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A purple dress clung to her body.

A handbag that looked luxury.

And two wooden trees standing like bodyguards beside her.

…Right.

This isn’t some metaphor.

Two actual trees were standing next to that woman, guarding her like bodyguards.

They stood tall with roots covered in dirt like strong legs, branches stretching out like arms, and instead of joints, the entire branch bent at sharp angles, holding long, pointed branches like spears, as if they had been forcibly uprooted from some roadside.

Moreover, since they were just standing there, it was as if they were claiming to feel stiff, twitching their roots, twisting as though wringing out their own bodies, and arching their middle trunk—whatever that was—before standing straight again.

And whenever leaves attached to the branches fell, they would tremble as if watching someone suffering from hair loss, losing their hair by the handful in real time, then swiftly moving the empty branch on the other side, trying to show that it was just a coincidence.

After witnessing that not many leaves had fallen, they seemed to return to their duties as bodyguards, holding the spear upright and claiming with their whole body that nothing had happened.

Something wild yet somehow human-like.

Perhaps it was even a little cute in a strange way.

And there they stood, those two trees.

Flanking a woman who couldn’t be described as appropriately dressed.

…Yet, despite having those cute trees beside her.

I couldn’t feel any cuteness coming from that woman.

No, far from feeling any cuteness….

“Don’t you remember? What did I say when I sent my secretary! Remember?! I was worrying it’s getting harder to find people to work on the farm and was thinking of reducing the fields! So I can’t give you the volume you want! Do you remember or not?!”

…Rather, she elicited emotions that were quite the opposite.

If I were to compare her to an animal, she was a carnivore, and if to a plant, she was a poisonous herb filled with toxins.

The woman shouting thunderously while sandwiched between those trees carried a fierce momentum.

“Of course. That’s right.”

However, the man bearing the brunt of the woman’s anger was no ordinary person either.

He had to show no fear toward anyone and stand tall—yes, he was what you’d call a real ‘tough guy.’

Thus, even though he was receiving the full force of that woman’s wrath, flanked by trees that appeared threatening yet somewhat shabby, he wore a nonchalant expression instead of one of fear.

“And I told you, I’m focusing on tourism, and because of that, the funds aren’t moving smoothly.”

“So I said I’d invest!”

“Right, I agreed. No American dislikes investment.”

The man uttered that, shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders.

“No, I had agreed’n’t I. Yes, I had agreed.”

“But?!”

“However, you see, investment, business—if there are better conditions, of course, one should choose those, right?”

The farm owner said calmly to the woman.

“There’s an investment that’s better than what you said, much better. So why should I choose you? I’m not a fool.”

“What? No, how good could it be…. Wait, can’t we negotiate those conditions with our side?!”

“Well, I’ve thought about that…. But they said they’d only do this once. If I take this condition to the other side, this chance will just disappear. So, I had no choice. Honestly, the conditions were really good…. And I thought you couldn’t possibly meet those conditions anyway.”

The woman glared at the man, her expression twisted in displeasure.

Did the man take her piercing gaze as ‘curiosity’?

“I can’t go into details, but you probably wouldn’t have accepted those conditions. Because while they give me a huge gain…. For the investor, the returns were almost nonexistent. No, it was almost like a loss. Would you be able to do something like that?”

He lightly explained the contract he had entered into.

Very lightly.

“What?”

“Believe it or not, it’s true. I even looked for any hidden poison clauses, but there were none, nor were there any requests to be connected with anyone. And even if there were… I don’t know anyone that significant… I really couldn’t understand.”

Not that he couldn’t understand.

It was that he couldn’t—past tense.

The man looked at her with pitying eyes and whispered softly.

“Have you ever held a grudge against someone?”

“…What?”

“…The investor has been giving me gains, but his behavior is petty and childish, so I thought I’d give you a warning. The guy who invested in our farm seemed to have a grudge against you. It’s because you made them call you here for nothing because of the contract.”

The man said.

He was thankful for the good investment conditions, but he disliked the ‘tough guy’ actions of that guy.

