Tree, not for me.
My question was instantly countered.
“If I, who has fully recovered her memories, can pass on the teachings of flesh and blood, the wisdom from a senior who once bore a great divine power—however many billions of gold coins you might offer—would still be impossible to obtain.”
“Hmm, I understand. Then what about the next?”
‘So in the end, whether first or second, she’s saying she’ll give me advice.’
It wasn’t entirely trustworthy, but I decided to hear her next words anyway.
“If I say I will give you advice, don’t you think it would be ungrateful, or at least display such ridiculous behavior? That is the third reason for me to be valued greatly…”
“The third is?”
“Um… yeah! Could you not become a companion to soothe my boredom?”
“…”
‘Should I just throw everything away?’
Summarizing the World Tree’s words in one sentence.
It simply meant she would become “I rested inside your body.”
Just as I was thinking I could finally banish her forever for the crime of villainy, the World Tree hurriedly spoke up.
“You! Then how about I tell you what became of the elf village?”
“The elf village from when I was on the second floor?”
“Exactly. It is only natural that you wish to know how the elves fared after you left.”
‘Hmm? That actually sounds interesting.’
I could even observe the changes that occurred after I left.
Among all the World Tree’s words I had heard so far, this was the most tempting.