Chapter 53: Chapter 53: A larger group

This world truly is a world of madness.

"Luna, it's just a small tear, Mari will fix it when we stop to rest."

"You can't just walk around with a tear in your dress! What will you do if someone sees you!?"

"There's nobody here, and even if there were, they wouldn't care."

Why does nobody listen to me? Nera's dress got a tear on it, but she doesn't want to stop to fix it. That dragon keeps eating food with his hands, I know that he's not used to staying in human form and that all he eats is rocks, but that's not an excuse! And earlier I caught Arana drinking from a new canteen when there was still water in the one she had been drinking from before! Who does that!?

This is madness! And the worst part is that they keep telling me to not pay attention to this stuff, sometimes I feel like I'm the only sane person in the world...

"Well, actually it's starting to get dark already, let's take a break for today."

We escaped the city by riding the dragon as Arana suggested, getting past the army was even easier than expected, they couldn't catch up to his speed at all...

Our group got a lot bigger; we decided to bring Ranna along with us, and Nera's maid, Mari, also wanted to come with her for some reason. Also, the dark fairies decided to come with us by clinging to the dragon, all 92 of them.

Since I already promised to teach them (and since we have no other place to go), we decided to head to the village of the dark fairies. One of the demon lords under Kalroth is in charge of the area, He's the one the fairies wanted to run away from, and if he finds out that they're back, he might try to do something to them... oh well, I'll just deal with that when the time comes.

The dragon is not large enough for all of us to be able to ride him comfortably, so after crossing the border of the Agua kingdom, I said that we should make the rest of the trip on foot. Well, in reality, I just wanted to have some downtime after everything that happened, now that a few days have passed, we are all back to acting as we always do.

"By the way, shouldn't we free Ranna already? I'm starting to worry that this is going to be bad for her health..."

Arana said that we cannot trust her sister entirely just yet, so she's still trapped inside the ball of string with only her eyes visible. The dragon has been carrying her on his shoulder all this time. Even in his human form, he's still being used as a means of transport, or is it that Ranna is being treated like luggage?

"Oh, please do not be concerned about me. This is quite comfortable and I'm being spared from having to walk like everyone else."

She says she's fine, but I'm not sure if she's just trying to be polite about it...

"Alright Nera, let me take a look at your dress and I'll just... oh."

It looks like Arana was going to fix Nera's dress, but before she could even get her thread and needle, Mari had already done it. It's hard to believe how fast she is...

"Mari... you should leave these things to a professional, you know, like me."

"I'm sorry, you were taking so long that I assumed you had something else to do."

Uh... Arana looks a bit annoyed. She already seemed to have been bothered when Mari took charge when we were planning our route, and each time we set up camp for the night. Up until now, Arana had been the one who took care of those things. It would be bad if they end up fighting, I need to distract her somehow.

"So, Ara, you said that this area is called the 'demon wasteland'. Could you tell me anything about it?"

"Ah, yes. It's a large area inhabited almost exclusively by demons. To the east, it borders with the Agua kingdom, to the south there's a beastkin country and to the north and west, there are three different kingdoms mostly inhabited by humans. Kalroth seems to have taken over this entire place just recently and there are rumors that his soldiers have been raiding the beastkin country pretending to be regular bandits."

"Since we failed to get the contract crystal the queen had we'll have to get his... do you have any idea of how strong he is?"

"You should ask that to Ranna, she's the one who's actually met him."

"Oh, right. Last time I saw him he was level 381, that's insanely strong by normal standards, but still weak compared to Luna."

"Are you sure about that? I'm not really much of a fighter, and what if he's actually stronger than what his level suggests?"

"If there's anyone who's stronger than their level suggests, that's you. Seriously, after all this time you should already have some more confidence in yourself."

That's easier said than done. Even with all the fights I've easily won it's really hard for me to think of myself as strong...

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Our conversation gets interrupted by a delicious smell.

"Alright, everyone! Dinner's ready!"

Mari is serving dishes for everybody while all the fairies float around her as if they are hypnotized. Ever since she joined us she's been in charge of cooking, which is yet another thing that Arana used to do before. I wanted to let Arana cook at least once so that she can still feel useful, but there's no way I could convince the fairies, they just love good food way too much, and as good as Arana is, Mari's skills are on a whole other level. I guess that's to be expected from someone who prepares food for royalty, but to be honest, I think that she's too good even by that standard.

"Mari, your cooking really is the best."

"Thank you princess Nera! I always do my best to improve for your sake!"

"Yes... I suppose that this is a lot better than what I used to make."

"That's right, I did try some of the leftovers you had, and they were rather lacking..."

Uh... I don't think that saying that is a good idea.

"Poor princess Nera, to think that she had to travel with a group with no one who knew how to cook on it... uh? What is this?"

It seems like Mari just felt something strange and is looking inside her clothes.

"EEEEK! WHAT IS THIS!?"

The's a multitude of spiders crawling all over her body, they seem to have materialized out of nowhere.

"Where did these things come from!?"

I guess that will have to remain a mystery. Yes, I'll just pretend that I don't have any theories about it...

---

 

The next day we arrived at the village of the dark fairies and we met the remaining 50 that had stayed behind bringing the total number of fairies to 142.

They seemed to be a bit wary of me at first, but nothing compared to the reactions I usually get. Now that I think about it, fairies have a reputation for being carefree and fearless, so I guess that the amount of fear they had towards me is actually a lot for them...

But when I demonstrated my skills, they all wanted to learn healing magic from me without exception. It seems like the day I had been waiting for so long has finally arrived.

"Ara, are you sure that this outfit will make me better at teaching?"

"Of course! Just trust me, I'm an expert in clothing after all."

Arana insisted on me wearing an outfit that she says will increase my teaching capabilities. A short skirt and tights, a blouse and a jacket. Also, for some reason, I have to wear glasses that I don't need as well as high heels that I REALLY don't need. I don't know how this can make me a better teacher, but I guess that I should trust Arana for these things.

"Alright then, everybody is already waiting at the inn."

As expected, most of the houses in this village are way too small for normal-sized people, but there's also an inn for any visitors that might come. Well, by inn I mean an entirely empty house with only one large room, but since it is large enough for all of the fairies to fit inside it's perfect for our purpose. We placed enough small chairs and tables for everyone on top of some normal-sized tables so that we can see each other better.

Now, the only thing left is to block all the noise from the outside and make sure that nothing can interrupt us.

'Black wall'

Perfect, now that the house is sealed until we're done with the lesson, nobody will be able to come in.

Or out.