Chapter 105
“You can’t come in here!!”
The fairy, who had rolled into the cabin, shouted with eyes wide as lanterns.
“My god, is this a fairy? Like the ones in fairy tales?”
Seeing Quies for the first time, Maili was so startled that she turned to Roina and asked. Roina ruffled her hair in frustration at the chaotic situation.
“Um, yeah, you could think of it that way, Maili. But listen up, because I need to explain this quickly—this unbelievably pretty fairy here is the one behind all the missing women. If you step outside, you’ll see them all asleep. She’s the one who made us go through all that trouble, and she’s also the one who kidnapped me. And now that we went through the effort of saving you, why the hell did you end up getting captured here too?”
Roina fired off everything she had been curious about at once.
Maili ignored the last part and instead widened her eyes in shock, glaring at the fairy.
Pretending not to hear inconvenient things—Quies and Maili were exactly the same in that regard. Roina let out a deep sigh.
“Hey, you rat-sized thing, you’re the one who took our girls?”
What’s with that tone?
Maili’s speech had suddenly become excessively rough. She stood with one foot out, arms crossed, and one eyebrow raised—if she started chewing gum, she’d look exactly like some delinquent girl.
“R-Rat?! I am NOT! Quies is at least as big as a magnolia blooming at the end of winter!”
“A magnolia, my a*s. Hey! Do you have any idea how much damage you’ve caused?! Families are in turmoil, wailing and begging for their daughters to be found!”
“W-Wailing?!”
Quies flinched in shock at those words.
“No! I hate sadness and tears! The girls are dreaming happily in their most beautiful state! Just tell them they’re living well!”
Hearing that, Maili stuck a pinky in her ear, dug around, and blew on it.
“Wow. Seriously. You’ve got to be kidding me. You made this mess, and now you want me to clean it up for you? And did you even ask those girls? If they really want to sleep like that forever, just dreaming? If they’re fine with abandoning their families, even as they break down in despair?”
“I, uh, ah, no…”
It was only then that Quies seemed to realize something, wilting instantly.
She clasped her hands together and fluttered around the room, mumbling nervously.
“W-What should I do, Master?! I think I made a mistake! I just wanted everyone to be happy…”
“Master?”
“Yeah, that’s how it is now. I’ll explain later.”
Since the fairy was surprisingly easy to reason with, maybe this would end without too much trouble.
Roina gently caught Quies mid-flight and placed her in the palm of her hand.
“Quies. You didn’t think about how hard this would be for the girls’ families, did you?”
“……No…….”
The green-haired fairy drooped her wings lifelessly. She pulled her knees close to her chest and, sniffling, let tears drip down in large drops.
“When someone by your side disappears, it’s unbearably sad. I just—hic—thought about how I never wanted to go through something like that—sniff—and completely forgot about how others might feel. Ugh.”
Roina felt troubled. Quies was far more sensitive than she had expected. She had only thought about things in a simple way—there had been no real malice behind her actions.
“Quies, then hurry and release the girls. Just send them back to their families.”
“……That’s not possible.”
“What?”
Maili once again menacingly pressured the fairy. Quies let out a squeak and, scrambling backward, grabbed Roina’s hand and hid behind her. Maili snorted in disbelief.
“Hah! Roina likes me better, you know?!”
That’s not the issue here…
“……I put the girls to sleep as part of a single contract. I can’t wake just one person. If I wake one, I have to wake them all.”
As she said that, Quies cast a wary glance toward the back of the cabin.
No way.
“……Then the owner of this cabin will die.”
“Yes…….”
At those words, Maili’s expression turned grave.
The woman lay there peacefully, her lips curled in a faint smile. Though her face was pale and thin, her slumber seemed serene. She must have been sick for a long time, suffering in pain. And if she woke up—without a way to cure her—she would surely perish in agony.
“Is there no way to heal her?”
“……Luda has been searching for over 400 years.”
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