Three days went by in a flash.

‘I never thought I'd be friends with an elf,’ Horlum stared at the mirror.

Recently, his face, worn down by stress and doubt, was bright like a sunflower. With Fredrinn around, the stabbing rumors couldn’t reach his head. Fredrinn’s never-ending chatter filled his ears already.

‘The guy can turn something as mundane as the weather into some sort of fairytale,’ Horlum rubbed his forehead, though his wide smile betrayed him.

With a backpack hanging over his right arm, he left his room and the elven dormitory. It was a humble building to say the least, made entirely out of wood with two floors aboveground and three below.

According to the rules, the senior students will live belowground, while the juniors stay aboveground. He lived on the second floor.

‘Not that it matters,’ he squinted, blocking the sun's glare with his hand.

Not long after, he felt someone tapping his shoulder. Turning around, he saw a familiar bespectacled elf.

“Morning,” Horlum greeted, to which Fredrinn greeted back.

Together, they walked toward the academy—it was only a minute away. Strangely, the academy was smaller than the dormitory, at least on the surface.

‘The library underground is bigger than the entire academy,’ he thought, not sure if he should be amazed or confused.

“Are you going to the assignment board today?” Entering through the gates, Fredrinn asked, looking at the distance.

‘The assignment board…’ Horlum thought about it, following Fredrinn’s gaze.

There, a simple bulletin board was erected. Every student can take tasks from it, and then officially register in the faculty office. The assignments were special missions that grant special benefits, though most were tailored for the senior students.

‘There’s no need to look at it. It’s barely been half a year since I enrolled in the academy,’ Horlum thought.

“Scratch that, we’re going to be late,” he said.

Fredrinn looked at the sky, seeing the sun barely starting to climb. Then, pouting, the two of them separated and went to their respective classrooms.

By the time classes were over, the sun had just peaked.

“Did you bring food?” Fredrinn asked, squirming beside him.

The bespectacled elf had two bags, which he just noticed. One was a backpack, and the other was a slingbag that looked more like a box. If he had to guess, Fredrinn stuffed his lunchboxes in there.

‘Lunch,’ Horlum rubbed his stomach.

For the past few days, Fredrinn brought him lunch every day. At first, he refused. But through the latter’s continuous attacks, he finally relented.

‘And thank god I did. His food is delicious,’ that point, he made sure to get across.

How? By eating like a pig, how else?

“I brought us snacks,” Horlum said.

Unlike Fredrinn, the snacks he brought were stuffed in his backpack. He wouldn’t leach off of Fredrinn, even if the latter wanted him too. He wasn’t that shameless.

As for his school stuff…

‘What’s that, can you eat it?’ Horlum snickered, imagining his professor’s stern face.

As much as Kier tried to be all friendly, he always kept a distance. Even if Kier had good intentions, he didn’t want to infect the other with his terrible reputation. Even though all of it were baseless rumors.

‘As for Fredrinn… this guy won’t let go of me, try as I might,’ he sighed.

Nonetheless, he was grateful for it.

“Did you bring bananas?” Fredrinn asked, looking at Horlum with his wide, amethyst eyes.

Horlum nodded, watching Fredrinn smile and lick his lips. “I brought bananas, apples, and grapes.”

All three were Fredrinn’s favorite fruits. As for him, the only fruit he liked among the three were the apples. That’s why he bought three apples—two for him, one for Fredrinn. The rest of the fruits were for Fredrinn.

As expected, Fredrinn cheered and grabbed his arm, dragging him as he walked.

“Wait, where are we going?” Horlum asked, looking behind them.

The cafeteria was the opposite direction where Fredrinn was leading him to.

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‘The garden?’ Horlum guessed.

“The garden, duh!” Fredrinn said, confirming his thoughts.

“We’ll go to my secret place, where no one can see or hear us,” Fredrinn giggled, looking at Horlum with narrowed eyes.

Horlum blinked, but then shrugged his shoulders. “The garden is full of elves,” he said.

Rather than the cafeteria, the majority of elves chose to eat lunch in the garden. He himself wanted to eat there, but if he did, the elves would likely evacuate.

‘If that happens, I’ll have another rumor behind my back,’ he thought helplessly.

Fredrinn huffed. “Don’t think about those bastards,” he scowled.

“Anyway, the place we’re going to is isolated. No one even goes near it,” he said, giggling weirdly as they walked.

On the other hand, Horlum felt that something was off, but he couldn’t pinpoint what. However, as they entered the garden gates, they were instantly met with countless stares.

Horlum flinched, but later scoffed.

‘Fredrinn was right, why should I care about these bastards?’ he snickered, his chin held high as they skipped past the elves.

Moving along, Horlum gawked at the colorful flowers and lush plants everywhere. On the ground, on pots, one raised beds, and some were even hanging from statues.

‘This reminds me of the library… it's also bigger than the academy, from the looks of it,’ Horlum was baffled.

Just like the library, the garden was like a maze, with high bushes acting as walls—similar to hedge mazes.

‘Wow,’ Horlum took a deep breath, filling his lungs with fresh, almost sweet air.

It was his first time in the garden. In the past, going near it overloaded him with anxiety. After the rumors, that anxiety turned into dread.

“Aaaaand~ we’re here!” he heard Fredrinn say.

