Chapter 3
“What happened?”
I was lying alone on the sofa when Tae-cheon’s voice reached me.
He had just come into the master’s office, shut the door behind him, and walked over to me.
Judging by the suit he was wearing, he’d probably just come back from an emergency press conference about last night’s incident.
I set down the smartphone that was still syncing and sat up on the sofa.
“Wh-what?”
He was looking at me so intently that I got flustered and started to stammer.
Tae-cheon came up in front of me and sat down at the rectangular table.
Then he fixed me with a steady gaze.
He was so good-looking that if he were standing on the street, nine out of ten people would turn to look. Having him stare at me like that was hard to handle.
Just as the pressure hit its peak and I was trying to look away, he spoke.
“I heard everything. You got stabbed in the heart, huh.”
“Ah, no. It was just my chest that got nicked.”
I answered lightly, as if it was nothing.
Of course, inside, I was thinking how unbelievably lucky I’d been.
If I hadn’t eaten the Fruit of the Previous World Tree before those bastards came in, I’d be dead by now.
Truly, I’d been lucky.
If I hadn’t been able to grow the World Tree, and hadn’t gotten that reward because of it….
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
“Your throat was slashed, too.”
“A little. Just a little.”
“And your face was smashed in.”
“S-slightly?”
Tae-cheon asked me a few more questions after that.
And every time, I gave some offhand answer.
The more I tried to play it down, the harsher his face became.
“Your guts were spilling out of your stomach.”
“……”
“That’s still ‘slightly,’ is it? Huh?”
“Tch….”
Once he got to the part about my intestines spilling out, I couldn’t really use the word “slight” anymore.
Trying to fool someone who had heard every report was, as expected, a stupid thing to do.
I should’ve asked Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol not to tell anyone about me.
That had been my mistake, born of being too scattered to think straight.
“Keep it a secret from Do-hee.”
There was no helping it when Tae-cheon had received the report himself.
But Do-hee had been dispatched to Paris, so maybe I could still get away with it.
If my little sister found out, I’d have to endure at least an hour of nagging.
Even though I hadn’t done anything wrong!
There was no reason I should have to deal with something that unfair.
“Haah….”
Tae-cheon let out a sigh and held out his smartphone.
He wanted me to read it.
I looked over the things displayed on the screen.
Baekwooncheon Guild attacked!
Guild staff member who handled the damage was Lee Tae-cheon’s friend?
Shocking! The White Saint Baek Do-hee’s older brother is a hunter, too!
“…The reporters are good at their jobs.”
“Why don’t you stop playing games on your smartphone and actually read the news once in a while?”
“Oh, come on, I wasn’t playing a game.”
“What are you talking about? I just saw you on your smartphone.”
“I’m serious. It was updating, so I couldn’t play.”
To prove it, I picked up my smartphone in my left hand and held it out with confidence.
On the screen, the words syncing process in progress were displayed with a percentage beside them.
Seeing that, Tae-cheon let out a long sigh.
“Haah….”
“……”
Come to think of it, what was the difference between playing a game and updating a game?
Feeling awkward about my own behavior, I quietly set the smartphone back down.
“The two of them were making a huge fuss.”
The two of them must have meant Jae-wook and Sang-cheol.
“They kept saying things like, ‘As expected of the master’s friend,’ and ‘His head is incredible, and his skills are excellent,’ and they praised you to the heavens.”
“Those two overdo everything.”
“Overdo it? I don’t know. From what I heard, it didn’t sound like overdoing it.”
“I didn’t do all that much.”
“Didn’t do much? You anticipated the mana generator shutting down and prepared for it in advance, then took on that Jeon Myeong-hwan by yourself and put him out of commission. Sang-cheol even thought you were hiding your abilities and working undercover as the team leader of the management division.”
Jeon Myeong-hwan.
That must have been the name of the long-haired man with the sharp face.
Apparently he was quite a famous figure in the other world.
At least, that was the impression I got from the way Tae-cheon had used the word “that” when talking about him.
Tae-cheon lowered his head.
