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When a swarm of mayflies appears to the point that counting them becomes meaningless, modern humans know exactly how to react.

Logically, one would find a place where mayflies cannot enter and take cover.

Even though they are easier to catch than mosquitoes, this is unavoidable.

Insects, regardless of their species, size, shape, and so on…

This was a physiological issue.

Fairies are no different.

Although the attacks from fairies are nothing but child’s play compared to other monsters, even that bear would be beaten to death if surrounded by humans.

And Gordon acted sensibly.

From a Swordmaster’s perspective.

He killed every fairy that rushed in.

Though it might sound crazy like the spring cicadas swarm, the Swordmaster’s physique made it possible.

The realm every knight wishes to reach manifested itself through pathetic forks and knives.

Truly the presence of someone like Alicia, who aims for the flesh of others!

“Kyashaaaaaa!”

“Kishak!”

“Kyaak! Kyeek!”

The culprit? An unseen barrage of fork stabbings.

A knife’s swift strike that takes out five or six at a time.

The fairies pouring in through the window scattered fairy dust across the floor starting from about a meter in front of Gordon.

It looked for a brief moment like a horde of zombies melting away under a barrage of machine gun fire as they streamed into a narrow alley.

If the guests and staff downstairs had witnessed the sudden ambush of fairies, they might have mistaken it for an anti-fairy barrier extending before Gordon.

As the saying goes, extreme science can appear to be magic; Gordon demonstrated magical results with just a bit of magical and physical prowess.

Even a fellow Swordmaster would think, ‘Wow, that guy’s got skills. This might be tougher than expected?’

As he began to create fairy dust that sparkled like sunlit sandy shores using the fairies coming through the window, Gordon turned his head.

“Tourists.”

And he shouted out.

“Are you just going to stand there and watch!?”

Karem, who felt a bit pricked by those words, subtly averted his gaze. Meanwhile, Mary seemed unfazed and continued to observe. Catherine was the same.

“Hey, mercenary. Speak properly.”

Catherine crossed her legs deliberately while taking a small bite of the pizza slice Karem had offered.

“Who was it that said not to get involved?”

“Haha, who could that fool be? Why, it’s me! Damn it!”

Of course, Gordon didn’t expect any understanding from his friends who were sitting back and watching while he struggled with the situation.

Would a person get tired taking a stroll?

The current situation felt just like a stroll to Gordon.

The kind of opponent that would wear you out under normal circumstances.

Against fairies, the rate of stamina loss was vastly outstripped by natural recovery.

Sure, he was using mana for physical enhancement, but there wouldn’t even be an opponent worth drawing out an aura against, so this level of enhancement could be maintained for days.

“Then can you explain why these things swarm like Abaddon locusts only during extreme droughts?”

“I don’t know.”

At those words, even Gordon stumbled for a moment.

For a brief moment, the swarm of fairies seemed to close in.

But he quickly regained composure.

“No, what does that even mean?”

“Your ears should be just fine, right?”

“I truly don’t know.”

“Alright.”

At that, as Gordon turned his head again, he nearly stumbled, and even Mary and Karem stared at her in shock.

“Poooooong~♪ Poooorong pooong♬! Poong ♩!”

Catherine, without a care for whether she was a Grand Wizard or a minor magician, clapped her hands and casually began scooping up fairy dust with vines, until she turned her attention back to the incoming fairies.

‘There’s no sign of being controlled.’

To say she was under some dominating or hallucination magic seemed unfounded since there were no traces of mana to feel even before considering numbers.

There was also a possibility of a magic tool. Just from what Catherine knew, this would exceed ten fingers. However, to say one would be manipulated by a magic tool—

“Kyaaah! Kyee! Kishak! Kyaaah!”

“Stop! Get in here! No, how many more are coming!?”

The behavior still exhibited fairies’ raw instinctive reactions.

“They have a more primitive look in their eyes.”

