Chapter 235
Chapter 235
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 235
Chapter Title: Mind-Blowing (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Unknown to me, but there's this ability imprinted deep in my mind.
Now, even when I hook up with someone else, the guilt isn't all that bad.
Feeling guilty at this point would just be weird anyway.
If it's just a one-night stand, that's the end of it.
If affection blossoms between us and the relationship progresses, I'll take responsibility as far as I can reach.
"Ugh."
"You awake?"
Taeyang sat up with a deathly pale face and looked around.
He rubbed the front of his clothes. Realizing the pain in his chest wasn't severe, he looked at me with unearned emotion.
While he was out, I'd used my authority to heal his broken bones.
"Get up for now. It's late. We'll talk slowly later—let's head back."
Taeyang stared blankly at my mask for a moment after my words.
"......"
"What?"
"Nothing."
His speech had been corrected back to polite formality.
Taeyang caught his breath and asked me,
"Can I call you 'hyungnim' starting today?"
Hyungnim? Out of nowhere?
I'd figured we weren't strangers who'd only met once or twice.
A relation to the Wood Spirit King. Descendant. Inheritor of his power.
He knew I was the Wood Spirit King's successor and had seen my full strength, so all that was left was to kneel, huh.
"Let's go for now."
I dusted off my hands and stood up.
Taeyang followed behind me, and we reached the campfire where the women were sitting.
It was early evening, with the sun slightly dipped.
For me, who'd spent a day in the dungeon, it was the first night sky I'd seen—dark and murky.
Ihyang's face lit up the moment she saw me and Taeyang.
"Ah, you guys are finally here? Taeyang, where the hell have you been?"
"Just checked out something nearby."
Saying that, Taeyang plopped down haphazardly by the fire. Aori stared intently at his face.
These two knew each other from before.
They spoke so casually, it seemed more than ordinary friends. But not lovers either.
Aori glanced back and forth between Taeyang and me, then spat right in his face.
"Came back as the bitch who got put in his place, huh."
Listen to that mouth.
"What the fuck, you crazy bitch?"
"Finally... Taeyang's wearing that loser's face. Inferior male."
"Ah, you fucking psycho bitch."
She wasn't just direct—she hacked away at a guy's pride like it was nothing.
Veins bulged on Taeyang's forehead.
"...Why do I have to put your chastity belt on too?"
"When it's time to set watch, you go off by yourself. You might actually die."
She wasn't just vulgar—she made listeners uncomfortable too.
"Those two are always like that, hehe. No idea what they're saying, but it's fun to watch."
As I sat by the fire, Ihyang beamed at them innocently.
If she caught the meaning, she wouldn't be laughing. But seeing her puppy-like smile, I couldn't say a word.
"What's wrong?"
"...Nah, nothing."
Predestined rivals. Too crude for such a grand term, but their spat had real intensity—not some petty squabble.
As I sorted my thoughts and looked away briefly, their argument escalated to grabbing each other's cheeks.
"Ow... let go!"
"Take it back."
"No way. If it were you, I could do it with my hands, but... down there? No."
"Ugh, fuck. Gross. Don't say shit like that. You know how many clients like that I get?"
Clients? Jesus.
I didn't judge, but her brazen admission of working in the sex trade felt off.
Their conversation was off the charts.
I looked at Taeyang pitifully.
There was none of the seriousness I'd seen earlier.
Wonder if I'd even get a proper story out of him.
Still, someone who knew about the Wood Spirit King? It got my hopes up.
'This damn ability. Let's see what the fuss is about.'
*****
"Aori. Take care. Your Majesty."
Late evening.
When it was time for watch and Ihyang was asleep, we settled nearby and faced each other.
Aori knelt politely on both knees, her lips curved like a crescent moon.
I'd also removed my mask, revealing my true face.
"So you're the Wood Spirit King's great-granddaughter, and you're the one who got his power implanted?"
"...Yeah."
Aori nodded up and down repeatedly. Taeyang glared at her in disgust.
"But why 'Your Majesty'?"
"'Cause you're the king. Your Majesty."
"Isn't it usually 'Your Highness'?"
"...The second Wood Spirit King could become the Wood Spirit Emperor. Right? So as his great-granddaughter, I'm a fallen imperial princess."
"Oh. Then you and hyungnim doing it would be incest, huh?"
"Exactly."
As I raised an eyebrow at their banter, they shut up immediately.
Wood Spirit King, Wood Spirit Emperor.
Incest? What insane family does that come from?
I got Taeyang, but Aori was serious.
These two thought on a whole different level from me.
I'd seen plenty of crazies, but these two took the cake for sheer madness.
I picked up on it during the talk.
"So what does 'implanted power' mean?"
"Ah, that... It's a long story, but if hyungnim's okay, I'll explain."
"Go ahead."
Taeyang started from the beginning, step by step.
"As I said earlier, the Wood Spirit King's descendants are scattered worldwide. Plenty abuse the power, including Flower folk and World Trees. Not me, though. Anyway, Aori's crew was developing the Wood Spirit King's power."
