Chapter: 329
After a brief exit, the Elder returned to the house, accompanied by some unidentified flying objects.
‘What on earth is that?’
At first, I thought those big bugs were just some oversized insects because there was a large tree next to the house. It’s normal to have insects buzzing around plants.
But as I looked closer, they were definitely not bugs. They were about the size of my thumb, complete with wings, but they resembled little humanoid creatures. I felt a bit guilty for mistaking them for insects even for a moment. They were flying around, so naturally, I assumed they were bugs.
“Here—”
“Shin, shin.”
“Over there, over there.”
The Elder, who had brought the swarm of flying creatures, seemed about to say something, but before he could finish, the creatures zipped towards us.
More specifically, they flew straight at Tannian and clung to him.
“Haha, what an odd bunch,”
Tannian, taken by surprise at the sudden attack, must have never experienced anything like it before, as he managed to smile. After all, where else could you get the chance to have thumb-sized children hanging from your hair or shoulders? It felt like something out of a fairy tale.
So, what exactly are these creatures? They don’t seem hostile, but I should at least find out what they’re doing here.
“Hey! What are you doing, being so rude to our guest? Let go!”
“No! No!”
“Oh, Uncle Enen’s energy! It’s been so long, I missed you!”
The Elder sighed as he watched the scene unfold but despite his attempts to scold the creatures, they shook their heads vigorously and clung even more tightly to Tannian. While they were just hanging on a moment ago, now they were burrowing into his hair and clothes like shields.
“I’m fine. It seems these curious little ones want to play, and playing with kids is always fun.”
Tannian, who was now stuck between the creatures, smiled gently, causing the Elder to sigh again and step back. He couldn’t possibly force them off, and since the person involved didn’t seem to mind, he had no choice but to let it go.
“But who are these kids? Since they call you Uncle Enen, they don’t seem like ordinary children.”
Tannian pointed out our unasked question. Their overwhelmingly small size, wings, and the fact that Enen had suddenly been labeled ‘Uncle,’ all tallied up to a significant mystery.
I was completely baffled. They looked like some kind of hybrid race, but I hadn’t heard of such a thing before, and they were even smaller than dwarves. Dwarves were supposed to be short, but not finger-sized! Plus, dwarves didn’t have wings, and they weren’t exactly cute either.
“Have you ever heard of fairies?”
At the Elder’s words, Tannian’s eyes widened in shock.
‘Oh.’
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this surprised.
Before Enen’s Dawn Sect established its religious dominance, countless gods and sects existed across the continent like the Warring States period. Among those, the goddess Constantina was worshiped as the deity of vegetation and was the mother of elves, also granting the World Tree to them. Rather than expanding her influence, she was a gentle deity who embraced nature and elves.
Because of this, when Enen began his religious conquest, he first bowed to Constantina, resulting in a peaceful victory. Out of respect for the peaceable defeat, the Dawn Sect preserved traditions concerning Constantina and the elves, creating a win-win relationship. They even treated the World Tree as a sacred relic handed down from the gods.
“Those beings that communicate with elves through the World Tree are spirits and fairies.”
As soon as Tannian heard the word “fairies,” he became excited and began to unload an overwhelming explanation. Thankfully, the topic was interesting; otherwise, if he had launched into a spiel about something tedious, I might have just run away.
“Spirits could exit the spirit realm through the World Tree as a door, while fairies were born from its branches and made the World Tree their home.”
According to Tannian, the World Tree is a divine blessing, and when it existed, it was a beautiful time when divine beings lived in harmony with humans.
It must be a dream for priests, seeing as they could coexist with beings close to the gods through the tree left by the deities.
However—
“Didn’t the World Tree burn down in the past?”
“…”
Tannian, who was just about to happily share, nodded solemnly at Lather’s remark.
The World Tree, which flamboyantly burned down in the final days of Apels. Regardless of whether it was a legacy left by a god other than Enen, from the perspective of the Dawn Sect, it was also a legacy of a peacefully surrendered deity.
In other words, it symbolized the victory and tolerance of the Dawn Sect, and the Apels Empire burned it down. Naturally, the Pope at the time excommunicated the Emperor of Apels. It’s partly why the Holy Kingdom holds a friendly stance towards Kefellofen, which destroyed Apels.
“I heard that because of that atrocity, spirits can no longer appear in the human realm, and fairies lost their homes, leading to their extinction…”
After mentioning that, Tannian gently stroked one of the fairies clinging to his shoulder. The fairy then grabbed Tannian’s finger and nuzzled against him.
Seeing such affectionate expressions from a legendary being made Tannian’s face quickly melt. Maybe because they were small, they were quite cute.
“Well, you certainly know that.”
Then the Elder, who had been quietly listening, nodded.
“When the World Tree burnt, spirits hid away, and fairies lost their homes. Since that day, no new fairies have been born.”
Looking fondly at the fairies, the Elder had an expression akin to watching orphans who lost their homes in a natural disaster. His face was filled with sorrow and pity.
“Under normal circumstances, those kids would have collapsed, but thankfully they managed to create a temporary shelter.”
