episode_0142

[Episode 138] – It wasn’t a particular wish

Following Veronica outside onto the terrace, a quaint little cabin appeared before us in an instant. I always thought that traveling through spaces like this using the cabin was truly amazing.

I’ve heard that other witches either use the “fairy shortcut” to move through space or have to use magic accompanied by extreme dizziness. Like the magic Franc used to bring me to Katarina.

However, using the cabin, there was no need for such nauseating magic or the fairy shortcut; we could just arrive at the cabin right away. The only space that even the Grand Witch couldn’t find was this cabin.

As we arrived at the door of the cabin, Veronica gestured for me to wait a moment, looking slightly flustered, as if she were checking to see if the house was clean enough to admit guests.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll go check on the kids and come back.”

As Veronica entered the cabin, I soon heard her shouting. “I told you to tidy up!!” A grumbling scold that echoed all the way to the door. I didn’t think Veronica would make such a sound.

Are the dwarves causing trouble? In the game, the dwarves all had strong personalities, but they didn’t seem like the type to mess up Snow White’s place. As I chuckled to myself, the door creaked open.

“Sorry. Katarina hasn’t woken up yet… I guess I should explain for now.”

Ah, she was just yelling at Katarina. It was a quickly understood grumble. That kid was a typical night owl, usually waking up late and sleeping during the day when not working.

“Come to think of it, Einzel said he’s helping you too, right? Did Einzel’s main body also move here?”

“Oh, yeah. Even if Einzel uses his particles, he can’t come into the cabin from outside, but inside the cabin, he can come and go outside. He’s staying in my cabin to make it easier for Einzel. Maybe he’s still asleep? He stayed up all night with me yesterday.”

As I nodded, Veronica looked at me as if to ask, “Do you understand?” and then smiled. I continued nodding.

“Anyway… come in. It’s your first time coming into the cabin, right? It’s a bit complicated, so be careful.”

“Complicated? This small cabin?”

I asked with a smirk, and Veronica chuckled and opened the door.

Certainly, from the outside, it looked like a quaint cabin, but once inside, it was an entirely different space. It felt like a large mansion. When I thought about it, it was a really simple story.

“As more fairies live in the cabin, the interior expands. Since there are seven dwarfs, it’s probably as spacious as a large mansion now.”

“A cabin that expands on its own…”

“Oh, right in front of the entrance is Katarina’s room. It’s dirty because Brownie hasn’t cleaned, so don’t go too close.”

Since the game never showed the inside of the cabin, I couldn’t have imagined it would be this spacious. I had just thought it would be big enough for seven dwarfs to live comfortably.

Following Veronica through the spacious cabin, we eventually arrived at the second-floor room where she researched the “fairy egg.” Clearly, there was no second floor visible from the outside.

As if to confirm Veronica’s claim that the other dwarfs were all hiding from me, even though the room was quite a distance away, I couldn’t find a single strand of their hair.

“Come in. This is my lab.”

Upon entering the room, the most noticeable thing was, of course, the golden “fairy egg” shining brightly. Perhaps due to the golden light emanating from the egg, Veronica’s lab was very dark.

I wondered if it wasn’t named “egg” for no reason. The golden egg emitted light as if pulsating, flickering intermittently. As I gazed at the egg, text from the game suddenly came to mind.

It is an egg containing a fairy, and no one knows who the fairy sleeping inside the egg is. However, it should not be awakened, and it cannot be awakened in an ordinary way. There is a myth that this egg, existing as a huge lump of magic, fulfills the user’s “wish.”

Although there was no sound, it felt like the sound of a heartbeat echoing in my ears. Thump, thump, thump. It seemed as if something would be born from inside the egg at any moment.

“That… is a fairy’s egg.”

“Oh… Wait? I’m sure I left what I organized here yesterday…?”

Veronica, rummaging through piles of documents like a mountain, tilted her head as if something was strange.

Feeling like she might be disturbed, I waited a little away from Veronica, and then there was a loud bang outside the door! Something fell, broke, and a fierce sound of a cat crying was heard.

Then, with a rustle, the lab door opened, and Veronica’s dwarf, “Brownie,” came in and started explaining what had just happened while hopping around in place and looking at Veronica.

-“Master!! Cathy has caused trouble again!! She fought with the others and ate what was in the master’s room!”

“What? Oh, no, wait a minute, why?”

-I, I don’t know! I think there was a fight while petting Cathy’s fur… Cathy shouted to stop petting her, but the others kept petting her, so eventually…

“Oh, really, just a moment…”

Veronica, squeezing her forehead as if her head hurt, sighed and looked at me and Titania. The seven dwarfs here are ruining Snow White’s peace. I couldn’t help but smile at Veronica, who was experiencing the pain of childcare without realizing it.

