Chapter 89: The Fairy King (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 89: The Fairy King (3)
“So much for having talent! It was all a lie!”
Katarina shouted as she ran through the dark cavern. A wolf with dark gray fur was chasing her. Flames flickered on its forehead, and its tail was made entirely of fire.
That’s right.
What was chasing her was no ordinary wolf, but an ancient fire spirit.
Katarina had discovered the fire spirit in this deep cavern and was about to offer it a contract, but before she could even open her mouth, the spirit had transformed into a wolf and charged at her.
“Shedia! A little help here?!”
She cried out urgently, but Shedia, who had entered her shadow, did not emerge.
The distance between her and the wolf was closing.
Shedia was not responding.
It all made Katarina even more desperate. After running a few more steps, she bit her lip hard.
If I keep running, I’ll just get eaten. In that case…
Katarina stopped running and turned around. Drawing her curved swords with both hands, she glared at the wolf rushing toward her.
It was big.
Incredibly big.
Its massive jaws looked like they could easily tear her in half.
Katarina’s body froze in terror.
In that moment of hesitation, the wolf leaped at her. As it closed in, Katarina shut her eyes.
The faces of her mother, father, and younger siblings flashed through her mind.
The last face she saw was Cloud’s.
The man who was her first love and would be her last.
I should have kissed him one more time before I left.
That was her one, lingering regret.
A moment later, Katarina’s body was pushed back by the wolf and fell. She had expected the cavern’s stone floor to be hard, but it was surprisingly soft.
…Soft?
Why would a stone floor be soft?
Katarina opened her eyes. The large wolf was supporting her body with its front paws. Before she could even grasp what was happening…
-Lick.-
“Blegh?!”
The wolf licked Katarina with its enormous tongue. It was the kind of affectionate gesture a dog might show its owner, but given its size, it was hard to take it as such.
“H-Hey, wait. Stop.”
-Lick.-
“I said, stop…”
-Lick.-
“I said stop!!”
Unable to take it anymore, Katarina yelled.
The wolf flinched in surprise and pulled its head back. It then wore a dejected expression.
-Whine…-
Now it was Katarina’s turn to be flustered.
“Uh… sorry for yelling?”
The wolf’s sullen expression brightened a little.
Katarina spoke to it again.
“You’re the fire spirit, right?”
The wolf just stared at her without reacting.
“Um… would you be interested in making a contract with me? As for the terms… well, there’s an old elf upstairs, you see? He can mediate for us.”
After that, Katarina continued to ramble.
Things like, “Don’t you want to go outside instead of staying in a cavern like this?” and “There are so many beautiful things out there.”
The wolf just watched her.
Anxiety began to bubble up inside Katarina.
“You don’t want to make a contract…? Okay, then I guess that’s that. Sorry for holding you up? So if you could just let me g—”
-Lick.-
“Eek!?”
The wolf licked Katarina one more time before changing its form. The giant wolf turned into red flames, which then gathered in one spot.
With the wolf’s front paws suddenly gone, Katarina fell flat on her butt. She rubbed her backside as she looked at the fire spirit.
“Are you going to make a contract with me?”
A small spark flickered from the fire spirit.
Taking that as a sign of acceptance, Katarina slowly reached out her hand. A thin thread of fire, like a strand of yarn, shot out from the spirit and touched her hand.
“Ouch!”
The stinging sensation made Katarina quickly pull her hand back. Did I get burned? She examined her palm.
Instead of a burn, a strange, unreadable script was engraved on her palm.
As she tilted her head in confusion, the fire spirit approached and nuzzled her cheek. A ball of fire was touching her face, yet strangely, it wasn’t hot.
“Is the contract complete?”
Yes.
The spirit’s thoughts were transmitted to her.
When she jumped in surprise, the spirit laughed, telling her not to be so shocked and that this was how spirits communicated.
Just then, something rose from Katarina’s shadow.
“Shedia?”
“Yes.”
“…You didn’t come out when I was calling for you earlier.”
“I didn’t sense any killing intent from the wolf. If I had, I would have come out.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Katarina let out a small sigh as Shedia nodded her head so brazenly. She had a point, though. The fire spirit hadn't been trying to harm Katarina; it was just playing.
“Alright. Then let’s go find the other spirits…”
Katarina trailed off.
Shedia was staring at the fire spirit with sparkling eyes.
Katarina remembered how Shedia had reached for a spirit earlier, only to look dejected when it fled.
“Want to touch it?”
“…Can I?”
“Of course. Is that okay?”
Katarina asked the spirit. The spirit seemed reluctant, but it didn’t refuse her request.
Thanks to that, Shedia was able to touch a spirit for the very first time in her life.
Katarina smiled warmly as she watched Shedia laugh like a child. Looking at her was like seeing her own younger siblings.
“Shedia, how old are you?”
Shedia looked puzzled by Katarina’s rather random question. But since it wasn’t particularly important, she answered anyway.
“Twenty.”
“Really?”
