At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 229

The blood was wiped away clean, leaving no trace. Only Solmih’s distinct sweet scent lingered between them.

“It’s alright.”

“….”

Thinking Jiwoo was probably more surprised than the one who’d been bitten, Solmih desperately tried to soothe her.

But what came back was a somewhat agitated, trembling voice.

“…Don’t keep saying it’s okay.”

“But it really is…”

“Even if the wound heals quickly, it still hurts! Even if the scar disappears, the pain is still pain!”

She tried not to say it, but with her senses scrambled and her nerves on edge lately, her emotions erupted naturally, and her voice rose.

“Even if you say you don’t mind, it still stays in my heart!”

They told her to treat it lightly, but she didn’t want to. It simply wasn’t like that.

The sensation of flesh being cut by a blade was chilling, and the feeling of blood flowing out was horrible. Thanks to her Akarna power, the pain faded quickly. She told herself it didn’t really hurt.

But if it really didn’t hurt, why did she hesitate every time she put a blade to her hand?

“My power forcibly heals wounds but it doesn’t erase what happened. If it did, my ankle wouldn’t have broken and healed wrong, and the countless cuts I got on that job would never sting when it rains! How could that be ‘okay’?”

Solmih was left speechless and fell silent.

“…I know better than anyone else, I do.”

“Ah…”

“I hate being pushed into a position where I have to believe everything’s fine as long as I say I’m fine….”

I want to cherish you all, not treat you carelessly or have situations like this come up. She wished she had just said it plainly.

Jiwoo suddenly felt overwhelmed and embarrassed by her outburst, and her voice lowered before she finally sniffled.

“I understand.”

But Solmih returned to his gentle smile.

“I care about you, Seo Jiwoo.”

“What, what are you saying all of a sudden…?”

“You were angry at me earlier.”

What in the world was he talking about? Kaman had said the same thing too.

But that seemed to have quite an effect. Jiwoo muttered in a much softer voice.

“I’m not joking right now.”

“I didn’t take your words as a joke. It’s just…”

Solmih hesitated for a moment, choosing his words carefully.

“I thought you’d been holding it all in.”

“Holding it in?”

“Yes. You told me not to say it’s okay, but in fact, you’re the one who says it’s okay the most.”

Was that true? Jiwoo stared intently at Solmih, who continued speaking.

“Reviving the Ellandos branch wasn’t a big deal to you. Crossing continents to heal trees wasn’t much of a matter either. When you decided to stay here, the same. Even wading into polluted beach water recently was something you said was fine. And that ‘thing’ you did before. At that time, you were okay with it too.”

Solmih looked at her sadly and gently stroked her cheek.

“But were you really okay with all that?”

No, she wasn’t.

“You tend to avoid clearly expressing your feelings or circumstances. Maybe you developed this habit because even if you speak up, nothing changes. So you find it easier to sacrifice a little yourself.”

“……”

“But Jiwoo, while we understand those feelings, we didn’t want to just leave you be. We’re glad you finally let it out instead of holding it in.”

Since their marriage, Jiwoo had always treated them kindly and gently. The husbands had done the same, so there was never a reason to raise her voice.

But in truth, it was more like socializing with others while keeping a certain distance, not quite like family.

“And you seemed to find it cute when we started acting spoiled with you recently.”

That was true. She’d noticed the husbands were fussier lately, and actually found it adorable. It had increased quite a bit since she made gifts from Ellandos.

Maybe for them, fussiness and spoiling were signs of growing trust.

Perhaps Solmih’s joy just now was born from that same feeling.

Jiwoo lowered her gaze.

“…Actually.”

“Yes?”

“Not everything was okay…”

There were many things that weren’t okay. She never expected to say that, especially not now.

“……”

But this man guided the conversation so gently and naturally that she had a good sense of what he wanted from this talk.

“…Solmih, you’re asking me to talk about what happened in Caranazion, aren’t you?”

“Would you speak of it?”

Softly, Solmih gently touched foreheads with her. Meeting his eyes, Jiwoo involuntarily lowered hers.

“You’ve purposely said nothing about that incident since leaving Caranazion.”

“It wasn’t something worth recalling.”

“Or maybe you just covered it up.”

“But it didn’t matter.”

She was so happy here that she didn’t need to think about such things.

“But you’ve said it still hurts sometimes. It doesn’t not matter.”

Though she skirted around the topic, Solmih’s worried gaze kept wearing her down.

He was surprisingly stubborn. But that stubbornness was melting her walls.

“I want to hear it. It’s related to what made you angry this time. You said even if you say you don’t care, it keeps lingering in your heart.”

“…That’s…”

Jiwoo sighed and finally admitted.

“Yes, that’s true.”