Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Rin Spoke
I woke up after a long, deep sleep.
I must have been out for quite a while.
By the Rift’s time, at least twelve hours.
‘I must have been more tired than I thought.’
After washing up and filling my stomach with some bread, I stepped outside.
Rin was farming as usual.
Ria was inspecting the crops.
I headed to Ria first.
“Good morning, Ria.”
“You’re awake?”
“I started sleeping last night and ended up out for way too long, didn’t I? I must have been exhausted.”
“If someone went three days without sleep, anyone would be tired. Seon-u, take a look at this. Do you think it’s ready for the leaves to be picked?”
“Yeah, it’s grown just right.”
It was a patch of perilla leaves.
Ria had said she wanted to try pressing perilla oil herself, so she had sprouted and planted perilla seeds.
Once Rin helped the shoots come up, they had been growing quickly ever since.
“The aroma is strong.”
It was the sort of scent Koreans tended to love.
But for foreigners, it could be a little overwhelming.
The so-called Korean herb.
I loved this scent.
I reached out and touched one of the leaves.
[Perilla Leaves Grown by a Dryad]
[Taste & Rarity: D-Rank]
Rin had not been heavily involved in growing the perilla patch.
Bell’s fertilizer had not been used on it, either.
Recently, Bell had not been fed any Magic Stones, which meant his droppings were no longer producing that special fertilizer.
That was why it had only reached D-Rank.
I plucked a fresh leaf and tasted it.
“Mmm, pleasantly bitter, and the aroma is wonderful.”
“Really? Let me try.”
Should I stop her?
For a second, I considered it.
But I wanted to see her reaction.
“Bleugh! What is this……? It’s bitter, and the smell is strange!”
Ria recoiled the moment she tasted it.
I barely held back a laugh.
My shoulders shook anyway.
“Seon-u, you did that on purpose to tease me, didn’t you?”
“No, I’ve eaten it since I was little, so it genuinely tastes good to me.”
“Really……?”
“Of course. Remember the pork belly and Romaine wraps the other day? It may be hard to eat perilla leaves plain, but if you wrap them around meat like Romaine, they’re delicious. They’re great in pesto too, or on bread.”
Especially when pickled, they became the perfect thing to eat with rice.
“I want to try something made with perilla pesto sometime.”
“Then next time, I’ll show you how to make perilla pesto and what dishes to use it in.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
This time, I headed over to Rin.
She was growing the Applecherry trees again today.
What had once been six trees had now become twenty.
The entire yard was practically an Applecherry orchard.
“Rin, isn’t farming tiring?”
When I called her name, Rin stopped channeling growth, turned around, and smiled at me.
“You’re working hard again today. You really are diligent.”
Then Rin ran over and hugged my calf tightly.
She must have been afraid I would disappear again.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere for a while. Unless something important comes up, I won’t be gone for long again.”
I crouched down and gently stroked Rin’s head with my index finger.
She had grown so much compared to when she first came here.
Soon, I lifted her onto my shoulder and walked over to inspect the Applecherry tree Ria had been raising.
“This is the one you used Bell’s last fertilizer on, right? The leaves and fruit really do look different.”
The trunk, leaves, and fruit all seemed to gleam.
I stood on tiptoe and touched one of the fruits.
[Mana-Infused Dryad Darot Fruit]
[Taste & Rarity: B-Rank]
[Upon consumption, Mana stat increases slightly (stackable)]
B-Rank.
If I turned this into juice or fruit wine, how much stronger would the effect become?
I wanted to test it immediately.
But first, I wanted to spend some time with Rin.
What happened yesterday had really struck me.
When I came back after three days and she clung to my leg and refused to let go.
Lately, I had been busy enough that I had not really spent time with her properly.
“Rin, want to play jacks?”
I took a set of jacks stones out of Acresia and showed them to her, and she looked puzzled.
I went over to the outdoor platform and gently set Rin down on it.
Then I showed her how to play.
Next, I took out several small beans that fit Rin’s hand size.
“Your turn, Rin.”
Rin then—
picked up one bean, dug a small hole in the dirt, and planted it.
“……”
I had not told her to plant it.
Giving a Dryad beans had clearly been a mistake.
Then again.
I hid a bean under one of three paper cups and quickly shuffled them around.
A simple shell game.
Rin’s eyes moved back and forth, following the cups.
“Which one is it under?”
Rin reached out toward the paper cup on the right.
When I lifted it, the bean was there.
She had gotten it right.
Then she picked it up, dug another little hole in the dirt beside the bean she had planted earlier, and planted that one too.
“……”
A Dryad really was a Dryad.
After that, I shuffled the cups even faster, but Rin never got a single one wrong.
