The Fairy and the Young Lord
Early in the morning, a wind passed through the forest. It was a chilly wind. The rain that had fallen a few days ago had carried away the remnants of summer, and the season had fully turned to autumn. The forest was tinted with shades of golden yellow and chestnut brown, and a damp scent lingered in the air, along with a cool, faint breeze.
Leaves hanging from the ends of branches met the gentle wind and—snap—broke free. They fluttered in the air before falling onto the woman curled up beneath.
Roberta, wrapped in a woolen cloak, had been asleep. When a leaf settled on her cheek, she slowly opened her eyes.
"It's chilly."
Sunlight filtered through the trees, but it was autumn sunlight—its warmth faded, neither dazzling to the eyes nor warming to the body.
Blinking, she pushed herself up. Looking around, she saw the boy Fritz sleeping soundly to her right, while three horses were tied to a nearby tree trunk.
"Where is Sir Ulrich?"
Ulrich was not there. Only his belongings remained where he had lain the night before—his master was nowhere to be seen. She frowned slightly, thinking, then shook her head as something came to mind.
She rose and walked to the stream near the campsite. Washing her face with the cold water, she cleared her mind and retraced the past few days of their journey.
After visiting the County of Roslayen, they had retraced their path and were now heading south. Their destination was the city of Novasolon, where the Pantheon stood.
They were on their way to the Pantheon with Ulrich, in order to revoke the excommunication imposed on King Richard of Osnover and the summons issued to priests across the entire kingdom.
"When will we reach the Pantheon?"
The road to the Pantheon was long—very long.
Novasolon lay in the southwestern part of the continent of Ekyir. It was even farther than Nua, the city Roberta had lived in before being assigned to Dithmarschen.
"It took me about four months to get from Nua to Dithmarschen, didn't it?"
More than a month had already passed since they left the kingdom. Autumn had arrived. Yet at this pace, she felt certain they wouldn't reach their destination even after a full year.
And there was a reason for that.
Ulrich, who led their journey, often strayed from the main road. Though the Pantheon was their destination, it was not his only one. Aside from it, he had many other matters to attend to.
Roberta didn't know how many. Perhaps as many as the relationships he had built over the years.
"At this rate, who knows how long it'll take."
When Roberta returned to the campsite, Ulrich was just starting a fire. Fritz had also woken up and was checking on the horses.
"What's that?"
Setting down her waterskin filled from the stream, she glanced at the chunk of meat beside Ulrich. It was a cleaned game bird—he must have found a pheasant nearby.
"It's an aquir."
"You caught something that swift?"
She added, "Three of them, no less."
Aquir was a type of pheasant—alert and fast, making it difficult to catch in the wild. Roberta herself had tried several times in the past but had never succeeded even once.
"I was lucky."
Saying that, he placed an iron pot over the fire.
"Is there anything I can help with?"
"It's fine. You two rest."
He had them sit by the fire and began cooking.
Since starting this journey with Ulrich, Roberta had learned many things about him—one of them being his skill in cooking.
It was hard to believe that a man who drank that dreadful tea called pine-flower tea could have such refined taste, but he did—and his skill was excellent.
While one couldn't indulge in fine dining during travel, whenever ingredients were obtained by good fortune like this, he revealed a craft honed over many years.
"..."
Under the watchful gaze of Roberta and Fritz, Ulrich placed the aquir leg meat—cut into bite-sized pieces and salted—into the pot. Sizzle. Smoke rose at once.
At that moment, her stomach tightened with hunger. It was early morning, and she hadn't eaten anything since waking. On top of that, they had been living off preserved rations for days.
"I'm hungry."
She lightly moistened her lips with her tongue as she watched the pot. The aroma rising with the pale smoke was rich and savory. When she glanced at Fritz, he too swallowed, pressing his lips together as if overcome with hunger.
As the surface of the meat turned golden, Ulrich added seasoning—something like crushed dried leaves, herbs he had gathered during their travels.
Watching the meat take on a reddish hue and release a spicy aroma, she felt saliva gathering in her mouth.
"Couldn't we just eat it like this?"
As if reading her thoughts, Ulrich spoke.
"Not yet."
He added wine and water to the pot and let it simmer. Only after the broth had reduced and seeped fully into the meat did he divide the portions and hand them out.
A gentle but cool wind passed through the autumn forest. As she cupped the wooden bowl with both hands, warmth flowed into her fingers. The rich scent of the stew tickled her nose.
Before her stomach could growl, Roberta put a piece of aquir meat into her mouth. The outside was slightly crisp, while the inside was tender. There was a faint spicy kick as well.
"You said you once worked as a cook, didn't you?"
She spoke briefly before taking another bite.
"Well, 'worked' might be too grand. It wasn't anywhere like a royal court."
"It was just an inn somewhere in a city," he added.
"That version of you… feels quite different from what you've shown us so far."
"It can't be helped. What you've seen are only parts of me, tilted to one side. I've lived many lives under many names, but you've mostly seen the larger ones."
