Chapter 287
Chapter 287
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 287
Chapter Title: I Can't Do Something Like That
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"It's also one of Flower's hideouts."
My hardened expression didn't soften.
"I didn't catch that. What did you say?"
A trash heap filled with the stench of rotting food in spots.
No starved corpses, but hungry children were watching us from nearby, holding their breath.
The adult approaching us stared at me intently from under their hood before silently turning away.
Flower—my hand shot out before my emotions could catch up.
"Let's avoid unnecessary conflicts."
My hand halted at the Sage's restraint.
The azure mana coiled around my arm flickered as if ready to launch.
Even I struggled to control my body, stopped just short of firing the spell.
"...What is this?"
"Mr. Lee Si-heon. The children are scared. Please soften your expression a bit. I'm begging you."
Was I that worked up?
Following the Sage's nod, I glanced sideways, and toddlers barely weaned came into view.
There was a girl who looked about middle-school age, and boys who seemed prone to tantrums. Most faces were filled with fear, but some openly glared at me, an outsider, with hatred.
Children desperate just to survive.
At an age to be running around playfully, yet their cheeks were sunken.
I couldn't bear to look at their faces full of worry and anxiety.
I withdrew the mana from my arm.
"Flower is protecting these kids. Is that what you're saying?"
My mind was already a mess from what Bead and the sun had said.
My voice twisted irritably.
"Even you, the Sage?"
I didn't think I could make a good face, so I pulled a mask from my pocket and flipped it on.
The Sage's face remained impassive to my question.
Was it just my imagination that her pitying look toward me felt infuriating?
I could only calm down after a deep breath.
"Did I ever say I was defending them?"
She finally spoke.
"Good and evil, beauty and ugliness—they change with the times. I neither hate nor defend anyone."
"Who can't spout obvious crap like that?"
This group had its positive sides too.
Don't judge the whole by a few.
Did they expect me to just nod along? I'd sooner tear them apart five ways.
If we understood and accepted everything, no negative groups would exist in the world.
Try saying a hardcore racist group is right. Or forgive murders in the name of environmental protection.
"Don't dodge the issue with platitudes. Flower is Flower, and bringing me here—the World Trees would see it as treason."
I was polite, but no kind words would come.
I had no intention of criticizing the Sage's charitable actions.
Narrowly, they were good deeds.
But the weight of her name changed things. A regular person helping kids here was one thing; the Sage doing it was another.
Just her repeated visits to Flower hideouts was a huge issue.
"If Flower exposes this, it won't end well for you either."
"Do you think I'd fall for something like that, Mr. Lee Si-heon?"
"Probably not."
"Calm down a bit more and hear me out."
I stopped talking and looked down at her.
The Sage still had that composed face.
"Shall we move to the next place first?"
The Sage began gathering mana for spatial magic.
Watching her face suddenly brought back what Bead had said to me.
Flower does terrorism, and Flower does relief work. We're not bad. We haven't killed innocents.
Bullshit.
Setting aside that monumental lie about not killing innocents, as long as Flower acted as Flower, they were all in the same boat.
No matter the differences in methods or internal squabbles, if the faction held together, they knew and tolerated each other's roles, reaping the benefits.
Listening separately, it was amusing in a way.
It meant infighting and faction splits were everyday in Flower.
Terrorists are terrorists.
Unless someone flipped the whole thing inside out.
No—even overturning the entire faction wouldn't erase the stigma.
......
It was a world I couldn't help but hate.
"Mr. Lee Si-heon."
"Yes."
"Don't worry about this next place. It's not a Flower hideout."
Heat rose to my face.
I cooled my mind, took off the mask, then put it back on.
This new spot was another slum.
The difference: an unusual amount of rubble from collapsed buildings.
And elders and kids scavenging scrap metal from the debris.
One glance told the story of what had happened here.
"Long ago. Site of a terrorist attack."
Where Flower and World Tree forces had once clashed.
Like the neglected Flower hideout rejected by World Trees, this place was no different.
The Sage did relief work here too.
Surprisingly, most kids knew her and followed her with admiring eyes, like she was their savior.
I still couldn't figure out what the Sage wanted to tell me.
Dust and grit stained her white skirt hem, but she looked happy watching the children. Sometimes, she even seemed like their mother.
"Got the coordinates memorized?"
"Yeah, roughly. But it'll take a bit."
"Stick with me for a while then. Let's head to the next spot right away. We need breakfast too."
The other places were similar.
Slight differences in vibe and focus, but all were places where people lived.
Surprisingly, following her around brought back old memories.
Too young to remember clearly... kindergarten? I'd trailed a disaster relief group, helping Dad and others.
My face had been plastered on the front page once. Thinking back, it was just one of Dad's crafted images.
"How long have you been in this world, Mr. Lee Si-heon?"
"Don't you know?"
The Sage asked while handing out food to the kids.
No one around understood our foreign language anyway.
"Don't assume I know everything. Hehe. Just what I need to."
"Less than a year."