She’s only two years younger than me?
She thought there was at least a six-year age gap.
While Katarina was marveling at this, Shedia glanced up at her and said, “Hey… thank you.”
“Hm? For what?”
“For… letting me touch the spirit…”
Shedia’s voice trailed off into a mumble.
Is she embarrassed?
Finding the sight adorable, Katarina chuckled.
“Unni.”
“Hm?”
“Don’t call me ‘hey,’ call me Unni.” [Unni is a Korean honorific used by females to address an older female friend or sister.]
For a brief moment, Shedia’s expression hardened.
Katarina panicked, waving her hands frantically.
“Ah, no! I mean, you don’t have to… I just thought, since we’ll be traveling together for a while, it’d be nice to be more friendly… if you don’t want to, you don’t have to…”
“Unni.”
“Huh?”
“Katarina-unni, thank you.”
When she looked again, the dark shadow that had been on Shedia’s face was gone. She was smiling brightly, and Katarina smiled back warmly.
After that, they spent a long four hours making contracts with the other spirits.
*
“You’ve returned.”
A single phrase from the World Tree.
No further explanation was needed.
A moment later, Katarina came up the stairs, panting for breath. The Four Great Spirits, each with a different form, floated around her.
I stood up and walked over to Katarina.
When she saw me, she trudged over and leaned her body against my chest.
“Was it tough?”
“Incredibly. You have no idea how much I ran around in there…”
“You did well.”
“Mhm.”
Katarina replied, nuzzling her face into my chest.
I gently stroked the back of her head, then turned to the World Tree, who had returned to his male elf form.
“Our talk is over, and Katarina has finished her task. May we be on our way?”
“Why be in such a hurry? You may stay for a few days if you wish.”
“No, we’re in a rush. We only came here because our ship to the Politia Duchy was wrecked. We hadn’t planned on stopping by in the first place.”
“Is that so? Then I cannot hold you any longer.”
The World Tree wore a genuinely disappointed expression.
What is this old tree trying to dig up now?
Without hesitation, I turned my back on the World Tree.
“Then we’ll be going. We’d be grateful if you could provide a guide on our way out.”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
The World Tree said, reaching a hand down into the ground. A tree branch rose from below. The Fairy King cut it and tossed it gently toward me.
The branch floated through the air and landed softly in my hand.
“What is this?”
“A branch of the World Tree.”
“You’re giving it to me?”
“Indeed.”
“You’re surprisingly generous.”
“You are my guests. It would be a blow to my pride if I invited you here as guests and couldn’t even offer this much.”
“Then I’ll accept it gratefully.”
I carefully placed the branch of the World Tree into my backpack.
“I would like to talk more, but that can wait for another time. I hope you will visit again someday.”
With those words, the World Tree waved his hand once.
Branches shot up from the ground, weaving and intertwining to create a space that enclosed us.
“Huh? Huh??”
“It’s okay, calm down.”
I grabbed Katarina’s shoulders to steady her.
How much time passed while we were enveloped by the branches?
The intertwined branches unraveled and receded back into the ground, and the scenery around us had changed.
We were outside the forest.
The lush green fields were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a dirt road that smelled of earth and was littered with hard rocks.
Katarina, and even Shedia, stared with wide, astonished eyes.
“Weren’t we… just in the center of the forest a moment ago?”
“He’s the Fairy King. Don’t be so surprised by something like this.”
“What? You think this is something that can be explained away just by saying he’s the Fairy King?!”
I nodded silently.
“…Is that elf really that powerful?”
“The three kingdoms combined probably couldn’t beat him. Maybe not even the Empire.”
The color drained from Katarina’s face.
“N-No way. Why does something like that even exist?”
“Beats me.”
Why indeed.
“Th-Then what about the branch he gave you…? Is that amazing, too?”
“This? It’s a branch from the World Tree. Not only is it a material with zero mana resistance, but it can also amplify it. I don’t know if it would sell, but if it did, you could probably buy a whole county with it.”
Katarina’s face went from pale to deathly white.
I smiled and wrapped my arm around her waist.
“Katarina, our journey is just beginning.”
Hiccup.
Katarina started hiccuping.
*
The northern part of the continent.
In a castle in the Politia Duchy, the land of barbarians filled with snow and blood, a woman was hurrying her steps.
Her pure white dress and long white hair fluttered behind her.
With skin as white as snow and jewel-like blue eyes, she was a vision of pure beauty. In reality, however, she was Leslie, known as the greatest villainess of the age and a patricide.
But belying such a moniker, the woman ran down the corridor with a desperate and pitiful look on her face.
Soon, she reached her destination and threw the door open.
“Father!”
Inside the room she had burst into, a gaunt old man was sitting up in bed with the help of a maid. Hearing Leslie’s voice, the old man turned his gaze toward her.
“What is it?”
At the old man’s clear, unwavering voice, tears began to fall from Leslie’s eyes.
She murmured.
“Thank you, Goddess Iries…”