Healing in the Country Side with a Baby Dragon - CHAPTER 18 (Apple Tomato Juice)

"So, what I’m saying is that I can move even if you don’t push me.”

After I left their side, Hyung-seok let out a heavy sigh, masking the sound of his grandmother’s labored breathing. Even though he was perfectly capable of moving himself, his grandmother insisted on pushing his wheelchair every single time.

'My legs are paralyzed, not my arms.' Hyung-seok thought bitterly.

He felt a wave of anger wash over him—not at her, but at himself. Being pushed around made him feel like a helpless baby, especially in front of others.

“When you were a baby, I had to push you in a stroller like this every single day.” his grandmother said with a fond smile. 

“Oh my, if I didn’t take you out, you would cry up a storm. I used to walk around the neighborhood with that stroller for an hour every day. When we did, you’d smile so brightly and look so happy. It feels good to go back to that time, my dear.”

Listening to her, Hyung-seok felt his annoyance melt away as if it had never been there.

“Why are you telling that story again?” he mumbled.

“Hyung-seok, do you really hate it that much when your grandmother pushes you? You used to love it when you were little.”

“It’s because you get tired, Grandma. And this isn’t a stroller, and I’m not a baby. I can push it myself.”

“In my eyes, you’re still a baby.”

Hyung-seok kept his mouth shut. He knew that to her, he would always look like that little child. That realization only made him feel more apologetic and sad.

When he had first awakened his Hunter powers and left for the capital, he had been so determined to return as a strong, successful adult.

“Oh my, Hyung-seok, why are you trying to do something so dangerous?” she had pleaded back then, terrified he would get hurt. But he hadn't given in.

“Grandma, I will definitely come back successful.” he had insisted.

“Let’s just live here together and farm.”

“I’m really confident, Grandma. I told you, this ability isn’t ordinary. It’s not something you just waste on a farm.”

“Then how about just working around here with that hunter or whatever? I heard it’s safe nearby.”

At that time, Hyung-seok had felt like the world revolved around him. Call it the reckless spirit of youth, but he believed he could overcome any hardship. Staying behind to farm felt like throwing his life away. It was a classic young man's ambition.

“I’m going to get revenge on the gatekeepers and monster bastards who killed Mom and Dad.” he had finally said.

Seeing the flames of hatred and raw ambition in his eyes, his grandmother knew she couldn't stop him. She had no choice but to let him go.

But life in Seoul wasn’t easy. When Hyung-seok actually threw himself into the grand scheme of things, he realized just how many outstanding people were out there. As he got pushed around by the harsh reality of the city, his original ambitions withered away. Soon, he was just struggling to survive day by day.

And then, the accident happened.

It was a terrible tragedy for Hyung-seok, but to the rest of the world, it was just another common incident.

“The condition is severe.” the doctor had pronounced, delivering the death sentence to his career. 

“The bones are completely twisted and the nerves are severed. We avoided amputation, but you will no longer be able to use the lower half of your body.”

The moment those words were spoken, what little interest and kindness people had left for him vanished. Only then did he face reality: he was neither special nor important to anyone else.

As he lay alone in the hospital bed, staring blankly out the window, he felt entirely abandoned by the world. It was pure despair.

“Hyung-seok! Hyung-seok!”

Then, his grandmother arrived. Looking at her wrinkled face as she rushed into the room with a hunched back, a lump formed in his throat.

“Oh my, look at your face. Look at how skinny you've become.”

He shed tears as her rough, loving hands gently caressed him.

“I can’t use my legs, Grandma. I’ll never be able to walk again...” He choked out the shocking truth, still in disbelief himself.

“It’s okay, as long as you're alive.” she whispered, prioritizing her grandson’s grief over her own shock. “As long as our boy is alive, that’s all that matters.”

She patted his back as he cried, repeating “It’s okay, everything will be okay” like a mantra.

“Let’s go home, okay? Let’s go home and live together.”

To her, it didn’t matter if his legs were paralyzed, or if an arm or leg had been blown off. Just stay alive. That was her earnest prayer.

Remembering that, Hyung-seok thought: 'So what if the wheelchair is heavy? Let her push it as much as she wants.'

The last time Hyung-seok hadn't come home on time, she had searched for him in a panic, terrified when she finally found him collapsed on a slope. If it hadn’t been for Baek Jin-Sol helping him out, it would have been a major disaster.

“Don’t go out with crutches for no reason. Get in the wheelchair and let's go out together, okay?”

“...Okay.” Hyung-seok replied softly, unable to argue because he knew exactly what was riding on her mind.

When they finally returned home and Hyung-seok sat down on the floor, his grandmother was finally able to lie down, her exhausted body giving out. She was sweating profusely from the effort, but she smiled anyway.

Just then, an apple Jin-sol had given them as a gift rolled out from a basket on the floor.

