"I'll go. I shouldn't kill the spirit, right?"
"It doesn't matter. Even if it breaks or gets damaged, it will recover quickly as long as it is in the Fairy Realm."
"Oh, really?"
"It is a substance most similar to earth. It is hard to call it a living thing."
"Okay."
Haseol walked toward the earth spirit.
An Intermediate Earth Spirit.
Each time it took another step toward Haseol, a huge footprint was stamped deeply into the ground.
Now that he was close, its size struck him anew.
It was so large that he had to tilt his head back just to see its face.
The earth spirit raised its fist at Haseol.
FWOOSH!
It brought it down.
A gigantic fist.
Overwhelming mass at tremendous speed.
An attack that would turn an ordinary human into bloody pulp.
Toward that fist, Haseol.
Slammed his palm down.
CRACK!
The air burst.
Haseol's hair and clothes flew up behind him.
The spirit's fist drove into the ground.
It did not stop at driving in. It burrowed deeper.
The ground endured, but the spirit's hand did not endure Haseol's palm.
Its fist did not merely sink into the earth. It was dragged in until it was nearly buried to the shoulder.
In an instant, the spirit's head was right before Haseol's feet.
Haseol raised his foot.
BOOM!
And stomped on the spirit's head.
Brown dust exploded upward.
It burst up as though a missile had struck, then slowly drifted back down.
Watching the spirit, Haseol stepped backward.
"Would that have killed it?"
Haseol turned back and asked Myun.
"That was enough to neutralize it."
"It only needs to be neutralized?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Then that was just right. I still cannot get a feel for it."
Haseol was not trying to determine whether he could fight at full strength. He was trying to find the amount of force needed to put an opponent down without going too far.
"Haseol, you killed ghosts."
"They are not living things."
"Strictly speaking, spirits are not living things either."
At Myun's words, Haseol looked at the enormous pile of stone with its head buried in the ground.
"Still, I am the one who trespassed, and it bothers me to think of something called a spirit as completely inanimate."
Haseol smiled and let the matter pass.
"It is not as though doing this will make things much harder for me."
"If you do not care, do as you please."
At Myun's words, Haseol nodded and looked at the spirit again.
"Then do we wait now?"
"Wait?"
"Is there more I need to do?"
Haseol turned to look at Myun as he asked.
"This is only the beginning."
"What?"
Haseol looked uneasy, and Myun pointed ahead as though telling him to look.
Haseol turned his head.
Intermediate Earth Spirits were rising from the ground.
As though every rock in this space had been an earth spirit.
RUMBLE.
There were so many that the ground trembled as though an earthquake were taking place.
"At this rate, I might not be able to control my strength."
Haseol scratched his head as he spoke, then turned back to look at Myun again.
"You brought me here because you knew I could beat all of them, right?"
Then he asked Myun with an unconvinced expression.
"How would I know?"
"What? Then what were you thinking when you brought me here?"
"Because you need a Fairy Realm."
"Not because you considered whether this was a mission I could get through?"
"I didn't consider that much."
"Ah."
Thinking about it, that was true.
Myun had kicked Haseol into Rootstream at the start.
Even though he had not known what was inside Rootstream.
"I will do my best."
Haseol merely smiled it off and walked toward the spirits.
The spirits came rushing in.
He drove a kick into one spirit's shin.
The spirit shattered and scattered as it toppled forward.
Haseol pushed that spirit's shoulder sideways.
CRASH!
He made it collide with another spirit rushing at him.
A foot flew toward his legs.
CLANG!
Haseol kicked it away to the side.
The spirit's foot struck another spirit's leg.
It collapsed.
Space opened before him in the surroundings that had been packed with spirits.
He stepped on a fallen spirit and advanced.
A fist flying from behind narrowly grazed the back of Haseol's head.
By moving forward, he was avoiding the attacks closing in on him from behind.
A spirit's hand reached out from the front to seize Haseol.
Haseol grabbed its wrist with both hands and turned.
CRUNCH!
The spirit's body did not break. It was forcibly spun through the air.
Haseol was calm.
He watched the attacks coming at him, judged them with his eyes, and methodically used the means that came to mind.
Haseol had Bloodline State.
The power of the True Progenitor vampire known as the King of the Night.
Purely high physical strength and reaction speed allowed him to see and choose.
Haseol's physical mass and the spirits' might have differed by dozens of times, but Haseol nevertheless held the advantage in ability.
It was fair to call it overwhelming.
Straightforward attacks posed no threat to Haseol.
As he defeated countless spirits, Haseol felt it.
