"I will make a space for you in the Fairy Realm and cram all of them into it."
"Ah~. In the Fairy Realm."
Haseol nodded, then immediately looked puzzled.
"There is a Fairy Realm? On Earth?"
"Why would I say we are going if there was not?"
"Is it like another dimension?"
"It is not a concept like another dimension. Just imagine that a ball this big falls from space. What would happen?"
Myun picked up a large rock and held it out.
"It would simply be a ball that fell on Earth, would it not?"
"Then the space inside that ball would be filled with things that did not exist on Earth."
"That is true."
"What if the ball were floating in the sky or buried in the ground?"
"Oh......"
"And what if people could not see the ball's surface or enter its interior?"
"I think I could understand if I heard a little more."
Haseol nodded as he tried to understand.
"The inside of that ball is the Fairy Realm. Except the ball did not fall from space. It is a space each fairy created."
"Ah~~. Then they are actually borrowing Earth's space."
"You could see it that way."
"Does Earth have that much room? Do people not fight over space?"
"Because the Fairy Realm is a space an individual fairy has created, it disappears quickly if the Material Realm pushes into it."
"Ah~."
"Wary of that, most fairies set themselves up in places where people do not come at all."
"There were places like that. Have you been to one, Shura?"
Haseol turned and asked Shura.
Shura was staring fixedly at an empty cigarette pack.
"No."
"Why? Were you not interested?"
"You can't go to a Fairy Realm unless the fairy personally invites you."
"Ah~. It must be hard to get into."
"It's almost impossible."
Shura's expressionless face made it seem as though she might simply never have gone because she had not been interested.
"Has Myun arrived?"
Eska flew over with the ability gear floating through the air around her.
Most of it consisted of everyday tools, such as dishes and scissors.
"Wow, there is so much ability gear. I can see why Haseol could not manage it all."
Myun looked at the ability gear floating beside Eska and let out a hollow laugh.
"It seems we need a warehouse to store the ability gear we collect like this."
"About that. Ah. I am tired of saying the same thing. Shura, you heard it, so tell Eska and Bisan."
"Why me?"
"I am going to take Haseol straight to the Fairy Realm."
Shura stared fixedly at Myun with an expressionless face, then got to her feet.
"If you buy cigarettes on the way back."
"Tch. Fine."
Myun answered unwillingly.
"What is this? Haseol. Are you going into the Fairy Realm?"
With shining eyes, Eska approached Haseol.
"Uh, yes. I guess that is what is happening?"
Haseol walked backward, keeping a distance from Eska with an expression that said he did not quite know either.
"I envy you. If you bring back anything from there, I will pay a price."
"What?"
"If you tell me what it feels like to enter the Fairy Realm, I will grant even a wish."
Haseol looked at Myun as though asking whether that was all right.
"If you tell her, I'll kill you."
"Then that is how it is. I am sorry, Eska."
Haseol showed Eska a genuinely apologetic expression.
It seemed he had intended to use Myun's answer from the start.
"I am going. See you later."
Myun took Haseol by the shoulder.
"Wait a moment."
A voice stopped Myun.
Bisan was walking out of a Slap Portal.
"Oh."
"Myun, you are planning to put all this ability gear into Haseol's Fairy Realm, correct?"
"That is what I said."
"Is that realistically possible for a human like Haseol?"
"It's possible. I'll take care of all that myself."
"I see. Then."
Bisan nodded, then stared fixedly at Myun again.
"What happens to the ability gear inside the Fairy Realm if Haseol dies?"
"......"
Haseol flinched at the question.
Eska looked at Myun with curious eyes.
"It will scatter."
Making it clear that he disliked the premise, Myun answered.
"Where will it scatter?"
"Across Earth."
"Would that be the right choice? Should we not choose a safer warehouse?"
With smiling eyes, Bisan voiced his doubts.
"I think that if Haseol dies, there is no future anyway."
Myun spoke stiffly.
"There must be a reason Haseol was chosen from among countless ordinary people. If Haseol dies, will a replacement simply pop up? I do not think so."
"I do not think it would be bad to confirm even that. A predecessor existed, after all."
Eska put knowledge above all else.
That knowledge included Haseol's life and the world's destruction.
"Has that old man gone mad?"
Myun sharply frowned, as though Eska had said something impossible.
"What do you think, Shura?"
"I do not know."
Shura answered as though she had no interest.
"Just do what Haseol wants."
Then she jerked her chin toward Haseol.
She seemed the least sincere of them all, yet perhaps hers was the closest answer to the truth.
"Then shall we gather the opinions and reach a conclusion?"
Bisan spoke as though leading a meeting.
