A Small Peace and Fairy Plot's Past (1)
And at last, the day of the promised date with Fairy arrived.
Ellie had woken before me and, knowing her own preparations took a while, had thoughtfully let me wash first.
"Hyun! I'm done washing~"
About thirty minutes later, Ellie emerged from the steaming bathroom wearing nothing but a bathrobe. The sight was so alluring I nearly couldn't hold myself back — but if anything started here, we'd be one hundred percent late for the appointment.
"Right. Got it. Go ahead and get ready first."
"Okay."
After a few short words to her, I stepped into the now-fogged-up bathroom. It was spring weather, yet Ellie had washed in hot water.
I was different. I turned the faucet to the right, let the cold water run, and began washing myself under the slightly chilly stream. I once asked her why she preferred hot water, and she'd said something about how stepping out into the cool air afterward felt wonderfully refreshing... or some such thing.
I couldn't really understand it, but I nodded along to her answer all the same.
While my mind wandered like that, I scrubbed every part of myself clean, brushed my teeth, and only then was the shower finally over. I towel-dried, wrapped myself in a bathrobe, and stepped out of the bathroom.
Outside, Ellie was seated in a chair, reaching for something on the desk and applying it — makeup, apparently. From the way her hair clumped together slightly, it seemed she hadn't gotten the moisture out of it yet.
So first, I balanced the strength of the Wind authority and the Red Dragon authority just right and blew the remaining moisture out of my hair. I felt sorry for Blaze and Baram doing it... why did my conscience prick at me over something like this...?
I'd done it several times already, but every time, I was afraid of getting scolded. After all, this was a scene that would earn a definite protest from Blaze or Jeongryeong if they ever witnessed it.
My hair was short, and warm wind dried it in no time, so the moisture was gone before I knew it.
Next was Ellie's turn. Sure enough, her hair was still damp from her towel-drying. She was concentrating on her makeup, so I resolved not to startle her, carefully gathered her hair into my hands, and slowly began to dry it.
The heated wind blew gently, and the moisture in her hair faded away bit by bit. About seven minutes, maybe?
Her hair had reclaimed its full glory from before the wash. No — it was unmistakably glossier than before, gleaming as if it had drunk its fill of nourishment.
Blonde hair really is something else.
Once I confirmed Ellie's hair was completely dry, I turned around, slipped behind the partition, and took off the bathrobe to change. On the other side of the partition, Ellie was doing her makeup, so the situation felt strangely awkward.
It wasn't as if we hadn't already seen every inch of each other, and yet...
I was embarrassed.
I couldn't stand around like this forever, so I hurriedly got dressed, combining the clothes lent to me by the royal family with the clothes I'd brought from Cumul Territory. Underwear first, of course...
Then denim pants and a layered tee for accents, finished off with a black hoodie. It was still spring, but the evenings got chilly, and I had no way of knowing what Ellie would wear, so I draped a gray denim jacket over it all.
The moment I finished dressing, Ellie — makeup complete — slowly emerged from behind the partition. True to her preference for subtle looks, her makeup was the kind you couldn't quite tell she was wearing. Not that she needed any of it — she was gorgeous to begin with, a walking cheat code with or without makeup...
Then I stepped aside so Ellie could change in comfort. As I moved away, she looked up at me with a grateful smile, and I smiled back before closing the door.
And roughly ten minutes later, her voice came drifting from outside it.
"Hyun~ I'm all dressed~"
I opened the door, and there stood Ellie, perfectly ready to head out — blue jeans and a white blouse with a vest thrown over it, smiling up at me.
"All set?"
"Yep! All done!"
Her answer came out bright and buoyant, the voice of someone genuinely delighted to be going on a date.
"Let's go."
"Mm."
Ellie and I slowly joined hands and made our way out to the western entrance of the imperial castle. Already there stood two figures who had to be Fairy and Khan. Noticing us, Fairy waved enthusiastically to welcome us over.
