A Guest Who Came Along

Oh Hyeonseong had never particularly enjoyed fishing.

Until now, he had never had either the time or the mental space to indulge in such a hobby.

When he’d never experienced it himself, he had thought he’d never even dip his toes into one of those hobbies that people typically pursued to pass the time.

But there had been someone who took that first step with him.

In a country in the Middle East that had since completely disappeared from the map, Oh Hyeonseong had first learned how to fish from Choi Jeongil while the two of them were carrying out an operation together.

While they were waiting in a port city, Choi Jeongil had suddenly suggested going fishing during their free time, and Oh Hyeonseong had impulsively followed him.

After that, whenever the opportunity arose, they went fishing together a few more times.

Choi Jeongil’s love of fishing had been extraordinary from the very beginning.

Even on battlefields and in the field, where their lives were constantly on the line, the moment he spotted a body of water, he’d pick up a fishing rod.

Oh Hyeonseong had been genuinely impressed by his obsession with somehow making time to fish even amid such a hectic schedule.

But at some point, he stopped picking up a fishing rod.

Perhaps that was why, after years of suppressing his desire, it had suddenly burst out all at once.

Oh Hyeonseong could see a faintly crazed look in his eyes.

From Choi Jeongil’s perspective, though, it was somewhat unavoidable.

As a fisherman, he’d discovered a once-in-a-lifetime fishing spot where the fish practically jumped onto the hook and their size was extraordinary.

How could he not lose his mind?

Especially when there was no competition and even the fish tasted incredible.

He had become determined to break his personal record here.

But that was his perspective.

Oh Hyeonseong dragged him bodily out of the reservoir.

“Enough with the sixty-centimeter nonsense. Come out and help me with the work.”

“Wh-What was I doing…?”

Choi Jeongil finally came to his senses and flinched.

Only then did he start walking properly instead of being dragged along.

“I can’t believe I made such a spectacle of myself… I’m sorry.”

“At least you realize it.”

On the way back, Oh Hyeonseong gave him a long lecture.

To think Choi Jeongil would end up like this.

Addiction really was terrifying.

The two of them eventually made their way back.

However, Oh Hyeonseong’s destination wasn’t the house.

“Isn’t this just a road we passed by earlier?”

“This is my private property. All the land on both sides of the road belongs to me. I farm it.”

“Farm? It just looks like empty land.”

Choi Jeongil stood there blankly, looking around.

But everywhere he looked, there was nothing but open ground or empty fields that had clearly been left unattended for a long time.

“Come with me and you’ll see.”

Oh Hyeonseong led the way into the empty land.

Unlike usual, he released a small amount of magical power and granted a third party ‘access permission’ as he passed through.

The moment Choi Jeongil followed him, he passed through the barrier.

FLASH!

The empty land transformed in an instant.

Trees laden with fruit and all kinds of crops stretched out before them, each displaying its own vivid colors.

Spirits were running and playing among them.

“I wondered where you were growing all those crops, but I never imagined it would be like this… I’m surprised. This is much more substantial than I expected.”

“The scale has gotten quite a bit bigger compared to the beginning.”

Oh Hyeonseong smiled faintly.

This was the Oh Farm of today, incomparable to when he’d first made a small field and begun growing a few kinds of crops.

The apple saplings he’d planted at the very beginning had grown rapidly, covering one side of the field in lush green, while new fruits such as peaches and grapes proudly displayed their harvest.

The other crops had multiplied as well.

At first, there was a time when all I did was fuss over plucking lettuce leaves.

Whenever he wanted to eat something, he’d simply added the crops he needed one by one.

That was how the farm had ended up like this.

There was no need to worry about the crops spoiling after harvest season passed, and maintaining them was far easier than ordinary farming, so there had been no problem with expanding the fields on impulse.

Compared to the days when he’d made a fuss over planting lettuce and potatoes in a tiny vegetable garden, the transformation was nothing short of astonishing.

“Come to think of it… With a barrier of this level, it must have been cast by Suyeon.”

Even Choi Jeongil hadn’t noticed the barrier at all until he’d actually entered.

Only from the inside could he see how perfectly structured the barrier was.

