A violent gust of wind suddenly erupted from the center of the lake, swirling outward in all directions. In the next instant, the entire lake surface blazed with brilliant light, and beneath that radiance, an extremely arcane magic array unfolded abruptly.

  “Huh? Huh?! What’s happening?! What is this?!”

  The gale whipped Hulim Heyerar’s hair and clothes about wildly, and the dazzling glare stung her eyes, making it hard to keep them open.

  SPLASH!

  A loud sound of water breaking rang out.

  “The mortal world! I’m back~!”

  A figure bathed in radiant light leaped out of the lake, hovering above the water’s surface while uttering a cryptic phrase.

  Moments later, the magic array faded away, and the light dissipated completely.

  Standing before Hulim was a woman with skin as smooth and delicate as fine porcelain, eyes as clear and vivid as emeralds, and a cascade of shimmering golden hair framing a pair of long, pointed ears. Her beauty was breathtaking, like an angel from a fairy tale—if one could overlook the three pairs of translucent, faintly glowing wings sprouting from her back.

  “Chosen one, blessed by fate—is it you who summoned me?”

  The golden-haired woman hovered effortlessly above the lake, her wings motionless at her back. She spoke with a voice of divine purity, her emerald eyes fixed intently on the figure before her.

  Then,

  “......”

  The golden-haired woman froze, momentarily stunned.

  Instead of gazing up at her in awe or reverence—as she had expected—the young girl standing opposite her stared back with nothing but sheer terror.

  “M-Mon... Monster! A monster’s appeared!!”

  “Huh?”

  The golden-haired woman blinked in utter bewilderment.

  Hulim’s face turned ashen, her small eyes wide with panic. She scrambled backward on hands and knees until her back hit the edge of the rock, leaving her with nowhere left to retreat. She raised her wooden wand tremblingly, pointing it at the woman hovering above the lake.

  “S-Stay back! D-Don’t come any closer!”

  Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes, her voice trembling with fear.

  “Wait a second! Who are you calling a monster?!”

  The golden-haired woman was incensed, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.

  She planted one hand on her hip, jabbing the other finger accusingly at Hulim, her cheeks puffing up with anger.

  “Listen to me, you ignorant little brat! I——”

  She thumped her chest proudly, lifting her chin high.

  “——this great and mighty being! Am one of the oldest existences in this world, a vassal of the revered Terra the Earth Mother, a Primordial Fairy, and the Fairy Queen—Semiris Pan Gine! Open your eyes and look properly! Show me the respect I deserve!”

  “Ehh? The Fairy Queen......?”

  A flicker of confusion crossed Hulim’s tear-streaked face.

  Semiris nodded vigorously, her expression full of pride. “Yes! Yes, exactly! I am the great Fairy Queen that everyone speaks of!”

  “What kind of monster is that?”

  “I’m not—of course I’m not a monster, you fool!!”

  Semiris roared at the top of her lungs.

  “Eek! Don’t eat me! Magic Bullet! Magic Bullet! Magic Bullet......”

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  Hulim’s face turned deathly pale with fright. She snatched up pebbles from the ground at random and hurled them wildly at Semiris.

  CLANG!

  Semiris tilted her head back just in time, but a bright red bump blossomed on her forehead all the same.

  A vein throbbed visibly on her temple.

  “I said—I’m not a monster!! And stop throwing things at me this instant!”

  CAW! CAW!

  Her thunderous shout sent a flock of birds scattering in panic from the trees.

  It also succeeded in making Hulim freeze mid-throw, her arms hanging limply at her sides.

  After a long while, Hulim studied Semiris’s face carefully. With her human-like features—stunning, even angelic—she looked nothing like the monsters described in storybooks.

  “Huh...... You’re not a monster?”

  A trace of confusion lingered in her big, innocent eyes.

  Seeing that the girl had finally calmed down, Semiris let out a huff of exasperation.

  “Of course I’m not! Mistaking someone as noble and magnificent as me for those filthy, mindless monsters—you’ve got to be the most disrespectful Chosen One in history!”

  “B-But... But......”

  Hulim didn’t quite understand what Semiris was saying.

  “Humans don’t have wings, right? And they can’t fly in the air like that either!”

