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#086. Black Rain and Seeds (2)
“Hey, let me out. Ugh. My, my body’s stuck.”
Hender, who was stuck in the box, couldn’t get out on his own.
Ray grabbed the corner of the box with one hand.
chin!
He lifted the box upside down, then hit the top hard with his other hand.
Bang bang bang bang!
“Ugh!”
The hand that had fallen with a thud rolled around, holding onto his waist that was on the floor.
“My, my waist! Shh! But, what kind of strength do you have…!”
Philip, who was watching the scene from behind, muttered with a chuckle.
“That level of strength is nothing special. If we arm wrestle, I’m confident I can break your arm as soon as we start.”
“?”
The moment Veronica nodded, she felt something strange and looked back at Philip.
“Phew. Phew. Thanks for taking it out. For now.”
Hander, who had come to his senses, staggered to his feet.
A disheveled face and hair.
Cloudy eyes and the smell of alcohol wafting in.
Hender was a man in his late 30s with a frail appearance.
He pushed aside the clutter that had piled up on the table and chairs to make room.
After sitting down with his companions, he rolled his eyes and said:
“I… but who are you… .”
First of all, Hander was relieved that his opponents were not debtors.
Besides, the opponents are children who are much easier to deal with than adults.
But as I rolled around on the floor, the alcohol wore off and I was able to come to my senses enough to notice the other person’s fancy clothes.
My attitude naturally became more cautious.
The tone also changed to respectful.
“I came to hear your story. I heard you have a plant that blocks black rain.”
“Black rain…? Plants…? Ahhh!”
Hander frowned and clapped his hands as if he had just remembered something.
“I spoke to that Brony guy about plants last night. Did you hear that?”
“that’s right.”
Hender hesitated for a moment and then said.
“It’s not hard to show you, but I think it would be better to first reveal who you are. Seriously. Even if I have to live like this, I’m the kind of person who values manners.”
widely.
Something was placed on the table.
“Single Epsilon 3! That, that Black Edition at that!”
Hender’s eyes lit up.
I quickly stretched my arms across the table, but Ray was faster than me.
“… … .”
“… … .”
A vodka with a luxurious label in Ray’s hand.
A man and a boy exchanged silent glances over the table.
*
“It’s nothing special. It’s just a strange plant that doesn’t die even when exposed to black rain.”
Hender looked at the backs of the group crouching at the corner of the fence and made a grunt.
In his hand he held an opened bottle of vodka with the label torn off.
“I didn’t even water it separately, but it grew on its own. Ugh. Oh, this is really no joke. I think I understand why that old man Felter saved up money and told me to drink it at least once.”
Hender kept muttering something, but the group couldn’t hear him.
It was because I was so absorbed in the sight that appeared before my eyes.
“It’s true. I’ve never seen it in any plant guide. It’s a completely new type of sprout.”
Veronica’s voice was very excited.
What was garnering the group’s enthusiastic attention was a green sprout growing in a small space between the scrap metal.
The sprout, about the length of a finger, did not lose its elegant appearance even among the old and broken things surrounding it.
Veronica and Philip were both convinced at the same time.
“It’s clear. It’s not a weed or something.”
“Yes. Such an elegant and luxurious sprout can’t possibly be a weed.”
“That’s right. Just like me.”
Philip, who lightly ignored Veronica’s words, looked at Ray and asked.
“Ray, what do you think?”
“I don’t know exactly what elegance and sophistication feel like, but when I look at it, I can tell it’s definitely not a weed.”
Ray’s finger pointed to the ground beneath the sprout.
The ground, which had been dyed black by the black rain, retained its original fresh brown color only in a certain radius centered around where the sprouts had grown.
The radius is about the width of a palm.
Philip, who had been lost in thought, spoke in a suspicious voice.
“Isn’t there a possibility of manipulation? For example, soil was dug up from somewhere else and sprinkled around the sprouts.”
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“Hmm. That makes sense. But where did you get such clean soil? And it rained black rain until this morning, but there isn’t a single black stain on this sprout. I think it’s immune to black rain, and it also has the ability to purify the surrounding soil.”
“Or, in my opinion… .”
Philip and Veronica continue their heated discussion.
Ray, who had been listening to the conversation between the two, stood up from his seat and looked back at Hender.
“This sprout, is it where you planted the seed you received in return?”
“To be exact, it was more like I dropped it than planted it. While cleaning up the clutter, I found a bag of seeds. Oh my gosh—do I look like someone who’s interested in growing plants? Hehe!”
Hender bursts into hearty laughter with his face flushed with intoxication.
“Can you tell me more about it?”
