## Chapter 70 – Size (8)
The waves lapping at my ankles shatter the light pouring from the sky, swallowing the broken fragments into the sea.
“…Where is this?”
A landscape completely different from the motel room I was in just moments ago.
Instead of a cityscape of towering buildings, I’m on a beach with a forest of green leaves, gazing at the distant sunset.
I can constantly feel the seawater touching my ankles.
It’s cold, and the distant sunset stings my eyes, causing me to furrow my brow as I stare at the horizon.
It feels too real to be a dream.
I look around, but there’s no one in sight, not even a single seagull.
Just endless white sand and the sea stretching out before me.
That’s all I can see.
The same is true whether I look to the right or to the left.
I blink at the strange sensation and shake the cold seawater off my feet when I hear someone’s voice from the right, where there was nothing just a moment ago.
“I like this place the most.”
I quickly turn my head.
“…Who are you?”
“Hahaha, is that the first thing you ask?”
I turn towards the voice and see a man sitting on the beach where there was no one before, dipping his feet in the seawater.
He laughs heartily and continues to splash around like a child.
“…Are you the Root King?”
“Hmm, King, I don’t like anything so grand.
But why do you think that?”
“Well, in this situation, you can’t be just an ordinary man, so
that’s what I thought.”
The man, with an unnatural and suspicious aura, playfully laughs and gets up, brushing the sand off his legs.
“Unfortunately, I’m not anything so grand.
The person you’re looking for is someone else.”
The man stretches and yawns.
He walks towards me.
Finally, the man stands before me, so tall that I have to tilt my head slightly to see his face.
He looks down at me with sad eyes, then pats my shoulder with his large hand.
“…Then who are you?”
“Me? I am…”
The man pauses, then smiles brightly and opens his mouth to continue.
“I’m probably the worst guy in the world.
Just know that much.”
“…”
What’s that supposed to mean?
I want to ask more, but seeing the man’s bitter smile, I can’t bring myself to ask anything else.
“Okay, then forget that. But where is this?”
“The sea I liked the most.
I called you here for a moment.”
Of course, this man isn’t an ordinary human either.
“Why did you call me?”
“To tell you about what you have.
You know, that strange fruit and strange flower.”
I flinch in surprise.
“You know about the fruit?”
“Of course, I planted the tree that bears that fruit.
How could I not know?”
Just who is this man?
The man sits back down on the sand and gestures for me to sit next to him.
Following his gesture, I plop down onto the soft sand.
After confirming that I’m seated, the man continues.
“I was honestly surprised. I thought modern humans had developed to that level.
When I first saw them, they didn’t even know how to use fire.”
“…How old are you, anyway?”
“Ahaha, I don’t know either, so let’s skip that.
Before I tell you the story, I’ll answer two questions as a service. You must be curious.”
Curious, huh?
Well, to be honest, ever since I met Chaeyoon.
No, from the moment I learned the identity of the flower petals, there was something I’d been wondering about.
As if seeing right through me, the man smiles and waits for my question.
“As far as I know, the first man to plant that flower was called the ‘Root King,’ is that right?”
“…That’s right.”
“Then why did you plant such a flower?”
I can’t help but laugh at myself for asking such a question.
But this is just pure curiosity.
‘Why did you plant such a crazy plant?’
Instead, I ask,
‘Why did you plant that plant?’
I throw the question with that intention at the man.
“The reason I planted that flower? For humanity.”
“…What does that mean?”
For humanity, he planted a flower that harms humanity?
I tilt my head in confusion and ask again.
“Humanity was weak, too weak.
Beasts with fangs and horns,
and rampant diseases of all kinds.
Humans back then were too weak to overcome them.
So, I decided to give humans wisdom.”
“…So you spread that flower?”
“That’s right, those who obtained human bodies gained tremendous intelligence and instinctively used their abilities to survive.
So, I only planted one flower.
Even if only a few mixed among humans,
a natural ecosystem would be maintained.”
“…”
I see. Honestly, I don’t understand.
If he really loved humanity, if he cared for them, shouldn’t he have trusted their potential more?
But these thoughts wouldn’t reach them,
I realized that fact in our brief conversation.
He and the ‘Root King’ are beings far beyond human comprehension.
