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Chapter 80
[Kiak-!]
The beast hiding behind Lenore lunged as if to attack her.
But before Lenore could even fully comprehend it, the black power that extended from Harris’ feet enveloped the beast.
[Kkee…!]
Lenore had never been arrogant about herself, nor had she been submissive.
She had grown up as the heir of the prestigious Laierga family, building skills capable of protecting her house and leading the knight order. She had never once considered herself weak or inadequate.
Not until she witnessed this overwhelming power.
Grrrk—! Lenore couldn’t breathe properly at the sound coming from beyond her sight.
“Hah… huff…!”
She was terrified. Terrified enough to want to run.
But her body wouldn’t move.
“…I’ll ask you one last time.”
Eyes as red as blood dominated her vision. It did not feel like facing a human.
Though undeniably breathtakingly beautiful, there was something ominous and eerie about him—like a non-human entity wearing a human mask—that made her nerves stand on end.
Only then did Lenore realize.
This is not someone like me.
The image of him quietly watching Jade and sometimes curling his lips was just a tiny fragment of this man.
A fragment allowed for only one person!
Harris spoke without even glancing at the beast he had dealt with.
“Where is my Jade?”
And Jade…
[So, a child of the fairies.]
She blinked blankly.
Because the tree was talking. A tree!
The leaves above rustled in the wind, casting a shifting green shade.
[I haven’t seen you in so long.]
‘Crazy.’
Of course, she knew very well that this was a fantasy world.
There was magic, superpowered beings, even jobs like “guides,” and plants that ate people—so a talking tree might actually be normal.
She understood that, but…
‘I-Is it implanting words directly into my mind?’
It felt incredibly strange. Jade froze, stunned by the unfamiliar sensation.
[Ah, this little fairy seems not to recognize me.]
Fortunately, the tree was kind.
[You need not fear. This old sapling, Danren Kusette, is a friend to all fairies.]
Danren Kusette?
Muttering the name to herself, Jade recalled the man-eating plant monster, Danelcus, from the Unknown Dungeon.
[Did you, by some misfortune, encounter that twisted, evil thing?]
Thankfully, it seemed not to be an ally of that monster. Jade sighed with relief, thinking the tree wouldn’t scold her.
[It is fine. Those born unjustly are meant to perish in due course. Since you ended their breath, it is, if anything, fortunate.]
She only realized later that her thoughts were being read entirely.
[Ha, such a pure fairy.]
The voice that entered her mind was soft and gentle, entirely pleasant.
She instinctively knew that Danren Kusette, the talking tree, bore no hostility—only kind intent.
‘Wait, pure fairy?’
Does that mean my personality is pure? Jade tilted her head, unsure. That didn’t sound right…
Then a sudden thought stopped her cold.
Could it be that Jade… was actually a real fairy?
‘Impossible…!’
No way. In Sicheongwi, pureblooded fairies were long extinct!
‘That’s why in the main story only hybrid fairies, like Adrian, appeared.’
As mentioned before, fairies had been massacred by humans long ago, so how could hybrid descendants survive until now?
Interestingly, hybrid fairies weren’t distinguished by how strong their fairy blood was.
‘It’s more like a form of awakened ability.’
Even if a distant ancestor was a hybrid, the direct descendants could be born fully human, with fairy traits suddenly manifesting in later generations.
This was possible because, by design, fairies were not born in the material world.
‘Impossible… but now it makes so much sense.’
The intensely pure mana she felt within Jade, her always-clean mana circuits, and…
[But very unstable.]
“…!”
Startled, Jade’s eyes widened. Danren Kusette lowered a branch to gently stroke her head.
The brushing leaves and branches felt surprisingly soft and comforting.
[Our little fairy seems never to have had a proper guardian.]
How pitiful.
Danren Kusette’s voice carried deep sympathy.
‘Guardian?’
Perhaps it meant her parents. Since arriving in this world, she had rarely received proper care.
A life constantly struggling to survive deadly crises…
Tears fell. Wailing quietly, she buried her face in the tree’s leaves.
[Little fairy, have you been so lonely without a marked guardian?]
“Yes… sniff—!”
Even more tears fell because there was someone—or rather, a tree—who cared for her. Wait…
‘Marked? Absent?’
