Chapter 44

After parting with Noah, Regina headed to the bustling town square. Despite the cold region, the energy from the crowd of people wearing thick fur coats made it feel less chilly.

“There are so many people in the square even in this cold weather.”

-Clop, clop, clop.

“Move aside, move!”

Unlike in the capital, the sound of carriages rattling on unpaved roads was jarring. Regina, startled by an approaching carriage, quickly dodged into an alley.

“Wow, that was scary. I could have been in big trouble.”

She clutched her chest, watching the carriage speed away. She had nearly been seriously injured due to her distraction.

-Splash.

“…?”

As Regina was about to move on, she inadvertently stepped in a puddle. Looking down, she was startled. The alley was darker and dirtier than she had expected. Hunching her shoulders at the eerie atmosphere, she hurried to return to the main street when suddenly a faint voice came from behind.

“Ugh…”

It sounded like someone suppressing pain. Regina hesitated, then turned around. Peering closely, she could just make out a figure crouched in the shadows of the alley.

“…Is someone there?”

As Regina cautiously called out, the sound abruptly stopped. The other person remained silent, as if wary of Regina. Feeling an invisible tension, Regina decided to turn away.

Her courage was too weak to rush into the pitch-black alley and offer help to an unknown person.

“…Wait a moment.”

But then, suddenly, a woman’s voice was heard. Startled, Regina turned to see a woman with long silver hair staggering towards her, leaning against the wall with a trembling arm.

The woman with faint sky-blue eyes was quite beautiful, but the dark circles under her eyes made her look clearly ill. Unconsciously relaxing at the sight of the frail woman emerging from the darkness, Regina asked in a concerned tone:

“Are you alright?”

“…Yes, I’m fine. I was just feeling a bit unwell, so I sat down in the corner. I was afraid I might get hit by a carriage if I sat on the street.”

Having nearly been hit by a carriage just moments ago, Regina nodded in understanding.

“That’s right. The carriages here move at an incredible speed. Ah, if you’re feeling better, I’ll be on my way then.”

Despite the other’s apparent fragility, Regina still felt uneasy about conversing with a stranger in a dark alley. She gave an awkward smile and greeting before hurrying back to the main street.

“Oof!”

But she was startled by a sound from behind and turned to see the woman crouched on the ground, huddled up.

“Oh no, I’ll call someone, no, a doctor right away! Just a moment!”

The flustered Regina was about to rush off to get help, but the woman quickly shook her head and stopped her.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll feel better if I just stay like this for a moment. I’m really sorry, but if it’s alright with you, could you please hold my hand? It’s hard for me to stand up…”

The woman, now sitting on the ground, held out her slender hand to Regina. Despite her hesitation at this simple request for support, Regina approached her. The woman’s face looked so pale, as if she might collapse at any moment.

“Here. Can you stand?”

“Ah, yes. Thank you, kind person. May I ask your name? I’m Abigail.”

It was when Abigail’s fingertips touched Regina’s hand, smiling gratefully, that Regina’s vision suddenly went black for a moment before returning to normal.

“…?”

Dizzy from the sudden change in her vision, Regina tried to step back, but suddenly Abigail’s ice-cold fingers firmly grasped her hand. At the same time, Abigail asked again:

“…What’s your name, miss?”

A tingling sensation, unlike anything Regina had felt before, crept up her arm from where their hands touched. As Regina looked at Abigail, unnerved by this chilling feeling, the woman’s form suddenly vanished, replaced by a black mass crouched in the shape of a human silhouette.

“…!”

No, it wasn’t a single mass. It was a swarm of hundreds, thousands of tiny ant-like creatures clustered together. As Regina stood frozen, unable to look away from this bizarre sight, suddenly a pure white light dripped from the empty space that seemed to be its eyes. And then a voice was heard.

– Why.

It was like multiple voices speaking simultaneously. Loud, soft, deep, and gentle voices crawled together like ants climbing a tree, resonating in her ears all at once.

– Why did you abandon us?

“Waaah!”

Overcome by a creepy sensation that made her want to scratch inside her ears, Regina jerked her hand away. Stepping back a couple of paces, Regina met Abigail’s gaze, who now looked even more surprised than her. In that moment, Regina’s instincts warned her.

This ‘thing’ is dangerous.

