What Story Do You Have?
"Good morning, Prince Chae Gillard."
"Good morning."
Upon receiving the servant's greeting, Chae answered with a smile.
While moving to the office, all the servants he encountered greeted him respectfully, calling him Prince, and Chae received every single one of their greetings with a smile.
"Haa... really cool..."
A servant was captivated by Chae's gentle smile.
His handsome face, tall stature, and thick red hair. Normally, red hair wouldn't suit him, but because his face was so handsome, the red hair suited him perfectly.
"....."
After showing kindness to the servants, Chae hardened his face the moment he returned to his office. His cheeks hurt from smiling so much, so he rubbed his palm against his cheek.
"Hehe. The prince has arrived?"
From her seat, where she was reading documents, Entris smiled and stood up to greet her master.
At the title she called him, Chae's face crumpled.
"Uwa, goosebumps. Don't call me by a name that gives goosebumps."
"But you're the prince, right?"
"Hey!"
"Hehe. I won't call you that anymore today."
"If that's the case, don't call me that for the rest of my life."
"Hing~ I'll think about it."
"Haa..."
Only after Chae showed his irritation did Entris stop calling him prince. She was so cute when she shivered every time she was called prince.
Chae Gillard, outwardly independent but actually affiliated with Palos's Bird, successfully joined under the Witch Queen's subordinates as planned.
At the right time, the commander of the extermination unit, Prince Paizani, had died, creating a vacancy, and most importantly, he had safely brought his fairy Plasma.
Although he was critically injured and on the verge of death, thanks to his high stamina and durability stats, Plasma didn't die. The fact that he saved Plasma, who was not just anyone, could not be overlooked.
But from Chae's perspective, there was something annoying.
That was the other princes and princesses staring at him with wary eyes, and the Witch Queen suspecting him.
Wherever Chae and his fairies went, they were always followed.
The clever Witch Queen noticed at a glance that Plasma, a 7-star transcendent in critical condition, was from the rear of the Snake Bandits and that there was a Palos's Bird member.
After all, there weren't many forces in the south that could create a 7-star transcendent like Plasma.
Moreover, although not publicly known, the Witch Queen had clashed with Palos's Bird several times before.
Although Plasma was strong, there were much stronger masters or fairies affiliated with Palos's Bird.
Meaning that if they wanted, they could kill Plasma easily.
Yet Plasma returned alive, carried on the back of a 4-star mage.
Of course, the Witch Queen suspected that this was the Palos's Bird's scheme, and suspected Chae as one of them.
"I can't get rid of this either. Every time I turn my eyes away, new eyes appear."
"What can I do? But this time's eyes will fall off soon. Master is planning to genuinely serve the Witch Queen, right?"
"That's true."
Chae nodded at Entris's words.
His plan was to use the Witch Queen to kill Palos's Bird, specifically his teacher Montblanc Kirios, who burned his parents in front of him.
Until he achieved his goal, he planned to genuinely serve the Witch Queen.
"By the way, the one I'm worried about is Crow. No matter how much this is the Witch Queen's territory, she won't easily let the master go."
Crow was a codename given by Montblanc to Palos's Bird.
Those who knew Montblanc's name were few. Most called her Crow, and only a very few knew her real name.
Anyway, Crow, or Montblanc, would not easily abandon Chae.
She was abnormally obsessed with Chae.
Then Chae smiled and answered.
"Don't worry about that side. Crow doesn't like shiny things. She was playing with shiny things for a while, so she won't care about me."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I told Crow to recruit a master. It was originally a decent master, but I praised him as a master who worked hard and was extremely excellent. You should have seen how wide-eyed Crow's eyes were."
"... Who did you say you would recruit?"
"Huh? You know. Alan Han. I introduced him to you. Why is the reaction like that? Are you sick?"
Chae pulled his face from the soft chest, and when he saw Entris's face become serious, he became serious too. Entris's eyelashes trembled.
"Um... Master."
"What? What's wrong? Tell me quickly."
"There is a master..."
"Why?"
"... He died."
"... What? What do you mean?"
It didn't take long for Chae to understand Entris's words. Chae's eyes widened.
"W-what? That guy died? Really?"
"Yes. I saw it. The master died to Kutlanka."
"....."
Entris was Chae's fairy. She wouldn't lie to her master.
"T-then why are you telling me this now?!"
"You didn't ask..."
"Damn it!"
Kick-!
Chae kicked the desk in anger when his plan to divert Montblanc's interest through Alan failed. Entris looked at her master with an apologetic face.
"Huu... Damn. I didn't imagine he would die. Ah, that's why you said I should withdraw at that time..."
"Yes. Because the master died, I said that."
"Damn. I should have asked at that time... I made a mistake."