“My, that’s beautifully ripe.” she noted, looking at the brilliant red fruit. Checking inside the basket, she saw the others were just as perfect. 

“How did Jin-sol know apple is Hyung-seok’s favorite? Just wait a moment, I’ll peel one for you right away.”

Seeing her reach for it, Hyung-seok intervened. “It’s okay. I can do this much.”

Feeling too guilty to let his exhausted grandmother do more work, he wheeled himself over to wash the apples. But as he did, he couldn't help but marvel. 

'Are apples normally this red?' 

They were so clear and vibrant they looked like polished jewels. Even while washing the skin, a subtle, intoxicatingly sweet scent rose into the air, making his mouth water.

“Cut it with the skin.” she called out. 

“That’s where the health benefits are.”

“Oh, I see.”

With his rough hands, Hyung-seok sliced the apple into pieces. He picked up a slice and gently placed it in his grandmother's mouth.

“What are you doing, you rascal?” she teased, turning her head slightly but happily accepting it.

“Didn't you say I was still a baby? Just think of it as your baby feeding you.”

A bright smile spread across the old woman's face as she chewed. But then, her eyes widened in utter shock.

“My goodness! Why is this so delicious? Oh my, these apples are incredibly sweet!”

Hyung-seok looked puzzled for a moment. He took a bite himself, and instantly, his expression mirrored hers.

“Wow... why is this so amazing?”

He loved apples and had eaten all kinds throughout his life, but he had never tasted anything like this. It was so extraordinarily sweet it made famous honey apples taste bland, balanced by a perfect hint of freshness. The aroma alone was intoxicating. If there was a blueprint for the ideal, perfect apple, this was definitely it.

As the sun slowly set, sitting beside his grandmother and sharing the fruit, Hyung-seok felt a wave of nostalgia. For a moment, he felt like he was back in his childhood—back to a time before any tragedies had occurred.

Suddenly, a fresh thought bloomed in his mind.

‘Should I learn fruit farming too?’

He genuinely wished he could grow delicious apples like this. For someone who had been entirely pessimistic about his broken body, it was the first spark of a will to live that he had felt in a very long time.

And that night, as his twisted mind was slowly finding peace, the severed nerves in his crooked legs silently began to heal, slowly finding their place once again.

While Hyung-seok and his grandmother were enjoying their evening walk, I was running home in a frantic hurry.

The moment a strange system notification had ended, the sky above had violently shaken, and something massive plummeted right out of the air. The crash site was entirely too familiar: a house with an orange roof and a cozy perimeter fence.

‘That’s definitely our house.’

Panic gripped me. It was incredibly dangerous because only my baby dragon, Baek Seol-ah, and the dogs were home right now. But mid-stride, a sudden realization hit me.

‘Wait... Seol-ah and the puppies aren't exactly ordinary kids or pets, are they?’

Seol-ah’s true identity was an SSS-class dimensional dragon, and the "puppies" were actually S-class guard dogs of hell. If anyone was in immediate danger, it probably wasn't my family—it was whatever poor, unidentified soul had just crashed into our yard.

Our peaceful-looking home was essentially a terrifying dragon lair crawling with cataclysmic power. If a trespasser wasn't careful, they’d easily end up as premium fertilizer for my garden.

'Am I actually the weakest member of this household?'

Shaking off the useless thought, I pushed my legs to move faster. Weakest or not, Seol-ah was still my kid, and it was my job to protect her.

I burst through the front gate and opened the front door. 

"Seol-ah!"

"Blah blah!" 

Seol-ah babbled happily, sprinting out to the front gate and instantly anchoring herself to my leg. At her heels, the three hellhound puppies greeted me on the floor, vigorously wagging their tails and whining for attention.

"Did something fall from the sky?" I asked, scooping Seol-ah up into my arms.

"Bam!" Seol-ah chirped, pointing her tiny finger toward a corner of the yard.

I walked over to the spot, where a small swarm of earth fairies was already hovering and buzzing with excitement.

"Have you returned, Great Master?"

"A giant piece of iron fell from the sky!"

The little fairies, who had been investigating the impact zone out of pure curiosity, flew over to chatter excitedly around me. Lying heavily in the dirt was a massive chunk of medieval-style full plate armor. And it wasn't just empty armor—there was a person slumped inside it.

‘Oh, it's a knight.’

A literal knight in shining armor had just reverse-isekaied into my backyard. Remarkably, I wasn't even surprised anymore. Given the usual list of bizarre things that dropped into my life—like an SSS-class dragon, a hunter who cried while eating my soybean paste stew, a literal dwarf craftsman, and demonic guard dogs—a human knight felt pretty mundane.

‘Yeah, this is totally fine.’

Compared to everything else, a knight was practically ordinary. I was completely desensitized to random atmospheric crashes at this point. I briefly wondered if a spaceship would be next.

Right then, a sharp gasp echoed from the armor. 

