Innocence Destroyed
“Too much work, as expected.”
Elena stretched her back and removed the glasses she had been wearing. They had thick black frames—a gift from Richel.
“Well done. Would you like some tea?”
“Thank you, Hans. Where’s the nanny?”
“Lady Ilaia is in the kitchen making popcorn.”
“Popcorn?”
“Yes. The fairies have quite the appetite, it turns out.”
Hans gave an awkward laugh. He still remembered how shocked he had been the first time he saw a fairy. Honestly, after everything he had experienced since coming here, he thought nothing could surprise him anymore. He had been wrong. Ever since Albert’s return, every single day brought a new shock.
Who could have imagined I’d actually see a fairy from legend with my own eyes…?
“I was surprised too,” Elena said.
“I still can’t believe how much popcorn fits in those tiny stomachs…”
Watching the fairy tribe devour endless amounts of popcorn had been genuinely shocking. They were supposed to be mystical beings, yet even their stomachs turned out to be mysterious.
“That’s why Lady Ilaia has been frying popcorn nonstop.”
“I see.”
“How are the glasses working out?” Hans asked as he poured her a cup of warm tea that would ease the stiffness in her body.
“Ah, they’re fine. My eyes feel much less strained.”
“They must be high-quality items.”
“Seems that way. I heard they’re good for lords who deal with a lot of paperwork, so I gave them a try. They really do help.”
No matter what, a lord had to keep reading and writing endless documents. It was exhausting work. Her eyes had always been tired and dry from constant movement. But with the glasses, everything changed. She could clearly feel the reduction in fatigue, which made her paperwork flow much more smoothly.
“Still, there’s so much work left,” Hans remarked.
“Haah, you’re telling me.”
Elena glared resentfully at the pile of documents beside her. No matter how many she approved, the stack never seemed to end. Just when it looked like it was shrinking, more would appear. She felt trapped in an endless cycle of paperwork.
“If only there was someone to help…”
“Hmm, you’re right. Our workload has definitely increased compared to before.”
Things were undeniably different now. Since Albert’s return, the territory had developed at a pace incomparable to anywhere else. It was hard to believe this was the same territory that had been on the verge of ruin just months ago. Now it was dazzling.
“It’s remarkable. With the water pipes and faucets installed, water supply has become so convenient, and thanks to soap sales, the entire territory smells pleasantly clean.”
In the past, they had to be extremely careful about what they ate because of food poisoning, with no real way to prevent it. Treatment had been limited to eating medicinal herbs. Now that was no longer necessary. Soap had made prevention possible. The water pipes brought convenience to the residents, and Albert’s other efforts were visible everywhere.
Even more than that—
“What surprises me most is that I no longer have to worry about monster attacks since coming here.”
“You’re right.”
Elena smiled. In the old days, they had lived in constant tension, fending off monster raids at any hour. The knights had gone on strike repeatedly, demanding raises. Internal problems had frustrated her more than external threats. But now things were different.
“The walls are solid, and we have plenty of people protecting us.”
“The guards are reliable, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly. I was worried at first, but it turned out fine.”
“At first I thought some thug had shown up. But despite his appearance, he turned out to be quite decent.”
“Yeah.”
Elena smiled fondly, as if reminiscing about the past. Hans, who had been lost in thought, hesitated before carefully speaking up.
“My lady, if the workload is too heavy, why not call him back?”
“Him…? Ah…”
“We have a lot of work right now. It’s too much for you to handle alone. Since our situation has improved, perhaps we could bring him back…”
“No.”
“But—”
“I want to, but… how could I ask him to return? No.”
Elena cut him off firmly and stood up abruptly.
“My lady, where are you going?”
“I need to stretch my legs for a bit. Sitting too long has made me stiff.”
Elena headed to the training grounds to loosen up. Left alone in the office, Hans muttered to himself with a self-deprecating tone.
“It wasn’t Lady Elena’s fault that he left.”
“Grating… are you okay?”
Elena had changed into simple clothes and come to the training grounds. She had known Grating usually trained here, so she expected to find him. But what she saw instead was Grating collapsed on the floor.
“Huff… huff…”
He was breathing heavily, his body covered in sweat and dust. Bruises marked his entire body, and the usually neat training grounds were in complete disarray.
“What on earth did you do with my brother?”
