Eat The World Tree

“Let’s go to your house.”

“There’s someone at home, let’s go to a cafe.”

Champi Tree.

With green bobbed hair and yellow earrings.

Jewelry resembling the flowers of the Champi Tree dangled from her ears.

Despite wearing a stuffy hoodie, her face was quite made up.

Her short legs and cylindrical body didn’t do much for her style, though.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.”

As soon as Champi sat down on the enclosed sofa, she cheerfully started reciting the menu to the waiter.

“Let’s see~ I’ll have~ a Java Chip Frappuccino, three slices of blueberry cheesecake, a mocha cake, a vanilla croffle, and a cafe latte with two pumps of syrup.”

“…Pardon?”

“Oh! Right, right. They said the green tea here is good too. Please add that as well.”

Did she come to talk or to eat?

It’s not like an S-rank hunter would be short on money.

“Eating for free always tastes better.”

…Ah, it just tasted better that way?

What a cheap person.

I awkwardly smiled and ordered a vanilla latte.

Before long, the menu arrived, and the table was filled with snacks that far exceeded my usual meal portions.

“Lehuhu~”

Champi stuffed her cheeks with food and smiled happily.

Was this person really an S-rank?

I started to have doubts.

“Is it good?”

“Yeah, it’s freaking delicious. Want some?”

“Eat up. So why did you call me?”

Champi chewed the cake stuffed in her mouth, then put her lips to the straw of the cafe latte.

-Slorp.

Along with the coffee, gulp.

If an elder saw this, they’d smile proudly and say, “Oh, our kid eats so well.”

“Phew, that’s good. Right. Are you close with Sansuyu?”

“I’d say I’m the closest among the cadets and peers at the academy.”

“Really? I figured as much.”

She took another bite of the cake.

Mumbling, she continued.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from Suyu. But I didn’t know you were a disciple of that girl.”

“You mean Master Baekdo?”

“There are two more inside, right? Specifically… the red one?”

I was taken aback by her nonchalant revelation.

Did S-ranks share a lot of information? By the red one, she must mean Cheondo.

“Yeah, but why do you ask?”

“Why else? I came to leave an impression on that girl’s disciple. Later, when you’re doing well, I can boast on Trista, Twitter, and TreeInside that I had a meal with you… wouldn’t that be awesome?”

What a way to speak.

Even Byeol wasn’t like this when we first met.

Not that I found it off-putting, but she felt like a fun high school social studies teacher.

Champi sipped her Frappuccino and said,

“And my younger brother is in Spring Peach Blossom. Sumpee.”

“Ah. That’s how it’s connected.”

“S-ranks all know each other indirectly.”

Sumpee Tree, Paprika’s partner and a popular BJ.

We met briefly a few months ago along with the Korosina Tree and Bob, the Baobab Tree.

Their face was so striking that I still remembered it.

“Are you familiar with my master?”

Champi grinned at my question.

“…Rather than knowing, we have a bad history.”

A bad history? How?

When I showed interest, Champi cleared her throat and raised her fingers to begin the story.

“How should I put it? That girl is pitiful too. How much do you know about her story?”

“Roughly. Just what’s told at Spring Peach Blossom.”

“Then I can tell you. If you mention this to anyone who doesn’t know, you’ll get arrested for heresy, so keep it in mind.”

Champi looked around once and spoke to me.

“Can you use magic? Something to block sound.”

Silent.

I used the most effective spell I learned at the academy, and a transparent barrier enveloped us.

Champi tapped the wall once and continued.

“This should be enough.”

She took another bite of cheesecake.

She rolled the blueberry on her tongue and swallowed it.

Then she smiled like a snake.

“I got to know her… when Dowon was falling.”

“Excuse me?”

“The Hunter Association hit Dowon three times secretly. I was there the third time. I was in charge of supplies. Back then, I was F-rank.”

“Oh…”

One of those who destroyed DoWon.

For a moment, I almost lost my composure but managed to calm down.

I knew many hunters were forcibly involved.

Too many people were involved to blame just one person.

“I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I was carrying was meant to kill people. That’s war. It was like forced conscription.”

“I see.”

“I became S-rank and heard the news that they were going to kill Cheonma. This is a story for later.”

Champi laughed like an old person recalling the past.

She clasped her hands and spoke.

“The only survivor of Dowon. And quite useful for opposing Flower.”

“…You could see it that way.”

I said as nonchalantly as possible.

“Their lives… I think they’re very pitiable. They were cursed by the World Tree to survive.”

“To help the World Tree?”

“I don’t know the exact truth, but it must be related. Otherwise… why else would they establish Spring Peach Blossom and oppose Flower?”

“Is there such a curse? My master doesn’t seem like the type to accept such a thing.”

“Oh, I’ve heard bits and pieces.”

Champi grinned.

Loose-lipped. But this was valuable information for me now.

“Once they succeed in exterminating Flower, they said they would lift the curse.”

“…They can lift the World Tree’s curse?”

“That’s what they say, but how would we know?”

