Chapter 25

“They’re so tiny,” Tafel said with her eyes wide. She stood next to a bananerry bush holding Vur’s hand.

“Hey! Just because we’re tiny, doesn’t mean we don’t have ears!”

A trio of fairies were hovering over the bananerry bush, picking bananerries. The fairies had horns similar to Tafel’s; they sprouted from their temples and curved around their heads. They were all one foot tall and wore leaves as gowns. Four dragonfly like wings grew from their backs. The only difference between the three were their eye colors, which were red, blue, and yellow.

“Isn’t that a demon?” the one with red eyes asked.

“It looks like a demon,” the blue eyed one said.

The one with yellow eyes nodded.

“Hello, my name is Tafel, daughter of the demon lord,” Tafel said while curtsying with her shirt, “what are your names?”

“Daughter of the demon lord?” Maybe we shouldn’t tal-“

“I’m Bella,” the blue eyed fairy said, interrupting the red eyed one. She pointed at the one with red eyes. “She’s Rella.”

“And I’m Yella,” the yellow eyed one finished. Rella crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks.

“Don’t be like that,” Bella said to Rella.

Rella stuck her tongue out. “Why would the demon lord’s daughter be here in our land?” she asked, “I think she’s lying.” Rella flew up to Tafel’s nose and sneezed on her.

Tafel flinched and rubbed her eyes. “Did she just sneeze on me?” Tafel asked Vur in a high pitched voice.

Vur nodded. “I think that means she likes you,” he said.

Yella sighed. “It’s the naïve dragon boy too,” Yella said and clucked her tongue while shaking her head.

“She cursed you,” Bella said and giggled, “now you can only tell the truth and only the truth for one month. No more and no less.”

“What? You shouldn’t curse someone when you first meet them,” Tafel said and pouted, “that’s not very nice.”

“Fairies aren’t nice people,” Rella said and nodded, “now tell us who you really are.”

“I’m Tafel, daughter of the demon lord,” Tafel said. Her eyes widened and she put her hands over her mouth.

“Is she really cursed?” Vur asked.

“Yes,” Tafel said in a muffled voice. The trio of fairies nodded.

Vur frowned. “Dispel,” he said while waving his arm in front of Tafel’s body. “Did it work?”

“No,” Tafel said with her hands still over her mouth.

Rella giggled. “You can’t dispel a fairy’s curse that easily,” she said and stuck her chest out.

“Yup, we can’t dispel it either,” Bella said while nodding, “I guess she really was the demon lord’s daughter. Sorry about that. We’ll be going now.” Bella waved.

“Wait! You can’t just curse me and le-, actually you can. You shouldn’t curse me and leave!” Tafel said while interrupting herself.

Rella stuck her tongue out at Tafel. “You can blame yourself for being a demon. I’m glad I could make at least one of you honest,” she said and turned to leave.

Tafel turned to Vur. His eyes glowed and the fairy trio, who were just about to take off, found themselves pinned to the bananerry bush.

“Hey! Gravity magic’s not fair,” Bella said and pouted as she flapped her wings to no avail.

“That’s cheating!” Rella said.

“Why don’t you like demons?” Tafel asked Rella.

“You’re all liars,” Rella said and crossed her arms while looking away.

“Demons tricked us out of our cave and imprisoned our queen,” Yella said, “we had to give up our home and our stuff.” Yella pouted.

“I miss my slime bath,” Bella said and sighed.

“I miss my kitchen!”

“I miss my bathroom…”

The three fairies sat down and started to cry.

“Huh? Don’t cry,” Tafel said, “I’m sorry. Please stop.” Tafel glanced at Vur.

Vur’s eyes stopped glowing and the fairies stopped sobbing and looked at each other. Tafel opened her mouth to speak.

“Itwasnicemeetingyoubutwehopetoneverseeyouagainbye!” The fairies flew away before Tafel could say anything.

Vur and Tafel stood there for a moment.

“Fairies are weird,” Vur said as he picked a bananerry. He held one out to Tafel. “Want one?”

“Yes, I do and I want you to feed it to me,” Tafel said. Her face turned red and she covered her mouth while turning away. Stupid, stupid curse! she thought.

Vur appeared in front of her with a berry and smiled. “Say ah.”

Tafel felt her cheeks burn as she ate the berry. “No more questions please. Okay?” she asked.

“Do you-“

Tafel covered Vur’s mouth with her hands. “Okay?” she asked again while smiling.

Vur had an image of Lindyss’ smile appear in his head. He nodded.

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“We finally reached level 15,” Loffel said as he sat down. He watched the slime, which he just stabbed, bubble and dissolve.

“Let’s ask Doofus if we can go deeper,” Gabel said. The two were killing slimes in the mana source located in Niffle. They had to go back to killing slimes after the undead cavalry wave invaded. The two went up to their teacher and asked if they could go deeper. Doofus nodded.

“Be careful. The next types of monsters are dangerous metal elementals. Don’t go past the second room,” he said, “I’ll be keeping watch on you two.”

Gabel and Loffel smiled at each other. The two puffed their chests out and tilted their chins up as they passed their classmates who were killing slimes. Gabel equipped his morning star and Loffel readied his lance. The two walked through a corridor and arrived at a cave with a few other adventurers in it. Ringing sounds rang out as metal clashed against metal.

Gabel walked ahead and stopped. He dropped his morning star.

“Is that a floating… spoon?” Loffel asked.

“There’s a floating fork over there too…” Gabel said.

“Instructor Doofus did warn us about dangerous metal elementals…” Loffel said, “but utensils? What’s next? Chamber pots?”

Gabel picked up his morning star. “Don’t jinx it,” he said and sighed. He lifted his weapon and thwacked the spoon.