The Baby Fairy Is A Villain [EN]: Chapter 43

Ordinary people, when something important comes along,
would typically keep it on their person or hide it in a safe deep within their home.
Or perhaps entrust it to a bank.

But the inhabitants of the underworld never did that.
Because they never knew when they might die.
What’s carried on one’s person can be taken, and a safe hidden at home can be broken into.
There was also no legitimate bank in the underworld.
Thus, if there was something precious they didn’t want to lose even in death,
the residents of the underworld would use all sorts of bizarre methods to make sure no one could find it.

For example, the method Chesha used was quite simple and straightforward, even in the underworld.
She kept important things in the fairy’s otherworld [a personal dimension unique to fairies], where others couldn’t access.
The location where she kept the sacred artifact, the Spear of Rubeus, was also in the otherworld.

Hata would pour potions on what he considered precious to alter its appearance.
So, Chesha only knew that Hata had transformed things with potions.
She had no idea what he had hidden, where, or how.

As for Miya, she had mentioned that the carriage placed on the roof of the store was related to her secret place.
She had accidentally told Chesha while drunk, so it probably had changed by now.

This was the basic principle of the underworld: hiding things in places connected to oneself, yet inaccessible to others.

‘And I was diligently searching only the mansion and the castle, not knowing that.’
No matter how much she looked, there didn’t seem to be any secret spaces or anything hidden.
The only significant thing she found was a report about the Enchantress Richessia.
But even that didn’t seem like a particularly important document.
It just seemed like Kieren had read it briefly and then hidden it so others wouldn’t see it.

‘The most important thing is definitely hidden in the Black Forest.’

The Black Forest was a place only the Vasillian County could freely enter.
Full of ominous rumors, ordinary people didn’t even approach it, and those who occasionally entered only traveled along designated paths.
It was the perfect place for Kieren to hide something.

Chesha hugged Hata and moved to the Black Forest.
Bright flowers and butterflies, unfitting for the dark forest, were scattered around.
Sparkling light illuminated the surroundings like fireflies before slowly disappearing.
True to its name, the Black Forest was so dark that even sunlight couldn’t penetrate it properly, even during the day.
The damp and gloomy atmosphere of the forest was enough to make people feel melancholic just by standing there.
Chesha, with her golden hair sparkling alone in the all-black forest, was a very incongruous presence.

“This is a creepy forest……”
Hata grumbled in Chesha’s arms.

“I know. We don’t have much time, so let’s quickly investigate and get out.”
Chesha placed Hata at her feet.
Then, she slowly gathered her strength.
As she stretched out her arms, hundreds of butterflies rose up at once.
The sight of the Black Forest filled with sparkling butterflies was spectacular.
Perhaps never since the creation of the Black Forest,
has it ever shone so brightly.

Hundreds of butterflies flew quickly in all directions,
to find what Chesha wanted.
Faint light appeared along the trajectory of the butterflies’ flight.
And in the place where the faint light pushed back the darkness, Chesha discovered bizarre things.

Hata approached first to investigate.
A ‘hiek’ sound escaped as the dog’s fur stood on end.
“It looks like a monster that lives in the Black Forest!”
Hideously distorted black shapes writhed in the shadows of the forest.
They were beings overflowing with evil energy, as if they would pounce and tear people apart at any moment.
But for some reason, they didn’t attack Chesha and Hata.
They simply passed by slowly, as if they were trees or grass.

Chesha carefully observed the monster passing by her side.
The reason Kieren led the Knights into the Black Forest was probably to hunt these things.

‘If you’re killing such grotesque things in such a dark place, even a sane person would go crazy.’
No wonder Kieren’s condition was strange after returning from the Black Forest.
She wondered if killing the monsters had affected his mind.

‘And the air feels a bit stale.’
Fortunately, Chesha was a fairy and Hata was a beastman, so they were fine, only finding the smell unpleasant.
But if humans stayed here for a long time, they might suffer from hallucinations.

After observing the monsters for a while, a butterfly fluttered to Chesha.
It seemed to have found something.
Chesha nodded after hearing from the butterfly where it was.

“It’s not too far. Let’s follow it.”
“Yes! Should Hata hold you?”
Hata enthusiastically raised his front paws.
Then, he belatedly realized that he was a puppy smaller than baby Chesha.

“…Oh, right. Hata is a puppy right now.”
Hata quietly followed Chesha.

Chesha, leading the way, occasionally followed the butterfly.
Chesha’s pace slowed as she ran after the butterfly.
Because a scene unfolded that she never expected to encounter in the Black Forest.
Hata’s eyes widened as big as full moons as he exclaimed.
“Wow……!”

It was a flower garden with an astonishing number of flowers in full bloom.
Because the trees didn’t block the sky in this place, warm sunlight fell directly.
It was hard to believe that the boundary beyond the line drawn by the sunlight was the gloomy forest.
In the very center of the flower garden, where various flowers swayed freshly,
stood an empty coffin.

“…….”
Chesha hesitated for a moment before stepping on the flowers and slowly approaching the coffin.
Hata also followed Chesha.
The coffin was surprisingly well-maintained.
Since it was impossible for it to be free of any contamination when placed outside like this, it was probably maintained with magic.
Chesha looked inside the coffin.
She thought it was empty when viewed from afar, but when she got closer, she saw a bouquet of fresh pink roses and something small placed side by side.
It was a pair of rings.
A pair of rings for men and women, probably wedding rings.
Looking at the wedding rings, she seemed to know whose coffin it was.
It must be the coffin of the deceased Countess Vasillian.

Chesha stared blankly at the rings and the bouquet.
They were very romantic items to be found in the monster-infested Black Forest.
As she was looking at them, another butterfly flew over.
The butterfly fluttered around Chesha, letting her know what it had found.
The butterflies each sat on a tree surrounding the flower garden.
And the moment the butterflies seeped into the trees,
letters written in light appeared on the black tree trunks.
They had carved and concealed the letters on the tree with magic.
Even though it was the Black Forest where no one would come, they hid it once again here.
It was truly an act worthy of people from the underworld.

“Hata, let’s read it separately.”
She and Hata began to divide the area and read.
Chesha’s face hardened as she read the letters faintly glowing on the tree.

[The otherworld is a unique mental realm that reflects the unconsciousness of the fairy.
In the end, is there no way to artificially create a fairy’s otherworld?]

[Failed to inject fairy blood into a male body.
When fairy blood is injected into a female body, it shows a reaction, but the effect is temporary.
Seems to be related to the fact that only female bodies exist in fairies.
New research is needed.]

[The fairy’s body is immortal. Why can’t humans become immortals like fairies…….]

All of them were records of experiments on fairies.
Chesha, who was reading the letters mindlessly, groaned softly.
“…Ah.”
The dates written in the materials carved on the tree were all similar.
All of them were materials from hundreds of years ago.
Before Chesha was even born.
It was about the fairy experiments conducted in the distant past.
And those who experimented on the fairies were…….

[In the name of God.]

The Holy Empire.