Chapter 150
The fairy kingdom, formed from a vast illusory domain, was beautiful.
The landscape filled with flowers, trees, and all manner of plants on every side was fantastical, as if it had captured and held the most dazzling moment of nature itself.
A space composed solely of elements born from nature, without a single artificial structure.
Into such a place, the pure white chains that had suddenly plunged down felt utterly alien.
And Cheshire knew all too well who the owner of those chains was.
The one who had always pursued her had finally tracked her down, all the way to the fairy kingdom.
For Cheshire, it was absolutely dumbfounding.
‘No, how on earth did he find this place?!’
It was a location that even Cheshire, as a fairy, hadn’t been able to discover for the longest time.
While she was astonished by Hailon’s tenacity, a strangely welcoming feeling stirred within her at the same time.
He always found Cheshire.
No matter where she hid, even if she was trapped in an illusion rather than reality.
‘I thought no one could find it.’
Her slightly despairing heart felt just a tiny bit reassured.
It seemed to come from the thought that she wasn’t alone.
However, unlike the relieved Cheshire, the fairies were gradually turning hostile.
They glared at the chains.
Especially Ria, who had once been bound by the Chains of Condemnation, was staring with a gaze sharper than anyone else’s.
With an intensity that suggested she might shatter the chains into pieces at any moment, Cheshire thought to herself.
‘Weren’t fairies supposed to be pacifists…?’
It felt a little different from what she had always assumed.
Cold air slowly seeped from the chains.
A chilling aura spread languidly through the soft, warm air.
It was an energy that made her skin tingle.
Rumble—a heavy thunder echoed once more from the dark clouds hanging in the sky.
It sounded as if a second chain might come crashing down at any second.
The rabbit doll slung over one arm began flailing its limbs.
It thrashed so earnestly with its stubby cotton feet that, after taking a few hits, it actually started to hurt quite a bit.
Sensing it was about to spout some nonsense again, she yanked on its rabbit ear.
“The queen has the queen’s duties… Eek.”
The rabbit doll let out a bizarre sound and fell silent.
She casually draped the doll over her shoulder and placed her hand on the chain.
Flower vines that bloomed at her feet twisted and climbed up the chain.
Butterflies that had appeared out of nowhere fluttered around Cheshire.
Dazzling light sparkled as the vines tightened firmly around the chain.
Creak—an unpleasant metallic groan came from the chain.
“….”
Cheshire quietly furrowed her brows and poured in even more power.
A sudden gust of wind whipped up, sending her hair and clothes billowing out long behind her.
Flowers swayed, and fallen petals swirled around Cheshire like a whirlwind, encircling her.
And in the moment the vines constricted the chain with even greater ferocity.
A sharp clang rang out as the chain shattered.
The chain crumbled into fragments of white light and scattered away.
Letting out a light breath, Cheshire slowly turned around.
The fairies gazed at Cheshire, standing beneath the sparkling light, as if entranced.
“Ahh….”
Someone let out a small exclamation.
The sight of Cheshire wielding fairy power seemed to have left a profound impression on them.
Just moments ago, their looks had been ones of excessive fondness, but now their eyes bordered on worship.
Feeling burdened by those gazes, Cheshire said awkwardly.
“Since this happened because of me, I’ll take responsibility for it.”
Hailon was the opponent she had clashed with more than anyone else.
He would likely realize that Cheshire had broken the chain.
‘He must have understood that I don’t want to leave, so he’ll wait for a little while at least.’
Of course, his patience wouldn’t hold out for long.
“As I said before, I can’t stay here indefinitely.”
Cheshire spoke soothingly, making eye contact with each of the fairies one by one.
“There are people waiting for me. And those people might end up doing something to harm the fairy kingdom, just like this.”
This place was the last refuge the fairies had created to escape from humans.
Not wanting to ruin such a sanctuary, she infused her words with even greater sincerity as she persuaded them.
“I’m not saying I’ll leave you all forever. It’s just that I….”
Cheshire paused for a moment.
It was a dilemma she had agonized over for a very long time.
A crossroads where she could choose only one path.
Would she live as Lichesia, or as Cheshire Basilian?