"Developing?"
"Since it passes down diluted to descendants, they extract blood or power from them for research."
Raping other Wood People or trees to absorb power.
The Wood Spirit King's essence—his signature unique ability.
Taeyang spread his hand and gathered mana.
A faint purple mana clump flickered.
"This is from a paper mulberry tree. Met her at work. Got it then."
"......Work?"
"As a descendant of the Wood Spirit King, survival's either selling your body or crime. Fake an ID, and World Trees sniff you out quick."
Taeyang concealed the mana in his hand, then transformed his right arm.
-Crunch! Crunch!
Bark covered his skin. A grotesque ent arm became his right arm.
Huge and heavy, a proper ent limb.
"Descendants can wield Wood Person power like this."
In their own ways.
Taeyang spread mana through his right arm.
Flowers bloomed from the branches on his hand, glowing faintly.
-Pop, poof!
Chili peppers, shrubs, forsythia, Solomon's seal, goji berries. And more.
A riot of colorful flowers sprouted from his arm.
All kinds, tons of them.
To bloom these, he'd absorbed deep blood from countless Wood People.
Release them all, and he'd pack serious power.
Maybe even take on a National Tree.
"Ent."
"No, Wood Demon."
Taeyang corrected my mutter.
"Trees' power is strong. But they're just single trees. The Wood Spirit King contains it all in one vessel."
The cracked voice unique to a Wood Person unleashing.
A rough, metal-scraping growl leaked from his mouth.
Like auto-tune ripping his throat.
Never got used to that voice shift.
Taeyang's breathing grew ragged. He reverted his arm to human.
"But Wood People can't fully contain the Wood Spirit King's power. Only humans can."
"So."
"......Descendants tried making an artificial Wood Spirit King. I was the test subject."
Taeyang slumped, drained.
"But it's only half-baked. You and I are different. Know what's the shittiest part right now?"
"What?"
"Standing before hyungnim killed my sex drive, fuck."
"......"
That...
That's kinda pitiful.
"Those mimicking the Wood Spirit King half-assed kneel naturally before the real deal... Yeah. I admit it."
"......"
"To complete my experiment, I'd have to kill the real Wood Spirit King myself. Then his power becomes mine."
"So you tried to kill me?"
Taeyang's lips trembled.
He hadn't really meant to kill me. Didn't seem to value the power that much anyway.
"And got wrecked, turning into the inferior male? Lame-ass Taeyang?"
"Fuck... Yeah, that's right."
Even with Aori's jab, Taeyang just sighed emptily.
"Yeah, well, sorry for testing you. They told me to... help if you're worthy, kill if not."
"Those scholars or whatever?"
"Yeah. Like fathers to me, but got wiped by World Trees when I was fifteen."
Those extracting the Wood Spirit King's power were long gone by now.
"So what's your real goal anyway."
Taeyang said quietly,
"What I was told was just 'help him.' Kill the unworthy. Aid the trustworthy."
"That's it?"
"......Boomers all talk like that. Obsessed with past glory, 'serve the king' bullshit."
Taeyang didn't seem thrilled with his mission.
But he followed it, so he must've truly respected those who'd cared for him.
Despite the 'boomer' jabs, affection seeped through his tone.
"His retainers built a few dungeons too. I can introduce them. But their standards are strict—if they learn you have the king's power, they might try to kill you."
"If I'm unworthy?"
"Exactly! Hyungnim's right."
"You recognize me as king?"
The conversation flowed there naturally.
Taeyang grinned readily.
"Psh, get one thing right and I'd crown a stray dog king. That was just formality."
"What is it then."
Taeyang got serious.
I shut up and listened closely.
His heavy voice dropped like a verdict in my ear.
"......You horny for trees?"
"You fuck."
-Thwack!
My fist shot out.
Taeyang flew back, smashing his head on the dirt.
"Ow! Wh-what the hell, hyungnim?!"
"I got fucked by a tree and ended up like this, asshole. What tree turns you on, you perv?"
"......Not horny? How? Aren't you the Wood Spirit King... successor?"
He looked genuinely shocked.
Glancing aside, Aori covered her mouth, equally stunned.
Appalled Aori. Anyone'd think she'd been shot.
"No... way......"
"You two are the no-way."
"You ever tried sticking it in?"
"Well."
Couldn't say no.
Aori relaxed at my silence, patting her chest.
"Knew it."
Pissing me off.
Having to deal with these tree fetish freaks from now on.
Didn't seem like a one-off.
I clutched my dizzy head and sighed.
"Right now... hyungnim can't use his power well, so I acknowledge that."
Taeyang murmured from the ground.
"It'll get knotier with time."
"Shut the fuck up......"
I'd suspected since learning the Wood Spirit King's authority, but hearing it direct was another level.
Taeyang's voice begged me to believe only him. I rubbed my face with both hands.
-Tug, tug.
Then Aori pulled my clothes.
"My knots are pretty good too, Your Majesty."
I felt like I was going insane.