Turning toward the elf, he saw him standing in front of a tree. A tree with pink leaves and red, fist-sized flowers.

‘What kind of tree is that?’ Horlum scratched his head.

The pink leaves looked normal enough despite its color. But, the flowers were as big as sunflowers while resembling chrysanthemums.

“Do you like it?” Fredrinn asked, grinning as he sat under the tree.

A moment later, the elf was taking out a towel and spreading it on the ground.

‘Oh, so it’s a picnic,’ Horlum scratched his ear.

“It’s my first time seeing a tree like it,” he said, “It looks strange.”

Fredrinn nodded. “The elves believe that it’s cursed.”

Horlum, about to sit down, froze for a moment. Then, glancing at the tree and at the busy Fredrinn, he finally sat.

“A cursed tree? Then why don’t they cut it down?” Horlum asked, only to see Fredrinn scowling.

“It’s not a cursed tree. Well, its origins are complicated, but other than that, it’s just a beautiful tree,” he said.

“We can agree with that,” Horlum grinned.

Horlum looked at the pink leaves, and then at the flowers. ‘Well, as strange as it looks, it is beautiful. Ah, look, the flowers fade from red to white as it nears the center.’

Then, he recalled his sketchbook that he hadn’t touched in months. ‘I remember I have a plant at the ravine. I wonder if Zhen has been feeding it as he promised.’

After so much time and all the stress he endured, he almost forgot about it.

‘That plant has red leaves, and its veins glowed slightly, too. In terms of strangeness, that plant is much weirder than this pink tree,’ he chuckled.

“Why is this tree ‘cursed,’ anyway?” Horlum asked, watching Fredrinn take out two wooden lunchboxes.

One of the lunchboxes had a pink flower, while the other had a blue one. The former was for Fredrinn, while the latter was for him.

“Tsk,” Fredrinn crossed his arms, shaking his head.

“It started when a spy planted a tree in the garden for some unknown reason. When the spy got caught many years later, the seed already grew into a lush sapling. The elves tried cutting it down, but…”

Horlum tilted his head, seeing Fredrinn scratching his head.

“But?”

“But the elves couldn’t cut it down. Even when the sages came and used spells, the tree was still alive,” he said.

Horlum looked up at the tree, seeing its unblemished bark. ‘That’s one tough tree,’ he couldn’t help thinking.

“Then, why is that?” Horlum asked, to which Fredrinn replied with an “I don’t know.”

“After many efforts, the elves searched for the tree’s origin and realized that it came from the demon clan.”

Horlum’s eyes widened a bit. “Demons? So… the tree, is it cursed or not?”

Fredrinn huffed, mock glaring at Horlum. “It’s not cursed, okay? It’s just special. Although it grew really quickly and is strangely tough, it doesn’t do anything bad.”

“Ah,” Horlum nodded absentmindedly.

“That reminds me, there’s a rumor that the late prince tried cutting it down,” Fredrinn mentioned.

“The prince?” Horlum’s lips flattened.

He knew the prince. For one, the prince was the reason he was enrolled in the academy. Secondly, the prince became everyone’s daily topic at one point. After all, an elven royalty suddenly disappeared one day.

‘The royalty claims that humans kidnapped the prince, but it's strange,’ Horlum sighed.

The prince, just like any other elf, had a weak physique. But other than that, he was a druid, someone who can command plants and trees at will. A character like that, being kidnapped so easily?

Within the kingdom, to boot?

“Smells like conspiracy,” he muttered.

“Horlum?” Fredrinn looked at him in askance.

He waved his hand. “Nothing. What happened to the prince?”

Fredrinn watched him for a while before continuing. “Well, the prince was about to use druid magic on the plant, when the king and queen stopped him.”

“Oh, so the king and queen like the tree,” Horlum commented.

Fredrinn shook his head. “No. It didn’t come out for a while, but after the prince’s attempt, the royals forbade druids from going near the tree. They said using druid magic in front of the tree would tempt the druid.”

“Tempt the druid?” Horlum stared blankly at Fredrinn.

“Yeah,” he shrugged his shoulders, “That’s all they said. No other clarifications.”

“Then, what’s the tree’s name?” Horlum stared at the tree again.

“That,” Fredrinn turned away, blushing a bit.

Horlum narrowed his eyes, feeling that something was suspicious. Before he could ponder, though, another voice reached their ears.

“It’s the Succubus Tree.”

Turning around, the two saw a tall elf with a blindfold on his face. A standard to all adult elves.

“Good afternoon, students,” Kier smiled, strolling toward the two.

----------------------------------------

Minutes earlier…

In the dark, faculty office, an elf sat alone on his chair. With the lights turned off and the windows closed, no one would see anything. But for adult elves, who’d been blindfolded for a long time, it was no issue.

“Tsk, annoying rats,” the elf groaned, reaching out for the drawer under his desk.

There, he took out an envelope, tearing it into two. Taking out the papers inside, he read them silently.

Each paper had a list of names on them, with more than half in the list being the names of the students in the academy.

“Tsk,” he crumpled the papers.

As he was about to crumple the envelope too, he found another note inside.

Reading it aloud…

“The new god needs sacrifice… Ptui—who do they think they are? Ordering me around,” spitting on the note, he crumpled it and the envelope.

An incantation later, flickering flames and smoke filled the room as the paper burned to ashes. The flames didn't burn anything else.