On the road to Irz Village, I caught sight of black smoke rising in the distance.
“Damn it, have they set the village on fire?!”
I couldn’t see if the village was truly burning, but there was no other reason for that black smoke to appear.
Having witnessed a glimpse of the village’s dire situation, I pushed myself to run faster down the road.
At that moment, I heard a sudden sound as a flock of birds took flight from the forest to my left.
There were many birds living in the forest, and it was common for flocks to take off together, but the number of birds soaring through the sky now seemed far too great.
“Chrono!”
Lily, who was tucked under my hood, pulled at my robe.
“What is it, Lily?”
“It’s bad, the fountain—”
I halted and listened to Lily’s flustered words.
Before I could understand what she was trying to convey, I caught sight of the smoke rising suddenly from the forest and grasped the situation.
“No way, is the Crusaders approaching the Fountain of Light too?”
What could they possibly think they would find there, some kind of treasure?
Lily leaped down from my hood, ready to dash towards the forest.
“Wait!”
I knew that even if she was expelled from the Fountain of Light, she cared deeply about that place.
I didn’t know exactly what it meant for the Queen’s Blessing to vanish, aside from the land becoming filled with magical power, but seeing the fairies’ attitude, which certainly would not allow humans to enter, gave me a good idea.
The Fountain of Light would likely lose the magical effects referred to as the “Queen’s Blessing” if any race other than fairies trespassed or disturbed the area.
Regardless, it was true that Lily and the fairies would do everything they could to prevent any intruders.
The Crusaders invaded the Fountain of Light for some purpose, leading to a conflict with the fairies, which was the source of that smoke rising from the forest.
Though I spoke words to keep Lily still, I had no reason to hold her back. In fact, I wanted to go and help too.
However, the smoke from the conflict was rising not only from the Fountain of Light but also from Irz Village, so I could not simply ignore it.
“Lily, I’m going to the Fountain of Light. You go to the village.”
“…Are you sure?”
Yes, the highest priority is Lily’s safety.
I realized, in my anger and anxiety over the attack on Irz Village, I had been charging ahead, but doing so would surely expose both myself and Lily to tremendous danger.
Of course, that didn’t mean I would back down, and I would definitely protect Lily.
But sending her alone towards the Crusaders was—
“It’s okay! I believe in Lily!”
Lily is my partner; she isn’t just someone I protect unilaterally.
If she tells me to believe, then all I can do is believe!
“Alright, but don’t do anything reckless.”
“Yeah, you too, Chrono.”
“Mm… I understand.”
Indeed, I had promised Lily not to act recklessly like I did when I challenged Sariel, so I couldn’t afford to act carelessly now.
“I don’t know how many Crusaders there are, but since they’re acting as an army, it’s certain there are too many to handle alone.
Once our respective matters are settled, we’ll retreat immediately; I’ll return to Kuar Village by today for sure, and we’ll meet up at the Guild.”
“Okay!”
Without exchanging any more words, Lily and I dashed off in our respective directions.
Just what kind of hell awaited us ahead, I had no room to think about at that moment.
***
The houses at the edge of Irz Village were either engulfed in roaring red flames or burned down to the point of losing their original shapes.
There were visible traces of blood scattered throughout the road, but I could see no sign of anyone who should be lying there.
Those who had lost so much blood must have been taken elsewhere for treatment, I wanted to cling to that slim hope.
However, the dense stench of death lingering around shattered that hope into pieces.
The smell of death wafted from beyond the gate, from the center of the village.
The reality that an unbelievable number of lives had been lost awaited me beyond the walls surrounding the village.
“Ha… ha…”
My feet had already stopped sprinting at full power, and I stumbled forward like a sleepwalker along the road.
Until now, I had faced a reasonable amount of death, and in fact, I had even killed people.
Before dragons or Sariel, the most I’d experienced was a shaking fear in my legs, but what I felt before this scene painted in blood and flames was a different kind of terror.
“What the hell…?”
This village, Irz Village, was a place completely unconnected to battle, a sanctuary I had finally obtained in this world.
Why had it turned into such a blood-soaked ruin?
This reality was unacceptable; I couldn’t acknowledge it, I didn’t want to believe it—how long had I walked in a daze like that?
Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks at a sight that caught my eye.
A human soldier in white clothes was emerging from a small house that had somehow miraculously not caught fire yet.
The soldier clutched some shiny something in his left hand, probably a few silver coins, and was joyfully exclaiming something.
Then two more soldiers, carrying boxes filled with goods, came out of the house behind him, both also wearing smiles on their faces.
The soldiers set the boxes onto what appeared to be a cart in front of the house; the sound of them dropping the boxes felt strangely loud.
The soldiers were muttering something about the small door they had to bend down to enter before going back into the house.
And in that moment they re-emerged, I felt an abrupt sensation in my head, as if something snapped or shattered, making me finally take in the reality before my eyes.
The three soldiers were dragging the bodies of goblins, dressed in simple clothes.
