Chapter 12

"It's completely hardened."

Jio picked up a Mangdung Fruit he had left to dry in the cabin yard.

"... And it isn't even yellow..."

The glossy shine, tinged with a metallic luster, gave off a color truly like gold.

Its size, weight, and shape all made it look exactly like ugly placer gold.

"When exactly did I start walking the path of an alchemist?"

It was fascinating that a plump, juicy red berry had changed like this.

"Is the color similar to sunlight too?"

The berry had hardened enough to be ground into powder, and it did not look like food. But knowing he could turn it into medicine, Jio tilted his head and put all the dried berries into a glass jar.

After returning inside the cabin, Jio made use of the system's help for the first time in a while.

"Seeking a knowledgeable friend who can tell me how to make blood dumplings."

"Right, that knowledgeable friend was here all along. That was confidence with a basis."

Today's content.

Making blood dumplings good for recovering from blood loss.

"Ta-da."

Wasting time on productive work was a very enjoyable thing.

For Jio, who liked making and growing things, tasks like this were not troublesome at all.

'Making little dumplings by hand in a leisurely cabin with sunlight streaming in.'

It hit his tastes exactly. Jio took the ingredients and headed to the studio.

"I'm not going to paint, but there's no better place for work than this."

Since the studio was so spacious, as long as he avoided the paints, he could make full use of the worktable. Jio placed all the ingredients on the worktable he had cleaned in advance.

"..."

Jio, who had gone to wash his hands, hesitated.

"... Do I just grind it into powder first, like when I make pigments? Is this the narrow-minded thinking of an art teacher who's only handled art materials? But calling this 'dried fruit' is a stretch when it's almost as hard as a mineral..."

Caught in a reasonable amount of panic, Jio unconsciously fiddled with the dried berry. Amazingly, his mind and body grew calm.

"It's warm."

The forest, clear day after clear day, was always full of sunlight. As one could sense from its cozy color, the well-dried Mangdung Fruit also held the warmth of the sun.

It was not simply hot against the skin; there was a faint heat that seeped all the way into the blood vessels beneath.

"So this is the power of fruit dried in the sun... Incredible."

His heart, receiving that energy, began to beat in a relaxed, clear rhythm, like during an afternoon nap on a drowsy day. A gentle feeling came over him, as if he were rolling around in a blanket filled with the scent of sunlight.

"..."

BANG!

Jio brought the hammer down.

"It's harder than I thought."

BAM, CRACK!

"Next time, instead of drying them whole like this..."

CRUNCH...

"Should I grind them first and then dry them?"

CRACK, TAP.

"But then it would be hard to trap all the juice inside like this."

With a dull sound, the berry, which had been as hard as a mineral, broke apart.

"..."

This should be enough.

'I'll put it in a bowl and grind it.'

Jio nodded.

Jewels, shells, all kinds of hard things—Jio used them to make pigments. Naturally, that meant the bowls got scratched or cracked, so he had made several bowls in advance to prepare for that.

Among them, Jio brought over an especially clean glass bowl and began pounding the berries.

GRIND, GRRRIND.

"What is this hardness..."

Even though he had broken them into small pieces, they made a sound that had him wondering, "Is this really right?" No matter how he thought about it, it seemed like Jio himself had awakened as an alchemist.

'Should I make a millstone later?'

Judging by this insane hardness, perhaps he had dried them for too long.

"I might have let my guard down because the forest ingredients don't spoil."

One of the traits of this forest was that ingredients and crops did not wither or spoil.

The same was true even after cooking. A world where food never grew mold—he thought it might be every cook's dream.

But through these berries, he now knew for certain that their state did not remain unchanged forever. The Mangdung Fruits he had left alone for a long time had not spoiled, but they had continued drying in that state and become excessively hard.

"..."

Was that why they had ended up holding an even warmer energy?

'... I'll need to think about this some more. I won't know what results I'll get by insisting on a certain method until I try it myself.'

A warm heat that could not be felt from ordinary berries could be felt from the dried ones. Considering that they had just been ordinary dried berries until about a week ago, it certainly seemed to be a trait unique to these berries.

In any case, it was funny and good. Now Jio could go around saying he had transmuted gold.

"This should be enough."

RUSTLE...

It was a damp powder.

"It looks just like snow."

Among snow, it was the kind that clumped well.

It had clearly dried so thoroughly that he had thought it could not possibly dry any more, so where was this subtle moisture coming from?

In truth, there might not have been any moisture at all, and Jio might simply have mistaken its strangely sticky fluffiness for dampness.

"... Mm."

When he lightly tasted the powder, warmth seemed to spread through his body and sweetness bloomed on his tongue.

