MHWDTS 09

‘T-Twelve years old…?’

No, perhaps even ten. Shasha wasn’t particularly talented at guessing children’s ages just by appearance.

In any case, the magician Windsor standing ghostlike behind Bill looked no different from an ordinary neighborhood child on the outside.

He wore shorts and carried a large backpack on his back, though there was something faintly unsettling about imagining a man over ninety choosing those clothes for himself. However, it seemed even magic could not conceal gray hairs, because nearly half of his black hair shimmered silver-white.

Like most magicians, Windsor clearly disliked going outside. He radiated gloom from head to toe like a beast dragged unwillingly to the slaughterhouse.

Dragging his feet with obvious reluctance, he approached to introduce himself—but the moment he looked directly at Shasha’s face, he froze in shock.

“This is….”

A rare light flickered through his previously calm blue eyes. Retracting the hand he had extended for a handshake, he murmured in admiration.

“So this is the remarkable person you live with.”

Like the experienced butler he was, Bill quietly excused himself.

A gust of wind stirred behind Windsor, and the bedroom door closed on its own. To hide the cold sweat dampening her palms, Shasha politely folded both hands before her stomach.

“I had heard rumors that the mistress of this house was mute, but I never imagined there was such a circumstance behind it.”

Shasha had never heard such an old-fashioned way of speaking before. Though technically the guest, Windsor behaved like the owner of the room as he gestured for her to sit first.

“I am over ninety years old this year, and in all my long life, this is only the second time I’ve met a human capable of seeing fairies.”

There was only astonishment in his expression at the unexpected encounter—no trace of disgust or condemnation. Sitting stiffly on the edge of the sofa, Shasha hesitated for a long while before finally scribbling a few words in her notebook.

「I’m surprised. You recognized it immediately.」

“After using magic for a long time, the eyes are the first thing to change. The way we magicians perceive the world differs greatly from what ordinary people imagine.”

I see.

She had never met a magician before, so she hadn’t known.

Unable to bear the feeling of his gaze carefully examining her from across the room, Shasha eventually lowered her head completely. It felt as though her most shameful secret had been exposed. Like being a diseased laboratory mouse under observation.

“So this is how you communicate? The woman I met in the past tore out her own tongue and conversed through sign language.”

「I couldn’t tear mine out.」

A memory flashed vividly through her mind—locking herself inside the bathroom before entering the Academy, shoving cutting pliers into her own mouth.

「I tried once, but I just couldn’t do it.」

By the time she emerged from the bathroom, the new candle she had lit had burned down to barely the length of a finger joint. The skin around her eyes was raw from endless tears, and cold sweat drenched her entire body.

That day, while watching the morning sun rise between the hills, Shasha realized two things.

First, that she was a pathetic coward.

And second… that since she couldn’t cut out her tongue, she would need to find another way to live her entire life without speaking.

“Are they here now as well?”

Windsor asked while lifting his short legs and peering beneath the coffee table. Shasha shook her head.

They were here, but not there.

「Fairies are everywhere. Though they seem to gather more densely wherever I am.」

They lived in groups and preferred places where they could hide themselves. So except when causing mischief, they usually clustered together in high places beyond human reach or in narrow, dark spaces.

「Right now they’re sitting on the chandelier. But please don’t look at them. I deliberately pretend not to notice them either. If we accidentally make eye contact, they get excited because they think they’re receiving attention.」

Fairies.

Supernatural beings believed to exist only in myths and fairy tales.

But contrary to dictionary definitions, they were real.

Artists often depicted fairies as tiny, adorable winged humans. But the fairies Shasha saw were closer to grotesque monsters completely detached from human standards of beauty.

Those with four arms were considered relatively normal. Some possessed tiny human bodies with noses attached to the tips of their tongues. Others had elephant bodies with horse heads.

The fairies had been with Shasha ever since she was born and first opened her eyes to the world. To her, they existed as naturally as the sun and moon in the sky, so it wasn’t until she turned five that she realized other people couldn’t perceive them.

Fairies instinctively loved cruel pranks. If an object suddenly vanished or insects inexplicably appeared inside the house, there was a high chance fairies were responsible.

Because of this nature, they got along better with children than adults. Young Shasha had also enjoyed watching their tricks, and for a while they had happily played together like friends.

But that relationship ended the year Shasha turned seven.

Her parents died from an epidemic, leaving behind a daughter barely old enough to walk. Afterward, family elders decided she would live with her aunt and cousins.

Shasha’s aunt was the head of the household, widowed early and surviving on small investments and inheritance money.

Perhaps she simply lacked the room in her life to care. Or perhaps the niece who had suddenly landed in her home was merely a nuisance. Whatever the reason, she treated Shasha like baggage to be discarded once she became an adult, leaving her entirely to the care of a nanny while remaining coldly indifferent.

Like any ordinary seven-year-old child, Shasha had been immature back then.

A child who loved playing but hated cleaning up afterward. A child who adored candy but absolutely refused to brush her teeth.

So one day, while shoving away the nanny who tried forcing a toothbrush into her mouth, Shasha shouted:

“I hate it!”

And the next morning, the nanny was found in the storage room with both legs broken.

At first everyone assumed she had simply slipped from a ladder. The nanny was elderly and always walked bent over like a shrimp.

But that night, a blue-skinned fairy with enormous fangs came to Shasha and spoke to her for the very first time.

“Shasha.”

Lying his pitch-black body against her pillow, he gazed at her affectionately as though they were longtime lovers.

“I did well, didn’t I?”

Only then did Shasha understand.

The fairies had deliberately pushed over the ladder the nanny had been standing on.

All because of that single phrase she had uttered:

“I hate it.”

From that day onward, Shasha’s life turned completely upside down.

Fairies possessed no concept of good or evil. Pure enough to become monstrous, they would do absolutely anything to earn Shasha’s attention.

Even the smallest complaints returned as disasters. Every day objects broke, and the people around her began suffering “unfortunate accidents.”

There was nowhere she could escape the fairies. Surrounded by hundreds of creatures whispering love while offering human blood as tribute, Shasha finally reached a conclusion.

Ah.

Then I simply must never speak again.

If she pretended not to see them and kept her mouth shut, then perhaps people would stop getting hurt by this curse.

“What a tragic life.”

Windsor clicked his tongue as though he could clearly see the path her life had taken. Somehow, merely hearing that made the bridge of Shasha’s nose sting painfully, as though she had finally received comfort for the first time.

“Anyway, fairies aren’t the reason I came here, so we can discuss them later…. Now then, where is the other unfortunate soul at the center of this story?”

Instead of answering, Shasha rose from the sofa and walked toward the bed.

When she pulled back the canopy curtains, a gigantic man sprawled across the bed came into view.

Hagenti was sleeping with both arms stretched above his head and his mouth hanging open, completely lost in dreamland. The blanket Shasha had neatly covered him with earlier had somehow become twisted uselessly around his feet, and apparently feeling uncomfortable in his sleep, he had even undone the buttons of his pants.

“……”

Windsor stood there speechless for quite some time, utterly dumbfounded. Then finally, pointing at him with one finger, he asked:

“So… ‘this’ is Hagenti Evreux?”

「Ever since becoming seven years old, he sleeps a lot more. Apparently the orphanage he lived in had designated nap times, because after lunch he insists on sleeping for three hours. If we wake him up now, he’ll definitely get cranky.」