Sapta’xahr, 4044 AOT

Fourth Watch Tower, Asylum’s Clubroom

It is another uneventful afternoon for the members of Asylum. They laze around the ground floor of the watch tower, spending their time with idle chats and endless feast of snacks. They are peacefully wasting their time again… Or that is how it is supposed to be until Blair slams open the door. The tranquil atmosphere is quickly blown away.

“Hey! Hey!” Blair smiles widely, her red eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. Then she presents what she has clasped between her palms. “Look what I found!”

Everyone in the room turns to see what she was holding.

Emil frowns as he recognizes the object of Blair’s enthusiasm. “That’s a mushroom,” he sighs.

“Is that edible?” Primrose asks while taking a bite of her cookie.

Blair tilts her head slightly and then she stares at the mushroom on her hand. The space between her brows knits and her lips frowns for a moment before regaining her cheerful demeanor. “I have no idea. But doesn’t it look kinda cool?”

Everyone stares at the mushroom on her hand. It looks like soft cotton but its dark violet color makes them cautious. The shaft has semi-transparent beads that look like it will release some unwanted chemicals once they pop. For a moment they are amazed that Blair is able to take that delicate but dangerous looking thing without ruining its appearance. However, that is not the main issue right now.

“Cool? Doesn’t it looks creepy?..” Emil says softly.

“Where did you get that?” Tristan marches towards Blair. “That thing looks poisonous, put it back wherever you got it. I’ll notify the student council.”

Before Tristan could grab her arm, Blair moves a step back evading his hands. “No way~”

“What are you even planning to do with it?” Emil asks.

“I’ll put it in a pot because it looks cool.” She answers sounding ever so serious.

“It’s not a flower!” Tristan reacts. “Put it back wherever you got it before any accidents happen.”

“How could you judge it so bad when you haven’t known it well enough?” Blair makes a sad expression while holding the mushroom away from Tristan’s direction.

“I don’t understand how you got that idea… and why am I suddenly the bad guy here?”

“Then, let’s taste test it.” The blond dork suddenly suggests while wearing a bright innocent-looking smile.

“Azalea, be quiet!!!” Tristan holds his nape as he feels the blood rapidly rushing in his head.

“Great idea.”

Primrose’s monotonic voice alarms Tristan once again.

“It’s not!” He feels like he is going to suffer a stroke at this very young age.

“The blond idiot should try it first.” Primrose adds before emptying her cup of coffee.

Duke fills her cup again. “You shouldn’t pick up and eat weird things, okay.”

“I have no plans to die any time now, brother.” She answers casually before having another sip.

“Why are you okay with someone dying now?..” Tristan mumbles.

Azalea extends her hand. “I don’t mind.” She keeps her business smile on while her sight is fixed at Blair. She gestures for the mushroom to be passed to her.

The room is filled with heavy silence after hearing Azalea’s seemingly mindless bluff.

That is when Tristan thought about it again. Azalea is not a fool even though she acts like one most of the times. Maybe she has some plan in mind, even though none of this really makes sense to him.

Blair gives her a confused look.

“Don’t worry,” she adds. “I can handle even the deadliest poison. I’ll just take a look. Some unknown mushroom won’t be enough to kill me.”

“You don’t get poisoned?” Blair asks.

“No.”

“Really?”

“Mhm.” She nods.

“So does that mean you’ve eaten a poisonous mushroom before?” Emil suddenly asks out of curiosity.

“That’s right.”

“How dumb.” Primrose mutters.

“Really? Then what happened?” Blair’s interest seems to have shifted away from the mushroom.

Azalea crosses her arms while her sight move upward. “It was around four years ago.” She recalls. “Few months after my master took me in. She was making some strange potio-”

“Wait,” Emil interrupts. “I don’t think it’s good to put more strange idea inside this idiot’s head.”

“Ah- that’s right.” Tristan moves to take the mushroom again.

However, Blair is fast to move away from both Emil and Tristan. “I’m not going to give this to either of you.”

“I feel like I’m coaxing a five year old child.” Tristan says softly.

Emil looks displeased. “Hey Prez,” he taps Tristan’s shoulder. “If I throw you with all my strength, would you be able to get that thing out of her hand?”

“W-what?!” He jolts. “Won’t I die instead?!”

“Can both of you be quiet?” Evancross joins in while filling his cup with green tea that Duke has prepared. “I want to hear the rest of Azalea’s story.”

Emil clicks his tongue while glaring at the man who is leisurely drinking his tea. “This blue bastard.”

“Since you all want to hear me,” Azalea declares enthusiastically.

Tristan frowns, “Not really.”

“Okay, where was I?” She continues nonetheless while momentarily glancing towards Evancross. “That strange potion the old ha—ehem… my master was brewing… one of the ingredients is a creepy looking mushroom.”

