It's So Unfair
It's So Unfair
Fairies and kings and whatnot.
In the past, it would've made me cringe so hard my fingers and toes curled, but now it barely registered.
With all the fairies staying at the mansion, my spirits, and even Professor Liana's spirits—
They all called me "King" at the drop of a hat, so I'd gotten used to it.
These days, instead of bewilderment, my head would just tilt on its own, wondering, "Why call me that...?"
- Terramor... comes before the King.
So when a spirit I'd barely met dropped to her knees, bowed her head, and called me "King" out of nowhere, I didn't think much of it.
[Umm...]
My expression turned complicated. Still, it felt like I was accepting such a title a little too nonchalantly.
But my expression grew even more complicated at the explanation from the earthen spirit, Terramor, who was being excessively courteous.
[The Fairy Kingdom, huh...]
In the original work, if you wandered through places one might call nature, you could occasionally spot a fairy.
Some fairies wandered alone, but most lived in small village communities.
Village-scale at best.
Something you could call a kingdom was nowhere to be found.
The name "Fairy Kingdom" I'd only encountered through bits of trivia or in fairy oral tradition.
I'd never encountered a ruling entity over fairies, either.
- The Fairy Kingdom... was destroyed.
Terramor, her head deeply bowed, murmured.
- The monster invasion was especially fierce. Armies poured in without a day's rest, and high-ranked monsters steadily attacked.
[...Wasn't the kingdom supposed to be protected by the Fairy Tree's barrier?]
I'd heard that Fairy Trees had multiple functions.
Among them were concealment and protection. The barrier naturally hid the settlement's existence, and even if discovered, it drew out a powerful shield.
- Just as the invasion was beginning, an especially powerful monster's attack caused it to collapse. And as it happened, the King at that time was in poor health...
Her head was bowed, but through observation I could see her expression darken. Even without checking her face, I could feel the heavy emotion.
The somber atmosphere radiating from her made me press my lips together.
'...If it was already destroyed, that explains why I never found it.'
At the same time, I sorted through what I'd heard.
No matter how hard you searched, a kingdom already destroyed and gone was nowhere to be found.
There was a reason I'd only picked it up from records or oral stories.
The Fairy Kingdom was destroyed.
The cause was a monster invasion—a common enough reason, tragic as it was.
'Did it fall during the Chaos Period?'
The Great Cataclysm and the Chaos Period it triggered saw countless kingdoms fall. In fact, it would be faster to list the ones that didn't collapse.
- At the time, I responded to the invasion as a spirit belonging to the Fairy Kingdom. My kin did, too. The fairies were the same.
[...You're a high-ranking spirit now. Were you back then, too?]
- Yes... though weaker than I am now, I was of high rank, and in the course of the resistance, I suffered a fatal wound that touched my soul.
That fatal wound caused her to lose consciousness, she said, and when she barely managed to come to, she opened her eyes somewhere deep underground.
[So that dungeon just now... was where you were all this time?]
- ...I barely survived, but I was on the verge of death at any moment. In the midst of that, that space made me an offer.
An offer.
I could guess the answer without having to ask.
'In exchange for life support and healing, they put her in as the Alpha?'
The environment fit, too. The dungeon's Will of Expansion likely saw it as a golden opportunity and tried to snatch her up.
Her species was a spirit, which helped. If it approached in the form of a contract, it wouldn't have been impossible.
'Are dungeons that clever? Or is the Will of Expansion not something you can regard as having an ego...'
I ran some numbers in my head.
'Siyoram was founded 120 years ago.'
According to the Headmaster's notes in the mansion, the Headmaster had been preparing to establish Siyoram even before that.
Since that point, she'd already been creating the artificial island and preparing dungeons for the cadets to use.
'So she was unconscious, and somehow got pulled into that dungeon?'
After that, she slowly recovered over a long time, and at some point, managed to regain a high rank and became the Alpha?
