At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 263

Even though the collision of dimensions and the arrival of such beings was described as a natural phenomenon, it was said that the trees existed to block their passage.

But what if a being was too overwhelming for even the trees to handle?

If it really was a calamity that could threaten the world, then letting it pass through as it was simply wasn’t an option.

‘Maybe…’

Was this what it meant, when they said the tree grants a suitable body for this world?

Clenching her teeth, Jiwoo reached out once more toward the darkness. There was nothing tangible to grab, but she imagined clutching something in midair. 

And pulled it firmly toward her.

“Ah!”

The instant she did, the dark mass scattered away, and something warm and soft enveloped her body.

The moment that warmth touched her, all traces of lingering fear melted away.

Instead of the swirling smoke and gaping void, there was now a form Jiwoo could actually recognize.

The ‘female manifestation’ who appeared before Jiwoo clung to her in a tight embrace, refusing to let go. Only then did Jiwoo register what this soft, warm sensation was. 

She quickly sat up, realized the other wasn’t wearing any clothes, and took off her own shawl to drape it around her. It was long enough that, when tied at the waist, it looked roughly like a short dress.

“Are you… okay?”

“…”

She had very large eyes and a face that vaguely reminded Jiwoo of a cat. Her wavy, tangled hair was long enough to cover her whole body, though the smoky tips only turned to soft fur once Jiwoo touched them.

As the newly-formed female manifestation stared blankly at Jiwoo, she then began to check her own state. She seemed both unfamiliar with and somewhat pleased by her new body.

“Seel.”

“Seel?”

It was a strange word, pronounced somewhere between ‘Seel’ and ‘Sheel’.

“Name.”

“Ah.”

Jiwoo finally understood.

“Seo Jiwoo.”

Did it work?

Somehow, they’d already gotten to the point of exchanging names.

Jiwoo had only tried it as a guess, and didn’t really expect it to work so quickly. As she glanced at Seel, a hand suddenly reached out to her.

When she stood up and stood side by side, Seel was nearly the same height as Jiwoo.

She thought Seel would take the lead, but instead, Seel looked at her as if expecting Jiwoo to guide the way.

“Hey, Seel? Don’t you think you should explain what’s going on?”

But Seel just gazed at her in silence.

Jiwoo brought up the question that had been on her mind all along.

“Aren’t we… basically the same?”

The manifestation in El Ragneil, and the Akarna in Caranazion.

Both were beings that had arrived in this world from other dimensions.

At first, Jiwoo was terrified, thinking the other was a monster. But once she realized it was in pain, and that she could heal it, she realized it was really not so different from her.

If that was true, weren’t the people here just calling the same thing by different names?

And yet, a natural question had been bothering her.

If the manifestation who landed in El Ragneil was so powerful, why did she, who’d landed in Caranazion, have no such strength? If she’d had such power, maybe she could’ve avoided so many of the bad things that had happened to her.

She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt a twinge of envy.

But when Jiwoo said, “Aren’t we basically the same?” Seel just stared back at her, eyes wide, before shaking her head.

Left right…

And then, with a serious tone unlike her cute action, Seel finally spoke.

“You are more like the tree than you are like me.”

“…The tree?”

“I thought you already knew. You did for me what the trees do here.”

As Jiwoo puzzled over those words, Seel reaffirmed with certainty.

“Isn’t that right?”

Jiwoo turned the words over in her mind and nodded slowly.

“When I grabbed you… I wondered what it would be like if I were the tree protecting this place.”

She’d gotten the idea from Tyrinos’s comment about the tree granting a body fit for this world.

“At first, I was scared of you….”

She figured that monstrous appearance must have been the result of being shredded while crossing dimensions.

But when she saw how much the other was suffering, she couldn’t help but feel compassion instead of fear. She wanted to spare her from that pain. But Jiwoo found she couldn’t heal her in that state, she herself was almost swept up by the agony.

However, when she grabbed that presence from the rift and pulled it ‘completely’ into this world, the being gained a body suited for this place.

The remaining parts of her body that were still wreathed in mist turned solid and complete once Jiwoo touched her. So what she’d done was to act in place of the tree 

Granting a proper body, just like the tree does.

“This place, I love it here. It’s where I’ll keep living, where the people I love live… So I don’t want anything this world can’t handle to come through and ruin it. That’s how I feel, so I imagine the trees must feel the same.”

That’s why she wanted the newcomer to live here without breaking apart or suffering, to fit into this world.

The act of healing her misty, broken form and restoring her body was really no different from how Akarna healed wounds.

“I understand what you mean when you say we’re the same.”

“I thought we were, since we both came from other worlds.”

“But you don’t have the kind of power I have, do you?”

“…That’s what I’m wondering. Why is that?”

She remembered what Lofrel, one of the manifestations, had once told her.

Rarity and usefulness are just resources, they don’t equate to power.