Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Episode 11: The Divine Tree (2)

“Hmm.”

“At a glance, it doesn’t look bad.”

“It’s fine.”

“...”

Of course, it was not fine.

“Nonsense! Look at what happened, and you can still say that!”

“Haha.”

“This is no laughing matter!”

Fortunately, the Divine Tree we had stood back up was perfectly fine.

The Divine Tree, that is.

What had changed was the land where the Divine Tree had fallen.

More precisely, the entire surrounding area, including the coffeehouse I had bought, had become a problem.

The divine power released when the Divine Tree fell had seeped directly into the ground.

The blue light had faded, but that did not mean the land had returned to being ordinary like before.

An indescribably warm energy, like shimmering heat haze, kept rising from it without pause.

“Won’t it return to normal with time?”

“Look over there. The divine power flowing from the Divine Tree is continuing to seep into the ground. It has already fused with it. This place is now practically the Divine Tree itself! Good grief, I really have lived too long. To think I let myself be talked into this mess by a fellow with divine eyes.”

Huh? What’s that?

“Hey, where are you going in the middle of our conversation!”

Leaving the nine-tailed fox Elder behind as he continued lecturing me, I approached the Divine Tree and gently swept my hand across the ground.

Then sprouts from all kinds of seeds hidden beneath the soil began pushing up, fresh and green.

The more I stroked the ground, the faster they grew, at a speed I had only ever seen in documentaries.

“Ooooooh! They’re sprouting right away! Even bamboo doesn’t come up this fast!”

“Did you know this would happen?”

“No. I just saw some unfamiliar plants growing and tried brushing the ground.”

“Ha, how fascinating. I never imagined land touched by divine power would gain such an ability.”

“I’ll try too!”

-Dig dig.

“Aw, it doesn’t work.”

“It doesn’t work for me either.”

“What?”

It was the same for the nine-tailed fox Elder and Director Baek Mahyeon.

No matter how much they stroked the ground, no sprouts came up.

“Looks like I’m the only one who can do it.”

“That makes no sense. You have the weakest divine power among us.”

“The Divine Tree recognizes the owner of the land!”

“Tsk. Say something that makes sense.”

“Maybe it checked the land register when it fell over.”

This was no time to be marveling over sprouting plants.

Either way, our plan to dig up this troublesome thing(?) and move it to Mount Gyeryong had failed.

And on top of that, the Divine Tree’s energy had now seeped into the land.

No matter how I looked at it, touching anything more would obviously only make the situation worse.

“For now, we should clean up the area. It’s almost morning, so more people will start passing by.”

“Hm? Where are you going?”

As I gathered the shovel I had been holding and headed toward my car, the nine-tailed fox Elder called after me.

“It’s morning. I have to go to work.”

“This mess happened, and you’re saying you’re going to the office now?”

“For me, being late to work is a bigger problem.”

“You need to solve this before you go! You were the one who caused it in the first place!”

“That’s why I’m cleaning up. We know now that we shouldn’t touch it any further, so we have to leave it alone. I don’t like it either.”

Truthfully, part of me wanted to just cut it down with a saw, but I could not bring myself to say that out loud.

“Then the rest of you finish up here before you leave. I’ll have to ask the three of you to handle it. The coffeehouse key is under that flowerpot.”

“W-Wait, even so...”

Leaving the nine-tailed fox Elder behind with a dazed expression as though he wanted to say something more, I quickly got into my car.

When a problem like this happens, the winner is usually the one who leaves first.

It was a slightly uncomfortable victory, but what else could I do?

Household matters were household matters, and going to work was going to work.

_____________

“He left.”

“Ha. That fellow probably has no idea how serious this is. That’s why he can act so carefree.”

“Why didn’t you stop him and explain, Elder?”

“I was going to! But wasn’t everything he said technically correct? I should have realized from the moment he suggested digging it up. Tsk! Every time, I let myself get played by that fellow’s silver tongue. Is this another ability of the divine eyes?”

Even the insane proposal to move the Divine Tree had sounded fairly convincing when it came out of Jinseong’s mouth.

But after some time had passed and they thought about it carefully, the very act of daring to touch one of the only two remaining Divine Trees in the entire world was an unthinkable major incident that could throw both the mortal world and the Celestial Realm into chaos.

“The coffeehouse owner is amazing!”

“That was not a compliment!”

“It hurts! It hurts!”

The raccoon dog put its forepaws on its waist and puffed itself up proudly as though it had been praised, and the nine-tailed fox mercilessly stretched its cheeks.

“If he’s so calculating, he should at least be timid. But he’s far too bold. Tsk. Looks like you’ll be suffering again today.”

“Pardon? Me?”

Baek Mahyeon, suddenly designated as the one who would suffer, asked in surprise.

“Isn’t it obvious? In the end, only we are left here, and we’ll have no choice but to guard the Divine Tree until that fellow returns. Oof, my old bones. Send the children away, and you go into the coffeehouse and light the stove.”

“I want to sit too! And I’m hungry!”

“Haa, so that’s how this is going to go.”

Only then did Baek Mahyeon realize his situation and look troubled.

A lone coffeehouse building standing in an empty field.

The agents had dressed in shabby clothes to look like laborers, but that did not make them inconspicuous.

No matter what excuse they came up with, having so many people gathered here was more than enough to draw the attention of passing cars.

If only a minimum number of people were to remain, the problem was that his own usefulness ranked lowest among them.

“Damn. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I would’ve asked him to make us some coffee. Since before dawn, all we’ve done is lose out.”

“But what should we do now? The coffeehouse owner didn’t seem to have any particular solution either.”