Anyway, where was the Fairy Kingdom, that she ended up drifting all the way to Siyoram's artificial island?
- I'm sorry. I've regained consciousness, but I haven't recovered all my memories. The memories are returning, so if you'd give me just a little time...
[Ah... I see. I was being inconsiderate. So please, don't make that face...]
I hurriedly stopped Terramor, who was bowing her head as if she were trying to bury it in the floor.
"......."
The people around me stayed silent, probably because the conversation had gotten a bit serious.
I glanced at my Master and Professor Liana in my field of view and settled back onto the sofa.
[...Let me just ask a few more things for now. If you don't remember, don't apologize. Do you happen to remember how many high-ranking spirits like you there were?]
- ...I don't know the precise situation for other attributes... but my earthen kin who faced the invasion at the time, um... numbered close to twenty.
[Twenty?]
Twenty high-ranking spirits.
In terms of rank, a high-ranking spirit was a bit below 4th Rank, wasn't it? Depending on the situation, I remember them being considered equivalent to 4th Rank.
For earth spirits alone, twenty high-ranking ones. If other attributes also had twenty per attribute, that's close to one hundred high-ranking spirits alone.
There were far more mid- and low-ranking spirits, and since it was the Fairy Kingdom, they must've had fairy-side forces, too.
There would've been Fairy Trees planted in abundance, so you'd have to factor in their support.
But according to Terramor, their kingdom couldn't gain the upper hand and was pushed back.
'What the hell invaded them?'
During the Chaos Period, there were plenty of nasty monsters.
Monsters were insanely numerous, and among that inflated population, some particularly nasty specimens were born.
The Twin-headed Poison Dragon, strictly speaking, was a monster born at the tail end of the Chaos Period.
Even considering that, the fact that the Fairy Kingdom—whose strength I'd estimated—fell is alarming.
'2nd Rank?'
The gap between ranks grows larger the higher you go.
3rd Rank is stronger than 4th Rank. 2nd Rank is stronger than 3rd Rank.
1st Rank is a classification defined as an unimplemented entity, so aside from the existence of Tower Masters, the strongest monster you could say existed was 2nd Rank.
The 2nd Iteration and the 5th Iteration. The Lee Ha-yuls I had met also ended their lives fighting against 2nd Rank monsters.
- ...I, Terramor. Failed to protect my country or anything else and just clung to life miserably.
In the quiet atmosphere, Terramor bit her lip. Her clenched fist trembled faintly.
- I failed to protect the King I was meant to guard, and Guinevere-sama as well.
[Th-that's... don't say that... Wait, whom were you guarding?]
- But in the end, I was able to meet the King... the current you, Lee Ha-yul.
Terramor lifted the head she had kept bowed since the conversation started.
I couldn't see it with my own eyes, but through observation I saw indescribable emotions swirling in her face and eyes.
- This unworthy body has already failed once, but I wish to serve by Lee Ha-yul's side. Please, I humbly ask for your permission...
[Ah... don't talk about yourself like that. And I already brought you here, so of course you'll be staying with us, so don't worry...]
- Ah...!
Terramor, who had been stiff with tension, brightened instantly. But soon she let out a small exclamation and bowed deeply again.
"...I've ended up hearing quite a significant story."
The main story was over.
Professor Liana, realizing this, stroked my hair.
"Fairies... I've grown fond of these children lately, and now suddenly a whole kingdom story. This really wasn't something to tease about."
"It's strange that it's an actual place, not just a rumor... but, well..."
My Master spoke up, too. She had settled into the seat beside me at some point, eyeing Terramor awkwardly before reaching over to stroke my hair just the same.
[That's exactly why I told you not to tease me so much by calling me that.]
"And yet you, the one saying that, had such a dumbfounded look when you first heard the kingdom story, didn't you, dear?"
[That was... it was a story that couldn't be helped...]
"True enough."
As I felt their touch, the brief headache I'd had faded. I let out a long breath and eased the tension in my body.
