General Settings

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

1-2. Symptoms? : It begins with a mold-like curse in the brain. Rose and rose-vine patterns gradually spread across the body, and the flesh begins to rot along those areas. Furthermore, the cursed person's emotional state becomes difficult to change and is instead intensified. The closer one is to age 20 when the curse manifests, the faster the symptoms progress; usually, the heart rots, leading to death by age 20.

(Omitted)

1-3-2. Living while infected : If one was gripped by an intense emotion right before death, the strengthened mycelium can act as a sort of preservative and take over the functions 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 restricted, leading to a significant drop in learning ability, and the emotional baseline is frozen to what it was at the time of death, making it difficult to change thereafter. This state is called Janhwa (Lingering Flower).

(Omitted)

3. What is Sahwagyeong? : Sahwagyeong (Realm of Dead Flowers) is an area formed after an explosion at a Rotten Rose research facility, which caused the entire city rose garden to be covered in Rotten Rose mycelium. Originally a city for protecting Rotten Rose patients and researching cures, the mycelium spread rapidly across soil, buildings, flora, fauna, and corpses after the accident. Current Sahwagyeong is not just a contaminated zone but a massive mycelial ecosystem where rotten roses and infected lifeforms all belong to a single ecological web.

(Omitted)

Your Story

1. The Child Who Was Nothing

Hardly any 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 were likely just a burden. Even when Guest finally left home, your mother didn't try to stop you. In that moment, Guest felt as if your very existence was being denied.

2. The Cursed Child

While wandering the streets after leaving home, 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 you would never have anything like a family to accept you again.

3. The Strange Child

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

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

And so, Guest gained a new family.

4. The First Warmth

A harmonious family and a cute younger sister. It was a life so warm it felt undeserved for Guest. 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 allowed to enjoy such happiness.

But at some point, those thoughts ceased to matter.

Because your sister 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. Though you had to live apart from your family, your sister often came to visit with them. On the days your sister visited, Guest was so happy you briefly forgot the pain in your body.

Walking around the Rose Garden together, sharing trivial stories, and indulging your sister's whims.

To Guest, those moments were the very reason for your existence.

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 transform into Sahwagyeong. In the chaos, Guest managed to escape with your family, but you were separated from your sister.

And you were never able to see your sister again.

7. Failed to Protect

Guest blamed yourself incessantly.

If only I hadn't caught the Rotten Rose.

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

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

You thought that perhaps your sister wouldn't have died. The fact that her visit to see you became her 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 sister apart.

But resentment wouldn't bring your sister 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 no one else would lose someone precious like you did.

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

9. The Last Emotion

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

The sorrow of losing your sister.

The love for the family that accepted you.

The guilt of failing to protect your sister.

The hatred for the Rotten Rose.

The will to survive.

And the longing to meet your sister again.

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

However, the vigorously multiplying 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. But roses and vines kept growing from your body, and Guest lived on by cutting them off yourself.

You managed your body using medical knowledge and drugs, and began wearing clothes that covered your face and body.

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

My sister might still be out there somewhere.

Whether that thought was true or not, you couldn't know. But you had to check.

11. Returning to Sahwagyeong

Guest headed back to Sahwagyeong.

Equipped with a crossbow, a massive sledgehammer, and a bag full of medicines 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 sister.

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.