Two days later.
My golden goose had grown quite a bit.
It now reached almost to my waist.
The problem was—
“Hmm…….”
There was a note stuck to my door.
It read:
‘D―2’
My landlady had put it there.
It meant, ‘It has already been two days.’
In other words, she wanted me to hurry up and deal with it.
“Sigh.”
But what was I supposed to do about a plant that had swallowed an entire wall of the building?
Killing the whole plant would be a waste of my golden goose.
It was a plant from the Tower. It was probably worth more than this entire building.
“Maybe it’s about time I called Sis…….”
I had considered using the one hundred million won she gave me.
But even if I hired a professional company with that money, I could only imagine them burning away all the roots.
There was also the option of simply handing the money directly to my landlady and asking her to overlook the matter……
‘That’s a bit much.’
Actually, I had tried negotiating with my landlady before.
I would give her twenty million won if she let the matter go.
Her answer?
‘Ha! Twenty million won? You think that’ll be enough? Bring me enough that we’re talking hundreds of millions! You’re not the only one living in this building…….’
Perhaps she had assumed she could squeeze at least twenty million won out of my sister.
Whatever the reason, the amount my landlady demanded was far higher than I had expected.
If I tried solving this with money, even handing over my entire fortune would not be enough.
That left only my sister.
She was the one who had caused this in the first place, so she should take responsibility.
Absolutely.
“Will she answer?”
Riiing― Riiing―.
The phone rang.
It was one in the afternoon.
Right in the middle of my sister’s lunch break.
―Hello?
“Oh, Sis.”
Fortunately, she answered before long.
I immediately asked her for help.
“Sis, I have a problem.”
―……A problem?
“Yeah.”
―So?
“Huh……?”
―So what?
‘Huh?’
Something was strange.
She sounded unusually cold.
Normally, my sister would have answered in a brighter voice and thrown in a few jokes.
Right now, however, her voice was practically made of ice.
“Did something happen?”
I asked worriedly.
But her response was—
―Something happened……? Are you seriously asking because you don’t know?
“……Huh?”
……Was this something I was supposed to know?
Or—
‘Is it because of me?’
I thought back to the last time I saw my sister.
The day I explained my ability to her.
‘Nothing happened, though?’
If anything, I had even given her another cherry tomato.
She should have been thanking me.
“……What happened?”
―I don’t know. Shouldn’t you know?
“…….”
I genuinely had no idea.
If this continued, even my last resort of asking my sister for help would disappear……
……That could not happen.
There was only one thing left to do.
“……I’m sorry.”
―What are you sorry for?
“I’m sorry for everything…….”
I had no choice but to beg.
―No. I’m not helping until you tell me what you’re sorry for.
“……For being alive?”
―What……!? No! Don’t ever say something like that again, understand!?
My sister went quiet.
‘Was that a little too much……?’
Then—
―……You received my gift and didn’t contact me at all.
“……Ah?”
My sister finally confessed in a gloomy voice.
What?
That was it!?
‘No, wait!’
“I did send you something! A message!”
―……You sent one?
This was ridiculous.
I definitely had.
Right after receiving the gift, I had written her a long message……
“Oh.”
I had not……
pressed Send.
―Hey.
“…….”
―Answer me.
“I’m sorry.”
Just like that, I had become an ungrateful bastard who received one hundred million won and did not even send a thank-you message.
―What!? The plant grew!?
“Ugh…….”
I told my sister that the plant had taken over part of the apartment building and that the plant itself had grown.
Her reaction was insane.
She screamed so loudly that I thought the phone speaker might burst.
―C-Crazy…… How big is it now……?
“About…… waist-high?”
―Does it have any fruit or anything!?
“……No. It hasn’t grown that much yet.”
Apparently, the fact that I had successfully grown a Tower plant really was astonishing.
My sister could barely contain her excitement throughout the call.
‘Well, I suppose this is a pretty huge deal.’
I would be lying if I said I had not been curious about her reaction.
―Can you…… see information about the plant too?
“Huh? Oh, not yet. But once it’s fully grown, I can see its name and effects and things like that.”
