Chapter 133 – Trespassers (2/2)

”Orphne!”

”What's up!”

The little fairy who first pointed her spear at me when I originally found the fairy settlement over a year ago rushed over with a bright smile when I called for her.

”The spirits think someone has come.”

Orphne looked up at our fluffy skies and her light expression hardened slightly.

”Okay. I'll have some people check it out.”

And with a nod, she went to a few of her subordinates. After a few words, they all went off their own ways before returning with their weapons and a trio making their way to the east. The remaining fairies made a circle around me.

”Is this really necessary?”

”It is! We gotta protect our V.I.P. after all!”

Along with Orphne, the other fairies nodded in unison.

”A V.I.P?”

Before I could stop it, my skepticism ended up being voiced.

”That's...!”

”...a vital...”

”...influential...”

”...patissier!”

(They're not even close!)

But at the very least, they were able to communicate the impression they had of me quite well.

After a little more random banter, the trio that went out had returned, this time together with a group of five.

I couldn't help but frown. The group members were pretty varied, and aside from one member, their outfits were suited for the rigours of combat. But they weren't adventurers, at least as far as I could tell. The most telling bit was the two at the front, especially the one in the lead. Both were wearing full plate armour with only their faces exposed as their visors were raised.

But more than simply wearing full plate, the armour was in excellent condition, with no obvious scratches on their surfaces. Pure, pristine, and perfectly white for one and black for the other. The only thing notable was some of the decorative flourishes on it, but without having a closer look, I couldn't make out the highlights very well.

But that didn't matter, because their armour reminded me of on particular's. Especially the man leading the group.

His armour closely resembled the one Sarah wore.

It wasn't exact, and for that matter, it was far more ornate. In fact, Sarah's was just plain utilitarian. But the colour and overall shape was the same. I wasn't an expert on armours in the first place, as I've never even worn proper ones before, so my amateurish eyes could have caused me some misunderstandings.

But even still, it didn't hurt to raise my guard.

In the end, these people were trespassers, and have somehow gone through the difficult monsters that made up our national boarder and had reason enough to push past them. It was hard to think that they had come this far without a reason, and that reason made me nervous.

A few of them seemed to be whispering something to each other, but the fairies who were escorting them didn't react, and I wasn't nearly good enough to lip read to be able to make out what they were saying.

”It seems I have arrived in time.”

As we were waiting for the group to be lead to us, Aurae, one of the fairy elders, showed up. It seemed like she was the one who would represent the fairies for whatever these people had come here to do.

While I was glad to be relieved the burden of such a thing, I was one of the elders so leaving to let everything be dealt with by Aurae wasn't really an option. At the very least, I needed to be present to back her up or give her some advice if she needed it.

”Welcome. I am Aurae, one of the elders of this settlement.”

”Ah. I'm Meleager.”

The man in white armour half returned Aurae's greeting.

”May I ask for what reason you and yours have travelled so far to our homes?”

”Your homes? You live next to the sacred Hourai Mountain?”

(Sacred?)

”We do.”

”There's a lot of fairies here. Where did you come from?”

Before our elder could continue on the subject, the man, Meleager, quickly moved on without any regard. The way he was trying to domineer this conversation only made me frown more deeply.

”We have moved from our old home of Arcadia.”

”Is that because of all the spirits who have gathered here, or does that mean these spirits came with you from Arcadia?”

”The latter.”

Not just me, but Aurae wasn't liking this man's attitude. The tension in the air as he casually spoke grew thicker by the second as the other fairies' expressions changed from cautious curiosity to frustration and annoyance.

”That's impossible! This many spirits abandoned their homes just to follow you fairies?!”

The one to make that outburst was the elf in the back of the group. She was wearing a dark green robe with gold inlays and held a crooked staff in her hand. There were four fluffballs following her, but they looked strange. Each was bigger than any fluffball I had seen before, but they looked...tired?

It was the only way I could explain what I saw. It wasn't like any of them had faces, and hence expressions, but something about them made me feel that they weren't happy. It was the first time I've seen fluffballs like this.

”That's exactly what happened!”

Aurae puffed out her chest while placing her hands on her hips. The smile alone showed off how proud she was of this fact.

”You damn fairies! You made them abandon their homes! Or tricked them!”

”We rescued them!”

