Seeing the cubs’ confusion, Aisha patiently explained.
Fairies were vegetarian, and the waste their bodies expelled made excellent “fertilizer” for the flowers and trees of the forest.
Every Fairy house contained a bathroom equipped with a toilet, a wastewater bucket, and a rubbish bin.
Once every three days, Fairies assigned specifically to the task would come to collect the “contents” and transport them to a designated location for sorting and treatment. Anything useful would be retained and used to provide the divine tree with “nutrients.”
Shu Li took out his notebook and quill and scribbled rapidly. Once Aisha had finished speaking, he asked her about the parts he found difficult until he understood everything.
So that was how it worked!
For a moment, he had thought adult Fairies relieved themselves the same way the cubs had inside the Fairy Nursery, collectively “fertilizing” the divine tree’s roots.
If things had really been as he imagined, the scene would have been far too “spectacular” to look at directly.
Thank goodness it was not like that!!
He had nearly misunderstood!
At that moment, Shu Li missed the flushing toilets back home more than ever and felt heartfelt gratitude toward whoever had invented sewer pipes.
Ever since transmigrating into another world, his quality of life had plummeted. Everything was inconvenient.
Although this world possessed magic and had created certain marvelous things, such as belt pouches with storage space and doors secured by magical arrays, it was sorely lacking in public conveniences.
Perhaps that was because Fairies were close to nature and preferred a more natural way of life!
He wondered what the infrastructure was like elsewhere on the continent. Surely it was better than in the Faerie Forest?
Hopefully!
After introducing the divine tree, Aisha continued serving as their “guide.” To accommodate Sperien, she deliberately slowed her speech and repeated important information several times to ensure that he understood.
Shu Li was deeply moved. Holding his notebook, he listened and wrote at the same time, gradually learning how Fairies lived.
The entire divine tree was practically a vast city.
In addition to the residential districts where the Fairies lived, it also had a thriving commercial district containing everything one could imagine: general stores, weapon shops, armor shops, instrument shops, herb shops, food stores, and more.
Shu Li quickly drew a map in his notebook and marked important locations for himself, since his sense of direction was not particularly good.
The divine tree was simply too enormous. At the flying speed of Fairy cubs, it took them half a day to tour the entire commercial district, and by the end, they were all starving.
Therefore, Aisha took the cubs to the school cafeteria.
Yes, the school cafeteria.
As it turned out, all underage Fairies were required to attend school.
Beginning tomorrow, the cubs would officially become the youngest students at the Fairy school. They would receive three free meals a day in the cafeteria until graduation.
What excellent benefits! What a harmonious society!
Inside the cafeteria, Shu Li saw adolescent Fairies more than ten years older than them.
The Fairy Nursery produced a new group of cubs every ten years, so the previous group was ten years older than Shu Li’s.
They were still children!
The adolescent Fairies watched the thumb-sized cubs with great interest.
The cubs sat obediently at a long table and waited for Aisha and the adult Fairies working in the cafeteria to bring them a sumptuous dinner.
The meal was not much different from what they had eaten inside the Fairy Nursery: rich nectar, fresh fruit, sweet sauce, and baked biscuits.
The cubs’ stomachs had long since begun growling with hunger. The moment they smelled the food, they swallowed involuntarily.
Aisha lightly shook her bell. Once the cubs received permission to begin, they immediately dug in.
The adolescent Fairies sat at the other long tables, watching the cubs eat with enormous appetites as they whispered among themselves.
“Did we wolf down our food like that when we were little?”
“I don’t know. Probably!”
“That little fatty eats so fast. The others only just started, and he’s already finished half his food.”
“How else do you think he became as round as a ball?”
“The cubs are so adorable~”
“Wait until they start bawling and no one can calm them down. Then see whether you still think they’re adorable.”
“Ah... never mind, then!”
“Which one is Sperien?”
“Third from the left. The golden-haired cub wearing the flower crown. His eyes are green, just like the Elven King’s!”
“He eats so neatly. He’s nothing like the other cubs, who have crumbs all over their mouths.”
“I heard he isn’t very good at Elven. Has he at least passed the level needed for daily conversation?”
