Chapter 13: Divine Tree (4)
Why it had come in here, and why it was secretly eating the stir-fried pork I had saved for breakfast this morning, and so on.
I had a mountain of questions I wanted to ask, but the child was in no state to talk.
Tears and snot were streaming down its face, and it kept fanning its tongue, so it didn’t seem like I could get any answers.
"Here, keep this in your mouth for now. Don’t drink it."
Ice water is just a temporary fix when eating spicy food. The pain is on the tongue, not in the stomach.
Something was needed to soothe the tongue.
I pulled out the recipe notebook I hadn’t touched in a while from the cupboard.
Suddenly, the moment had come to launch a new menu.
『Milk
Three spoonfuls of powder + half spoonful of honey + water』
Out of the recipes I skimmed through, the drink I decided to serve today was this milk.
‘Does milk, something you just heat and serve, really need a recipe?’ I had wondered when I first saw it.
Surprisingly, the milk served at the café contains powdered mix! I guessed it was similar to the milk from vending machines.
To top it off, honey was added to bring out the sweetness even more—how could it not taste good?
Of course, right now it was less about taste and more like an emergency treatment.
I put water in the coffee pot and took out a sack labeled fructose whole milk powder from the cupboard. As a sterilized product, its shelf life extended well into next year.
As I opened the bag, a rich and fragrant powdered milk scent wafted out.
Then I added plenty of powdered milk and honey into a thick glass cup, and mixed it all with moderately heated water.
-Clink. Clink.
The sound of the old glass cup and teaspoon clinking echoed in the early morning darkness.
"It might be hot, so drink it slowly."
I took the water glass from the child, who was practically dipping its tongue in it, and replaced it with the café milk.
After chugging the milk repeatedly, the child finally plopped down on the floor with a relieved expression.
“Phew.”
“Feeling better now?”
“I thought I was going to die.”
“How did you get in here?”
That was the part I was most curious about. Though it’s an old building, the security is pretty tight.
The National Intelligence Service had installed various sensors and alarms on every window and door.
Not to mention, every window had thick double frames with new locks, so to get in, someone would have to break the window.
No matter how I looked, there was no window left open or broken by accident…
“Like this!”
While I was glancing at the windows just in case, a voice called up from far below. I looked down and was stunned—the child had shrunk to an astonishingly tiny size.
Tiny.
No, the child was always small, but this was too small.
Maybe the size of a palm.
And then, it shrank even more until it was the size of a bean.
“If I keep shrinking like this, I can come in through the gap under the door!”
“Right, I didn’t think of that.”
“Hehe.”
Apparently satisfied with the demonstration, the child returned to its normal size and eagerly sipped the remaining milk.
Should I contact Director Baek Mahyeon again?
No. Once was enough to call him out in the middle of the night.
This child, who seemed like the spirit of the divine tree, didn’t appear dangerous, so I decided to let it go for now.
After all, it’s just a child. Even if not a real one.
“Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. Today’s my first day.”
“First day?”
“Having a body like this! I’ve got arms and legs now, and also…”
That was a silly question.
Whether it was born from the divine tree or was the divine tree itself, it had only sprung up in our yard just the other day. Like it or not, I knew this child’s birthdate—and maybe even the exact hour.
I stopped dwelling on my vague worries swirling in my head.
Digging deeper into my questions started to feel like interrogating a child, and I didn’t like it.
Besides, what’s done is done. Just like the divine tree sprouted, so too did this child appear.
In that case, I should do what I can.
“Let’s talk more tomorrow after you sleep. Is your stomach okay?”
“Yes! After drinking this, it’s not spicy at all! I think I could eat again!”
“I’ll make it less spicy next time. It’s late, so let’s sleep.”
Unfortunately, my house has only one bed.
I laid the child down in it, pulled the blanket over them, and took a spare blanket to head back down to the café.
So it’s finally come to this—sleeping here.
I’d been so busy lately I’d forgotten, but one item on my bucket list was to take a long nap on one of the café chairs.
I never imagined I’d end up here, not after a lovers’ quarrel, but because my bed had been taken over.
“Heave-ho.”
I don’t know if it’s right to call it the comfort of an unfamiliar place, but I think I can now understand a bit why people leave perfectly good homes to go camping or sleep in cars and suffer.
Now that I’m lying down, it doesn’t feel so bad.
My legs stuck out awkwardly from the two-seater chair, but adding a makeshift stool from near the stove made for a decently comfortable bed.
I meant to fall asleep watching my backlog of YouTube videos, but the coziness of the makeshift bed quickly dulled my consciousness.
And just like that, another hectic day came to an end.
In the early dawn, a luxury sedan sped into the National Intelligence Service compound.
-Screech.
The sedan, driving at an excessive speed, passed the monument engraved with the motto “We work in the shadows and aim for the light,” and only came to a halt once it reached the parking lot.
