Eat The World Tree

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 me.

I wouldn’t have to see that tree-supremacist Merri 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.

With passing almost certain, I was as good as free.

After breakfast, I planned to receive some therapy from Sansuyu in the morning, have a meeting during lunch while scouting for any suspicious activities, and enjoy a casual dinner with everyone in the evening.

During the free time in between, I’d take Maronnie and go meet the World Tree of Healing. It seemed 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 something 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 time, 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 some meat in front of me.

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 become 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 someone 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 me.

“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 time, did we? It’s up to me. I’m not ready yet.”

It seemed 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 meat.”

“You eat so much, yet you still can’t beat me. What’s the point?”

Bao’s brow twitched at my taunt.

“Ha, this time 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 time I defeated a significant figure from the Tree Spirit Division or a high-ranking member of Flower, my pure stats increased, not to mention the growth of my potential.

If she wanted to challenge me later, that was fine too.

She could pick a fight whenever she wanted, and if the timing didn’t work for me, 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 met. She jumped, her eyes widening in surprise before she averted her gaze, unable to bear the pressure.

She was like a little kitten every time I saw her.

Her enslavement should end on its own soon. Taeyang had mentioned that National Trees didn’t have weak mental 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 me they were busy and not to bother them.

Just like me, everyone was excessively busy. Even Jin Dallae, who would receive my call, had to squeeze time 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 some 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 management 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 me.”

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 something 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 somewhere 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 bloomed 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 smeared 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 something.

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 me.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, well… I’m not really sure either. About five minutes ago, someone started pounding on the door and yelling for someone to come out.”

Looks like she might be one of the trees from the basement.

“Can trees take on human form?”

“Some trees can.”

It depended on their constitution or ability, but half of the trees that had lived here for a long time could do it.

It was difficult and energy-consuming to materialize, so they usually didn’t do it unless necessary.

At that moment, the girl started fumbling with the door handle, twisting it as she let out a voice full of anxiety.

“…Come out.”

The first time 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 me for weeks. She’d call at inconvenient times—1 a.m., 3 a.m., 5 a.m.—interrupting my sleep, and then scream at me if I showed up a bit late. She was my former tree administrator.

She hadn’t summoned me in a while. I thought she had forgotten about me, but here she was, coming after me 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.

“…Come out.”

Merri’s creeping voice froze me in place.

“Why aren’t you coming out?”

The sadness in her voice made the surrounding people uneasy.

-Shouldn’t we call someone?

Whispers like that began spreading among the crowd. A few people had already gone to get help.

With the commotion reaching this level, surely someone would come. No matter how much of a tree Merri was, things had escalated too far for her not to face consequences.

“…”

Thump, thump.

Merri, who had been forcefully pounding on the door earlier, now only gently caressed it.

‘…No one’s there.’

There was no one inside.

If someone didn’t respond, people would usually think that no one was home. Who would expect that no one would respond?

But Merri’s state seemed 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.

Meeting with Merri now would only be a hassle for me.

She was the one who used to rant three or four times 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 me to just slip away quietly.

After all, it’s Merri.

That thought came to mind first.

I began to slowly back away.

“…I’m sorry.”

I froze at the sound of her voice.

What did Merri 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 Merri 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 Merri had a lot of emotional issues. In a way, this situation was something I had indirectly caused.

‘But I never expected it to be this bad.’

Maybe Merri 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 come to me out of sheer desperation.

Either way, this wasn’t the Merri I had known.

Something had changed in her.

This was the same Merri 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 me to ignore her, my heart found it laughable that I was swayed after meeting her for just a few days.

I pushed my way back through the crowd and stepped forward.

“Merri?”

Startled by my voice, Merri whipped her head around.

When our eyes first met, her large pupils were dull and lifeless, like the dust-covered sky.

But after a brief moment, her eyes brightened slightly as she saw my confused face mixed with a faint smile.

Perhaps she found a glimmer of hope.

I wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to me.

“Hey…”

Merri’s voice trembled.

“…Why, why didn’t you come? Why?”

It was a moment when emotions I didn’t know Merri had suddenly burst out.