“Uh, well, I’ll be going now!”

With chills running down her spine, Regina turned and ran before Abigail could respond.

“What? No, wait…!”

Abigail reached out in confusion, but Regina was already running far down the main street. Having regrettably lost her prey, Abigail lowered her hand dejectedly.

“How strange… Why didn’t my hypnosis seem to work? That shouldn’t be possible…”

“Maybe she’s not human?”

Asel, who had been watching from atop the alley wall, spoke while suppressing a laugh.

“No way, if she were a fairy, I would have noticed. But she didn’t feel like that at all.”

“Then why don’t you just eat her outright, instead of trying to call her name three times? It might have looked easy when I did it, but following that rule is surprisingly difficult.”

Asel jumped down nimbly from the wall he had been sitting on and stood in front of her. Abigail was a younger being than him. Having lived several hundred years longer, Asel naturally possessed more knowledge.

“But calling the name three times allows me to absorb more life force than just eating them outright, and it’s much less taxing on my body.”

“That’s true, but that rule wasn’t originally created for the purpose of eating humans, so it’s difficult for young beings like you to succeed easily.”

“Oh my, then what purpose was it created for?”

Abigail’s expression turned intrigued, as if hearing this for the first time. Asel stretched, raising both arms behind his shoulders, and answered indifferently:

“…It’s an old story. When we were still small ‘fairies’ with wings, some fairies who wanted to comfort children grieving over lost loved ones accidentally started mimicking the voices of the dead.”

“To comfort children? Not to eat them?”

“That’s right. They would call the name three times, and if answered, they would take them to the fairy realm to play happily.”

Asel explained, holding up three fingers. Surprised by this unexpected answer, Abigail blinked. Then she burst out laughing.

“…What? That really sounds like fairies.”

“Indeed, very fairy-like.”

Having heard this unbelievable story, Abigail felt nostalgic for a time she had never known.

Fairies who didn’t eat people, but mingled and played with them.

“…So we were like that once.”

“If you’re hungry, shall I catch something for you instead, Abigail?”

As she murmured with a sigh, Asel opened his palm. A small sphere appeared on it, then quickly changed into the shape of a small doll and stood up. The black doll used its short limbs to crawl down Asel’s arm and stand in front of Abigail.

“No, it’s okay. You hunted for me yesterday too. Besides, after hearing that old story, I somehow feel like my hunger has disappeared.”

Abigail smiled softly and took the tiny doll’s hand. After shaking the held hand up and down, the doll waddled around Abigail as she sat when she let go of its hand.

“If stories alone can satisfy your hunger, I’ll tell you anytime.”

“Mm. Thank you, Asel.”

Abigail dusted herself off and stood up, leaving the alley with Asel. Though he appeared as a child, he was a black fairy who had lived the second longest in the mansion after Sasha. However, unlike Sasha, who had taken human form by eating humans over that long period, Asel had spent much more time in a spore state, so his power wasn’t as strong.

But Abigail liked Asel this way. She preferred him even to Lady Sasha, with his tendency to get upset quickly but forget his anger just as fast, his readiness to laugh and cry, and his childlike purity mixed with cruelty.

‘Perhaps the fairies of the past were similar in personality to Asel?’

Imagining this suddenly, Abigail smiled silently.

* * *

Regina, having left the square, sat on a bench by the roadside. Still feeling the creepy sensation crawling up her arm, she shook herself several times. As she bent over, feeling a bit unwell, a familiar voice came from beneath her feet.

“I thought it was you, Regina! What are you doing here?”

“Snow!”

Regina smiled brightly and scooped up Snow, who was looking up at her from under the bench. Cradled in Regina’s arms, he gave a short “meow” before smoothly slipping out of her grasp to sit beside her on the bench.

“Don’t hug me so casually. I’m not that easy a cat.”

“…You were lying in bed with me at dawn. You even comforted me to sleep.”

“That was then, this is now.”

Snow turned his head with a “hmph.” His push and pull was quite exquisite. Regina lowered her hand that had been about to hug him again, looking disappointed.

“So what are you doing here? I was just about to go look for you since you weren’t at the inn.”

Snow asked while grooming the fur on his front paw with his tongue. Regina suddenly realized that her nauseous feeling had disappeared.