Eat The World Tree

Chapter 279: You’re A Flower, Aren’t You? (4)

Chapter 279: You’re A Flower, Aren’t You? (4)

The sun of the slums.

8 years ago.

Even as time passed, that moment from the distant past couldn’t be forgotten.

Nitrogen and phosphorus. Potassium hydroxide. The damp and pungent smell of wood ash and straw, and the overwhelming chemical odor unique to the lab.

Amidst the dying screams of people, old men, who had fallen behind in a status-based society, gathered in secluded buildings, obsessively focused on research.

And the miserable days, selling one’s body every day, earning money and food for a single drop of semen.

Even at a young age, the world that Taeyang lived in was one where you had to think even for a second longer to get an extra bowl of porridge to survive.

He still remembered.

Those wretched knots of cursed old trees, reeking of that beggar’s stench!

“I mean, seriously, why the hell do I have to sleep with those crazy women?”

“Then choose. From among them.”

Taeyang lived by pretending to be a beggar, stealing, and selling his body in various ways.

Even when he was sold into slavery and sent to the lab, what he had to do was not much different from before.

The headmaster, who looked like the oldest, demanded that Taeyang call him ‘father.’

Showing one photo after another, he grinned with a sickening smile just looking at them.

“So, how about men? You said you don’t like women, right? You’ve got a face like a pretty girl, so you could manage.”

“Damn it. You’re supposed to be my father! How could a father tell his son to do this?”

“It’s not like I’m asking for something impossible. Just have one meal with them, and I’ll give you some pocket money. You’ll get to eat food from a restaurant you normally can’t afford.”

“It’s never just a meal, you insane old bastard!”

-Bang!

Every fight between his foster father and Taeyang always ended with Taeyang running away.

A half-day of running away was the most intense protest he could manage.

-Grrr~

But where could a guy with no money or status possibly go?

Clutching his growling stomach and stomping around, he always ended up in one place.

The only place in the slums overflowing with money and food.

The Dream Restaurant.

A place that took in useless kids who couldn’t even hold a single coin in their hands.

Well… simply put, it was a free soup kitchen run by Flower.

The food they served there might have been tasteless oatmeal and scraps, but to Taeyang, it was as good as a feast.

-Clang!

As the door swung open, a few familiar faces from the slums appeared before him.

“Oppa?”

“It’s Oppa!”

They were kids he used to call random names like Mongrel, Dust, and so on, because they didn’t have real names.

Once starving and stealing apples in the slums, these kids had entered Flower and become employees at a young age.

Their situation was very different from Taeyang’s as a slave.

“Did you come to eat?”

“Yeah, I stopped by before going to work.”

“Hehe. Just wait a second, I’ll bring something right away.”

The girls, who no longer smelled of manure or had dirt on their faces, had found a good master. They bathed regularly and earned wages.

Their situation was entirely different from his, subjected to drug experiments.

But Taeyang didn’t feel particularly jealous.

Seeing kids he once knew have a safe place didn’t make him ugly with jealousy, because that wouldn’t be cool.

Taeyang has always been about style. Since he was young, he’d been a guy who cared about looking cool.

“Here you go!”

Mongrel. Now, she went by the name Ariel.

Seeing the hearty oatmeal, Taeyang smiled like a child. His stomach was already rumbling.

First one bite. No, three bites.

As he scarfed down the food, Ariel watched him with a satisfied smile.

Once his stomach was decently full, a curiosity about the place crept up.

“So, what exactly is Flower? Why do they give out food?”

“I don’t know either.”

Even when he asked Ariel, she remained silent.

Taeyang thought for a moment longer, then shrugged.

What did it matter?

This place was a beacon of hope in the slums.

So many kids had been saved here, so many beggars had regained their lives.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of beggars and kids would willingly give their lives to this place.

“They said that kids aren’t guilty, so they should be allowed to eat freely.”

For kids with no money or skills, they provided experience and a place to stay.

For those who had fallen once, they gave a chance to start again.

In a place like this, as long as you had a bit of skill, you could survive.

Ariel, who couldn’t even tell salt from sugar at first, had now become a proper cook and head of her household.

“If you do well, you can become an official employee of Flower someday! You’ll get status, real status. Isn’t that amazing?”

Ariel laughed cheerfully.

“Then, with my mom and my sibling…”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ll all live happily under one roof, huh? Well, then you’ll have to work even harder.”

“Yep.”

Well.

He was just a test subject and a prostitute.

Still, shouldn’t a man sincerely congratulate his friend?

He remembered what his mother, who had died of starvation, once told him.

That a man should laugh it off even if he fell and broke his nose.

Taeyang clapped his hands and looked around the room.

-Thud.

In the distance, a girl was carrying a box of hard bread.

She seemed to be about his age.

Judging by her pale skin, she wasn’t from the slums, and her black suit suggested she was from Flower.

Her calm, expressionless face stood out.

Her eyes showed no emotion. If you asked her what she was thinking, she’d probably just say, “Huh?”

A straw doll without feelings.

That was Taeyang’s first impression of her.

‘Wait a minute…’

That person, she was from Flower, wasn’t she?

If he played his cards right and acted all pitiful, could he become an employee here too?

Taeyang’s rusty brain began to spin at full speed.

‘This is it!’

This was his golden opportunity.

“Oppa? Where are you going?”

“Just wait a second.”

Convinced he couldn’t miss this chance, Taeyang left his empty bowl of oatmeal behind and slowly made his way toward the girl.

“Hey~”

“…?”

“Are you from Flower by any chance?”

Why was he talking to her? This filthy kid.

That’s the expression the girl gave him as she looked at him.

“What’s your name?”

“Guseul.”

She answered dryly, with no sign of suspicion or caution, as if simply answering because he asked.