“If it hadn’t been for you, we’d all be dead. Thanks.”
“I was just doing my duty. No need to thank me.”
I was the team leader of the demolition crew management division at Baekwooncheon Guild.
The people I’d saved were fellow demolition crew members from the same guild.
It had been only natural for me to throw myself into saving them.
That was my responsibility and duty as team leader.
Of course, I did intend to receive what I was owed.
Tae-cheon must have thought the same, because he held out his smartphone again.
“This should be enough, right?”
“Oh.”
On the smartphone screen, the amount 100 million won was displayed.
For Baekwooncheon, an A-class guild that didn’t have much capital it could spend freely, 100 million won was a huge sum.
Knowing that, I smiled in satisfaction.
Tae-cheon smiled too.
Of course, neither of our smiles lasted long.
Tae-cheon looked at me with a serious expression.
“So.”
“Yeah?”
“What happened?”
“……”
Instead of answering, I circulated the mana in my body.
Seeing was believing.
The mana that began flowing up from my heart wrapped around my entire body and glowed blue.
I had been unable to perform this simple act for two whole years.
I really felt like crying, but….
I held it in.
If I cried now, Tae-cheon would tease me about it for the rest of my life.
“……Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness.”
Tae-cheon lowered his head as he stared at the blue mana enveloping my body.
His shoulders trembled, so for a moment I wondered if he was crying.
Well, if he was anything like me, he’d be forcing himself to hold it in even if he wanted to cry.
The moment he cried in front of me, I’d never let him live it down.
Tae-cheon lifted his head and grinned.
The tips of our joined hands were white, so he really was holding back tears after all.
“Good. Now we can be together again.”
Yeah. That was what I truly wanted.
But I decided to keep that feeling to myself for now.
If I said it out loud, I had no idea what Do-hee and Tae-cheon would do.
They’d definitely shove everything aside, whether it was guild work or hunter work, and do whatever they could for me.
Just as the two of them were my whole world, their whole world also included another person besides themselves: me.
That couldn’t happen.
I didn’t want that.
I’d already owed the two of them enough for far too long.
“Oh, and I’m not forming a party with you and Do-hee.”
I was also quitting the guild.
If I said that honestly, he’d ask me why and argue until he was blue in the face, so I wasn’t going to say it.
He’d just tear up my resignation letter and say absolutely not.
So I was going to keep quiet and go find the HR staff member instead.
“…What?”
Tae-cheon looked blank.
That blank look lasted only a moment before his face hardened.
It was the kind of expression that seemed to ask what kind of bullshit I was spouting.
And acting on that expression was exactly Tae-cheon’s charm.
“What the hell are you talking about? Why wouldn’t you form a party with us?”
“Because you don’t need me.”
“Don’t need you?”
“I retired from being a hunter, and Baekwooncheon grew from D-class to A-class in just two years without me. That was possible because you built your own party, and Do-hee formed one of her own.”
As a result, both parties had strong teamwork.
The party members themselves were also nearly flawless.
There was no place for me there.
Even if I could use mana again, I was still a former D-class hunter. A D-class hunter was still a D-class hunter.
I’d only get in the way.
So forming a party with the two of them now was ridiculous.
But this body, healed after eating the World Tree fruit….
I was certain it would be possible.
Possible to climb all the way to where the two of them stood.
“We can always rebuild the party. If Do-hee knew you were back, she’d definitely—”
“Idiot. Have you not thought about the party members? How do you think Han Jae-im would feel? You think it makes sense to pull the two of you out of a party that revolves around you?”
If they were suddenly told overnight that their party was being dissolved, they’d end up resenting me as the cause of it all.
Some of them might even leave the guild, saying they couldn’t understand the situation.
Baekwooncheon had a small number of members, so it couldn’t afford to casually discard talent like that.
Tae-cheon fell silent, seemingly agreeing with me.
He agreed, but he couldn’t fully understand it, so he bit his lower lip.
He looked like he was thinking of some other rebuttal, so I decided to strike first.
