Chapter 65: Reconciliation
TL: Hanguk
Floor 55 of the Tower.
Where the Red Ribbon, the rabbit kingdom, used to be, now a giant mansion has been built instead of the palace.
And inside the room where the owner of the mansion stays.
A giant wild boar was sitting in a room decorated with all kinds of expensive items.
"Have you still not found my straw hat?"
"No, I'm sorry. We haven't heard from the Silver Wolf Tribe we hired yet."
A minion of the wild boar replied to the words of the Landlord Grid.
"That's fine. You can take your time looking for it."
Given that a strong seal magic was cast on Saint Patrick's Straw Hat, the identity of the straw hat could not be detected by ordinary appraisal magic.
"There's something more important than that now. Are you stocking up on food well?"
"Yes. There has been no food going out since receiving your command, Lord Grid."
"Hehehe. Finally, after 100 years, the opportunity has come again."
After 100 years, the Red Locust has reappeared in the tower. Grid saw this as an opportunity to leap forward again, like when he gained the 55th floor of the tower 100 years ago.
So, he deliberately blocked the supply of food, raising food prices, and waited for chaos to erupt in the tower.
***
To survive in the scorching heat, the apple seed sent its roots deeper and deeper down because it felt a cool energy from below. Following that cool energy, it sent roots all the way down to the 99th floor of the tower where the groundwater flowed.
The apple tree, which absorbed enough water to withstand the heat, was waiting for the day it would receive the sunlight and sprout.
Then one day.
[...?!]
The apple tree, which had begun to absorb heat, gained consciousness.
And then,
[Master! Flamie is here!]
Flamie, the apple tree that absorbed the fire and awakened the flame attribute, called out enthusiastically to Sejun, who had planted it. But Sejun couldn't hear Flamie's cries.
[Flamie won't give up!!!]
Flamie continued to grow its roots without giving up, thinking about the day it would see the light, and soon the roots of the apple tree grew so large that the corrupted Ents would covet it.
Currently, Flamie, the fire apple tree, is restraining its root growth to prevent damage to Sejun's crops. The sprout that Sejun is watching is just the tip of the iceberg of the huge fire apple tree.
***
The seed of the apple that Sejun received from his colleague and ate on the second day of being stranded. He completely forgot about the apple seed he planted in the ground due to the rapid growth of the green onion leaves and other crops.
[Wow! It's light!]
Seeing the apple sprout expressing joy at the sight of light, Sejun felt a wave of guilt. Especially since he had even committed the absurd act of lighting a fire over the seed.
'What have I done to this adorable sprout?'
"Is there anything you need?"
Wanting to do something for the sprout, Sejun asked.
[No! The most important things for Flamie are you, master, and the light, and now I have both!]
"Ha.. you.."
The sweet words from the sprout deeply touched Sejun.
"But is your name Flamie?"
[Yes! My name is Flamie! I love it when you call me by my name!!!]
"Flamie?"
It was a name that didn't suit an apple tree at all.
Then,
Whoosh.
A flame the size of a bean appeared at the split of Flamie's sprout.
"Huh?! Flamie, you can control fire?"
[Of course! I am a fire apple tree!]
Flamie proudly said as it created more flames, moving them around as if it were playing.
"That's amazing."
[Hehehe. If there's anything you need, just let me know!]
Whoosh.
With Sejun's praise, the excited Flamie's flame grew to the size of a fist for a moment and then shrunk again.
"Then, light a fire here."
Sejun had collected green onion leaves and branches, and asked Flamie to light them.
[Yes! Hiyah!]
A small flame fell onto the firewood accompanied by the confident cry of Flamie.
Whoosh.
The small flame quickly consumed the branches and green onion leaves, creating a large fire.
"You did well."
[Hehehe.]
Sejun asked various things to Flamie and spent time praising it.
About an hour passed,
Thump.
Flamie grew by about 5cm.
[Master! I've grown!]
Finally, Flamie began to grow upwards since it started receiving sunlight.
"That's right. Our Flamie is getting stronger."
[Hehehe. Thank you! Flamie will grow quickly to help Master!]
"That's good."
Sejun didn't know how Flamie would help, but he didn't want to dampen its spirited voice.
Sejun spent his time talking to the apple tree sprout and guarding it until lunch.
Then,
"We have a new friend on our farm. Its name is Flamie."
While having lunch, he introduced the apple tree sprout to the animals, especially warning Cuengi not to eat it.
On the 238th day of being stranded, an apple tree was added to Sejun's farm. Or rather, discovered.
The next dawn.
Thump. Thump.
Once again, the tree branch scouts invaded Sejun's farm again.
"How dare you target our Flamie!"
Sejun was enraged when he found out why the corrupted Ents attacked this place. What were they going to do to this tiny little kid?!
"Guys, drink up!"
At Sejun's shout, the Crimson Giant Bear and the Black Rabbit quickly drank SeP's soup.
Gulp. Gulp.
Sejun also downed a bowl of SeP's soup. It wasn't hot because it had been cooled in advance.
[You have consumed the standard portion of Combat Rations - Sef's Soup.]
[Strength increases by 7.1 for 30 minutes.]
[You will stay full for 3 hours.]
Thus, with their Strength increased by drinking SeP's soup, Sejun and the animals prepared for battle.
"Attack!"
Roar!
Squeak!
Roar!
The animals charged and smashed the tree branch scouts, and Sejun also attacked the tree branch scouts with a torch and dagger.
Sejun's attack, which had increased by 7.1 from SeP's soup, was now capable of dealing significant damage to the large tree branch scouts with limbs.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Of course, the length of his weapon was short and the damage was low, so he had to attack multiple times...