Taeyang exaggeratedly let out an “Ah~” and smiled.

“Do you happen to know why this building was built?”

“This place?”

Her young face, as she touched her lower lip with her finger, tilted slightly in curiosity.

Her face was cuter than he expected.

Taeyang waited patiently for her answer, and after a short moment, Guseul replied.

“It’s supposed to be a… shelter to save innocent people, or something like that.”

“A shelter… Why do you guys do that kind of thing?”

“I don’t know. But saving people isn’t a bad thing, right?”

If she said so… then he guessed that was it.

This was a world where altruism never existed, a miserable back alley.

Taeyang couldn’t understand their way of thinking, but he figured as long as it was good, there was no problem.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“…But still, there’s no way you’d do it for no reason.”

Guseul pointed her chin at Ariel, who was working. Ariel, who was smiling brightly, sweating while filling the hungry kids’ bowls.

If one went a bit deeper inside, there were also people taking care of injured or sick children.

They were all once part of this cesspool.

“I don’t know. I’ve been working without a reason since I was born. So… I don’t know what the bosses are thinking.”

“The bosses? You’re in the same situation as me. How old are you?”

“Twelve.”

“Oh~ I became a slave at twelve too. How about we chat over a drink of water?”

“…What?”

She tilted her head, not understanding what he meant. Taeyang’s face stiffened.

‘Weird, whenever I go to work, adults usually talk like this.’

Maybe the old men just had terrible taste in conversation.

He immediately gave up on choosing his words carefully.

If he played his cards right, maybe he could work here as a slave too. Brown-nosing wasn’t difficult for him.

That was Taeyang’s specialty.

“Well, you’re doing good work.”

“….”

Guseul nodded, as if agreeing with him. It was good work.

Even though Taeyang didn’t know what Flower did exactly, he thought it was better to entrust himself to a place like this rather than anywhere else.

In fact, Taeyang was willing to lie flat on his stomach and surrender like a dog if Flower called him right now.

“A long time ago, this place had a bad reputation as a criminal town, or something like that… but all those criminals are dead now. The only ones left are innocent kids because those scum thoughtlessly had children.” ?????Ë?

“Really?”

“Yeah. Honestly, helping out is… something to be thankful for. Even Ariel tried to kill me over a single apple at first. Look at her now. Look at how brightly she smiles.”

The remnants of war.

That was what Taeyang and the orphans here were.

Those who once betrayed the World Tree, who showed even the slightest sympathy for the Tree Spirit King, or in any way opposed the World Tree, were abandoned here.

There were over a thousand such slums around the world.

“I don’t know if it’s out of goodwill, but it’s a good thing, regardless.”

Taeyang smiled as he watched Ariel work.

She was only ten years old, once so poor she ate rats and suffered from stomach aches for days, but now she looked so well off.

“…That’s nice.”

Guseul also smiled faintly as she watched Ariel.

Seeing the human side emerge from her mechanical expression, Taeyang got excited and spoke even more.

“So, can’t you save me too?”

“What?”

“Well, you see, just today my so-called father told me to sell my body to a man. He keeps demanding it. Right?”

Guseul blinked her eyes wide at Taeyang’s sudden outburst and asked again.

Of course, Taeyang’s little scheme didn’t work.

“I can’t do anything.”

“…Haa.”

He had thought employees would have some power.

She couldn’t even give him a tip.

Just thinking about being dragged back tonight, wrapped in the roots of that old tree, drained all his energy.

‘What a dog’s life.’

Still, what choice did he have? He had to survive.

If the experiment succeeded, someday he’d be free. Or at least live a better life, just like his foster father bragged about.

Taeyang was simply waiting for that day to come.

---

“That day was the first time I met this girl. Back then, Ariel was such a cute kid, but she eventually died… She used to sing about wanting to marry me.”

He was talking too much.

“Ah, Aori is someone I met later. There are a few stories about the first time we met too. You won’t be able to listen to them without shedding tears, honestly. It’s in Chapter 7 of ‘Slum Taeyang.’ So, Aori…”

Taeyang, lost in his past, rambled on with misty eyes.

I got it, he had a miserable life. I knew he was a guy who barely scraped by in the slums.

Guseul sat in the chair, bewildered, listening to Taeyang’s long-winded story.

The “Slum Taeyang Diary,” once started, seemed endless, making it impossible for Guseul or me to get back to the main topic.

“Is it true?”

“Yeah, well.”

Guseul answered.

A young Guseul and Taeyang working at the shelter.

Got it.

I looked back at Taeyang.

“But if you’ve known her for so long, why didn’t you mention anything to me?”

“…You didn’t ask me to.”

“You know how much I hate Flower, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me there was someone from Flower at El Academy?”

Unable to respond, Taeyang raised his fist and hit his own head.

“Huh?”

He tried to laugh it off again.

I gave an order to the maid Aori standing nearby.

“Aori.”

“Yes, my king.”

“Step on him.”

Right in the middle of an important conversation, he had to break the flow.

But at least I understood how these guys met and lived.

I would need to keep a close eye on how Flower had been doing its relief work.

But that was one thing, and this was another.

Aori eagerly dragged Taeyang off the sofa and began stomping on him with enthusiasm.

She practically turned into a dancer, stomping on his head, stomach, and other vital spots.

It was as if she was living like there was no tomorrow. Even watching made me flinch.

“Ow! Ah! Ugh, stop! You hit my bones, you crazy woman! Agh!”

-Thud, clatter.

A button from his clothes popped off and rolled helplessly across the floor.

Leaving behind Taeyang’s pitiful groans, I looked ahead again.

The tea had long since gone cold, and with a sigh, I asked her.

“Where were we again?”

“We haven’t even started.”

Guseul shrugged bitterly.