A Plant Good for Hair Loss
And so, under Rinea's guidance, I tried all sorts of things. I grew plants with my own hands, and I watched the elves pool their strength to take enormous ones apart. The scenes were so exotic I couldn't tear my eyes away. A landscape like something out of a film unfolded before me — mysterious, wondrous sights rolling on and on, as if I were sitting in the theater myself.
"Mind if I take one of these with me?"
I picked up a seed I'd had my eye on. It was thick, the kernel plump and sound.
"Of course. If there is anything God desires, you may take all of it."
It was a plant said to be excellent for hair loss. From what I'd heard, elves never went bald, so I couldn't imagine what they used it for. Rinea's next words answered the question.
"Propesha is a plant extremely effective against hair loss. Elves never suffer from it, of course, so to us the plant was useless — but humans are different. Women, perhaps not, but you might as well say that half of all men go bald later in life."
"Really?"
"And since humans can't cultivate it themselves, merchants can't get enough of it to sell. When human traders come here to do business, Propesha is the first thing they buy. The supply isn't all that large, either. We could mass-produce it if we were asked, but we don't even have enough space to grow the other plants..."
"Other plants?"
"Yes. Medicines, and the plants that look after the elves' health, come first. Plants sold only to humans are a lower priority. Some things grow nowhere but here."
"Then... do you think I could grow this one properly?"
At my uncertain words, Rinea fussed with theatrical enthusiasm.
"There is no plant God cannot grow! If God is merely nearby, any plant at all will shoot right up!"
If I could only bring this plant back to the modern world and raise it, the profit would be enormous. A plant that could solve hair loss — a problem the entire world had failed to crack. The boss would start drooling at the mere mention of it. Hair loss was a disease that even modern science, at the very height of its power, had never managed to conquer.
I walked until my feet were slick with sweat, and before I knew it the sun had set and the world had gone dim. The forest wasn't dangerous just because night had fallen; this was a district the elves kept firmly in hand. Still, it was hard to see ahead, and I might trip over a root, so Rinea led me back to the city.
"Ugh..."
I dragged my tired body after wherever she was going.
"Rinea, where are we going?"
Ever since we'd climbed down from the carriage we'd been heading somewhere, and I had no idea where. Seeing me like that, Rinea smiled as she answered.
"God seems tired, so let's go to the hot spring! Nothing in the world is better than sinking your whole body into warm water, don't you think?"
A hot... spring...?
It wasn't that I disliked hot springs. The problem was something else. A hot spring meant going in undressed, didn't it? Even with Maru, Bora, and Haru around, I had never once bathed with them — and now I was supposed to?
"Do I really have to go...?"
"You don't want to? I wanted to enjoy the hot spring together with God..."
The moment I saw Rinea's crestfallen face, my resolve weakened. She labored for my sake every single day. If I refused the one thing she wanted, it felt as though something in me would ache. And thinking it over again, stepping into a hot spring didn't seem like such a bad choice after all.
"If Rinea wants to go, then we go! I'll go to the hot spring!"
"Truly?"
"Yeah!"
Rinea bounced up and down with joy. Watching her, I decided I'd done well to say I would come. After all, I was the only one who had to get in, wasn't I? That thought, however, proved completely wrong the moment I saw her after we arrived.
Rinea was not alone. The female elves who had been escorting me came along as well. I had wanted to enter the spring by myself, but things had gone sideways — every one of them was making a fuss about coming in.
"I... I can go in alone!"
The words were an empty cry. I was already being carried in the elves' arms, straight into the spring. I thrashed and struggled to get free, but the elf devotees were terribly strong — far too strong for me to resist.
"A h-hot spring with the World Tree...!"
"Heh... hehe..."
Only when I saw the light in their eyes turn strange did I remember every mistake I had made up to now. A god ought to show a god's dignity, and I had shown none. Worse, any attempt to strike a strict, solemn pose in this tiny body registered as nothing but adorable whining.
"Eek..."
Faced with that banquet of bare skin, I had no choice but to shut my eyes. To make matters worse, Rinea herself was coming into the spring with nothing but a single towel wrapped around her. I couldn't very well step into a hot spring with my eyes closed, though, so I cracked them open just a little. The one mercy was that everyone had a towel around them. They didn't seem to be going in completely naked.
Guided by the elves, I made it into the water. The temperature was perfect. The instant I slipped in, the fatigue of the journey seemed to melt away. That, I supposed, was the whole point of a hot spring — the kind that swept accumulated weariness clean out of the body.
"God! I reserved the very best spring here. Isn't it wonderful?"
Rinea came up beside me to ask. It lived up to the title. The pool was enormous, and the water was transparent and clear — so clear it might have been drawn from the purest spring in the land and poured straight into the bath. Just looking at it lifted my mood.
"Yeah. I love it."
And so I was able to enjoy the soak. That the elf devotees started flinging their towels off partway through, and that I finished as fast as I could and bolted out of the spring — that part was a secret. I was not some pervert who went around ogling women's naked bodies!
Kim Sehee prepared a bouquet in high spirits. It wasn't for a proposal. The research institute had contacted her to say that Hana had come back.
The bouquet was packed with fragrant flowers Hana would truly love, and the sight of it lifted Kim Sehee's heart all on its own. Hana would surely laugh, overflowing with happiness, the moment she received it. And seeing that smile would be a joy in itself.
She calmed her pounding heart and stepped into the elevator. They had said Hana was back, and yet there wasn't a soul at the institute. The last time she had come, the place had been packed with people. What was happening now felt like a dream.
When she reached the tenth floor, a quiet hallway greeted her. Shouldn't there be people in the offices? She folded the creeping unease neatly into a corner of her heart and walked on toward Hana's room. Strange, that she could come all this way and not catch sight of a single person.
The worry vanished soon enough. She stepped into Hana's room — into the room with the bed — and there sat Hana in dinosaur pajamas! She was turned away, so only her back was visible. Even so, she was unbearably cute. Kim Sehee got ready to hand over the bouquet. Hana would beam up at her and declare that she was the best.
But even as Kim Sehee walked toward her, Hana did not turn around — not even though she was deliberately letting her footsteps be heard. Carefully, Kim Sehee called her name.
"Hana...?"
She had spoken loudly enough that Hana ought to have heard, and still Hana did not turn. Kim Sehee drew closer and set a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, Hana's neck turned.
"Gah—!"
Hana's face was grotesque beyond words, a hideous sight smeared with blood and pus. That ruined face slowly opened its mouth and spoke. Startled, Kim Sehee dropped the bouquet to the floor.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
Kim Sehee jolted awake from the nightmare. Looking around, she found a hospital room papered in white. She must have fainted after hearing that Hana had vanished, and been brought here. It was a VIP room, quiet, with no one else in it.
She managed, barely, to settle the heart that felt ready to burst, drawing one deep breath after another. But the moment she thought of the Hana who had disappeared, tears came flooding out. She had no idea where Hana had gone, and the helplessness of that not-knowing only cut deeper.