Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Not that the Fairy King was the only one asking this question.
Back in Eom Village, Baiyi, the Fairy, and the Elder himself were all pondering on the same question: Where is little Miss Nydore? She didn’t even leave a number…
“It can’t be helped! That dastard Mad King was too overboard! Two months ago, every day a large horse carriage would have come overloaded with bright red roses, flanked with bards from different species as they took turns singing those annoying love songs and slamming poetries! It was so… Offensive to our eyes! We could only ask her to leave the village,” the Elder ranted, ratting out the reason why he let the girl out.
Then, as if he remembered the Fairy’s bad experience, he explained again, “Um… It was only temporary? She didn’t venture out alone! There were some other archers, and Mr. Bear and Grandfather Tree and the Horse couple taking care of her. She’s gonna be fine! Completely, absolutely fine.”
‘You gotta admit though, that’s some generous waste of money… Good thing she went off already, or else my cheap granddaughter was probably long won over, right?’ Baiyi thought while outwardly he said, “Then?”
“Then! We minced those flowers and turned them into fertilizers! And we catapult those bards out of the woods. And then we stopped people from visiting us, and the Mad King stopped his antics.”
“Um, I meant… Any news from Nydore?” Baiyi made his probe more specific.
“We did tell her to frequently contact us every once in a while, so she could return to the village when the coast is cleared. She did send some letters with pigeons a few whiles back to tell us she’s safe, but lately, her mails had stopped coming. We aren’t sure where is she, or if she is in danger!” The Elder answered, his anxiety becoming more and more palpable.
Baiyi turned to Fairy for confirmation. Fortunately, she shook her head and said, “The Caudillo Butterfly’s state is steady. That means it hasn’t been used in a battle for a while now, or at least, she hasn’t been in a fight when she needs to use the Caudillo Butterfly.”
“If she hadn’t used the agreed communication method to talk to you, perhaps she founds something else more important to attend to? Maybe she was tagged? Maybe she needed to keep the location of herself and this village secret?” Baiyi’s threw out some of his own conjectures.
“Very plausible!” The Elder replied gravely. “That Mad King would have never stopped his antics if it wasn’t for this possibility!”
“Got it. Since that my grandniece’s life is on the line, I supposed I shall have to do something about this too. We’ll take a break for the rest of today, and then we’ll start looking for her the first thing the morning tomorrow,” Baiyi said. “With Sylvia, it should be easy to determine her general coordination.”
“This is the best!” The Elder’s face relaxed into a smile. “Whoa, who would have known that Boss had changed so much since she left! Now she brings good luck to the village— oommph!”
He didn’t mean anything harsh with his remark, but he did realize that it wasn’t the best thing to have said in front of the Fairy either. Very hurriedly, he shut his mouth and shook his head, as if millennia had not passed and he was again the little brat tailing behind the Fairy’s back.
But he was right: the Fairy had changed. She was no longer angered by what she now deemed as trivial. So instead, she stood up calmly and wrapped her fingers around Baiyi’s arm, saying, “Come on. Lemme show you around our village.”
Baiyi nodded, though compared to this village that didn’t seem to have made many changes of the woods it was situated in— Baiyi was more curious about Mr. Bear and the Horse Couples.
When they had exited the Elder’s house and passed through a few gigantic trees back to the clearing where they left their students, they found the girls already surrounded by the fairies as they, too, were happy being shown around the village. Quite jarringly, the two parties never managed to talk to each other through a comm0n language, and instead still relied on their smiles, eyes and body language, making the whole scene looked a bit like a party between the muted and deaf…
Most of the fairies surrounding the girls were female, who were all so beautiful no one would be able to pick a flaw out of. The more important thing was that, as spring was starting and the climate was gradually shifting to warm, the female fairies had just the same ideas as human females in keeping themselves cool by making every part of their beautiful clothes shorter. Maybe their lean arms were barren, or maybe their slim, alluring waists were out in the open, but most importantly, their skirts were so short that two lanky, fair, supple legs sprang out from underneath. With so many of them spotting the same features, it was almost blinding.