“Don’t worry. He’s still young, so his intelligence hasn’t fully developed yet. Once he grows a little older, he’ll improve by leaps and bounds.”
“Exactly! A Fairy who cannot speak more than ten languages is not a proper Fairy.”
While gnawing on a piece of fruit, Shu Li kept one ear on the conversations around him. He vaguely heard his own name, the Elven King, cubs, and more than ten languages.
He raised his left hand and touched the green flower crown on his head.
With this thing, it would be difficult not to become famous.
Still, Shu Li had always been a likable child with an optimistic, outgoing personality. From elementary school through high school, he had always been well known at school, if only because he had three older brothers who were more outstanding than him.
Whenever others compared him with his brothers, he never felt inferior. Instead, he took pride in them.
He had received the Elven King’s blessing on his very first day in this world, so he was destined to attract attention.
At first, Shu Li had felt uncomfortable with it. Now, however, he could accept it calmly.
While teaching the cubs Elven, Siet often included entertaining legends and stories. Gradually, Shu Li learned that receiving the Elven King’s blessing was an immense honor.
The Elven King had lived for more than ten thousand years, yet the number of people he had blessed could be counted on one hand.
For a tiny Fairy cub like Shu Li to receive the Elven King’s blessing was practically the same as being given an advantage no one else possessed. When he studied magic in the future, he would achieve twice the results with half the effort.
How could he possibly dislike such a wonderful thing?
He could not be happier!
As for becoming the subject of gossip over someone else’s dinner, he would simply let it drift away with the wind.
By the time they finished dinner, night had fallen.
Aisha took the cubs home and instructed them to gather in the little plaza early the next morning so they could report to school together.
Every cub was bursting with excitement.
They had entered the Faerie Forest, a place far larger than the Fairy Nursery, and had seen all kinds of strange and fascinating things. Everything felt wonderfully new. They gathered in groups of two or three and discussed the day enthusiastically.
Redhead and Whitehead held Shu Li’s hands from either side as they flew home, their little mouths chattering endlessly.
“The general store had so many fun things!” Whitehead turned his head and asked, “Sperien, Disio, shall we visit the general store after school tomorrow?”
Redhead said coolly, “I want to go to the weapon shop.”
He had spotted a silver bow there. Although he did not know how to use it yet, he could own it first.
Shu Li thought for a moment before slowly answering, “Armor shop... instrument shop.”
After underwear, the next thing he wanted was a pair of shoes.
Aisha had given the cubs clothes but no shoes, so their little feet were still bare. However, Shu Li had paid particular attention to the adolescent and adult Fairies that day and discovered that they wore shoes.
Young cubs had poor self-care skills, so it was understandable that they were not given shoes in case they lost them. But Shu Li considered himself an adult and believed that he should wear them.
As for why he wanted to visit the instrument shop?
He was a music student. After listening to Siet play the harp every day, he had long been itching to learn.
Even a tiny Fairy harp produced better sound than instruments worth millions in his former world.
Shu Li loved music and had decided long ago to pursue the arts. From childhood, he had always used the finest instruments available. On his thirteenth birthday, CEO Shu had purchased a violin worth five million dollars at an international auction.
The moment Shu Li received it, he could hardly bear to put it down and treasured it immensely. After tuning it, he had drawn the bow gently across the strings. The clear sound had sent goose bumps across everyone’s skin.
It had sounded heavenly!
That violin remained Shu Li’s most treasured possession.
Only after hearing the beautiful music produced by a Fairy harp did he understand what truly heavenly music sounded like.
Fairies and Elves were not only natural linguists but also natural musicians, especially skilled with harps.
From Siet’s stories, Shu Li had learned that there were three supreme harps on the continent: Lesias, Mitekale, and Undine.
Their pronunciations were extremely difficult.
Shu Li wrote them in his notebook and repeated each name more than twenty times before finally memorizing them.
Since they were related to his field of expertise, he could not afford to be careless.
All three harps had been crafted by the same person, a man named Loki.
Loki had been born ten thousand years ago and was the founding master of Dwarven craftsmanship. He had left behind countless exceptional creations and blueprints. His interests were extraordinarily broad, and as long as he wished to create something, he could forge a supreme weapon.
