I'll Just Be Thirteen
Should I just be thirteen?
Late evening, after I'd come home.
Ayla was doing the housework just like yesterday, while our fairies sat clustered around my bed holding what looked like a strategy meeting.
"Ppi! Ppi! Ppii! Ppipi! Ppi!"
"Ppyu."
"Pya."
Pin went on and on with her ppi-ppi chatter, and Arwen and Lumiel nodded along as if they understood every word.
Being the first one born, she seemed to be running the meeting.
Of course, I had no idea what any of it meant.
I sat at the computer desk for a while watching the fairies deliberate, then turned my eyes to the monitor.
The reason was simple — our Pin had pulled off another stunt today, so I wanted to check whether word had gotten out on the galleries.
First up, the Awakener Gallery.
I typed "fairy" into the search bar, and posts flooded in.
Among them was the most recent one—
You know that new gate in Gaehwa-dong?
There was a little girl with silver hair that had a light green luster working as a healer there.
Yoon Do-ah was right next to her, so they seemed to know each other.
But that's not the important part.
All of a sudden some hunter who looked like a tank started throwing a fit at Yoon Do-ah's group, and the next second a palm-sized fairy shot out of that silver-haired girl's sleeve and beat the absolute crap out of him — like, midsummer dog-beating levels of thrashing.
At first I thought I was seeing things, but there were plenty of people around, so others must have seen it too. Should be verifiable.
My guess is...
Is that girl the Fairy King everyone's been talking about lately?
A little girl with silver hair that has a light green luster.
Pretty much every testimony from people who've seen a fairy lines up, so it seems confirmed.
But here's the weird part.
Everyone who's seen the girl says she gives off this mysterious aura that doesn't feel like it should exist in reality.
It's beyond just being really pretty or cute — how do I put it? Dignity, maybe?
If you saw that girl in Gaehwa-dong and got that feeling, then it's definitely her.
"……Ah."
So in the end, my face had gotten out.
Well, it would've been stranger if it hadn't.
What do I do?
The scenarios that would follow played out in my head.
I'd be working as a healer in front of a gate when some Association employee in a black suit and sunglasses would walk up and ask, "Might you be the Fairy King?" — treating me with perfect courtesy at first, guiding me toward the Association, and then—
—You don't have an ID?
And just like that, I'd be exposed as an illegal resident—
"Queen? Is something the matter? Are you unwell?"
Ayla approached and spoke up.
From her perspective, her Queen had suddenly gone all gloomy and deflated — she couldn't exactly ignore that.
I looked at Ayla and answered.
"I may have to emigrate to another country."
"Pardon? For what reason?"
I explained the current situation in bits and pieces.
The short version: I had no way to prove my identity.
And thanks to the fairies, I'd gotten famous on top of that.
Ayla tilted her head.
With a puzzled look, she opened her mouth.
"Queen?"
"……?"
"Those under the age of seventeen are not issued identification cards."
Huh?
Oh, right — my age right now was thirteen, wasn't it?
Still, I'd told the people I knew — Hunter Han Yuseol and Lee Chaerin — that I was twenty……
"So please do not worry."
……Nod, nod.
I'd just live as a thirteen-year-old, then.
Beats getting deported from Korea, right?
With that worry gone, my mind suddenly felt light.
But wait.
Doesn't that mean there's no real need to hide the fairies anymore?
Truthfully, she'd phrased it gently to put Ellie at ease — but the fact that Ellie had no way to prove her identity in Korea was still a serious problem.
Under Korean Awakener Law, every Awakener had a duty to report themselves regardless of age.
Even a child under ten who had Awakened was required to complete Awakener registration and receive a dedicated Awakener ID.
The problem was that Ellie currently had no means of identity verification in Korea.
No resident registration, no confirmed family, no public record of any kind that could establish who she was.
Just as she feared, she was essentially an illegal resident.
Of course, it would be a different story if she had a guardian.
Beep—
Stepping out of the rooftop room onto the roof, Ayla immediately raised her phone and called someone.