“Primitive? What do you mean by that?”

Catherine tilted her head slightly from her contemplative posture and glanced at Karem.

“It’s somewhat similar to the look of that one who was swimming in the Seophone Chips dish before. If you add a bit of madness to that, you’d get just that kind of expression.”

“Madness? Fairies are just fairy-like—”

Klik.

Mary clicked her tongue openly. Meanwhile, Catherine gave a fleeting glance and pointed at the cookies on the table.

“Though they prefer sweet things, it’s not like they’re house fairies that would be enthralled by freshly baked bread in front of them—hmm?”

Catherine stopped mid-sentence and whipped her head around.

Clunk, clunk! Clunk! Clink!

After the innkeeper had left, the door that had been quietly shut began to rattle on its hinges.

“Why is that happening?”

“…It’s fairies.”

“Excuse me? What, fairies?”

“Yes. And the door is beginning to give way—”

Bang!

Before Mary could finish her sentence, the door ripped open and dozens of fairies poured in.

Boom! Bang bang! Boom boom! Bang!

Catherine, with her hands outspread, was met by her translucent shield and immediately flowed down with it. The restored ones began firing energy blasts.

Thud Thud Thud Thud!

Of course, the shield didn’t budge an inch.

“Could there be fairy-exclusive drugs here?”

“Maybe so.”

“And now we’re surrounded from the front and back.”

Of course, Karem felt no worry at all.

Catherine could freeze them all. Unless she was going for a mindless ice age, there was no way she wouldn’t be able to distinguish friend from foe.

If Gordon spoke up, Catherine would likely resolve the situation instantly. The reason she hadn’t was surprisingly because Catherine, having been ‘invited’ in the first place, was considering the wishes of the territory’s lord.

It seemed Flora could manage to resolve it too, but what was that?

“Hmm…”

“Karem, are you there?”

“Just a moment.”

Karem examined one fairy’s face after another as they continued beating at the barrier.

Kyeeeek! Kyaa! Kyashak!

They looked confused, flitting about chaotically, but somewhere between their tiny heads, their eyes were fixated on the table.

“Cross-check, cross-check.”

“What are you muttering about?”

“Just a moment.”

Karem literally turned his head for verification.

Grreeeeek! Kyeeek! Kuuk!

As soon as they passed through the window, fairies exploded.

Gordon was in a split second of stabbing and swinging his fork and knife, using the air as his plate right before one blew up.

The fairies by the doorway were similar.

Their eyes were fixated on the table.

In response to the looks from Catherine and Mary asking, ‘What are you doing?’, Karem shifted his gaze between the window and the door, aligning his sight to find a crossing point.

“Ice Cream?”

No, Karem denied the conclusion he had come to himself.

Sure, if he considered that Jack Frost might be in a similar category, there was a possibility. But not this time.

If that were the case, he would have seen an abundance of ice cream tubs.

The difference was…

“Fairy Dust?”

“Suddenly spouting words I don’t understand.”

“I think I’ve found the answer.”

It would have been convenient if he had a bit left in his pocket earlier.

Karem began gathering Flora’s fairy dust that had scattered around the ice cream bowl, tossing it into a corner of the personal room.

Grreeek! Kyaa! Kyaaah!

“Oh.”

As Karem started to attract attention with his words, some of the gazes began to shift. Like Mary’s eyes following the moving jam doughnut whipped cream sandwich.

Catherine, tapping her staff with curiosity, muttered.

“Gordon, we have a solution.”

“Of course, receiving Madam Mage’s help would have settled this long ago—but—”

“Wait, who said I was going to get involved?”

“What do you mean?”

“I need Flora’s power.”

At those words, Flora, who had been creating a mini armsport while sprinkling water on fairy dust, suddenly looked up with bewilderment, pointing at herself.

“Poong?”

“Yes. The fairy dust infused with life. You can produce more, right?”

“Poong.”

