Chapter 40: An opportunity

"You... how did you complete those circuits so quickly? Just who in the world are you?"

"It's not a big deal really, I'm just a regular mage"

These circuits turned out to be far easier to draw than I thought, after figuring out how this all worked, I got the rest of the street done in just a couple of minutes.

Well, I also want to check everything a few times to make sure I did not make any mistakes, confirming that I did my work flawlessly is always so satisfying.

"I've never seen anyone do such a good job in such a short time... what are you hiding miss? You are hiding your face with a mask and you offered to do that work for free, how very suspicious..."

"What!? I'm not hiding anything! Really!"

For a moment I'm afraid that he's going to report me to the guards or something, but instead, he just shrugs his shoulders.

"Oh well, I guess that means that I get to go home earlier today"

What a lazy guy! I want to say something to him but if he leaves he won't get me into trouble. Now that I think about it I've gotten into trouble a few times before because of people who didn't just decide to mind their own business after seeing a suspicious person like me. If everyone was as unwilling to perform their civic duties as this guy, the world would probably be a better place... for me.

"Since now I'm alone again, I suppose I can take a look at that thing..."

Earlier I noticed that there were a few lines from an entirely different mana circuit mixed with the one keeping the city above the water, I need to know what it does, my curiosity is too strong.

Following the lines to just outside the castle, I find a magic circle that seems to be a controller for the circuit, but it's blocked by a seal so I cannot access it.

"Let's see, if I pull from this part here... and then force my mana into here... oh! It opened!"

That seal was surprisingly easy to open, at first I thought that they didn't want the controller to be accessible to the public, but such a weak seal is probably only good for stopping children from using it.

But even if I can activate it, I probably should not do it without knowing what it does, and since I cannot leave this place I cannot follow the lines to see where they go.

However, I can copy the magic circle and make a portable version of the controller, they probably won't mind, if this thing was something important they would have used a stronger seal to protect it.

"Ufff, how long have I been waiting here?"

After all this time there's still no signs of Nera or the knights... Arana is not coming back either, this is so boring...

"Eeeeeeeeek!!!"

"Eh!?"

All of a sudden I hear a high-pitched scream and I feel something hit me on the chest, I can feel something wriggling inside of my cleavage, did a fish jump from the water or something?

"What is this!? The more I struggle the faster I sink!"

It's a talking fish! Wait, no, when I look down I can see that it has legs and... wings? I should probably pull it out.

Oh! It's a fairy! I'm holding a fairy in my hand!

"You! Let Shada go!"

Two small 'shadow spear' spells hit me in the chest, but they don't do any damage, the two fairies that cast them are floating in front of me.

"It can't be... our magic is not powerful enough to get through her fat boobs!"

"I'm not fat! And that has nothing to do with magic resistance!"

"Eeek! Sorry! Please don't kill us!"

Oh, I should not have yelled like that, I scared them...

"Please calm down, your friend was the one who crashed into me"

"Eh? Is that true?"

"Yeah...I was in a hurry after escaping from the castle and didn't pay attention to where I was going..."

"You were escaping from the castle? Why?"

"We wanted to ask for refuge after running await from Kalroth's domain, but we ended up wandering into a restricted area and they thought that we were spies"

"Well, there's that and they also got angry because we took the..."

"Sssssh, don't tell her that!"

"Kalroth was that demon lord that had his domain next to this kingdom, correct? Why did you want to run away from there?"

"Isn't it obvious? You can see just from looking at us that we're dark fairies"

Now that she mentions it, al three of them have black hair and are wearing black and purple dresses, I have to say, they have a good style!

"Ever since Kalroth took over, the worth of all the demons under him is determined by how useful they are in battle, so the dark fairies are treated just like slaves!"

"We're treated like animals!"

"We're treated like trash!"

"What? Why? Are dark fairies weak?"

"What!? You don't know!?"

"Eh... I'm not from around here"

"A fairy's magic is strong when used for healing or support spells, but weak for anything else, and the dark attribute doesn't have spells of that type, so in a fight, we're useless..."

"We're worthless..."

"We're useless..."

"I already said that"

What!? Is this possible!? All my life I've been dreaming of teaching someone the healing dark magic I got from my research, but nobody seemed to be interested in such a thing so I was starting to think that it might be impossible, and now, in a place like this by pure coincidence I just encountered a group of people who are in need of learning exactly that!

I cannot miss this opportunity, I need to convince them to learn from me without scaring them off.

"Is that so... let me show you something"

To show my healing magic I first need an injury, so I take a knife from my storage and use it to cut my arm... or at least I try to, but the knife gets broken instead.

"Very impressive, but why did you want to show us that?"

"No! Not that! Look at this"

'Shadow knife'

With my magic, I can make a cut in my arm, and then I quickly heal it with my flesh shaping, the fairies all look at me with their mouths wide open.

"See? Dark magic can be used for healing"

"Unbelievable!"

"Incredible!"

"Inconceivable!"

"Do you want me to teach you how to do it?"

"You want to teach us!?"

"Wait a moment, this might be a trap, how do we know for sure that she was not just making it look like dark magic when in reality it was something else?"

One of them seems to be more careful than the others...

"I could not have done it with another element, I'm only good at dark magic"

"Really? Then show us your status so that we can see, I have an appraisal stone here"

My status? Well, if I hide my level and stats it should be fine...

"What... look at this title!"

"Queen of darkness!?"

"It can't be... is it really her!?"

Ah, crap... I should have hidden my titles as well, now they are afraid of me again.

"I don't know what you've heard about me, but I'm not a bad person!"

"I heard a rumor that she poisoned a town's water and turned everyone into zombies..."

"I didn't poison anything! And nobody turned into a zombie! Who told you that!?"

"I heard that she made a dragon extort a town for gold and silver"

"He was already doing that before I got there!"

"I heard that she forced a knight to steal the clothes of one of the female knights"

"Where did that one even come from!? Did someone try to use me as an excuse for their crimes!?"

Just how many rumors about me have been spreading around? It seems like clearing my name is getting more and more difficult with each passing day...

"But wait, isn't the queen of darkness someone even scarier than lord Kalroth? Some of his minions might try to punish us for escaping, but if we become her disciples we might be protected by her!"

"Ah! You're right! But what about the rest of our tribe?"

"There's a rest of your tribe?"

"Yeah, there were a total of ninety-two of us who came here, would you be willing to teach all of them as well?"

"Of course! The more students I have the better!"

"But what will you ask for in return?"

"Ah, do you think that she wants to take our souls?"

"What!? How would I even do that!?"

If I have to ask for something... with that many fairies, they might be able to solve my current problem.

"I was looking for a friend of mine, could you ask your tribe to help search for her?"

"Oh, if it's just that, then we can do it"

"Perfect! Then we have a deal, by the way, what are your names? I'm Luna"

"I'm Shada"

"I'm Shadel"

"And I'm Shadela"

"Alright, then you'll go find my friend and then I'll teach you my healing magic"

"Yes, but... first I'll need you to let me go please"

Oh, now that she mentions it, I'm still holding the fairy from the start in my hand... I probably should have let her go a while ago.

forli

The weird thing is that Longleg had more votes than Arana for a while, but in the end, she managed to get second place, which I guess is a good thing since she's the deuteragonist.

I've written less during this month, but I should be able to write more when we get to august.