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“If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it,” they say.

Of course, it’s not a saying that can be taken positively all the time. In this complex modern society, stress is the greatest enemy. If it’s not possible to be alone with someone you like, you end up getting stressed from constantly interacting with other people.

Stress harms your health. It affects not just mental health, but also the hormonal balance in the brain, making you feel fatigued more easily and sleep more, thereby ruining your life in various ways.

On the battlefield, my comrades and I were always in an environment of extreme stress, so we frequently took breaks in the rear villages to have some alone time. Just zoning out and sleeping, or getting something to eat… As I said before, it was an unwritten rule to avoid bothering comrades who shut themselves in their rooms at the village inn. Well, we did sometimes gather on the first floor of the inn for a drink, though.

Still, the stress accumulated from the battlefield was dangerous in itself, so we tried our best not to take out our frustrations on each other and focused on the positive aspects of what we experienced there.

Most of the time, we failed.

Anyway, managing stress like this is important. Especially since we’re not just working alone; if we have a team that can affect each other, we had to be even more careful.

But conversely, this kind of mindset can also eat away at life.

Settling in reality and refusing to move forward. The thought of “Isn’t this enough?” kept creeping in, making you want to just give up and throw in the towel.

It’s also very important to push those thoughts aside and think about what needs to be done next.

But—

“Haha…”

I heard my older sister’s awkward laugh next to me.

The reason for my sister awkwardly laughing while she held onto my arm wasn’t anything special.

“The guests… seem to be a bit too many…”

Hearing my sister mumble in embarrassment, I wanted to nod vigorously in agreement.

That’s right. While the saying “If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it” can sometimes turn into a harmful way of thinking, there are also moments when it’s quite necessary. Like when you confront something truly “unavoidable” and know there might be something enjoyable in it regardless.

However, there are always occurrences that go beyond any preparations one may have.

We were wearing white dresses. To be exact, both of us had lost our purity not long ago. After all, we had both given our purity to each other. In a slightly more conservative Irrelaysia style of thinking, purity would be treated as more important when I was a woman than when I was a man.

If we considered ourselves “already married,” it wouldn’t be a problem…

But no matter how you looked at it, we were clad in wedding dresses.

And not just any modern dresses, but rather the kind made of petals that you might see on an angel in a storybook.

Moreover, the path we were walking on was also strewn with countless white petals. With every step, I could feel the softness caressing the tips of my feet.

And right now, there were only the two of us walking down that path.

Isn’t this just the virgin road of a wedding venue?

It wasn’t just the layout of the space.

In front of us was Pia, elegantly dressed in a pink dress, scattering petals that closely resembled the color of her dress while walking a few steps ahead of us. The pink petal—no, it might actually be real cherry blossom petals—was lightly decorating the white path we were stepping on.

Before we came in, I heard they were going to choose two people among the comrades, but Dana, Kalia, and Arna shyly rejected the offer, leaving Pia to do it alone.

But no one could ignore Pia’s presence either.

Kalia, Dana, and Arna wore dresses of similar design and color and looked great, but somehow, Pia, with her pink hair, was the only one whose dress struck a perfect match.

Pia, in her pink dress scattering pink petals on the white path, looked like a piece of artwork in itself.

“…”

Right, if it weren’t for the gazes of the elves lining the path, it wouldn’t have felt so overwhelming.

The aesthetic sense of elves isn’t too different from that of humans. Of course, the preferred environments are very different, but the favorite colors or physical appearances aren’t far off from typical humans.

If something looks good to human eyes, it likely looks good to elf eyes as well.

And the two of us would definitely have seemed beautiful in the eyes of the elves.

…It’s definitely not something a former man like me should be saying.

So, it wasn’t surprising that there were elves who couldn’t take their eyes off us in white dresses.

It shouldn’t have been surprising, but my heart was still racing.

As I looked around, I saw that my comrades also had slightly embarrassed expressions. Pia was excited, but both Dana and Kalia seemed a bit flushed, as if this was their first time in such flower petal dresses. Arna was a bit more composed, but… having been with Arna for five years, I could still catch that her expression had slightly reddened.

Moreover, regardless of what my sister felt, there was something making my heart race even more.

Not knowing quite how many people were watching us, my sister was gradually clinging tighter to my arm, feeling like she was getting nervous.

And as a result, I could feel her gentle chest pressing against my arm.

…Hmm.

I probably hadn’t consciously thought about it this way before. Of course, while I sometimes unconsciously paid attention to her body when we hugged, usually when holding hands or when she would occasionally pull me close, I hadn’t noticed her body this way at all.

But… perhaps, ever since that time we embraced, I couldn’t help but become aware of her body.

Regardless of what clothes she wore, I kept imagining what lay beneath.

The sensations I felt when I was lying with her were still embedded in my memory. The skills I honed during my years on the battlefield were finely attuned to her body.

So, with her pressed against me like this, it was inevitable that I’d keep thinking about her bare skin.

…It would be a lie to say I never felt a twinge of longing for the body I once had as a man.

But at least in this moment… it was fortunate that there was almost nothing noticeable to others.

“Si-hyun.”

My sister whispered softly.

Wondering if she was scared, I looked at her, but her gaze wasn’t focused on my face at all.

Her gaze was directed straight ahead, or more specifically, slightly upward.

Following where her gaze was fixed, I turned my eyes in that direction.

There stood a gigantic tree.

It wasn’t just huge. It was incomparable to a baobab tree, a metasequoia, or even a pine tree that had lived for hundreds of years… Not only was the size incomparable, but the color of the tree was also pure white.

With not a single knot hole and no little branches, the tree towered majestically, giving it a distinctly holy appearance. Even someone who didn’t know it was the World Tree would likely find themselves calling it the “World Tree” subconsciously.

The branches of that white tree seemed ready to cover the sky.

And the innumerable leaves sprouting from those branches were also, similarly, pure white.

My sister was mesmerized by the mysterious sight of that tree. Even though I could see it from a distance when we entered, it was gradually filling our view as we approached.

Objectively speaking, it might be shorter than that tower in Seoul, as Arna mentioned. Of course, it would be thinner too.

But that tree possessed a majesty that could not be compared to any artificial construction.

And as if welcoming us, white leaves shimmered and fluttered down from its branches.

One of those leaves caught my eye.

Slowly, it spun and danced as it fell, gently landing right in the middle of the path we were walking on.

And then I realized.

That white leaf was very similar in shape to the countless small leaves strewn along the path. The only difference was the size.

“…I see.”

The clothes my sister and I were wearing, and the countless white petals spread across the path we were walking on.

That meant those leaves were indeed collected from the branches of the World Tree.

And they weren’t just any leaves; they were freshly sprouted ones.

“It’s beautiful…”

Indeed.

I found myself inwardly agreeing with what my sister had said, probably without her even realizing it.

 

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