"I am opposed to putting the ability gear into Haseol. I think we should find a safe warehouse."
He first organized his own view.
"Shura has left the choice to Haseol, so Haseol has two votes."
Then he organized Shura's view.
"What about you, Eska?"
"It does not matter to me either way."
"One abstention. Next, Myun. Please speak."
"My position is that we create Haseol's Fairy Realm and cram every piece of ability gear into it. To state the reason briefly."
"It is because of the Pairing Effect."
Eska spoke as though she already knew.
"You knew, and you said it like that?"
Myun glared at Eska as though he found it absurd.
"What is the Pairing Effect?"
Haseol asked.
"Every object in your Fairy Realm will lend you its strength."
"What exactly does lending me strength mean?"
"Exactly what it says. Think of it as similar to all your stats rising when you level up in a game."
"Oh...... Can I use something like the Glove of Obsession even without wearing the glove?"
"No. You cannot use the supernatural ability contained in the ability gear."
"So I receive its strength, but I cannot use the function unique to that ability gear?"
"That is right."
"Forever?"
"No. If you take it out of the Fairy Realm, you can use the ability gear as ability gear."
"Huh. Then......"
As though something had occurred to him, Haseol let out a hollow laugh and hung his head.
"Ah~, this is something else."
He scratched his head, looking troubled.
"All the strength goes into me, and all the risk goes into me too?"
"That is right."
Bisan smiled as though Haseol now understood.
"You receive all the strength, but you will also bear all the risk if you fail. Are you all right with that?"
Bisan asked Haseol.
"Hey, Bisan. Do not say pointless things."
Myun glared at Bisan.
"It is one to one now, so Haseol can choose."
Bisan ignored Myun and spoke again.
"I never said I would follow a majority vote."
"A decision other than majority rule makes things troublesome, so let us simply use majority rule."
"What if I say no?"
"I will use force too, but judging from Haseol's expression, I do not think you have any reason to use force, Myun."
"Hmm?"
Myun looked at Haseol.
"......"
Haseol shook his head as though he had never made such an expression.
"That bast......"
Myun was about to curse.
"Excuse me!"
Haseol spoke.
"I will do it."
Then he made his decision.
"Do what?"
Bisan asked with a smile.
"I will receive the strength, and I will take the responsibility."
Clap!
Pleased by Haseol's answer, Myun clapped loudly.
"I thought about it."
Haseol continued with a smile.
"It does not seem much different from how things are now."
At those words, Eska laughed out loud, while Bisan continued only to smile.
"If there is not much difference anyway, I think it would be better for me to survive and for us to be happy together."
Haseol spoke cautiously.
"That is not greed, right?"
"No."
Shura answered the question sharply.
"Put yourself first. That is what people live to do."
Shura spoke calmly.
"Even if you ignore the world's destruction and go do what you need to do, I won't say anything."
"No, you should say something about that."
Haseol laughed at Shura's extreme remark instead.
"Then it is decided."
Bisan said.
"We will create Haseol's Fairy Realm and put every piece of ability gear we obtain from now on into it. Then we will use the Pairing Effect to strengthen Haseol further. Correct?"
"It is decided, so we are going into the Fairy Realm now."
Myun took Haseol by the shoulder.
"There is no time to rest even after resolving a Rootstream."
Haseol spoke as though he accepted it, and Myun did not wait for him.
Haseol's vision changed.
His vision flowed.
The landscape around them passed by sideways as though they were riding in a time machine.
The ground, the sea, the mountains, and the sky.
They passed by the two of them.
As though riding on invisible rails, the two traveled through space and then.
Step.
Stood on green grass.
A forest thick with trees of pure white leaves.
An ocher path ran through the forest, and pure white flowers grew along it.
At the end of that path stood a castle.
It was a huge, beautiful castle that looked as though it belonged in a fairy tale.
The towering castle reached the sky, where pink clouds floated.
It was beautiful.
And strange.
The pink clouds hung as though pressed against the inside of a sphere.
The trees rising in the distance were the same.
Something prevented them from extending their branches any farther in that direction.
"Is this the Fairy Realm?"
"Yeah. This is my Fairy Realm."
"Looking at things like the clouds, it seems to be pressed against a wall. Is it spherical?"
"Fairy Realms are basically spherical. They spread their influence without distinguishing between above and below."
"I see."
Haseol nodded, then slowly looked around again.
"Somehow......"
"What?"
"It is the perfect place for an outing."
"Is it? It is not my taste."
Myun answered indifferently.
"It is your Fairy Realm, so did you not make it like this?"
"No."
Myun shook his head and walked forward.
