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“I-is he going to be alright?”
Tafel raised her head and glanced at the slave trader with half-closed eyes. She was sitting beside Vur who was lying on the ground with his eyes closed. His armor had been stripped off, and a massive white rose was growing from his chest. The roots cocooned his body, covering every inch of skin. After Vur had drunk the poisonous pool, his body had heated up until steam rose off his skin. Even Tafel was worried for a moment before the flower sprouted and cooled him down.
“D-do you mind letting us go?” the slave trader asked in a quiet voice. He pursed his lips and hung his head when Tafel glared at him.
“How many days has it been since we’ve been here?” one of the men whispered. They were all stuck at the entrance to the fairy’s gate. None of them tried to leave after Tafel made an example out of one.
“I don’t know? A week? It’s hard to tell when there’s no sunlight,” another man said. His stomach grumbled. Their rations were running low, and the leader had insisted on giving most of it to Tafel. A strange creature with ten horns that had the power equivalent to a top-tier adventurer, why would he try to provoke something like that?
Tafel sighed. Seeing the flower on Vur’s chest brought back bad memories for her. Even though Lindyss had helped her remove the resentful spirits which were haunting her, she still had the occasional nightmare or flashback during the day. Dark caves were the worst. Hurry up, Vur. She pursed her lips and drew circles on the ground with her mana-tail. Her thoughts were answered. The flower on Vur’s chest shrank as a miniature figure appeared, growing by absorbing the plant’s petals.
The roots receded as the rose withered, returning back to the shape of a small seed and embedding itself into Vur’s chest. The rose tattoo still remained, but it was faint and required the right lighting and angle to see. Vur’s eyes shot open as he sat up, knocking the small fairy over. She squealed as she bounced on his lap. Vur blinked. “Stella?”
The fairy looked exactly like Stella had: same short height, same silver hair, same golden antler-like horns. Even her irises shifted colors depending on how the light hit them. The fairy tilted her head to the side. “Stella…? I … am Stella?”
“That’s right,” Vur said. “You’re Stella. I’m Vur.” He gestured towards Tafel whose face was slightly pale. “She’s Tafel.”
“Vur…,” Stella said and wrinkled her brow. She tilted her head again and placed a finger on her chin. “Dragon?”
Vur beamed. “Yes. I’m a dragon,” he said with a nod. The slave trader’s face adopted a confused expression in the background. Vur ignored it. “You’re a fairy. Do you remember anything?”
Stella’s brow wrinkled. She bit her lower lip while hemming and hawing. Finally, she responded with, “I’m Stella.”
“That’s right. You’re Stella.”
“Oh my god,” Tafel said as she hung her head. “She’s exactly like you. Hopefully she won’t be as unreasonable…. Though I suppose this is a lot better than her retaining her memories from before.”
Stella turned her head and looked behind her back, testing her wings by raising them up and down. The movement came naturally and soon she was flying, twisting and turning while giggling in the air. Vur and Tafel watched her as she flitted to and fro before finally alighting on Vur’s head. “That was fun. I’m tired. Goodnight.” She promptly wrapped herself in Vur’s hair and fell asleep.
“Do you think she learned her vocabulary while she was in the tattoo form?” Tafel asked.
“Maybe,” Vur said. “I could feel her a lot, and she even told me about this place.”
“That’s true. Do—”
“Is this the place?” a voice called down from the steps leading outside.
“Of course it is. I, Shadow Nelly, found it,” a woman’s voice said. “Obviously it has to be the right place.”
“I don’t know…. It looks awfully suspicious,” a different voice said. “Aren’t there supposed to be some concealment spells around a fairy spring to prevent intruders from entering? It looks like someone came here first. Look, the runes around the area are broken.”
“This is why I say you worry too much,” Nelly said. “Let’s go. With Shadow Nelly leading the way, nothing can possibly go wrong.”
“Stop raising flags like that, please.”
Tafel and Vur glanced at each other. “The humans really talk strangely on this continent, don’t they?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Please don’t associate us normal people with them,” the slave trader said.
“Ah! What’s this? An ambush!?”
Everyone looked towards the steps. A woman clad in a black leather outfit with a black cloth mask was frozen in place. An elf and a bearded man stood behind her, hands on their weapons’ hilts.
“There’s stupid people everywhere,” Tafel said and sighed.
“W-who are you?” Nelly asked, flourishing a piece of paper. “We signed up for the commission first!”
The slave trader turned his head and asked Tafel, “Can we capture them?”
“N—”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Vur said, cutting Tafel off. She glared at him. “What? Everyone has to work hard to make a dishonest living.”
“Don’t quote the skeletons!” Tafel shouted.
“Uh…” The slave trader scratched his head.
“Carry on,” Vur said to the man before hugging Tafel. He stroked her hair and whispered into her ear, “Didn’t you want to go on an adventure to relax? Why are you worrying about such bothersome things?” He separated himself from Tafel, who had turned docile, and placed his hands on her shoulders. “If it’s none of your business and not profitable, leave it alone. That’s what Raffgier told me.”
“Raffgier? That rich noble?” Tafel asked. Her brow furrowed. “Wait. Why are you associating with him?”
“He gives me cake,” Vur said with a nod, a serious expression on his face.
“…I’m really going to have to follow you around one day to see what exactly goes on in your daily life back at home,” Tafel said.
“I’ve been telling you to, but you always say you’re training,” Vur said and snorted. The three adventurers were strung up in the background as Vur and Tafel chatted.
Tafel turned her head away. “That’s because there’s someone I want to beat,” she said and pursed her lips.
“Oh, he must be very strong,” Vur said. “Why don’t I beat him for you?”
Tafel resisted the urge to hit him. She sighed instead. “Don’t worry about it. One day, I’ll take his rights away.”