Chapter 138
The space was filled entirely with darkness.
Having spent time in the darkness amounting to hundreds of years, it would be strange not to go mad.
All who had been educated there emerged as lunatics.
Except for Hailon alone.
Everyone wondered why Hailon maintained his sanity.
The Holy King and the priests who managed the patterns devised various hypotheses to find the cause.
But no one could uncover the reason.
In the end, they concluded it was a miracle bestowed by God’s care, and they praised God to wrap it up.
However, Hailon, who had actually been trapped there and emerged unscathed, knew exactly why.
It was something impossible with divine power alone.
Divine power merely served to maintain order, allowing the one who entered the space to return to the present.
The heterogeneous power mixed into the pattern twisted time, creating chaos.
And that was probably…
The power of fairies.
The reason Hailon surmised this was simple.
The dark space felt remarkably similar to the fairy realm.
Perhaps it was thanks to Lichesia engraving the fairy pattern on him that he endured hundreds of years in the darkness.
That place, akin to the fairy realm, was lenient toward those bearing traces of fairies.
The darkness embraced Hailon in quiet stillness.
Of course, even if the place wasn’t hostile to Hailon, and even with his impassive nature.
In that endless time, moments of wanting to give up occasionally arose.
Each time, Hailon thought of just one person.
“You’re my prey, Hailon.”
“So don’t die recklessly.”
“You saved me when I asked you to kill me.”
He traced the pattern she had engraved on him, and the memories.
“Your eyes are such a beautiful color.”
“Why do you keep following only me?”
“Want to kiss again?”
The voice lingering in his mind, the clear laughter, the brilliantly shining eyes, the white and soft hands…
By obsessively replaying them over and over, he could maintain his sanity.
He clung tenaciously, driven solely by the determination to escape this place and meet her again.
The one who saved Hailon was Lichesia, and she was truly his god.
However, into the heart that had held only one person, a new presence stealthily entered.
“Hic, huu…”
Hailon sighed as he held the still-sniffling child.
He worried how so many tears could come from such a small body—might dehydration set in at this rate?
Once before, he had stayed with the child at his own mansion in the capital of Palen.
It was only a few days, but for Hailon, it was an unforgettable fleeting moment.
Even during this recent ‘education’ from the Holy King, he endured hundreds of years by relying on that memory.
Following Lichesia, this was the second most precious existence to him.
Yet he couldn’t even soothe the child’s crying right now, which was frustrating.
Though hailed as the proof of divinity, the head of the Inquisitors leading Hilderd’s holy knights.
He knew not a single way to stop a child’s tears.
After pondering for a while, Hailon decided to try the only method that came to mind.
He took out what he had been cherishing inside his uniform.
“…This.”
Cheshire blinked her wet eyelashes and looked up at Hailon.
In his gloved hand was a flower subtly blending purple and pink.
It was the flower he had plucked from Lichesia’s dress before.
Perhaps because it was a fairy flower.
Even without watering it or anything, somehow it remained fresh and unwilted for a long time.
He placed the bloom, as vibrant as if freshly picked, into the child’s hand.
“I’ll give it to you.”
Since it was Lichesia’s flower, surely she would like it.
He worried what to do if this didn’t work either, but fortunately, the child who received the flower stopped crying.
Cheshire fiddled with the flower in her hand for a long while.
Her plump cheeks were flushed red with heat, so he removed his glove and placed the back of his hand against them to cool her.
The child, who had been quietly focused only on the flower, asked.
“…Who gave this?”
“Your mom.”
For some reason, she flinched briefly, then cautiously asked another question.
“…Do you like her?”
There was no need to ask who she meant.
Thinking of the same person as the child, Hailon replied shortly.
“Who knows.”
At the ambiguous answer, the child made a displeased expression.
Her face filled with grievance, her lips pouted out.
He pressed the bird-like lips with his fingertip and continued.
“It doesn’t seem appropriate to say I like her.”
Indeed, that was true.
This couldn’t be explained as simple affection.
Even Hailon, innately dull to emotions, knew this wasn’t normal.
It was while he was watching the dissatisfied child, his eyes faintly curving.
“Then what is it?”
To the question asking what it was if not liking, this time he answered without hesitation.
“Because she is the god I worship.”
The child parted her lips.
She was so startled that her tears dried up completely.
The child’s wide-eyed face suddenly flushed bright red.
Mumbling with a face as red as a May rose.
“B-but, Sir Knight, you shouldn’t say things like that…”
Of course, as a holy knight, it was an utterly blasphemous statement he should never make.
Seeing her wriggling in worry, a laugh escaped him.
Hailon unwittingly curled the corners of his mouth.
“So it’s a secret.”
He lightly pressed his lips to the child’s round forehead and whispered as he pulled away.
“Only you know.”
“…”
After a moment of silence, the child pointed to her own forehead with her small hand and mumbled.
“Got it.”
Hailon chuckled again.
The wind refreshingly swept through the surroundings.
Rustle rustle, he quietly listened to the sound of grass and leaves swaying, savoring the peaceful moment.
All thanks to the tiny child in his arms.
With that, Hailon could feel as happy as if he owned the entire world.
‘Ah, so embarrassing.’
She had cried too much.
With her face swollen and puffy, Cheshire squirmed in shame.
Revealing the depths of her emotions like this was extremely rare for Cheshire.
Yet because of Hailon, she had shown so much vulnerability.
And in a place swarming with holy knights, no less.
Even back when she briefly stayed at the grand temple in Palen’s capital, the holy knights treated her like a doll that would shatter at a touch.
Now, it seemed the knights here in Hilderd would treat Cheshire the same way, as a glass figurine.
‘Even though they all saw I’m an amazing fairy!’
While Hailon took her to a quiet spot to soothe her.
The holy knights who had earlier plucked random weeds from the garden were now earnestly engaged in ‘finding flowers fairies like.’
When Cheshire returned to the training ground with Hailon, the place had already become a graveyard of flowers.
“…”
Were they trying to win by sheer quantity?
A hollow laugh escaped at the sight of the haphazardly gathered mess, but considering their earnest devotion, she praised them.
“You’re all so nice!”
Throwing a beaming smile and a word, they all grinned ear to ear, utterly delighted.
‘They sure know what’s cute…’
Thinking ‘hmph’ inwardly, but it wasn’t a bad feeling at all.
And a little while later.
Cheshire belatedly realized she had been away from her spot for too long and startled in alarm.
She cried out that she had to go back right away, so Hailon offered to take her.
She seemed worried about getting scolded for going out on her own if she returned alone.
Of course, it wasn’t a good idea.
Kierne, upon seeing Cheshire return in Hailon’s arms, smiled at first.
But soon after, his expression turned blank in an instant.
He quietly examined Cheshire and asked.
“Cheshire, have you been crying?”
Shake shake.
Cheshire quickly shook her head, pretending no, and stretched out both hands.
Then she grabbed Kierne and Hailon, one in each hand.
It happened to be a situation where the main figures were all gathered.
She decided to go ahead and announce her plan right there.
“Dad, Sir Knight.”
The two men, who had been engaged in a silent battle with their gazes, turned to look at Cheshire.
Cheshire looked at them alternately and said.
“I have a plan.”
It was a plan to claim the Fairy Queen’s crown.
