When the Flowers Bloom in Spring (3)
"My, how steamy."
"Ah, no, this isn't—!"
"Irene, this is why they say life is all about timing. You should have just charged in yourself. Tsk, tsk."
"Y-you...!!"
Irene flushed scarlet at the sight of her instructor being pinned beneath the fairy. She knew perfectly well that it was treatment. Even so, watching a fairy in the shape of a woman steal the lips from his mouth left her strangely, furiously indignant, as if some utter stranger had taken what was hers. Hers? She stamped her feet, making the resentment plain.
"...The Fairy's Blessing."
"Th-that's rare, isn't it?"
"Rare hardly covers it. In the whole history of the continent, fewer than five have ever received it."
Irene could seethe all she liked. Roen and Derek knew the act for what it was—the Fairy's Blessing—and could only stare, dumbstruck.
The Fairy's Blessing. Even in the continent's history, it appeared only in legend and myth, a gift said to have been given to heroes. What power it actually held had never been made clear, because the heroes who received it had, without exception, kept their mouths shut. One thing, however, was certain. Everyone who received the Fairy's Blessing left an enormous mark upon the history of the continent. Even the heroes of a civilization already ten thousand years gone were still remembered. By any human measure, it could only be a blessing reserved for those who carved an immortal record.
Which made one wonder whether the instructor, too, was about to become a hero of some tremendous legend....
"According to a certain unofficial history, there is a record to this effect."
"Yes?"
"The Fairy's Blessing is not, in truth, any special miracle. Those who left their names in history were simply exceptional people. One is not to say it was thanks to the blessing."
"Uh... even so, didn't every hero who received the blessing become a legend?"
"According to the scholar who interpreted that history and investigated it, those who received the blessing number at least a hundred and twenty, not merely the five heroes already known."
"......"
"In short, the exceptional were exceptional. Do not claim it was the blessing's doing. More than that, in the records left by the nameless heroes who received it, one finds a great many lines to the effect of 'I would rather not have received it,' or 'the worst of blessings.'"
"...At that point, isn't it a curse?"
"Hmm. If I had to say what I think..."
"Hehe. Bear it a little longer. The wounds are bad, so I still have more to do!"
"Mmph!?"
Hmm....
"...it would depend upon the person. For one it might be a curse, and for another a blessing... I suppose."
Watching the instructor endure it without mercy, Roen found the sight somehow pitiful. It was a kiss from a beautiful fairy, yes, but there was not a shred of the man's own will in it, and something about that...
"Haa."
Roen squeezed his eyes shut. Standing watch over a fork that might be blessing or curse left a bad taste in the mouth.
"One thing is clear. I would rather decline that."
"...Haha."
Derek laughed awkwardly and, very quietly, agreed.
Even so.
The fairy is beautiful, so... he's happy, isn't he?
Derek carefully decided that it might, in its own way, be a happy thing.
CRACK—CRACK—CRRRK!
"!!!"
Happy, his frozen ass!
Who was the bastard who said a kiss was a happy thing?!
Goddamn it! I try to be happy one time and I'm about to leave the world of the living!!
What Lee Han felt now was nothing like happiness. He was, quite literally, drowning—unable to draw a breath, sunk in nothing but misery. And the truly maddening part was that he could not breathe, and yet, strangely, he only suffered and suffered and did not die.
...Did you know what made it worse still?
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
"Mmmmmph!?"
In this moment Lee Han was passing through an agony more vicious than anything he had felt in all his life.
"This is going to hurt a bit. About ten times the pain of childbirth? A woman hero who had borne more than ten children put it that way."
"Mmmmmph!!"
The fairy worked the marvelous trick of speaking even while their lips were locked. Lee Han had no room left in which to marvel. He thrashed in pain—no. He wanted to thrash, and instead had to lie there perfectly still. From the instant the fairy seized him, his whole body had locked rigid and would not move.
No, this is treatment?! Why does treatment hurt this much?!
He had thought that if a fairy was the one treating him, there would be no pain at all. It hurt worse than any moment he could remember, and he began to suspect this was not treatment but torture.
She read that thought exactly, and explained it with perfect kindness.
"It is treatment. Though it's closer to the truth to think of it as reassembly than as treatment. Your body is a complete wreck right now, so first I'm breaking it, and then I'm fitting it back together like the pieces of a puzzle. That the pain is considerable can't be helped."
...Which, from where he lay, was not comforting in the slightest.
"Endure just a little."
And how long is a little?!
"By human measure... twelve hours?"
!!?