"When a fairy creates a space, something is born there."
Then he found a small something beside a tree and lifted it onto his palm.
"Here it is. A spirit."
It was a being that looked as though it had been made from bundled leaves.
It was smaller than a palm, but its eyes, nose, and mouth were properly formed, and it looked somewhat like a person.
"Ohh."
Haseol looked at the spirit in wonder.
"When a Fairy Realm is created, spirits are born there, and the spirits make the Fairy Realm into a place that is convenient for them to live in."
Myun set the spirit he had held on his hand back down on the grass.
"That is fascinating."
Haseol watched the departing spirit in admiration.
"Then do I just pile my ability gear up in your Fairy Realm, Myun?"
"No. Then the Pairing Effect would come to me."
"Then what? Do I need to make a Fairy Realm too?"
"You are human, so you cannot make a Fairy Realm. You will enter an empty Fairy Realm."
"There are empty Fairy Realms too?"
"There are special cases where the fairy who created a Fairy Realm dies, but the Fairy Realm does not disappear. The spirits that lived there maintain it. There should probably be one along this way."
Myun walked along the path, then turned and went down a narrow forest trail.
Long stalks of pure white grass gently brushed Haseol's hands and legs.
"Are we going to another Fairy Realm?"
"Yeah."
"Is there a road? I cannot see one."
Haseol tilted his head as he looked ahead at the spherical barrier.
"I told you the spirits change the Fairy Realm to make it a better place to live."
"Yes."
"Those spirits create roads connected to other Fairy Realms to make their own Fairy Realm better. Then they go and bring back the things they need."
"Ah~."
"Here. The road to another Fairy Realm."
Myun placed a hand against a transparent wall.
Then he reached out to the side, caught Haseol by the shoulder, and.
FWOOSH!
The scenery moved again.
This time, it was not mountains, seas, skies, and ground that passed by.
People and cities, roads and buildings passed by.
"Wow. Seeing a city like this makes it......"
"Like a time machine, right?"
"Like a life flashing before your eyes......"
Myun made a terrible face and looked at Haseol.
"It feels as though we are going into the future!"
Haseol immediately changed his words with a bright smile.
After traveling through space, they arrived at a narrow stretch of brown ground.
It was perhaps only as large as a school field.
It was not very spacious, and there was almost nothing on it.
Brown masses of rock were embedded throughout the ground, and there was only a worn, torn brown tent.
"Looking at this place."
"Huh?"
"I can see how splendid and beautiful your Fairy Realm is, Myun."
"This is a Fairy Realm without an owner. Maintaining even this much size is impressive in its own way."
"I see."
"Most fairies' Fairy Realms are only about the size of one house."
"Ah~. Really? Then this place is impressive too."
At Myun's indifferent words, Haseol nodded.
They walked across the empty brown ground.
"This will become my Fairy Realm, and I will cram ability gear into it, receive the Pairing Effect, and strengthen my body. Is that right?"
"That is right."
"Getting the Pairing Effect will not stop me from entering Rootstreams, will it?"
"It will not matter."
Myun dismissed Haseol's concern.
"Everything we are giving you now is close to a workaround. They are all things that can be taken back from you at any time."
"Ah~. That is a relief."
Haseol looked around again slowly, reassured.
"Then what do I do now?"
"Wait. An uninvited person has entered the Fairy Realm, so the spirits that protected it will come looking."
"What happens after they come?"
Haseol asked uneasily.
"They will try to drive you out."
"Then do I have to fight that spirit?"
"Yeah. You need to subdue it."
"That?"
Haseol pointed at something rising from the ground.
It had a body of rock, arms, legs, and a head.
It had the form commonly associated with an earth spirit.
But it was rather large.
It was about twice Haseol's height, and one of its arms was as thick and large as Haseol's body.
"It is an Intermediate Earth Spirit."
"That is intermediate?"
"If you threw it among ordinary people, they could not handle it without bringing an anti-tank missile. But you, Haseol, will be able to beat it without much trouble."
"Ah~. I do not feel confident about this."
Haseol spoke with a troubled smile.
"What can you do? You still have to put up with......"
Myun had been about to say more to Haseol, but he stopped.
Haseol had tilted his head to the side and placed his thumb against his neck.
Not feeling confident and hesitating were different things.
Haseol lacked confidence, lacked certainty, and worried about what would happen if things went badly.
But that did not make him hesitate to move forward.
If he had to do it, he did it.
"What did you say?"
Red lines spread and flowed through Haseol's body.
He had entered Bloodline State, using a vampire's strength.
"I did not say anything."
Myun calmly shook his head at Haseol.