The elder glared sharply at the almost hysteric elf.

Between the two, I was fully behind Aurae. Her side was the first I had heard, and it was quite convincing, especially after getting to know the fluffballs who had come with the fairies. They came following the fairies willingly, and were all happy at their new home.

On the other hand, while the fluffballs that were following this elf did look well fed, they weren't energetic at all. They kinda reminded me of someone who worked paycheck to paycheck living off of nothing but cheap instant meals and stressed out from work all day.

I could have been misreading them entirely. I still had no idea how much these thoughts I had on the emotions of spirits were accurate.

”By the way, aren't you cold in that outfit?”

”Me?”

The one in the white armour interrupted the argument between the probably Arcadia natives and asked. I wasn't completely sure, but it felt like he was staring at me for a little while. The smile he had was a little creepy.

”I'm fine. I'm pretty resistant against the cold.”

”Resistant or not, it's really quite cold. I'm practically shivering despite the extra layers I'm wearing under this armour.”

Whether he was actually wearing more layers or not, I couldn't tell. But that aside, there were members of his party who were clearly not wearing clothes suitable for winter.

”What about those two? Aren't they the same?”

I pointed at the two women behind him. The elf was definitely wearing some sort of sweater under those robes, but it didn't look that thick. It was fine for someone who was used to colder climates, but on the chance that she wasn't, it was more helpful to point her out. The human woman beside her though, was showing off quite a bit of skin. Her upper chest was bare and she only had half sleeves. On top of that, her skirt hardly went below her knees, so I could see that her socks were pretty normal in thickness. Not thick wool ones or something appropriate for winter.

”Me? My dress is enchanted to keep me warm.”

Waving off my question, the woman in the dress quickly went back to looking bored.

Then again, the idea of enchanting one's clothes to adapt to differing climates hadn't come to me at all. It was probably pretty easy to do, though maybe it wasn't cheap. But either way, this group looked well off enough that it shouldn't be hard for them to get that sort of thing.

”Yea, I wish I remembered to bring mine too. I didn't think it would still be so cold here despite it being spring already.”

”Haaa...I see.”

I didn't know what to say. Though I hadn't thought that the rest of the world considered it to be spring already. The winter solstice had only passed two months ago, making me hate the ever increasing duration of attacks the sun made each day.

”Anyways, that aside, I see your companion is human, but are you one as well? I can't quite tell with your hood on.”

I glanced over at Sarah. While she was wearing a full set of fur clothes made for the winter, her ears were fully visible under that fluffy hat on her head. She had opted to wear her scarf loose so it wasn't covering much of anything at all.

”Ah, no. I'm not human. See?”

I grabbed my ear through the side of my hood and waggled it around a bit. I couldn't say for sure if they could properly see it, but the motion should be enough to give them my meaning.

”Yes, I do.”

The man in front took a few steps towards me, and I in turn took a hesitant step back.

This guy's armour and shield were strongly enchanted with [Light Magic]. Just looking at it made my eyes a bit sore. Enough that I was tempted to put on the enchanted clothes Elli had made so I could ward off the ambient light mana the thing lightly radiated as a consequence.

”Those red eyes, those fangs, and those pointed ears...”

My eyes shot to the man. I hadn't bothered to hide my features for a while, so I had forgotten to do so when these people had arrived.

”You must be the vampire demon lord haunting this place!”

The man's arm shot under his shield.

Not waiting to see what would come out, I kicked the soft layers of snow to create some distance between us just as the armoured man lunged forward, thrusting a now revealed sword.

”Die! For the sake of god!”

And with those words, his four companions readied their weapons. A split second later, Orphne and her fellow guards readied their own spears against our intruders.

Ninetailed_Furball

Hi everybody! It's your usual furball! (^^)/

Sorry for the lack of releases. The week's been pretty bad for me. Two major equipment failures at work, then a blackout at home, and some sort of incident on the subway on my way home from work. Though hopefully the injury at track level that had been repeated on the PA system every five 0minutes for an hour didn't amount to anything serious.

Well, those weren't the only reasons, but the rest was my own fault. m(_ _)m

Anyways, sorry for leaving things at a cliffhanger, but there was no better way to split the scene up I could think of.

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter though!

Stay safe and I'll see you next time! (/◕ヮ◕)/