Chapter 566

The nobles and knights who heard Ha-shal-leur’s lecture couldn’t help but be amazed.

It was only natural, as the weaknesses of the fairies that Ha-shal-leur pointed out were completely unfamiliar and unheard-of to them.

It had been hundreds of years since humans and fairies last fought, so most people in the Empire had long forgotten how to battle fairies.

At that time, the foundation of the nation wasn’t even properly established, so there were few proper records left.

The information that current Empire citizens had about fairies was limited to things like “they use spirits,” “they shoot magic arrows,” “if you fight them in the forest, you’ll definitely lose,” and “their ears seem to be weak.”

In such a situation, a hero from Ka`har, who seemed far removed from fairies, not only explained the fairies’ tactics but also presented countermeasures that were not just appropriate but downright ingenious. It’s no wonder those who heard the lecture were so shocked.

Doubt, confusion, interest, and admiration swirled together.

“How did Marquis Median, who’s from Ka`har, get such information? It’s as if he’s fought fairies himself… Could it be that fairies live beyond the Great Plains?”

“I don’t know. The Holy Kingdom borders Alvheim… Maybe they secretly slaughtered fairies there or something like that?”

“Come to think of it, I heard he brought a dark-skinned fairy as a subordinate… Maybe it wasn’t a subordinate but a prisoner he enslaved and brought with him.”

Rumors and speculations continued to spread and mutate.

Despite never having fought a fairy before, Ha-shal-leur was now being treated by all the nobles in the Imperial Capital as a fairy slayer.

There were even rumors that Ha-shal-leur’s appearance was due to bathing in fairy blood.

—

And although it wasn’t Ha-shal-leur’s intention, the lecture caused the priests in the Imperial Capital to face a truly perplexing situation.

The idea that spirits were actually nothing more than wraiths and could be severely damaged by the Blessing of Purification was a concept that shook the very foundation of common sense.

“Can divine miracles really annihilate spirits? Is that true?”

Numerous nobles sought advice from priests, and thousands of letters questioning the validity piled up on the desks of cathedrals. The administrative work of the Church Order was temporarily paralyzed.

“We don’t know either… Unless we actually test it…”

But even if they asked the priests, there was no definitive answer.

To verify the truth, they would have to cast the Blessing of Purification on a spirit, but unless they had a fairy prisoner locked in the Church Order’s basement, such a thing was impossible.

The only fairy residing in the Imperial Capital, the special admission student Ferne, had already dropped out of the Academy and disappeared, leaving them with no way to verify the truth.

And the next day.

In the grand hall where four hundred students had gathered just like the day before, the second lecture finally began.

=======[ Hersh ]=======

Late evening. Hersh sighed as she cleaned up Ophelia’s messy laboratory, filled with scattered books and tools.

‘I’m tired…’

Her head drooped. It wasn’t physical fatigue but a mental exhaustion that weighed heavily on her mind like a lead weight.

Ha-shal-leur’s orders were only to take care of Claire, who was to be preserved in a solution during Ophelia’s absence… but before she knew it, Hersh was also tidying the laboratory, managing supplies, and even bringing meals for the two since the maids couldn’t enter the lab.

She had essentially become Ophelia’s personal maid.

Of course, this was entirely Hersh’s own doing. Even the notoriously arrogant Ophelia wouldn’t be so rude as to treat someone Ha-shal-leur assigned to manage Claire like a maid.

‘I must be crazy. Falling for the promise of learning magic…’

Ophelia, who had been introduced to Hersh through Ha-shal-leur, noticed her mediocre magical talent and offered to teach her magic if she became her apprentice.

Hersh’s talent was far from genius, not even worthy of being called a prodigy, but as a half-fairy who couldn’t summon spirits, it was an offer she couldn’t refuse.

Even learning basic magic would significantly broaden her tactical options.

What Hersh didn’t know was that being a magician’s personal apprentice was nothing like the master-disciple relationship she had vaguely imagined.

Magicians’ personalities were always twisted in some way, and that was reflected in their relationships with their apprentices.