"Then you probably don't know much about Korea either."
"Nope."
I handed bread to the kids too.
A grubby little one approached warily.
Bread from me—not the Sage—was that unappetizing? It snatched it timidly, stuffing its mouth full.
I handed it a small carton of milk, worried it'd choke.
"Discrimination between humans and Wood People is still rampant here. Kids die like this, but no proper aid reaches terror sites. No spare resources, and corruption everywhere."
"Figures."
"Do you know what happens if Flower and the World Trees go to war, Mr. Lee Si-heon?"
As if.
War wasn't a word to toss around lightly.
Not even experts who'd studied decades could predict its fallout.
"I said I'd tell you about the world."
"Yes."
"What if civil war breaks out in the Federation?"
The Federation.
America.
Seemed out of left field.
But after Flower came up, I couldn't brush it off.
Come to think of it, I'd never seen America's national tree.
Each state had its own, I recalled.
Was it on the brink of division?
"A second civil war?"
I emphasized "second," since this past might differ from mine.
The Sage nodded, so it matched what I knew.
With the same country name, shared history to a point, and national power similar to my world.
"Everything collapses."
Markets freeze, stocks crash.
If that were it, relief.
One mid-sized nation falling was unpredictable enough; a superpower collapsing?
"What if it's right on the verge?"
"......"
"Lots of companies cooperate with Flower. Hundreds, I'd say. Even nations."
"...You're joking."
I'd thought them big terrorists at first.
Lately, I realized Flower meddled extensively.
Entwined like tree roots—situation critical.
Still, the Sage's words felt exaggerated.
A nation cooperating with Flower? Impossible.
World Trees wouldn't stand for it.
"Hehe."
The Sage smiled faintly.
"Growing voices, armed might—no escaping war. I've seen it plenty. Global wars differ only in pretexts, born from national gain and personal ambition."
"...So?"
"Flower's at the center. Wood People are few vs. humans; grand ideologies engrave rifle barrels even now."
Corporations chase profit.
If they back Flower, they see reason.
The Sage meant global civil strife possible.
Demagogues sway public, topple regimes, twist ideologies into fights... happened plenty in my world.
In this superhuman-filled world, war's form unknown.
With advanced science and magic, foundations could crumble.
Maybe uninhabitable for humans.
"Sigh... Who could resolve this?"
No one.
Extremely speaking.
Glancing aside, the Sage watched me intently.
"A king or something?"
"Whoa. Me? Nearly scared me to death."
"You're the only one with that potential. Though many choices ahead."
I scoffed.
If the Sage were wise, she wouldn't say that.
"A bastard like me can't do that."
Bullshit. Obviously. Such roles weren't for guys like me.
"Idler fits me perfect. I'd help in a war, sure."
I was never that kind of person.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Waking up, Lee Si-heon and the Sage were gone.
Maronie, fresh from a morning shower, stared blankly at the empty beds with a sullen face.
Cornus had holed up in the study since yesterday, like she'd made some resolve.
Apparently, she'd talked with the Sage.
-Lots of books to read.
"......"
Result: Maronie left alone in the room.
Normally, she'd read too, but... how to put it.
Nothing stuck lately.
Lethargic, that damn man's face always in her head.
Gathering wet hair in a towel, Maronie gazed at Lee Si-heon's bed.
-Thump thump.
Blanket soaked with sweat from his night's sleep.
Pillow imprinted with his face.
"...No one."
No one here.
Maronie clasped hands to her chest.
Her face burned with her heartbeat.
...Brainwashing. Lee Si-heon said it was brainwashing.
So these feelings were fake.
Heart pounding, his voice lingering—all fabricated.
That's why she couldn't read.
Maronie squeezed her eyes shut.
-Step.
Her feet moved hesitantly.
She approached the bed, knelt cautiously, and lifted the blanket delicately, like precious silk.
She buried it in her embrace.
"...I'm not bad."
[Blanche, the bad one's that man resembling your parasite brother. Right?]
'Yeah.'
Her brain cells whispered that.
Then the usual contrarian cells piped up sharply.
[...Yeah. He's the bad one.]
'Right?'
This time, they agreed.
She sniffed deeply between the fabric.
-Sniiiiif.
Filling her nostrils, melting into her blood.
Maronie's pupils shook violently.
"Haa..."
She flopped sideways onto the bed, hugging the blanket tight.
Rubbing her cheek on the pillow, she rolled the blanket lengthwise between her thighs, squeezing hard.
A ticklish feeling spread.
"......"
She rocked her hips forward in spasms.
Her clean post-shower body embraced his scent. She twisted, smearing it like paste.
Reliving that night. Eyes shut tight, she muffled her plaintive moans into the pillow as pressure built between her legs.
"...Pfha."
Drool trailed onto the pillowcase.
Her flushed, dazed face turned to the sheets.
"It'll fade soon, he said."
This was medicine.
A drug to quell the excitement, if briefly.
It didn't take long for the bed to soak with Maronie's fluids.