Ulrich took the kettle from the fire and poured tea into his cup.
"Even if I had a hundred lives, not all of them would leave great marks. In fact, most of them are quite ordinary—so much so that people who expect something from me would likely be disappointed."
Roberta tried to imagine Ulrich as an innkeeper, but the image didn't come easily. It didn't suit the idea she had of him at all.
And yet, he had lived such a life.
The reason she couldn't picture it was exactly as he said—she had only seen fragments, and from those fragments, she had formed a fixed impression.
I still don't truly know this person.
Roberta chewed quietly, watching as Ulrich and Fritz chatted in low voices.
After finishing their meal, Ulrich's group mounted their horses and set off.
Since she had heard from Ulrich that there was nowhere urgent to stop by, Roberta turned her horse toward the shortest route to the Pantheon. Her plan was to descend the mountains and pass through a kingdom called Turnia.
But at a fork in the road, they encountered others.
The path split into left and right. Ulrich's party was meant to take the left, but from the far right side, two figures approached.
"Are those fairies?" Fritz asked.
The two riders were of different races. One was a human male, appearing to be around twenty years old. The other was a fairy—a woman, seemingly of a similar age.
"A pureblood."
Roberta examined the fairy closely. Determining whether a fairy had mixed blood was simple—you just had to look at the ears.
Half-bloods born between humans and fairies—called Galua—typically had ears slightly longer than humans or faintly pointed at the tips. Even at their longest, they wouldn't reach the length of a palm. Pureblood fairies, on the other hand, had ears longer than a palm and sharply pointed at the ends.
The fairy ahead had ears longer than a palm. And, as expected of a fairy, she was beautiful—truly worthy of the saying that they were sculpted directly by the gods. However, her beautiful face bore no expression.
"And she's wearing earrings too."
"Why? Is that a bad thing?"
"Fairies absolutely hate having their ears injured. So if someone has deliberately pierced them and put on jewelry, it only means one thing."
The two approaching figures were not commoners. They were nobles. And not just any nobles—they belonged to the Empire, likely from a prestigious house. Roberta was certain of it. The large earrings worn by the fairy were proof enough.
"Only vassals of the Empire wear earrings like that."
In a previous age—the era of the Isturia Dynasty—the Empire had initiated a hunt against other races. All non-human races were targeted, except for dwarves and fairies, who had been the cause of the incident. Those who were not human had faced the brink of extinction.
At that time, there were many fairies who had originally been imperial nobles but chose to surrender early rather than resist. They swore obedience and, as proof, wore earrings. Each earring bore the name of their master.
"Slaves?"
"Not anymore. The Isturia Dynasty treated fairies as high-class slaves, but when the Jokuster Dynasty rose, the Holy Church freed all non-human slaves. Isn't that right, Sir Ulrich?"
At Roberta's question, Ulrich gave a quiet hum.
"Nowadays, they wear them of their own will."
Fritz looked back and forth between the fairy and Ulrich, clearly unable to understand. They were freed, yet chose to remain as slaves? It was a natural reaction for someone who didn't know the full story.
"Fritz, you know that fairies live for a very long time, don't you?"
"Yes. Not as long as you, Sir Ulrich, but I've heard they live a long time."
"Then how long has it been since the Jokuster Empire was established?"
"Not even… two thousand years yet."
Ulrich nodded.
"What the Isturia Empire did is not history to fairies. It is the past, yes—but a past they can recall at a moment's notice. In other words, it is experience."
Back then, the Empire had shown no mercy. When a fairy was born, an inspector would come, pierce the child's ears, and hang a tag bearing the master's name. If one had lived through such a life for hundreds, or even thousands of years…
To humans, it was distant history. But to long-lived races, it was merely an old wound.
"But… then wouldn't they hate earrings even more? It was a terrible experience, and the meaning is bad too. Does it mean they were raised as slaves and their thinking became fixed?"
"No. Because they experienced it, they fear it happening again."
"Ah…" Fritz's eyes widened in realization.
"When the gods who dwelled in the heavens departed and their era ended, the ones who took their place were the dwarves. They built towers so tall they nearly touched the sky."
The dwarves sought the empty heavens—but fell.
When the age of the dwarves collapsed, the age of the fairies came next.
"I saw the fairy king move an entire island and connect it to the continent. From that, the Ice Peninsula was born. I also witnessed the world's mana become corrupted, bringing about all manner of chaos. And yet, even then, their power did not falter in the slightest."
But now, in the present day, the fairies had fallen. Their ancient glory was nowhere to be found. They were merely a minority race living in the age of humans.
That did not mean they were insignificant. They still possessed their own strength and influence. But they could no longer usher in a new era of their own.
They had accepted that they could not defeat humans as a species—and that if it became a war between races, it would only lead to their extinction.
They had already seen what became of those who failed to accept that truth.
"And so, they pierced their own ears. They wear what was once a mark of slavery by their own hands—and swear obedience to those who brought down the ones who enslaved them."
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