Our Happy Home

Ring! The moment I step into the café, the rich aroma of coffee drifts straight into my nose. "Welcome! Thank you for coming again." The friendly employee greets me with a warm smile—the same one I tipped a whole gold to before the first-floor exam. Thanks to that tip, he treats me like a regular even though I've only been here twice.

"Hello. Do you happen to have any private rooms?"

"Hmm, a private room?"

"Neng. I need somewhere quiet to talk."

"We don't really have anything like that..."

Clink. When I hold out five gold coins, the employee's eyes go wide. "There's a little garden I've been tending out back as a hobby. Would you like to use that? There's a table and it's nicely decorated."

The café owner—turns out he's the boss, not just staff—speaks quickly while still staring at the coins. "Neng, I'll rent it. This should be enough, right?"

"Of course." He sweeps the gold off the table with a bright grin.

"Two coffees and an assortment of sweet cakes, just like last time. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a carrot cake too, please."

"Right away."

After ordering, I follow him to the back. Just as he said, a beautifully landscaped little garden appears. There's a table and even a bench set on the grass. It's surprisingly nice.

"Haaah." I flop onto the bench and let out a long sigh.

"Are you that worn out because of what happened earlier?" Sunny steps closer and gently pats my back—unusual for someone who's usually so stiff.

"What if Hanna drops out again? It'll hurt her."

"Stay strong. The Tower's trials are often connected. You'll see her again."

"You think so?"

"Of course. Trust me."

—Click, click.

"Fine. Thanks, Sunny." I light a cigarette. Sunny, who had been standing behind me, comes over and sits down beside me.

"It smells. Sit farther away."

"I am Seraphim. A little cigarette smoke won't harm me."

Knock, knock. While we're talking, someone raps on the door from outside.

"Come in." The café owner pushes in a serving cart loaded with coffee and a mountain of cakes.

"I'll set everything up here."

"Neng, thank you."

He arranges everything on the table a short distance from the bench, gives a quick nod, and leaves.

"Ga-eul. The cakes are here."

"Go ahead and eat first. I'll join you after I finish this."

"Understood. Baek Seol, come here. There's carrot cake, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your favorite."

"Yeah!" Sunny nods and heads toward the cakes with Baek Seol in tow. Even though they're only a little ways away, the garden suddenly feels emptier without the angel and rabbit beside me.

"It seems he brought an extra plate for you. I'll portion some cake for you."

"Great!"

The two of them look surprisingly close. They must have grown fond of each other while I was asking Sunny to watch Baek Seol. Watching them reminds me of something Sun Wukong once said offhandedly while we were gaming.

"Be careful of the angel beside you."

"Sunny? You mean Ariel?"

"That's right. The ones who obsess over a single thing are the scariest. They don't even think to look around at anything else."

"She's not like that."

"The fact that the Scribe of Light is fanatically attached to the heavenly realm is well-known even among the gods. And you solved a problem that had been plaguing that realm. What do you think will happen?"

"No clue."

The rabbit and angel sharing cake look completely harmless. I still don't get what I'm supposed to be careful about. The only thing that comes to mind is that Ariel belongs to something like a religious order. Other than that, she introduced herself as the scribe who records the will of the heavenly gods. I barely know anything else about her.

"Haaah—"

Ding! Setting aside my thoughts about Ariel, I pull the reward item from the first-floor exam out of my inventory. A single key rests in my palm.

The name alone is weird. Maybe it was born from a child's wish.

Click. I push the key into empty air and hear something lock into place. Clack. Pop! The moment I turn the key halfway, smoke bursts out and something materializes right in front of me.

"A tent?"

A one-person tent. And a tiny one at that—so small you couldn't even stand up straight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside. Baek Seol and Sunny, curious about what I'm doing, stop eating cake and come over.

"What is that?"

"Tent!"

The little white rabbit answers the angel instead. Baek Seol has been in plenty of tents with me, so she knows exactly what it is.

"I know what a tent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is."

"Eh? You can hear our little fluffball?"

Sunny, still holding Baek Seol, gives me a look that says "Why are you even asking?"

"Of course I can hear her."

"She can!"

I thought it was because my master was a monkey, but apparently that's not it.

"Baek Seol isn't speaking in words. She's converting and emitting a kind of energy. Since she handles higher-dimensional energy, it's only natural that ordinary humans can't hear her."

"Yeah!"

She agrees even though I never explained it to her. She probably didn't know either.