To a magician, an apprentice was something between a slave and a servant who could be used at will in exchange for knowledge.

Only after licking the master’s toes and dedicating themselves like a slave could they receive even the most basic knowledge. Sometimes, they even had to abandon their dignity.

This was why young people dreaming of becoming magicians were willing to bind their status to the Empire’s Mage Tower and desperately sought admission to the Academy.

If they could just get into the Academy, they could learn all sorts of magic without limits, as long as their talent allowed.

Of course, this only applied to commoner-born aspiring magicians. Noble children could simply offer a golden chest to their family’s magician and request teachings.

In cases like Ophelia’s, where the family itself was a magician’s family, learning magic wasn’t a right but a duty.

Anyway… that was why Hersh ended up playing the role of Ophelia’s maid.

If it had been Ha-shal-leur’s order, that would be one thing, but Ophelia had no reason to teach Hersh for free otherwise.

Ophelia must have felt like she had caught a big fish with a casually thrown line. She had been in need of an assistant, and here was the perfect candidate.

—

‘Sigh… Did I make a mistake by agreeing to learn…?’

Hersh muttered under her breath as she cleaned the lab, but in truth, she was receiving the best treatment a magician’s apprentice could hope for.

At least Ophelia didn’t use her apprentices as test subjects or drag them into her bedroom like other magicians did.

Of course, that wasn’t because Ophelia was a sexually reserved person.

It was simply because her desires were focused on one person, so she had no reason to look elsewhere.

“……Hnngh, ahh. Sis… Hah…! Wait, Ophelia sis…! Not there…!”

“Huh? Where are you talking about? Say it directly, Claire.”

Hersh frowned. The sweet voices leaking from the bedroom inside the lab made it obvious what was going on.

‘…Crazy woman.’

She had thought they were just playing around all day like lovers in some kind of setting, but the reality was far beyond her naive assumptions.

She had been shocked to learn that the two were actually sisters.

To cut off her own sister’s limbs, regress her to an infantile state, and then imprison her underground for sexual conditioning—this woman was beyond insane.

And she even packaged it as “love.”

It was a level of madness far beyond the violent thugs she had known. Even when she was wandering the back alleys or involved with the Dream Paradise Society, she had never encountered such a deranged pervert.

At least the bedroom was something she could clean up herself, or she would have quit learning magic long ago.

—

Even after finishing her tasks, Hersh’s freedom didn’t come.

“Hershiiii! Let’s have a drinkkkk-!”

A woman who might as well have been the spirit of alcohol, carrying bottles upon bottles, barged into her room every day.

Claiming that even as a half-breed, she hated the fairies of Alvheim just as much, she clung to Hersh as if they were comrades, making it impossible to shake her off.

If she had been weak, it might have been different, but the woman who poured poison-like alcohol into her veins and got drunk in front of her was none other than one of the Fairy Guardians.

Those who, blessed by the World Tree, stood between masters and heroes. Even if she were drugged, Hersh was no match for her in strength.

“If you need a drinking buddy, go drink with someone else…! There’s that Ka`har guy, or the maids, or plenty of others, right?”

In the end, all Hersh could do was complain verbally.

“Them? Nah, they can’t handle it… They pass out after a few drinks… Heheh.”

Of course, it was no use.

Unlike the humans who struggled to keep up with Ferne’s drinking, Hersh, being half-fairy, could somewhat handle the near-pure alcohol that Ferne drank.

If she chugged it, she’d pass out, but if she drank slowly, she could finish a bottle or two.

In the end, Hersh, with her head spinning, threw the drunken Ferne onto the sofa in her room and finally managed to fall asleep.

It had been an exhausting day, to the point where she felt like her body might melt.

‘Well… Still, it’s better than the days when I had to worry about being attacked every time I slept.’

Though she complained about how hard it was, Hersh was somewhat satisfied with her current life. During her time with the Dream Paradise Society, relaxing and sleeping had been impossible.

And so, her day came to an end.

“Mngh… Those old bastards… gotta burn ’em all……”

…It took a while to fall asleep thanks to the fairy snoring and sleep-talking, though.