WTBFCY Chapter 21

—Swoosh!

The hand reaching for Regina changed direction at the gunshot. Whoosh—the black shadow that grazed Noah's shoulder crawled up along the gun barrel onto his arm. As the attack surged from his shoulder toward Noah's face like a whirlpool, Noah jerked his head back and pulled out another revolver with his opposite hand.

He quickly struck away the black hand and aimed the gun. The shadow curved inward to avoid it and instantly spread wide in midair.

"Kugh!"

Then swish—it descended and covered Noah's face completely. The thin black membrane wrapped around his face, blocking his nose and mouth. Noah staggered, trying to tear it off. Seizing that opening, the black membrane expanded its volume and coiled around Noah's arms and body.

—Slither.

Like a spider hunting prey, it instantly turned Noah into a black cocoon.

"What, still just a rookie? I heard some guy was going around hunting black fairies, so I came to check it out, but I didn't even need to come."

In front of Noah—whose breath was completely cut off—the black mass descended like thick liquid and transformed into human shape. Perhaps feeling confident now that he'd perfectly caught Noah, the black color on the face area faded away, revealing light brown hair. Having formed human shape down to his chest, he looked down at Noah and tilted his head.

"Why did he send me? For this level, a freshly born lower-tier would've been enough. Lord Sashar worries too much."

Regina had struggled for a while to remove the curtain covering her head. When she finally did and saw the black man with his half-liquefied body, she pulled the curtain back up and curled into a ball. With Noah captured, she had no idea what to do and held her breath. The black man grumbled to himself as he approached Noah.

"But well, even if it's annoying, I have to do what I'm told."

He raised his hand toward Noah, who wasn't moving at all. His hand turned black and transformed into something like a giant scythe, then immediately swung diagonally. Regina, watching through the gaps in the curtain covering her face, covered her mouth with both hands and squeezed her eyes shut.

—Swish!

That was the moment Noah—who she'd thought would be cut in half—disappeared from right before her eyes.

"...Huh?"

The man who'd cut through empty air turned his head with a confused expression, and in that same position, his vision tilted. Uh-oh—simultaneously, his face smashed into the floor upside down. With a thud, his upper body—now severed—fell to the floor. At this sudden change, he tried to move his shadow to restore his body, but for some reason, everything below his shoulders was heavy as stone and wouldn't budge.

"Why, why won't this move!"

—Thunk!

"...!"

As the flustered man wriggled his remaining shadow trying to regenerate his body, a shoe suddenly came down on his face and stomped hard. The man looked up desperately with his half-visible vision to see Noah—wiping his mouth with a hand dripping blood—looking down at him with a grin. Sharp fangs flashed between blood-stained lips.

"Sorry for being a rookie?"

"W-wait!"

—Click, bang, bang!

The man opened his mouth urgently toward Noah with a twisted face, but before those words could finish, the trigger was pulled. With a thunk, black powder scattered in all directions. The powder that couldn't regenerate twitched and trembled, then soon poured onto the floor.

Blood trickled down Noah's hand. When the black shadow had surrounded him, he'd wounded his own arm to feed the shadow plenty of his blood. Just before Noah would have suffocated to death from his blocked breathing, the shadow that absorbed the poison hardened. By the narrowest margin, Noah freed himself first and killed the off-guard black faerie.

"Phew, damn it. I'm the one who let my guard down."

He hadn't expected the black faerie to ambush him first. He'd always sought out and dealt with those hiding among humans, so this situation was a first. But perhaps it meant Noah had become that threatening an existence to them.

—Thunk, crack!

The rest of the black man's body—still cut in half—also hardened and lost its balance, toppling to the floor. But that direction happened to be where Regina was curled up. Regina, startled by the black mass falling toward her head, stretched out both hands to catch it.

"Kyah! Uwah!"

But the moment her hands touched it, the black mass crumbled to powder and began being absorbed into Regina. At that sensation, she screamed in shock, and Noah—who had been extracting the orb from the black faerie's body—flinched and turned his head. Then even the black corpse under his feet turned to powder and was sucked toward Regina.

"...!"

At this change, Noah stepped off the corpse and took a step back.

—Sssss!

Like when she'd first absorbed the black faerie's corpse, the thing that seeped into Regina's body gave a pleasant, refreshing sensation like cold water rushing through her veins. The energy first circled her heart once, then immediately spread throughout her entire body.

As if her trembling in fear at the black man moments ago had been a lie, Regina let out a light breath at the rising sense of fulfillment. Her purple eyes sparkled with a very faint light. Noah glared at Regina—who had perfectly absorbed the black powder—through narrowed eyes, then held out the orb in his hand to her.

