The Ranch That Needed Beasts
With a bang, the laboratory door flew open.
I turned away from Gong Woo-jae, who had been looking at me with a pitying expression, and glanced back at the door.
It was Han Jin-hwan.
He came inside, grinned at me, and asked, “You took down the leader? Nice.”
“....”
He had watched the whole fight, and now he was acting like he didn’t know a thing....
I shrugged and answered, “It wasn’t that hard.”
I didn’t feel like pretending I knew anything either.
If he was going to pretend he hadn’t been watching, then I’d pretend I hadn’t noticed him watching.
“Figured as much. What about Yoo Hye-joo?”
“This does seem like Yoo Hye-joo’s laboratory, but...”
“She wasn’t here?”
“No.”
The Dazol building was under a barrier.
If you tried to get out, you had to be ready to turn into a strip of electric barbecue.
So there were only a few ways out of the place.
You could withstand the barrier’s lightning and force your way through, or you could use teleportation magic.
For the same reason, a warp gate would also work.
“This guy was the only one here.”
I pointed down at Gong Woo-jae, who was lying on the floor, as Han Jin-hwan walked toward us.
When our eyes met, Gong Woo-jae’s face changed.
His eyes widened to their limit and his mouth fell open.
Then he started thrashing again.
It looked like he wanted to sit up.
But maybe because the pain was still there, he couldn’t manage it and just collapsed back down.
That tiny bit of struggling was enough to make cold sweat break out across him again.
“Ah—”
“Good to see you, Gong Woo-jae.”
“....!”
Gong Woo-jae’s eyes went even wider.
I had thought they were as wide as they could get before, but I’d been wrong.
Now they were much bigger.
He looked like his eyeballs might pop right out.
He sat there with his mouth hanging open for several seconds before slowly finding his voice.
“Y-You know me...?”
“Of course I know you. I came here to catch you, didn’t I?”
“You came to capture me... It’s an honor.”
“An honor...?”
“I’m embarrassed to have shown you this disgraceful state.”
“....”
Honor, embarrassed....
Listening to him, he didn’t sound like a captured criminal at all.
Was Han Jin-hwan thinking the same thing?
He frowned and looked at me, as if asking, What the hell is wrong with this guy?
“....”
“....”
I stared back at him with the same expression, silently asking, What the hell is wrong with him?
Since we were feeling more or less the same thing, I just shrugged.
Still... maybe I could use this.
He looked like some junior finally meeting the mentor he’d worshipped all his life.
Wouldn’t he answer questions if we asked?
As if he’d come to the same conclusion, Han Jin-hwan shot a question at Gong Woo-jae.
“Gong Woo-jae. Was Yoo Hye-joo here?”
“...That is correct.”
“....”
He actually answered?
He’d kept his mouth shut when I asked, and now this....
“Oh, then...”
Han Jin-hwan continued with a dumbfounded look on his face.
He must’ve expected an answer when he asked, but he probably hadn’t thought Gong Woo-jae would really reply.
“Where is she now?”
“I do not know.”
Immediate answer.
He’d answered so quickly, without even thinking, that for a moment I wondered if he was lying.
But... it didn’t feel like a lie.
Right now Gong Woo-jae looked like a fan gazing up at an idol.
Like Ji Sang-wook looking at Choi Hee-seok.
I don’t know, huh....
“If she got out of here even though the barrier was up...”
“Hm?”
“She must’ve used teleportation magic or a warp gate.”
“That so? Wait a sec. I’ll check.”
Then Han Jin-hwan immediately sent electricity flowing into the floor.
I felt it moving beneath my feet.
It didn’t hurt, and it wasn’t even prickly.
It was the same as how the blue blade made from Arca didn’t cut stone or wood when it had no intent to cut.
The current he’d sent out with pure mana carried no hostile intent.
Soon Han Jin-hwan spoke again.
“No warp gate.”
“Then she used teleportation magic.”
“But she isn’t a mage.”
“No.”
Just as he said, Yoo Hye-joo was an item maker.
She probably couldn’t cast teleportation magic herself; that took at least a B-class mage.
If she had still gotten out of here, then there was only one answer.
