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BACK when Vincent first entered Lagen Magic Academy, there was one person he’d been planning to make contact with for some time: Heinz, the Herbology professor. When class had finished one day during his first year, Vincent left a report behind. He made sure the other students wouldn’t spot it, but he left it in plain enough sight that it would catch Professor Heinz’s attention. Then, after school, he went back to get it, pretending he’d forgotten it.
“Sorry, it seems like I left something behind earlier.”
“Ah.” Professor Heinz’s eyes had been glued to the report, but he ripped his gaze away to look at Vincent, wiggling the roll of tobacco protruding between his lips. “So this is yours, Tanzine? Here ya go. Don’t go bringing unrelated stuff to class.”
“Of course. My apologies.” Vincent accepted the report before saying, “Um, Professor…”
“Hm?”
“There is something I would like to ask you.”
“C’mon… You aren’t a girl looking for an excuse to admit she has a crush on me. If you have something you don’t understand during class, just come and ask me like a normal person.” Professor Heinz saw right through Vincent; he realized Vincent had purposefully forgotten the report.
Vincent smiled. “So that’s how the girls express their feelings for you. Interesting.”
“Anyway, what’s your question?”
Amused as he was that the professor didn’t deny it, Vincent stared the other man straight in the eyes as he said, “Can one use the Dragon Tree to kill a person?”
“Like hell. There’s no way.”
His response was instant. It had to be rehearsed; most teachers would show some suspicion toward a freshly enrolled first-year student for asking something so crazy out of the blue, but Heinz didn’t.
Vincent’s thoughts turned to the report in his hands. It documented some forbidden tomes he’d gotten his hands on, referencing the Dragon Tree he’d so desperately researched. To summarize his findings: The more deeply one became involved with it, the more they lost their mind until death eventually took them. Yes, that’s right; he used the word “it” without ever referring to the Dragon Tree directly.
In spite of the lack of reference, Professor Heinz had read the report and knew immediately it was about the Dragon Tree. That was proof he was privy to secrets of the Dragon Tree that the rest of the world was not.
“In that case, can a person use it to go back in time?”
Seeing how earnest Vincent looked, the professor loosened his lips, causing his cigarette to fall. “Ack, crap!” Panicked, he quickly stomped it out. “What a waste…” he grumbled as he glanced back up at Vincent. “So you’re starting all over again, huh?” His voice was unusually low and sharp, which hardly suited a professor speaking to a lowly first-year student.
“Ah, so people refer to it as ‘starting over.’ She spoke of it as going back in time, so I followed that line of thinking,” Vincent replied.
Professor Heinz raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Yeah, well, this is my first time ever actually meeting someone who’s done it.”
“I would like you to tell me all you know about the Dragon Tree. There’s a limit to how much I can research about it on my own.”
“…Jeez, seriously? You didn’t have to leave that report lying around here for me to find, y’know.”
Vincent shrugged. “I figured I wouldn’t get a straight answer if I spoke to you directly about it.”
As if he’d hit the nail on the head, Professor Heinz groaned in resignation. “Did you break off part of the Dragon Tree?”
“No… But while we’re on the topic, would it kill someone if they did?”
There was a rule that any blessings from the Dragon Tree would have to be taken from the ground rather than the tree directly.
“Nah. Never heard of being cursed just for breaking something off.”
“Indeed…” Vincent mumbled. “But it’s possible that thing may have been broken off the tree.”
The one edge of the burning Dragon Tree branch he’d seen had been awfully jagged and rough. Now that he thought about it, it had likely warped when someone forcefully broke it off.
“If you’re not the one who broke it off, how’d you even see it?” Professor Heinz asked.
“It was in the fireplace, burning,” answered Vincent.
The professor’s eyes flew wide open.
To a mage, a wand was as important to them as their own life. Burning such vital material as a Dragon Tree’s branch was normally unfathomable.
“It was clearly not burning in any normal way,” Vincent explained. “It also had this sweet, intoxicating smell to it. And while it was burning, she and I…”
It was difficult for him to explain exactly what had happened. While he accepted it as the truth, it was terrifying to come out and admit that both he and Oriana had died.
“If you know that much, then you really are starting over,” said Professor Heinz.
“Hm?”
“The Dragon Tree always kills two people, and it’s always a man and a woman.”
Vincent’s face contorted. Up until that point, he had never held any ill feelings toward the Dragon Tree, as it was what had blessed them with mana to begin with, but now, he loathed it from the bottom of his heart.
The professor must have sensed the anger smoldering inside of him. Heinz’s face tightened as he patted the still thirteen-year-old Vincent on the top of the head. “Work on making a magical implement. One that can till the fields.”
“Pardon?” Vincent was utterly taken aback. He furrowed his brows. Those words were the last thing he’d have expected to come from Professor Heinz’s lips.
“My lower back’s been bothering me lately, see, and it’s become a pain to till the fields. On the condition that you do that, I’ll look into the Dragon Tree for you.” He paused. “So don’t cry, ’kay?”
Vincent held his breath. He wasn’t crying, but he was relieved enough that he almost wanted to break down into tears.
Oriana tried so hard by herself. That was why he felt compelled to do the same. But now he had an adult—and not just any adult at that, but rather an expert in Herbology—on his side. Calling that reassuring was an understatement.
“…Thank you.”
“Yep.” Professor Heinz lazily waved his hand.
Vincent bowed his head the lowest he’d ever bowed it before, either in this life or his last.
If it means making sure you survive, Oriana, I’ll do whatever it takes.