“Wait, your dad was a cult member?!”
After the Demon Lord left to prepare breakfast, I was left alone.
Suddenly, the Fairy crawled out from behind Pastel and peeked her head out.
“Whoa!”
Pastel, who was about to drink cocoa, was startled.
“Fairy! Surprising a kind-hearted pink-haired girl like that is something only a villain does!”
It’s a problem if the Good Fairy does that!
“Uh? Is that so?”
The Fairy looked flustered. She floated up and sat on the table, shaking her head quickly.
“I didn’t know! If I were in a fairy tale, I would be a good character, so I’ll be careful not to surprise you next time!”
“Sounds good!”
The Fairy replied cheerfully, but then seemed to ponder something.
“By the way, isn’t it a Fairy’s job to surprise people? After all, I am a Fairy.”
Wait, is that right?
If you’re a fairy, then surprising people is natural.
“That’s true!”
“Right? Then I’ll keep surprising people like before! Because I’m the Good Fairy!”
Oh dear.
Pastel’s eyes rolled around.
She wanted to argue, but the logic was perfect, so she couldn’t.
Telling a Fairy not to behave like one is pretty unreasonable from a landlord’s perspective.
To counter this logic, I’ll need to bring in the fairy tale expert, Melissa.
“Really?!”
“Yeah! But wait, your dad was a cult member?!”
“That’s right!”
“No way!”
The Fairy covered her mouth, startled.
“What a coincidence! This is nothing short of destiny made to rescue the Great Fairy from the Cult!”
“Gosh! Really?! We were destined for that?!”
“Of course! We are destined to rescue the fairy friends trapped in the cult and finally save the Great Fairy!”
As the Fairy shouted while clenching her fists, she slyly added,
“So, I’m totally justified in living here. There’s no special debt incurred here, you know! This isn’t a tenant-landlord relationship. The concept of destiny shouldn’t interfere with such cold thoughts.”
That voice seemed to carry a lot of underlying meaning.
“What?!”
Pastel’s eyes widened.
“Fairy, you can’t think of our relationship as landlord and tenant, right?! We’re a family destined to be together forever! No cold calculations can come into play!”
“What did you say?”
The Fairy was touched, covering her mouth.
“Ah! So that’s what it was! We were like a family! I doubted our relationship without realizing it.”
Black Energy fluttered around. The Fairy smiled brightly.
“So can I receive something in return for all the wishes I’ve granted? I may have eaten some gems, but I feel like I should get something in exchange. If it’s free wishes, it really feels like I’m just sacrificing myself.”
“Something in return?”
Pastel’s eyes bulged. She looked completely shocked as if couldn’t imagine such a thing, and her eyes shimmered with tears.
“Something in return? Shouldn’t such cold ideas interfere with our family-like relationship? You just said we were family! Did you mean that was a lie? Was our bond built on lies?!”
Was it…?
“You liar, Fairy! Bad Fairy!”
Pastel’s expression turned into a pout as she leaned against the table.
“Bad Fairy! Bad Fairy!”
The Fairy looked flustered.
“Wait, wait! Was that what I meant? That sounds like unpaid slavery—”
“Waaah!”
Pastel began to cry.
“I’ve rescued a broke Fairy, fed her, clothed her, and given her a place to sleep, and all I get in return is lies and betrayal!”
A sniff sounded.
“Could it be that the world of good fairies is a lie?”
The Fairy flinched for a moment.
“Maybe the Cult just did some good for a change, and the Fairy was the bad one? That kind of makes sense. There’s no way a group with a dad involved only does bad things. I need to tell my dad about this escaped evil Fairy—”
Ahem! Ahem!
The Fairy adopted an arrogant posture, looking up at the ceiling. But even though her posture was arrogant, her face was puffy.
“Test passed!”
Wait, what?
Pastel lifted her head, looking at the Fairy with wide eyes.
The Fairy looked down at her like a supervisor.
“The Cult is a scheming opponent that seeks to divide us! I wanted to test if you would fall for their schemes before the big operation! Seeing your feelings of betrayal confirms that our bond is strong! You’re qualified to come with me to save the Great Fairy and the Fairy friends!”
Wow.
Pastel’s pink eyes widened.
I just passed the Fairy’s test!
The Fairy quickly added, as if to block any suspicious questions.
“In fact, when you mentioned sticking the love charm on your dad, I was really impressed! Love charms are meant to be stuck on unresponsive targets!”
“Wow! It makes me so happy that even the Fairy agrees with my revenge! Honestly, when I saw the Demon Lord hugging someone yesterday, I thought that even without a charm, the Demon Lord would have to come to me in the end!”
Is the pink-haired one just too weak?
Hehe.
