Chapter 7 : Event Triggered

Neigh!

When the coachman pulled on the reins, the horse gave a long cry.

The cargo wagon slowly lost speed.

After the wagon came to a complete stop, the coachman looked back.

“I’ll let you off, but even by wagon, it’s still another day to the city.”

The wagons departing from Root Village did not run on a fixed schedule.

They followed the old-fashioned method of departing once enough people and toll fees had gathered.

If you were lucky, wagons might leave twice in a single day, but on the other hand, it was common for them not to move for days on end.

Because of that, it seemed he was not pleased about dropping a passenger off just anywhere.

The coachman’s worries continued.

“As far as I know, there aren’t any houses nearby. The only thing around here is…”

I raised my palm and cut off the coachman.

No matter what he said, I was getting off.

“It’s fine. I’m going to be lucky.”

“Well, aren’t you stubborn.”

The coachman shook his head a couple of times.

After giving him a suitable grin, I hopped down from the wagon.

“Giddyup!”

The cargo wagon began moving again.

Leaving behind the sound of horse hooves rapidly growing distant, I stretched my waist.

“Ugh. Sitting still is torture too.”

I had been in that wooden wagon for a full two days.

The jolting impacts traveled straight up through my body, so there was not a single place that did not ache.

“Has the wagon gone?”

Wer poked his head out of the bag and yawned.

His toothless mouth opened wide, then closed.

He smacked his lips as he looked around, then grumbled.

“So you really are getting off. I thought you were in a hurry to reach the city.”

A desolate field.

There were only traces of what had once been cultivated farmland.

Nameless wild grass swayed in the chilly wind.

Beyond the horizon, I could see trees flaunting sharp, bare branches that seemed to pierce the sky.

“Lord Wer, do you know anything about that forest?”

“Let me see… That is the Forest of Wind Fairies.”

Wer’s eyes narrowed.

“Surely you aren’t thinking of having the fairies serve you dinner?”

I did not know about a meal, but I was planning to get something from them.

Fourtail Grass, said to grow by drinking in intense wishes.

It was the ingredient for an Elixir of Luck.

It was more than worth slowing my steps toward the city.

After all, Fourtail Grass could only be obtained in the Fairy Forest.

“Well, if I can get a meal while I’m at it, that’d be nice too.”

“There is no way wind fairies would show themselves before a human they have never seen before.”

Wer shook his head and clicked his tongue.

“I thought I would finally eat rich, greasy meat again once we reached the city. Hmph.”

“Even if it’s not a luxurious meal, wouldn’t they at least feed a benefactor?”

“A benefactor?”

“I heard a rumor.”

The affairs of fairies shut away in the forest would not spread into human society.

It was merely information I knew because I had written it with my own hands.

“I heard there’s been a problem in the Forest of Wind. They say even the young fairies are wasting away.”

Wer, who had been trapped in a cave for a long time, did not doubt my words.

His face darkened rapidly.

“But Ritark, can you really resolve something even the fairies themselves have failed to solve?”

“We have to go there first before I can solve anything.”

When I tapped his shell, Wer suddenly lifted his head, then nodded firmly.

Some of the gloomy air around him had disappeared.

“Let’s move before it gets dark.”

The sun had already passed overhead, and the shadow that had been stuck to my feet was slowly growing longer.

I adjusted my grip on the bag and began walking with vigor.

By the time we entered the edge of the forest, the sky had turned red.

Wer examined the bare branches and kept shaking his head.

“Oh dear! They all seem to be dead.”

I’m not so sure.

Beneath the dark, murky tree roots, green leaves were piled up in abundance.

This was not a problem that could simply be described as the trees being dead.

More importantly, I felt like I was going to die first.

Thump!

I braced my palm against a rough, dry tree trunk and caught my breath.

“Hah, huff… I didn’t think the forest would be this far…”

“Tsk, tsk. You are young, yet you tire so much after walking only a little. Why not build up your stamina?”

I agreed.

Ritark’s body was far too weak.

Still, it’s strangely annoying hearing that from a guy who napped in the bag the whole time.

Either way, this was the point where I needed Wer from here on out.

As if he knew that too, Wer fluttered upward and looked ahead.

“The fairies have played tricks here. This body shall guide the way.”

A faint light flowed from Wer’s body.

The light shot wide ahead, sweeping across the forest and reaching even the places that could not be seen.

Wer narrowed his eyes as he looked forward, then gave a small snort.

“We can enter this way.”

Wer began moving ahead without hesitation.

I followed behind him without complaint.

Since he had checked it, there would be no need to wander.

If one use of the helper character was as a shield, another was his ability as a guide.

Wer’s ability is especially necessary in the Forest of Wind.

There was an invisible curtain in this forest.

It was a power spread out to ensure that not just anyone could step into the fairy village.

If someone walked without knowing the path and touched the curtain, they would be teleported in a completely different direction, to another curtain elsewhere in the forest.

It was a forest where people often wandered for ages only to end up right back at the entrance they had come in through.

But with a guide, the curtains could be avoided.

“What an annoying power.”

Wer continued forward smoothly, only to suddenly turn in a different direction several times.

As a result, we were able to pass through the forest before even the final strand of sunset disappeared.

“Now! We have arrived. This is the Wind Fairy Village.”

A field where narrow roads, each only as wide as a wrist, stretched out like tree branches.

Small, charming houses barely high enough to reach my knees were sparsely lined up beside the roads, forming a village.

I feel like Gulliver.

I carefully placed my foot at the entrance of the path.

Then the lights that had been leaking here and there from the windows were hurriedly extinguished.

In an instant, the village sank into darkness.

Wer spun his body in the air and looked at me.

