Chapter 99 – A village in my backyard?! (1/2)

We quickly weaved through the forest as a group.

Due to the fairies natural flight, I opted to use [Float] to keep up with them.

They found the sight of a vampire floating like a fairy quite amusing and it didn't take long before most of them were swirling around me trying to figure out where my wings were despite how much I told them I didn't have any.

At the time.

Magni on the other hand looked quite annoyed. But seeing him frustrated yet having the sense to keep his mouth shut was actually a bit amusing as well.

(No, shame on me. That's a bad habit to form. And it's sets a bad example for Alicia as well.)

I shook my head.

I'd enjoy things that were amusing, but I wouldn't go and chase after those feelings of schadenfreude.

Even still, I was filled with an underpinning of dread.

The fact that there were fairies in this forest when I hadn't seen a hint of them before leaving home, only made even worse when they claimed their village was in the same direction as the dungeon I lived in.

And it didn't take long before my fears were confirmed.

While extremely rudimentary, there were what looked like simple shelters built into the trees.

A bundle of leaves hanging from a branch along with some sticks and vines under that.

On occasion I could see something more elaborate. An unusual large bulge in a tree's trunk at the base of a major branch partially covered in an assortment of petals and leaves. Looking closely, I could even spot what could only be thought of as windows in between some of the leaves.

The shock of the sight had left me speechless, and I could only silently follow the lead fairy as she continued to guide us.

”Puhah!”

I turned my head to the sudden sound, only to freeze even further, floating with nothing but momentum.

There was a little fairy, sticking a part of his body out from a window...embedded inside of a tree. The little guy saw us, squeezed himself through that window and flitted around us for a moment before going off somewhere.

To be honest, I was pretty impressed how his wings bent in on itself so he could squeeze out of that narrow window before flying to us. I was pretty sure butterflies couldn't so something like that.

(I want to touch it.)

Looking at the lead fairy, or rather, her shimmering wings, I felt an urge in my fingers to try touching them for myself.

Would they be soft? Flexible? Or maybe stiff? Would they feel like paper, or like silk? Could they be curled up like a bill without harm, or maybe there's some special way they fold? Were they covered in scales? Would they fall off if I touched them? Were those scales shiny, or was it something underneath them that shimmers?

My fingers itched to find out.

(I really want to touch it.)

Fairies were vastly different from any other race I had met so far.

The sight of Magni entered my eyes as we turned around another tree.

(...They're only reptile scales.)

I've handled snakes and lizards before during events when I was a child in my previous life. Reptile scales were cold and smooth, but that was mostly it. But fairies were different from all that. Butterflies and moths couldn't compare, not like I had much experience touching those in the first place.

There was something in the distance that shimmered slightly, that had light reflecting off of it in weird ways. Maybe it was just me, but the light felt excessively bright despite being inside of a dense forest.

We turned a few more trees before I clearly saw what it was.

In between three trees, where their largest branches reached out to one another and met, hung what best could be described as a crystal dollhouse.

Well, obviously it wasn't a dollhouse as it was massive and wasn't for dolls, but it was clear it wasn't built for people of normal size.

As the trees' branches converged, they split countlessly and wove themselves amongst each other while sprouting a dense canopy that could repel a monsoon's rain. Below that was something roughly the shape of an acorn, but there were signs of decorations being started here and there.

From the perspective of a fairy, this structure seemed to have been a mansion, or maybe even a palace. It was far bigger than myself. Maybe it's full body could just barely fit within the living room of an average house.

No, while its width could manage, it could only fit if the living room didn't have a ceiling. It was just far too tall.

But more than anything, it was the material it was made of which was amazing. The shimmering rainbow crystals that reflected and refracted light in every way.

It wasn't like I hadn't seen crystals that could do things like that, but to somehow get enough of it to create an entire building, even at such a small scale, was mind blowing.

Also painful to my eyes as it shimmered so brightly.

”Here here! This way! The elders are inside!”

”Huh? Wai, wait!”

But ignoring my words and the obvious problem about me entering a dwelling made for a creature a fraction of my size, the little fairy grabbed my finger and pulled me towards the crystalline structure.

The entrance itself was quite large relative to the rest of the building. While not nearly big enough for me to walk through, surprisingly enough, it was tall enough that I could probably sit within its frames if I tucked my head as far as I could. Not like the fairy was going to let me, and instead pulled me in headfirst while my legs flailed about.

She continued to pull me through the initial hallway until I passed through the far gateway.

What greeted me was a large circular room.

Large, relative to these fairies at least.

The ceiling was far too low for me to stand, and if I stretched my body out, I would've easily been able to touch the opposite walls with my hands and feet simultaneously.

If I had to force the words, then the room resembled something between an audience chamber and a theatre. Across from the entrance was a raised platform and some decorations lining the wall behind it. The flanking walls had a pair of large windows on each letting in light where the rest of the crystals that made up the room was a semi-opaque white like a cloudy quartz.

”Elder Vodnik! Look who I brought!”