She had realized the answer to that now.
“I don’t want to give up on anything.”
She had known from the start that it was impossible.
But she wanted to try, to see how far she could go.
Because both were precious to her, too much to abandon either one.
“So, help me.”
Cheshire demanded boldly.
At Cheshire’s request, the fairies fell silent for a moment.
Ria quietly parted her lips.
“…Your Majesty grew up among humans.”
She murmured in a deeply forlorn tone.
“So you’ve come to love them as well.”
Even with eyes that looked ready to burst into tears at any moment, Ria smiled.
“If I were to ask you to look only upon us, it would be nothing more than childish whining.”
She whispered in a gentle, affectionate voice.
“What is it you desire?”
“I want to know about my mother.”
She asked if they had ever seen a fairy who resembled her, but everyone shook their heads.
After a moment of hesitation, Cheshire rephrased her question.
“Then… what kind of person was the previous queen?”
If she truly carried the queen’s blood in her veins.
Then the previous queen must be connected to her in some way.
But Ria shook her head just the same.
“Hundreds of years have passed since the previous queen disappeared.”
Though fairies had long lifespans, they were not immortal.
Over that vast stretch of time, a full generation change had already taken place.
Among the remaining fairies, no one remembered the previous queen.
“However….”
Ria cautiously pointed to the tree standing in the center of the kingdom.
“It is the Fairy Tree, grown from the seed left behind by the previous queen.”
It was the pillar that sustained the illusory domain, a tree like the very roots of the kingdom.
Gazing at the enormous tree known as the Fairy Tree, she said.
“It sometimes brings about inexplicable mysteries, so perhaps you may obtain what you seek.”
Cheshire looked up at the tree.
Even craning her neck as far as it would go, she couldn’t see the end of the tree stretching high into the sky.
After staring at the lush foliage, she smiled at Ria.
“Thank you.”
Her heart raced with urgency.
Cheshire hurriedly placed her hand against the Fairy Tree.
Her small hand pressed flat against the enormous trunk.
The fairies joined hands with one another, forming a circle around Cheshire and the Fairy Tree.
They began to sing, causing flowers to bloom all around them.
As the songs and flowers layered upon one another, light began to emanate from the Fairy Tree.
Cheshire glanced at the rabbit doll.
The rabbit doll had been silent for some time now.
“….”
The usually chatty doll was maintaining a suspiciously steadfast silence, which nagged at her.
The rabbit doll, remaining quietly mute, pulled at its ear with its short arm and brought it beneath its button eye.
Then, it wiped beneath the eye with its long ear.
It looked just like it was wiping away tears.
Being a doll, not a single tear fell, but it appeared to be sobbing uncontrollably.
Suddenly, the rabbit doll spoke.
“Not sad. Not painful. Not lonely.”
As Cheshire slowly blinked at the rabbit doll’s words, she flinched.
A cracking sound echoed as the tree trunk split open.
Before she could even gasp in surprise, Cheshire was pulled into the Fairy Tree.
In the midst of her vision going completely dark, only the rabbit doll’s voice reached her.
“Because there is pain, there is joy. Because there is death, there is birth.”
Tick, tock—somewhere, the faint sound of a clock’s second hand echoed briefly before fading away.
At the same moment, Cheshire opened her eyes.
With a tingling sensation, she knew it intuitively.
She had slipped through the crevices of time and crossed over to the past, hundreds of years ago.
For an instant, she wondered if the Fairy Tree had sent her back in time.
But that wasn’t it.
Rather, the Fairy Tree had merely helped awaken her ‘sense.’
‘The fairy queen—that is, I….’
Feeling the new sensation surging through her entire body, Cheshire realized.
‘Can traverse time.’
The things she had seen in the white room of the Holy Empire or in the passages of the illusory domain weren’t simply fragments of memory.
They were all moments when Cheshire had returned to the past.
Before she could even shudder at this new realization.
Cheshire clamped her hand over her mouth at the horrific scene.
A blood-soaked blonde woman lay on a cold white experiment table.
This time, she saw it clearly.
The woman with the same pink eyes as her own.
Cheshire’s mother, and the previous fairy queen….
