The King and the Qu...een (1)
The King and the Qu...een (1)
Fairies are a race that belongs to a special category.
With bodies little more than cloth, their souls can directly intervene in the world.
They also take on the noble role of cultivating and preserving nature, drawing on their affinity for the five attributes that compose the natural world and for mana.
Spirits are souls born from nature, and fairies are not only similar to such spirits but also a dominant species that commands them.
A race on an entirely different level from the pathetic scraps of mongrel monsters.
[How long ago was any of that? Looking at us now, we don't seem much different.]
That perception belonged to a bygone age.
To the fairies dwelling in this verdant forest now, it was a story that didn't quite hit home.
One of the fairies, Kali, shrugged her shoulders with an indifferent expression.
Pitch-black hair stirred, and the dull, five-colored wings spread behind her back folded with a soft snap.
[For a species that calls itself dominant, our situation—drifting about without a home, always on the run—feels a little too miserable...]
[Hey... don't just cut off other people's thoughts whenever you feel like it.]
[You're the one who linked us... Anyway, stop thinking weird things and let's move again.]
[Uugh...]
The fairy scolded by Kali, Rio, pouted her lips.
Behind her, dull, five-colored wings fluttered through cascading golden hair, propelling her body forward.
Rio peeked her head out from the underbrush.
After concealing her presence as much as possible and carefully scanning for enemies nearby, she moved her wings.
- Shashashak!
She flitted between the dense thickets at swift speed.
For a while, she kept her guard up in case her presence had leaked.
Only when there was no issue did she send the signal.
[This way.]
- Shashashak!
Only after Rio's signal dropped did the other fairies follow Rio's path in single file.
Rio's unique ability was of the flame family.
Unusually, it was a case where an individual's innate talent manifested in addition to her innate racial abilities.
She also had a knack for blocking and detecting presences, so she volunteered for this pathfinding role.
[No problems. Keep going.]
[Okay.]
Kali brought up the rear of the group.
Among the generally frail fairies, Kali was the one relatively skilled in combat.
So she maintained vigilance at the back in case of a potential attack.
Rio scouted the path at the front, fairies lacking in combat ability filled the middle, and Kali followed behind.
Maintaining that formation, they flapped their wings steadily.
[Alert... hide!]
And whenever monsters approached, they swiftly concealed themselves in the nearby underbrush at the signal.
Or burrowed straight into the ground, or shot up among the lush leaves.
It wasn't difficult, given the small stature of the average fairy.
- Thud, thud, thud... thud... thud......
[...It's gone.]
[Uegh...]
[I got dirt in my mouth...]
Once the monster's presence passed, they laboriously extracted themselves and set out again.
A truly desperate combat-evasion tactic.
At the same time, moving while minding every presence meant their pace was agonizingly slow.
If it were up to them, they wanted to simply soar freely through the sky.
[But if even one of us gets spotted, we'll all be finished together, nice and neat.]
[Yeah...]
Unlike the ground, crossing the sky with no cover whatsoever was far too dangerous.
The fairy group, having painstakingly evaded combat, flew all day to put as much distance as possible between themselves and their pursuer.
.
.
.
That night.
They huddled together in the darkened underbrush for a shabby meal.
The menu was assorted tree fruits.
Most were tiny fruits no bigger than a human fist.
But the fairies were equally tiny, so it was no real problem.
[...This is so frustrating...]
[Can't be helped. It's not like we can fight, right?]
Rio, gnawing on a tree fruit huge compared to her own body, furrowed her brow.
She felt utterly stifled.
Having received that sentiment, Kali responded.
[Even if we win, it's not a real victory. If we catch one and a whole swarm of others come pouring out, it's over.]
[I know...]
A monster like the one that just passed—even Rio, not just Kali, could beat it.
No matter how poor fairies are at combat, they do have a basic weight class.
Simply pouring their attribute abilities meant for nurturing nature onto an enemy can deal considerable lethal damage.
The problem is, if a fight breaks out, their location gets exposed to all the nearby monsters.
They could beat that one monster, but they often ran into monsters so strong that even all of them fighting together couldn't win.
And fairies are notorious among monsters as the finest of tonics, living, flying elixirs.
If their position were found and hordes of those things swarmed them...
[Uuu, Rio, stop imagining it! You're scaring us too!]
[Scaredy-cat Rio's imagination is too scary... stop it!]