In that way, after defeating the branch scouts, Sejun went back to sleep.
Then,
Thump!
Something climbed onto Sejun's stomach.
"What is it?"
"I've returned, meow!"
Theo confidently answered.
"Did you just arrive?"
"Yes, meow! I've made a lot of money this time too, meow!"
"Alright, let's talk in the morning."
"Understood, meow!"
As soon as Sejun closed his eyes, Theo checked if his knees were okay, climbed onto Sejun's stomach, and closed his eyes.
Snoring.
Theo slept comfortably, feeling the security from Sejun's stomach moving up and down with each breath.
***
"Alright"
Sejun woke up in between morning and lunchtime.
"Huh?! Where did he go?"
Theo was already up and not in the bedroom.
"Let's clean up first."
As Sejun descended into the cave,
"If there's anything Flamie needs in the future, tell me, meow. Representative Theo will take care of it, meow."
Theo was talking to the newcomer, Flamie.
However,
"Meow! I don't like fire, meow! Don't come near me, meow! Anyway, take care of me, meow!"
It seemed like the conversation wasn't going well as Theo ran out of the cave, yelling, avoiding Flamie's fire.
"Phahaha."
Thanks to Theo who made him laugh in the morning, Sejun laughed heartily.
He then followed his morning routine of marking the date, washing his face, and greeted Flamie, who had grown to Sejun's knee height.
"Good morning."
[Good morning to you too, master!]
Flamie responded in a bright voice.
"But why did you fight with Theo?"
[Master...I'm sorry. But Theo keeps trying to give me grilled fish that I can't even eat...]
At Sejun's question, Flamie answered cautiously, thinking it might get scolded.
"...I'm sorry."
How could he offer grilled fish to a tree after following Sejun for so long...
As Sejun pondered what to do about this clueless cat, he climbed up to the surface.
Then,
"President Park!"
Theo, who had been waiting for Sejun to come up, ran over calling for him.
And then,
Swoosh.
He clung to Sejun's knee and began to rant about his grievances.
"Scold Flamie harshly, meow! He bullied me, meow!"
Thump.
Sejun lifted Theo by his neck, who was clinging to his knee, and met his eyes.
"Why, meow?"
"Did you give Flamie grilled fish?"
"Yes, meow. I gave my favorite grilled fish to get along with Flamie, meow!"
Theo, who tried his best in his own way, answered with a 'I don't know anything' face.
"How is a tree supposed to eat grilled fish?"
"Eh?! Is that so, meow?! President Park, you know so much, you're amazing, meow!"
Theo, who learned one more thing from Sejun's words, fluttered his tail and looked at Sejun with admiring eyes.
"Sigh. Let's go apologize."
Sejun, whose heart softened at Theo's look, stopped nagging, went down to the cave, to make peace between Flamie and Theo.
"I'm sorry, meow. I won't give you grilled fish in the future, meow."
After reconciling the two, Sejun received a report on the results of this trade from Theo.
"Puhuhut. Don't be surprised, meow. I made a huge amount of money from this trade, meow!"
Theo started to pull out the money from his bag on Sejun's lap with a proud expression.
Rustle.
Rustle.
There was so much money that it had to be pulled out from the bag several times.
"It's a total of 224,600 Tower Coins, meow!"
"224,000?!"
Sejun was surprised. He knew that Detoxifying Green Onion were sold at high prices, but this was truly an astronomical sum. There had to be some additional effects that he was unaware of.
"Great job, Theo. Here's your incentive. Don't spend it recklessly, save it well."
Sejun handed almost 10% of the sum, which was 20,000 Tower Coins, to Theo.
"I understand, meow! And here are the items I bought running errands, and coffee and seasonings, meow."
Theo began to dump the items from his bag.
Then,
"Huh? What are these contracts?"
Sejun asked about the two contracts that came out of the bag.
"Ah! Those are..."
Theo started to talk about the contracts he made with five hunters who attacked him, requiring them to pay 10,000 Tower Coins, and one with Han Taejun.
"Han Taejun?!"
Sejun was surprised at the name Han Taejun. The strongest hunter in Korea. A name that anyone interested in awakened beings in Korea would know.
"Great job, Theo! To get a contract that allows us to make five requests from Hunter Han Taejun! Great!! From now on, you're President Theo, for a month!"
"Puhuhut. Really, meow?! President Park, I want to eat Churu!"
Theo, who was full of confidence from Sejun's compliment, replied.
"Alright. If our President Theo wants to eat Churu, we have to give it."
Sejun tore open a Churu and held it out to Theo.
Lick, lick, lick.
While Theo enthusiastically licked up the Churu, he started to talk.
"And there are some bastards who need to be punished, meow!"
Theo explained about the Oren gang he met in the shopping district.
"What?! They dared to harass our President Theo?!"
"That's right, meow!!! President Park, show them hell, meow!"
In Theo's view, there was no other being around as wicked as Sejun to exact his revenge.
"Got it! They're going to find the Minotaur King on the 99th floor of the Tower? Leave it to me."
Upon hearing Theo's words, Sejun had a good idea.
‘Nine transporters carrying space bags are coming up?’
Oren and his followers were about to become targets of a wicked being.
***
Somewhere in the merchant route connecting from the 90th floor of the tower to the 99th floor.
"Why is it suddenly so cold?"
“Maybe it's because we're hungry?”
Oren and the cats, who were heading towards the 99th floor in hopes of striking it rich, were shivering due to the sudden chill.
****
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