At some point, standing atop a small hill made of earth spirits, he realized it.
The strength he had received was greater than he had expected.
A little sweat ran down him, but that was all.
He was not even out of breath.
It felt as though he had only done some light exercise.
Haseol looked at his uninjured fist and gave a faint smile.
It was far from accomplishment, pride, or exhilaration at defeating the spirits.
It was an expression that looked almost relieved.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The sound of applause rang out.
"Well done. You have more talent than I thought."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. More than anything, it is remarkable that a beginner kept moving forward even with enemy attacks flying at him."
"Ahaha. Thank you."
Haseol smiled shyly from atop the hill of spirits.
"Is there anything else I need to do? Do I really just stay still now?"
"You rest now. I will take care of the rest."
"The rest? Is there more to do?"
"There."
Myun pointed toward the edge of the Fairy Realm.
Beings were crossing over from another Fairy Realm.
A knight clad head to toe in silver armor, with a sword at his waist and a bow across his back.
When he arrived in the Fairy Realm, the green cloak fastened to one shoulder billowed dramatically.
Then.
Dozens of knights in the same armor began arriving in the Fairy Realm one after another.
"I'll handle them."
Myun spoke calmly and walked toward the formation of knights in green cloaks.
"A human has entered a Fairy Realm! You! Who are you?!"
One knight in silver armor drew his sword and pointed it at Haseol.
The green cloak on his shoulder fluttered.
"Uh...... I am......"
Haseol looked at Myun, but Myun was still strolling along the other side of the hill of spirits.
He did not seem inclined to answer for him in advance.
The knights, too, were staring only at Haseol.
Myun and the knights were far apart, and Haseol, standing atop the hill of spirits, seemed to draw the eye no matter what.
"A human enters a Fairy Realm and kills dozens of Intermediate Spirits?"
"What? No, no. I did not kill them. I truly did my absolute best to only neutralize them."
Haseol frantically waved both hands.
"You! Are you the King of Mages?!"
"Does entering a Fairy Realm and defeating dozens of Intermediate Spirits make someone the King of Mages?"
Haseol asked back in alarm.
It had certainly been difficult, but he had assumed that anyone reasonably strong could do it.
Haseol had no idea how strong someone needed to be to stand at the pinnacle, or what strength was average.
"He cannot be the King of Mages. That bastard would dissect anything he did not know."
"Eska does not have a good reputation."
Haseol muttered with an awkward smile.
"That bastard seems to know the King of Mages."
"Ready your bows!"
At the knight's command, every other knight took out a bow and aimed at Haseol.
"No, no! Wait! I am not very close to the King of Mages!"
Haseol first drew a line between himself and Eska.
"A human entering a Fairy Realm is a sin punishable by death!"
"Maybe it is, but could we talk......?!"
"Fire!"
Arrows left the knights' hands.
Haseol picked up the spirit at his feet and crouched behind it.
He protected his neck with his other arm and lowered his head, but.
He heard the sound of arrows leaving bowstrings, yet he did not hear them approaching.
Nor did he hear them strike anything.
Unable to understand the situation, Haseol cautiously poked his head out from behind the spirit's body.
Every arrow shot at Haseol had stopped in midair.
They were not frozen in place. They floated on the breeze and gently swayed.
Like arrows bobbing on water.
"A human says he wants to talk, and you things called fairies resort to violence first. How is that supposed to work?!"
Myun shouted as he walked to the front of the hill of spirits.
With white hair cut short, round glasses, and a face that was breathtakingly beautiful yet handsome, Myun looked like neither a boy nor a girl.
His oversized green T-shirt and shorts stood in stark contrast to the armored knights.
"Ah! Myun!"
Now that Myun had come, surely things would be resolved.
He was called the Fairy King.
Relieved, Haseol set down the spirit he had been holding.
"It is Myun!"
"Why is that bastard here?!"
"That crazy bastard!"
"You should be ashamed of yourself!"
The sound of the knights drawing swords continued to ring through the Fairy Realm.
"......"
At the sight of the knights burning with fury, Haseol quietly began climbing down behind the spirit, almost as though he were fleeing.
"Shut up. You're loud."
With both hands in his pockets, Myun spoke as though giving an indifferent command.
"If you want to talk with swords, that's easier for me. What'll it be?"
Every arrow that had floated in the air moved behind Myun.
They hung in the air, aimed at the knights.
"Ghk?!"
"That bastard......!"
"You shameless bastard!"
"Quiet!"
When the knight at the very front shouted, the knights' voices abruptly stopped.
