Chapter 40

“Ka-Kalia. What I’m seeing right now – is this an illusion? ..Are these spirits1?”

Some palm-sized spirits flew around Humming, dancing round and round. They were all tiny. Some resembled human children while others resembled small birds. Whether it was an animal or a human being, they were all children. Cute spirits, whose gender was impossible to guess from their appearance, played tricks with Humming’s hair.

“Wow, stop it! It tickles!” Humming’s neck shrunk as the spirits burrowed into her hair, flying around, playing and pulling pranks on each other.

‘She can see the spirits?’ Kalia thought as she looked at Humming, who had burst into laughter at the spirit’s mischief.

Her eyes turned to the fairy.

‘But why can’t she see this woman?’

Obviously, a fairy’s power would be greater than a sprite’s. The fairy made eye contact with her and raised her chin with a face full of pride. With her fingers, the woman tapped a red flower fluttering nearby.

In reaction, the flower shook and soon, procured a drop of golden honey at its core2.

The fairy gently scooped out the liquid with the tip of her fingers and held out her hand towards Kalia, as if telling her to try it. Even though she wasn’t touching or tasting it, she could feel an awful yet sweet scent3 flowing from that single mysterious drop of liquid.

Kalia looked at the liquid, its golden colour resembling a certain someone’s eyes, and said to the fairy, “What about the kids?”

The fairy widened her round eyes and smiled as if to tell her not to worry. A few flower spirits flew to the fairy’s ears and whispered to her. She then turned her head to look over at the other side of the forest.

‘…..!’

She didn’t make a sound but Kalia could tell she was very surprised. The fairy stomped her feet with a bewildered look on her face. As if she had read Kalia’s mind, grabbed Kalia’s hand again and pulled her.

“… go back? Why? No, we don’t have that much time left. Let me know where the kids are.”

The fairy shook her head and puffed quietly,  silently saying no with a pale face.

She couldn’t figure out what this fairy meant. Kalia looked at the fairy strangely and turned her gaze to the surrounding area. Soon, she spotted a patch of crushed flowers. She shook off the fairy’s hand and walked to where the flowers had been trampled upon. The hideous shape of the footprints imprinted in the flowers were very familiar to her eyes.

“…Wolf footprints.”

Humming, who was pushing away the spirits playing around in her hair, heard Kalia’s words and turned her head. Kalia grabbed Humming’s wrist and dragged her in the direction the footprints were heading, her face hardening.

“Let’s go, Humming.”

Now, there really was no more time to lose.

The pale-faced fairy chased after Kalia in a hurry, her toes tightening in anxiety.

– What do I do? What should I do?-

Screech!

The fairy, who was following Kalia, looked up to the sky at the resounding cry of a familiar bird. A white hawk flew vigorously over the pale twilight sky. At that moment, the fairy’s face brightened. The fairy, whose eyes anxiously trailed after Kalia’s distant back, turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

***

Kalia walked busily after the trail left by the wolf’s bloodstains. When she glanced up, light purple streaks were already spreading across the sky, like drops of wine in water. Allen’s blood was probably going cold by now.

‘We must return home by 6 o’clock, in time for dinner. Definitely.’

If she didn’t hurry, she didn’t know if Allen would faint in worry from waiting for her and Humming. The waiting period must be very cruel for him, someone with a lot of worries and a strong sense of responsibility, to endure alone. Kalia tightened the grip on her sword and sped up her pace. She was worried that Humming, who she couldn’t see following behind her, might have gotten lost, but Humming soon appeared running close behind her

Humming’s cheeks were flushed from running and she gulped for big breaths of air as she tried to catch her breath. Her shoulders were stiff with excitement and tension. Right now, her face was similar to the one she made when she had to don her red uniform4 and enter the Imperial Palace.

Seeing the state she was in, Kalia couldn’t help feeling a bit sad and sorry. She kept making Humming suffer through things that she didn’t have to go through.

‘I really need to be nicer to Humming.’

Kalia’s legs pumped faster as she chewed her lips nervously. Fortunately, her stomach wasn’t cramping or feeling heavy right now. To be honest, from the time she had entered the forest, her head felt exceptionally fresh and clear. There was no fog, perhaps because she had been removing the forest’s illusion mushrooms in her spare time.

Kalia followed the footsteps with light steps into the ‘deeper forest’. As she entered, the trail of footprints in the wet soil grew messy. This was because the wolves’ prints started to overlap with footprints of the fleeing children.

She went far deeper into the forest than she thought she would. A long time had already passed since she first entered the forest so even if she found the children, she would have to use a teleportation scroll to leave.

‘The Fairy Forest is very sensitive to magic so I’ll have to be careful when using magic. It wouldn’t matter if you are a wizard beyond a certain rank, but it’s different for ordinary people. There was an incident of people, who didn’t know how to use magic properly, using a scroll recklessly and the space being distorted as a result. There is a high risk of explosions in a distorted space.’

This was what Simon had once told her.

‘Of course, Kalia, you’ll always be with me so you don’t have to worry about that.’

