At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 201

14. The Forms of Love

Jiwoo couldn’t remember any of what had happened.

“Thank goodness you’re okay!” 

Arven exclaimed with emotion, and hugged Jiwoo tightly. The hug caused Jiwoo’s head to tilt back.

And because of that, she saw it.

“Wow…! Where are we?”

It was already nighttime.

Jiwoo’s gaze was caught by the moon and the star-filled sky. Though the sky was as beautiful as always, seeing it from within the cave made it feel different. The blue-tinted water reflected on the cave walls, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

“I thought at first that we were unlucky to get caught in something, but now it seems the tree sent us here.” 

It was a beautiful place, and Jiwoo couldn’t help but agree with him.

After staring up for a while, Jiwoo quickly returned to reality.

“But if we’ve been here this long, Solmih and everyone will be worried.”

“We were the most worried!” 

“Ah, sorry about that. I’m fine. You must have been really worried.” 

Jiwoo said, hugging Arven tightly to reassure him.

Lanset, too, came over for a hug, and Jiwoo gently patted both of them, almost like comforting large dogs.

“But the tree should be well-healed, right? I haven’t checked.”

“Come this way.”

Jiwoo followed them as they held her hand and led her to the far end of the cave. Soon, not only the sky but also the wide-open sea came into view.

“Wow…”

The sea, which had once been completely black, had transformed into a beautiful emerald color. In the morning, it felt like walking on ink because the sunlight couldn’t even reflect on the water. But now, moonlight shimmered over the turquoise sea, making it extraordinarily beautiful.

In the center, there was a pure white light rising, symbolizing Elandos. It still looked like a massive stake had been planted into the sea, but the lush leaves made it appear more like a white coral floating above the water.

If Jiwoo were to climb up the arched cliffs it seemed like it would bring Jiwoo to directly interact with the tree. But it was still quite far away.

When she thought about the size of the black tree she had seen under the water, the healed Ellandos tree looked smaller, even though it should have been much larger.

“Have we come this far?”

“It seems like it sent us here to bring this.” 

Arven said, pointing to a puddle of water in the center of the cave.

It was a slightly deeper pool with a greener tint than the emerald sea. Inside, the water was shimmering white, like the sea foam.

Looking closer, Jiwoo noticed small, granular objects, like fish eggs, floating in the water.

“What’s this?”

Jiwoo reached into the puddle. Despite being in the night sea and a cave, the water felt surprisingly warm, almost enough to make her body relax. As she picked something from the bottom of the puddle, she immediately recognized it.

“It’s like the stone we found when we were preparing for winter…”

Though smaller, there was quite a lot of it. The puddle was nearly filled with the tiny stones.

Seeing this, Lanset and Arven rolled up their sleeves and moved in.

“Let’s gather it all.”

“Let’s take it with us.”  

“Re, really?”  

It wasn’t like there was no one here…  

After already taking the resin, Lanset and Arven seemed determined to empty out the beach group’s supplies as they hurriedly moved to gather the stones.  

They worked so quickly that piles of the collected stones began to stack up next to the puddle.  

“Isn’t this… too much? Aren’t we taking everything?”  

“You’ve worked hard enough.”  

“And you worried us!”  

Jiwoo, who had just woken up, had no argument to make. She quietly watched as they continued their work.  

There were several puddles, and with no one else around while they waited for others to arrive, Jiwoo had nothing else to do for the night.  

As she stood there idly watching them, they suddenly stopped what they were doing and approached her.  

“Come over here, Seo Jiwoo.”  

“Why?”  

Jiwoo asked, but obediently followed them.  

They led her to the farthest puddle in the cave, where moonlight from above was shining down directly on it.  

As she immersed herself in the warm water, it enveloped her body, making her relax.  

“Wow, this is warm…”  

As they added a few more stones from the pile they had gathered, they spoke.  

“It could get cold overnight, so we need to take as many as we can. You understand now, right?”  

“Yes.”  

Jiwoo sank deeper into the warm puddle and smiled.  

‘This feels like a hot spring trip.’  

Even though she had ended up in such an unfamiliar place, she felt no worry at all. It actually felt like a pleasant trip. It wasn’t wrong to think of it that way.  

She watched them gather more stones happily. Solmih had mentioned it before, while they did use their strength, they were gathering everything with the intention of giving it to her as a gift, which made it hard to view it negatively.  

She was happy to see beautiful men in a beautiful cave working for her.  

As she observed them more, she noticed that Lanset, who usually kept his long hair tied high, had let it fall loose.  

Normally, his hair was a light blue, but now it appeared a bit darker when wet.   

It reminded her of the first time she saw Lanset, when his hair resembled the silver-blue hue of Lanseil. When it got wet, the blue became deeper, almost as if the petals of a flower that had been translucent suddenly found their color.  

“Lanset, your hair matches your name now.”  

Lanset, who had been diligently picking up stones from the puddle, quickly turned his head.  

“Do you know what my name means?”  

“Yes, I’ve been learning the language here recently.”  

Actually, Lanset’s name was easy to remember. She found out that ‘Lan’ meant blue in the language of El Ragneil.  

So, Lanceil’s full name meant ‘blue flower.’  

When she first learned that, it seemed so fitting for someone like him, who resembled a flower.  

That’s why, naturally, Jiwoo had memorized Lanset’s name and its meaning quickly.  

“Lanset, it means blue pollen, right?”  

“Correct.”