THE DEMON KING'S EMPRESS
Forest of Death 3

The extremely soft and cold touch, made the two dumbfounded and aware that their lips were sticking together with each other. Lili also woke up and turned on the room lights that were next to her mattress which was dimly lit. He saw the figure of a familiar man sleeping beside him while throwing a seductive smile.

"Aihh. It turns out you're His Majesty. Uh, I mean Evil."

"Well, I almost made a mistake."

"Why? You don't like it?!"

"A guy walks into a young girl's room in the middle of the night, what do you think?"

"I guess? It's just normal."

"Huh?! Just plain to say?! Oiee... it's not polite to know!"

"Who said?!"

"Say me!"

"That's what you said."

"You...Hhhh... Haishh. It's up to you."

"His sacred words came out too."

"Well?!"

"That's it. I'm sorry if I'm not polite. Get into your room without knocking on the door" Evil said as he climbed out of his bed.

"Self aware too."

"This woman, even though I'm sorry!"

"I'm just here to encourage you and..."

"And what?!"

Evil walked closer to Lili. He looked at the face of the girl standing in front of him. Lili looked at him fixedly. His heart was racing as if it wanted to escape from his body.

"Be careful." whispered Evil in Lili's right ear. Lili ears turn red like tomatoes. Seeing Lili's ears turning red in shame, Evil retreated away from her.

"Eh?"

"Be careful and take care of yourself."

"Yes and thank you."

"I go first." said Evil as he walked towards the door.

"Yes. And remember that you have to go through the door and knock."

"Puft, yes I understand. Sorry yeah. Good night."

"Good night."

The door was closed hard. Lili sighed and slumped sitting on her bed.

"I don't think he knew that I had peeked at him from the window. If not, he would have asked. Ahh... forest of death, what kind of place is that?! Oh, come on, just sleep."

...***...

The expected day had arrived, all the disciples gathered in the Hall. They wear black robes with a golden peacock feather. Each of them carried weapons on their backs, in their hands, not even anyone carrying them at all including Lili. Lili was watching them all. They are young, beautiful and handsome. Suddenly there was the sound of a beautiful young girl shouting an announcement. He stood on the stage and passed down some rules in the selection exam of the talented magician at the Zwart School. She wore a peach-colored skimpy dress with a red hairy robe.

"Krisan, who's that girl?"

"He is Sora. One of the best and talented students in this school."

"Wahhhh... Therefore he was chosen to be the spokesperson for this selection exam, huh?"

Seeing Chrysanthemum speechless, Lili saw the expression on her face. His gaze fell on the right hand of the chrysanthemum who was clenching hard.

"Slices, are you okay?" tanya Lili while gently patting the right shoulder of Chrysanthemum

"Yes. Sorry."

"It's okay."

"Why do I feel like he's not okay?" inner Lili

"Everyone, listen carefully! Today we will carry out the selection exam of the talented magician at the Zwart School. With a note, all students in this school are required to participate. As for some things that need to be considered during the exam is:

Participants are required to wear school robes.

Can carry any type of magic weapon.

The participants will be given a map. On the map is a mission to be carried out. The map will move when there is a mission to be completed. Each participant who completes the mission will earn points for added value. If found cheating, or provoking other participants will be disqualified and automatically do not pass the test this time.

In this test even if you get a different map and mission, you can work with others. With a maximum of 5 people in a group. But the points obtained are in accordance with the mission you receive. So no need to worry. Do you all understand?!!"

"Yes!" answer all participants simultaneously.

"good. Now accept your test mission map!"

Suddenly a map scroll appeared before them. They took it and put it in their storage room by wiping their hands in the air. Seeing Lili puzzled by not knowing how to save the scroll of this mission map, Chrysanthemum taught her some simple moves. Lily looked at him seriously. After observing the simple movements taught by Chrysanthemum, Lili tried it out. He practiced some of the movements that the Chrysanthemum had taught him. It was amazing, just once practicing it, Lili had already managed to store the scroll of the map into her own storage room. However, he felt his body slightly unbalanced and almost fell down. Luckily, Chrysanthemum restrained his body so that he did not fall. Seeing that all the disciples had received the mission map scroll, Sora started to make a sound.

"Alright, since you all have received the scroll of the mission map, then the test this time has been opened!" sora's words were followed by the sound of a gong being hit hard.

The sound of the gong was a sign that the test had already begun. All students fly by driving their flying vehicles. Some were in the form of ferocious beasts, flying brooms, even flying swords. Seeing this, Lili was very amazed not dumbstruck. On the other hand, he saw a silhouette of pure white wings flapping right before his eyes. His eyes twinkled to see the giant swan his best friend was riding. However, he soon realized that he did not have a vehicle that could be used to fly.

"Let's ride!"

"Good."

Lili also rises on the back of a giant white-haired goose. Not the first time he rode a giant bird alone. But riding a giant goose with a friend is the most enjoyable first experience. There was someone he could talk to and joke with. They flew past the cloud clumps, underneath which was a towering mountain surrounded by huge trees. The chrysanthemum gave orders to the goose to land down. The swan brought the two of them to land in a forest.

"thank you. You can rest now. Don't show yourself before I call you. You got it, right?" Chrysanthemum said while stroking his goose head.

The lady nodded as if understanding what her master said. Then he flew towards the sky leaving his master. They both live in this quiet forest. The two of them then walked through the forest according to the map directions while chatting.

"Lili, we've arrived. This is the forest of death."

