Please join our discord to get fast update and assistance for purrpoins
“Because we won’t be able to stay with you forever. Now that you’re all grown up, you won’t listen to me trying to stop you.”
“Father.”
“Still, I believe. Ciel will be able to grow up safely.”
Even without anyone asking them to, his children took it upon themselves to help people. The place where Ciel and Louise’s magic was headed was a place he knew well.
Fairy Forest. Although he had some idea of the cause of this situation, he was not in a position where he could step forward rashly.
If he were to come forward in person, the nobles who were envious of him would undoubtedly point the finger of blame at Duke Valentine for being the person responsible for this whole situation.
Great power always comes with a price. Since he cannot move freely, the only thing he can do is disperse the clouds so that the children do not wander through the dark night.
“So Isaac, please help Theo in dealing with the demon beast.”
“Father.”
“Please hurry. It seems like the war situation is not going well.”
Even if every single wizard out there joins the fight, physical force is much more effective in eliminating demon beasts. In that sense, Isaac, who has the talent of a sword master, becomes a great force.
He had no idea that his son would only be assigned to the job of stopping the nobles. Still, once the crown prince took the lead, the external situation seemed relatively smooth.
This is a good opportunity to see with his own eyes what kind of man his daughter has chosen. After sending his second son away still dissatisfied, the Duke of Valentine leisurely peeked into his sleeping wife’s bedroom.
The Duchess of Valentine fell asleep with a pen in hand on her bed, which was piled high with crumpled stationery.
He had sprinkled a lot of sleeping powder on her on purpose so that she would fall asleep completely, without his wife ever setting foot in a dangerous place.
“You are in a safe place. I will take care of the children.”
His five children, who grew up full of love, grew up brilliantly, showing off their talents.
So, even if dangerous hardships come, we will be able to help each other and solve them well. The Duke scattered the sleeping magic once more at his sleeping wife’s bedside and then concentrated on dealing with the birds that flew back to the boundary.
* * *
Dad’s flying magic was really fast. The two of us, who were still lacking in training, had to fly for six hours before finally arriving at the fairy forest beyond the northwest of the capital.
“You idiot. We’re here, wake up.”
I was so sleepy that I flew in for the first three hours, and for the rest, Louise came with me while I was asleep.
“I’m sleepy.”
“You are sleepy, too?”
After getting angry, Louise put liquorice candy in my mouth. It doesn’t taste good, but they say this will wake you up.
Uweeeek. Why do they like this taste that makes me nauseous no matter how many times I eat it? I did my best to melt the candy, and then I opened up the bag and spread out the materials I had brought with me.
“What on earth are you looking for here?”
I asked so quickly. I never thought I’d ask until after everyone arrived. For times like this, I turned on the light in the library and held out the map I had found in front of Louise.
“Look, here.”
Human borders have changed several times over the past few hundred years, but this forest has never changed in size and scale. There is a legend that if you enter the land where fairies live, you will be cursed, and this place has retained its natural verdant beauty, untouched by people.
“So?”
“They say fairies hate having their territory invaded the most.”
A curse is placed on anyone who trespasses in the forest. The problem is that the forms of the curse are all different, so it is not easy to find out what happened.
“Unlike humans, fairies are very fickle. When their territory is invaded, they take revenge in some way to vent their anger.”
“It’s just like you.”
“What?”
I poked Louise on the side, who was teasing me without even grasping the situation, and I gave him as much detail as I could about the current situation.
“This is not a joke. It’s a real situation.”
“So? What do you want me to do?”
“We need a sacrifice to lift the fairy’s curse.”
The fairy, who is more troublesome because their reasoning or logic does not work, releases the curse in exchange for the most precious man they have chosen.
In the original, Clara sacrificed her voice to save people.
The princess and other nobles made fun of Clara for her muteness, which forced her to quit her job as a chemist and added to the story’s heartbreaking plot.
According to the original story, which was like a series of sweet potatoes, other sweet potatoes, and pumpkin sweet potatoes [1], what a fairy can take is the person’s most precious thing.
In that way, I had a lot, so I knew I wouldn’t turn into a sweet potato like Clara if something was taken away from me.
If something happened to me, I would need someone to tell them the situation, so I took off the ribbon that tied my hair and tied my wrists tightly with Louise’s.
“Be careful not to lose me.”
“Can I just go back home?”
“No.”
If Louise goes away, I’ll be really lonely. I don’t like that. Other people will probably soon realize what I’m trying to do, but for today, I’m really thankful for our idiot’s dullness.
Until earlier, the weather had been sunny so it was easy to use flying magic, but now I can’t fly because of the fog scattered by the fairy.
Louise and I walked into the deep forest, holding each other’s hands tightly. There was no light in the dim forest, but I somehow found my way by looking in the direction where the plants grew.