She found every bean and planted each one in the dirt.
“You’re good at this. Does Rin just have really sharp eyesight?”
Ria, who had come over at some point and was now watching, spoke up.
“Seon-u, you fool. Rin’s a Dryad. Of course she can tell where the seeds are.”
“Is that so? Then let’s try something else.”
This time, I hid one of the jacks stones under the cups instead.
Rin failed to guess correctly.
“So it’s true.”
Then Ria said she would show me something truly surprising about Rin.
She cast the communication spell, Sigil of Wisdom, on Rin.
“Rin, want to try saying what we practiced together?”
“……”
Rin only opened and closed her mouth. No sound came out.
‘Rin can speak……? I’ve never heard her speak or even make a sound except in her sleep.’
There had been two or three times when I heard her murmur “Mama” in the ancient tongue in her sleep while looking distressed.
Other than that, I had never heard a word from her.
When Rin still could not speak, Ria gently encouraged her.
“It’s okay, Rin. Be brave. You can do it.”
Rin moved her lips, struggling to get the words out.
Then, finally, she forced herself to speak.
“Tha……”
Tha……?
Just hearing Rin’s voice while she was awake, and not dreaming, felt astonishing enough.
Then Rin squeezed her eyes shut and tried again.
“Thank……!”
She had said thank.
She had spoken only a single word, and yet why did it feel so moving?
Ria applauded her.
“Well done, Rin!”
Rin looked shy.
I turned to Ria and asked,
“This is the first time I’ve heard Rin speak. But does she actually understand what the word thank means?”
“Yeah, she does. While you were away, I tried teaching her words. I kept handing her things and receiving them back, over and over, so she could understand the meaning of thank. And……!”
“And……?”
“The word Rin just said wasn’t simply translated through Sigil of Wisdom. She said it in Korean. She really said thank in Korean.”
“……”
“I taught Rin some Korean words I learned from you.”
Just hearing Rin’s voice had already been moving enough.
But to hear her say thank—and in Korean, no less.
‘She’s moved me again.’
I was touched by Rin, of course.
But I was touched by Ria, too.
Enough that my chest tightened.
Ria continued,
“Rin, I think Seon-u’s really moved. But that’s not all. Rin, want to try saying a little more of what we practiced?”
There was more?
Rin moved her lips again, then, mustering her courage, said,
“Seon-u, like.”
Seon-u, like?
Had she just said she liked me in Korean?
That made me far happier than I expected.
I stepped down from the platform and gently gathered little Rin from atop it into my right arm.
“Thank you. I like our Rin too.”
Maybe my feelings got through, because Rin wrapped her arms around my shoulder.
Then I looked up at Ria and added,
“And of course I like you too, Ria.”
Ria looked flustered.
I decided I should add one more thing.
“As family. As a friend.”
“Ah, right. I like you too, Seon-u. As family, and as a friend.”
Ria added the same clarification I had.
Even so, my chest still trembled for some reason.
‘Ahem!’
In any case, I was incredibly happy that Rin had finally started speaking.
I had quietly worried about it all this time.
I wondered whether she might have developed mutism after her mother’s death.
But now, from here on, she would surely learn more words and begin speaking more and more.
At that moment—
“Awoong!”
Bell barked as if to protest being left out.
“Right, I like you too, Bell.”
***
Ria and I went together to the clearing a short distance from the house.
Then I summoned Acresia and took out the Ice Turtle’s corpse.
“Ria, do you know what this Monster is?”
When I asked, she shook her head.
“No, I’ve never seen one before. But I think I know what those ice-like things on its back are, the ones giving off all that cold.”
“What are they?”
“Ice Crystals. They’re crystalline formations sometimes found in the far north, where bitter cold gathers. They contain Mana. But they are not as dense a concentration of Mana as Magic Stones are.”
“I see. Then are these Ice Crystals useful for anything?”
“They’re useful in many ways. Because they carry the ice attribute, if they’re mixed into a weapon during forging, the resulting weapon may take on the ice attribute. In the hot southern regions of the world I used to live in, nobles also used them as luxury ornaments in their rooms to lower the temperature. That said, they don’t have infinite energy. Their cold weakens over time.”
“So they aren’t permanent.”
“Even so, they’re still very rare. But I’ve never seen them stuck all over a Monster like that before.”
Judging from Ria’s explanation, these Ice Crystals would likely be worth quite a lot.
And the dozens of Glace Mushrooms nestled between them would be highly valuable as well.
As expected, claiming an uncleared Rift ahead of everyone else was profitable.
‘There’s a story that even the number-one guild in the country, the Emperor Guild, got rich off their claimed Rifts, collected all kinds of rare materials, and built themselves a skyscraper in Gangnam.’
