At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 305

“N, No, it’s fine. I’m Seo Jiwoo.”

Jiwoo waved her hands dismissively.

“You two! What are you doing? Hurry up and bow your heads and thank her!”

At Isias’ sharp look, Shaen and Kist approached with sullen expressions and belatedly offered Jiwoo their thanks. Though all they did was give her a cursory nod.

“Thanks.”

“Thank you.”

Whack!

Only after Isias drove an elbow into the back of one brother’s head and the other’s solar plexus did they finally bow properly.

There was even a muffled oof mixed in with it…

“I can only imagine how these fools must have behaved without the slightest gratitude for what you did. I’m deeply ashamed.”

“Well, they did kind of…”

Isias really did know his brothers well.

Standing face-to-face with him now, Jiwoo saw that he was about the same height as Narkreed, though shorter than Kist. Beside her, Reed let out a sigh.

“They looked like they were about to get increasingly carried away, so I thought it would be better to find whoever was responsible for them first.”

“Really?”

“These two did what?”

Jiwoo and Isias reacted at exactly the same time.

With everyone’s eyes now fixed on them, Shaen and Kist shifted awkwardly before trying to defend themselves.

“No, no, it was just… she was doing something strange, so…”

“If there’s something good, isn’t it obvious you should take it for yourself?”

Whack. Thump.

They didn’t even bother denying it and kept running their mouths, earning themselves another immediate round of punishment.

“They’re still young, so they’re terribly rude, no, terribly ill-mannered. As their eldest brother, I ought to keep them in line, but there are more of them now, and sometimes it’s difficult to manage them all by myself. With everything that happened this time, I was absent and couldn’t keep an eye on them.”

“Ah, yes… It’s all right. There was an accident, after all.”

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you understand, Master. This is exactly why I usually don’t let them wander around unsupervised. With this disaster, I truly haven’t had a moment to spare…”

He sounded so genuinely apologetic that Jiwoo found herself bowing her head as well, despite being the one who had been inconvenienced.

Narkreed, standing beside her, released a long sigh.

“Young, you say.”

“Yes. Goodness knows when they’ll finally grow up…”

“I’ve noticed those who grow up without much sunlight tend to mature comparatively slowly.”

“Exactly… Though when they stay like this for several hundred years, you do start wondering if there’s a deeper problem. I really ought to set aside a day and properly educate them…”

Isias seemed completely different from the others. It was almost difficult to believe they were brothers. Then he turned toward Jiwoo with a gentle, courteous smile.

“If there happened to be someone willing to help me educate them, I suspect they might listen quite obediently…”

“Ah-ah. Don’t cross the line.”

Reed immediately cut him off.

…Apparently, Isias was still a children of Ellandos after all.

While they commiserated over the hardships of dealing with their respective brothers, Jiwoo quietly stepped away, only to hear Kelvar grumbling nearby.

“I thought we’d finally found one who could hold a normal conversation, but apparently not.”

“Haha…”

Should she call this the mystery of siblings, or the mystery of the tree itself?

***

Narkreed’s judgment had been correct.

Rather than rushing around rescuing whoever seemed most urgent, they had first needed to find the person in charge.

Every group had some sort of representative, and that person was generally both the group’s mage and eldest brother. Even Shaen and Kist, who had seemed incapable of listening to anyone, became noticeably calmer once Isias was there. 

After that, getting them to cooperate and guide the group became considerably easier.

Even while they hurried along, Isias somehow managed to make himself presentable with astonishing speed. He neatly braided his silver hair and draped it over one shoulder, then put on several pieces of jewelry that Shaen and Kist had brought him, apparently unwilling to abandon the bare minimum of a mage’s dignity even in an emergency.

There was one other thing that caught Jiwoo’s attention.

“You wear glasses?”

“Ah, yes, yes… Without them, I get rather dizzy in places like this. Do they look strange on me?”

Apparently, his situation was similar to Narkreed’s. His eyesight was simply too acute, forcing him to use an aid under ordinary circumstances.

Despite his courteous personality, Isias naturally had the sharp, sensitive features common among the underground group, giving him a somewhat irritable appearance. The glasses softened that considerably, making him look surprisingly mild and intellectual.

Though, as a mage, he probably was intellectual.

“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant. They suit you.”

At those words, Jiwoo’s husbands exchanged glances, silently passing some kind of information among themselves.

“Glasses…”

“Hmm. Glasses?”

“Such refined tastes.”

Silevion even pulled out a little notebook and began writing something down.

‘I only looked because I thought they were interesting.’

There really was no need to take it that seriously…

***

Eight people in total, including Isias.

Jiwoo went around personally pulling each of them free from where they had become trapped near the void.

This time, she received proper words of gratitude.

Truthfully, there was nothing particularly difficult about it. All she had to do was take their hands and pull them out. She had already decided that even if all of them behaved like Shaen and Kist, she wouldn’t let it bother her too much.

Still, when they actually thanked her sincerely, she couldn’t deny that it lifted her spirits.

Rescuing them was ultimately only a secondary task.

They had originally come here to deal with the rift itself, and the underground group made it clear that this was what they needed help with most.

But simply spending the entire day searching for people had exhausted Jiwoo, so they decided to rest for the night.

Proper introductions and detailed explanations could wait until tomorrow.

After being shown to a room in Isias’ village, Jiwoo collapsed onto the enormous bed and practically melted into it.

“Oh dear. You must be exhausted, darling.”

Lugarmel attended to her while gently massaging her feet.

Kelvar immediately lay down beside Jiwoo, while Silevion perched on the edge of the bed. Quilon and Reed settled near the window.

Jiwoo had been so tired from walking around all day that she hadn’t even gotten a chance to look around the underground village.

“Would you like me to explain a little while you rest?”

“Ah, Quilon already told me some things. About what a rift is.”

“I see…”

“But I still don’t understand why anyone would willingly approach somewhere that dangerous.”

“Because, if things go well…”

Lugarmel’s voice remained light as he answered.

“…you might just get your wish.”