The little fairy finally let go of my finger and rushed over to someone who was floating in front of a table covered in various things.

The figure had bright golden wings, and as he slowly turned around, revealed a deep green jacket and pants lined with some sort of fluffy white material and sealed with a black belt around the waist and black boots.

There was a matching green and white hat securing his frazzled white hair and a beard sealed the deal all the way down past his feet.

”Hohoho! Merry...!”

(Don't say Christmas. Don't you dare say Christmas.)

”Merry...! Merry?”

But in the middle of his exclamation, he suddenly started to look a bit confused and tilted his head sideways. After a few moments, he reached over to the table behind him and grabbed a tiny mushroom and started to eat right in front of us.

”Ah! Not again!”

The first fairy held her head in both arms as exclaimed like the world was ending before turning away from the old fairy.

”Elder Aurae! Elder Aurae! Elder Vodnik's eating mushrooms again!”

”What?!”

Something that more closely resembled a mouse squeak than a person's voice resonated from somewhere above. Something crashed and the sound of various small things falling reached my ears before the sound of some things slamming echoed through the crystal structure of the building. Finally, a part of the decoration in the far back burst open and another fairy appeared in its place.

(Or rather, that was a door huh?)

Returning my attention from the flower petal decoration that turned out to be a door back to the figure standing in the now open passage, I found my mind simply unable to comprehend how the last handful of seconds connected together.

The newest fairy was the smallest one I had seen so far, only being a bit over half the size of any of the others. She had neon pink wings and matching hair bound into a twin-tails. But they were so poofy that they were more like a pair of fluffy acorns jutting out to the side and up rather than a pair of pigtails.

Her outfit was a mess of bright pink, baby blue, and white. Like the most overdone magical girl outfit that was even beyond my own imagination. Her skirt was to puffed out due to all the layers that the topmost layer was virtually horizontal like a tutu.

(I suppose she at least doesn't have to worry about having her panties exposed like that.)

But that being said, it didn't seem like these fairies really cared about such a thing considering that they wore skirts despite spending all their time airborne.

(Huh? I'm not exposing myself when I fly, do it?!)

Quite suddenly I got worried about my own habits. Fortunately I wore pants normally, but that didn't change the fact that unless if the other party realized that, they might think that I was flashing them every time I went airborne.

It was quite possible I needed to seriously rethink my wardrobe. That was, after I actually got something that could be considered a wardrobe at least.

”Vodnik! You're eating mushrooms again?! Take this! Lovely magical annihilation kick!”

Suddenly the newest fairy flew at the grandpa fairy and threw a double kick into the side of his head.

”!!!”

The old man went flying straight into the wall.

I looked in shock at the bizarre treatment of the so-called elder.

”Yea! Lovely magical annihilation kick! Woo!”

The one that escorted me, though, flew around in circles before landing on the older fairy and stomped on his head in a weak imitation of the little girl's kick.

(How does anyone put lovely and annihilation into the same sentence?!)

”You there!”

”Yesh?!”

My voice cracked as I tucked my feet under me and sat up straight. I had no idea what to expect from this little girl and now her attention was on me.

”Take this, evil vampire! Love love sacred genocide star!”

The little girl pulled a wand out of nowhere and swung it at me. A yellow object in the shape of a cartoonish star materialized in mid-air and flew towards me at a significant pace.

But my mind was far too occupied with the absurdity of declaring any form of genocide as sacred or in any way related to love for me to react in any way to that innocuous object flying my way.

Crack!

”Master?!”

A stinging pain erupted on my cheek where the flying star impacted me.

There was definitely some damage done, but I was more surprised that I had just been hit hard enough to deplete my HP, even if only a little.

I put a hand on my cheek as the first fairy got to fighting with the little girl fairy across the room. Pulling my hand away revealed it was covered in blood.

Frankly speaking, seeing that blood made me especially nervous. Not because I was bleeding, but because that little girl was strong enough to so easily do this much damage to me, and had no compunction about wielding such power against someone she had just met for the first time.

”Master! Do you want me to punish that foolish fairy for you?”

”No, I can handle it. It's fine.”

Considering this familiar of mine, she was definitely going to go overboard if I didn't hold her reigns in tight. Starting a fight was not in my interests at all.

”No! She's a good vampire! Stop it Elder Aurae!”

”Elder?!”

I looked over at the struggling fairies. The fairy that guided me distinctly called the little girl an elder.

(Is that just a title, or is she really that old?!)

I couldn't see it. No matter how I looked, that little girl was exactly that: a little girl.

”A good vampire?”

”Yes! She's a good vampire! Even the spirits love her! Look!”

”Wha?!”

She pointed at one of the windows. My eyes followed the fairy's outstretched finger only for the sight of a pair of large windows being completely covered up with fluffballs entering my sight.

I turned my head only to be greeted with the same sight on the other side. The little spirits completely filled up the view of the windows, blocking off anything else.

Density aside, it felt like it had been a long time since I had seen so many fluffballs all together at the same time though.

(I wonder if the fairies are the reason why there's so many around here?)