Ch.3737. Lulu’s Day

On the day the new master was leaving.

Lulu sat on the roof of the shabby hut, wiping away tears as she gazed at the brightly shining stars.

“Sniff. Sniff.”

Though she never spoke of it, Lulu had lived a lonely life for a very long time.

As an ancient fairy, her purpose for existing was singular:

To wait for a master who could normalize and nurture the energy of the Rift Dimension, then serve and assist them.

The Rift Dimension is the highest dimension, the only naturally occurring dimensional rift.

In fact, it’s the source where life energy originates, but because of that, chaotic energies also pour in abundantly through the rift.

These chaotic energies need to be neutralized and the life energy increased for all dimensions to function stably.

At least, that’s the knowledge in her head, though Lulu doesn’t exactly understand the principles or how it all works.

She just knows for certain that when chaotic energy filled with monsters becomes too prevalent, it’s bad, which is why a master is needed to tend to the dimension.

Memories of her first and former master, a human, come to mind.

After that, she had fallen into a hibernation-like sleep in the crevices between dimensions—not in the Rift Dimension itself—to prevent her own extinction for an unknown length of time, until finally, thanks to her new master, she opened her eyes again.

She doesn’t want to sleep for another near-eternity.

Knowing how wonderful it is to be alive and breathing, Lulu was determined to serve her new master to the best of her ability.

The beginning was promising.

Her new master seemed incredibly knowledgeable about the Rift Dimension.

Her former master had some knowledge too, but how to put it… they were a bit more emotional? From Lulu’s perspective, purifying, exploring, cultivating, and refining this dimension would be impossible without extraordinary effort.

She had thought it wouldn’t be easy with her former master’s personality, and indeed, despite their abilities, her former master eventually died, leaving only an apology to her.

That’s why, in comparison, this time felt promising.

Though somewhat prickly and rough with her, this master’s cold rationality and quick decision-making made Lulu think that perhaps with this master… there might be hope.

The new master returned to their planet with the former master’s legacy and various other items.

Lulu’s confidence wavered slightly at the foolish decision to exchange resources—which were worth more than farms—for lower-dimensional currency, but what could she do?

Lulu had no power to stop it.

She was just a helper.

“Sob sob…”

Tears blurred her vision.

Could she do well?

She needed to guide her master on the right path.

But these tears weren’t from the weight of such responsibility.

“It’s spicy…”

The food called “ramen” that her master brought from their dimension was a whole new world for Lulu.

The spicy broth and chewy noodles.

To think there was a perfect food that only required pouring boiling water and waiting three minutes to be perfectly cooked.

The fact that such food was developed in a lower dimension was unbelievable to Lulu.

This was also why she couldn’t bring herself to dissuade her master from those foolish choices, even when they made decisions worse than her former master.

“Please earn lots of money and bring back ramen, Master…”

Even while wondering if this was right, the fact that fewer than three packs of ramen remained in the hut made her earnestly support her master’s endeavors.

All the foods they had brought were shockingly stimulating to Lulu’s palate.

The various flavors of snacks, the crunchiness, and the seasonings that swirled around her mouth were an irresistible, rough charm to a fairy who had primarily subsisted on fruit.

“Lululululu.”

When her master was around, she would cautiously ask permission, worried about taking food from someone she was barely helping. But now there was no need for such concerns.

Before her master left.

She had received permission.

Though it wasn’t free, of course.

“Master, may I eat a little of your food while you’re gone?”

To her careful question, her master naturally responded coldly.

“You food parasite. What do you even do to deserve eating that? Just finish off the leftover meat.”

“I… I can water the plants while you’re gone… and harvest everything when it’s grown!”

“Really? You can do that? It’s not particularly difficult, though.”

“Yes! Yes! I’ll water the orchard too!”

“Hmm… If you do that much, I suppose you can eat the remaining snacks and ramen.”

“I can do it well!”

