The sun hung low over the thick canopy of the West Zone forest, casting warm golden light across vines and overgrown rooftops.

  Birds dared to chirp now, and the wind occasionally rustled the trees with a kind of judgmental sigh, as if even nature was unsure how things had gotten to this point.

  And in the middle of it all, stood Yoo Eunsae.

  She had just watched, again, Lee Aseok crouch down and split a strawberry with his husky, Pudding.

  It was supposed to be a wholesome moment. Perhaps even touching. A soft, quiet reward for her hard work.

  Instead, both man and beast bit into their half, chewed exactly once, and spit it out in unison.

  Lee Aseok had a faint look of offense on his usually stoic face.

  Pudding’s entire body convulsed like the strawberry had personally insulted his bloodline.

  Then both of them turned and gave Yoo Eunsae a slow, disappointed look.

  As if she had failed a vital test.

  A test she hadn’t even known she was taking.

  Lee Aseok patted Pudding’s head and stood up, brushing invisible dust off his pants.

  Without a word, he turned and walked away, his dog following at his heel, the judgment still hanging in the air like a ghost.

  Yoo Eunsae blinked.

  Her hands curled into trembling fists.

  The three days of back-breaking labor. The sleepless nights. The mana depletion. The allergies. The calluses.

  All for that? A bad fruit review and a look of quiet disapproval?

  “Are you… are you kidding me?!”

  Lee Aseok paused.

  He turned, slow and casual, as if someone had stepped on a particularly noisy twig.

  Yoo Eunsae stomped forward, red in the face, her voice shaking. “You’re so—so mean! I worked so hard! I built this forest from scratch! I—I gave it everything! And you… you just spit out a strawberry and glared at me?!”

  Lee Aseok blinked.

  He looked around the forest. At the towering trees. At the freshly growing vegetation.

  At the path that hadn’t existed yesterday. The sunlight pierced through the branches like stained glass in a cathedral.

  Then he gave her a slow nod.

  “Yeah,” he said simply. “It’s done. You can leave now.”

  And he waved his hand at her.

  Like she was an annoying fly.

  Or expired milk.

  Then he turned back around and strolled away again, calm, unhurried, a walking monument to emotional neglect.

  Yoo Eunsae stood frozen in place, her mouth open. She looked like she had just been stabbed with a compliment-shaped dagger that turned out to be sarcasm.

  Behind her, a collective breath was held.

  Mu Yichen adjusted his sleeves and muttered under his breath, “That was... new.”

  Park Taegun nodded slowly. “He waved.”

  “That’s the part that got you?” Kang Juwon asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I’ve seen him ignore the heads of the guides. That was personal.”

  Even Seo MinHyun, who was still massaging his sore shoulder from hauling magically-enhanced soil, whistled. “She got the cold wave.”

  They all turned to look at Yoo Eunsae, whose body trembled like a volcano trying to decide if it was worth it.

  “She might explode,” He Ziqin whispered. “Should we… back up?”

  And then,

  “Aseok”

  Lee Aseok stopped mid-step and turned slightly. Not completely. Just enough to indicate he heard her. Like a king pausing for a peasant's last words.

  The forest of the West Zone had become an unruly masterpiece.

  What was once an abandoned urban wasteland now looked like a botanical garden left unsupervised by a very passionate, very unstable druid.

  Towering trees had grown so quickly they cracked through rooftops. Vines crawled over sidewalks.

  Pollen drifted in the air like snow. The buildings, what little remained, were half-swallowed by greenery.

  And yet, the mood was not tranquil.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He Ziqin pushed a branch out of his face, frowning. “What if a gate appears here?”

  The question came out of nowhere, startling the others who were still recovering from Yoo Eunsae’s earlier emotional explosion.

  The silence that followed was thick.

  Because everyone knew the rules Lee Aseok had made.

  No one entered the West Zone without his permission. Not guild members, not government officials, not wandering B-rank scouts.

  The government had issued statements. Top guilds had sent out warnings. It was now listed on all hunter maps as a “Restricted, Private Zone.”