"Could you possibly absorb this too?"

"What? What is that?"

"It's the condensed life force of targets the black faerie devoured."

Having reflexively held out her hand and received what he offered, Regina looked down at the orb after hearing Noah's explanation. She felt like she'd just heard an extremely creepy explanation.

"Uh, so this is..."

"It's what forms when a black faerie devours a human."

"Uwaaah!"

At his direct explanation, Regina recoiled as if she'd touched an insect. With her palm open, she threw the orb into the air. Thunk—the dropped orb rolled and returned to Noah's feet.

"Looks like you can't absorb this even if you touch it."

He bent down and picked up the rolled orb. It meant Regina absorbed only black fairies, excluding the orbs Noah needed.

Might be unexpectedly useful...

"A black faerie suddenly attacking like that—what's going on?"

As Noah was gauging her usefulness while looking down at Regina, she stood up and asked. He picked up his coat from the sofa covered in scattered glass shards and shook it out as he answered.

"Looks like we were followed."

"Followed?"

"That upper-tier black faerie you met seems to want me dead. I didn't know he'd go so far as to send subordinates to attack directly like this."

"The upper-tier faerie—you mean that black-hatted man?!"

"Yeah, that man."

—Rattle.

He finished shaking the glass fragments off their bags, then opened the compartment door. He called out to a passing staff member and stopped him.

"Hey, a piece of broken wood suddenly flew in from outside and shattered the window. Can you change our compartment?"

"What? A piece of wood, you say? No, the window shattered?! Are you injured?"

The young staff member didn't immediately understand Noah's words and babbled confusedly, then saw the wrecked compartment through the open door and was shocked. Watching the staff member hurry off saying he'd get the supervisor, Noah gestured to Regina.

"There's a lot of glass in there, so come out into the corridor for now."

"Now that you mention it, there was such a loud gunshot—why didn't anyone come running?"

Having stepped into the corridor as he said, Regina belatedly realized that despite all this commotion, no one had come to their compartment. Noah pointed at the faintly drifting cluster of light inside the compartment and answered.

"It's the light fairies' power. They block disturbances in the area, or sometimes sprinkle faerie dust to put humans to sleep. Light fairies don't like the existence of black fairies becoming widely known to humans."

She hadn't even noticed their existence before hearing Noah's words. Come to think of it, they'd put everyone to sleep at Margaret's mansion too. When she looked carefully at the cluster of light with fresh attention, as if sensing that Regina could see them, the cluster wavered and moved, then returned to Noah. More precisely, it seeped into the pocket watch Noah carried. The same watch that had pricked her finger and absorbed her blood.

"How can you use the light fairies' power?"

Seeing the cluster of light disappear, Noah tucked the watch he was holding into his coat.

"This pocket watch was given to me by the light fairies. It contains their power. They're extremely cooperative with me killing black fairies. They can't eliminate them directly, so they're using me instead."

"..."

Ezra the light faerie, and Sashar the black faerie. Those were the names of the fairies Regina had learned about so far.

But Noah's words that she shouldn't approach either of them left Regina feeling helpless.

I thought I'd finally found someone who could tell me more about fairies...

But she couldn't simply trust Noah's words either. He was someone whose ultimate goal was to eliminate Regina. Regina looked up at Noah's profile as he watched the direction the staff member had run off in.

How far can I trust this person?

Before Regina could sink into thought, the staff member who'd run down the corridor returned with the supervisor. The supervisor continuously wiped streaming sweat with a handkerchief while bowing repeatedly in apology. Then he guided the two to a new compartment.

When he said they'd refund the ticket price as an apology, Noah told them it was fine and sent them away. Considering they'd destroyed the compartment, even paying for damages wouldn't be enough—receiving a ticket refund on top of that would prick his conscience.

"Won't another black faerie come again?"

The newly assigned compartment was much more spacious and luxurious. Pleased with the large bed, Noah threw their bags on the sofa and immediately lay down. As Regina sat on the bed on the opposite wall and asked worriedly, Noah yawned and answered.

"It'll be quiet for at least a few days. More importantly, black fairies don't have large numbers, so they can't send them frequently."

"Their numbers are small?"

"Yeah. The number of black fairies I've encountered recently is unusually high—originally they're not beings you see this easily. I'm going to sleep now, so stop with the questions and get some rest yourself."

Ending with those words, Noah pulled the blanket over himself and turned toward the wall. At this silent expression that he wouldn't talk anymore, Regina had no choice but to stop her questions.

When she stopped talking, it instantly became quiet, with only Noah's breathing audible. At least she liked being farther from the window thanks to the much more spacious compartment. Regina also carefully lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. Two days was a time that seemed both short and long.