"Hurry up! Unnie! Hyun! You're ten whole minutes late!"
?
We're not late, though.
The agreed time was ten in the morning. We'd left the room at nine thirty. We came out early.
What is she on about?
Hand in hand with Ellie, I walked slowly toward her and said, "We're not late. You said ten o'clock."
"We got here first, so that makes you the late ones!"
"???"
What kind of logic is that? I've never heard anything so absurd. Apparently Fairy has access to reasoning the rest of us simply don't.
Fairy's outfit was a knee-length skirt, a blouse, and a windbreaker to top it off. Khan, meanwhile, had gone dandy-but-simple: a yellow shirt and black slacks.
"By the way, Khan — what's with the yellow?"
Yellow. Of all colors. There was no way Khan had picked that himself. His personality simply wasn't the type to reach for something like that on its own — I'd seen this coming a mile away.
Khan spoke quietly, eyes on me. "Fairy likes the color, so I wore it. Why? Doesn't it suit me?"
Really, this man dotes on his lover shamelessly. Even when something clashes completely with his own nature, if Fairy wants him in it, in it he goes. Not that it looked bad on him, mind you. Honestly, if it had been white, I might have thought he was heading to a funeral — so I'd call this a mercy.
With everyone finally assembled, we clasped our lovers' hands and set off to stroll the streets of Leona.
The capital's streets were as bustling as if the attack had never happened at all. Even amid all the clamor, Ellie and Fairy seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, walking on ahead of us side by side.
When was the last time I'd actually been able to go on a carefree date with Ellie...
My last proper date had been before we even started dating, enjoying the city in Cumul Territory — and that was already several months ago. So much had happened since then, and because of it, Ellie and I hadn't been able to let our hearts rest, however much we wanted to. The reason Fairy had picked today was probably her way of pulling us out from under the crushing pressure of when will the demons attack next. The demons had lost two mid-ranked demons of their own, and with the fight over the leftover power and territories raging internally, they'd need time to regroup too.
Still, watching Ellie walk along smiling like that put me in a good mood as well. I turned my head toward Khan — and he, too, was gazing at Fairy with the faintest smile on his lips.
"What are you looking at?"
"Touchy, aren't you...? Am I not allowed to look at your face?"
"Hmm..."
Whether they actually heard our little squabble or picked up on it through that uncanny instinct of hers, I couldn't say — but Fairy turned to us and told us to hurry up and follow. And beside her, Ellie laughing a cheerful "hahaha" was the cherry on top. If I'd known she'd smile this brightly, I should've come out even earlier...
Well, regretting it wouldn't bring back a single second, so I might as well enjoy the present. With that thought, I quickened my pace alongside Khan to catch up with the girls.
A few steps later, we arrived at a place called Escape from the Giant Box.
Please don't misunderstand. That was genuinely the shop's name — Escape from the Giant Box.
Khan and I couldn't make heads or tails of what the building was even for. Ellie seemed equally lost, trailing after Fairy with a puzzled look on her face.
We were led into the lobby of a building set up for visitors to relax. Simple chairs and tables where you could sit down and enjoy a drink or a snack with zero fuss. There was even a menu board listing the available options.
Wait... isn't this an escape room?
No, seriously — just how identical to Earth is this place? At this point, it wouldn't be strange at all to simply accept that this was a parallel world and move on with my life.
Fairy and Ellie were busy choosing something in front of the building's owner. From the look of it, they were picking a difficulty level. And the spot their fingers came to rest on was five stars. The hardest room in the entire shop.
"....???!!"
"???"
That was me, finally comprehending the situation — and Khan, still tilting his head in confusion. But before I could even open my mouth to stop them, the girls had already paid.
We're doomed. It's going to be brutally hard...
Is this really happening?
And so the owner led our group of four to the entrances of the respective rooms. Teams of two — Khan with Fairy, me with Ellie — and just like that, the escape was about to begin.