  Lee Aseok had turned it into a personal sanctuary.

  Eunsae raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  He Ziqin gestured around them. “This forest is dense. Visibility is garbage. It’s basically a jungle now. If a dungeon breaks out here… it’ll be hard to fight. We’d probably have to destroy the forest to handle it.”

  Seo MinHyun looked up from where he was still gathering mana in his palms. “I didn’t do all this landscaping just to set it on fire.”

  “You planted, like, four trees,” Yoo Eunsae muttered, still bitter. “I planted hundreds.”

  “Supportive role,” Seo MinHyun coughed.

  Mu Yichen remained quiet as always, arms folded, but he was clearly listening.

  Then they all turned to the man responsible for everything.

  Lee Aseok.

  He stood a short distance away, scratching behind his husky’s ears while the dog rolled in a patch of moss like it was a five-star mattress.

  And Lee Aseok… gave them nothing for a long moment.

  He slowly turned and looked around the forest, taking his time as if deeply considering the question.

  Then he said flatly, “The West Zone lacks animals. Having more would make it more lovely.”

  Everyone froze.

  “…What?” Kang Juwon asked blankly.

  “Monsters are animals,” Lee Aseok added, brushing a leaf off his shoulder.

  There was a long, stunned silence.

  Park Taegun’s brow furrowed. “You… mean like, low-grade ones, right? Like rabbits? Boars?”

  “Gate monsters,” Lee Aseok clarified.

  Seo MinHyun looked personally attacked. “You want the gate to break open?”

  Lee Aseok shrugged. “As long as the monsters behave, it adds to the ecosystem.”

  “Adds to—” Yoo Eunsae choked. “Are you mentally ill?!”

  Lee Aseok looked at her.

  Just looked.

  For exactly four seconds.

  Then, as if her question didn’t deserve a direct answer, he said, “The strawberries were terrible. Remake them.” And he turned away again.

  Even Pudding looked back at Yoo Eunsae before trotting after his master.

  Silence.

  Then Kang Juwon broke it by slowly clapping his hands once. “That was elegant. Cold. Cruel. Five stars.”

  “I feel like I just witnessed a human rights violation,” Seo MinHyun muttered, slightly dazed.

  Mu Yichen exhaled slowly. “To be fair, he’s not entirely wrong.”

  Everyone turned to stare at him like he’d grown horns.

  Mu Yichen raised his hands. “I said not entirely. Biodiversity is good for stability. Technically.”

  “You’re defending him now?” Yoo Eunsae snapped, stomping through a bush that had absolutely nothing to do with her emotional trauma.

  “Yoo Eunsae,” Park Taegun said slowly, “you told him he was mentally ill.”

  “Because he is! Who says monsters are lovely?”

  “Apparently your hero,” Kang Juwon said. “Our divine sword-chosen warrior thinks centipede ogres will complete the aesthetic.”

  He Ziqin cleared his throat again. “Let’s not lose track. If he refuses to let anyone else enter the West Zone, and a gate does open… it’ll be our responsibility.”

  “Nope,” Seo MinHyun said. “Don’t put that curse on me.”

  “Actually,” Lee Aseok’s voice floated back toward them, “Seo MinHyun.”

  Seo flinched. “Oh no.”

  Lee Aseok turned just slightly, enough to deliver his next instruction like a king issuing a royal decree.

  “Put a high-tier barrier around the entire West Zone.”

  Seo MinHyun blinked. “You want me to… seal off the whole thing?”

  “Use magic stones,” Lee Aseok added. “Make it lasting. Finish it in a day.”

  “In a—” Seo’s voice cracked. “A day?!”

  But Lee Aseok was already walking away.

  Again.

  Pudding barked once, like an exclamation mark at the end of his sentence.

  “Where am I even supposed to get that many magic stones on a Tuesday?!” Seo shouted after him.

  Lee Aseok did not respond.

  He didn’t even wave this time.

  Yoo Eunsae opened her mouth to yell again, but Park Taegun quickly placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll just give him more material to ignore.”