“What do you mean he had no solution? He tossed the problem at us and left. We are the solution. For today, let’s just guard it until he comes back. We can’t exactly leave it unattended.”

And so the three sat around the crackling wood stove inside the coffeehouse.

Naturally, Director Baek Mahyeon was the one holding the tongs and diligently turning the sweet potatoes that an employee had bought and placed on top of the stove.

______________

The company was the same as always when I arrived.

A few work-coordination emails from employees in some diligent department—or perhaps a department that had worked overtime last night—and a stack of documents that appeared as if they had been waiting for me helped drive all thoughts of the Divine Tree from my mind.

“Assistant Manager Kim, did you get the RFP from Samjeong Construction this time? What do you think?”

“Yes. I’m almost done checking it. I also pulled out the items that need to be added to the proposal separately.”

“Already? I only told you to give it a rough look. You finished all that in one day?”

The department head, who had been walking around hitting his back with a massage stick, settled into an empty chair to look at the documents I had separated.

“Wow, as expected of our department’s ace. We could practically send this straight to the proposal team as-is. The feasibility review should be a free pass.”

“But this one looks like it’s going to be a headache.”

“Hm? Why? Are they telling us to adopt another new security solution like last time?”

“No. The project budget is so high that we can just say we’ll do that and write it in. The problem is they want a VR-linked function added. We’ll have to check with development to see if it’s feasible. Our company doesn’t have any references in this field.”

“Don’t submit it through the formal reporting line. You know how much Manager Park from Development Team 3 overreacts. Ask the people under him casually. If our ace Assistant Manager Kim goes over there, you’ll get a proper estimate immediately.”

“I don’t know how to do things like that.”

“Come on! That Manager Park spends every meeting saying things won’t work and disasters will happen.”

“And that’s why Development Team 3 always finishes projects without a single failure.”

“You never let me win even one argument. Back in my day, if something couldn’t be done, you made it work no matter what...”

I already knew the rest of the story from hearing it countless times.

Though it had been a while since I heard it somewhere other than a drinking party.

Our department head was a former Special Forces soldier who had built an impressive career by reviving several major projects that had nearly collapsed, using the soldierly recklessness he had brought with him when he first joined the company.

Of course, contrary to those achievements, he was also the person most opposed to the very nature of the Strategic Planning Team, which needed to be the most sensitive to business trends.

He constantly used the stereotypical phrases of rigid department heads, saying things like ‘back in my day’ or, these days, ‘the MZ generation, you know,’ while frequently pushing work forward despite knowing almost nothing about the actual details.

The reason someone like that had kept his position until now was not because the company was stupid.

It was because he was a benevolent leader who took extremely good care of his own people, so many capable people remained around him.

Like Manager Lee, who had gone to the development team at my request.

“Please stop bothering Jinseong. I’m already on my way back from Team 3.”

“Really? Manager Lee went? Then I don’t have to worry about it, right? I’m going to the sauna today?”

“What are you talking about? You need to go with me to the second-floor conference room right now.”

“Huh? You said you settled it.”

“I went to schedule a meeting with Team 3. Team Leader Park Jongsang happened to be there too.”

“I told you that guy won’t agree!”

“Making him agree is your job, Department Head. Come on, let’s go. We’re late.”

“Hey, wait. Then Assistant Manager Kim should come too! After the meeting, let’s grab a drink at that pork-skin place up front.”

“Jinseong spent the whole day checking the request for proposal. If we had done that much ourselves, we’d have pulled four all-nighters. Let’s just go, the two of us. Jinseong, later, watch the atmosphere and leave before six. Got it?”

“Thank you.”

“No, it’s not that I absolutely want to drink. I heard you moved, so I thought I’d give you some advice...”

“Yes, yes. You can give him advice later, so let’s go already. I’m sure Team 3 will love it if we drag the meeting past quitting time.”

“Anyway, let’s drink sometime during the week. I’m buying, so don’t worry about the company dinner budget. Hey, stop pushing me! I’m going to roll all the way to the second floor.”

Thanks to experienced Manager Lee, it looked like I would get to leave early today.

Not that there was much to do immediately anyway, since this was a fairly quiet season.

-KaTalk. KaTalk.

Hm?

Just as I was about to enter an officially sanctioned period of slacking off now that my work was done, my KaTalk notification sounded.

「Baek Mahyeon: Aren’t you hungrie? There are sweet potatos.

Baek Mahyeon: (Photo)

Baek Mahyeon: They are tastee. There is still thiiis much left.

Baek Mahyeon: (Photo)

Baek Mahyeon: The nine-tailed fox just ate one so there is less now.」

The sender was Director Baek Mahyeon.

Judging by the contents, San had clearly sent the messages.

With that many typos, it seemed the raccoon dog had probably thrown another tantrum until someone taught it how to use a phone.

The photos beneath the clumsy sentences showed a rather appetizing pile of sweet potatoes sitting on top of the stove.

They had probably brought them as both a meal and a snack.

I had been so absorbed in work that I had completely forgotten to think about the meals of the people guarding the Divine Tree at the coffeehouse.

There probably wasn’t anything to eat in the refrigerator either.

Once my thoughts reached that point, I quickly sent a reply.

「Me: If you haven’t eaten dinner separately, I’ll buy something and bring it.

Baek Mahyeon: Is it pork cutlet!

Me: No, something even better. I’ll arrive around seven. Tell them that.

Baek Mahyeon: Oooooooooh!」

There was no need to think about the menu.

Ground where plants would grow instantly if I swept my hand across it, and a hot wood stove with a roaring fire.

With those two things, there was one dish whose taste was guaranteed.