Chapter 87: The Fairy King
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 87: The Fairy King
After receiving a piece of the moonstone, Shedia stared at me with hollow eyes, devoid of any light.
They were filled with the murderous intent to one day kill me.
I ignored it at first, but her staring continued for three days after the ship departed, and I couldn't just let it go on.
"Alright, I give up. You win. Here, I'll give you one more."
I tossed her another piece of moonstone, and Shedia snatched it out of the air.
She took out the other piece from her pocket and placed them both in her palm. A satisfied smile spread across her face as she looked at the two fragments.
Puppies really are simple-minded.
"What's she so happy about? Honestly..." Katarina said, her voice laced with disbelief.
"Don't go over there and say something stupid. Shedia is surprisingly useful in many ways. I plan on using her for a long, long time."
Katarina gave me a slightly weary look before turning her gaze back to Shedia.
"She is amazing, though. I was especially surprised when she popped out of the shadows. How did she do that?"
"Ask her yourself."
"I did, but she won't tell me. And more importantly..."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You and Shedia are just companions, right?"
"You still think that after seeing what just happened? Are you always this suspicious?"
"Suspicious? It's a rational doubt."
She grumbled, looking at me. Then, she suddenly pinched both of my cheeks.
"Ugh, if you were just a little less handsome, I wouldn't have to worry about this."
"You wouldn't have fallen for me in the first place, then."
"I fell for your heart, not your face, you know."
"Really?"
As I stared at her with a skeptical gaze, Katarina's eyes darted away.
"Well, maybe I looked at your face... just a little."
"I knew it."
"Shut up. You came onto me because of my looks, too."
"What are you talking about? I fell for your heart, too."
"Really?"
"Yep."
I cupped her breasts with both hands.
"Your big heart."
"...Cloud."
"What?"
"Can I hit you just once?"
"No."
"Just one little smack."
"I said no. Dating violence is wrong."
"Whatever..."
Katarina let out a deep sigh.
Still, she didn't push my hands away from her chest. Instead, she sat on my lap to make it easier for me.
I groped her for a bit before taking my hands away and wrapping my arms around her in a warm embrace.
I whispered in her ear.
"Katarina."
"What?"
"Can you give me a blowjob?"
Katarina looked disgusted.
"I told you no. Why are you so obsessed with getting your dick in my mouth?"
"Because it's romantic."
"Romantic, my ass. No. I won't do it."
Her voice was firm.
I felt a little disappointed.
"You hate the idea of sucking the dick of the man you love that much?"
"And it's okay to ask the woman you love to do something like that?"
Just as I was about to say, 'I want it because I love you,'—
CRUNCH.
The ship lurched violently.
It was so severe that Shedia dropped her moonstone fragments, her face turning deathly pale.
"What's going on?"
Leaving Shedia to crawl on the floor searching for her moonstones, Katarina and I left our private cabin.
The deck was pure chaos.
Sailors were running around frantically while the captain barked orders at them.
We approached the captain.
"What's happening?"
"It's just a small problem. It'll be resolved soon, so please don't worry and return to your cabin..."
"Captain, we're fucked! The hole from the reef is way bigger than we thought! We can't plug it!" a sailor who had just come up on deck shouted.
His clothes were soaked with seawater.
"Captain, look over there! A st-storm! A storm is coming!" another sailor yelled.
In the direction he pointed, pitch-black clouds were gathering, and the waves were growing ominously turbulent.
"You call this a small problem?"
I asked sarcastically, but the captain didn't answer. His face had gone pale as he muttered, "Ah, we're fucked."
It seemed the situation was serious enough for even the captain to give up.
As I let out a dry laugh, Katarina grabbed my arm with a trembling hand.
"C-Cloud, aren't we in big trouble?"
"Yeah. We are."
"Then why are you so calm?!"
"That's because..."
I glanced around briefly, then whispered into Katarina's ear.
"I know how to get us out of this crisis."
"R-Really?"
Katarina's expression brightened as I nodded confidently. She urged me to tell her the plan, asking what it was.
I looked at her and said.
"I'll tell you if you promise to give me that blowjob."
"Wh-What? You're saying that now?! The ship has a hole in it, and we're about to be capsized by a storm!"
"And you're really going to be stubborn about not giving me a blowjob in a situation like this?"
Katarina's eyes trembled.
She bit her lip hard and then said in a voice as faint as a dying mosquito.
"...I'll do it."
"What was that?"
"I said I'll do it!"
"You promise? You can't take it back later."
"I won't! So just hurry up and tell me the plan... Ugh!"
Caught off guard, Katarina collapsed as I chopped her on the neck. I threw the unconscious girl over my shoulder and returned to our cabin. I took a rope from my backpack and tied us together.
"Did you find your pieces?"
Shedia nodded.
"Then follow me. It's time to get shipwrecked."
Though her dark eyes were filled with questions, Shedia followed me back up to the deck. The storm was now right upon us.
Her eyes widened as she saw the massive wave bearing down on the ship.
It seemed she finally understood what I meant.
A moment later, the giant wave crashed over the ship.
*
"Ptui, ptui."
I spat out all the saliva I could muster.
Ugh, so salty.
Wiping my mouth, I untied the rope binding us. Thump. Katarina's body fell onto the sandy beach.
I put my ear to her nose.
Haaa... Haaa...
Thankfully, she was breathing fine.
No need for any emergency measures. With a sigh of relief, I looked around.
A drenched Shedia was trudging toward me, her feet sloshing in the seawater.
"You okay?"