"..."

Jio blinked twice.

"... This would taste good if I added it when baking."

They said that in the past, when sugar was precious, commoners had ground up chestnuts found along the road and used that instead of expensive sugar or strongly scented honey.

Apparently, its nuttiness and subtle sweetness went well with all kinds of food, and they even made crepes with it.

"No reason I can't do the same."

The powder of the Mangdung Fruits, fully ripened in the sunlight, had lost nearly all of its original tartness, leaving only the rich sweetness unique to dried fruit.

That sweetness was very intense, but he could also taste a clean plainness like grain or eggs. It was something he had not felt when eating freshly picked Mangdung Fruits, to the point that he wondered, "Is this the taste of sunlight?"

"The fruity flavor is too strong, so it may be hard to use in a meal, but it would suit sweet baked goods like crepes topped with whipped cream or ricotta cheese, or madeleines. It would go well with the Mangdung Fruit's cool lemon scent too."

Only someone who thought about food while washing, eating, and sleeping could be called a true pig. In that sense, Jio was indeed a pig.

"I'll have to dry some in advance."

Mangdung Fruits, packed full of fruit flesh, had even more moisture than that. It felt like drying a jelly the size of a Kyoho grape.

'If I want to use this powder for cooking too...'

It seemed wise to dry a lot of them in advance.

'It'll take quite some time.'

After turning all the berries into powder, Jio lifted the glass jar.

"It might fail, so let's store most of it and try with a little. People should always live with failure in mind. That's the shortcut to a long life."

He left only enough powder to make a sphere smaller than the marbles sold at stationery stores.

After putting away all the Mangdung Fruit powder, Jio lifted the bottle beside it. Something inside rippled with the depth of a transparent Milky Way.

"..."

It was the sap of Rurufu, the flower of the spring, which he had made before.

"... Of course it wouldn't have spoiled..."

The Rurufu sap inside the glass bottle somehow resembled the spring water where it had grown.

Should he say it was like water containing sunlight? Or should he say it contained slightly warm moonlight?

Rurufu's sap, made by materializing all the light it had held inside its body for its entire life and turning it into its own blood, was hard to describe as something as simple as water with glitter in it.

'... It really looks like the Milky Way. Would it feel like this if the Milky Way were reflected on the shallow water of the white tree spring?'

Maybe because it was so pleasing to look at, Jio stared at it for a long while before muttering.

"It's beautiful."

Jio dripped the Rurufu sap over the mortar full of finely ground powder.

He had not even added many drops, but the powder was already soaked through and had taken on a deep golden color. Blended with the cool blue-green quality unique to Rurufu, with its feeling of moisture, the powder had a strangely chilly aspect to it.

"... It looks like wet gold dust."

After thinking for a moment, Jio kneaded the powder between his fingers, then brought it into his hand and rolled it gently. Because his attempt had been timid, it was very small, but in any case, the dumpling was complete.

"..."

It was like a bead made of real gold.

"...?"

At this point, shouldn't this be called a gold dumpling instead of a blood dumpling?

"Well, anyway."

Having gotten a rough feel for the powder's moisture and the sap's wetness, Jio made the dumplings one after another.

Perhaps thanks to his experience tearing dough for sujebi and shaping honey rice cakes at home, the dumplings turned out quite decent. Jio was able to make a total of fifteen dumplings.

"..."

For a moment, Jio felt empty when all the Mangdung Fruit powder he had painstakingly ground was used up. Life was bitter. There was a truth of life in this.

"... Still, I have sap left."

Since the powder itself had so much moisture, he could not use up all the Rurufu sap, which spread absurdly well. In the end, he had used only about a third, far from even half the bottle.

"What should I do with this?"

It was right at that moment, as he was thinking that.

"..."

"..."

"Uh..."

Jio met eyes with a water bird sitting by the studio window.

"Uh, wait."

CLACK CLACK CLACK!

"No."

SPLASH!

The Rurufu sap was stolen.

"..."

What was this?

The water bird had puffed up its body as much as it could and was blocking the large glass bottle by wrapping its whole body around it.

"...??"

At that greedy form, like a slime that might appear in a game, Jio could only be flustered.

"What are you going to use that for?"

It was funny to see it swallowed up a bottle three times the size of its stubby body, but he was genuinely curious why it was doing this.

"You can't even swallow the whole thing, so what exactly made you show this much initiative?"

CLINK...

"I'm not saying stubbornness will make it work. I'm saying the glass bottle is bigger than your body."

CLINK!

"Do you see the bottle sticking out? Do you see it? I hereby declare that you have the makings of a pig."