“This is your first and last chance. There’s no trust between us yet, you know? But if you do well this time… aren’t you curious about how much food I might bring back?”

“Gasp…”

“Ramen and snacks are really nothing. They’re just things I hastily picked up off the street.”

“…!”

“You can look forward to it. Just keep watering everything.”

After such an exchange and receiving permission, all the remaining food belonged to Lulu.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

For Lulu, who hadn’t grown at all yet, just carrying a watering can back and forth to water the garden in the front yard was quite strenuous, and the path to the orchard required extreme caution to avoid encountering monsters.

To be honest, she skipped going to the orchard a few times.

Her master didn’t know, but the orchard had an automatic irrigation system installed, so even without watering, up to five fruits would grow on their own. Just checking occasionally before her master returned wouldn’t be a big problem.

After completing such a tiring daily routine, she would take a nap on her master’s bed to recover, and finally, at night, came her time for leisure.

Lulu loved this time.

The quiet hut.

With the Big Rats taken care of, monsters were unlikely to approach the hut.

Soon, other monsters might wander in to claim the Big Rats’ territory once they realized the rats were gone, but for now, this area was still considered Big Rat territory.

Slurp.

Eating hot noodles and opening snacks filled her stomach to bursting.

“I’m happy.”

She looked forward to her master’s return.

More precisely, she looked forward to the foods from the dimension called Earth that her master would bring back.

As Lulu spent her days like this, about four days after her master left, while watering the garden, she heard a strange sound.

Psssst-

“…Huh?”

As soon as she heard the rustling of nearby weeds and sensed something approaching, Lulu scurried inside the house.

“Eep.”

Lulu’s senses were exceptionally good in this regard.

Watching in all directions through a small window from inside the hut, after about three minutes, she could see about five creatures poking their heads out from among the weeds.

Monsters.

They were about as tall as her master, with skinny green skin.

“Goblins…”

One of the monsters deeply etched in Lulu’s memory.

Among her memories with her former master, the most difficult and therefore most lasting memory was of struggling through the Level 0 biome.

Her former master, who had chosen magic and struggled greatly in the early stages, had trouble with the Big Rats, but the real suffering came from these goblins they encountered next.

Her former master’s first death was because of these goblins.

Lulu, having also suffered greatly at the hands of goblins, found herself trembling involuntarily.

These goblins were cunning and operated in groups, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

They were quite intelligent too, and there were many times when they suddenly found themselves caught in goblin traps.

Evidence of this was how they were now just scouting and then retreating.

They surveyed around the hut, discovered traces, muttered among themselves for about ten minutes, and then left.

Compared to the Big Rats who completely destroyed the garden while her master was sleeping, the goblins’ behavior was chillingly cunning.

This hut was under the protection of the Rift Dimension.

No monsters living here could enter or see inside, so the goblins didn’t know Lulu was watching them from within.

Therefore, the goblins might think the place was empty, yet they didn’t touch the planted garden and only gathered information before leaving.

They didn’t want to reveal that they had been here.

“Ugh… I hate goblins.”

Lulu trembled.

Afraid to go outside, she didn’t step foot out of the hut that day.

The only consolation was that she had watered the plants in the morning.

Though she wanted to stay inside the hut doing nothing until her master returned, the next day she mustered the courage to water the garden.

For timid Lulu, this was an act of tremendous courage.

“Master will take care of them…”

Lulu had faith in her master.

She believed that the same prowess that slaughtered the Big Rats would work against the goblins.

That’s why she found her courage.

“…If I don’t water the plants because I’m scared, Master might throw me to the goblins.”

The goblins were frightening, but her master, who acted without hesitation, was even more terrifying.

She remembered being thrown into the sewer along with her master when she failed to act, and her whole body trembled at the thought of consuming food without watering the crops after promising to do so.

“Uuugh…”

The remaining days were quite tense for Lulu.

Still, the Earth foods remaining in the house provided some comfort.

“Hehehe…”

Just as the food was about to run out.

Her master returned.