At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 268

“Could it be… that friend was Lofrel?”

“It’s possible… Or maybe she just came because he heard a rumor and got curious.”

“If that’s true, she sure showed up early…”

She’ll have to ask her if she ever sees her again. But this wasn’t the time to dig into that any further.

“By the way, do you think you’d still recognize me, even if I looked different?”

It was something Jiwoo had been a little curious about, especially after seeing how Tyrinos’s group had recognized their spouse so easily.

“Of course… we’d recognize you.”

Skiass spoke first.

“How? Is it the way my heart beats?”

“Actually…”

Skiass swallowed before answering.

“It’s your breathing. You’re always so quiet, never taking really deep breaths, except sometimes, like when it’s raining or when one of us gets close, then you inhale just a little more deeply. Only you do that. Your footsteps sound a little different too. It’s not like someone who’s used to walking through the woods. And you have this habit of licking your lower lip before you speak, and when you’re looking around for us, your heartbeat changes just slightly. If you’re searching for us out of necessity, your heart pounds tighter, but if you just want to see us, it’s a lighter rhythm. And when you actually want one of us first… well, the sound is so beautiful, and your blood flows faster, pulsing through your veins and…”

“Hey!”

“Enough!”

Skiass’s rapid-fire detailed explanations could be hard to stop, and as his words veered into more risque territory, Lancet and Arven cut him off.

“If you like that, El, I could list thousands of things too, you know?”

“Ahem.”

Solmih cleared his throat delicately.

“There are small, unspoken habits you have, everyone does. But for Jiwoo, it’s not hard to recognize.”

“What if… something else possessed my body?”

Solmih tilted his head, looking surprised by the question. Jiwoo had been thinking of the manifestation.

“That would be even easier to spot.”

“I see.”

Jiwoo found herself much calmer about these things now. Sure, she still felt unsettled by change, but the children of Ellandos were notoriously slow to adapt to new things.

“…But are you really alright?”

“Oh, this?”

Jiwoo led them onward through the vast darkness. At first, she’d relied on the compass, but after a while, she didn’t need it anymore.

“I feel a bit seasick, to be honest. It’s like being dropped in the middle of a pitch-black ocean and trying to find your way through rolling waves. But you just sort of know which way to go.”

She felt as if her senses were more open than usual. She guessed she might feel disoriented again once this was all over. Still, if that was the price for everyone’s safety, she could handle it.

“So… Seo Jiwoo is kind of like a navigator’s star for us.”

“Really?”

“…Yes.”

Skiass, shy as always, had a way of saying the most poetic things when he tried.

“Well, should we follow where that star leads, then?”

Didn’t they say the tree both blocks and connects the dimensional rift?

Thinking of how Lofrel had visited the place where her tree stood, Jiwoo suddenly saw the direction she wanted to go clearly ahead.

As the pale leaves and delicate petals of her familiar tree appeared, Jiwoo broke into a wide smile.

Before crossing over, she looked back at her husbands.

“If I get sick again, take care of me, alright?”

“Yes!”

“Leave it to us!”

“We’ll look after you.”

“I kind of want to be the one to do that.”

“That’s pretty much what we’re here for, isn’t it…”

Soon, Jiwoo saw a familiar tree.

Chatting with her husbands, she reached out. She could feel her tree, which she’d bonded with so closely, welcoming her back.

It was finally time to go home.

***

At first, all Jiwoo could see was the location. She had no idea what she was supposed to do.

But she remembered Lofrel traveling through a tree like this and quickly understood.

If the tree sealed the rift between dimensions, then once you knew where it was, you could find the way through.

‘Wow…’

The moment Jiwoo reached out, it was like the space itself opened up, splitting apart. She felt like she was glimpsing the sun through the leaves of a lush forest. Beyond, she could see the village she’d missed so dearly, even in that short time.

If it weren’t for Lofrel, she probably would have wandered for ages. But if you really knew where you wanted to go, you could travel as far as you liked by following the trees.

‘It’s as if she taught me every step from the very beginning.’

Maybe Lofrel’s real gift to her was this.

She realized that it wasn’t just her husbands who wanted her to thrive in this world. Realizing that made everything feel a little warmer.

Given Lofrel’s dislike for the children of Ellandos, maybe she’d hoped Jiwoo would just settle in the capital on her own. That was, after all, the easiest life.

But…

‘I still want to live with all of them.’

She knew that was the only path to her happiness.

***

As soon as they crossed over, her husbands were all waiting. Just like when the manifestation had tried to cross over through their tree. All of them gathered around, but this time, it was Jiwoo herself who emerged from the tree.

Her husbands followed, one by one, and the rift closed after Solmih, who came last.

Still a little dizzy from the journey, Jiwoo staggered, until someone grabbed her hand.

“Marron?”

“Welcome back. We were waiting for you.”

The world she’d returned to was just at the tail end of winter. Marron, seeing Jiwoo lightly dressed with no shawl, took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders as he smiled warmly.