The three harps were merely works he had made in his spare time. Lesias had been given to the Elven King, while Undine had been given to the Sea Folk. Mitekale had disappeared during the War of the Gods, and no trace of it had been found even by the time Loki died.
Shu Li listened to the story with great concentration. When he learned that one of the harps had been lost, he found it deeply regrettable and could not resist asking Siet in his broken Elven whether anyone knew where it was now.
Siet shook his head, indicating that there had still been no news.
Many people speculated that Mitekale had either been destroyed during the war or had become part of some powerful noble’s private collection.
Shu Li felt sorry for Mitekale.
He hoped that when he traveled across the continent in the future, he might be lucky enough to encounter it.
Before that, however, he wanted to see Lesias.
Siet said that Lesias was kept in the Crystal City of the Elven Kingdom and that anyone was allowed to play it—provided they possessed the ability.
Shu Li had been thoroughly confused.
What did possessing the ability mean?
Siet lightly plucked the five-stringed harp in his arms and explained in his beautiful voice, “The harp has been imbued with advanced magic. Those with weak wills cannot withstand the enchantment of its music and will cough up blood and die.”
It took Shu Li a while to understand. When he finally did, his pale green eyes widened in shock.
Playing... playing a harp could cost someone their life?
This other world was so dangerous!
Shu Li hesitated. Although he was afraid, he still could not stop wanting to witness Lesias’s power for himself.
However, he had overlooked one important detail.
A harp made for an Elf to play would inevitably be enormous. As a thumb-sized Fairy cub, forget trying to perform with it—whether he could even move one of its strings was questionable!
After saying good night to his two companions, Shu Li returned to his own house.
The little house was completely dark at night, but Shu Li was not worried about being unable to see because Little Fairies possessed one remarkable trait—their wings glowed.
The darker their surroundings became, the brighter their wings shone. When they fluttered gently, they even scattered tiny points of starlight.
After Shu Li entered, his wings filled the house with a pale green glow, clearly illuminating everything inside.
Even so, Shu Li preferred a proper lamp.
While organizing his belongings that afternoon, he had discovered something resembling an oil lamp on the table. A cord hung from it, and when he tugged it lightly, the bulging transparent material in its center instantly lit up.
Shu Li had curiously sprawled across the table to inspect the magical lamp. He discovered that the transparent section did not contain oil but a beautiful glowing crystal.
It was probably some kind of consumable magic stone.
As expected of another world. Everything was filled with fantasy.
Shu Li could not fall asleep for a while, so he took his notebooks out of the belt pouch at his waist.
One, two, three, four.
Four notebooks in total.
The first three were completely filled with writing, while the fourth still had half its pages blank.
As for his quill, he had already replaced its core twice.
The core was a slender tube imbued with magic. Once its magic was depleted, it became useless.
At first, Shu Li had assumed the quill would never run out of ink. He never imagined that after using it continuously for a month, it would suddenly stop writing.
He had panicked terribly.
How could he take notes without ink?
He had stumbled through an explanation while asking Siet for help and only managed to make the problem clear after enormous effort.
Once Siet understood what he meant, he laughed and gave him an entire bundle of magical cores.
With the major problem resolved, Shu Li breathed a sigh of relief.
He pulled out the little chair and sat at the table. Opening his fourth notebook beneath the lamp, Shu Li began writing that day’s diary entry.
Yes, after receiving his notebooks, he had written in his diary every day, using short sentences to record everything that had happened.
The purpose of keeping a diary was to remind himself where he had come from, where he was going, what he had experienced, and whether he would ultimately succeed in returning home.
Although he was naturally optimistic, there were still times when he felt dejected.
He worried that after living in this other world for too long and becoming accustomed to life here, his memories of his original world would gradually fade with time.
His diary was important.
Extremely, extremely important!
Therefore, every entry began with the same words:
My beloved Dad, Mom, eldest brother, second brother, and third brother, today is my Nth day in this other world...
Inside the quiet little house, the only sound was the soft scratching of his quill.
Author’s Note:
Shushu: Scribble, scribble, scribble...