Therefore, he was passing on the underhanded actions of that guy to her.

What emerged from the man was truly the perfect expression of ‘petty.’

That investor made the false promise that ‘if the president comes personally, they’ll make a contract,’ making her come for nothing. No matter how you looked at it, it was a petty act, seeming to have the only motive to embarrass the other.

It was a clear intent of evil.

And upon hearing this, the woman blinked in disbelief.

But the man had more to say.

“And there’s another condition for the investment, which was selling part of the farm. Strangely enough, this overlaps with you. Well, honestly, even though it’s an amazing investment, selling land felt a bit too much….”

It should’ve been an amount that was impossible to refuse.

The man muttered like that.

“It’s not just about adding a premium; they’re calling it several times over. How could I not sell? They even said they’d invest a staggering amount, even willing to go into the red… How could not selling be anything but foolish?”

He said that and looked at the woman with eyes filled with pity and gratitude.

“So, well…. that’s the story. It’s partly for not liking that petty scumbag, and partly because I felt sorry for making you come all this way for nothing, and also…. Hmm. Thanks to you, my son is now holding the money to enter a prestigious university through a donation, so I’m passing this information to you, just so you know.”

The man turned his head sharply, as if he had nothing more to say.

Then he pulled out a bottle of liquor hidden underneath the counter and started drinking.

Moreover, he followed it up with gestures urging her to leave the shop quickly….

*Thud.*

…Of course, the woman ground her teeth.

Being played like this made her furious, and that guy in front of her also pissed her off.

Everything was annoying.

It was impossible not to get angry.

The woman wanted to yell at the trees to turn this place upside down. But at that moment, she happened to see a pair of Asian individuals looking at her from the entrance of the café, and her eyes widened upon seeing a man resembling a young shaman she knew.

But soon, realizing that it was slightly different from the shaman she knew, she felt her heart drop, returning to its original state…

“Ugh….”

When she got back to that state.

The anger that felt like it would explode at any moment had, though still barely, subsided to a manageable level.

“…I won’t forget what happened today. Prepare yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Who would have thought a witch would talk like a witch. I’m hoping you’ll leave now, as there’s nothing more to see.”

With that, the woman turned her back on the man’s cold reception and led the trees outside.

*Bam!*

She slammed the door shut as if to smash it.

And just like that, she vanished, leaving the café in silence.

In the quiet café, soon sounds began to seep in, filling the empty space.

The sounds of the farm owner gulping his drink, the sound of an empty bottle hitting the wooden counter, and the breaths of the guests who had been holding their breath….

And then.

“Wow. Did a witch just visit?”

“I thought I was watching some movie. Trees walking around using voodoo, coming for revenge against lumberjacks… what’s next?”

“Whoa, I just didn’t get what was going on!”

As if a dam had broken, voices exploded from the guests everywhere after being stifled.

The guests, feeling the urge to talk after holding it in, began to chatter energetically.

“Wow, I thought she was a beauty. Hmm, should I have tried talking to her…?”

“Don’t you know there are a lot of annoying women among witches? If it leads to marriage, maybe it’s fine, but breaking up will be a nightmare, you know?”

“Oh, marriage? That sounds terrible. Please don’t use that awful word on me—there’s Italian blood flowing in me!”

“…You’ve never even been to Italy. And just because you have a quarter doesn’t make it a full claim!”

“A quarter is enough to call myself Italian, isn’t it?”

“That’s nonsense. You’re American, just American.”

At a table composed of young men clearly aiming to hit on the young woman who just left, they were discussing the witch.

“Hmm. A walking tree. I thought it was some kind of summon creature….”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of those trees in the garden?”

“Yeah. Even if just one… no, several would look great… I wonder if they’re for sale…?”

Some wealthy-looking couple seemed intrigued by the walking trees the woman had led.

“Investment… Should we expect even larger scale events next year?”

“They said they received a lot of investments… maybe they could hire a singer for a performance?”

Some were eagerly anticipating how the farm would change due to the investments.

And then.

“….”

Rise remained silent.

 

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