Chapter 6 - "Please Calm Down"
"H-hey, w-wait, c-c-calm down, boy!"
"Please calm down."
I had thrust my arms out in front of the boy for no particular reason and sat myself down on the desk.
What had happened to my body?
My perspective had risen, and I now had to look down to meet the boy's eyes, yet I wasn't flying, so, um…?
Looking around, the books and bookshelves had shrunk, and the room itself seemed to have contracted. No, it wasn't that the room had become smaller; I had grown larger.
The ceiling and walls were close, bringing back that familiar sense of confinement. It was just like when I was human.
"Please get down from there for now. It is improper."
"Y-yes."
When I hopped down with a thud, I felt a gravity firmer than usual and staggered. The floor felt incredibly distant. My one-piece dress had also grown larger to match my body.
"You haven't become human… You have wings."
It seemed I looked human if not for the wings. When I grabbed my wings and pulled them to the front, they looked more magnificent than usual.
"Try flying for a moment," he said, so in my confusion, I obeyed without thinking. As I moved my wings, the wind pressure caused the boy's hair to flutter gently. While I flew, thinking that this didn't usually happen,
—Thud!
A shock ran through my head. It seemed I had bumped into the ceiling. And I hadn't even flown that high.
Clutching my dizzy head, I landed. The boy looked at me, groaning "Ouch," with the same expression one might use when looking at garbage.
"In that game, how did fairies become human-sized?"
"Perhaps those of an elder class who had lived for hundreds of years and accumulated magical power within themselves? Also, 'Eren' was—"
"…?"
"I-I won't tell you."
I couldn't just casually reveal that we needed to form a contract.
A contract involved the sharing of magical power between both parties. However, no matter how one struggled, the master-servant relationship was clear, and the authority to decide on the transfer of magical power lay with the master. It was even possible to drain the servant's magical power until death.
In the story, 'Eren' had formed a contract with the Demon Lord. It had not been 'Eren's' will.
If the boy, who seemed eager to bind me to this house, were to find out, what would happen—?
"Come to think of it, I heard something about a contract earlier. Could that be it?"
"You knew?"
Good grief.
"I do know the game, after all. …However, drinking blood alone does not constitute a contract, so I wonder what this is about."
To be honest, unlike the young Stylus-san, I had lived life letting things happen as they may, so I had no interest in the principles. Now that I had calmed down, I could only think about how delicious the blood had been. The boy's blood contained an excessive amount of magical allure.
In the end, I reached the conclusion that with only the slight amount of magical power I had received, I had managed to reach, with just one foot, the realm of those fairies who had lived for hundreds of years.
After all, his was a talent unseen in generations.
It was an astonishing extreme specialization in magic (and appearance, incidentally) that made one think the gods had glitched.
The magical power received from such a boy was surely the finest nectar for a fairy.
However, it was said that it was dangerous for humans to exchange magical power with other humans. Human magical power, like blood, had attributes, and apparently, incorporating different magical power caused a rejection reaction.
In comparison, fairy magical power was smooth and attribute-less, making it delicious for any type of creature… or so it seemed.
"Let us put this matter on hold for now. Let us go."
"Hmm?"
The boy took my hand, which remained large, and led me along.
Looking at him like this, aside from his face, the boy was quite common. He had no tailcoat or three-piece suit, often wearing rough attire such as a linen shirt with a wide collar and simple black pants. Occasionally he wore a black robe, giving the impression of someone who looked rather like a sorcerer.
I walked while staring intently at things I had not had the leisure to notice when I was smaller.
This house was truly ordinary, just the right size for a nuclear family to live in. It was neither poor nor excessively wealthy. With white walls and dark brown pillars and doors as the base, it felt like something from old, good Britain.
"Come to think of it, you mentioned it earlier, but where are we going?"
"To my younger sister. She said she wanted to meet you, so I thought it would be fine now."
"Eh, you talked about me?"
"It was you who talked. My younger sister seems to have heard your voice."
What did he mean?
Had there been any humans other than the boy with whom I had conversed since coming here? No, there hadn't, right?
As I appealed that I knew nothing of the sort, the boy criticized me implicitly with a large sigh.
"Did you not call me 'Stylus-san'? My younger sister is also a Stylus-san."
"Ah."
What came to mind was the moment shortly before, when I had heard my younger sister's coughing voice. I had indeed called for the boy many times.
"But I didn't make a sound?"
"As I said earlier, perhaps you used telepathy or something similar. But judging by your reaction, you seem unaware of it."
"If the punchline was that your younger sister was actually a fairy, she might be able to do it, but…"
"That is not the case, so this remains unresolved as well. …Well, we have arrived."
Because I had walked while spacing out, it felt like it had taken a long time, but in reality, we hadn't walked that far.
Before me was a single door. The room two doors down was the bedroom, but since I was forbidden from touching this door, I had never entered.
The boy knocked without hesitation and called out, "I am entering." There was a slight pause, but the master of the room answered with a hoarse voice.
"It's fine, Onii-chan."
"Pardon the intrusion. I have brought Elenoa."
Pushed into a room where I had no mental preparation for self-introductions, I froze.
"…Elenoa-san?"
"Yes, my name is Elenoa."
A girl of about six years old was lying on a bed that was too large for a child.
Her honey-colored hair was tied in two bunches below her ears, and her eyes, moist perhaps due to fever, were golden. She was a young girl with the same color tone as the boy.
When she grew up, men would surely not leave her be. I felt she could even become bait for lolicons now, and I indecently felt relieved that she was in a state where she could not leave the house.
"Elenoa-san, are you a fairy-san?"
"Um…"
When I looked toward the boy, he nodded once. It seemed I was allowed to speak.
"Yes, that's right. I am a fairy."
"A fairy-san, it's my first time meeting one. My name is Lumina. Was it me you were calling, fairy-san?"
"Um, no. I was calling 'Stylus-san,' that is, your older brother."
My younger sister looked blank for a moment, then smiled softly.
Unlike the young Louis, who suited the moonlight, she was warm like the spring breeze.
Even so, did Louis Stylus even have a younger sister?