Ch.110Fairy Queen (1)

Whoosh-

As we stepped into the royal palace, the magic lamps installed throughout lit up in response.

It wasn’t that the interior of the palace was dark enough to require the magic lamps, so they weren’t lit to brighten the darkness.

“This seems… like they’re showing us the way.”

“That’s right. The palace is incredibly vast. It’s perfect for getting lost when you first visit.”

“Princess used to get lost quite often when she was young. Thanks to that, there was one day when she barely made it back to her room by relying on the magic lamps.”

“Faur, did you really have to mention that in front of Frey…?”

Lilly blushed like someone who’d just had their embarrassing graduation photo discovered and scolded Faur.

Of course, for Faur who had been expecting such a reaction, Lilly’s behavior wasn’t a particularly good choice.

“Hehe.”

“Hey, Faur! What’s with that laugh?!”

Perhaps it was because I was beside her.

I noticed that Lilly was falling for pranks she would normally have ignored.

‘Hmm, this might get dangerous if it continues.’

If this were just about seeing one more cute side of Lilly, it would have been fine.

Unfortunately, judging by the amount of magical power flowing from Lilly’s body, it didn’t seem like it would end so simply.

‘It seems her control has weakened considerably from staying in the material world for so long…’

Lilly’s full power, unrestrained by the laws of nature, could be compared to a natural disaster.

While not quite at the level of a full Titan, she could easily overpower most dragons.

That’s why she needed considerable control over her body and magical power to lead a normal daily life.

But in the material world, the laws of nature would have naturally restrained her, so she probably forgot she needed to control it.

‘I suspected something was off when her charge had no brakes. I guess when emotions run high, even subconscious control isn’t enough.’

Whatever the case, if left unchecked, it was clear that a storm would hit the Fairy Kingdom, so I needed to intervene.

“Lilly, your magic is leaking. I’d rather not see the Fairy Kingdom swept away by a storm, so please be careful.

And Faur, teasing Lilly is fine, but please don’t go too far.”

“Eh, really?! Oh my… that was a close call.”

“Oh dear… even in Her Majesty’s domain, I failed to notice… I apologize.”

After hearing my words, Lilly and Faur seemed to quickly notice Lilly’s magical power overflowing into the air.

Lilly was surprised by her basic mistake and hurriedly retrieved her magic.

Faur also apologized to me, embarrassed by her oversight.

In the situation just now, it would have been more unusual to notice, so I didn’t particularly mind.

“I suppose it’s because the Queen’s and Lilly’s magical energies feel similar. It’s not easy to tell if you’re not paying attention.”

“Still, assisting the Princess is my duty. I’ll be more careful.”

Regardless of my personal thoughts, Faur seemed to have become more serious.

“Kyung!”

“We’re definitely running a bit late. We can’t keep the Queen waiting, so shall we get going?”

Thanks to the now-serious Faur, the mood had only dropped slightly before Luna signaled that we should hurry.

Thanks to her, I was able to resume following the magic lamps before the atmosphere became too heavy.

[But… I’m not the only one who’s been feeling several gazes on us for a while now, am I?]

‘You’re right about multiple gazes watching us. Not just me, but Lilly and Faur are aware of them too.’

The reason we weren’t reacting to those gazes was simply because there was no need to.

I slightly turned my head toward where I felt the gazes coming from.

With a rustling sound, those watching us were startled and hid behind walls or curtains.

-Eek, did the Apostle just spot us?

-What?! We might all get eaten!

-No way. I heard this Apostle is a good one! The Queen even let him into the palace!

I could also hear them chattering among themselves while hiding.

They seemed to have lowered their voices thinking they were being quiet, but with enhanced senses, it wasn’t impossible to hear them.

‘Did you hear that? They’re just fairies who work here. Ordinary fairies without any combat abilities.’

As a side note, the magic lamps currently lit were more for those fairies than for us.

The lamps were essentially warning them to be careful because an Apostle was moving along this path.

‘Actually, the Queen could easily convey her location through other means.’

[What a considerate Queen.]

‘Indeed. Though she appears very cold on the outside, she’s actually quite warm-hearted inside.’

Of course, having a warm side didn’t make her cold side any less cold.

Remembering that icy gaze I felt even through the monitor, I shuddered momentarily from the chill.

* * *

Thud. Thud.