"Wow, Baek Seol's amazing, huh?"

"Yeah!"

Baek Seol leaps from Sunny's arms onto my shoulder and starts licking my cheek nonstop.

"This is too small, so we'll have to use it as Baek Seol's house."

"Is that all there is to installing the tent?"

"The description says it grows, but I have no idea how."

"I see."

I hand Baek Seol back to Sunny so I can light another cigarette. The rabbit immediately starts climbing all over the angel like she's a playground.

—Click, click.

"Haaah— When I got the item, they said the Tower gives rewards tailored to the recipient."

"It seems the Tower judged your ability and identity to be centered around growth."

"Huh? Really?"

Sunny nods calmly.

"Even so, a tent growing still feels strange."

"It does."

"The Tower doesn't care much for harmony. It simply forces everything with overwhelming power."

"Sounds like a total delinquent."

Sunny stares at me. When I meet her gaze, she quickly looks away.

"What! Why?"

"Nothing."

According to her, the Tower sees my power and identity as "growth." In a way, that actually makes sense.

"The description says you need wealth to grow it, right? The price is ten gold. That probably means you don't have to pay with actual currency—as long as the value matches, ten gold worth of any wealth should work."

"That's surprisingly logical, coming from a delinquent."

"What did you just say?"

"I said 'pretty delinquent.'"

"You flipped the order."

The corner of Sunny's mouth twitches upward. Most people wouldn't even notice, but for her, that's huge progress.

"Should I put in ten gold?"

"Yes. I'm curious too."

Clink! When I press the purchase button on the item description, gold vanishes with a strange sound effect.

"Eh?"

"It hasn't changed at all."

"Didn't it get a little bigger?"

"It's just your imagination."

Yeah, probably. Baek Seol, who had been watching the gold get sucked away from atop Sunny's head, suddenly dashes into the tent.

"Kyu!"

I open the entrance she squeezed through. I can hear her voice, but it's pitch black inside and I can't see anything. When I stick my head in, the interior becomes visible. Baek Seol is rolling around on the floor.

"What the—why is it so big in here?"

Sunny must have heard me, because she sticks her head in too.

"It's spacious. Spatial expansion magic?"

"I don't know either."

"Aren't you using your inventory?"

"It's not my ability. My uncle gave it to me."

A strange scene unfolds: a rabbit rolling on the tent floor while a human and an angel poke their heads through the entrance. Even so, the inside of the tent is far more fascinating. Just like Sunny said, it's bigger than a one-person tent should be, but not actually that large.

"It looks about twice as big as the exterior suggests."

"Yeah."

"Try putting in more money."

"Hmm."

Ding!

"Twenty gold now?"

"You hand out one gold as a tip without blinking."

"You're saying all the right things today."

"Baek Seol will like it too."

"Why is an angel agreeing with me so much?"

Clink! The moment I put the money in, the tent rapidly expands. It had only grown enough for an adult to sit before, but now it's tall and wide enough to stand in.

"Kyuuu!"

"It got bigger."

"Yeah, it did."

Even though it's still a tent, it looks big enough for one adult. Probably about the size of a three-person tent now.

"Put in more gold."

"Again?"

"It doubled in size compared to before. If you add more, Baek Seol will be twice as happy."

"True."

The price has changed from twenty to forty gold. The way it works is exactly like my skill structure. The Tower must have copied only the annoying parts of my abilities.

Clink!

"Kyuuu!"

"It got even bigger."

"Way bigger."

I can still feel the original small tent shape with my hands while my head is inside, which makes the dissonance even stronger. The outside stays tiny while the inside keeps ballooning.

"Put in more money."

"Are you serious?"

"You earned a lot, didn't you?"

I did make fifty thousand points from the first-floor exam. Still, this isn't cheap just because I earned it.

"But it's already eighty gold."

"The price seems to double each time."

"Hmm."

Clink! Clink! I press the button twice in a row. The tent expands with an even stronger sense of wrongness.

"Kyuuu!"

"It's huge now."

"Incredibly huge."

If it gets any bigger, Baek Seol might run out of breath from excitement. The terrible early efficiency is exactly like me. I've already sunk 310 gold into this tiny tent—that's 31 million won. Even an eleven-person tent, which is way bigger than this, could be bought for a few hundred gold if it wasn't luxury-grade.

"At this size, we could probably fit a bed and some furniture."

"I prefer soft things."

When I glance at Sunny, who's still poking her head in beside me, she quickly looks away.