“Does that mean you’ve recreated the World Tree?”
As he played with the fairies, Tannian’s face brightened. If the World Tree had really been restored, that would be quite something—
“Not quite. The spirits can’t use it as a door, and no new fairies can be born, so calling it a recreation would be somewhat flattering. It’s just enough for the remaining fairies to live.”
With that blunt response, Tannian’s expression fell back into gloom.
Right. Mortals can’t create the gifts bestowed by the gods. That much was obvious.
“They’re just clinging to the remnants of what the gods left behind, trying to force a facade of a World Tree. The fairies barely survive due to insufficient divine power, so anyone with a strong divine aura is bound to be welcomed.”
Understanding the specifics of the situation made Tannian’s view of the fairies change a bit. It was akin to orphans who hadn’t been able to eat properly in an orphanage being cheery at the arrival of an adult bringing food.
‘Poor things.’
It’s all Apels’ fault. What on earth did the innocent World Tree do to deserve that?
Once Tannian and the Elder finished explaining, the group’s gazes softened significantly as they looked at the fairies. They were small and cute, making it easy to feel drawn to them, and add a tragic backstory? That’s a heartstring tugging combo.
But the fairies weren’t allowing just anyone to come close. They adored Tannian’s touch but flitted away from regular humans as if playing hard to get.
“I guess they don’t like me,”
Louisette said, looking dejected after being rejected by the fairy. What could be expected? When considering that they were hurt by humans, it was natural.
—I was trying to comfort her too.
“Hmm? Eeeh?”
Until one of the fairies started fluttering around me.
The fairy that had dodged Louisette’s hand tilted its head, came closer to me, then playfully danced away whenever I reached out. It was like a game of tag, but I had no clue what was going on.
“Do you like my brother?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
Louisette mumbled in jealousy. If they really liked me, they’d be hugging me like Tannian, right? Why just hover around, gauging the distance?
After a while, the fairy pointed at me, shouting, “Auntie in the sky! Auntie in the sky!”
?
‘Auntie?’
That left me confused. Do fairies have a habit of calling people by different genders?
Before I could ponder further, the fairies’ attention was fully on me.
“Auntie? Auntie?”
“Really? Really?”
“I haven’t seen Auntie in ages!”
They all seemed very interested.
Most of the fairies, who had been hovering near Tannian and even sitting on him, rushed over to me. Suddenly, I was bombarded with a swarm of them. So this is what Tannian felt earlier.
“Auntie, that’s right! Definitely Auntie energy!”
The fairy who had called me “Auntie in the sky” landed on my clothes.
“Looks like the kids really like you! You’ll make a great dad!”
“Haha…”
It was so unexpected that Marghret joked awkwardly. Like Louisette, she also failed to touch a fairy, and perhaps a hint of jealousy shimmered in her eyes.
“There’s, like, energy on you, Auntie. Energy!”
While the fairies pestered me, I finally realized why this was happening.
Unlike Tannian, who had turned his body into a playground, the fairies solely focused on my body. Since they were all hypersensitive to divine energy, it became clear:
‘The Eternal Blue Sky.’
That had to be it. The only connection I had with the gods was through that.
‘Auntie…’
The Eternal Blue Sky, the goddess. It was a bit surprising to find that the sky deity was female. I had envisioned more of a Uranus or Zeus archetype; what a prejudice that was!
“You can’t pull off the goddess’s power, huh? You can let it go.”
“Staying energy, staying energy.”
“Can we take it? Can we take it?”
In the midst of all of that, I overheard a suspicious conversation happening among the fairies.
Could they really detach divine energy? The sort of thing specialized priests struggled with, only to end up vomiting blood?
‘Really?’
I was filled with an overwhelming sense of joy over this unexpected fortune.
Then again, fairies had close ties to the divine realm; things were different for them. Compared to a mere mortal, they might easily accomplish things beyond my reach.
“Hey, kids, what’s all this chitchat about?”
The fairies, who seemed to avoid humans, were now found clinging to someone who was obviously not a priest. The Elder, who had been absent-mindedly watching the scene, snapped back to reality and hurried to question the fairies.
“This person has Auntie energy! We can take it with us.”
The fairies babbled in unison.
“But we have nothing to offer! Mom told us that if we want something, we must give something in return.”
“We’ve got nothing; everything was burned.”
“Mom, Mom can’t keep her promises. I want to see Mom…”
“Mom, Mom…”
“Um, kids?”
As their whining turned into tears seeking their mother, the Elder looked like he was at a loss. When they mentioned their mother, I figured they were referring to the World Tree or the goddess Constantina, both of whom would indeed be hard to meet.
“Excuse me.”
Anyway, I decided to quietly step in and comfort the tearful fairies. I might not be able to give them a mom, but I could give them something.
“If you can take it, go ahead.”
At that, the sobbing fairies turned wide-eyed, their wings fluttering in excitement.
“Really? For real?”
“We can take it? All of it? Everything?”
“Yeah.”
I meant it. I’d rather they take something than wait for forgiveness from the Eternal Blue Sky.
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