“Of course. You gave me such a precious drink, so I have to try it.”
The story that followed was simple.
Three months ago, while picking up scrap at a dump, Hander discovered a traveler lying unconscious.
“There were things scattered around beside me that had come out of the bag I was carrying. The first thing that caught my eye was Chaki.”
However, there were no cars visible around.
Hender immediately realized what was happening.
“They are often found. They are the type who walk across the wilderness after their car breaks down. They usually collapse and die in the wilderness, but if they are lucky, they make it to the sector.”
The traveler collapsed from dehydration.
But Hander, who was more interested in beautifying the environment than saving lives, quickly collected the scattered items into a collection bin and focused on cleaning the floor.
“But then something happened. Damn, I should have just picked it up and thrown it out as fast as I could!”
The traveler opened his eyes just seconds after he started picking up the items.
The traveler, who had raised his upper body, looked this way with a blank stare.
It was then that Hander discovered the scabbards hanging from the opponent’s belt.
“There were more than 10 daggers in the scabbards. That moment when goosebumps ran through my whole body! When I was down, I couldn’t see it because it was covered by the cloak. At that moment, I realized. Oh, I touched a very dangerous guy’s bag!”
Hander’s voice became increasingly agitated as the alcohol took effect.
A sense of liveliness and excitement.
Philip and Veronica also got up from their seats and were listening intently to Hender’s story.
“It seemed like the opponent had a shoulder injury. But I didn’t dare to attack him. But I used my wit, thinking that there’s no way a person should die.”
The opponent’s eyes are unfocused.
I realized that I hadn’t fully regained consciousness yet.
Hender quickly put down the item he was picking up and handed the plastic bottle of water he was holding to the other person.
─Are you okay? First of all, let’s start with the neck. Your condition doesn’t look very good.
And he looked at the other person with anxious eyes.
Fortunately, the traveler slowly reached out his hand towards Pete as if possessed, opened the lid, and started drinking the water.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Without taking a single breath.
So that the floor is exposed all at once.
Kwak! Knock!
The traveler, who had just emptied four bottles of PET, spoke with eyes that had finally regained focus.
─Do you have anything to eat?
It was a gaze too intense to refuse.
With no other way to escape, Hender took the traveler into his home and provided him with medicine and food.
“For a whole month. I really didn’t think you’d stay until your wounds were completely healed. You filthy bastard!”
A voice that made his teeth chatter even when he thought about that time.
Hender then spoke about the traveler’s appearance as he remembered it.
“I never took my hood off. It completely covered the back of my head and my ears. Also, I always wore a mask to cover my face when I went out.”
Suddenly the conversation stopped.
Hender seemed to think for a moment, then spoke with a somewhat hazy look in his eyes.
“The appearance was truly remarkable. How should I put it… Simply saying that it was beautiful was not enough. It felt like I was looking at a creature that was not of this world. I was fascinated by its features, and the shape of its ears protruding from under its hood was a bit unusual. It seemed longer and more pointed than usual?”
Also, the traveler said that he used the word human very often.
He said that it was the first time in his life that he had ever seen such a kind person.
“I heard that there was even magic. It was the first time I realized that there was such a mysterious power in the world.”
Veronica, who was listening to the story, whispered softly.
“Elf.”
“Elf?”
“Yeah. I heard it from my grandfather. According to the records, there used to be a forest a long time ago. He said they were a race that lived there. They’ve practically disappeared now, with only a few surviving and living among humans. They have pointed ears, a high affinity for mana, and they eat vegetables and eat news…”
Then I heard Hender’s voice.
“Anyway, that guy must have eaten over 100 of my cans. He’s thin, but his appetite is so strong.”
Philip whispered.
“I heard you had a strong appetite?”
“It might have been because I was hungry at first… .”
“He would eat, no, he would throw away five cans of food for every meal. He wouldn’t even touch the canned food if it didn’t have meat in it.”
“I ate a lot. I even ate meat.”
“… … .”
Veronica looked extremely aggrieved. I’m sure I heard that from my grandfather.
Anyway, after the traveler had fully recovered from his injuries, he left Hender’s house.
He gave me a bag of seeds as a thank you gift.
“He told me to plant it in the yard. He said that the plant that grows there will save my life someday.”
“Life?”
“Yes. I said that you would naturally find out when the time comes, but honestly, I wanted to hit you. You made a mess of your life and now you’re just giving me seeds! You’re not even kidding me!”
Hender, his anger restored, gulped down the vodka.
Meanwhile, Ray exchanged glances with Veronica.
‘Seeds. Need them?’
‘Yeah. I can’t take what’s already been planted. Maybe it could help us figure out a cure for the disease.’