The news that he would have to endure a thing equal to the pain of childbirth—ten times over—for a full twelve hours nearly made him faint. No. To correct himself, he could not even faint. It hurt so much that even if he blacked out, his mind snapped wide awake again. He began to wonder whether he had done the fairy some wrong.
"No. I still like you."
"......!"
You like me, and this is the pain you give me?
Lee Han turned a faintly impious look on her. The fairy smiled with her eyes.
"Remember this well. Pain matures a human being, and makes them stronger. I don't mean the flesh alone. It strengthens the mind. The soul. There is no lesson without pain, and strength without pain is sand, ready to vanish into nothing at any moment. But the hardship and the trials you gain through pain will grow you. So this is a blessing. A blessing named pain."
A blessing I would very much like to decline...
"Well, the humans who've received our blessing all suffered, every last one of them. Ufufufu!"
......
Here, at last, was the passage that explained why the heroes of old never let the Fairy's Blessing pass their lips. Few would call agony this insane a blessing. No—resentment would be the more natural thing.
In Lee Han's case....
C-could you at least let me scream in peace?
"No."
I'm going to lose my damn mind...
He endured the pain, and he simply bore it. There was no resentment. He only closed his eyes.
CRRRRRUNCH!
"!!?"
Bone and muscle, nerve and tendon—all of it was being put back together. Now and again a clean, hot breath of spring touched the places that were lacking or snarled, and each time the body under assembly was restored. The work crept forward as slowly as a turtle's walk, and the pain climbed in a long, patient rise, which made it horrific beyond words.
And yet....
L-little by little. Little by little, I'm getting used to it...
Lee Han grew accustomed to the pain. The first reason this was possible was, absurdly enough, that he had already felt a similar agony as a child, used as a mage's test subject. The second was that the way he ordinarily trained was a way that carried pain with it. So adapting to pain came more easily to him than it did to others. Pain, in the end, could be borne, so long as you knew that you had only to endure it, adapt to it, and that someday it would end.
Hold. Hold...!
Even while he endured, he watched without pause the changes unfolding inside his body. How the muscle came apart. In what manner the bone was reassembled, and strengthened. And he was certain.
This, of all things, was—
The final form of the flesh-tempering art, by which a Daoist practitioner, on the road to becoming an immortal, exchanged mortal bone for immortal bone.
Lee Han had been laboring toward an artificial Bone Reforging of his own, but that had only been a matter of making bone and muscle a little sturdier. He had never dreamed of anything this thorough.
It isn't only muscle and bone. Heart and vessels, stomach and tendons—every last part of me is changing.
Even the places that could not be trained, even the organs themselves, were slipping entirely past the limits of a human being. ...This was a procedure only a fairy could perform. A technique absolutely impossible for humankind, and a blessing. A heaven-sent fortune. Lee Han had just laid hands on the fortune of a lifetime.
Except....
"Now then. Let's endure a little more."
"......!?"
"There's still about ten hours to go."
"!!!!"
"Wow, you really do hold out well. You're only the second human to bear our blessing this well! For reference, the first was the Barbarian King—the human called the first and last king of the barbarians. Do you know him?"
"Mmmmph?!!!"
...He could not help thinking that a heaven-sent fortune was a fortune only of a certain kind.
Thud.
......Lee Han fainted.
He had truly taken the blessing for more than twelve hours, and then he simply lost consciousness. Honestly, the mere fact that he had lasted until now could only be called a miracle.
The fairy, however—
"Tch. I wanted to talk a little more..."
—only looked at his unconscious face with regret. A knight who would not wake for about two days: looking at him, she felt the lack. She had wanted to speak with him longer.... The fairy shook her head and sulked, a sulk to the effect that humans were far too frail.
Then—
"Oh, you're finished over there too?"
"Oooong!"
"Kyahaha!"
"Really? Well done."
It had not been the passionate kiss Lee Han received, but another knight lay unconscious, ringed by the other spring fairies, having taken their blessing and fainted.
"...Hmm. That one's Vessel was badly broken, wasn't it? Looks like the whole blessing was spent mending the Vessel."
The Spring Fairy caught the latent killing power in a single breath, and laughed under hers.
A shiver ran through it.
The power that had, until now, done everything it could to torment its host's body and destroy it—the power Lee Han called the Heaven-Slaying Star—trembled beneath the Spring Fairy's gaze like a frightened puppy. As if it did not even dare to resist.
"You. Stop tormenting that human. You ought to get along."
The Spring Fairy scolded it, though she did not expect the thing to listen. It was a kind of curse sent down by heaven. Still, she had restored the Vessel to its finest state, so controlling the power and using it ought not to strain him past reason. Of course, if he overused it, cracks would run through the Vessel again.