I clapped my hands and stood up from the sofa.
“So that’s the end of the party talk.”
“Wait, Do-woon. Then let’s decide about the party after the family meeting—”
“Oh, come on! Let’s just go home already. I’ve been up all night. It’s almost noon.”
“…Still, I’m telling Do-hee about the party.”
“Do whatever you want. She’ll probably just chew you out for saying something childish.”
“……”
He looked like he really might do that, so Tae-cheon shut his mouth.
Even as I said it, it really did sound like something Do-hee would do.
I even pictured the icy expression she always wore when scolding Tae-cheon and me, and my whole body gave a shiver.
He must have been thinking the same thing, because he started shivering too.
“…As an older brother, don’t I lack dignity way too much?”
“You should’ve done a lot more foolish things.”
At my question, Tae-cheon answered with a snort.
That was enough to draw a deep sigh out of me.
Who else could I blame but ourselves for being so immature?
Honestly, it was pitiful that our younger sister had to put up with two irresponsible older brothers.
＊＊＊
The HR staff member only processed my resignation after refusing me several times.
They’d initially said it didn’t seem like something they could handle on their own authority.
That was only natural.
They knew I was the guild master’s friend and the deputy guild master’s older brother, so they couldn’t easily accept it.
But what else could they do when I kept submitting a resignation letter, saying I wanted to quit?
After I made the same request over and over in all but coercive fashion, the staff member finally took the resignation.
After leaving the guild like that, I went straight home.
It wasn’t to rest.
For some reason, even after staying up all night, I wasn’t tired at all.
I’d come home to take a slow look at World Tree Growing, now that synchronization was completely finished.
And to map out my next steps.
What should I do to stand shoulder to shoulder with those two?
All synchronization has been completed.
Please continue enjoying World Tree Growing with Warm Touch.
After reading that message and tapping the system window, another line appeared.
Would you like to log in?
“I came home for that, so obviously.”
After a brief loading period, the game started up.
A huge sprout filled the smartphone screen and greeted me.
It was the same sight I’d seen right before the synchronization process began.
Inside the screen, as if the wind were blowing, the sprout’s leaves swayed gently back and forth.
There were more changes too.
An inbox and a help menu had appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Originally, there had only been the quest log.
Even in that quest log, the only thing written was, “Please grow the World Tree with Warm Touch.”
So my first thought upon seeing the new additions was:
“About time?”
Of course, I was curious about what they contained, so I immediately pressed the help button.
The help message that popped up over the sprout wasn’t very long.
[Baek Do-woon can directly transfer mana to the World Tree Sprout with Warm Touch.]
[The World Tree Sprout absorbs Baek Do-woon’s mana and gradually grows.]
[Every time the sprout grows, Baek Do-woon grows as well.]
The sprout grows, and I grow too?
How?
It was a claim I couldn’t believe and couldn’t understand.
“Hmm….”
Still puzzled, I kept reading the rest of the help text.
[You can open the character window and skill window to check your current status.]
[Use the character window and skill window to protect yourself from enemies and fully grow the World Tree!]
What was all this supposed to mean?
“What’s a character window, and what’s a skill window even…?”
The moment I said that, I understood the help message.
That was because a bluish window, the kind you often see in games, appeared in front of me.
It was the character window and the skill window.
[Character Window]
[Baek Do-woon - World Tree Manager]
[Title - ]
[HP - 100%]
[MP - 100,260]
[SP - ∞]
[Status - ]
The character window showed my name along with HP, MP, and SP in different colors.
There were also title and status fields, but both were blank.
After a quick check, I moved my gaze to the skill window.
[Skill Window]
“Huh…?”
I hadn’t used many skills because I had so little mana.
As a hunter who relied on his bare body to get by, it made sense that the number of skills I possessed was small.
They were all E-rank skills whose effects were obvious from the names alone, like Strike and Shield Block.
That had definitely been the case, but….
The skill window didn’t show any of the skills I’d already had. Instead, it contained only unfamiliar skills I’d never seen before.
“What the hell is all this?”