Ch.6161. Fairy (1)

Sophia’s formal proposal to introduce external life forms into Tarasque had actually been discussed similarly before.

However, at that time, it was closer to a joke about how it might be better to have living creatures in the forest, and it was rejected as practically impossible due to various potential problems.

It was indeed an issue that should never be approved, considering the invasion of animal friends’ personal space and the countless variables that would arise from the inability to control everything individually.

Perhaps because of this, Sophia’s opinion was quite different from previous suggestions.

“The Prophet suggests using fairies for our comrades.”

Fairies. These creatures originating from the unique external dimension called Fairyland are broadly divided into two categories:

Fairies of our dimension, similar to natural objects, who gained personhood due to the influence of Fairyland’s mysteries.

And fairies who were born in Fairyland from the beginning, corresponding to external world beings like demons.

In any case, both types have strong connections to the mysteries of nature, so fairies naturally appear in mystical forests. Being creatures born from mystery, all fairies inherently possess powerful magical abilities.

Due to these characteristics, there is a connection between fairies and druids. Among druid nature magic, there are plenty of spells related to fairies, or those that summon and command them.

“You mean summon fairies and bind them? That seems possible…”

Indeed, druids of our caliber could certainly summon fairies, make contracts with them, and command them, but there’s one fatal problem with this approach.

“…Can we actually handle the fairies?”

“That… even the Prophet cannot be certain.”

Fairies as a race inherently possess quite nasty personalities.

To explain it simply… imagine taking the social skills of an innocent type of internet troll from my previous life, dropping them to the extreme, and then giving them enough power to casually kill a person as a prank.

I remember that in my hometown village, there were quite a few cases of children being left outside, only to be lured into the forest by mischievous fairies and disappearing.

Their “pranks” are diverse.

Flying fairies might suddenly throw passersby off cliffs, or water spirits might “invite” (kidnap) children they’ve befriended to their “home” (underwater), causing them to drown.

What makes it worse is that fairies are literally pure beings, so there’s no malice in any of these actions.

With few exceptions, fairies operate solely on the principle of pursuing their own pleasure and enjoyment. When this operating principle combines with their virtually non-existent social awareness, the result is that fairies are treated as little more than monsters.

To put it somewhat extremely, fairies could be considered a race born with psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies as a species.

The only consolation is that their purity lacks malice—they’re not a race that intentionally commits evil. And depending on the circumstances, there might be fairies that can be controlled to some extent, so it wouldn’t hurt to hear out the opinion…

“The Prophet recommends Fairies.”

“…Original Fairies?”

“Yes. More specifically, with higher species added.”

The fairy Sophia recommended was none other than the Fairy—the most fundamental and basic fairy of all, taking the form of a small girl with insect wings.

Their size is basically about 12-18cm.

These beings, which were one of the reasons I became convinced this world was a fantasy world, have personalities and ecology very close to typical fairies.

They are innocent and pure like children, love to play pranks, and cannot bear loneliness… but they have low intelligence, poor judgment, and extremely poor social skills, so they cannot form groups larger than 3-4 “friends” among themselves.

Also, they’re so small that they have virtually no physical strength, and their magical abilities are of low quality.

At most, they can shoot magical bullets from their fingertips with the attack power of a baseball bat swing.

Thus, Fairies are no more than flying mobs in terms of combat power, nor do they have outstanding cohesion as a type of fairy, but…

“If there’s a higher species… it would certainly be easier to control them.”

“…The Prophet affirms.”

But this is only the case when Fairies don’t have higher species. Once a higher species appears, Fairies transform into a completely different race.

A Fairy that grows beyond 20cm evolves into a higher species called a “High Fairy.”

If they exceed 30cm, amazingly, they evolve into various intermediate Fairies, which are higher species than High Fairies.

These higher species Fairies are not only superior to regular Fairies in every aspect, but they also possess the ability to dominate lower Fairies and enhance the abilities of the Fairies under their control.

They simply strengthen Fairies’ combat power, but… the core of this lower species enhancement ability is giving social skills to Fairies.

Fairies dominated by higher species absolutely obey the higher species and acquire enough consideration and patience to live in groups.

Thanks to this, Fairies are rare among fairy-kind in that they can even form their own nation.

In short, if we summon and recruit just one suitable higher individual and make a contract, it would be possible to gather and command anywhere from dozens to hundreds of individuals.

And so, the conversation progressed smoothly.

“…Do you know how to directly summon a higher individual?”

“Yes. The Prophet knows.”

Unlike me, who is not skilled in fairy summoning or commanding since wild magic can sufficiently substitute for it, Sophia seems to be quite knowledgeable in the field of fairy commanding.

Therefore, with Sophia leading the ritual, we prepared the ceremony using some materials left over from creating Tarasque.

Druid summoning magic doesn’t require forming magic circles like wizards do.

What’s needed for a druid’s fairy summoning is to build an environment that optimizes the ritual.

In the middle of the forest, in a clearing, we spread a shallow layer of mana-soaked soil on the ground.

We inserted “fairy trees” brought from the vampire noble’s mansion in various spots, sprinkled some Ethila powder as a catalyst, and the preparation was complete.

With this, most of the preparations for summoning a higher Fairy species were finished. So what remains now is…

“Yeji, are you done?”

“…Yes. The Fairy Princess that the Prophet and comrade are aiming for will take about two more hours. While we’re at it, please prepare some custard pudding.”

According to Sophia’s direct prediction, this must be the process of adjusting minor random variables.

※ ※ ※

While I was in the middle of adjusting random variables—that is, peering into fate and guiding it toward the desired outcome—I was taking out homemade custard pudding from the magical refrigerator when I suddenly thought about Fairy Princesses.

The Fairy race, true to being classic fairies who remain eternally children, sometimes mimic the behavior of surrounding environments or living beings.

And when a Fairy who has been mimicking various forms during its lower stage finally grows to become intermediate, the Fairy can now transform its body to match what it wants to imitate.

Fairies in the Frankish Kingdom, who often come into contact with knights, evolve into Fairy Knights in more than half the cases.

These fairies, wearing full-body armor that sparkles with mysterious light, exert tremendous strength despite their size, handle auras, and fly around on winged Welsh corgis (fairy dogs), thrusting lances into enemies.

Also, Fairies who imitate magic users who came seeking mysteries—accounting for more than half across the entire Western Continent—usually evolve into Fairy Sorcerers.

They possess staves and robes formed from the sparkling material that makes up their wings, and learn to handle intermediate or higher magic.

Due to the inherent magical nature of Fairies, most intermediate Fairies evolve into Fairy Sorcerers.

And a very small number of fairies—those who try to imitate leaders of specific classes like nobles or monarchs—evolve into Fairy Princesses, the rarest among intermediate Fairies.

This Fairy Princess, the only Fairy that can evolve into the advanced Fairy Queen, is literally a princess of the Fairy world.

She is born with leadership and charisma to lead and organize groups, and although some childlike aspects remain, she develops a personality that makes it hard to believe she was originally a Fairy.

That’s why I’m busily preparing custard pudding to adjust random variables, while outside, Sophia is contorting her body bizarrely to do the same.