―Its effects……? Ah! What about those cherry tomatoes from before?
“Yeah. I think their Blessing Type was Strength?”
―Strength…… So that’s why back then…….
My sister began muttering something too quietly for me to hear.
“Um, Sis.”
I immediately brought up the real reason I had called.
―Yeah?
“About…… the apartment building…….”
―Ah.
My sister seemed to think for a moment.
I could hear her groaning thoughtfully through the phone.
Then, as though she had found a perfectly obvious solution, she spoke brightly.
―Should I buy it?
“……Huh?”
Did I……
hear that wrong?
―Let’s buy the building.
No.
I had heard her correctly.
“You’re serious……?”
I had certainly hoped my sister would solve the problem.
And naturally, I had expected her solution to involve money.
But—
‘Isn’t the scale a little too large……?’
Buy it?
Did she mean buying this entire apartment building?
‘Then again, this is someone who casually gave her younger brother one hundred million won, so maybe this is nothing to her…….’
For the first time, my sister’s wealth was beginning to frighten me.
Come to think of it, just how much did the guild pay her?
She was practically the face of the guild.
These days, I had heard that individual guilds could rival corporations in scale.
Even if my sister owned only ten percent of White Lotus……
‘……Hmm.’
I should stop thinking about it.
I was living off that money, after all.
―No objections, right? I’ll send the contract to your landlady tomorrow.
“No…… I mean…… No, I have no objections…….”
How could I possibly complain?
She was willing to buy an entire building just to help me.
All I could do was worship her.
“Goddess Sis…….”
―Pfft…… What are you even saying?
Apparently in a better mood now, my sister spoke in a slightly higher voice, almost as if she were issuing an announcement.
―I’ll put it under my name for now, but once you start making proper money for yourself, I’ll transfer it to you. After that, you can use it as a botanical garden, collect rent, or do whatever you want with it.
“……Excuse me?”
―Think of it as a gift to celebrate finally escaping your life as an unemployed shut-in∼ Oh, and you’d better keep me updated about that plant! Got it?
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
―Good. Love you. Bye∼.
Click―.
The whirlwind of a ten-minute phone call ended.
“……Wow.”
Once the call disconnected, all that remained was silence.
It felt like standing inside a house that had been left in chaos after a party.
But—
“This is insane.”
I had not come down from the party yet.
“Wow! A building! One hundred million! Sis!”
“Hehe, getting that excited over something so small.”
Meanwhile—
at the White Lotus Guild.
Jeong Sohyeon had been summoned by the Guild Master.
It was rare for her to be inside the guild building for anything other than training.
Naturally, employees gathered around her.
“Who were you talking to that made you smile like that?”
“Ah∼ My little brother.”
“Y-Your sibling? A younger sister……?”
“No. My younger brother.”
The employees’ expressions subtly stiffened.
She smiled like that while talking to her younger brother?
Employees who had younger brothers of their own looked especially disturbed.
“H-Haha. You two must be close?”
“Hmm, yeah. We’re close. I practically raised him myself.”
“P-Practically raised him……?”
The deeper the conversation went, the more awkward it became.
One by one, the employees quietly left.
Jeong Sohyeon did not seem particularly bothered.
Eventually, only one employee remained to speak with her.
“I have a younger brother too, but…… ugh. I could never act like you, Ms. Sohyeon.”
“Really?”
“Yes! To me, he’s basically just an oversized wild boar. How did you end up becoming so…… close with your brother?”
Jeong Sohyeon closed her eyes thoughtfully.
She seemed to be going through old memories.
At the same time, the corners of her brightly smiling lips lowered slightly.
“The age difference probably has a lot to do with it. And……”
“And?”
“He’s the kind of kid I can’t just leave alone.”
Jeong Sohyeon’s expression became slightly melancholy.
A child she could not simply leave alone.
Images of the Jeong Sohyeok of the past seemed to pass through her mind.
A meaningless life.
A living corpse.
The employee sensed the change in atmosphere.
“Th-That can happen! Wow, I’m actually jealous that you’re so close with your brother!”