The sudden memory reminded her of Simon’s face, who had smiled so confidently when he told her that.

Back then, his cool touch had glanced across the back of her neck. In that moment, they had seemed like eternal partners that would never fall apart. Shoving the image of his face out of her head, Kalia picked up speed once again.

She continued on for a few more minutes when she suddenly felt a strange fluctuation of power in the distance. Kalia headed in that direction without hesitation. Humming followed behind her  with anxious eyes. Just as Kalia reached the entrance to the cave.

“Huh?”

Kalia felt a heavy force pass through her body after she crossed a certain point. It was a strange feeling of being sucked in and pushed out at the same time.Kalia stopped and looked back just in time to see Humming, who had followed closely behind, be bounced back by an invisible wall.

“Huh? Huhhh?”

A gentle but determined force pushed her back and Humming fell. Even as she fell, Humming couldn’t understand why and what had just happened. Question marks filled her eyes as she looked at Kalia, who was just a step ahead, in bewilderment.

“What – you just pushed me away…”

“I guess this is where it is,” Instead of alleviating Humming’s confusion, Kalia’s eyes focused on the exact halfway point between where she and Humming were standing.

“The deep forest boundary.”

“A boundary of the deep forest?” Humming asked in a curious voice.

“It’s like a magical boundary and is something that’s invisible, but it does exist. From hereon in, it can be considered the realm of the fairy.”

“How, then, did Miss get in there?”

It was a question Kalia didn’t know the answer to either. She felt some of the barrier’s power, but she was sucked into the other side without much, or really, any, resistance.

“Yeah, it’s weird.”

Kalia felt something stirring and moving in her heart. It was a sense of deja vu that seemed to have surfaced from the depths of her unconsciousness.

“Wait, if this is fairy territory… the beasts wouldn’t be able to get in here.’

Then it was better to go somewhere else so as to not waste time. She had to take a step closer to the children instead of standing here thinking about how she got in here. Kalia turned around without hesitation and tried to leave.

She only took a step towards Humming when a pulsing wave rippled from a corner of her heart, tugging at something behind her. She turned around again, and scanned the area, spotting a cave that seemed to be leaking strange waves of energy nearby.

Paaaaaang!5

As Kalia whirled around at the noise, Humming had already jumped up first and tried to push herself through the boundary, toward Kalia, with all her might. But the more force she pushed with, the stronger she was pushed back. Eventually, Humming was bounced back with an even bigger rebound than the first time she fell.

Paang!

Humming flew back very hard because she had put a lot of her strength in to avoid being pushed out. Just before the back of her head struck the floor, Kalia reached out reflexively, grabbed Humming’s waist and pulled. In an instant, Humming was on the other side of the forest boundary, inside the deep forest and felt the force of the boundary shoot through her body. .

“Huh? Huh? ……Huh!”

Surprised, Humming’s face contorted in shock, shook eyes darting alternately between where she was standing a little while ago and to her feet where she was standing now.

“W well, I’m in here now! Uh, what happened? That, uh, sucking feeling is the boundary, right? Right?”

Humming suddenly got inside the boundary.

Was the border of Fairy Forest this easy to cross? Just like that?

‘All my efforts felt like they were in vain. Go figure,’ Humming thought.

“I guess it’s all thanks to Miss! I think I came in because of the force of Miss’ pull!”

Kalia felt even stranger when she heard Humming’s words. She glanced at the boundary with her scrutinizing eyes for a moment, then immediately turned away, pointing towards the cave, “Let’s think about how we got in later and head over there.”

“Oh, yes, yes!” Humming also came to her senses and quickly chased after Kalia after giving one last very suspicious glance in the direction of the boundary but it was only calm as if nothing had happened.

***

Screech!

A white bird circled the air and immediately descended toward a certain point on the ground. Its claws tightly gripped the shoulder of the man he had landed on. The valiant red-eyed white hawk soon rubbed its beak against its master’s rough chin. Unlike its sleek appearance, it was a lovely bird.

“You must have found Gaia. Is she coming here?” The man, with his long light gray hair tied up, spoke tenderly to the rubbing hawk.

The hawk cried out, as if to answer the man’s words. The man smiled and stood under a tree’s huge shade, gazing up to the sky. Looking at the red sunset sky, he knew not much time was left.

“…It’s too late to regret that I can only see her once a year,” he said in a voice of deep regret.

The man stood, leaning against the huge tree, waiting for the child. The cool wind swept through the hem of the man’s clothes. Unlike the image that his appearance, comfortable clothing and soft voice gave off,  an enormous aura emitted from him and shrouded the surrounding area he occupied. Although he looked relatively young in appearance, his profound eyes held a power that was difficult to enumerate in years. A huge and steady energy, comparable to that of a boulder or mountain, was overflowing from the man. He looked to the sky again at the rustling appearance of a woman with light yellow hair. The fairy, Gaia, ran to the man with a bright smile and hugged the man’s broad shoulders. An affectionate smile spread across the man’s face.

“Gaia, my daughter.”