The wind blew, gently brushing the pink leaves of the succubus tree. Its flowers shed petals, white nectar dripping from its glands.

A black butterfly flapped its wings, quietly landing on the flower. Its proboscis lowered, sipping away at its nectar. Then, as silently as it flew, it fell to the ground, twitching as life fled its body.

Surrounding it, hundreds of other butterflies shared its fate.

The wind whispered, gently pushing the succubus tree, its leaves playing a sad tune.

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“That was weird,” Horlum muttered, looking at the black butterfly on his desk. Moments ago, it had flown in through the window, and then promptly died.

‘Is it a bad omen?’ He thought, spinning his pencil with his fingers. Glancing at Kier, his professor, he inwardly rolled his eyes.

‘What’s so fun about assignments? It’s not like it’s useful,’ he grumbled.

About a week ago, when Kier found him and Fredrinn about to eat lunch under the succubus tree, the latter warned them not to go near it.

Of course, they kept going to it, eating lunch under the tree most of the time. In Fredrinn’s words, “Ignore the nosy teacher, he can’t eat you.”

“Pfft,” Horlum covered his mouth, looking at his professor as if he was listening. He wasn’t.

‘He can’t eat me, yes. But he can bury me under a bunch of homework, haaa…’

For the past week, Kier had been giving out three homeworks each day. It quickly earned him the students’ dissatisfaction, but the professor didn’t give a damn.

‘Speaking of which, three of my classmates are absent again,’ he glanced around.

The classroom was small, with a total of sixteen seats for the students. He was sitting at the very back beside the window, giving him plenty of cover for when he wanted to doze off.

‘What’s up with that?’

He munched on his lower lip, thinking of a few ideas.

For three days now, one of his classmates would be absent each day.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

‘Maybe—’

“Ahem, attention, please!” Kier said, his voice making Horlum jump.

Chuckling to himself, Horlum stared at the professor, once again immersed in his job of acting.

Kier tutted, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he focused back on the entire class.

“Today, I will end the class early,” he said.

The entire classroom went silent. With his sensitive ears, Horlum faintly heard his classmates breathing roughly.

Kier smiled. “You will have ten assignments to pass in our next class.”

In an instant, all the elves, excluding Horlum, felt their shoulders getting heavy. If not for Kier looking at all of them, some would’ve started grumbling.

‘Ten assignments? Did he hit his head or something?’ Horlum blinked away.

Anyway, it didn’t concern him. He never did his homework, anyway. At least, properly.

Each of his assignments were done at the school, and he guessed all the answers.

“Ahem,” Kier cleared his throat. “As for the next class, you will get a letter from the academy when it begins. Now, enjoy your vacation. Class is over for today,” he nodded, leaving the room with his hands behind his back.

Meanwhile, all of the students were still staring at the blackboard.

Horlum gulped. “D-Did I hear that right?” He mumbled, but no one heard him.

The next moment, however, the classroom was filled with cheers!

Horlum sighed, sitting beside Fredrinn under the succubus tree.

“What happened here?” He asked, looking at the hundreds of dead butterflies.

It’s been an hour since Kier’s class ended, and Fredrinn’s class had just ended as well. As soon as the latter was freed from his class, the two went to the garden to have their lunch.

Fredrinn quickly munched on the banana in his mouth.

“Those are Fleeting Butterflies,” he said, his voice a bit muffled. “You don’t know them?”

“Fleeting butterflies?” Horlum tilted his head.

“Yup. After breaking out of their chrysalis, they find a mate and breed as soon as they can. After the female lays the eggs, they gather together and die. They only have a day to live,” Fredrinn gulped, before putting the banana in his mouth.

“Eh? That short?” Horlum raised an eyebrow.

“Mhmm,” Fredrinn nodded, humming into the banana.

Horlum frowned, “Don’t try to talk with food in your mouth.”

Fredrinn bit down, before smirking.

Horlum shook his head. “Anyway, what do you plan on doing during the vacation?”

“Hmmm,” Fredrinn turned to look at the clouds. They were dark, and strong winds gathered in the distance.

“I’ll probably just stay at home,” he shrugged. “What about you?”

Horlum exhaled, picking up his water container and taking a sip. “I’ll go back to the village.”

“The village… oh,” Fredrinn nodded, not questioning it further.

“Are you interested?” Horlum smiled. “It’s okay, it’s not a bad memory for me.”

“Really?” Fredrinn asked, before clapping his hands. “Then, tell me about it!”

Horlum laughed.

For half elves, their settlements were strictly “guarded” by elves. It was to prevent them from reproducing with other elves, while also monitoring them in case they contract some sort of illness.

However, most knew that the elves “guarding” the settlements don’t follow the rules. Most of them would even have ambiguous relationships with the half elves they were supposed to avoid.

Horlum waved his hand. “I’ll tell you later, let’s eat… and, uh, if you want, you can visit our village!”

“Really?!” Fredrinn stared at Horlum with wide eyes, and stars almost seemed to house those amethyst pupils.

Horlum’s lips twitched. He almost regretted stretching out the invite.

‘I wanted to brag to the others that I have an elf friend, but…’ he gulped.

‘I hope the village can survive Fredrinn’s energy.’

As for Fredrinn, his thoughts were on another page, but he would never share that.

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“Is it ready?” Chimera asked, his body shrouded in darkness.

A cloaked figure knelt behind him. “Yes. We have enough souls to charge the—”

“Tch, noisy.”

The cloaked figure coughed, blood splattering on the floor. In his last moments, he watched as Chimera took out his sword from his throat.

“Don’t you know to keep secrets as secrets?” Chimera kicked the cloaked figure’s dead body.

After a while, he clicked his mouth, chanting a spell. Flames gushed out from below the corpse, silently engulfing it and turning the corpse into ash.

“Tsk, you’re just as useless as those dark elves. Now I’ve got to hunt them down, or it’s all pointless.”

Turning around, he walked away under the bright moon’s gaze. The wind howled behind him, and the pink leaves of the succubus tree rustled fiercely. Upon close inspection, its leaves seemed to glow a dim, white light.