There was one day left until the end of the second trial.
With the second trial administrator changing to the World Tree of Healing, I had successfully passed the second trial.
It was an uneventful conclusion, but it was good for .
I wouldn’t have to see that tree-supremacist rri again.
-Slurrrp.
7 a.m.
The taste of pasta in the morning.
Even though the thick cheese felt a bit heavy, it was still perfect to lift my spirits.
Recently, I hadn’t been that hungry in the mornings, but maybe because I didn’t sleep in Sansuyu’s room, I ended up eating a fair amount.
‘This isn’t so bad.’
With passing almost certain, I was as good as free.
After breakfast, I planned to receive so therapy from Sansuyu in the morning, have a eting during lunch while scouting for any suspicious activities, and enjoy a casual dinner with everyone in the evening.
During the free ti in between, I’d take Maronnie and go et the World Tree of Healing. It seed like the perfect day.
“If things are too easy, they start feeling unsettling.”
I set down the fork I was using to twirl the pasta.
There was sothing missing.
That person who always showed up in my daily life to stir things up, causing chaos and leaving.
She always raised her fists whenever she had the chance, shouting that she’d win next ti, but never did, always ending up beaten and embarrassed—nominally a National Tree woman.
Without her around, I felt a bit empty inside.
By now, she should be confidently picking a fight again.
Maybe the second trial wasn’t going well for her.
“Hey.”
“What?”
I looked at Bao, who was gnawing on so at in front of .
Sansuyu woke up around 10 a.m. after doing who-knows-what at dawn, and since Taeyang and Aori also tended to sleep late, I ended up eating breakfast alone at the cafeteria. Fortunately, Bao was there.
We were already familiar with each other and had beco friends, so I sat with her.
“So, when are we going to fight?”
“I don’t know.”
Even in the early morning, Bao chewed her steak with precision.
Juices splattered all over the tablecloth.
For soone who ate so well, watching her always increased my appetite.
“Nom, nom, nom.”
All that food was turning into muscle, huh?
Since her power increased her body size, maybe it naturally made her eat more as well.
She’d already gone through over ten different dishes since morning.
Gulp. After swallowing her food, Bao provoked .
“Why? You want to fight?”
“No, I’d rather not fight.”
It wouldn’t feel good if she suddenly showed up in the middle of my busy schedule asking for a duel.
Right now, things were calm, and I thought it wouldn’t be too bad to have a spar.
“I don’t want to.”
“You rude brat.”
“Screw off. We didn’t set any specific ti, did we? It’s up to . I’m not ready yet.”
It seed she only wanted to fight when she was sure of victory, given that it was her last chance.
I shot her a twisted smirk and popped a cherry tomato into my mouth.
“Is that all you’re eating for breakfast? No wonder Asians are like this. You need to eat more at.”
“You eat so much, yet you still can’t beat . What’s the point?”
Bao’s brow twitched at my taunt.
“Ha, this ti I won’t lose. I’m going to prepare thoroughly.”
“The longer you wait, the worse it’s going to be for you.”
“You always say the most ridiculous things.”
Bao might think I was joking, but I was dead serious.
If she wanted to have a chance, it was better for her to attack quickly.
Every ti I defeated a significant figure from the Tree Spirit Division or a high-ranking mber of Flower, my pure stats increased, not to ntion the growth of my potential.
If she wanted to challenge later, that was fine too.
She could pick a fight whenever she wanted, and if the timing didn’t work for , I could just refuse.
I picked up my empty dish and stood up.
“I’m off.”
“Mm-hmm.”
She was pretty laid back. I glanced at Bao, still engrossed in her food, and then cleaned up my dish.
Inside the cafeteria, early-rising National Trees and cadets were having breakfast.
Among them, I spotted Maronnie, sitting alone and picking at her food.
When I looked her way from a distance, our eyes t. She jumped, her eyes widening in surprise before she averted her gaze, unable to bear the pressure.
She was like a little kitten every ti I saw her.
Her enslavent should end on its own soon. Taeyang had ntioned that National Trees didn’t have weak ntal strength, so she should break free shortly.
I hoped it happened as quickly as possible.
“Let’s head back to the room.”
Today, I only had to contact Jin Dallae.
Everyone else had told they were busy and not to bother them.
Just like , everyone was excessively busy. Even Jin Dallae, who would receive my call, had to squeeze ti out of her work, cadet duties, and spirit magic studies.
I took the escalator to the upper floor.
By now, I was quite familiar with the layout of the hotel.
Arriving at the floor where my room was, I walked into the hallway.
“Who’s that?”
“What’s going on?”
“A tree?”
For so reason, there was a commotion.
A group of people had gathered in front of my room.
‘What’s going on?’
Had another fight broken out between the cadets?
I’d heard rumors that cadets often caused conflicts due to their inferiority complexes about their ranking at the academy.
In such cases, things usually were quietly resolved at the managent office, or the offender received a notice of elimination.
But from the way people were talking, it didn’t seem to be one of those situations.
I had no choice but to push through the crowd to get to my room.
“Excuse .”
