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Chapter 4
‘Of all people, the Great Chief Aunt had to appear.’
She was the leader of every dryad tribe in the world and the spirit dwelling within the oldest Tree of Wisdom in this forest.
Which meant she knew everything that happened here.
Like all the other dryads, the Great Chief Aunt had always been kind to Selli.
But she constantly spoke in vague, literary phrases that Selli’s dry, science-minded brain could never understand, making her impossible to read.
So Selli had no idea why she had appeared now.
‘Since she blocked the road, she’s obviously trying to stop me from leaving.’
Unlike usual, Selli watched cautiously as the dryad stepped into the light of her lamp, green hair draping over dark brown skin.
“Child of the forest.”
Today, her tone wasn’t gentle. It sounded stern, almost scolding.
“You have forgotten something.”
Forgotten something?
Mom?
The bonds of this forest I’m turning my back on?
Or is she saying I’m being shortsighted for wanting to go to Spellmore?
Because the Great Chief Aunt always spoke in circles, Selli couldn’t help overthinking every word.
She thought the dryad had come to convince her to give up on magic school, but instead—
“Take this.”
The aunt handed her a glass bottle filled with medicine.
Perhaps the illness from her previous life had followed her into this one, because Selli had been sick since birth. On nights when the full moon rose—like tomorrow night—she would lose consciousness.
That was why she always had to drink the medicine the dryad aunties made for her before sunset.
There was only enough medicine in her bag for tomorrow. How did she know that?
No—more surprising than that was something else entirely.
As if reading Selli’s thoughts, the Great Chief Aunt smiled and asked:
“Did you think I would stop you?”
“Yes. I thought you were on Mom’s side. I’m sorry for doubting you.”
“Child, I cannot stop the winds of fate once they begin to blow.”
The dryad gracefully extended a hand toward the dandelion blocking the road and breathed softly upon it.
At the mere touch of her breath, the tree-sized dandelion swayed, scattering fluffy seeds into the air.
One of them bent its seed pouch like the handle of an umbrella and floated down before Selli’s feet.
“But I do have the power to help you ride those winds and seize your destiny.”
Understanding immediately, Selli hurried onto the curved saddle-like seed.
Then the dryad plucked a flower blooming from her own hair.
It was the first time Selli had ever seen her do such a thing.
The dryad placed it into Selli’s hand.
“I swear upon my mother, the roots of the World Tree.”
At that moment, the flower glowed and melted into Selli’s body.
A flower-shaped mark briefly shone on her palm before fading away.
“No matter where you go, the souls of our World Tree shall watch over and protect you.”
Dryads hated humanity for harming forests.
Yet this dryad had just vowed to protect Selli, a human.
The shocking promise left Selli speechless.
“Auntie…”
She acted as though she had seen the whole world simply because this was her second life, but even combined, the longest she had ever lived was sixteen years.
‘Truthfully… I was scared.’
Her heart was still that of a child. Even as she bravely stepped beyond her home, she had been anxious.
Hearing a strong adult promise to protect her felt unbelievably reassuring.
Now, no matter how frightening the outside world became, she felt she could face it.
“So even outside this forest, never forget that you are a child of the forest.”
“I’ll never forget.”
Tears welled up in Selli’s eyes, and she hugged the dryad tightly.
“Thank you so, so much. I’ve already received more kindness than I deserve, so this is shameless to ask… but please take care of my mom.”
The wise dryad tilted her head as though she couldn’t understand why Selli would say such a thing.
“I merely repay what I have received. Your mother is the same.”
“Huh?”
What had they ever received from me? And Mom too? I’ve only ever been the one receiving things since I was born here.
“Do not worry about your mother. That child also has a destiny of her own.”
The aunt did not answer her question.
Instead, she breathed another soft gust of wind from her hand, sending the dandelion seed soaring upward.
“Go and fulfill the dream of your previous life. And you may always return here again.”