There was only one Awakened person in Korea capable of deploying a double distortion field of this level, despite how difficult it was to manipulate.

“Suyeon helped me out. I asked her with a single potato as payment, and she agreed.”

“The deputy director of the Bureau was bribed with one potato?”

Choi Jeongil let out a hollow laugh.

There was only one person who could get Han Suyeon to work for a single potato.

Just then, Albern, who had been hanging onto Oh Hyeonseong’s shoulder, suddenly leaped down.

It plucked an apple from one of the apple trees and brought it over.

The otter waddled toward Choi Jeongil and held out the apple.

Caught off guard, Choi Jeongil accepted it.

“Since you’re here, have one. It’s a fresh apple that was just picked.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Choi Jeongil nodded and took a bite.

An apple grown by the Spirits was something he’d already eaten as dessert a few days ago.

He knew exactly what its texture and flavor were like.

But the moment he bit into this apple, Choi Jeongil flinched and his expression filled with surprise.

“Maybe it’s just my imagination, but this seems even tastier than the apple I had last time.”

“It’s not your imagination. I noticed it too.”

“How can it possibly be even better than that apple…?”

“I wondered the same thing at first. Both apples came from the same variety and the same tree. But there was a clear difference in taste.”

It had been too short a period for the difference to be explained by the harvest timing.

He soon discovered the answer.

Albern had once sprayed a large amount of water over one side of the field while trying to help.

And the only crops whose flavor had changed were precisely those within the area it had watered.

The Water Spirits had already been capable of supplying pure water free of tainted energy.

But Albern, as a higher-ranking Spirit, had achieved something beyond that.

The same was true of the parasites in the reservoir.

He didn’t know what principle was behind it, but it was certain that Albern possessed extraordinary abilities.

In any case, thanks to that, the crops on his farm—including the apple Choi Jeongil was eating now—had begun to boast flavors that could rank among the finest crops from the days when Earth was still untainted.

“And that gave me an idea, so I ran a few tests. I found another interesting fact.”

While Choi Jeongil had spent the past week fishing nonstop, Oh Hyeonseong had been conducting experiments on flavor.

The most interesting subject among them was the potato.

He’d obtained seed potatoes from more than a dozen varieties, grown them, and compared their flavors.

As expected, even when grown in identical conditions and tended by the Spirits, there were clear differences in taste between the varieties.

He had anticipated that much.

But there was one particularly noteworthy peculiarity.

When he grew highly improved varieties, they were actually inferior in taste and quality to potatoes grown from cheap seed varieties commonly found on the market.

“Common sense says the premium varieties should have better quality. But once they were tended by the Spirits, the cheap varieties actually came out ahead. I couldn’t figure out what the correlation was.”

“Indeed… That is strange.”

“So I’m going to need your help.”

Oh Hyeonseong gestured toward a stack of boxes piled up on one side of the field.

Choi Jeongil approached to see what they contained.

There were potatoes divided into different varieties and packed separately in boxes.

When he opened the boxes underneath, each one contained a different type of crop.

“What are these…?”

“Samples. Analyze them and figure out why the potatoes have such different properties. And if you have any samples left over, use them for whatever research you want to conduct.”

“Se… Senior.”

“I guess I’m putting you to work for an apple too.”

Oh Hyeonseong said it simply.

He couldn’t help with mass-producing a treatment, but he could provide small quantities of samples for research into tainted energy.

And if they managed to learn something from them, all the better.

“What? Got a problem with that?”

“…No. Thank you. Truly.”

Choi Jeongil lowered his head deeply.

He remained silent for a while before finally speaking.

“You always used to tell us, Senior. Don’t try to carry the burden of the dead people’s final moments on your shoulders. The living should move forward as the living.”

“That was a time when I had no choice but to think that way if I wanted to keep going. I don’t intend to force you to do the same now.”

“No. You were right. Seolha said the same thing.”

“Yoon Seolha…?”

“But all this time, I was trapped in the past. I even rationalized my obsession with the past by pretending it was for the sake of my juniors’ futures.”

Choi Jeongil continued calmly.

“The reason I couldn’t fish all this time was because I hated the silence from back then. Whenever I stopped moving and sat still, those thoughts inevitably came back to torment me. But… that hasn’t happened once during this past week.”