They looked very inviting, very welcoming, very triggering, very arousing— but wasn’t this type of fashion sense too much? It obviously adapted from the humans, because in the Fairy’s memory, they were slightly more conservative than this. Could it be that off all the things the traditionalists could accept from seculiraization— the women’s fashion sense was the one that enticed them the most?
Meanwhile, the fairy-men seemed to only be interested in the Fox and the Owl, in which they freely lavished praises upon using hand gestures, such as “good fur” and “you look mighty” and “you look like a boss!” The Fox, in turn, was very greatly pleased by the flattery.
“H-holy… This must be heaven! My comrades! I.. I feel rejoiced! Rejoice!” The Engineer started shouting from the Void, his entire sense of self-control gone.
“Oh! Most perfect face! Most perfect body! Most importantly! They don’t give a damn about concealing their beauty, and instead generously and confidently show it off to all of us! This is the part that truly moves me!” The Paladin echoed the Engineer’s sentiments.
The Cleric was even more direct. “Words no longer accurately describe my state. Sir Hope, allow me to Descend into the Hammerhead Shark Plushie and let me enjoy what paradise offers. I promise you that after your compassion, I’ll do anything for you!”
Baiyi said nothing. By this point, his response was quite obviously routined as he automatically targetted the usual perpetrators and suspects to be muted, including the Bard, who hadn’t even started describing his feelings. The Walker bellowed boldly, “You prude piece of puritan! Even these conservative fairies are more open-minded than you! You crappy moderator! I don’t care if I’m about to be mute, I’ll sing it at the top my v— ooomph!”
When the Void finally quieted down, Baiyi noticed that a gorgeous, demure female fairy had brought along her pet sabercat. Contrary to the name, this creature was large a cat that could be used as a mount or as a hunting animal for the fairies, being one of their most trusted furry companion and battle comrades.
This particular sabercat was obviously one of their finest, too. It was tall and intimidating, but more noticeably, they were covered in a mighty coat of black fur, their fangs reflecting off chilly lights. It was a beautiful yet kingly creature.
But Mia and the girls didn’t even stare at it for too long before their eyes drifted to the small furballs following this adult sabercat.
They were cubs— and this sabercat had only become a mother very recently.
The cubs had heads slightly too large for themselves, while their limbs and bodies were slightly too small for that head. Their fur was much thinner than their mother’s— obviously, they were newborns that hadn’t even been walking for a while as they sometimes slipped in their walk, looking like a furball trying worming ahead. They even gave out a very soft string of yelps.
As expected from girls like Mia, they couldn’t resist trying to cup the adorable things in their own hand, with Little Mia leading the charge, screaming, “Aaah! So cute,” and then dashing to the cubs, dismissing the mother completely.
She picked up one of the cubs and mumbled, “Cute kitty!” She rubbed it soft fur with her own cheeks, taking in the softness of its fur.
The cub seemed to be enjoying Mia’s company— maybe it had detected her friendliness and love. It returned her favor by nudging her itself and even combed her hand with its small little tongue and lastly, it gently patted Mia’s cheeks with its soft paws.
Mia chuckled at the cub’s antics, loving the little creature even more by the seconds.
Other girls were the same, while their own cubs reacted similarly too. One might even wonder if being hugged by a humanoid had long be turned into a routine as the cubs displayed all kinds of adorable actions, winning the hearts of the girls soon.
Meanwhile, their regal-looking mother watched them, not even snatching her cubs back, as if she was beaming in pride for how much people loved her kids.
‘Little Mia’s treating your kid like a kitty, though,’ Baiyi thought. He moved towards one of the cubs, trying to see if he could pick one up too.
But that cub seemed to have realized that this walking set of clanking metal wouldn’t be able to give it the warmth and comfort it seeks, and so it sprinted off right when Baiyi was closing in and jumped into the embrace of a nearby fairy…
‘You little rascal… By what age did you learn to be so calculative?’ Baiyi thought, deadpanned.
“Hee hee! They have always lived with us, and so they got our smarts really early on,” the Fairy smiled as she explained. She ignored Mia and the girls as they played with the cubs and instead pulled Baiyi into a walk.