  “I hate him,” she whispered.

  “No, you don’t,” Kang Juwon replied, amused. “You want his approval.”

  “I don’t!”

  “You do,” Mu Yichen said calmly. “That’s why the strawberry thing hurt so much.”

  She turned and glared at them all like a cornered raccoon. “I do not want his approval.”

  The group collectively nodded, fully aware that denial was just the first stage of Aseok Trauma.

  Meanwhile, Seo MinHyun had slumped to the ground and was writing out calculations in the dirt with a stick, whispering curse words as he tried to map the mana cost of a region-wide barrier.

  “Do you want help?” He Ziqin asked gently.

  “No,” Seo said, broken. “I want vengeance.”

  At the edge of the forest, Lee Aseok crouched down and examined a sprouting patch of flowers, nodding as Pudding sniffed at them curiously.

  “Don’t eat it,” he murmured to the husky.

  Pudding barked twice and then bit it anyway.

  They both looked at each other for a moment and then spat it out in perfect synchronization.

  “Terrible,” Lee Aseok said flatly.

  Pudding whined in agreement.

  Lee Aseok straightened and resumed walking, completely unaffected by the ripple effect of chaos he left behind.

  The others watched him fade into the trees like a wandering cryptid.

  Yoo Eunsae muttered, “If a gate opens here, I hope it swallows him.”

  “You say that,” Kang Juwon replied, “but you’ll be the first one to jump in after him.”

  And, annoyingly, no one disagreed.

  The forest remained quiet long after Lee Aseok disappeared between the trees, his husky Pudding trailing after him like a fuzzy, morally ambiguous shadow.

  The silence, however, was anything but peaceful.

  Park Taegun, Seo MinHyun, Kang Juwon, He Ziqin, and Yoo Eunsae stood there some crouched, some leaning against tree trunks, all equally unwell.

  The sentence still echoed in their heads like a divine punishment:

  “Monsters make it more lovely.”

  “…I’m sorry,” Seo MinHyun finally said, voice dry. “Did our hero just approve of monster invasions for aesthetic purposes?”

  “Yes,” Park Taegun muttered. “Yes, he did.”

  “And then told me,” Yoo Eunsae added through clenched teeth, “that I’m mentally unwell and to remake the strawberries. Strawberries.”

  “You asked him if he was mentally unwell first,” Kang Juwon reminded with a chuckle. “That’s on you.”

  She glared at him. “Don’t act like you didn’t flinch too.”

  “I flinch in admiration,” Kang Juwon said proudly. “He’s the only person who’s ever emotionally assaulted an entire squad without raising his voice.”

  “Look at this,” Seo MinHyun groaned, throwing a hand in the air. “We’re here dying in the dirt while he plays tag with a dog.”

  He Ziqin sighed as he stared at the mossy path Aseok had vanished into. “God gave him too much power. And beauty. And no humanity.”

  “Like, zero humanity,” Park Taegun agreed.

  The group stared solemnly at each other for a moment, united in shared emotional trauma.

  Then, breaking the silence, Seo MinHyun turned to Yoo Eunsae with a casual shrug. “Anyway, silver lining—you’re done here. You won’t have to see him again. Congratulations.”

  But instead of relief, Yoo Eunsae narrowed her eyes and said something that made everyone go stiff.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “…What?” Seo blinked.

  “Not until he says thank you.”

  This time even Pudding, who was nowhere nearby, would’ve paused in judgment.

  Kang Juwon turned to Park Taegun. “She’s going through it.”

  “I can hear her self-worth dying,” Seo muttered.

  “Let her go,” He Ziqin said softly. “We all have to hit rock bottom before we can move on.”

  Ignoring them all, Yoo Eunsae lifted her chin and walked away like a martyr marching to her doom. A very determined, very strawberry-traumatized martyr.

  Author Note:

  Every “OH MY GOD ASEOK STOP” gives me the strength to write the next disaster.

  Mon ? Wed ? Fri

  (Yes, I too question my life choices.)

  https://www.patreon.com/c/LithutheBloom

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