××××××××××××××××××××××××××∞∞∞ flashback ∞∞∞×××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Nava’xahr, 4040 AOT

Yelkh Village, boundary of Westar and Laahmi

The house was filled the scent of boiling herbs, almost like she can taste the grass in her mouth. It seemed like the woman, who looked like she was in her late fifty’s, was brewing something nasty. She stared at her back as if she was reminiscing something. Her master had a spikey low fade haircut that has grown a bit. She was wearing a gray tank top that shows some old scars peeking at the uncovered part of her back. Wounds healed by magic do not leave scars. She must have gotten those wounds before she became a mage or during the time she has no access to magic. She looked around and something caught her eyes on the old wooden table.

“What’s this gross looking thing?” Young Azalea picked up the mushroom on the table.

The old lady turned toward her mischievous apprentice. The moment she laid her eyes on what she was holding, her pupils dilated and her heart almost skipped a beat. “Stupid brat!” She exclaimed while putting the mixture she was brewing to the side. “That’s a poisonous mushroom. Put it down.”

Azalea stared at it for a while before she turned her eyes back at the old lady. Her expression is blank, devoid of any visible emotion. “How poisonous is it?”

“One of the most poisonous mushrooms out there.” The old lady answered before turning to check back on her brew. “You’ll die within five to seven minutes after ingestion.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she replied but when she returned her sight back to her apprentice, she felt like her eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets. “What are you doing stupid brat!” She furiously shouted as she watched Azalea took a bite from the mushroom. She swiftly ran towards her and then shook the kid’s shoulders. “Spit it out!”

“I can’t.” She answered while being shaken back and forth. “I think it already made a safe trip into my stomach.”

Her master’s jaws dropped wide open and her face paled white.

×××××××××××××××××××××××∞∞∞ end of flashback ∞∞∞××××××××××××××××××××××××

“Why would you do that?” Tristan can never fathom how Azalea’s mind works.

“I wanted to test how strong my poison resistance was.” She answers so casually.

“Did you die?” Blair asks thoughtlessly.

“Does she look dead to you?” Primrose snorts.

Blair frowns, her tone turns serious. “So what happened next?”

Azalea scratches the back of her head. “I got very sick for three days.” She covers her mouth with her hand and then starts mumbling. “It felt like my head was being hammered from the inside, my guts being stirred, breathing was painful, everything just hurts.” She turns her eyes back at everyone with a cheerful tone. “It was terrible. I felt like dying but I couldn’t die.”

“I can’t believe you survived that.” Blair says.

“But that wasn’t the scariest part.” Her tone falls deep. “After that… The old ha—ehem-. My master was so pissed she wanted to kill me with her own hands, so I have to run away and hide for like two weeks.”

“Damn brat! I’m going to kill you a hundred times over for all the worries you made me go through! You’re reckless acts will kill me before anything else could!!!”

“Waiting for her anger to subside was the biggest obstacle.” She recalls.

“How dumb.” Primrose mumbles before finishing the last piece of cookie on her plate.

“It was dumb indeed.” Tristan adds.

“Right, it was dumb.” Emil seconds the motion.

“And it was quite dangerous.” Evancross says while standing beside Blair. None of them noticed when he left his sit and went there. If he did not talk they would not have paid attention. “That’s why, I believe that we should get rid of this.”

Without realizing when and how, Evancross has already taken the mushroom from Blair’s hand. He then casually distances himself while pulverizing the mushroom on his hand. It is enveloped by a spherical bluish white light, and inside it rapidly disintegrated until nothing is left; not even ash or smoke.

It happened so fast and neat that Blair is unable to do anything until it is too late to make any move.

“You killed my mushroom.” Blair grumbles.

“Let’s end this crazy event here.” Azalea claps her hands. “Let’s stop picking up weird things outside, okay?”

“I’ll try,” she shrugs while moving her eyes away.

“Why can’t you just promise something so simple?!” Tristan raises his voice.

“Do you need a chaperon every time you go outside?” Emil chuckles.

“Am I a kid?” She frowns.

“Why do you keep acting like one, idiot red head.” Primrose says before dozing off.

“Arg-!! This midget ate all the snacks then fell asleep.” Blair grits her teeth.

Evancross sits close to Azalea. He lowers his voice. “You weren’t really trying to die, were you?”

“Hm?.. Did it sound like I was?” Azalea keeps her business smile on display while her tone rings with slight chill hidden in behind it.

He falls in silence while watching her open an old journal. Suddenly the distance between them seems to have grown wider. He looks back at Tristan, Blair and Emil who are bickering trying to ask Blair where she got the mushroom. However, Blair has no sense of direction at all so she only remembers that she picked it up somewhere in the forest area.

“You’re not going to keep doing that, are you?” He asks without glancing back at her.

She is not moving her eyes away from the page of the old journal. “I have no idea what you are referring to.” This time, her tone falls plain flat.

“Is that a cat?!!” Blair’s voice resounds as she leaps towards the window to go out.

“Hey! Use the damn door!” Tristan shouts while watching Blair leave out of the window and then disappear into the forest area.

“She won’t get lost again, right?” Emil wonders softly.

Tristan sighs while rubbing his nape before going back to his seat.

“This tea will help ease your stress.” Duke passes a cup of tea to Tristan.

“Thanks.”

Evancross scoffs. “Okay…”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞××× The End ×××∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