During the Kutlanka raid, Chae met Montblanc and returned to the battlefield.
Soon after, Entris, who was sent to support a master, returned and said she had to retreat.
It would never be a mistake in normal times, but since it was right after meeting Montblanc, he didn't ask for the reason.
"What should I do?"
"... First, I need to think about it. Damn. I thought I had finally escaped that woman's eyes... Well, for now, that Crow woman can't do anything. Especially since this palace is the Witch Queen's territory, if I use magic, I'll be caught immediately."
There were Witch Queen's powers everywhere in the palace.
They could monitor people with magic power, but if they used magic, the Witch Queen would immediately notice.
Montblanc was indeed an incredibly strong person, but the Witch Queen was no less than her. That's why Montblanc couldn't attack the Witch Queen rashly.
"Huu..."
Chae sighed, his head complicated.
*****
"Montblanc-nim."
"What is it, Alan?"
"Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty."
"Huh?"
"Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty!"
"Hehe. I thought you had a serious personality, but this is unexpected."
Since Montblanc liked his flattery, she smiled. But this wasn't flattery. He had decided to genuinely pledge loyalty to Montblanc.
Although she was also an incredibly beautiful woman besides his fairies or Kanisia, there was another decisive reason.
'Who would give 400 growth stones as contract money.'
Not low-grade growth stones. Montblanc gave a whopping 400 mid-grade growth stones as contract money, the most needed for their party.
Ah, excluding the one I ate for confirmation, there were currently 399 mid-grade growth stones in our possession.
How could I not swear loyalty to someone who gives that many growth stones!
First, I plan to follow Montblanc, check, and then distribute to the party members.
My growth is important, but I can't ignore the growth of the party members either. At least I have to give one share, right?
My party members aren't the type to suffer where they go, but after seeing 7-star and 9-star powerhouses, I felt that I was lacking, a little, no, a lot.
At minimum, I need to reach Plasma level to walk around without worry.
'Important from now on.'
For radical growth, I abandoned my biggest weapon, information.
This place is a world where the Fairy Masters game world is fully applied.
I have experienced the story of Fairy Masters twice.
By utilizing the events that will happen in this world in the future, I can gain a lot of benefits.
I abandoned all of that.
Of course, I have to extract more from Palos's Bird and Montblanc than what I abandoned.
'First, dungeon.'
Although Montblanc gave 400 mid growth stones as contract money, it doesn't mean we will become emerging powerhouses by eating them all.
In the end, we were just scrubs composed of 3-star and 4-star.
Ultimately, the dungeon we could conquer with me and the party members was important.
Just raising stats with growth stones would eventually be half-baked.
To truly become a transcendent, I have to fight that much.
'She's not a dummy and won't just give it away.'
It hadn't been long since I met Montblanc, but I had a rough idea of what kind of person she was.
She sees people other than herself as toys.
She plays with them until her interest fades, then discards them.
To keep sucking honey from Montblanc, it was most important to not lose interest in me.
Also, when she gave growth stones, she said this to me.
"This is the contract money. Depending on how much Alan acts under me in the future, you can get more than this."
Act.
There is no one who raises without any compensation.
She planned to raise me to use in her work.
So I had to become strong quickly.
If I didn't please her, I would be discarded.
Normally, such strong people don't just discard people.
They kill or turn them into invalids.
"Alan, your expectations for you are high. This is the first time my disciple has praised someone else like that."
"Is that so? I will do my best to live up to Montblanc-nim's expectations."
Chae gave the most exemplary response to Montblanc's words.
She smiled. She was really pretty.
"....."
I stared at Montblanc's pretty face.
A 9-star powerhouse had asked me to enter under her.
If I refused, not only me, but Aquaril, Kanisia, and Abraham would have died.
Palos's Bird had a force comparable to the Ferdium Empire, the only country in Gaia-rium and the most powerful.
Even if I took only a small part of what they had, it would be an enormous benefit equivalent to using future information.
But even setting aside those reasons, the moment I saw Montblanc, I decided I had to join Palos's Bird.
Because she was pretty?
No.
No matter how pretty, was there a reason to join a dangerous organization like Palos's Bird?
The decisive reason I decided to join Palos's Bird was Montblanc Kirios herself.
'Who are you?'
I had cleared all stories of Fairy Masters, including spin-offs.
In the process, I defeated the Ferdium Empire as well as Palos's Bird.
But in all those stories, there was no character named Montblanc Kirios.
That meant that Montblanc either died before the user and Palos's Bird clashed seriously, or she didn't show her face on purpose.
A 9-star powerhouse couldn't have died easily.
So she probably didn't show her face on purpose.
What was her plan, her purpose?
'What story do you have, Montblanc.'
The story of a character who didn't appear in the game stimulated my curiosity.