“As expected, we are not welcome.”

“We expected that, didn’t we?”

I gave a light shrug.

Wer floated in midair.

“Then have you thought of what to do next? Each house has a rather sturdy defensive formation, so it will be difficult to force them open and enter.”

“I’m not planning to force them open.”

To begin with, forcing open someone’s house and entering was trespassing, wasn’t it?

It meant that, if unlucky, it could turn into a situation where everyone decided to take each other down.

I had no intention of causing trouble in the fairy village.

What I wanted was a friendly relationship.

If I solve their problem, I should be able to maintain a good relationship with them.

The fairy village was troubled by the forest’s strange changes and the young fairies’ illness.

Most of them avoided humans, but there would definitely be someone who came asking for help.

“They won’t just ignore a human who made it all the way to the village. Let’s wait a bit.”

There was no need to wait long.

Because I felt a strong gaze from inside a small window.

Bang!

Sure enough, a little door opened forcefully.

“That’s enough. I will ask the outsider for advice instead! He may have knowledge different from ours.”

A body that was barely the length of my palm.

Every time her blue wings fluttered, her light-blue hair rippled.

Her round, adorable face was so pale it was pitiful.

There it is.

The event I had been waiting for had triggered.

The fairy grabbed the hem of my clothes with her small hand.

At that moment, a majestic voice spread throughout the entire forest.

“Neras! Step away from the human immediately and return to your dwelling. No matter how few places we have left to seek help, we cannot cling to a human.”

The fairy called Neras clenched her fists.

My gown crumpled inside her tiny hands.

“No! I cannot sit still any longer. If I go back, then what? Can you save my younger sibling, Elder?”

“Then do you think a human can save a fairy?”

“That…”

Neras’s gaze wavered.

As if refusing to let the opening slip away, the majestic voice spoke in a crushing tone.

“Humans are a race that thinks only of its own gains and deceives others by nature. Remember why we have severed all exchange with humans for hundreds of years.”

Those words were full of prejudice.

Before I knew it, I let out a short breath.

“You know, that’s pretty unpleasant for the human listening.”

“…This is not your place to interfere.”

“Really? In my opinion, you’re the one interfering in the matter between this fairy and me.”

When I continued standing up against the voice, Neras gripped my clothes tightly again.

Then she shouted as if driven by spite.

“Shutting ourselves in the village has solved absolutely nothing until now!”

The answer that came back was the sound of a tongue clicking.

The majestic voice gradually faded.

“A young fairy will only come to her senses after being deceived by a human…”

The pressure that had been weighing down the air vanished in an instant.

As breathing became easier, Neras slid downward.

“Oops.”

Even if her body was light, she would get hurt if she fell to the ground.

I lightly caught Neras by the ribbon with my index finger.

“First, I think I roughly understand the situation. Something strange is happening in the forest, and your younger sibling is sick, right?”

“Yes, that is correct. I was so desperate to have them seen even by a doctor outside the village that I ended up being rude…”

A doctor outside the village would be a human.

Wind fairies and humans were different from the very structure of their bodies.

Even so, she must be desperate enough to clutch at straws.

“I can make medicine. Maybe I can help.”

“Th-thank…”

Neras answered in a trembling voice, and her eyes had already grown watery.

The moment she nodded, large drops of tears fell from her black eyes.

Wait. I haven’t even done anything for her yet.

Her cheeks were soaked in an instant.

It seemed the emotions she had bottled up were that heavy.

The fairy’s face was too small for me to touch carelessly.

In the end, I looked out at the darkened forest instead.

Looks like that voice isn’t going to interfere anymore.

It had said she would only come to her senses after being deceived by a human, right?

Maybe it intended to wait and see what Neras would do for now.

For me, that made things easier.

“Now that the nagging old-timer butting in is gone, shall we continue?”

“Nagging… old-timer?”

“Ah.”

I awkwardly scratched my cheek.

It was clearly not a phrase that would work in a fantasy world.

“It’s just something humans say. More importantly, I’d like to hear the details.”

Neras covered her mouth as if she had suddenly come to her senses.

“I’m sorry. It may take a while, so let’s go to my dwelling first.”

I followed behind the fairy, but I could not enter her house.

Because it was as tiny as a doll’s castle.

While I awkwardly settled down in the backyard, the fairy brought out cookies no bigger than fingernails.

“My introduction was late. I am Neras.”

“I’m Ritark. This one here is Lord Wer.”

Neras forced a small smile, then began calmly explaining what had happened to the forest and the village.

The beginning of the strange phenomenon was an unusual tree.

She said that if you closed your eyes and opened them, flowers would sprout on its branches. By the next day, the flowers would fall, by evening its leaves would become lush, and in three days it would be bare again.

More trees like that gradually appeared, and the entire forest began rapidly repeating growth and rest. Now, it was turning black and dying.

Wer, who had been listening quietly, opened his eyes round.

“I thought all the trees in the forest were dead. Are you saying flowers will truly bloom again by tomorrow?”

“It has already been repeating for a month. The forest is one thing, but an even more serious matter has occurred.”

Neras’s brows drooped.

“Starting with my younger sibling, the young fairies have begun falling ill. They said they were dizzy and had headaches, then became unable to get up.”

“What treatment have you tried?”

“We shared energy with them and brewed herbs said to be good for headaches, but there has been no improvement.”

Wer clicked his tongue, then looked at me.

Neras followed Wer and turned her head as well.

Naturally, their gazes gathered on me.

They were asking if I could solve it, no doubt.

Of course, I knew the answer.

“Hmm.”

I cleared my throat once.

“It’s an oversaturation phenomenon. The problem, if anything, is that they have too much energy.”

[End of Chapter]