"From here, it depends on the knight."
Ah. Speaking of curses.
"This child has a curse as well.... Hmm. Shall I remove it?"
The Spring Fairy knew a curse had melted into the body of the knight called Lee Han. It was considerably troublesome, but if she set her mind to it, she could remove it well enough.
"......No. A thing like that has to be overcome on one's own!"
The fairy counted the conquering of that curse as a trial too. To become a great hero, one needed hardship of that sort! ...Had Lee Han heard, he would have begged her to please just fix it, hardship being quite enough already. Unfortunately Lee Han had fainted, and the fairy was firm.
"What a shame. I wanted to talk more, but it seems we have work of our own to do."
Softly.
The Spring Fairy stroked the knight's cheek and drew a gentle smile. It had been a long time. A long time since she had seen a knight born to so wretched a fate, who kept his convictions through to the end.
"You won't want to become a hero, and yet you're becoming one in order to protect what you believe. Hehe. Such a diligent knight. If you're living a second life, you could stand to live a little more easily."
And that was exactly why she found him all the more admirable. The fairy stroked him again and again, and felt a little love. An emotion that, to a fairy, was as good as poison. But fairies fell in love far too easily. Even knowing it was poison, they could not help longing for affection. And now, looking at this knight, she felt love—for the earnest knight who, even after she had given him pain, had not resented her to the end, and had at last offered his thanks.
...An attractive man.
"Ooong?"
"Kyaha?"
"...No. I won't deny that my heart fluttered. Even so, I have to restrain myself. This child already seems to belong to someone."
The fairy folded the feeling away. Touching a man who already had someone was not a thing she ought to do.
"He has women meant to be his mates. Hmm. Whom will he choose?"
Destined partners, felt within the knight's fate. Not one of them. Several. And right over there stood a woman who already looked the part of a candidate.
"I-it's over now, right?"
"I think so?"
"...Vicious."
...A girl who carried on a fairy's blood. Destiny could be felt from that child as well. And from the one behind her....
"......"
"Hehe. Don't glare at me like that. I didn't take him."
Meeting the eyes of the woman glaring at her, the fairy waved the accusation off. She was curious which partner this knight would choose.
"That will be a pleasure for another day."
Ufufu!
The Spring Fairy laughed brightly and lifted both hands.
"Go home now. Back to your own land."
WHOOSH!
A rustling spring wind rose, and in an instant it swept up the two knights, the two boys and the one girl, and even a small child who had drawn near at who knew what moment. She felt them, thick with confusion, but the fairy only fluttered a hand in farewell. She did owe them some thanks. They seemed, however, to have already secured their reward for themselves.
And so.
"Farewell."
She offered them nothing but a last goodbye.
Hoooooo.
......Riding the spring wind, every trace of them vanished. As if no one had stood in that place from the very beginning.
"......"
The Spring Fairy looked for a moment, wistfully, at the emptiness where those who had returned to the dragon's land had been. Then she lifted herself into the air.
"Let's go. It's time to work."
"Kyahaha!"
"Waaaaah!"
They would have to tell Winter, wouldn't they.
That spring had returned.
The child had meant to climb the hill early again today, to make a wish. They hoped the fairy would be angry no longer, and that the snow would stop at last.
But....
"Mom, what's that?"
"......"
"Mom? Dad?"
"Hic..."
"Haaa, th-thank you, Fairy, thank you..."
"...?"
The child tilted their head. It was strange that their parents, always so upright, had tears standing in their eyes, and strange that the people of the village were glistening in much the same way. Stranger and more unfamiliar than any of that, though—
"Wow, it's pretty...!"
—was the warm, round light slowly showing itself as the storm clouds were wiped away. The child's eyes shone.
To that child—
"...Eren, my baby. It seems the fairy has finally set her anger aside."
"??"
The child's mother explained it to a child who had never once seen the light of life hung in the sky. What that thing was.
"That is the sun."
"The... sun...? ...That's it!?"
The child's eyes went wide and bright. Born, and never having seen it—having only ever heard, in stories, of a thing called the sun—the child was briefly speechless at witnessing it for true....
"Ah!"
"Eren!?"
The child scrambled up the hill behind the house. The hill they climbed every day, to leave a treasured pebble. And there....
"...You heard me."
The pebble was gone, and a flower had bloomed.
"Hehe, thank you, Fairy!"
For granting the wish. The child was truly grateful, and the mother, following a step late, wore a startled look for a moment before she pulled the child tight and brimmed with tears.
The snow was melting, and in the place where the pebble that held the child's wish had vanished....
A beautiful field of dandelions had spread.