[What? That's not true! That wasn't my imagination...!]
At the panicked reactions from those around her, Rio jumped up.
She had imagined something like that, but not enough to provoke such a histrionic response.
But their reactions were so dramatic in the end because they were using Rio as a target for teasing.
Rio was, in her own way, practically a leader of this group alongside Kali, but that didn't exempt her from such pranks.
Fairies are, by nature, a pure and mischievous race.
If only the situation weren't so dire, all ordinary fairies would be spending peaceful days with beaming smiles.
[...If only the King were here...]
If only there were a ruler, a king.
At the thought that suddenly surfaced in her mind, Rio chewed her lip.
The expressions of the other fairies who received that thought also sank into gloom.
Fairies are truly a curious race.
They may have some talent, but the average fairy's martial power is nothing outstanding.
If anything, across the whole spectrum, they were on the lower end.
But in the knowledge Rio held, fairies of the past did not live such wretched lives.
Fairies were not a mere nine, but so numerous they truly filled the sky.
They didn't wander desperately, chased by danger—they all lived in a single homeland.
They had the strength to ably defend their territory even against the invasions of powerful foreign enemies.
...All of it was possible because a king existed.
Bringing fairies into being, bestowing blessings, raising barriers to repel outside foes, bringing into existence knights and soldiers to protect them.
It all stemmed from the king's power.
But fairies without a king had no choice but to grow weak.
The blessings faded, and the knights and soldiers vanished one by one.
In the end, as time passed, they could no longer fend off the invasions of outsiders and scattered in all directions.
And at some point, they found themselves living in confined spaces like this one.
[...That's enough. Just forget it.]
Into the increasingly somber atmosphere, a curt voice rang out.
It was Kali.
With a sunken expression, she stuffed a fruit into her mouth.
[The king isn't here. Even if he were, he couldn't help us. So forget it. Just erase it. We have to survive by our own strength.]
Harsh and unyielding words for a fairy, but no one objected—everyone simply nodded, subdued.
Even if Kali hadn't pointed it out, they all already knew.
They had never seen the king in the first place, nor had they ever lived in the fairy realm.
They were born in this space; the king and the fairy realm they knew of were nothing but knowledge.
Like a fairy-tale book.
They had the knowledge that such a paradise once existed, but it was hard to truly believe.
And even if they did believe, it was a fiction that no longer existed.
[Hnnng...]
But hoping for a single ray of hope was beyond their control.
Rio, too, harbored such a tiny hope.
What if, just like a dream, the king really did reappear and gather the scattered fairies?
That this hardship might, impossibly, come to an end...
[...Alert!]
A sweet hope.
At the bitter sense of crisis hovering at its edges, Rio's head snapped down toward the ground.
Kali and the other fairies also swiftly flattened themselves.
- ...Thud! ...Thud! ...Thud!
She felt a presence.
At the heavy footsteps reverberating through the ground where she lay prone, Rio's face drained of color.
A familiar presence she'd been feeling all too often lately.
That monster had begun persistently targeting the fairies at some point.
It wasn't special.
Fairies were always on the receiving end of attacks, and this monster was just one more.
What was special... was that this monster was a particularly powerful entity within this space.
And that, strangely enough, it was extraordinarily good at picking up the fairies' traces and chasing them.
If they stayed in one place, they'd be found out in no time.
So Rio, Kali, and the other fairies had no choice but to risk danger and move locations daily.
- Krrrumble...! Krrrumble...! Krrrumble...!
And now the thing had chased them all the way here.
Even though they'd flown the entire day without rest.
Rio clamped both trembling hands tightly over her mouth.
Kali and the other fairies also all held their breath and stilled their presence.
It would be fine.
That monster had come close a few times, but it had never properly caught them.
Fairies are skilled at concealing their presence.
By carefully controlling their mana and hiding their presence as though blending into nature, mongrel monsters could never hope to find them.
It consumed a great deal of heart power, so they couldn't abuse it, but it was an ability that had saved the fairies' lives countless times in perilous situations like this.
And that thing couldn't destroy the surrounding environment along with them either.
Because then the fairy bodies it wanted to devour would be damaged.
So, like always, it would pass by into the distance.
- Thud!
"......"
The presence stopped.
Right nearby.
[...Run!]
Kali, having made her judgment, thrust out both hands.
She pulled out the mana remaining in her body in a massive chunk.