- ...Um, are those two your Queens?
- Yes, that's Queen Atra and Queen Liana.
- Ah...
The answer didn't come from the people in question but from among the fairies who had been listening intently to the conversation at some point.
Terramor let out a small sound of admiration and adjusted her posture.
- I am called Terramor. It is an honor to meet Queen Atra and Queen Liana.
"Ah... yes, nice to meet you too, Terramor."
"...Pleasure."
At the deeply courteous greeting, both of them blinked. I was blinking, too. The greeting was rather sudden.
Having finished her greetings to them, Terramor then lowered her gaze until it reached Seo-yul, who was sitting in my arms.
Terramor's gaze landed on Seo-yul's hair and eyes.
- ...A knight?
"Hello."
Seo-yul waved a hand. A question mark floated above Terramor's head.
A knight... probably a Fairy Knight, right? It looked like seeing a Fairy Knight being held in my arms struck her as strange.
I nodded slightly and stroked Seo-yul's head.
[Lee Seo-yul. As Terramor says, she's a Fairy Knight by species... and she's my daughter.]
- ?
Woooo... a wave of will-thought rose. It was a will-thought full of confusion. Terramor, turned rigid, rolled her eyes.
- You have already... produced an heir...?
[No, it's not like I gave birth to her that way...]
* * *
A few more days passed after I received a general explanation from Terramor.
Nothing special happened.
We were already living with spirits, fairies, and even a unicorn in the mansion.
With Professor Liana's high-ranking spirits roaming around, adding one more, Terramor, didn't cause any big stir.
Besides, Terramor hadn't finished her recuperation yet. She spent most of her time quietly resting inside the Winged Garment.
The students who had gone into the dungeon practice returned, and for a short while, ordinary Siyoram life resumed.
"Really, I'm worried... the tower entry already..."
Ordinary life, but only for a moment.
It was because after the dungeon practice ended, the tower entry period arrived soon after.
In the training ground on the mansion grounds. Lee Ji-yeon, who had been teaching me Taesan, flopped down onto the ground and let out a worried sigh.
I, sitting down beside her, tilted my head.
[Is there something about the tower entry that worries you, Senior?]
From what I knew, this year's tower entry for third-years had no particular issues.
'Or is it because of family business?'
It was well-known that Lee Ji-yeon was handling duties as the acting family head of Taesan.
Of course, it wasn't formal succession, so she didn't take on everything, but being one of the Three Great Families, the workload must have been immense.
"It's not me, I'm worried about you, Junior."
[Huh?]
Lee Ji-yeon, after steadying her breath, side-eyed me. Her green Winged Garment tapped against mine lightly, then made a gap and gently wound around my waist.
- Mmm...
A cozy vitality flowed in from the Winged Garment wrapped around my waist.
"The second-year tower entry recreates the Demon Realm front during the Chaos Period, you know. I suffered quite a bit there... so I can't help but worry that my junior will go through the same experience."
[Ah-ha.]
Definitely, the first tower entry for second-years was worthy of worry.
Because you're dropped right into the Demon Realm during the Chaos Period era. Isn't the faction called the Fairy Kingdom presumed to have fallen in that very period?
If you got dropped into the middle of that, you'd suffer plenty.
'Thanks to that, they'll grow a lot, though.'
In the original work, too, the first tower entry for second-years was an opportunity for particularly rapid growth.
Though every tower entry offers growth, I needed to enter this one with the determination to grow and come out.
Especially me, even more so.
I needed to grow even more rapidly.
[Still, don't worry too much. I'll suffer, but in the end, whether it's injury or death, it all reverts back to normal...]
"That's the correct judgment. But for some reason, when it comes to you, Junior, that thought just makes me so uneasy..."
[?]
Lee Ji-yeon puffed out her chest and shrugged. The gleam in her green eyes as she looked at me was far from innocent.
[This is so unjust...]
I get that I have a track record, but being worried about me even for the tower entry was a bit much.
* * *