## Chapter 4 – Budding Starter
As always, a peaceful flower bed.
The morning arrived without fail, and as I watched the groups of students chattering and bustling around the sunlit flower bed, a relentlessly dark shadow loomed in my heart.
‘I still… haven’t even asked for her name…’
Like a tragic heroine from a grim fairy tale, she had appeared and stirred my heart.
The woman with the bright magenta hair was nowhere to be found.
Apart from the terrible events of last night, the flower bed was pristine, as if nothing had happened.
The various flowers and plants she had trampled on seemed unharmed, flaunting their beauty.
And the few drops of blood that marked her existence had long been washed away by the indifferent caretaker watering the flower bed this morning.
‘Why… why?’
After the horrific events of last night, she, with a warm smile on her face, had her neck snapped, and my body, acting on instinct, slowly absorbed her.
‘Why did she go so far…’
The satisfaction of my body gradually absorbing her, the thirst quenched by drinking her blood.
The elation as my growing body expanded, filling me with power.
These feelings should have been positive, but the fact that they were born from her death only made my emotions more painful.
Whenever her benevolent smile flashed through my mind, I felt like bursting into tears.
‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry…’
But as this hideous creature, incapable of anything human, all I could do was shake my increasingly large leaves, expressing my anxiety.
As time passed, however, I came to a realization.
Not exactly thoughts, but bizarre pieces of information flashing through my mind.
The memory of a report titled ‘Enic’ among the many papers scattered on a desk.
The memory of flipping through a book and finally finding a page with a drawing of a strange plant.
And finally, the image of a warm-feeling landscape, for some reason, looking down at an ugly, furry bud that stood out in a flower bed where beautiful flowers bloomed quietly.
Although it didn’t give me exactly what I wanted, I realized it was one of her memories randomly surfacing.
Memories of her, now one with me, absorbed into me, never to be seen again.
‘But… what I don’t understand is…’
Who was she, and why was she trying so hard to help me? What was her motivation?
And the question of whether there was a reason she had to help me so much.
I felt like my emotions were burning whenever I thought of her, but if this was some kind of opportunity or request she had left for me, I felt like I had to seize it.
‘It certainly won’t be an easy path.’
‘Someday, somewhere else, let’s meet again, Enic.
I’ve always been waiting, always.’
Her voice sounded strangely meaningful.
Maybe. Just maybe.
Could I reunite with her?
‘Come to think of it, that woman was like a goddess…
If you think about it, there’s no way a god can die…
So, in order for me to meet her again…’
To do that, what I had to do with this body was to survive.
This ancient species called Enic.
The reason it’s called an endangered species must be because it’s so hard to survive.
So, by any means necessary, somehow, I had to survive.
That was what I needed to aim for right now.
‘I’m sure… we can meet again… yes… I’ll believe it too…’
.
.
.
.
.
.
I steeled myself with determination.
But in reality, I was just spending my time idly in the peaceful flower bed of the academy as the sun slowly set.
‘Now that I think about it…’
First of all, I’m a flower.
Enic or whatever, if I just happily drink the water that the caretaker sprinkles every day in this flower bed, I won’t die in many ways.
The only dangerous thing would be if they plowed the flower bed to plant new flowers, but at least for now, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that.
‘I feel like he’s been looking this way a lot today… it makes me nervous for no reason…’
What’s more dangerous than that is the caretaker who’s been looking around the flower bed so often today.
The biggest problem right now is whether he’ll come with those scary gardening shears and cut my stem because he doesn’t like the ugly flower.
In that sense, my body, which had grown even larger after taking the woman’s flesh, becoming about twice the size of the other flowers, was a huge problem in itself.
Just last night, I was barely peeking out from among the other flowers, but now I’m a Daddy-Long-Legs all by myself.
Fortunately, I learned how to move my body to some extent by listening to the woman’s advice.
Thanks to that, I can usually hide my body among the flowers by bending my stem as round as possible without breaking it, but this was just an opportunity to make the surprising discovery that plants can also have back pain.
‘This won’t do… at this rate, I’ll become a hunchbacked old man first…’
In the end, in order to solve the fundamental problem, I had no choice but to come to the conclusion that I had to do something about this furry bud.
If I become a pretty flower that looks good, they won’t try to cut me off just because I stand out a little.
But how am I supposed to do that when I was born as a furry bud?
‘But… it’s not like there’s no way at all…’
Some of her memories that the woman gave me when she became one with me.
Among them were memories of her browsing various information about Enic, and there was definitely a saying that Enic blooms beautiful flowers.
There must have been a good reason why she gave me these memories.
So, if I refer to these, maybe I can achieve my goal somehow?
‘Enic… Enic… a creature with the characteristics of both plants and animals…
The maximum lifespan is unknown, but… estimated to be hundreds of years…? Why is it endangered…?
It grows by eating animals as nutrients… I know that too…
So, is there something more I need to know…?’
Basically, a flower of a plant is a means of reproduction.
And it is also a sign that the life of the plant is almost coming to an end.
Enic is said to have animal characteristics as well, so I won’t wither away just because I bloom once.
And if I bloom, the possibility of me becoming a nuisance will decrease, so my first goal is to quickly bloom from the bud.
‘Flower… good… to bloom a flower…’
My mind, starting to concentrate, began to approach the bud, but the bud only twitched a little.
The bud that opened when I faced the woman wouldn’t budge when I tried to do something.
‘Do I need something more… do I need to grow more…
But if I grow more monstrous than I am now, that’s also a problem…’
After going through various reasoning processes and repeatedly experimenting on the bud, I was finally able to reach one conclusion.
‘Something’s missing. I can’t bloom until that’s in place.
So, the most likely thing is that ‘I haven’t grown enough’…’
But it didn’t open properly when I faced the woman…
‘Could it be… do I need a woman…?’
It’s a bit of an absurd guess, but if this is true, I might be the most lewd bud in the world.
A bud that only opens when it sees a woman.
The bud has only been opened once so far, and that was only when I was facing the woman, and the bud instinctively spread its petals as if wary of her.
‘Hmm… then I guess I have no choice…’
Let’s find a woman. In this place.
After reorganizing my thoughts and making a decision, a small sigh began to pass through my head.
‘Here… in…?’
Suddenly, I stared at the setting sun and briefly looked down at the soil of the flower bed where I was rooted.
A furry bud trying to find a woman in a private academy flower bed.
‘Am I screwed…’
At that moment, as I sighed inwardly, the sound of someone’s footsteps slowly approached from afar.