As the spirit of the tree grew smaller and smaller in the distance, her final words drifted through the wind to Selli’s ears.
“Selena, this place is your home now.”
But those words never truly registered.
Because another question had already seized her mind completely.
…How does she know about my previous life?
The chick inside Selli’s pocket flapped its tiny wings.
“Dis seed thing flies sooo good!”
“The correct pronunciation is ‘flies well,’ you know.”
“Shut up!”
Poke.
“Humans are the ones who should shut up!”
“Oh, whatever. Let’s both shut up.”
Even though her runaway companion was exhausting, Selli felt like she herself might start flying from excitement.
If she had walked, she wouldn’t even be halfway through the forest yet.
‘I’ll actually make it to the entrance ceremony!’
After riding the seed for some time, cities finally began appearing below around sunrise.
But they soon vanished again as thick fog rolled in.
‘Feels like I’m inside a humidifier…’
The world grew hazier and hazier until she could barely see even her dangling feet below her.
For some reason, the fog ahead seemed faintly illuminated.
Just as she thought the light was strangely low to be sunlight—
The source emerged through the mist like a ghost ship.
‘A ship?’
A ship floating in the sky.
‘Is this actually a ghost ship?’
A sailing vessel glided smoothly above the clouds as it passed beside her.
Selli trembled violently and clung to the dandelion stem.
But the figures standing on the deck—whether ghosts or humans—were staring at her with equally frozen expressions of horror.
‘In a world where ships fly through the sky, have they never seen someone riding a dandelion seed before?’
She thought the bizarre encounter would end with them simply passing each other.
Then a man who looked exactly like a pirate captain pointed at Selli and shouted:
“A mage! Capture her!”
The stunned crew instantly snapped back to their senses and rushed to the ship’s railing, grabbing something.
‘…Cannons? I need to dodge!’
But there was no way to steer the dandelion seed.
Boom!
“Kyaaa! No!”
The cannon fired—
Not a cannonball, but a strange lump-shaped object.
It spread open before her eyes.
A net.
Just as Selli thought she had been caught for sure—
Whoosh!
The dandelion suddenly shot upward.
The net barely missed beneath her feet.
‘Auntie, thank you for protecting me— huh?’
But then the seed abruptly descended and gently landed…
On the pirate ship’s deck.
“You dodged perfectly a second ago, so why are you suddenly delivering me to pirates?!”
There was no point yelling at the dandelion seed after it cheerfully flew away without her.
‘Auntie! You said you’d protect me!’
“But I do have the power to help you ride those winds and seize your destiny.”
Don’t tell me getting kidnapped by pirates on the way to magic school is my destiny?!
Selli stared at the pirates in confusion.
But they looked equally confused. After all, the fish they were trying to catch had voluntarily jumped onto the ship.
Still, everyone quickly regained their composure.
And unfortunately, the “crazy child holding a skewer” strategy did not work on actual crazy people.
“Get in there quietly!”
Her luggage was confiscated, and Selli was thrown into a prison cell beneath the deck.
“To catch two rare humans in one day. Lucky us.”
Selli wasn’t alone inside the cell.
“…Hi.”
“Uh… hi…”
A boy around Selli’s age was already imprisoned there with his hands tied.
And he was extremely handsome.
Golden hair and porcelain-like skin gave him an unmistakably noble aura. If that were all, Selli would’ve assumed he was merely a rich kid kidnapped for ransom.
But his eyes—
They were ruby red.
Selli remembered reading that humans carrying dragon blood possessed crimson eyes.
So he’s a dragon descendant. That’s why he’s so rare…
“You got caught too?”
At her question, the boy gave a small nod.
Even such a simple motion carried arrogant elegance.
“While flying through the sky?”
The boy’s golden brows slanted sharply, as if asking what nonsense she was talking about.
“I got kidnapped from the ground. Like a normal person.”
…Since when did kidnapping have standards?
