God's Command (2)

The fairies continued their frenzied chanting, dancing wildly around the moonlight grass. Their eerie laughter echoed through the swamp as the patch of glowing plants steadily expanded.

“If you pray with all your heart and sincerity, the gods will always bestow their blessings,” I replied calmly.

The Tinkerbell fairies kept chanting their ridiculous mantra while dancing beside the moonlight grass. And just as ridiculously, the patch of moonlight grass continued to grow. But once it surpassed forty stalks, the buff duration ran out and it stopped expanding.

The fairies swarmed me again, tugging at my clothes and begging me to make the moonlight grass multiply. They really were a bunch of eccentric little lunatics.

“I also receive the Blessing of Growth by praying earnestly to the gods. If you fairies pray to Sadalla with the same sincerity, I’m sure he will grant you his blessing. With all your heart.”

“Ah, so that’s how it is. Well, I need to harvest some of this moonlight grass. Would you permit me?”

“Not all of it. Just ten stalks will do.”

I had said five at first, then corrected myself to ten, but they told me to take fifteen. Together with Yanne, I pulled up fifteen stalks, stuffed them into my bag, and glanced around.

“Well then, we’ll be on our way.”

It was already early ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠evening by the time we arrived, set up the tent, and lit a fire. Spending the entire night with these Tinkerbells felt like asking for disaster. I wanted to abandon the tent and everything else and get out of this swamp as quickly as possible.

“Why can’t we walk around the swamp?”

The Tinkerbells were making a huge fuss, insisting we shouldn’t walk around the swamp at night. It seemed there was a monster so dangerous that even the fairies avoided it.

One of the fairies flew over holding a plant with straight red stems and roots still attached. Just getting close to it filled the air with a refreshing fragrance. The moment the crisp, pine-like scent hit my nose, I immediately recognized what it was.

It was thyme—the herb essential to Western cuisine. Normal thyme grew like grass with creeping runners, but the one the fairy brought was an upright, clump-forming variety. Because it grew in clumps, its scent was even stronger.

It was hard to believe that thyme—one of the most common and hardy herbs—was considered rare here. Thyme was known for its strong scent that repelled pests and its incredible ability to thrive even in hot, dry highlands. Its reproductive power was legendary among herbs.

Ah. Moisture.

This was a wetland. Even though thyme could grow with almost no water, the constant dampness here must have been suppressing it. I was about to tell them it would grow well if planted in dry soil when a sudden idea struck me.

“To receive a god’s blessing, you must offer a suitable sacrifice. For the Blessing of Growth, you need to offer something precious and pray with utmost sincerity. Only then will the god grant his blessing.”

It sounded like something a cult leader would say, but I figured I might be able to get something useful from the fairies, so I just went with it.

“A god’s blessing is a miracle. Only with such a miracle will this herb multiply. For a miracle like that, simple prayer and chanting aren’t enough. A sacrifice is absolutely necessary.”

A string of curses nearly escaped my lips. Just like the saying about forest fairies being insane, they started dragging the quiet Yanne around, insisting she be offered as a sacrifice.

“That child already belongs to me. She is a servant of the gods. Even if I offered her, she wouldn’t count as a proper sacrifice. Don’t you fairies have any precious possessions?”

Every time the Tinkerbells flew around, tiny sparkling particles drifted down from their wings. Seeing it reminded me of something I’d heard before. Fairy dust was frequently used in alchemy and various other applications. Whether it was made by killing fairies or simply shed from their wings, fairy dust was definitely a tradable commodity.

“You said humans used to take wing powder. What did they use it for?”

I didn’t know the exact purpose, so I wanted to hear it directly from the fairies.

The fairy scraped some powder from its own wings and sprinkled it on my left arm.

“Whoa!”

The forearm where the fairy dust had been applied slowly turned transparent. It became so clear that it looked like the arm had never existed at all. Curious, I touched it. The arm was definitely still there, but it was invisible. When I shook the dust off, the arm returned to normal.

Fairy dust had the effect of granting temporary invisibility.

“This powder should be perfect, fairies. A substance with such a unique effect will surely please Sadalla. If you gather some of this into this pouch, I will pray so that the clear-scent grass may multiply.”

Upon hearing that the powder could be used as a sacrifice, the fairies filled half the leather pouch I handed them with the sparkling dust. Invisibility was definitely a useful ability. Since I had received the offering, I planted the thyme in the driest patch of ground I could find and pretended to pray.

“…Om mani padme hum!”

The Activation Buff, Growth Buff, and Healing Buff all flashed in succession before sinking into the thyme. The previously shriveled stems stood up vigorously, spreading outward and producing new clumps.

The eleven Tinkerbells danced joyfully as the thyme multiplied, chanting their ridiculous mantra at the top of their lungs. Attracted by the commotion, more fairies began flying in from elsewhere. After two hours, their numbers had swelled to around forty. The newly arrived fairies listened to the others’ stories, then eagerly shook their own wings to collect even more fairy dust.

One fairy brought over a stem covered in blooming yellow flowers, calling it yellow-scent grass. I recognized it immediately. It was canola. A natural hybrid of wild cabbage and wild mustard, its seeds could be roasted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and pressed to extract cooking oil. I had been rendering pork fat for oil every time I cooked. If I could cultivate canola and press my own oil, I would be able to make a much wider variety of dishes. Things like tempura, for example.

I pretended to pray over the canola as well, bestowing the Activation, Growth, and Healing buffs. The stems quickly spread outward and began to thrive. As expected, the fairies went wild at the sight, chanting “Om mani padme hum” nonstop.

It felt like I had accidentally created a cult inside a game.

The combined fragrance of the thyme and canola flowers filled the air. The fairies began to lose their minds, acting as if they had taken some kind of hallucinogen. Just like how cats went into a dreamy stupor from catnip, the Tinkerbell fairies seemed to get high off the scent of these herbs.

“Yanne, secretly load our luggage onto the boat. We’re leaving the moment the sun rises.”

“Yes, Master.”

While keeping an eye on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the fairies, we packed up our belongings and loaded them onto the boat. I also took a few canola plants with me.

At the words “goes crazy for the smell of females,” I quickly laid Yanne down inside the boat and covered her with a blanket. Then I remembered something, pulled the blanket back, and sprinkled fairy dust all over her body. It was grotesque watching her gradually turn transparent, but she was definitely becoming invisible.

“Stay still so the fairy dust doesn’t rub off.”

Since Yanne was already invisible, I surrounded her with the harvested thyme and canola plants. I prayed that their strong scents would mask any trace of a girl’s smell.

Splash!

Suddenly the swamp water parted, and a massive white creature with a bulky body emerged.

“A… unicorn?”

Its muscles were so swollen they looked ready to burst, and its pure white coat shone ethereally under the moonlight. But the way it spoke was utterly vulgar.

And then I noticed it—the fifth leg growing between its hind legs.

Seeing a unicorn in the flesh brought back all the stories I had heard. It looked majestic on the outside, but the truth was that it was the lowest of the low—a degenerate that only lusted after virgins. That was the real definition of a unicorn in this world.

So that’s why no humans or demi-humans live near lakes and swamps.

With insane forest fairies and this perverted monster that went berserk at the scent of females, it made perfect sense that no one could survive here.

I was extremely glad I had hidden Yanne with the fairy dust.