Fairy declared a bizarre penalty beforehand — the losing pair would have to answer every single question from the winners, with nothing but the truth — then dragged Khan into their room and vanished.
I entered my room with Ellie, and our escape began. The scenario: escaping from a serial killer. Another plotline Earth had wrung absolutely dry.
Every door in the room was locked tight; nothing would open properly. Drawing on the few escape rooms I'd done before, I started predicting where the keys might be hidden — under the bed, behind picture frames, that sort of thing.
I'd already asked Ellie to hunt for the keys to the various locks, so she was earnestly searching high and low as well. And just as I'd expected, a silver key was wedged behind one of the picture frames. A groove had been carved into the inner edge of the wooden border, and something had glinted inside it — a hidden key.
The only question now was: which lock did this key belong to? If I was lucky, it would open something on the first try; if not, it could end up being the very last one. A vicious difficulty curve, by any measure.
But I have intuition.
Following my gut, I slipped the key into the lock I felt it most likely fit — and, astonishingly—
Clunk!
It opened. A little secret of mine that Fairy knew nothing about: thanks to a passive-type ability called Intuition, I'd gained opportunities like this one.
I turned the key, and the lock dropped limply to the floor. Beyond the newly opened door awaited a set of clues: blood-red writing scrawled across a mirror, three towels hanging in a distinctly odd arrangement, and something written on the bathroom wall.
I studied it all carefully and concluded it had to be part of some sentence. While I was turning my head, trying to work out what it all meant, Ellie apparently deciphered the writing on the mirror and came over to share her interpretation.
"'Release... the'?"
"Yeah. That's what it says."
Who writes only the predicate and calls it a clue? Which meant the thing I was looking at now must be the object, and those oddly hung towels were probably the subject.
Combine the pieces into one complete sentence — an absolutely demented difficulty level. Worthy of five stars, indeed.
And what I'd pieced together read: "With the key under ___, release the lock." Put the two halves together and you got: "Use the key under ___ to release the lock."
Now for the subject. The towels were hung tied off toward the east, the west, and the north.
How was anyone supposed to figure that out? This one I genuinely couldn't crack...
While I was busy wracking my brain, Ellie had been staring hard at the towels — and then she suddenly let out a cry.
"Ah!"
"Hm? Got something?"
"Yep. East, west, and north are there — but there's no south."
She was right. No south. Viewed through the lens of the Four Divine Beasts — the Vermilion Bird. And sure enough, in the main room there was a red blanket, the Vermilion Bird's symbolic color, spread over the bed.
The instant that realization hit us, we bolted across the room and lunged for the blanket. Unfolding the neatly folded red spread, something tumbled out of its depths with a bright little jingle.
"Ohhh!"
Sure enough — a key had been hidden inside the folded blanket. We'd solved it right. I clutched the key, pushed it into the lock on the exit, and turned. Finally, after roughly thirty minutes, we had escaped.
Thank goodness. I'd been a little nervous at five stars. At this rate, Fairy and Khan probably hadn't even come out yet...
"Late again, I see?"
What. How did they get out. Insanely fast. Seriously.
I conceded defeat on pure speed, no contest. I should have realized the moment Fairy led us to this place. She'd apparently visited plenty of times on her own. However superb my Intuition might be, it didn't make a sound against a seasoned veteran — it was simply left in the dust.
...Is this really okay...
But we had agreed to the contest, and we had come out later, so we gracefully admitted our defeat.
By the time we stepped out of the shop, midday was approaching and the temperature was steadily climbing. We'd met at nine thirty, spent about an hour window-shopping and sightseeing, and another thirty minutes on the escape — so it was around eleven o'clock. In Earth terms, it felt like early May. Though here, apparently, they called the month something other than May.
Anyway, all that scrambling around during the escape had left us properly warmed up, so we set our sights on a shop selling cold drinks and headed toward it.