Ears catching fragments of their words, I heard one say, “What a dud—just filthy goblin kids.”
“If only it had been an elven girl, that would have been more enjoyable.”
“There was money, so I guess it was okay—”
Then the three of them carelessly tossed the bodies into a cart, treating them worse than the box from earlier.
Those bodies were undoubtedly of Mr. Vaarts, the goblin farmer who used to greet me every morning on my way down this road, along with his children.
“Ah…”
I came face to face with the deaths of those I wanted to protect in Irz Village, and I—
“Whaaaaaaaaah!!”
I was consumed by rage.
Yes, I was literally going mad.
Because I understood that by now, it was far too late for anything.
My left hand was tightly gripping the “Cursed Dagger: Tsujigiri” that I had somehow drawn out.
The hatred that typically would be completely subdued by blackening was now surging like a torrent into my mind and soul.
Normally, I’d instinctively resist such a ghastly flood of emotion, but strangely, it felt comforting now.
I could no longer distinguish whether this emotion was my anger or the curse of the dagger.
All I knew was that it commanded my body to move.
To kill all the ‘enemies’ in my sight.
***
Lily was sprinting toward the Fountain of Light, located deep in the Fairy Forest.
The term “sprinting” might be slightly misleading; given her toddler-like body and short legs, even with enhanced strength like Chrono, Lily wouldn’t be able to kick off the ground effectively to run fast.
In her current state, she looked like an entire sphere of light, surrounded by a fairy barrier, hopping around like a grasshopper for rapid movement.
Lily’s figure effortlessly leaped over fallen trees and rocks, appearing as a large, glowing ball bouncing around.
While moving significantly faster than humans could run, Lily felt the surrounding magical power intensifying as she drew nearer to the Fountain of Light.
Normally, if Lily approached this far, the fairies would be sensitive enough to sense her presence and come to stop her, but now, there was no sign of their small, shining forms anywhere.
The explosive sounds of attack magic echoing from deep within the forest were the reason they weren’t appearing.
The fairies were all out confronting the Crusaders pouring toward the Fountain of Light.
If humans were allowed to invade the ‘center’ of the Fountain of Light, as Chrono had predicted, the “Blessing of the Fairy Queen” that filled this land would vanish into nothingness.
If that happened, no more fairies would be born here, meaning it would be equivalent to losing their homeland for the fairies.
They had to protect their homeland, the precious place where they were born, the sacred land filled with the Fairy Queen’s Blessing.
Thus, Lily ran, jumped, and hurried.
She thought only of reaching her comrades as quickly as possible, using the power of her powerful unique magic, stronger than an ordinary fairy’s, to protect this place from the humans.
However, the moment Lily stepped into an area where the magical power exceeded a certain threshold—meaning the Fairy Queen’s Blessing was strongly at work—she underwent a transformation.
“I will protect…”
Lily, who had been charging like a bullet, suddenly slowed down.
“…this place?”
As she began to walk slowly, the fairy barrier surrounding her body dissipated, replaced by a bright glow emanating from her entire being.
“Hehe… Am I stupid?”
Every time Lily took a step forward, she literally started to ‘grow’.
Her limbs elongated, her chest expanded, transforming her body from a toddler’s rounded form to graceful curves characteristic of a woman.
From a ‘cute’ child to a ‘beautiful’ girl, she had changed—no, grown.
But the transformation that occurred in this moment was more profound than just her appearance; it was within her heart.
Lily took another step, her body’s growth had already halted, but the changes occurring in her mind continued.
Her thoughts became clearer, yet more complex, simultaneously processing emotions, the current situation, weighing benefits and losses, discerning what could be done and what could not—what should be done and what should not—
When Lily finally halted, all the changes occurring within her body ceased.
Standing there was the embodiment of perfect beauty and a vast reservoir of knowledge about unique magic—the true form of the fairy Lily.
The dense magical environment that filled this place, which was enough to revert Lily back to her original state, was a part of the power known as the Fairy Queen’s Blessing.
As long as she remained within the range of this ‘blessing’, Lily could maintain this form at all times.
“Fufufu—”
Out here, she could only return to this form once a month, on the night of the full moon, a beauty that would take anyone’s breath away. Even as Chrono, she had only ever shown cute expressions.
“Ahhahahaha!”
But now, Lily wore a ferocious smile.
“Who would protect this place from those guys?!”
She was harboring cruel thoughts that were unthinkable for the usual Lily, who was young and possessed nothing but a pure heart.
The childlike Lily only held a pure heart, but having returned to her original form, she also regained her inherent heart, emotions, and cognitive abilities; separate from a fairy’s heart, she possessed a human-like intellect filled with cruelty, cunning, and insatiable desires.
“Hahaha, this is the best opportunity; I should destroy the Fountain of Light—”
Chrono still hadn’t realized, but the most frightening aspect of Lily returning to her original form wasn’t the powerful magic she could wield, but the heart of a being half-maintaining both pure and corrupt elements.
“Let’s just annihilate them.”
Oh, Lily seems different…