“She must’ve used a scroll with teleportation magic stored in it.”
“That’s what I think too.”
“Then...”
I looked over at Gong Woo-jae.
If Yoo Hye-joo had used a scroll to escape, then Gong Woo-jae’s “I do not know” was probably the truth.
Only the one who used the scroll would know where it had taken them.
It could be another country, or another continent.
“Looks like we’ll have to give up on Yoo Hye-joo.”
“Seems that way. Unless we can dig up some other information.”
“Shame.”
“My mistake. I was too relaxed. Well, we can’t do anything about what’s already slipped through our fingers....”
Han Jin-hwan looked at Gong Woo-jae.
Gong Woo-jae had been looking at him the whole time.
That same face of a fan staring at an idol was still on him.
Was he feeling pressured by that gaze?
Han Jin-hwan scratched his cheek and said, “...After we hand this guy over, where do you want to go next?”
“Which places were left again?”
According to the PDF file, there were three organizations in Gangwon-do.
We had come after Dazol first.
The reason was that Yoo Hye-joo was most likely to be there.
And, true enough, she had been.
Unfortunately, she’d escaped us....
Still, that didn’t mean we could stop the Two Fingers Project here.
Even if we hadn’t caught Yoo Hye-joo, we still had to keep purging Baba and VP in Korea.
The places left now were Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheong-do, and Jeju-do, along with this region of Gangwon-do.
We were almost done.
“Chiaksan and Yangyang.”
“Then maybe we should take care of Chiaksan first.”
“Why?”
“Climbing a mountain in the daytime should be better than climbing one at night.”
“Fair enough.”
Han Jin-hwan nodded.
He was agreeing with me.
He took his smartphone out of his pocket.
“Then that’s settled... I’ll call the Association and tell them we caught Gong Woo-jae.”
“Go ahead.”
“Ah.”
“....?”
“Before we move on, I need to take care of something.”
“Take care of something? What something?”
I had to feed the elves.
I couldn’t say that, so I made up a vague excuse.
No,
“Oh. An hour?”
before I could even fully pretend, Han Jin-hwan said it as if he understood.
I nodded.
Was it because I’d already been leaving for a full hour every day for four days straight?
I guess I’d gotten used to disappearing for a while.
“What exactly are you doing out there all the time...?”
“Haha.”
“Whatever. We already agreed to it from the start, so I can’t exactly complain. I’ll wait here, so go on.”
“Yes. Thanks for understanding.”
After saying that, I looked at Gong Woo-jae.
Before leaving the laboratory, there was something I needed to ask him.
Gong Woo-jae had been staring at Han Jin-hwan, but when he felt my gaze, he turned to me.
“...Why?”
“I have a question for you.”
“For me?”
“Yeah. It’s nothing serious, so don’t tense up.”
“....?”
“Recommend some Gangwon-do specialties.”
So far, I’d brought the elves famous foods from all over the country.
In Busan, I’d bought them black goat bulgogi.
I’d searched for something different and found it while looking for meat I could eat myself, too.
In Gyeongsang-do, I bought them Ulsan’s Eonyang bulgogi, and in Jeolla-do I picked Damyang’s tteokgalbi.
And the elves had eaten everything with enough enthusiasm to make me feel it had been worth bringing.
Even today, on the fourth day, I had no intention of failing.
“Specialties?”
“Yeah.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s random, all right.”
Gong Woo-jae frowned.
Still, he thought it over carefully.
He didn’t think for long.
“If you want a recommendation... peaches from around Chiaksan, or pine mushrooms from Yangyang would be good choices.”
“Ah.”
“Jeongseon gondre isn’t bad either.”
“It does sound like it’d be tasty, but...”
I guess I hadn’t explained myself well enough.
Peaches, pine mushrooms, and gondre.
They’d all be delicious, sure, but they were useless food.
Our elves didn’t even glance at fruits or vegetables.
“Maybe we should go to Jeongseon for dinner tonight...”
Han Jin-hwan muttered, smacking his lips.
Just hearing him say that made my mouth water at the thought of mixing bibim sauce into gondre rice and eating it.
“But what I wanted was some kind of meat. Recommend again.”
“Meat? You’re a demanding one.”
