The dawn after the battle looked too peaceful.The kind of peace that made Jaehyun suspicious.
om leftover mana. Birds perched on fence posts, humming lullabies that sounded weirdly coordinated, like a choir trained overnight.
Jaehyun stood in the middle of the field, shovel slung over his shoulder, staring at his new system panel floating in front of him.
[Title: Guardian Farmer of the Verdant Haven]
[Effect: Plant life within 500m reacts to emotional resonance.]
He exhaled slowly."Right," he muttered, "so… if I get angry, the trees get angry. If I cry, it rains. If I laugh…"
He looked around, half-daring the plants to do something.
The dryad baby, wrapped snugly in his old jacket, sneezed in his arms. Instantly, a patch of lilies sprouted around his boots.
"...Of course."
🌱 Mood Problems, Now Environmental
He trudged toward the farmhouse — or what was left of it. The roof was gone, half the walls had turned into moss, and something that looked suspiciously like a melon tree was growing through the living room.
Bongyu and Mina were feeding breakfast to the baby (which, unfortunately, meant feeding breakfast to the entire ecosystem — every spoonful made a flower bloom somewhere).
Jaehyun took one step inside and froze.
The floorboards shivered.
A second later, vines crept up through the cracks, forming the words:[GOOD MORNING, DAD.]
He stared blankly. "...Nope. Nope, not dealing with talking vines before coffee."
📡 Incoming Transmission — Choi Jinwoo
The communicator on the table buzzed. Jaehyun picked it up, half expecting another council threat. Instead, his brother's voice came through — tired, sharp, and laced with annoyance.
"Jaehyun. You alive?"
"Define 'alive,'" Jaehyun grumbled, collapsing into what remained of a chair. "If you mean emotionally, then no. If you mean physically, barely."
Jinwoo sighed. "The Council's losing their minds. They've put your coordinates under Level 0 lockdown. You've basically turned half the southern region into a mana sanctuary."
"Good," Jaehyun said. "The spinach deserved it."
"Jaehyun—" Jinwoo's voice sharpened. "This isn't a joke. They're calling it a Genesis Zone. Do you realize what that means? It's the same classification they used for—"
"Our parents," Jaehyun finished quietly.
Silence. Just the faint hum of the communicator, and the soft coo of the baby.
🪵 Old Wounds
Jinwoo finally spoke. "You know they disappeared near a similar anomaly. Mother was studying regenerative mana fields. Father was on containment duty."
"Yeah," Jaehyun said, eyes drifting to the window. "And now I'm sitting in one. Growing vegetables that can fistfight people."
"Jaehyun, listen—"
"No, you listen." He stood, voice low but shaking. "You think I don't remember? You think I forgot how they used to argue over this kind of thing? Mom saying the world could heal itself, Dad saying humans should never interfere. And now—" He gestured to the glowing field outside. "Now their idiot son's stuck in the middle of it."
As he spoke, the light outside dimmed.Clouds gathered. The crops rustled uneasily. Even the flowers seemed to lower their petals.
Jinwoo's voice softened. "You're affecting it again."
Jaehyun looked up. "...What?"
"The system said emotional resonance, right? Your mood's linked. Calm down before you trigger another weather event."
He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself — but the memory of their parents' last message flickered in his mind:
"If anything happens, protect the seeds."
Back then, he thought they meant literal crops.
Now, holding the dryad baby close, he wasn't so sure.
🌦️ A Calm That Isn't
The clouds slowly parted as Jaehyun forced a smile, muttering, "I'm calm. Totally calm. Not emotionally unstable. Definitely not linked to atmospheric phenomena—"
A single lightning bolt struck a scarecrow nearby.
He twitched. "…Okay. Maybe a little unstable."
The dryad baby giggled, tiny fingers grabbing his collar. A vine gently patted his shoulder as if to say it's okay.
Jinwoo's sigh came through the comm again. "You need to figure out how to control it. The Council's already mobilizing the High Circle. They think this could lead them to whatever happened twenty years ago."
Jaehyun frowned. "You mean Mom and Dad's disappearance?"
"Yes. Their final project — Project Eden."
🍃 Project Eden
The name hit like a stone in his chest. He hadn't heard it in years."Eden… you think this baby is connected?"
Jinwoo hesitated. "Her mana signature matches the same frequency Mom recorded in her last data log. It's not coincidence."
Jaehyun looked down at the sleeping dryad. Her halo shimmered faintly, shaped like a growing sprout.
"She's not a project," he said quietly. "She's alive."
"I know. But the Council won't see it that way."
Jaehyun rubbed his face. "Then they can come and try again. The last ones got beaten by cucumbers."
"Jaehyun—"
"I'm serious, Jinwoo." His voice hardened. "If our parents really created something like her… then I'm not letting the world make the same mistake twice."
🌤️ The Calm Before the Bloom
The line went silent, then Jinwoo finally murmured, "…Then get ready. Because they're coming again. And this time, they'll bring gods with them."
The call ended.
Jaehyun stood in the quiet, staring at the farmland now shimmering under a gentle sunrise. The plants swayed, reflecting his heartbeat — calm, uncertain, but resolute.
He tightened his grip on the baby.
"Project Eden, huh?" he whispered. "Guess I really am their son."
A vine lifted beside him, blooming into a single flower that opened toward the light.
The dryad baby smiled in her sleep.
And somewhere deep below, the earth itself pulsed — as if answering him.