Ray nodded.
He looked at the handle again and said.
“How many seeds are left?”
“Well, there are probably four of them tucked away somewhere in the corner of the house, but why…?”
The look in Hender’s eyes, which had been trailing off, changed strangely.
Because I realized what Ray and his group wanted.
“We will all buy that seed.”
“Oh… I want to buy seeds.”
A golden lust bloomed in Hander’s bowl.
That’s what I thought.
They seem to be rich young ladies from the upper sector, and if you talk nicely, you can get a lot of money out of them.
Who would have thought that a useless piece of junk would turn into money like this?
“If you were to buy it, how much would you price it at?”
Philip, who had Ray’s gaze, answered instead.
“Um… let’s do it at 10,000 shillings per seed. The cheapest variety sold at flower shops usually costs around that price.”
Ten thousand shillings.
The amount of money a lower-class worker would earn in a week’s work.
The black rain that fell intermittently basically made the sector and the land around it unsuitable for plant growth.
Because of this, seeds have formed an expensive price range regardless of variety.
When Hender heard the price, he looked surprised, but soon regained his composure and said.
“I don’t think that’s enough.”
“I’ll give you twelve thousand shillings.”
“Could you please raise it a bit more…?”
Ray nodded in agreement as he received Philip’s gaze.
“Fifteen thousand. Not more than that.”
“It seems that the children of a noble family spend too little. I will consider it for 30,000 shillings. There are four seeds, so a total of 120,000 shillings.”
Perhaps gaining confidence from the easy increase in value, Hander called out three times the initial amount.
“… … .”
Ray thought about it for a moment.
Thanks to the cash that the mercenaries had seized from the vacant lot, we now have quite a bit of money left over.
I was thinking of paying a certain amount of money and moving on, even if it felt expensive.
Rather than wasting time on lengthy bargaining, it would be more efficient to quickly move to the next sector and continue researching the rainbow.
But there is no end to this greed.
‘If you give me 30,000 shillings, I will raise the amount again.’
It was something you could tell by looking at the golden desire wriggling in Hender’s bowl.
I was willing to pay a high price, but I had no intention of being unreasonable.
Just then Ray was thinking of another way.
“There he is! That little bastard! He’s outside!”
“The ruined guy finally appeared!”
A shout came from outside the fence.
A group of men running towards the cabin.
Judging by the clubs they held and their sturdy physiques, they were presumed to be gangsters from the slums.
“Oh, when will I get to your house…!”
Clang!
He was so surprised that he even dropped the bottle of alcohol he was drinking.
I went into the house with a pale face and locked the door, and the gangsters arrived just in time.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
“fu*k! Don’t come out! You little shit!”
“If you borrow money, you have to pay it back!”
The gangsters pulled the doorknob with a vicious attitude, but the locked door didn’t open.
Ray saw that and a good idea popped into his head.
“Let’s break it down and go in. I confirmed that it’s definitely at home today.”
“wait a minute.”
“huh?”
The gangsters looked at the white-haired boy who had come up next to them.
The boy seemed to be holding the doorknob and staying still.
Crunch. Creak─
I opened the door.
“Oh, how? Who is this?”
“Let’s go in first! We need to get the money first!”
The gangsters entered the cabin, although they were embarrassed.
“What the heck, where did that kid go?”
“Hey! The window is open! It looks like it was thrown over there! Follow me right now─”
“wait a minute.”
“huh?”
Ray strode over to the wooden box in the corner of the cabin.
Then he turned the box upside down and gave the top a familiar tap.
thud!
“Ugh!”
Evil gazes poured down on the handles scattered on the floor.
“This kid. Every time I come home, I don’t see him, and he’s always hiding here.”
“I never would have thought that it would be in such a small box.”
“Ha, haha… Let’s just say this briefly… Ugh! Ugh!”
A body scrub began on Hender’s body.
Through the crouching hand, Ray was seen looking at him with his knees bent.
“Can I help you? Magic. I know how to use it too.”
“Ugh! Ugh! Help, help… P, please! Ugh!”
“Okay, but you have to pay a commission fee instead.”
“Ugh! Ugh, how much! Hey, save me first! Ouch!”
“One hundred and twenty thousand shillings.”
One hundred and twenty thousand shillings.
That was the price Hander had quoted for four seeds.
“That, that’s too expensive… ugh!”
“130,000 shillings.”
“Oh my! Ha, the price for helping me once is… what…!”
“One hundred and forty thousand shillings.”
A chill ran down Hander’s back.
Why is that?
“One hundred and fifty thousand shillings.”
Why does the expressionless boy appear to be smiling?