“Then I’ll recycle the remaining charm and stick it on my unresponsive dad!”
Wow wow.
Pastel clapped her hands vigorously.
“Great idea! If you stick it on an unresponsive target, it’ll work! I’ll share the know-how with you! It’s best to stick the charm on the flat back of someone who’s hard to react to!”
Whoa, practical know-how.
Pastel hurriedly took notes from the documents she was looking at.
Love charm = stick it on the back of an unresponsive target.
After reading her notes multiple times, she smiled proudly.
I think I’ve learned something incredibly useful!
Ding~!
Knowledge +1
Wow.
“Let me show you a demonstration!”
The Fairy positioned herself on the table and began the action of sticking the charm. Her palm reached forward as she aimed for the target!
“Ah! Me too! Me too!”
Pastel jumped up from her chair and mimicked the action.
“Stick it on the back!”
“The back, stick!”
As the girl earnestly practiced, the Fairy stopped the demonstration. She wiped her brow with her forearm.
“Phew!”
She successfully changed the subject.
The Fairy felt proud of her own adaptability while watching the innocent girl. Then she paused, as if something came to mind.
“Wait a minute. Even as family, isn’t it a bit abnormal if I’m the only one granting wishes? If we’re like family, I should be able to absorb some cost for those wishes, at least.”
An amazing realization.
In the life of an artificial spirit of less than a year, there hadn’t been a more incredible insight. That’s because it hadn’t been a year yet.
“With this, it’s justified for me to demand compensation?!”
The Fairy gasped, covering her mouth. She couldn’t believe her own brain was this insightful.
With this reasoning, I could quite easily sever the tenant relationship. Perhaps I could even push the landlord out and become the new owner instead. I could just give a cozy newspaper to the now-homeless landlord.
The Fairy’s gaze turned toward the girl. Thoughts of pressuring her for a soul in exchange for the wishes began to fill her mind.
“Wait!”
The Fairy’s palm shot out.
“I think we suddenly have something we need to discuss!”
“What? Stick the charm on the back of an unresponsive target?”
Pastel, who had been practicing sticking the charm, turned her head.
The Fairy looked at her with a glint in her eyes.
Wait.
The Fairy pointed her finger triumphantly.
“You! You tried to deceive me with nonsense arguments, but it won’t work anymore! Pay me the price for the wishes right now! Exploitation shouldn’t enter a family-like relationship!”
At that moment, something fell off Pastel’s back with a thud.
It seemed like the paper had detached after being forced on with an adhesive, fluttering down ineffectively.
A heart design caught my eye.
A paper friend greeted me.
Paper Friend: I’m just a paper friend! It’s real!
Wait.
Pastel’s pink eyes widened.
Silence filled the air.
Her gaze shifted to the Fairy.
The Fairy was sweating buckets.
Silence filled the air once more.
The Fairy’s eyes darted around.
Then, as if she thought of something, she clapped her hands and broke into a bright smile.
“Surprise gift!”
With an exaggerated gesture, she pointed to the love charm.
“I need to have something to use on someone I like too!”
For me…?
Whoa.
What a touching moment.
Totally touching…!
Pastel’s pink eyes glimmered.
“Fairy! You’re thinking of me like this?!”
No wonder! No wonder!
I was just wondering why the Fairy insisted on surprising Pastel, but it was all part of the surprise gift buildup~!
Wow!
“You’re truly the Fairy after all!”
Pastel, touched, picked up the charm.
She held it up high.
The heart-shaped charm fluttered around.
“Love charm~!”
With just this, the target would be a love slave!
Now I had two!
Pastel hugged the charm tightly.
Despite trying so hard to charm the Demon Lord, she couldn’t surpass her deceased mother, leaving Pastel’s eyes lifeless for her bright future!
“I’ll make sure to find love!”
“You can do it! The family-like Fairy will help you!”
“That’s right! Because we’re family-like!”
Hooray!
Pastel did a little cheer with the Fairy.
Then she hesitated, as if remembering something the Fairy was about to say before the surprise gift.
“But didn’t you say there was something you needed to discuss?”
What was it again?
“You mentioned something about paying for the wishes…?”
Wait.
The Fairy and I are family-like, so why would I have to pay for wishes? Isn’t it natural for family to help each other out?
There’s no way the Fairy thinks our relationship isn’t family-like.
When I looked at the Fairy, she flinched.
Then she started looking around, and her eyes widened as if she was beginning to agree. She looked completely taken aback.
“I? When? We’re family-like! Fairies don’t charge their family!”
Wow.
“That’s right! That’s right! We’re family-like, so that wouldn’t make sense!”
I must have misheard!
Long live the family-like Fairy!
Let’s keep this wonderful relationship going forever!