After following the magic lamps for some time, I began to recognize where they were leading us.

‘This path definitely leads to the training grounds.’

The training grounds in the basement of the palace were a place more efficient than a Magic Tower for mages, and a place Lilly had used in the past.

However, since the space was designed specifically for Lilly, its value diminished slightly for anyone else.

‘It’s like a red diamond becoming just a regular diamond.’

Whatever the case, the place we were heading to was one that wouldn’t normally be open to anyone but Lilly.

Yet Lilly was right beside me, so I wondered why the training grounds would be open.

‘Only Lilly and the Queen can open the door to the training grounds. Since Lilly is here, that means the Queen must have opened it…’

As far as I knew, the Queen had no reason to use this training ground.

Like Lilly, the Queen had long passed the stage where simple training could accomplish anything.

As I was pondering these things, Lumia, who had been quietly observing, spoke up, suggesting my concerns were unnecessary.

[Won’t we find out once we check for ourselves?]

‘That’s certainly true. Let’s go in then.’

Since her opinion wasn’t wrong, I agreed with Lumia.

And since we had just arrived at the training grounds, I approached the door without further delay.

Knock knock.

I knocked and grabbed the doorknob before waiting for a response.

The knock was merely a courtesy; the fact that the magic lamps had guided us here meant we were allowed to enter.

Creak—

As I pulled on the massive door of the training grounds, it began to open with a heavy sound.

At the same time, the highly concentrated magical power that had been contained inside slowly began to flow out.

“This concentration of magic is enough to kill an ordinary person in a short time.”

“We’ll wait here.”

“Then please take care of Luna. I’d like to bring her, but Luna is still very young.”

Since this was no place for novice earth warriors who were just learning to crawl, I gave them a meaningful look.

Noticing the intent in my gaze, Luca took Luna and stepped back.

Thus, only three of us entered the training grounds: myself, Lilly, and Faur.

[It feels like we’re selecting the final raid party before facing a boss monster.]

‘Hmm, a boss monster? In terms of presence, that’s not wrong.’

I tried to calm my inexplicably worried heart and entered the training grounds.

What I saw was the Fairy Queen attacking with numerous ice spears and Kitsune desperately trying to block them.

“It won’t kill you, but it will hurt quite a bit. If you don’t like that, block it with all your might.”

“Understood…!!”

Dozens of spears shot down from the sky, and Kitsune deployed a barrier to strengthen her defense.

Crash-!!

At first, she seemed to be blocking the attacks fairly well, but that lasted only briefly.

With a gesture from the Queen, Kitsune’s barrier was instantly taken over, functioning not as defense but as restraint.

Boom-!!!

Trapped helplessly in her own barrier, Kitsune was directly hit by the ice spears that followed and tumbled to the ground.

“Cough…! Ugh….”

“Your barrier technique is worse than useless. You’ve somehow forcibly raised your level, but against an enemy who truly knows how to handle barriers, you’d be offering them a premium-grade barrier.”

“I’m sorry…! I’ll correct it!!”

Though Kitsune looked in great pain from the ice spears, she didn’t seem to have sustained serious injuries as she quickly got up and assumed her stance.

Her movements were quick and not sluggish, suggesting she had been through this many times.

“Let’s stop here for now. Take a rest. It seems we have guests anyway.”

“Thank… you… huff huff…”

Perhaps thanks to our arrival, there was no immediate resumption of training with another volley of ice spears.

Given permission to rest, Kitsune finally relaxed and sat on the ground, catching her breath.

The Fairy Queen left Kitsune to rest and turned to look at me.

“Clearly, she’s not without foundation in barrier techniques. And she certainly doesn’t lack the talent to excel with that foundation.

That means her level has been forcibly raised with useless knowledge when it should have been elevated gradually. And the one who would do such a thing is obviously.”

The Fairy Queen’s calm, monotone voice was directed at me.

Though her voice contained no anger, irritation, joy, sadness, or any emotion, it felt incredibly cold.

And when that cold voice combined with her blue gaze, my entire body felt like it was freezing.

“You.”

No, I was actually freezing.

The magical power around us was reflecting the Fairy Queen’s mood, gradually lowering the temperature inside the training grounds.

[Didn’t you say she had a warm side too?]

‘I told you, having a warm side doesn’t make the cold side disappear.’