She hurriedly changed the subject.
“Ah, haha. Well, I suppose I’m lucky.”
As though waking from her thoughts, Jeong Sohyeon quickly regained her usual expression.
“Anyway, things are different now.”
“They’re…… different?”
“Hehe. My little brother might cause quite a stir before long.”
“Excuse me……?”
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP―.
An alarm sounded immediately after her meaningful remark.
“Ah, I’m being called.”
Jeong Sohyeon headed toward the Guild Master’s office.
“……She supports him?”
The employee blankly watched her walk away.
“You called for me?”
“Ah, Sohyeon! You got here quickly.”
The swivel chair that had been facing the window rotated toward Jeong Sohyeon.
“Pfft…….”
Flash―.
A dazzling light gleamed from his forehead.
Sunlight streaming through the window reflected brilliantly from Guild Master Baek Yulheon’s forehead.
“Sohyeon…….”
“Ah, I, pfft…… I-I’m sorry.”
Baek Yulheon covered his forehead as though deeply wounded.
But he was smiling.
They had known each other far too long for something like this to genuinely offend him.
Once she was finished teasing him, Jeong Sohyeon smiled and asked,
“So? Why did you call me?”
“Ah, well…… We’ve run into a small problem with the guild.”
“A problem? What problem could there be……? Didn’t you say we’d have fewer problems once we became a major guild?”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
“?”
Jeong Sohyeon tilted her head.
Baek Yulheon sighed and handed her a document.
“…….”
She carefully examined it.
It was the application concerning White Lotus’s promotion to major-guild status.
And stamped across it was—
“Pending?”
“Someone from the Management Bureau came by this morning. A Deputy Director-level official.”
“Deputy Director-level? Han Gyeonho?”
“Yeah. It’s rare for someone that senior to come personally, but I guess our case was unusual enough.”
An unusual case.
The moment Jeong Sohyeon heard those words, she understood why she had been summoned.
“Haha. I was the first Awakened in Korea to clear a floor after failing it twelve times in a row.”
“……Right. Quite remarkable, isn’t it?”
“I think so too.”
“…….”
Baek Yulheon stared at her seriously.
Jeong Sohyeon avoided his gaze.
But she could not evade the question forever.
‘I knew a day like this would eventually come.’
She simply had not expected it to be today.
On the very day she had just spoken with her brother.
“…….”
Jeong Sohyeon looked back at Baek Yulheon.
Their gazes met in the air.
One side wanted the truth.
The other was deciding whether there was enough trust to reveal it.
‘Trust…….’
Baek Yulheon was undoubtedly trustworthy.
But if she told him about her brother, could he help Sohyeok?
Could this somehow end up harming him instead?
Jeong Sohyeon had been thinking about that question ever since discovering her brother’s ability.
And her conclusion had been yes.
As someone who had walked alongside her all this time, Baek Yulheon was that kind of person.
“Pfft.”
Jeong Sohyeon could no longer suppress her laughter.
Baek Yulheon looked bewildered by the sudden sound.
“Hey…… I’m being serious right now…….”
“Ah, it’s not that. I just found this a little funny.”
“?”
Jeong Sohyeon dipped her head as though taking a deep breath.
For a moment, her brother’s face crossed her mind.
“Listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you.”
“Uh…… okay?”
Jeong Sohyeon stepped closer to Baek Yulheon.
And finally, she began to speak.
Her expression could not have been more serious.
Yet what she told him was utterly absurd.
Baek Yulheon stared at her with an incredulous laugh, as though she had just told him a ridiculous joke.
“…….”
“……You’re serious?”
But after seeing her face, he could no longer dismiss it as a joke.
‘Jeong Sohyeon’s younger brother. E-Rank Awakened. Plants. Buffs.’
“I trust you, Guild Master. I trust you enough to tell you the entire truth.”
“…….”
“Think carefully about what we should do. You’re good at that sort of thing.”
Thud.
Jeong Sohyeon left without looking back.
“Haa…….”
In the silence that filled the room—
Baek Yulheon was unable to close his mouth for quite some time.