A calm elderly voice came through from the other end.
"To what do I owe the call, Guildmaster Min Surim?"
"I'd like you to create an identity for someone."
"An identity…… That shouldn't be too difficult. Is it for that person?"
"Yes."
"Understood. Provide the age and name, and I'll contact you later."
"Yes. Thank you."
Nine o'clock in the evening.
The hour when Ellie lay in bed, fast asleep.
"Then rest well, and have a peaceful night."
Confirming that Ellie was asleep, Ayla quietly slipped out of the rooftop room.
Outside, the fairies were visible in the garden plot.
From now on, it was fairy activity time.
"Ppi! Ppipi!"
"Ppyu!"
"Pya!"
Seraphin shouted something like "Let's go hard today too!", and Arwen and Lumiel answered in kind.
Once again, the three fairies were brimming with motivation, ready to gather a mountain of mana stones on their Queen's behalf.
Ayla was watching them with a fond expression when—
"Ppi?"
Pin flew over to her and spoke.
"Ppi. Ppipi. Ppipipipi. Ppi."
What Pin was asking was whether it was about time they could be given the seeds.
Ayla considered for a moment, then nodded and answered.
"Indeed…… it does seem about time."
"Ppi!"
"Ppyu!"
"Pya!"
The fairies beamed at Ayla's permission.
After all, from now on they'd be able to gorge themselves on incredibly sweet, delicious fruit.
"I shall provide the seeds."
"Ppi!"
"Ppyu!"
"Pya!"
Nodding at Ayla's words, the fairies waved their hands wildly and scattered in every direction.
While the fairies left to collect mana stones, Ayla approached the World Tree.
She took an apple seed from her pocket and held it out toward the tree.
Rrrrrk—
A branch of the World Tree slowly extended toward the seed.
Then it gently enfolded the seed and drew it in.
"A single day should be enough."
In the distant past, the mysterious fruit known as the fairies' staple food — Enteill.
One day would be plenty for it to grow.
The next morning.
"……?"
I blinked at the garden plot.
The reason was the notification messages that had popped up the moment I woke.
Fruit has grown on the World Tree.
Fruit has grown on the World Tree.
Fruit has grown on the World Tree.
So I stepped straight out of the rooftop room to check the World Tree, and sure enough, some kind of fruit had formed on it.
At first I thought they were fairies, but—
"Apples?"
Just ordinary apples had grown there.
Honestly, it was a bit of a shock.
World Tree. You…… were an apple tree?
"Ppi!"
"Ppyu!"
"Pya!"
Just then our fairies flew over, each plucking one of the fruits from the World Tree and starting to eat.
Ahh.
So those fruits had grown for our fairies to eat.
"Ppipi?"
"Ppyu?"
"Pya?"
Apparently feeling a little guilty about eating alone, they glanced at me for a moment, then held out a fruit with a little here—.
No, you guys eat plenty.
I gave our adorable fairies a quick pet, then headed back inside the rooftop room.
That was when it happened.
Biiiiiiip!
My phone suddenly blared with a shrill alarm.
Blinking at the warning-like notification, I checked my phone.
"Ah."
It was a safety alert text.
Apparently a B-rank gate had opened nearby.
Yeah, if a B-rank gate opened, going outside today would be risky.
I'd just stay home quietly today.
Ding—
Then another text came in.
Checking who it was from — it was from Hunter Han Yuseol.
If she meant last time, it had to be when I'd saved Hunter Han Yuseol.
She'd been busy lately and we hadn't been in contact — I hadn't expected her to reach out out of nowhere like this.
Hmm…… but a B-rank gate just opened, so going out is a bit of a problem.
I texted her that fact as-is, and Han Yuseol messaged back.
Ah, so the B-rank gate that just opened was the one Hunter Han Yuseol was planning to clear.
That was a relief, then.
If it was Hunter Han Yuseol, she'd clear a B-rank gate in no time.
She was an A-rank Hunter, after all.
Well, it's not like some gate anomaly would happen again like last time…… right?