The entire Fairy Realm fell silent.
"Put your weapons away."
"No, it is Myun!"
"You are saying we should speak with him?!"
The other knights protested to the knight in front.
The knight in front did not give the impression that he was merely the highest in rank.
"It is unpleasant, but there is no choice. Fighting Myun would only result in meaningless losses."
"Grr......"
"I will act according to the content of the conversation."
"Let us decide after we have spoken."
The knight in front walked toward Myun.
Haseol came down from the hill of spirits and cautiously watched the situation.
Myun watched the approaching knight, then sat cross-legged on the ground.
The knight took off his helmet.
Pointed ears were revealed, as was a face perfectly suited to the description of a handsome young man.
However, rather than a fairy.
"An elf?"
He resembled far more closely the fantastical race ordinary people called elves.
At Haseol's mutter, the knight looked at him.
"Is that human seeing a normal fairy for the first time?"
"I'm a normal fairy too."
"Normal fairies do not cut off their ears."
"It's easier this way if I want to live in the human world. It's troublesome to put magic on my ears every time."
"That is not how a normal fairy thinks."
The knight dropped his helmet beside him and sat cross-legged before Myun.
"You people drove me out and told me not to stay in the Fairy Realm, too."
"Do not speak as though you were driven out after committing a crime."
"I have never committed a crime."
Myun spoke calmly.
"What a ridiculous thing to say. Myun, you......"
"Correct how you speak."
He continued with a calm but icy expression.
"Unless you want every fairy behind you to lose their heads over one sentence."
"......"
At Myun's words, every fairy here flinched and gripped a weapon.
It seemed to be instinctive, rather than an action taken to fight.
"......I withdraw that part."
The fairy sitting before Myun spoke.
"Let us get to the point. Did you bring that human?"
The fairy asked, looking at Haseol.
"I brought him."
"Why?"
"Because there is a need to use an empty Fairy Realm."
"Use an empty Fairy Realm...... for a human?"
"Yes. That human, Si Haseol, will use it."
"Crazy bastard......"
"He will not take ownership of it outright. He will only use it as a warehouse to store ability gear, and the Pairing Effect will only be applied to him."
"You are not merely inviting a human for a short time. You are lending him a Fairy Realm outright?"
"Yes."
"What kind of...... Do you think that makes sense?"
"What is there that would not make sense?"
"There has been only one such case in fairy history."
"You make a fuss over a history that is not even very long."
"What?"
"I've got something I need to do right now, so just pretend you didn't see it."
"No......"
"Are you uneasy because a Fairy Realm where a human stays is connected to yours? Then sever every path connected to this Fairy Realm. That'll solve it."
"That does not solve anything. The fact that a human is borrowing a Fairy Realm itself......"
"This Fairy Realm belongs to the being who created it. And that being is gone."
"That is exactly why we fairies have to protect this Fairy Realm!"
"No. That is the spirits' responsibility, the spirits that cultivated and raised this Fairy Realm."
Myun pointed at the hill of spirits that was still piled up.
"The choice belongs to the spirits. You have no right to interfere with this Fairy Realm."
"You think the spirits will choose that human who stood atop the grave of the spirits he defeated?"
At the fairy's words, Myun snorted.
"Do you think I defeated the spirits just because I was here?"
"Then that human defeated all these spirits?"
"You believed that and accused him earlier."
"Why are you trying to give the Pairing Effect to someone like that?"
"Because it is necessary."
"Are you planning to create a monster?"
"I'd be glad if he became one."
"You are going to bring a monster into a Fairy Realm?"
"Do not make me repeat myself. Sever the paths."
Myun and the fairy glared at each other, growling.
Haseol watched them, then slowly walked to the side.
He put a hand on the piled hill of spirits and leaned against it.
"Excuse me."
Watching the two continue their argument, Haseol spoke quietly.
"What do you Earth Spirits think?"
He asked with his hand on a spirit.
"If you spirits refuse, I will go back."
He spoke quietly so that Myun would not hear.
"Myun will probably get angry, but there must be many other ways to become stronger, right? I have four people who could be my teachers."
Haseol smiled as he spoke to the spirits.
The trouble he had gone through fighting the spirits might have been a pity, but he showed no deeper attachment or regret.
"......"
There was no answer.
Haseol let out a faint breath as he watched the argument that would not end.
Their voices were gradually rising. The atmosphere had become such that it would not have been strange for them to draw swords and fight at any moment.
Then.
Tap.
Something grasped Haseol around the waist.