  Semiris stared at her, dumbfounded. The vein on her temple throbbed again as she clutched her head in frustration and let out a scream.

  “Aaaaaah! What is wrong with you?! Didn’t I just tell you I’m a Fairy?! A Fairy! Have you never even heard of a fairy before?!”

  “No.”

  Hulim shook her head firmly, without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Guh——”

  Semiris froze mid-air, a thousand snarky retorts dying on her lips.

  She took a deep breath, struggling to compose herself.

  “Look—fairies are......”

  For the next full half-hour, Semiris lectured Hulim on the history and ecology of fairies.

  Fairies, she explained, were magical beings created by Terra the Earth Mother, born from the very wellsprings of natural mana. Unlike humans, beastmen, or other common intelligent races, fairies could wield magic from birth and possessed immortal lifespans. Their most distinctive feature was the pair of translucent wings on their backs.

  As vassals of Terra the Earth Mother, fairies primarily resided in Tiramsuin, the Celestial Realm, and were rarely seen in the mortal world below.

  And Semiris was no ordinary fairy—she was the very first fairy to ever exist, the ruler of the fairy race, the Fairy Queen blessed with three pairs of wings!

  When she wasn’t lazing about in the Celestial Realm as the fairy ruler, she also served as an apostle of Terra the Earth Mother, traveling between the heavens and the mortal plane to carry out the goddess’s will. Her status as a divine apostle was clearly documented in every church across the mortal world, and she was widely revered as a messenger of the gods.

  “Well? Now do you understand just how amazing I am? Feel free to bow down and worship me~!”

  Semiris lifted her chin triumphantly, looking down her nose at Hulim with a smug expression.

  Unfortunately for her, she had vastly overestimated the worldview and comprehension of a seven-year-old child.

  Even though Hulim now understood Semiris’s identity, none of it registered as “amazing” or “magnificent” in her little brain. To put it bluntly...

  She had absolutely no clue what an apostle or a queen was supposed to be.

  “Huh? I don’t get it.”

  Being only seven years old, Hulim had no concept of polite pretense. She simply spoke her mind honestly.

  And that was precisely what made it so devastating.

  As a fairy, Semiris possessed the innate ability to see through lies.

  “......”

  Semiris squatted down on the lake surface, drawing circles aimlessly with her finger, her entire demeanor oozing dejection.

  “?”

  Hulim tilted her head to the side, confused by the sudden change in the fairy’s mood.

  “Aaaaaah! Fine...... Forget about fairies for now!”

  Semiris suddenly snapped out of her slump, jumping to her feet and clutching her head in frustration.

  Hulim jumped at the sudden outburst—but now that she knew the fairy wasn’t going to eat her, she didn’t feel the least bit scared anymore.

  “Alright! Let’s finish this mission quickly, then I can go have some long-overdue fun!”

  She slapped her cheeks hard, trying to perk herself up.

  Then she turned her gaze back to Hulim. “Hey, you——”

  Semiris was about to say something, but her words trailed off abruptly, as if she had just noticed something important.

  In the blink of an eye, her wings fluttered once, and her body dissolved into a shower of light particles.

  Hulim’s vision blurred for a split second—and the fairy who had been hovering over the lake was suddenly standing right in front of her.

  “Hmm, something’s definitely off about you. I was distracted earlier and didn’t notice, but now that I look—you’re tiny! Are you a Dwarf? But you don’t look like a Dwarf. You look more human, actually. Could you be a half-breed? No, that doesn’t fit either. Wait—are you some kind of new intelligent species? I’ve never heard of anything like this......”

  As Semiris muttered to herself, circling Hulim and poking at her curiously, Hulim tilted her head back as far as she could to meet the fairy’s gaze. Her cheeks puffed up with annoyance.

  “I’m human! I’m a human being! Not some new species!”

  “Huh? Liar! Humans aren’t this small!”

  Semiris looked at her with a thoroughly disbelieving expression.

  “Yes, they are! I’m only seven years old, that’s why I’m this short! I’ll grow taller in a few years!”

  “Wha——”

  Semiris stared at her, utterly dumbfounded, as if she had just heard the most inconceivable thing in the world.

  “S-Seven...... years old?!?”

  “That’s basically a baby?!”