The Emperor Guild was not just first in guild ranking. Their guild master was also an S-Rank Hunter, ranked number one in combat power by other Hunters.
And yet even the Emperor Guild had failed to properly explore the Cheorwon B Rift Ice Dungeon and the Chilgok A Rift Flame Dungeon.
They had the power, the money, and the manpower, yet still could not endure the intense cold and flames for even a single day.
And after exploring one of those places for three days, I had finally hit the jackpot.
I had not claimed the Rift in the sense of defeating its boss.
But I had still brought down a Monster as rare as a boss.
I turned to Ria.
“Let’s harvest the mushrooms first.”
“All right.”
“I’ll make mushroom restorative soup with them later.”
If someone asked me what Korea’s greatest restorative dish was, I would probably boldly answer duck soup with black tiger milk mushrooms.
Even if you paid well over a hundred thousand won at a specialty restaurant for duck soup with black tiger milk mushrooms, they would only add a small amount of dried mushrooms.
And most of the time, those were imported dried mushrooms from China.
In any case, black tiger milk mushrooms were expensive for a reason. They had a strong aroma, tasted excellent, and were good for one’s health.
And this Glace Mushroom had an aroma that certainly did not lose to them.
“Isn’t that mushroom rare and expensive? Wouldn’t it be better to save it?”
Ria asked with concern.
After spending nearly one hundred million won on fruit wine, I no longer felt particularly stingy about things like this.
When it came to my family eating well, I did not feel it was a waste.
It was not as though I was desperately short on money right now, either.
Of course, the more money, the better.
Which was why I would make plenty of it from now on.
“I harvested a lot, so eating a little is fine. I don’t hold back when it comes to family.”
“Family…… then I’ll gratefully accept it. Let’s begin.”
So we tried to harvest the Ice Crystals and mushrooms from the Ice Turtle’s corpse.
But—
“Urgh……! The cold is too strong. I can’t harvest them.”
Even with the full trio of cold-resistance gear—the ring, necklace, and cloak—I felt as though my body would freeze solid.
Should I drink fruit wine and raise my resistance before doing this?
By contrast—
“I’m fine.”
The cold hardly affected Ria at all.
It must have been because of the Mana covering her entire body.
Soon, Ria said,
“I’ll quickly harvest the Ice Crystals and mushrooms. You just store whatever I cut off in Acresia.”
“All right.”
Ria rapidly sliced the mushrooms and Ice Crystals free and tossed them into the air.
I stored them in Acresia one after another with the absorption skill.
The entire task was finished in less than five minutes.
‘Amazing……’
If I had tried to do this alone after drinking fruit wine, it probably would have taken me over an hour. But with her uncanny knife work, it was finished cleanly and swiftly.
Afterward, I absorbed the Ice Turtle back into Acresia.
Then Acresia devoured it.
‘Unsurprisingly, Acresia didn’t rank up.’
It seemed devouring a mere High-Grade Monster was hardly enough to make a dent.
***
There was still a long time left before I needed to prepare dinner.
Then the Horn Rabbit meat I had brought back from the Ice Dungeon came to mind.
‘Should I try making a restorative soup with Horn Rabbit meat?’
Horn Rabbit meat was poisonous.
That much was already known through the experiences of Hunters who had eaten it and suffered for it.
Hunters who thought, It’s a rabbit, so it should be edible.
Hunters who got lost in a Rift, grew desperate with hunger, and ate the Horn Rabbit they had caught.
Hunters who believed that if they boiled it thoroughly, it would be fine no matter what.
Many Hunters were said to have suffered badly from stomach pain after eating Horn Rabbit.
There had even been Hunters who died after being hospitalized.
‘Still, since Glace Mushroom has detoxifying properties too, wouldn’t it cancel out the poison if I boiled them together in a soup?’
Rumor had it that, poison aside, Horn Rabbit actually tasted good.
As a chef, the urge to experiment with a new ingredient began surging up inside me.
‘It’s just an experiment, and I’ll be the only one eating it. If I get stomach pains, I have detox potions, and I have Glace Mushrooms too, so I can just neutralize it.’
So I went ahead with the experimental Horn Rabbit restorative soup.
I skinned the Horn Rabbit, cut off its highly poisonous horn, removed the innards, and cleaned it thoroughly.
Then I put it into a pressure cooker with Kalopanax bark, ginseng, Astragalus root, jujubes, green onion, ginger, and onion.
Together with the Horn Rabbit meat, I added one sliced Glace Mushroom, the true star of the dish.
Then I set it over the heat and let it boil slowly.
About forty minutes later—
I opened the pressure cooker.
‘Did it appear……?’