Before coming here, she had run into Albert. He had been heading to see Richel with a remarkably refreshed expression, and she had wondered if something good had happened. It almost seemed like he had gone to relieve stress.
“Ugh… ugh… S-save me… S-save… N-no, I can’t take any more… Demon… Liar…”
Grating’s body trembled. Training with Albert had been hellish. No—though he had never experienced actual hell, even hell would have seemed far more distant and comfortable than Albert’s training.
Should we start with the big three measurements? Your body is too weak. What do you think you can do like this?
Sword training can wait. Let’s build your body first.
Your core is garbage. Let’s start with planks. What’s a plank? It’s a divine exercise that’ll fix your core. Just hold for ten minutes. Hey, not even a minute has passed. If you fall, we start over.
Regular squats are boring, right? Let’s do them in armor. And by the way, we’re adding jumps. If you don’t go high enough, you’re dead. Let’s do five sets of a hundred reps each, nice and easy.
Now that we’ve worked the lower body, we should work the upper body too, shouldn’t we? For shoulders, side lateral raises and shoulder presses are essential. After that, back muscles and…
Hell. There was no mercy. If his form was even slightly off or if his concentration slipped and his muscles lost tension, they started over from the beginning.
No reps, no reps, no reps, no reps, no reps, no reps. What do you mean no reps? Your form is so bad it doesn’t count.
Come on, just one more… Oh, that’s good. One more… Just one more. You can do one more. Really, just one more, really really just one more…
Even on the final rep, the count never seemed to decrease. The more Grating’s face twisted in pain, the wider Albert’s smile grew. Anyone could see he was enjoying Grating’s suffering. Even when Grating screamed and begged that he was going to die—
Don’t worry, even if you die I can bring you back. Your arm feels like it’s about to fall off? I’ve trained hundreds of people and none of them lost an arm. And even if it does fall off, so what? We can just put it back on.
There was no mercy. He spoke as if people were assembly toys, casually suggesting bones could be removed and reattached with ease.
Liar! Grating had shouted, but Albert only laughed heartily.
And we need to train your dodging too. How? Real combat is the best. It’s simple—just keep dodging my sword.
By the way, getting hit hurts. If we go easy on evasion training, you’ll get complacent and let your guard down. Forget about trying to coast through without pain.
To make evasion training effective, a certain level of pain was necessary. Only when getting hit hurt would someone grit their teeth and try their hardest to dodge. Without pain, the mind grew lax, leading to carelessness and ineffective training. That was why Albert swung his sword without mercy.
Don’t worry, even if bones break I can set them. And I’m quite skilled in this area, so there won’t be any breaks. You can trust me completely.
Does it hurt? It hurts for me too.
Dodging? Is that your idea of dodging? What are you going to do if your head gets cracked open? Roll! I said roll!
Grating trembled. He was no different from a demon. Only now did Grating understand that the clause in the contract about possibly dying wasn’t a joke—it might actually be real.
“He’s… a demon…”
Grating’s body shook with fear. What kind of hell had he witnessed to change a person this much? Watching him, Elena quietly made a resolution.
I can’t learn from my brother.
“Om nom nom!”
“It’s really delicious dayo!”
“I never get tired of popcorn dayo!”
The fairies eating popcorn flapped their wings with happy smiles. The crisp texture in their mouths, salty yet savory, had completely captured the fairy tribe’s tongues. A perfect hit to their tastes.
“Good dayo! Popcorn!”
The fairies stuffed their mouths full of popcorn, their cheeks puffed out. They looked just like squirrels storing peanuts in their cheeks.
“Hohoho, they’re so cute~”
The nanny looked at the fairies as if they were adorable small animals. Their short arms and legs, the way they tried to stuff popcorn into their tiny mouths—it was impossible not to find them cute. The way they stomped their feet in delight, saying how delicious the popcorn was, and flapped their small, adorable wings was especially endearing.
Such cute fairies… Why…
The nanny had heard roughly why the fairies had lived in hiding, and she felt sorry for them. That made her want to treat them even better.
“Thank you dayo, human!!”
“We’re happy you made so much popcorn dayo!”
“Hoh, it’s fine. It’s not that hard to make.”
“You’re a good human dayo!!”
“Other humans are still a little scary, but you’re okay dayo!!”
Though they had come here because of the popcorn, the fairies still hadn’t overcome their fear of humans. That was natural. After suffering such terrible things in the past, no amount of time would easily erase those memories.