The mana spread into flames.
Rio, pale-faced, and the other fairies simultaneously extended their hands.
They converted their mana into wind. They drove the erupting flames forward with wind.
Fwooosh! In an instant, the billowing flames swallowed the monster.
The underbrush where the flames erupted didn't escape unscathed. It was fire boosted by pure mana, with powerful output.
They burst from the burning thicket and beat their wings, flying in the opposite direction.
- Kraaaaaah!
[Ugh?!]
[Heek!]
[Khhuugh...!]
Their bodies staggered at the explosion of noise from behind.
The vibration, like their innards were being pulverized, nearly sent two of the fairies tumbling to the ground.
[Q-quickly...!]
There was no leeway to wait for them to recover.
Fwooong! A few wind spirits they hadn't been able to summon earlier lifted the fallen fairies.
Rio and Kali frantically scooped them up and spread their wings again.
[Hiik...!]
At the same time, Rio unknowingly turned her head and met the creature's eyes.
A massive, elongated head shaking off the flames.
Huge teeth taking root inside a gaping maw.
Hard to see clearly in the darkness, but black scales faintly visible in the firelight.
Enormous, blazing yellow eyes.
She met the gaze of the vicious pupils, long and vertically slit within them.
'Hnngh...!'
Rio's heart plummeted.
That unspeakably terrifying thing was targeting her and her friends.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed her body forward with wind.
- KAAAAAAH!
- GYEEEEEEK!
- Woong, woooong!
The explosions of noise didn't end with one.
At the monster's colossal cry that erupted in the deep of night, other monsters began to swarm as well.
'Ah...'
Her ears were reeling.
Like raindrops gradually beginning to pour from a clear sky, presences filled her head with dizzying confusion.
All of them began surging in this direction.
Rio opened her mouth without realizing it.
How had they been found? They'd erased their presence as much as possible. Hiding their presence now was probably meaningless, and once they'd been discovered, the chances of being found again next time were high...
- Kaaaak!
"Hk!?"
[Rio!]
In the middle of her dazed flight, dodging monsters appearing from all sides and the aftermath of the fighting.
An impact slammed into Rio's body.
Her flung body was about to crash into a thick tree trunk.
Rio clutched the fairy in her arms tight and desperately twisted her body.
Crash! Her back collided with the tree. Her vision blurred white.
Her strength gone, her body tumbled limply near the tree's roots.
She heard voices calling her name inside her head.
Rio beat her wings dazedly.
Flight was difficult.
- Thud!
A familiar, infuriating, hateful presence approached.
Rio squeezed her eyes shut.
Her blurred vision cleared, and she saw clearly into the gaping mouth of the monster.
With her already tiny body, the sight was like a pitch-black night sky plummeting down upon her.
In a world that, for some reason, seemed to have slowed, that scene was vividly clear.
Death approached with vivid clarity.
[...Hk, help me...]
At that sight, Rio begged for help without realizing it.
From whom? Rio didn't know herself.
Kali? Teo? Riu?
Or that monster? Fellow fairies who might be somewhere?
Or the king from that hope long since hidden away?
She couldn't find an answer.
- Please, someone help me...!
Perhaps it was just a final desperate thrashing before death.
Not an action born of reason, but something accomplished purely by instinct.
And so she indiscriminately manifested her unique ability and begged for help from every being it could possibly reach.
But the monster didn't stop at just that.
It closed its gaping mouth.
[No!!]
Multiple screams rang in her head.
The wind beating against her body as the jaws closed.
A strange sensation raking from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.
At that, Rio squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the brief pain soon to come.
The monster's mouth closed.
- Crraaaash!
A violent sound rang out.
'...Huh?'
There was none of the pain or the sound of skin tearing and flesh being chewed that one would typically imagine.
- Scrrreeeech...!
Instead, the noise of metal scraping against metal battered her ears.
At that, Rio, blinking, snapped her head up.
'Ah...'
Various things came into Rio's sight.
The monster's jaws, caught mid-closure, trembling as they were blocked.
A pure white hand gripping the enormous teeth—teeth that had seemed unstoppable by anything—holding them firmly shut without the slightest tremor.
A human female, her body brimming with vast vitality energy, connected to the earth as she thrust her fist forward.
And...
'...Wings?'
Three pairs of wings, shimmering with five colors, spread wide by the owner of that pure white hand.