Soon the cool-drink shop came into view. This place — the land known as the Hung Continent — had no fruit or beverage called coffee. Which meant no americano, no latte, nothing of the sort to be seen anywhere. Not that it mattered much; I was never much of a coffee drinker to begin with.
We ordered — a fresh fruit juice and a smoothie — and took our seats. The moment we sat down, Fairy began bringing up the penalty we'd agreed on for the bet.
Naturally, I opened my mouth to protest the unfairness of it all.
"Fairy, there was no way I could've known why you'd pick a shop that fast."
"Exactly! I love escaping!"
"Then what on earth did you want to ask us so badly that you'd set up a whole bet with that kind of penalty?"
At my question, Khan shot Fairy a mildly curious look too — apparently he hadn't been told either. But just before she could answer, one of the shop's attendants arrived carrying a tray with four drinks.
"Here are your drinks. Enjoy~"
We nodded our thanks and saw her off as she turned and headed back to the counter. Before long, the topic of everyone's interest had shifted entirely — no longer the penalty, but the drinks in our hands.
Mine was melon-flavored with carbonation added — the melon soda that was famous in Japan back on Earth. I'd never once tried it in my life; who knew I'd end up drinking it here? I took a long pull through the straw, and the verdict was: thoroughly satisfying.
"Delicious!"
Hearing that, Ellie brought her own drink to her lips and tried it — a banana smoothie.
"Can I try yours?"
When I said that, Ellie replied, "Only if you give me some of yours," and I promptly surrendered my drink to her. She took the very straw I'd been sucking on straight to her own lips and drew the drink up. The green liquid slid directly into her mouth. She tasted it, eyes going wide in delight.
"Wow..."
Apparently the melon soda had won her over completely, because Ellie kept staring at my drink with sparkling eyes — so I traded with her. She looked at me apologetically, but I told her it was fine and handed over the melon soda, still half full.
And as for the so-called indirect kiss — we were a couple who had gone all the way to deep kisses already, so something like this hardly mattered. Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way: Ellie didn't so much as blush. She was just purely, simply happy.
Fairy, who had been staring openly at the two of us, reminded us once again of the penalty awaiting us.
"Come on, come on! Enough admiring your drinks!"
"...Do we really have to do that?"
When I said so, Fairy raised her index finger high. "A Successor of the Four Divine Beasts doesn't get to squirm his way out of a little bet!"
"You're seriously dragging the Successor title into this?"
Wasn't that reaching a bit far...? But Khan beside her was nodding along in agreement.
No — you're a Successor too. How can you say that with a straight face?
Then he opened his mouth while looking at me, and what came out was somehow even worse. "Just accept it, Hyun."
"...Hah..."
From their attitudes, I could tell they weren't going to back down easily, so I decided to at least hear their demand out. The terms of the bet: the losers answer every question from the winners, in nothing but truth.
And what Fairy unleashed next carried enough force to make me, Ellie — even Khan — spit out our drinks.
"Unnie, and you, Hyun — I saw you two sharing a straw earlier..."
"....."
"How far have you two gone?"
...No. You're asking that?
"Well..."
"No lying. You remember the bet, don't you?"
At Fairy's ironclad declaration, Khan — apparently finding the whole thing delightful — grinned at me and started gesturing for me to answer already. Worse still, Ellie, one of the people actually required to answer, had gone beet red and was hiding her face behind my back.
No, Ellie. If you do that, you're basically broadcasting exactly how far we've gone...
Hah...
Feeling a headache coming on, I opened my mouth. "Should I... keep it tasteful?"
Even by my own standards, it was an absurd question. But her retort somehow outdid it.
"Tasteful? Don't bother."
No — was she always like this? She was never like this in the game, was she?
A deep sigh escaped me at the suffocating tightness in my chest, and the dizziness in my head only grew. Fine... I'll tell them...
They're adults anyway... they know all there is to know...
And so, steeling myself, I opened my mouth.