“This is so good dayo!!”
“Crunch crunch!”
“Popcorn is the food of the gods dayo!!”
While the fairies were happily eating popcorn, Hobuhobu spotted Albert waving at him from a distance. Hobuhobu quickly stuffed the popcorn in front of him into his mouth and flew over to Albert, flapping his wings.
“Om nom nom… What’s the matter dayo, human?”
“Oh my…”
But Albert wasn’t alone. Richel was with him, and when she saw the fairy Hobuhobu, she was startled.
“That’s… that’s really a fairy!? Oh my goodness! How!?”
What kind of existence were fairies? Elves and dwarves… No, they were an even rarer race than those! A mystical tribe that could only be seen in legends or fairy tales. And yet, she was meeting such a fairy tribe here.
H-how did he even get fairies… Just what is Albert capable of…?
“Hngh… What’s this human dayo?”
Hobuhobu, seeing Richel, shrank back slightly. Her sparkling gaze as she stared at him was quite burdensome and strangely frightening.
“S-scary dayo… N-no, but I’m Hobuhobu of the fairy tribe… I’m not scared dayo… But…”
Hobuhobu kept his distance from Richel, muttering that she was a little scary.
[He seems to find her overwhelming for now.]
[Lady Elena, Lord Albert, the nanny, the dragon, the elf, and the dwarf were easy to approach, but other humans are still too much, it seems.]
That makes sense.
They weren’t hiding in the kitchen for no reason. The fairies gathered here because they felt it was the safest place. Well, their main goal was probably the freshly made, piping hot popcorn.
“Give him some space. You’re making him uncomfortable.”
“Ah, ah… I-I’m sorry. It’s just… you’re so fascinating. I never thought I’d actually see a fairy with my own eyes…”
Richel quickly composed herself, though she couldn’t take her eyes off Hobuhobu.
Cute.
Look at that tiny body. Short legs and arms. An adorable face, and even the way his wings fluttered was cute. Not to mention those large, teary eyes looking at her… There wasn’t a single part of him that wasn’t cute.
How precious!
She felt like she was looking at a small animal. The urge to pet him welled up, but Richel barely managed to hold it back. Composing herself, she recalled why she had come here.
“So… since fairies are good at making alcohol, you want to sell that?”
“That’s right.”
“I was wondering what you meant by selling alcohol, but fairy-made alcohol… That must be incredible!?”
“Right?”
“Yes! Fairy alcohol is considered the highest grade even among collectors! Ten years ago, just one bottle of fairy alcohol went up for auction and sold for three million gold!”
“Hoh…”
Fairy-made alcohol was something you couldn’t obtain even if you wanted to. Considering its rarity, three million gold might actually be a reasonable price. Commoners would say, “Three million gold for alcohol? Are you crazy?” But nobles and commoners had different amounts of wealth. Nobles casually spent millions of gold to obtain what they desired.
“Ah! I-if you want to talk about alcohol, you should speak to the q-queen dayo!”
“The queen!?”
Richel was surprised once again. She could meet the queen of the fairy tribe!?
The queen of the fairy tribe… According to legend, the fairy queen is the strongest and wisest among fairies.
She would surely be a beautiful, elegant, and dignified fairy. Richel had deep fantasies about fairies, especially the fairy queen. It stemmed from the fairy tales she had loved as a child. A hero chosen to defeat the Demon King. The fairy queen guarded the holy sword the hero needed, and later became his companion. The fairy queen served as the hero’s excellent guide, helping him stay on the right path. With her wise mind, she showed him the way through trials, and with her powerful strength, she saved him.
She must be magnificent…
It was a fantasy that had remained unbroken since childhood. The thought of meeting the queen of the fairy tribe made this feel like a saintly virtue. But Richel didn’t know.
“Where is the queen?”
“She’s over there dayo! The queen is too much dayo! She’s eating way more than we are dayo!!”
Hobuhobu pointed to one side with a resentful expression. Richel’s head turned quickly. And then she saw.
“Nom nom nom.”
A fairy tribe queen with glossy lips, diligently eating popcorn.
“That’s… the queen of the fairy tribe…?”
It was as if a pure child waiting for Santa on Christmas Day had witnessed their disguised father entering the room. Her expression was that of someone who had taken red medicine, woken from a dream, and been shocked.
“……Life is a gutter.”
Her innocence had been thoroughly destroyed.