I can’t understand him,
and he can’t make me understand.
This is the same even in the opposite situation.
“But don’t think too strangely of that guy.
He’s the one who collected the flowers, too.”
“…Huh? Why?”
“This story ends here. Next question?”
He collected the flowers? Why?
I asked again to solve that question, but
he didn’t answer that story.
…So, the ‘Root King’ also created the flower.
As Chaeyoon said, the ‘Root King’ is also the reason why the number of flowers has dwindled to near extinction.
…
It’s better not to tell them this fact.
I felt a little dizzy for a moment and pondered deeply, holding my head, but
my concentration was broken before long.
“Next question? None?”
“…I have one.”
This is something I thought of while talking to him earlier.
“…Are you not human?
Or where did you come from?”
“Hmm, I don’t know that well either, so I don’t know if it’s an answer that will satisfy you, but I have to answer.
There were 10 of us. All 10 of us were together.”
“…Where did you come from?”
“I don’t know, I opened my eyes and was here.
So, we walked and walked as soon as we opened our eyes.
We passed through forests, climbed cliffs, and met many humans.
As we met other humans, we realized.
‘We are not human.’
We didn’t die even when we fell off a cliff,
and we didn’t die even when a beast bit our necks.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Isn’t it? Anyway, the one who always led us was that guy you call the ‘Root King,’
and before long, we found out that we each had our own talents.
Among them, I was good at handling crops.”
The man says, turning to look at me.
Familiar blue light leaked from his eyes through his long hair.
“…That’s?!”
“That’s right, it’s the color of the fruit you ate?
Anyway, as I told you earlier, we met many humans and began to cherish humans,
so the flower was created by collecting everyone’s thoughts.”
Sadness filled the man’s eyes again.
“…It was fun, being with everyone.
But as always, happy times don’t last long.
Our opinions didn’t match, and fights became frequent,
then that guy came.
He said he had something to ask of me, who is good at handling creatures.”
Even beings who have transcended humans are ultimately creatures with the same roots.
They compete with each other, have emotions,
split apart, and reunite.
Even those who are omniscient and omnipotent like gods cannot avoid it.
Seeing his sad smile, I guess the story he will tell next.
“…The tree you planted.”
“That’s right, you’re smart.”
I ate one of the fruits that grew on that tree,
and gained this power. This is probably…
“That’s my power. The power to manipulate creatures.
Of course, what you used now is only a small part…”
“…You won’t tell me why you planted that tree, will you?”
Even if I don’t hear it, it seems like it would be a painful story for him to even bring up.
What happened to them in the past, and what happened to this man in front of me.
“Yeah, I can’t tell you that now.
And it’s a story I don’t want to tell.”
The man brushes the sand off his butt and gets up, looking relieved.
“But maybe the other guys will tell you.”
“…The other guys?”
“The 9 people besides me. Maybe you’ll meet them someday, just like you met me?”
Then, without looking back at me, he walks away.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“I’m going to rest, I’m a little tired. The questions are over, right?
Now that power is yours, use it as you please.
It was nice meeting you, friend.”
“…”
The man walking far away becomes a blurry dot and gradually disappears.
———————————
“Password is F42TE1-NJ…”
Inside the dark laboratory where not even a light is turned on,
so this is that psychopath’s lab?
I’m surprised it looks more normal than I thought.
I’m walking past the humming machines,
entering the password I hacked to get the ‘power source’ fruit into the case that’s as big as my torso.
“It’s not like you’re bragging about being smart, why did you make it so damn long…”
When I enter the password, which is almost 40 characters long, the case opens with a buzzing sound.
Inside, I see a round fruit.
“…Ooh, this is… Puhah…!”
The light emitted by the fruit makes the already narrow field of vision inside the mask even narrower, so I throw the mask off.
I also take off the hoodie that’s been steaming me up since earlier, tie my sweaty hair back, and put on my glasses.
“That’s better!”
Then, I check once again to make sure there are no traps that haven’t been disarmed,
and take out the shining fruit in the case.
A beautifully glowing light green fruit.
“…Hehehe, I smell money…♪”
After putting the fruit in the case I prepared in my bag, I quickly leave the place.
I need to get out of this creepy lab quickly.