CLICK!! CLACK!!

"Such a clear click and clack. What innovative performance art. You really are my child."

Mainly in the way it did absurd things without batting an eye. Apparently, in this day and age, even paint could pass down genetics.

"How do you plan to make use of that?"

He wondered what a water bird could possibly do with that, but the water bird slipped straight into the glass bottle as if to show him. In the blink of an eye, the water bird crumpled itself into the shape of the bottle.

"Huh?"

And so, the water bird merged with the Rurufu sap.

"What the..."

"Gurgle."

"Did you talk?"

"Grrk."

"You can make sounds?"

Did it evolve?

"..."

As expected, you really are my child.

'Nothing ever goes as expected.'

When Jio turned the bottle upside down and shook it out, the water bird, which had been clinging stubbornly for some reason, whether out of pride or something else, soon slid out in a stream.

SLUUURP, POP!

SPLAT!

"..."

"..."

The creature that had fallen out with a cute sound like a stationery store slime had taken in plenty of Rurufu sap and was sparkling somehow.

"..."

"Grrk."

It could talk, and more importantly.

"... It's warm."

He could feel warmth.

"What happened?"

"Gurgle."

"It's ridiculous and funny, but I have no idea what kind of harmony this is. As expected, life is a series of content."

"Grrung."

"Do animals evolve if they drink Rurufu sap? Nothing changed when I had a sip. Is this discrimination?"

Perhaps the change was possible because the water bird was a species born from Jio's hands. Common sense said that it was impossible for a creature whose entire body was made of water to gurgle as if it had vocal cords.

"It doesn't seem good if you suddenly get bigger. This isn't a harmful change for your body, is it?"

"Grrrrrrrr."

"If so, that's a relief, but..."

After pondering whether life was, in fact, a boiled egg, Jio soon accepted the whole situation positively.

'It's fun, so it's fine.'

That was right. In truth, Jio had not been thinking at all. He had successfully brought all his worries to a close.

"Water that talks and flies really is amazing."

"Grrk?"

"I think your body color changed a little too..."

Its transparent body had turned a pale yellow, like water mixed with gold dust.

The water bird that had drunk Rurufu sap seemed to be one that often carried jewels around, and its glittering body was full of yellow, transparent jewels. They went well with Rurufu's unique sparkle, which resembled sunlight and moonlight.

"Mm."

With a color this visible, like a yellow road sign, I could probably spot it while passing by on a KTX train.

The creature was full of splendid and gentle colors. This would certainly set it apart from the other individuals.

"If you stand out this much, I can give you a name."

"Grrrul?"

"Do you like that? That's a relief."

Soon, Jio said,

"Golden Brat..."

"..."

"I knew the moment I said it that this wasn't right. This dad misspeaks sometimes."

It was the first time Jio had ever seen water look dead serious.

He might be a parent of sorts, but there were things one could and could not say to one's child. The naming sense of Golden Brat clearly belonged to the latter.

"..."

The Seo family had been bad at naming for generations. He focused his mind more and put serious effort into thinking.

"Then how about... Honey?"

"Grrk?"

"Because you're a sweet color."

The bird that held a warm golden light resembled sunlight or moonlight, but it also resembled honey that looked as if a deep fragrance would flow from it.

Jio stroked the golden bird, which had become a little squishy and firm, and said,

"That's the limit of my naming sense."

"Gurgle."

"How merciful of you not to hate it."

Honestly, he had thought it would hate being named Honey.

'Maybe the meaning doesn't get through, so it doesn't know what honey is.'

That thought crossed his mind for a moment, but if the creature itself liked it, then what could he do?

Jio watched Honey wriggle back into the glass bottle.

"Cute."

Just looking at it was healing.

"A cat crumpled inside a box..."

"Grrrr."

"Does your sound get crumpled along with your body when your body is crumpled? Even cuter."

"Ggyurung."

"This is the very crystallization of cuteness."

When Honey finally managed to stuff its body into the glass bottle, Jio picked up the bottle. The strangely lukewarm glass bottle was just the right size, making it feel exactly like a hand warmer.

'It smells sweet too.'

His mind went blank, as if he were watching a crackling campfire.

"Hm."

As he quietly looked at the warm, pretty glass bottle that gave off a sweet scent, a drowsiness like attending class after lunch on a spring day washed over him and left him languid.

Eating and sleeping were a pig's duty. And Honey seemed to be the same.

"..."

Jio placed the glass bottle inside his outer garment without closing its mouth.

"I'll take that as agreement."

"Grrung."

The two of them sagged like limp laundry and fell asleep just like that.