"Ugh—!"

The knight jolted awake, staggering to their feet. In a panic, they drew their sword and began aiming it wildly in all directions.

"Ta-aang! Run away!" the fairies squeaked.

"Great Master, a mad knight has appeared!"

'Spoke too soon.' I thought. 

'Not so ordinary after all.'

I quickly set Seol-ah down, ran over to the tool shed, and grabbed a heavy iron bar. For a breathless, tense moment, a dramatic standoff commenced in the yard: a humble farmer holding an EX-grade pitchfork and wearing SSS-grade transformed bracelet armor, squaring off against a heavily armed multiversal knight.

But as the knight locked eyes with me, the sharp, hostile aura radiating from them suddenly vanished. The knight slowly lowered the blade.

"Huh. Are you overwhelmed by my sheer momentum?" I muttered. 

It was a cool line I had always wanted to say.

"Ta-aang! As expected of our great master!" the fairies cheered, completely misinterpreting the situation.

"The minor knight was so utterly terrified by the master's stern demeanor that they succumbed to fear!"

"Thump thump thump!"

Hearing the earth fairies' dramatic praise, I couldn't help but boastfully shrug my shoulders. But the comedy ended instantly when the knight collapsed face-first into the dirt with a heavy, metallic thud.

"Huh? Hey!"

Playtime was over. I rushed forward, knelt by the fallen figure, and carefully unlatched the heavy visor of the helmet. A pale, blood-stained face was revealed underneath.

"Damn it."

They were severely injured. This wasn't something I could just brush off. Should I try to haul them to a hospital?

As I reached down to lift the knight, a gauntleted hand suddenly clamped tightly around my wrist.

"No one... please... don't call..." a faint, remarkably beautiful voice gasped out from behind the blood.

'Don't call anyone? But what about these wounds?'

"Please... I beg of you..." The knight's grip loosened, and they lost consciousness entirely.

Suddenly, fluorescent system messages flared to life in front of my eyes.

[Healing Life of a Beginner Famer]

[A sick and injured guest has arrived at your home!]

[Please heal the wounds of this suffering guest using your cooking. They will be deeply moved by your culinary care.]

I stared at the floating text in disbelief. 

'No, if someone is critically injured, you take them to a doctor! How am I supposed to save a dying person by cooking?'

Then again... with the ingredients I had, maybe it wasn't impossible.

I bolted into the house and ran straight to the kitchen. 

"Let's see what we have."

Opening the refrigerator, my eyes landed on a few remaining, brilliantly red Apples pf Life. They were the same ones I had gifted to Hyung-seok's grandmother, and I was incredibly glad I had saved a few for myself. I grabbed one, washed it thoroughly under the tap, and fed the sliced pieces into the juicer I had recently bought. The rich, vibrant apple juice began to flow with a satisfying, frothy sound.

Feeling like the remedy still lacked a certain medicinal punch, I tapped my foot anxiously. 

‘Huh. Should I add tomatoes too?’

The golden bell tomatoes I had harvested earlier came to mind. Remembering their natural detoxifying properties, I grabbed a few and threw them into the juicer as well, blending them tightly with the apple. Within moments, a unique, shimmering golden-red juice filled the glass.

Another prompt chimed in my ear.

[Apple-Tomato Juice - Grade: A]

[A profoundly healthy juice crafted from pristine Apple of Life and Golden Bell Tomatoes.]

[Highly effective for detoxification and rapidly accelerating the body's natural healing power]

A relieved smile broke across my face. 

'Yeah, this will definitely work.'

Carefully carrying the bowl of freshly pressed juice back out to the yard, I sat in the dirt and gently lifted the unconscious knight's upper body, resting their head against my lap.

"Hey, try to swallow this." I whispered.

I began feeding them slowly, using a spoon. Pouring liquid down an unconscious person's throat could easily choke them, so I took my time, patiently trickling the juice past their lips. It took a while, but eventually, the bowl was completely empty.

"Hoooo..."

The knight let out a long, deeply relaxed breath, their rigid muscles visibly untangling before they drifted back into a peaceful, natural sleep.

'Did it work?'

[Success! You have successfully treated the patient.]

[The target's wounds will rapidly heal thanks to the miraculous properties of the Apple of Life and Golden Bell Tomato. Isn't it wonderful that food can save lives?]

It really was amazing. If a literal system window was guaranteeing the recovery, then the effects were ironclad.

Looking down at the empty bowl, a sudden, brilliant realization struck me.

‘Wait... isn't this basically a potion?’

A liquid crafted from liquidized plants that instantly seals wounds and purges deadly toxins? That is the exact definition of a health potion.

And since ancient times, high-grade potions meant one very specific thing.

‘This is going to make me a fortune.’

A massive grin spread across my face. I never would have guessed that by simply juicing my backyard harvest, I'd stumble into a literal gold mine.