Haseol looked down to see what was holding him.
It was a spirit's huge, rocky hand.
"Ah, wait......?!"
In that short moment, countless possibilities flashed through Haseol's mind.
His waist being crushed.
His head being planted into the ground.
His legs being smashed against a boulder first.
There was not one good possibility among them.
Yet the spirit set Haseol on its shoulder.
"Huh?"
Haseol was startled.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
The piled spirits began to move.
All the other spirits, except those carrying Haseol on their shoulders, began to rise as one.
It was so enormous that its head nearly touched the ceiling of the Fairy Realm.
A gigantic earth spirit stood with its head bowed.
"Wow, did you evolve into a High-grade Spirit?"
Haseol asked.
Creak. Creak.
The spirit carrying Haseol shook its head from side to side.
"Ah, not that. Ahaha. Ahaha."
Haseol laughed as though embarrassed.
"Why has the earth spirit suddenly......"
"What is that?"
"Why is it doing that? Is it angry?"
The fairies were flustered by the sight of the enormous spirit.
The enlarged spirit slowly began moving behind Haseol.
THOOM! THOOM!
It scattered vibrations and dust that could not compare to before.
With every step, wind rose and wildly shook people's hair and cloaks.
The gigantic spirit stood behind Haseol.
Then it brought together its two hands, each as large as a house, and began to extend them toward the fairies.
As though it intended to push them out of the Fairy Realm.
"Earth Spirit! Do you mean to reject us?!"
"Do you intend to give this land to that human?! The Fairy Realm?!"
"Tell us why!"
Avoiding the spirit's hands, the fairies backed away from it as they shouted.
"Human."
The gigantic spirit opened its mouth.
"Did not kill a single one of us."
"......What?"
"Why?"
The fairies looked at Haseol with expressions of even greater incomprehension.
"Consideration that excludes oneself deserves to be repaid."
"Do not lie!"
"That cannot be true!"
The spirit continued to push both hands forward, and the fairies were swept out of the Fairy Realm by them.
FWOOSH!
They looked as though they had been caught in a rapid current and disappeared from view in an instant.
Amid the dust that rose as the spirit's hands scraped the ground.
"Heheheheh."
Myun was laughing before the one fairy who remained.
"Heheheheheheheheheh!"
Sitting cross-legged, chin propped on his fist, he laughed as though the delight was more than he could bear.
"Myun...... Do you think this settles everything......"
"What are you doing? Why have you not left?"
Myun looked displeased as he spoke to the fairy.
"......"
Grit.
Haseol could hear the fairy grinding his teeth.
The fairy rose from his place.
He left the Fairy Realm.
"Goodbye! I will not see you out!"
Haseol waved at the fairy's retreating back as he disappeared quickly.
After the fairy had vanished completely.
"You know."
Haseol spoke to the spirit carrying him.
"If you can speak, please say so in advance. It would be nice if we could solve things through conversation."
Without answering, the spirit carried Haseol to Myun.
It set Haseol down in front of him.
Myun stared fixedly at Haseol, then.
"Well done. You're better than me, kid."
With a laugh as though he found it too entertaining to bear, he patted Haseol on the shoulder.
"It was nothing. I did not do it expecting this, but it still makes all the trouble worthwhile."
"The spirits have acknowledged you too, so let us activate the Pairing Effect right away. Hold still."
Myun placed a hand on Haseol's chest.
Then he immediately furrowed his brow.
"Tch. Bloodline has already spread a magic circle throughout your body. To keep this from touching it......"
Green light shone from Haseol's solar plexus.
Shhhk!
A line of green light extended from it behind his back.
Something like a blade of grass or a stem connected to the Fairy Realm.
"Ah?"
Haseol turned to look at the green light, and it soon faded before disappearing from sight.
"The Pairing Effect will always be active now."
"Okay."
"I made the way you enter and leave the Fairy Realm the same as everyone else's. Concentrate, then place your thumb against your solar plexus and twist it."
"Ah, okay. Somehow, I feel as though my body is becoming more and more like an old toy."
"You're the latest model. One that has never existed before."
"Not a prototype loaded with all kinds of experimental functions?"
At Haseol's laughing remark, Myun thought for a moment.
"Isn't that cooler?"
He smiled as though pleased with himself and patted Haseol on the back.
"Now. Go back and bring the ability gear. You're that much stronger now!"
"Yes!"
With a greater sense of fulfillment than usual, added to what he had done before, Haseol nodded.
[Ability gear stored in the Fairy Realm Haseol borrowed: 12 so far.]