She shook her head.
"I see. Still, you followed well. Good job."
I patted her on the head as a sign of praise.
"I'm going to look around and gather some firewood. You stay here and guard Katarina."
Shedia gave a soulless nod.
I left her and turned around. A large forest stood right in front of the shoreline.
I entered the woods.
I gathered wood for a campfire and carved slashes into the trees every so often to keep from losing my way as I moved forward.
I walked for quite a while, but the forest showed no signs of ending.
'This forest seems bigger than I thought.'
Getting out of here was going to be a pain.
Just as I was thinking that—
Whoosh. I heard the small but distinct sound of something cutting through the air. I instinctively twisted my body and threw a dagger toward the source of the sound.
An arrowhead grazed my cheek.
"Ugh!"
A groan came from the direction I'd thrown my dagger, a sign it had found its mark. Soon, someone fell from a tree. It was a handsome man with a dagger embedded in his collarbone. His ears were long.
"An elf?"
I tilted my head, about to approach the fallen elf.
Suddenly, a dozen arrows flew toward me.
These knife-eared bastards.
*
Katarina regained consciousness to the sensation of someone slapping her cheek.
She opened her eyes and sat up, annoyed.
"Stop. Stop hitting me! Why are you hitting someone who's sleeping... Huh?"
Katarina, who had been complaining, froze solid.
Anyone would react the same way if they woke up to find handsome men and women with long ears aiming bows at them, while their boyfriend held a knife to the throat of someone who looked just like them.
"You're awake?"
Cloud said, turning his head slightly.
His casual tone sounded like a normal morning greeting.
But this was clearly not a normal situation, and the dissonance made Katarina even more confused.
"Uh... what is going on?"
"You remember us getting shipwrecked, right?"
"Shipwrecked?"
Katarina frowned at Cloud's words. The memories from before she lost consciousness slowly started to piece together.
The ship had hit a reef, tearing a hole in the hull, and to make matters worse, a storm had been approaching.
Cloud had said he'd tell her a way out on the condition that she give him a blowjob. She'd accepted, and then she'd passed out.
...No matter how she thought about it, her last memory didn't connect to the current situation.
Katarina decided to hear him out.
"Yeah. So?"
"This is where we ended up. But it seems the natives here don't like us very much. They tried to kill us right off the bat."
"Is that why you're holding that person hostage?"
"That's right. If I let him go, all those arrows will come flying at us."
"I see. Is this situation more dangerous than being on the ship?"
"Nah, not even close. How can you compare a bunch of knife-ears to the power of mother nature?"
"Hmm... that's true."
Katarina nodded.
She scanned her surroundings once more, then spoke with a desperate expression.
"Please tell me this is a dream."
Cloud just smiled brightly.
"It's not a dream, so get up and get ready to walk. We're getting out of this forest just like this."
Reality was cruel.
*
We were traveling through the forest.
Sure, I had a dagger to a captured elf's throat, and we were surrounded by countless other elves, but so what?
Everything feels different depending on your mindset.
In that respect, Katarina should learn from Shedia.
Look at Shedia.
Instead of being nervous about the sharp arrowheads, she was looking around at the forest and the elves with sparkling eyes.
"What do you think of your first elven forest?"
"It's amazing. The forest's energy is so fresh, it's different from a normal forest."
I was just asking for her thoughts on the scenery.
But maybe because she's half-beast, her impression was a little different.
Well... if she likes it, that's all that matters.
"While we're at it, should we go see the World Tree?"
"The World Tree?"
"It's a massive tree."
"Bigger than that one?"
Shedia pointed to a tree that looked to be dozens of meters tall.
I chuckled.
"It's not even a comparison. Compared to the World Tree, that thing isn't even the dirt under its fingernails."
"Really?"
Shedia's eyes sparkled even brighter.
Well, I have no choice now.
We have to see the World Tree before we leave.
"Hey. Where's the World Tree?"
I asked, tapping the hostage's neck with the flat of my dagger.
The hostage wore a look of utter humiliation.
"Kuh...! The World Tree is not something the likes of you can mention so easily...!"
"Alright. So where is the great World Tree? Let's go pay our respects."
"I'll never tell you. You might as well kill me."
The hostage spoke in a grim voice, and the surrounding elves looked as if they were moved by his spirit of self-sacrifice.
What's with these guys?
"The reason I captured you was to make you our guide. If you can't do your job properly, then you and everyone else here become useless. Is that what you want?"
"Ha, you speak as if you could kill everyone here if you just put your mind to it."
"You think I can't?"
The hostage fell silent.
I had dodged their ambush, broken through their encirclement, and even taken him hostage. My words probably didn't sound like a mere bluff.
But the silence didn't last long.
"Even if what you say is true, you won't be able to get past the Rangers."
"Rangers?"
"They are the most elite group, which only elves who have completed grueling training over a long period can join. We are nothing compared to them."
As he was explaining about the Rangers, the hostage's eyes suddenly widened, and a sly smile crept onto his face.
"And it seems they've just arrived."
I followed his gaze.
Three elves, dressed head-to-toe in green like they were Robin Hood, were approaching.
The atmosphere among the other elves brightened at their appearance.
They acted as if they had no doubt that these newcomers would resolve the entire situation.
However, things didn't go as they expected.
"Hero Cloud. The Fairy King has formally invited you."
It was a little different from what I expected, too.
Still, something good came out of it.
"Shedia, looks like you'll get to see the World Tree."
We were now able to see the World Tree legally, not illegally.
Shedia smiled brightly.