Did I get that kind of setup too? Jade gaped.
[Haven’t you realized what the marks are?]
Danren Kusette extended a hand—or a branch shaped like one—over her forehead.
It felt like an otherworldly being in a fantasy world reading the protagonist’s hidden secrets.
She obediently closed her eyes.
[…There are three marks.]
WHAT? Jade had three mark partners?!
‘Such greed… no, wait!’
These three guardians hadn’t been watching over Jade? Why was she thrown into hell alone the moment she opened her eyes?!
[All unstable.]
…Ah, that explains it.
[One marked you unilaterally, one you marked unilaterally, and the last one wasn’t aware of the mark.]
Tsk, Danren Kusette clicked its tongue (do trees even have tongues?).
[No proper mutual mark exists. That’s why our little fairy is so unstable.]
Even this transcendent talking tree seemed unsure.
‘I finally got a chance to learn about Jade… and it’s another maze.’
Still, there were some revelations: Jade is a pureblood fairy, unstable, and has three mark partners.
‘You said marked guardians. Then at least one must be Adrian.’
He called himself her older brother. So who are the other two?
As Jade squinted,
[Little fairy, whom I miraculously met, I am happy to see you, but I must sleep again.]
Danren Kusette prepared to leave. Though sudden, Jade felt oddly sad.
[May we meet again someday. As a token of friendship, I leave a gift.]
Gift! Always a thank you!
Just as Jade reached out happily, light poured over her entire body.
“…Baron An, Jade Lian!”
Dimuaard shook Jade. After falling and regaining consciousness, he realized they had landed in a forest, and Jade had lost consciousness in his embrace.
‘…Because of me?’
He tried desperately to wake her, but she didn’t respond.
‘Because of me, pushing this little body to save me… so…’
Was she dying?
The boy’s fists clenched the earth, trembling.
Dimuaard remembered those who had died trying to save him, their bodies pale and blue, and felt a pang of anguish.
“Ugh… ughh…!”
He wanted to die. He wanted to cry.
He didn’t want to drag her into his cursed fate. Not her!
Sitting down in despair, Dimuaard heard shouts echoing through the forest.
“…There! There!”
“Catch them!”
“We have to get them somehow!”
“Ugh, damn! This crazy forest thing!”
Enemies who hated humans had entered the forest, trying to capture Dimuaard.
Those trying to save him were dying, while those seeking to destroy him kept appearing.
The human-hating forest: even the grass was fierce, and the wind sharp.
As if asking why someone as insignificant and powerless as him had survived so far…
“…I don’t know either.”
Dimuaard screamed.
“I don’t know!”
He hadn’t wanted to survive in such miserable, humiliating circumstances. But he couldn’t abandon his family and loved ones…
Tears poured from the boy’s violet eyes. His rosy cheeks soaked.
Dimuaard laughed, a sorrowful, tragic smile.
And then,
“If I had a cloth of gold and silver from the heavens…”
The boy spoke, his voice as wondrous as a heavenly blessing.
A power sealed until the day of his death.
“…embroidered with darkness, light, and twilight, blue, pale, and black.”
The dark, blue forest resisting him shook, and enemies rushing to him froze.
“Ugh… gag…!”
“P-please save me!”
All of them looked utterly bewildered.
Naturally—they were being suffocated by a power the boy had sworn never to use, preferring death over using it.
“No… stop…!”
Those trying to capture the boy had liquid pouring from every hole in their faces.
Finally, even their human forms collapsed.
“I shall lay this cloth beneath your feet.”
In contrast to the boy’s absolute, cruel power, his rose-like lips sang.
Light gathered around his small body, dancing with the wind, pouring blessings.
‘Jade.’
Baron Lian. The person who captured my gaze at first sight.
The blessing-like light from Dimuaard slowly poured onto Jade.
“I am poor, with only dreams to my name, so I lay my dreams at your feet.”
The boy’s violet eyes, still wet, gazed at her.
As the light infused her, her long eyelashes trembled and opened.
She awoke.
Breaking the oath she had imposed on herself to save her, Dimuaard smiled, a face touched with ecstatic sorrow.
“…Tread gently. For what you tread upon are my dreams.”
Based on William Butler Yeats’ poem <The Cloths of Heaven>