“I’ll be back, I’ll wait for you.”

“Yeah… Just a moment, I’ll be back soon.”

Veronica rushed out and started shouting at the dwarfs. Should I say that such a sight is reminiscent of an ‘older sister’ or ‘parent’ with no authority? I felt like I hadn’t provoked Titania’s ‘older sister’ for no reason.

Leaning against the corner with her arms crossed, while waiting for Veronica with Titania, something squirmed under Veronica’s desk. Peering closely, they saw a child wriggling out from beneath the chair.

Moreover, the child…

Had no head?!

“Huh?!”

Startled by the sight of the headless child squirming out from under Veronica’s desk, Titania grabbed my arm and clung to it, asking in surprise.

“M-mother?”

“Titania, d-did you see that…? That thing squirming under the chair…?”

Clearing her throat, Titania, after adjusting her collar, narrowed her eyes and, as if understanding what I was pointing at, nodded her head slightly, then gently embraced me and replied.

“Mother, that child is not a ghost but one of your dwarves, ‘Durahan.’ Durahan is a ‘fairy’ whose head and body are separated. It seems he has lost his head again. He sometimes loses my head like that.”

“…Durahan?”

Looking closely, he seemed to be searching for something as he fumbled under the chair. Seeing scattered documents next to Durahan, it seemed that Veronica’s inability to find the documents was due to him.

“Oh… I see. A dwarf? Not a ghost?”

“Mother, even though you’re a witch, are you afraid of ghosts?”

“Fairies and ghosts are different…”

While confident about meeting the dwarves in the game, the sight of the headless child squirming under the dark desk was pure horror, so I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Slowly, I grabbed Durahan’s armpits from under the chair and lifted him up into place. Perhaps because of the unfamiliar touch, the headless child’s body fiercely resisted.

“I-I’m trying to help, so please calm down! Oh, right. You don’t have ears because you don’t have a face…?”

As I tried to dodge the child’s fists, jumping around in a frenzy, my buttocks hit the fairy’s egg on the desk.

“Titania, what should we do? We can’t just leave it like this…”

“Perhaps… soon, the other dwarves will come back with his head. We just need to wait a little longer.”

Before she could finish speaking, the door suddenly burst open and Brownie rushed into the room holding Dura’s head. Above Brownie’s head, the face of a girl with long gray hair was sobbing and swallowing tears.

“I found it! His body!”

“Ahh!! Vivian is here too!!”

While crying, Dura, who had grabbed her head, immediately ran out of the room as if trying to start a race, leaving behind a sense of fear rather than joy at finding his body.

Fortunately, before Brownie left, she nodded and bowed to me in greeting. Brownie was really kind. Among the seven dwarves, she was the only one who didn’t avoid Vivian.

“Children are so adorable. Their liveliness is contagious.”

“It seems that you, for some reason, like children more than others, Mother?”

“Haha, aren’t they cute? Sometimes I feel like I want to run around among them as if I were young again.”

At that moment, with a pounding sound, the “Fairy’s Egg” next to the desk throbbed heavily. As Titania and I tensed at the sound, the Fairy’s Egg moved once again with another thump.

“Oh? Titania, what is this…?”

“Mother, please stay there for now-”

As Titania spoke, just as the Fairy’s Egg was about to fall, I suddenly felt my vision rapidly sinking down, as if my knees were giving way. However, my knees did not buckle.

Due to the sudden drop in my field of vision, I had no choice but to look up at Titania. Until then, I had thought my legs had simply given out. But when I saw Titania’s expression as she looked at me…

“Mo-mother…? Oh my?!”

Unintentionally, I stifled the sound coming from my throat. It was thin. Fragile. It wasn’t the kind of voice you’d expect. It was childlike, to be precise. Moreover, the surprise didn’t end there.

My hands, which blocked my mouth, are small. They are too small. My fingers, which used to be thin and long, have become short and chubby like a child’s hand. These hands seemed like the hands Titania at six might have had.

“Six years old…?”

Without realizing it, I took a step back and ended up sitting on something, hurting my buttocks. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me.

“Oh, Mother…”

Titania’s hand reaching out to me felt so huge. No, everything felt huge. Titania, the furniture in the room, the shoes I wore, and the clothes I had on didn’t fit, and they just slipped off, leaving me naked.

Titania put her hand under my armpit, lifted me up, and hugged me tightly. In an instant, nestled in Titania’s arms without a gap, I finally realized the situation. Titania, who was smiling happily, patted my cheek as she breathed heavily.

“Oh, Mother…! You’ve become so cute…!”