I placed my hand on my philtrum with a serious expression.

Baekyang told me that unless the World Tree that cursed them died, there would be no way to lift the curse.

Of course, Baekyang was a tree that had been dead for a long time, so there was a possibility that the information was incorrect….

Anyway, if the condition set by the World Tree side was correct, Cheondo was fighting Flower to lift the curse.

Or there was also the possibility that the World Tree was deceiving Cheondo.

My master must be clinging to a straw.

“Lifting the curse means removing the stigma on their family…. It would also clear the dishonor of their father, the previous Cheonma.”

“They could also rebuild the Peach Tree family.”

“Exactly. They had that much talent.”

Champi sighed, resting her chin on her hand.

“That’s why it’s pitiful.”

“And you helped with that.”

I wondered if she understood my sharp words.

“Whoa, don’t look at it like that. I didn’t do nothing while that person was growing up. We actually cleared many dungeons together. I even saved their life once.”

“Really?”

“You don’t seem impressed.”

Champi shrugged her shoulders.

“They don’t resent me, so it’s not a big problem.”

“That’s a ridiculous thing to say.”

“You shouldn’t think too deeply about these things. That’s the nature of being a hunter. Haven’t you killed people too?”

I knew that.

I was just acting a bit irritable.

I relaxed my expression and scratched the back of my neck.

“Shake it off. Otherwise, you can’t live in this world. That’s senior advice.”

“I understand.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“The death of one tree is a tragedy. It’s natural to feel compassion and mourn. But what if it’s tens of thousands?”

Champi had a somewhat transcendental look.

“Just numbers. That’s how many people died~.”

In my world, that was recorded in Stalin’s quotes.

“Right.”

“Don’t you think there are pitiful people in Flower? Among the Flower members I’ve met, there are those who run orphanages, protect fallen spirits, and are desperate to sacrifice themselves. In some parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, Flower is stronger and more trusted than the Hunter Association.”

“Probably.”

“Someone we killed might have been a saint who saved hundreds of lives.”

Champi declared confidently.

“But hunters remember it like this: Killed one Flower. An evil person. That alone makes them heroes in history.”

“….”

“Then if we killed one Flower and the children they were responsible for starve to death?”

It’s a common story.

In the end, there was no absolute good or evil.

I knew that well too.

“What kind of thoughts should I have seeing that scene? Ah… I killed this Flower, and these kids died because of it. Should I atone for it for the rest of my life?”

Among the many professions in this world, the one with the highest probability of mental illness was undoubtedly being a hunter.

It’s common to lose comrades in dungeon accidents and often kill people due to dungeon crimes.

Among those who have reached S-rank, there was almost no one who hadn’t killed someone.

“Many people say being a hunter is the best job. Because everyone praises it. But it’s not.”

“Is that so?”

“We all know that. So we don’t hold each other accountable. Why? Because we’re all bastards anyway.”

Champi emphasized.

No matter the circumstances, the very act of becoming a hunter meant—

“…we are those who stepped on others to live well.”

I didn’t say anything.

It was the truth, and everyone was trying hard to ignore it.

I instinctively understood it too.

“One day, you’ll understand, kid.”

“….”

“Thanks to me, many people are alive. I once stopped a gate in the Pacific and saved 3,400 people.”

“Well done.”

“Well done, my ass.”

Champi crossed her legs. They didn’t reveal any sexiness at all.

She was staring at something outside the window.

A poster with S-rank hunters as advertising.

Looking at it, she laughed.

“That’s why I hate those bastards the most.”

Where she pointed, there was a poster of a woman with light green hair smiling kindly.

Spiritist. Elata.

Aralia Tree.

“They put up signs saying they’re good guys, knowing everything.”

“…They might really be good, or it could be marketing.”

I couldn’t make a quick judgment since I hadn’t met them.

“Aye, they’re managing their image. I haven’t seen a genuinely good person among them.”

Champi rudely shoved the last piece of cake into her mouth.

“In the end, everyone lives for themselves. Psychopath? They’d be the same in that situation.”

“…Haha.”

I laughed bitterly.

I felt like she was mocking the principles I had held until recently.

To truly become a good person as Champi described, you would need a real resolve and enough power to overturn the world.

Champi raised her coffee.

“Of course-”

She clinked her coffee with mine in a small toast.

“We should save as many people as we can.”

“Now you say that?”

“Enduring that contradiction is what it means to be a human and a hunter. Isn’t that damn cool?”

People didn’t usually say that out loud. But I understood.

I drank my coffee.

The bitter aroma of the beans mingled with the sweet vanilla syrup on my tongue.

“Are we a bit closer now?”

“To some extent.”

“Then give me your phone number. I’ll contact you if I need something. You can use my name around too.”

Was this how you expanded your network?

I thought she only had a cunning side, but she seemed to have her own standards.

Surprisingly meticulous.

Maybe all S-ranks were like this.

“From today, you’re my little brother. Got it?”

“Got it.”

I entered my number into the phone she held out.

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