A faint smile appeared on Choi Jeongil’s face.

It was almost ridiculous.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to immerse himself in something so completely and thoughtlessly.

His change had actually begun the very day Joo Jihye had been saved by Oh Hyeonseong.

“No matter what happens from here on out, I suppose that’s not what matters. It’s all thanks to you, Senior.”

Choi Jeongil bowed his head deeply toward his longtime senior.

It contained his unwavering respect, admiration, and sincere gratitude.

CLUNK!

“Whew… I thought I was going to die.”

Joo Jihye rested her head against the steering wheel and let out a sigh of relief.

It had been an incredibly long time since she’d driven herself without a manager or staff member, and she’d even made her way all the way out to this winding rural area.

She had fallen into a rice paddy once along the way, but she simply lifted the car out with telekinesis and continued on her way.

After surviving the arduous journey, Joo Jihye finally arrived in front of the gate.

“Hehehe…”

Her expression was quite bright.

She’d successfully completed her filming schedule while she was in Seoul.

She could feel her physical condition steadily improving, and as she’d overcome her mental issues, her acting had improved dramatically as well.

Even today, she’d received nothing but praise from the director and writer.

At this rate, it seemed like she’d soon be able to return to actual Gate operations.

After her fight with the burrowing-type monster, she’d also regained confidence in her work as a Hunter.

CLANK!

She opened the gate and stepped inside.

But there was no one there.

Only a few Spirits were wandering around here and there.

“Don’t tell me they’re at that reservoir again…?”

Joo Jihye muttered with an exhausted expression.

Even at the company she’d visited in Seoul, everyone had been wondering why the CEO had suddenly stopped coming to work.

It wasn’t like him at all.

To be honest, the spicy fish stew she’d eaten back then had been shockingly delicious, but she couldn’t understand what on earth was so interesting about sitting there all day.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

A few minutes passed as she sat waiting on the porch.

Then the sound of someone lightly knocking on the front gate made her turn her head.

Who is it?

The homeowner, Oh Hyeonseong, was obviously out of the question.

If it were Choi Jeongil, he’d know that the gate was left open whenever the guests were away, so there’d be no reason for him to knock like this.

Wondering if it might be the siblings from next door or perhaps one of Oh Hyeonseong’s friends, she headed toward the gate.

CLANK!

“Huh…?”

But when she opened it, the person standing there was someone entirely unexpected.

“Is this Mr. Oh Hyeonseong’s home?”

“Ah, yes, but… he’s not here right now…”

“I see.”

She was a stunningly beautiful woman, beautiful enough to surprise even Joo Jihye, who herself was famous for her looks.

But rather than possessing an appearance that simply drew people’s attention, she was a cold beauty whose icy impression instinctively intimidated those who looked at her.

Her skin was as cold and pale as ice, her eyes tinged with red, and a long scar ran beneath her left cheek.

Joo Jihye knew her.

Baek Jisu of the National Security Bureau…!

Joo Jihye instinctively swallowed.

There wasn’t a single person who didn’t know the notorious reputation of the National Security Bureau, one of the government’s three major special agencies.

It was said that even arrogant Hunters who believed the world was beneath their feet became as docile as lambs the moment they were dragged before the National Security Bureau.

And Baek Jisu was one of the true powers holding that formidable organization in her grasp.

More importantly, her own status wasn’t something that could simply be overshadowed by the organization behind her.

Joo Jihye had heard plenty about the terrifying rumors surrounding her as well.

If someone like that took a personal interest in you, it was obvious that life in Korea would become a long and arduous ordeal.

But why is someone like her here? And why did she have to come when I’m the one here…?

“Oh, so you’re Joo Jihye.”

“…Huh? You know me?”

“Of course. How could I not?”

Baek Jisu smiled gently.

Until a moment ago, Joo Jihye had been terrified of her, but Baek Jisu’s unexpectedly friendly attitude made her relax slightly.

“How have you been feeling lately? Is your health any better?”

“Ah… My health? Yes, I’m fine. Ever since I became a Hunter, I’ve never really had problems with minor illnesses or anything…”