If such a luxury sedan had arrived at any other government building, staff would have come pouring out for formalities, but this was a place where eyes and ears had to be shielded from each other.
Even though one of the top officials of the agency had arrived, only a few cars belonging to the night shift staff were sparsely parked, and no one had come out for formal reception.
“You’re here?”
“You came out despite the cold?”
Baek Mahyeon gave a slight nod of greeting to the gumiho who appeared before him with a faint breeze.
The gumiho gently patted Baek Mahyeon’s shoulder and got into the car.
“Let’s go. If we dawdle, that guy will start ranting about being late again. Hm? What’s that smile for?”
“It’s nothing. Please get in.”
Just a month ago, such a scene would have seemed impossible.
To see the gumiho elder not only mindful of someone else's opinion, but also grumbling while carrying out orders—Baek had witnessed it himself.
Especially when Jinseong had personally handed the gumiho a shovel while moving the divine tree and urged him to dig properly—he was nothing short of a divine being.
And meeting Jinseong had become a genuinely enjoyable experience for Baek Mahyeon.
Unlike other senior officials, who were just counting down the days to retirement and gathering thank-you plaques, his own position felt completely different.
“Oof, my whole body aches. Still, from next week on, we won’t have to raise hell at the crack of dawn.”
“That’s a relief. I was beginning to think we’d have to keep guarding the café until Jinseong clocks out every day.”
“Tsk tsk, that’s why I told you not to wear yourself out and to delegate to subordinates.”
“We haven’t been able to increase R-level personnel since the Namsan transfer. Plus, the other staff faint just from seeing you, so they’re no good as chauffeurs either.”
“Heh, the fate of the idle and the fate of the laborer are both of one’s own making. That’s why a gray-haired man like you is suffering before dawn.”
“You’re coming along with me, Elder.”
“Ahem, I’m going for coffee! How can that be the same as going on state business like you?”
The gumiho raised his voice as he realized—belatedly—that he had ended up in the same boat as the man he teased for having a tough fate.
“Ugh, ever since I got a taste for that café coffee, nothing but trouble.”
“We didn’t expect even the divine tree to show up. We have to report it up the chain, but it’s troubling.”
‘It really is. I have no idea how to even begin writing that report.’
The divine tree of Gyeryongsan was classified as R-level confidential.
R-level classified material in the NIS was accessible only to a select few and could be fully viewed only by two people in Korea: the Director of the NIS and their direct superior—the President.
Even then, a viewing record would be created if the President accessed it, so they couldn’t view it out of personal curiosity.
Just as politicians often excuse their scandals with “I didn’t know” or “It was just one meal,” even a record of access could be a critical weakness.
Of course, when a literal earth-shattering situation like this arose, it had to be reported.
As far as Baek Mahyeon knew, this would be the first time since the 1976 Blue House UFO incident that an R-level classified case had been brought directly to the upper echelon.
But rather than offer sympathy, the gumiho poured fuel on the fire.
“The divine tree isn’t the real problem.”
“Then what is? I honestly have no idea.”
When he had something to teach, the gumiho had a habit of beginning only after asking a rhetorical question.
Experienced as he was, Baek Mahyeon naturally stepped into the role of the attentive disciple once more.
“When you throw a stone into a well, the things inside the well only see the fallen stone. They don’t even realize someone threw it. Just like you and me. And so, misunderstandings deepen.”
“You mean we should reveal Jinseong’s existence?”
“So you were going to gloss over it and just say the divine tree appeared? Think about what’s happened since that guy showed up. Have we managed to handle even one thing on our own? If another crisis arises, we’ll definitely need the upper tier’s power. Tsk, and meanwhile, that guy is so carefree it’s maddening.”
Just keeping up with the situation was exhausting, let alone cleaning it up.
‘He’s right. The NIS, the elder, and even the mountain god of Gyeryongsan are all working at full throttle…’
And yet Jinseong, while holding café operations hostage to demand operation expenses, also assigned the divine tree’s security detail elsewhere and even took advantage of the situation without batting an eye.
Now he had reached the point of wrapping stir-fried pork in vegetables grown with divine power.
“Passing on problems you can’t handle is the job of higher-ups. If you plan to be in that position one day, keep that in mind.”
“Must you say such dreadful things again? I’ve said it many times—I plan to retire to the countryside and tend a garden.”
“Heh heh.”
“Why are you laughing again?”
“Nothing. The light’s changed. Let’s go.”
The fruitless dream spoken by Baek Mahyeon, fated to work like an ox, didn’t stop the insightful gumiho’s soft laughter.
Looking at the gumiho in the rearview mirror, Baek Mahyeon’s lips slowly curved up as well.
He realized, though belatedly, why the elder had laughed—because their fates weren’t all that different after all.
And meanwhile, completely unaware of what was happening at the café they were headed toward, everyone around them was off to their own blissful start to the day.