With a confident expression as if that was a given, Flora reached her hand toward the mini fairy dust castle. The room glowed a verdant green, and the fairies began to shine even more intensely.

“Hey, mercenary. Send a few this way.”

“Excuse me? Right now!?”

“Hurry!”

At the decisive urge, Gordon lightly flicked the fairy he was about to stab with his fork inside.

Screeeek!

The fairy that was rolling through the piled fairy dust crashed into the mini fairy dust castle and stopped, dazed as if it were dizzy.

Kyeek!?

From the eyes of the fairy, locking onto the slowly glowing mini armsport, shock and joy radiated.

“So, what are you thinking?”

“Fairies can be said to be a bundle of life in themselves.”

Catherine, looking like a teacher instructing students, curled her fingers as if cradling a ball.

“But if additional external life force gets added to that?”

As Catherine rapidly unfolded her curled fingers, she illustrated an explosion— like the cork of a beer barrel reaching its limit bursting forth.

At that moment, Karem could picture Jack Frost, who was lost in a fish-shaped pastry while a fairy was gnawing at the outer walls of the verdant shining armsport, even with Flora nearby.

Karem’s thought was accurate.

Brrrrng—

The moment the fairy took in the verdant fairy dust, it stood frozen in shock.

Of course, Flora had infused it with life, and even if it exploded in the mouth, the essence of fairy dust remained unchanged. Meaning it had no taste or smell.

However, a fairy that had taken the particles forming the walls of the mini armsport felt a wave of emotions far beyond mere astonishment and joy.

Tap tap! Tap tap! Tap tap!

An explosion of life greeted by the arrival of spring.

Filling every gap with that life force.

As if compressing the spring breeze into a single point.

Since it derived from the life force of nature celebrated in spring and summer, it was the very delicacy that a fairy, more sensitive to life itself than anything, could ever dream of.

The violent explosion of life-force surged within the fairy’s mouth felt like an overwhelming flood of excessive experiences.

Slap—

The fairy started glowing even more intensely.

About to burst at any moment.

The fairy sensed death.

Yet it felt satisfaction.

“Kiiiiiiyyyyyyyyyyy-!”

-It was a short yet splendid life!!!-

Boom!

Before the fairy’s extended death cry could even finish, it exploded, scattering into fairy dust.

“Déjà vu?”

“Déjà vu? Is this Bergensgato?”

“Nope. When I threw a salmon bun to Jack Frost, he had a similarly stunned reaction.”

“Are you saying Jack Frost exploded?”

“No. Just that his expression of being flabbergasted after eating was similar.”

“Isn’t it understandable that fairies, being sprites, react this way to sweet things as a general rule?”

At that, Catherine lightly clapped her hands.

“Now then, enough chatter. Karem. Mary. Did you see that?”

“What, are we supposed to throw Flora’s fairy dust at the doors and windows?”

“Exactly. They get tangled in this fairy dust.”

“But the quantity is limited, will that be enough? They keep coming endlessly.”

“Quantity? Are you worried about quantity right now?”

Catherine pointed at the windows and door sill with both hands, as it was already starting to transform into a corner of the coast in real time.

“It’s a toxic brew, isn’t it?”

“Oh, that’s a nice expression.”

“Flora, a bit bitter.”

“Poong~♬”

Receiving her master’s permission, Karem immediately clenched the roof of the mini castle and flung it at the door. The fairy dust pierced through the shield and scattered across the floor.

Swirling!

“Kiiiirrrrrrrr!”

“Kyaak! Kyeek! Kiiiiiiyyyyyyy-”

“Kishak! Kyaaah!”

From the fairies battering against Catherine’s shield with unison, they all dove toward the floor at the entrance.

A moment later.

Boom! Plop! Plop! Boom boom boom! Plop! Boom!

The fairies that charged for the ultimate pleasure of their life in front of the door and window exploded in succession.

 

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