I apologized repeatedly as I squeezed through the crowd.
Who or what could have gathered so many people?
Curious, I made my way forward, only to see that people were strangely gathered in a half-circle centered around the front of my door.
What was this?
As I stepped forward, I felt sothing crunch underfoot—it was dirt.
From my angle, I couldn’t see anything beyond the door.
When I moved closer for a clear view, I finally saw a girl standing in front of my door.
A girl.
She was just a little taller than the doorknob, with a tiny face.
Pink and red, with a glow sowhere in between.
From around her hair, branches like those on my daughter Shiba sprouted in various places.
Just above her ears, on the side of her head, red flower petals in the shape of a cross were in place.
Her hair was twisted into drill shapes, and tiny petals and leaves blood decoratively among the strands.
The girl, dressed in a white robe, stood barefoot on the tiles in front of my door, with her thighs and legs fully exposed.
Her entire body was sared with dirt.
Beneath her robe, brown sticks—presumably the roots of a tree—hung down.
She didn’t say anything, just stared anxiously at the door.
It was as if she were waiting for sothing.
I had no idea why this girl was standing in front of my door.
I had never seen anyone like her before. Why in the world was she intruding in my room?
I quietly turned my head and asked the cadet next to .
“Excuse .”
“Yes?”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, well… I’m not really sure either. About five minutes ago, soone started pounding on the door and yelling for soone to co out.”
Looks like she might be one of the trees from the basent.
“Can trees take on human form?”
“So trees can.”
It depended on their constitution or ability, but half of the trees that had lived here for a long ti could do it.
It was difficult and energy-consuming to materialize, so they usually didn’t do it unless necessary.
At that mont, the girl started fumbling with the door handle, twisting it as she let out a voice full of anxiety.
“…Co out.”
The first ti I heard her speak, I finally realized who she was.
It was a voice I was very familiar with.
It was the one who had been relentlessly summoning for weeks. She’d call at inconvenient tis—1 a.m., 3 a.m., 5 a.m.—interrupting my sleep, and then scream at if I showed up a bit late. She was my forr tree administrator.
She hadn’t summoned in a while. I thought she had forgotten about , but here she was, coming after again.
At first, I thought she might be one of the first-generation trees like Shiba, who can freely shift between tree and human forms.
But upon closer inspection, she had far more tree-like features than Shiba.
From the branches and leaves in her hair to the unfinished bark-like skin covering parts of her body.
“…Co out.”
rri’s creeping voice froze in place.
“Why aren’t you coming out?”
The sadness in her voice made the surrounding people uneasy.
-Shouldn’t we call soone?
Whispers like that began spreading among the crowd. A few people had already gone to get help.
With the commotion reaching this level, surely soone would co. No matter how much of a tree rri was, things had escalated too far for her not to face consequences.
“…”
Thump, thump.
rri, who had been forcefully pounding on the door earlier, now only gently caressed it.
‘…No one’s there.’
There was no one inside.
If soone didn’t respond, people would usually think that no one was ho. Who would expect that no one would respond?
But rri’s state seed much more serious than I’d imagined.
She appeared to be in far deeper distress than I had thought.
What should I do?
I fell into a brief dilemma.
eting with rri now would only be a hassle for .
She was the one who used to rant three or four tis a day about how humans should be extinct. I wasn’t going to hear anything good from her if I faced her now.
She did seem to be in a bad state… but I had already passed the trial.
If I wanted to avoid any confrontation and end things peacefully, it would be better for to just slip away quietly.
After all, it’s rri.
That thought ca to mind first.
I began to slowly back away.
“…I’m
I froze at the sound of her voice.
What did rri just mutter?
“I said I’m sorry. Isn’t it enough now? Is it really so awful to see my face?”
She repeated it twice, making sure I couldn’t mistake her words.
Her voice, crawling with desperation, was completely different from the rri I used to know. She caressed the door, visibly anxious about the murmuring crowd.
What on earth was wrong with her?
I had already known that rri had a lot of emotional issues. In a way, this situation was sothing I had indirectly caused.
‘But I never expected it to be this bad.’
Maybe rri had been treated even worse than I thought.
Or perhaps she had sunk so deeply into self-pity that she couldn’t even justify her actions anymore.
That would explain her current state.
She may have co to out of sheer desperation.
Either way, this wasn’t the rri I had known.
Sothing had changed in her.
This was the sa rri who used to shout that humans were no better than beasts, and now she was apologizing.
I quietly removed my mask.
Though my head was telling to ignore her, my heart found it laughable that I was swayed after eting her for just a few days.
I pushed my way back through the crowd and stepped forward.
“rri?”
Startled by my voice, rri whipped her head around.
When our eyes first t, her large pupils were dull and lifeless, like the dust-covered sky.
But after a brief mont, her eyes brightened slightly as she saw my confused face mixed with a faint smile.
Perhaps she found a glimr of hope.
I wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to .
“Hey…”
rri’s voice trembled.
“…Why, why didn’t you co? Why?”
It was a mont when emotions I didn’t know rri had suddenly burst out.
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