“Haha. It’s for a gift.”
“A gift...”
“The people receiving it are carnivores.”
Strictly speaking, they weren’t people, but still.
Gong Woo-jae fell into thought again.
This time, too, he didn’t stay silent for long.
He grinned and said, “Then there’s only one answer.”
“Oh?”
“It has to be—”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Gangwon-do. Meat.
When Gong Woo-jae put those two words together, only one dish came to mind.
Sssssizzle.
The sound of meat grilling rang out like falling rain.
That’s right.
What Gong Woo-jae recommended was Hoengseong hanwoo.
I set the beautiful, flower-white marbled slab of beef on the gas burner.
The Sanctuary didn’t have strong wind, and it wasn’t cold either.
With the young trees and patches of grass growing up around Saessak, the view was lovely too.
It was the perfect place for grilling meat.
I moved the cooked beef onto a plate.
“Regina. Here you go.”
“Wow...”
Regina took the plate and licked her lips.
She must have done it several times while waiting, because her pink lips looked glossy.
She’d probably spent a long time smelling the grilled beef.
She was the last to receive hers, after the other elves had already taken theirs.
She’d held out to the very end as their leader.
And she was the youngest of them all, too.
Seeing that, I gave her one more piece than the others.
“I’ll eat well!”
“Yes, enjoy.”
As soon as she got the Hoengseong hanwoo, she sat down in her place.
Then she immediately speared a piece of beef with the fork in her hand and popped it into her mouth.
Her hand shook as she held the fork.
“Mmngh! It’s delicious...!”
She murmured under her breath.
The other elves were the same.
They wiped their oil-slick lips with their tongues and speared the hanwoo with their forks.
It was genuinely pleasant to watch them eat so happily.
I could understand why people said they grilled meat just to see that look.
Still... meat really was best when you ate it yourself.
Maybe I should try some now?
I’d been grilling for everyone else and hadn’t gotten to eat mine.
My lips were probably glossy too, just like Regina’s.
“Manager.”
“Ah, yes. Patria.”
“Thanks to you, we’ve eaten very well again today.”
“I’m glad it tasted good.”
I meant it.
Do you know how much this cost?
If the elves hadn’t enjoyed it, I would’ve been seriously upset.
“Are you perhaps pushing yourself too hard?” Patria asked in a worried voice.
Well, I was pushing myself.
Hanwoo was the kind of food you always felt bad about buying with your own money.
Delicious, yes, but expensive enough to make you hesitate.
“Judging by the color of the meat... it seems like a precious ingredient.”
“Mm. It is pretty expensive meat.”
“As expected! Please don’t do this next time. We appreciate what you’re doing for us, but...”
“....”
It seemed Patria had misunderstood a little.
I hadn’t gone out to find good food only for the elves.
I’d done it for myself too.
Watching the elves enjoy food from our country made me feel warm inside.
Was that all?
After eating their fill, the elves diligently cared for Saessak.
They spent all day using Altera-Shonem, after all.
Maybe because of that, the faint light Saessak gave off had grown stronger.
No new leaves had sprouted, but it was clear its condition had improved.
Still, I figured I should agree with him for now.
It was nice that they felt grateful to me, but I didn’t want them to feel sorry.
“I’ll do that.”
“Thank you.”
Patria bowed his head.
No need to thank me when I wasn’t even planning to listen.
“Um, Manager...”
“Yes.”
“May I ask a favor?”
“A favor?”
“I feel bad asking you to get food for us every time, so I was thinking we could build a ranch.”
“A ranch...?”
“Yes. So... would it be possible for you to bring us some animals?”
Bring animals so they could make a ranch.
The moment Patria asked, a message window appeared.
E-Rank World Tree Quest has appeared.
Quest Details - The elves wish to build a ranch.
Bring back various living animals for the ranch.
Success Reward - Leaf of the Young World Tree.
If you fail, the young World Tree and the elves will be disappointed in you.
Oh, a quest was always welcome!
“Huh?”
The success reward was...
the leaf of the young World Tree?
Not a leaf from the previous World Tree?
With that question in mind, I lifted my head.
I saw leaves scattering a faint light.
Leaves bigger than my palm.