At the End of the Hidden Greenery - Chapter 306

“Ah… You did say you could obtain something you could imagine, as long as it was realistically possible.”

Now that Jiwoo had heard more about rifts, she thought she understood what he meant.

A space that had crossed over from another dimension had the peculiar tendency to feed on the will of those around it. In a way, it was trying to appease the laws of this world so that it wouldn’t be erased as something that did not belong. 

That was why it reshaped itself to suit its surroundings, and if there were intelligent beings nearby, they could even impose specific desires upon it.

If one managed to exploit that properly, it might actually be possible to use the power of another world to make a wish come true.

“It’s fascinating that it feeds on the will of whatever’s nearby. So if a void happened to appear right beside me and I made a wish, it could come true, right? Like if I said I wanted to eat something delicious…”

“You might find yourself presented with a feast so extraordinary that even another world would rarely see its equal. Of course, it might also contain a poison that happens to be harmless in the dimension it came from.”

“I can see why people would be tempted.”

Especially when Jiwoo herself was someone capable of eliminating dangers like that. There was no denying it. Voids were incredibly dangerous, but they were equally enticing.

As they continued chatting quietly, everyone naturally began thinking about what they might wish for themselves.

“A wish, huh.”

Kelvar stared up at the ceiling and murmured absently.

“I just want to have some fun.”

“That’s all?”

“We came all the way down here. Might as well come away with some good memories. Besides, use your common sense. After seeing what happened to those guys, you’d have to be crazy to make some grandiose wish.”

“That’s true. Something simple, then.”

Silevion seemed to agree, because his own answer was equally modest.

“I want to know more about Jiwoo’s tastes.”

“My tastes? You already know all of them.”

“We didn’t know about the glasses.”

“I was only curious because I’d never seen a children of Ellandos wearing them before.”

“Which means there are still things we don’t know.”

He was persistent. And yet Jiwoo found even that rather endearing.

‘My tastes are my husbands, though…’

She thought it vaguely, keeping it to herself. Reed offered his own answer as well.

“I’d like to know what kind of life you lived before.”

“Me? Hmm… There really wasn’t much to it.”

So little, in fact, that it was almost embarrassing.

“What about you?”

“Me? Hmm… Mm.”

After a long silence, he finally asked.

“Can it be anything?”

“…What exactly did you think of?”

“Hahahaha!”

Mel burst into laughter and pressed a kiss to the top of Jiwoo’s foot.

“Mine is a secret.”

Alright. A secret. Jiwoo was perfectly prepared to leave it at that.

“Jiwoo, you can’t just go, Oh, I see, and let that slide. Forget the secret nonsense. I think you’d better make him tell you exactly what it is.”

Kelvar, who had been lounging beside Jiwoo, abruptly sat up. He clicked his tongue and shot Lugarmel a suspicious glare.

“He only says something’s a secret when he’s plotting something weird. Then he goes around acting completely insane.”

“Kelvar, how could you say something so cruel? You’ll make your elder brother cry…”

Lugarmel lifted his sleeve and pretended to dab tears from his eyes. Kelvar responded by sticking out his tongue at him.

His ears didn’t so much as twitch. The entire display of emotion was performed with his face alone.

Still, whenever one of them said something was a secret, it didn’t mean they intended to hide it forever. Usually, they simply didn’t want to reveal it yet. Given enough time, they would eventually bring it up themselves, or decide that a more suitable moment had arrived.

Just as Jiwoo had practically no privacy around them, her husbands tended to tell her every trivial detail about themselves as though reporting on their own lives. Perhaps because she had now lived with them for quite some time, Jiwoo had stopped feeling impatient about things like this.

Of course, she was still curious.

“Please wait just a little longer, darling. I’m still figuring out how to do it.”

And when he read her thoughts with uncanny accuracy and even said that much, there was little reason to press him.

Instead, Jiwoo turned toward the one person who had quietly remained silent, yielding the conversation to everyone else.

“What about you, Quilon?”

“I…”

At Jiwoo’s call, Quilon’s ears perked sharply. Then their eyes met, and he startled all over again.

“…I recommend that you refrain from making any wishes near the void.”

“Huh? What kind of boring answer is that?”

“Boo.”

Disappointed noises immediately came from the husbands who had been eagerly awaiting his answer.

Still, someone among them had to approach the matter cautiously.

After all, they had spent the day rescuing people who had been swallowed by the environment itself, their bodies practically melting into the distorted space around them.

“I understand what you’re worried about, but wouldn’t something simple and straightforward be fine?”

“N, no… That isn’t what I meant. I don’t believe wanting to spend an enjoyable time with Jiwoo, learning what kind of life you lived before, or discovering preferences of yours we have yet to uncover are excessive desires. However, none of those things require us to rely on an outside power.”

That was true. Those were all things they could learn naturally by living together longer and talking to one another.

The idea of a place capable of giving form to whatever one imagined was certainly alluring, but none of their wishes were special enough to justify the dangers of a void. Of course, if they left their wishes vague, the void might produce something unexpected that none of them could have imagined on their own, but that seemed even more dangerous.

Besides, the children of Ellandos rather enjoyed taking their time learning everything there was to know about their mate, little by little.

“There are things time alone can’t solve, idiot. Say I wanted to see some place that doesn’t exist anywhere in El Ragneil. How is Jiwoo supposed to explain something she’s never even seen?”