The population in Eom Village was not too few, as they were about 600 people in the village. However, their architecture seemed to emphasize space-conservation, hence it didn’t take too long a time before finishing the village tour.
Baiyi suggested that they could see the legendary Mr. Bear and the Mystical Horse Couples. The Fairy agreed, feeling curious about her own childhood playmates too.
They walked over a distance and approached a complex of low, small caves.
Strangely, as Baiyi approached them, he started feeling an unknown but familiar aura from it— it wasn’t any kind of energy pulses, but it felt endearing… Weird.
He didn’t get to dwell on the details before a silhouette crept out from one of the caves and pranced towards them. The Fifth Walker fixed his eyes onto it— and his face turned into an expression of (0.0).
The creature was none other than Mr. Bear, who came out when it had felt two extra presences in its home ground. Yet, it didn’t look anything like the bear Baiyi had imagined it to be— large and imposing, the King of the Woods kind— and instead, it looked short and stout, about the height of Little Mia, standing on two legs like a bipedal primate rather than crawling on all fours…
Even its fur was soft and tender, unlike the hides of wild animals with their skin full of bristles. Its head, torso, paws, and eyes were just so round, Baiyi realized he was in the audience of an animated teddy bear…
‘Nope. This Mr. Bear is definitely not the quite the mystical beast I had in mind. It’s basically a plushie!’ Baiyi thought. ‘No wonder the Fairy had dared to mess with it since she was just a small brat .’
‘… Is it gonna greet me with terribly lewd comments?’ Baiyi thought, a little worriedly as he stood closer to the Fairy.
“Sylvia! You really have returned to us!” Mr. Bear spoke in standard fairy language, somehow recognizing the Fairy beyond her Soul Armature appearance. It trudged forward, but because it was so stout, its steps looked like it was walking while being a little drunk.
“Mr. Bear, I came back to see you,” she replied in a very polite, demure way— leaps and bounds different from her boorish bratty personality of old. She, too, moved closer to the bear and very tenderly pulled it into an embrace.
The bear was shorter than the Soul Armature, however, and so the Fairy had to bent her back to hug it— turning an emotional, moving reunion scene to be adorned with light jocularity.
“I really shouldn’t have chased you out… I shouldn’t have, I shouldn’t… I regretted it the instant I did,” Mr. Bear said dejectedly, “I don’t care if you were going to eat my nuts behind my back! I just knew right then that… I’ll regret this my whole life… Yet, you have returned to us, and that’s… That’s all that matters, isn’t it? I just don’t understand— why do you look like this?”
“A lot happened after that, you see. I’ve got a long story to tell you,” The Fairy released her grip and returned to Baiyi’s side. “This is my husband! We’re very happy together.”
“Oh? This child? Yes, there an endearing aura radiating from him—he must be a good boy. Come, come in!” Mr. Bear muttered as it waved its round paw in the air. Then, suddenly, from somewhere in the forest, some nuts of unknown plants just flew through the air and landed into their hands.
Baiyi was stunted— he felt nothing! He had felt not a single wisp of mana or even other kinds of energy pulses when the bear had performed this, meaning it wasn’t magic. It was as if the food had sprouted wings on their own and flew over.
Even the First Walker, his teacher in magic, exclaimed, “How is this possible? It can’t be… the power of Territory, right?”
“Employing the perilous powers of a Territory to summon mere nuts? I’m skeptical that even the gods would partake in such daring practice,” the Scholar said, disagreeing. “More plausibly, this could be one of the heretofore unidentified, clandestine powers that even our peers had yet to investigate, yes?”
Mr. Bear may look like a soft toy, but it was the first thing, since Baiyi’s Descent, to make him feel like it was something else entirely— an unknown presence…
“You look pretty stunted,” Mr. Bear noticed Baiyi’s expression as he pulled himself away from chatting with the Fairy. “Are you… Wondering about this?”
The nut in Baiyi’s hand started flitting on its own again, flying in the air like a bumblebee doing its dance, before obediently returning to Baiyi’s hand again.
Yet, even when Mr. Bear had performed that strange technique again in such close proximity, Baiyi still didn’t feel a single energy pulse!