Louise, who was following behind me, cast his gaze all around the enigmatic forest landscape, but he didn’t seem to believe what I was saying.
“There really is such a thing as fairies.”
“The fairy is real.”
“Of course. Don’t you remember what Madame Lisbon told you when we were kids?”
It must have been before we were eight years old, and whenever there was a late-night dance, Madame Lisbon would make us sleep in the same room and tell us funny stories.
At that time, one of the stories I heard was about fairies. The changeling. When Louise heard a story about a capricious fairy who liked to kidnap mischievous children, he would hold me tightly and shake with fear every time the story was told.
Our Louise was also really cute when he was young.
Most of the time, these kinds of stories hide sad truths. I know that the story about fairies stealing children is a lie made up to get rid of weak or hard-to-care-for children.
“I don’t like that kind of talk.”
Louise rolled his eyes when he heard other stories, but he really didn’t like fairy tales.
“Why?”
“Isaac made fun of me all the time. I say that the fairy switched places.”
“That’s because he said they picked me up from under the bridge.”
He did what he did without even thinking about it. If he does it, it’s romantic, but if someone else does it, it’s probably good for my stupid brother to have an affair. Undaunted by my rebuke, Louise stuck out his tongue and expressed his dissatisfaction.
“You never know. I’m the only one in my family who doesn’t look like our parents.”
Hmm. It was something like that. When I asked Clara why she kept bringing up the fact that my older sister was adopted, Louise seemed to think, for some strange reason, that she might not be a part of our family at this age.
There is a large portrait hanging at the entrance to the palace-like mansion in the Duchy of Valentine in the southwest of the capital—that is, the main family estate guarded by my grandfather and uncles, who are now retired.
My late grandmother, the Duchess of Valentine, who was also the mother of my father, had dark hair like Louise. The grandmother in the painting looked just like Louise, right down to the colour of her hair and the shape of her face. But Louise tried to deny it and dug a hole.
I tried to tell him off and ask if he was kidding, but Louise looked too serious when I said that. Could this be why our mischievous kid was always left out of the family?
I found the answer in a place I didn’t expect. In addition to acting strangely around nobles and preferring to be in the back alleys, Louise, who used to behave in a straightforward manner even in front of the crown prince, would actually bow down to his waist in front of Regina.
In short, it is a matter of belonging. Even when taking the wizard rank test in the past, it was noticeable that Louise felt burdened by the shadow of his father, who was an archmage, and his brother Theo, who was also a very smart child.
To make matters even worse, with me, who possessed tremendous mana power, coming up from below, the awkward Louise caught in the middle suddenly became the ugly duckling in our house.
Instead of harassing Clara, who was known as an adopted child, people who like to gossip cowardly tripped up my brother, Louise. A strong father, a beautiful mother, a dignified eldest brother, a second brother who excelled in swordsmanship, an older sister who became self-sufficient as a pharmacist, and me, the precious daughter born for the first time in a hundred years.
Meanwhile, Louise may have been unintentionally feeling inferior. His magic skills are clearly outstanding enough for others to see, but it’s hard to compare him to Theo, and his total amount of mana can’t match mine.
His physical strength is unreliable as he is constantly beaten by Isaac, and even though he is smart, it is difficult for him to catch up with Clara.
“What’s the matter? You are my brother, no matter how annoying you are.”
“What, that’s gross. Get away!”
I narrowed the gap between my tightly tied wrists, carefully held Louise’s tightly, and even leaned my head on his arm. Alex used to smile happily at things like this, but my brother, Louise, actually frowned with a look on his face that made him look like he was about to throw up.
“Where are you going to fall? I will stick to you like gum.”
You don’t think I know that when a crisis comes in the Valentine family, you’re the first one to run away. I tightened the ribbon around my brother’s wrist and went deeper into the fog-covered forest. I could see water that sparkled over the edge.
“It’s a lake.”
From here on, I have to go alone. Since I didn’t want to get Louise involved, I untied the ribbon and hid him in a tree far away.
“From now on, I will go alone. Don’t come out for no reason; just hide here.”
“Hey, you idiot. You’re not doing something for no reason, right?”
Our rascal, who had finally figured out the situation, asked me with an anxious face. I asked so quickly. I could bet a week’s worth of snacks on the fact that the reason he asks that question is because he doesn’t want to get scolded later.
Of course, this would be my brother.
“I will be back. You must never come out.”
I hid Louise securely behind a tree, took out my Lævateinn, and started walking towards the lake. The crystal-clear water was so transparent that it gave me goosebumps. The water doesn’t look very deep, but it actually has a hidden trap.
Notes:
-
- Sweet potato means to express the speaker’s frustrated or impatient feeling about a situation or a person.