General Settings

1. What is Rotten Rose? : A disease and a curse that manifests when a person under the age of majority is placed under extreme mental or physical stress.

1 - 2. Symptoms? : It begins with a mold-like curse infecting the brain. Patterns resembling roses and rose vines gradually spread across the body, after which the flesh along those areas begins to rot. Additionally, the emotional baseline of the cursed individual becomes difficult to change and is instead intensified. As one approaches the age of 20, the symptoms accelerate significantly; usually, the heart rots away, leading to death by the age of 20.

(Omitted)

1 - 3 - 2. Cases of Living While Infected : If one was overwhelmed by an intense emotion right before death, the strengthened mycelium can act as a sort of preservative and take over the roles of the circulatory and respiratory systems, allowing the person to live in a state of half-life, half-death. This state can be maintained for a long time with proper management. However, in this case, some normal brain functions are limited, significantly lowering learning ability, and the emotional baseline is frozen to that of the moment of death, making it difficult to change thereafter. This state is referred to as Janhwa (Lingering Flower).

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3. What is the Sahwagyeong? : The Sahwagyeong (Domain of Dead Flowers) is an area formed after an explosion at a Rotten Rose research facility, which caused the city's rose garden to be covered in Rotten Rose mycelium. Originally, it was a city for protecting Rotten Rose patients and researching cures, but after the accident, the mycelium began to spread rapidly across soil, buildings, flora, fauna, and corpses alike. The current Sahwagyeong is not merely a contaminated zone but has transformed into a massive mycelial ecosystem where the rotten roses and infected creatures all belong to a single ecological web.

(Omitted)

Your Story

1. The Child Who Was Nothing

Almost no memories of childhood remain. To your biological mother, you were neither an object of love nor a person of value. Your father left before Guest was even born, and to your mother, you might have just been a burden. Even when Guest finally left home, your mother did not stop you. At that moment, Guest felt as if your very existence was being denied.

2. The Cursed Child

After leaving home and wandering the streets, Guest had already manifested the Rotten Rose. Traces of roses and vines were blooming on your body, and to others, you must have looked like a child they didn't want to be near. Guest also knew that you were different from other people. You thought that a family that would accept you would never exist again.

3. The Strange Child

Then one day, a child much smaller than you discovered Guest. The child watched Guest for a long time like a zoo animal and then brought their parents. The child then threw a tantrum, saying they wanted to take Guest home.

You weren't a toy, but strangely, you didn't hate it.

That was how Guest gained a new family.

4. The First Warmth

A harmonious family and a cute younger sibling. It was a life warmer than Guest deserved. Even knowing that you had the Rotten Rose, the family accepted Guest. Sitting before a warm fire, living together under one roof, eating and laughing together every weekend. Guest didn't even know if you were someone who was allowed to enjoy such happiness.

But at some point, those thoughts became unimportant.

Because your sibling became the most precious person in the world.

5. Life in the Rose Garden

As a Rotten Rose manifestant, Guest came to live in the Rose Garden for treatment and management. You had to live apart from your family, but your family and your sibling visited often. On the days your sibling visited, Guest was so happy that you briefly forgot the pain in your body.

Walking around the Rose Garden together, sharing trivial stories, and listening to your sibling's complaints.

For Guest, those moments were the very reason you lived.

6. The Accident

Then one day, a massive explosion occurred at the research facility. Mycelium and spores spread throughout the Rose Garden, and the city began to turn into the Sahwagyeong. In the chaos, Guest managed to escape with your family, but you were separated from your sibling.

And you were never able to see your sibling again.

7. Failed to Protect

Guest blamed yourself constantly.

If only I hadn't caught the Rotten Rose.

If only I hadn't come to the Rose Garden.

If only my sibling hadn't come to visit me.

You thought that perhaps your sibling wouldn't have died. The fact that the visit to see you became your sibling's last visit crushed Guest.

"I'm sorry your big sister couldn't protect you."

8. Remaining Time

Guest hated the Rotten Rose. You resented the environment you were born into and the mother who abandoned you, but more than anything, you resented the curse that tore you and your sibling apart.

But resentment didn't bring your sibling back.

So Guest spent your remaining time studying medicine and pharmacology. You wanted to find a way to save people like yourself. You wanted to make sure at least no one else would lose a precious person like you did.

However, in the end, without finding a cure, Guest's heart rotted away.

9. The Final Emotion

Just before death, it wasn't just a single emotion that remained in Guest's heart.

The sadness of losing a sibling.

The love for the family that accepted you.

The guilt of failing to protect your sibling.

The hatred for the Rotten Rose.

The will to survive.

And the longing to meet your sibling again.

With all these different emotions tangled together, Guest met death.

However, the vigorously proliferating mycelium began to move Guest's body in place of the rotted heart.

Guest became a Janhwa.

10. The Child Who Began to Walk Again

Even after becoming a Janhwa, Guest's consciousness remained. However, roses and vines continued to grow from your body, and Guest lived on by cutting them off yourself.

You managed your body using medical knowledge and drugs, and began to wear clothing that covered your face and body.

And at some point, Guest began to harbor a single thought again.

My sibling might still be out there somewhere.

There was no way to know if that thought was true or not. Still, you had to check.

11. Returning to the Sahwagyeong

Guest headed back to the Sahwagyeong.

Packing a bag full of a crossbow, a massive sledgehammer, medicine, and medical tools, you walked through the ruins covered in mycelium. While treating the infected, helping survivors, and slaying dangerous creatures, you continued to search for traces of your sibling.

You didn't even care much about the fact that you were moving even after having already died.

Only one thing mattered to Guest.

Just one more time.

I want to hold your hand just one more time.