"And I told you. This forest is not much different from the forest in general. Why is this place called the Forest of Death?! Because the person who came in here no one ever came back. If it comes back, it's just a corpse. It all depends on each other's luck."

"You said, this forest is related to someone whose name should not be mentioned in schools and in dorms. Does this forest belong to him or does it belong to him?"

"It can be said that this forest is his palace."

"Huh?! This huge and vast forest was his palace?!"

"Likely. Because from the story I heard, he has a palace in this forest. However, no one knew where the palace was. Existing but invisible. Like that."

"There but not seen? Mysterious dong?"

"Yes. Because she is the Demon Queen. No one knows where he lives. What was his palace like, his face, his appearance. Even his family."

"Well... how mysterious is he? Until no one can describe what he is."

"He only shows himself at certain times. So, only the lucky ones can meet him."

"Have you ever met him, Chrysanthemum?"

"I'm..."

"Aaakhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Not yet finished the Chrysanthemum continued its sentence, they heard the shouting voice of a disciple from a different direction. Hearing the sound of screaming from different directions, the two ran towards the origin of the sound. A very difficult field for them to pass. Because of the many shrubs and roots of the vines on every road they pass. The large, towering trees with bent branches seemed to be living like humans with both hands, blocking their journey. While running towards the origin of the screaming sound, Lili observed the large trees that had branches crooked on each side of the road that she passed. He felt like the trees were alive and greeted him. It was as if giving a salute and greeting to him. He closed his eyes and opened them to remove his negative thoughts and feelings, though his hair stood upright from earlier he passed by the towering trees with his bent branches. He saw the Chrysanthemum's back running in front of him. After running around to and fro looking for the origin of the screams, the two met one of the students who was still in school with them. They saw the female disciple sitting on the ground terrified. The two looked at each other and approached him.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?!" chrysanthemum asked while patting the student's right shoulder from behind.

Feeling his shoulders being patted gently by someone behind him, the disciple turned his head and shouted. Seeing the disciple shout, Chrysanthemum shook the body of the disciple while telling him to remain calm.

"Hey, open your eyes and calm down. What exactly happened?!"

The chrysanthemum effort was not in vain. The student was finally able to calm down as well. Seeing that the disciple had calmed down, he sighed. But the face of the disciple still looked frightened. It was as if he was seeing a ghost.

"What's really going on?!" ask Chrysanthemums

"Are you alone?" ask Lili

Seeing that two young girls had come to his rescue, the fear slowly diminished a little. He turned towards Chrysanthemum while holding his hand. His face was deathly pale, his lips dry, sweat pouring down his forehead.

The female disciple shouted, "Ghost! There's ghosts!"

"ghosts? Did you meet a ghost? Where's?" sahut Lilies

The student responded while talking stammering, "Yes! In.. there! There's... Her...She's..."

The chrysanthemum said, "He's what?!"

"In.he.he sucked another student's magic power. Not only that, he also ate them!"

Hearing the words of the female disciple, Lili and Chrysanthemum looked at each other.

"Eating them?!" In seriously? you don't lie. This is a selection exam that the school has held. You don't make it up! You can be punished if you're caught lying!"

"Why am I lying?! I'm serious!"

"Where did you see that ghost?!" ask Chrysanthemum.

" They're there. Over there!" The female disciple replied while pointing her index finger straight in the direction she was referring to.

Looking at the direction the female disciple was pointing at, Lili also rubbed her hands into the air and unrolled her map scroll. And it turned out, the direction that the female disciple had pointed out, was the first mission she had to complete. Seeing the grim expression on Lili's face, Chrysanthemum peeked at Lili's map which was clearly displayed in the air.

"What's Lili?"

In a soft tone, Lili replied, "That gesture is the first mission I have to complete."

"What?! Why so fast?! Didn't you see wrong?!"

"No. Here is written the mission I must complete is to take the green token in the eternal lake. The map will move

when there is a mission to be completed?!"

"You're right I'm going there with you?"

"There's no need you better take care of him, let me just go over there."

Hearing Lili say that she was going to the eternal lake alone, the female disciple silently grinned unnoticed by Lili and Chrysanthemum.

"Can't!"

"Well?!"

"There's dangerous, we better go there together"

"Then what about him?! She was still in shock like that." said Lili as she pointed to the place where the female disciple was sitting lying on the ground.

How shocked Lili was, seeing that the female disciple disappeared without a trace in front of her. Not only was Lili shocked, even Chrysanthemum was also shocked by what she saw. The two observed the surrounding area that suddenly turned silent and gripping. Silly, the two of them did not feel any magic around them. This incident made the two become wary of the surroundings.

"Lili, beware."

"You're also Chrysanthemum."

The two walked together while watching the area around them. They walked towards the direction indicated by the female disciple who disappeared without a trace. Along the way, Chrysanthemum was troubled by his thoughts. He felt something in his heart. Seeing Chrysanthemum silent throughout the journey, Lili also teased him.

"Slices, are you daydreaming?"

"Ahh. I was just thinking about what the female disciple said."

"Didn't you know him?"

"No. I never even saw him. Wait, it's not a trap."

"ridiculous. It's a test. School days set a trap for all of his students. What reason?!"

"But..."

"It's the Chrysanthemum, there's nothing, okay. Don't think negatively. Everything's gonna be fine. What matters is that we pray a lot, okay."

Lili had just said that, there was the sound of a terrible roar that was deafening.