Seeker of First Light - Chapter 26
Chapter 26
“Ah, Twilight. Hello.”
“Hello! Twilight!”
Chryselua raised her eyes wide when she saw the group of fairies approaching her.
‘Skylte’s special guards!’
The trainees greeted her politely. The twenty or so tall fairies Chryselua had seen before came closer and surrounded her. She was still thinking about her dreams all the time. They still looked affectionate.
As she nodded, a blonde who looked mild for a fairy came out as their representative. He said his business almost immediately, without even saying hello.
“Nice to meet you. Twilight, well… can we ask what you are going to do with the last time?”
He was very nervous. The fairies behind them did the same.
This time, Chryselua slowly looked at their faces, which she had overlooked because of their quarrel with Axen Arc.
They were very pretty, young and fresh fairies.
There were about twenty of them, all with beautiful faces and a good flower scent unique to fairies.
Their physical ability was enough for them to aspire to join Skylte’s guard, who was closest to the parent tree. As befits a warrior of the spirit realm, the atmosphere emanating from them was intimidating enough. There were even a few of them that were similar in size to Naskan.
But even if she was Twilight, this was something she knew because she had lived quite a bit longer than these fairies.
They were still very young fairies.
The possibility of being disliked by the divine realm’s Lord or being subjected to minor punishment within Sedition must be a great burden to them.
The fairies of the spirit realm who served the parent tree were such beings.
Unlike the dragons, the fairies had to constantly receive missions, achieve results, and find the meaning of their existence. Otherwise, they were abandoned without being blessed by their lord, the parent tree.
The parent tree did not bless all fairies.
In the spirit realm, there was something called ‘pruning,’ the act when the parent tree directly weeds out useful fairies and useless fairies. Since everything was evaluated relatively, fairies always had to live in competition.
For fairies, survival was always about putting someone down and stepping on top of them. Also, for those fairies, missions and achievements in Sedition were directly related to survival.
To put it more simply, even a minor punishment could be a big deal to them, which could affect their status and life. So, she didn’t want to punish them by exposing what happened that day somewhere, and she didn’t want to take it as a weakness and put a lot of pressure on them.
…A few days ago, Chryselua would have thought so.
These days, she has many big worries.
In fact, at a time like this, it was not good for fairies from the spirit realm to approach first. Maybe one of the problems she’d been thinking about for days could be solved.
Chryselua let go of the previous business before telling her serious business.
“Why would you even take disciplinary action for that?”
“Oh, thank you…!”
“Instead, can you guys take me to the spirit realm?”
Almost all of the trainee fairies jumped up in surprise.
“Eh? We? We can’t do that.”
It wasn’t just an outright rejection, an attitude showing that it was really impossible.
“We are just trainees. Didn’t you see it on the ID we gave you the other day?”
Still, being a Second Special Guard trainee meant, in common sense, that there was a third or a fourth.
She didn’t have high expectations anyway. Originally, the spirit realm was an extremely closed place. The war had just ended, and it was unbelievable that dragons would visit there unless even one of the high-ranking fairies favored by the parent tree showed any favors.
‘It can’t be helped.’
She quickly gave up on the Lord’s fruit.
However, Skylte’s special guards… Other than that, the trainees had bothered her the whole time. With this in mind, she wanted to lighten the burden on her heart.
“Then, instead of just covering this up, you guys.”
“Yes!”
“If I asked you to side with me someday, would you all be willing to side with me at least once?”
“Ah, if that’s the case. No problem!”
The young trainees responded in unison with loud voices, and several people passing by the square giggled in this direction.
Chryselua covered her mouth with one hand and asked in passing as she cleared her throat.
“Even if it’s a devilkin?”
“Ah… that—”
The blonde fairy nodded to ask for her forgiveness. The next moment, turning their backs on Chryselua, they started whispering among themselves. It was a little cute because only their back was visible, and the raised ears seemed to be rabbits facing each other.
The whispers of the fairies came in small voices.
They were still young and had little social experience, so they didn’t seem to know that dragons had as good ears as fairies.
‘Isn’t it to reconcile with that b*stard?’
‘It would be nice if we went without punishment… that b*stard is really irritating. I don’t want to get involved.’
‘Hey, if the dragon tells you to, what should we do?’
‘Still, a devilkin is a bit…’
‘Then, go back to the senile parent tree.’
‘Wow, I hate that even more.’
‘I hate it, too.’
Chryselua crossed her arms and just waited for them to come to a conclusion quickly.
‘I can hear everything. You guys.’
They were fairies who liked to gossip. While the dragons respected the lord of the divine realm quite a bit, the attitude of the fairies towards their lord, the parent tree, was completely different from the outside.
On the outside, they act as if they are worshiping a most precious and sacred being, but she heard that it was not the case inside. Fairies who were still young and greenhorns like them made it so obvious.
‘A senile tree.’
Those were words that would get them punished not just in Sedition but in the spirit realm.
She didn’t know how these talkative guys would gossip in a large place like a break room. Thanks to that, she was able to discover Axen Arc, who had been spying on her the whole time, hiding his presence.
After a while, they nodded and pricked up their ears, their discussion finally over.
“Uh, what… I guess it’ll be fine once in a while!”
“Can you swear by the parent tree?”
The fairies cried at the unreasonable demands. The big guys drooped their shoulders like a pack of puppies.
“How can we do something like that?”
“What can you not do? After all, you guys are going to become official special guards soon, aren’t you?”
Each of the fairies cleared their throat or raised a hand and wiped the back of their heads. Unlike fairies with arrogant personalities, on average, they were very shy.
“It’s embarrassing to say this, but Twilight, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
“Among the twelve platoons, we are the lowest. We were the only group of trainees who didn’t get the rift mission this time.”
“Perhaps this year, we may have to return to the spirit realm after this.”
Eh? She didn’t think so, though.
The people she saw in her dream were definitely wearing the official insignia of the Skylte special guards. Although they looked a little young now, the fact that their face was familiar meant that it was definitely this platoon.
‘Then, is that dream really a nonsense dream?’
Common sense made it right for her to think that way. However, whenever she thought of that dream, it felt as if her heart had been cut with a sharp weapon. She still had many things to do, so she didn’t want to keep worrying about this.
“Then, if I hire you… how is it?”
“What? What are you going to use us for?”
“If you think you can’t join the parent tree’s special guards, be my guards. With my wealth, I can feed your platoon.”
‘Actually, that’s the property I received from Lord, though.’
The sound of saliva gulping could be heard here and there.
“Ah, that… wait a minute.”
The fairies turned their backs and whispered among themselves. She could hear everything they said, but Chryselua just pretended not to hear, looking at the distant mountains.
‘Don’t you think she’s overestimating us too much?’
‘Oh, honestly, what kind of special guards are we? I came here because I was told that I could achieve results just by wielding a weapon without thinking. That, too, was completely ruined.’
‘Still, I’m really drawn to it. I guess fairies are fairies, too.’
‘It’s much better to get a decent salary for the rest of your life than to die while pleasing an old tree.’
‘I’m in a hurry for money right now.’
‘I’m in a hurry, too.’
They were very talkative people.
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