WTBFCY Chapter 31

"There's no need for everyone to get excited. I'm going personally to save time. Cedric, how is the task I requested progressing?"

"It's proceeding smoothly. So far we've secured thirty-three black faerie spores, and nine of them have successfully been humanized. The rest seem to still feel resistance to absorbing humans, having spent too long in the forest."

At Cedric's words, Sashar nodded.

"...Yes, I suppose monsters driven mad with hunger are better than dust-like forms. Continue the work. Capture more of them and humanize them all."

"Yes. Understood, Lord Sashar."

"Calling us dust is too much..."

"Shh, Asel. You need to be quiet when Lord Sashar is speaking."

Asel grumbled with a hurt expression. Abigail soothed him while looking across at Sashar. She was curious about why he'd suddenly started collecting black faerie spores and why he was trying to humanize them, but no one dared ask Sashar that question.

Their king, who was supposed to have died long ago. And because Sashar was a black faerie who'd lived even longer than that, the young ones couldn't help but follow Sashar's words.

All the more so now that there was no king.

"...The night has grown late."

Sashar suddenly looked out the window and spoke. When Abigail turned her gaze, she saw a pure white moon hanging outside the window. Its body looked painfully cut in half, making Abigail feel sad.

Noah and Regina, who'd planned to leave immediately for the Epola territory, were still staying in the capital. The train tickets to the Hoern territory had sold out. With no other choice, they bought tickets for the early morning train the next day and decided to stay the night at the inn where they'd lodged a few days before.

The two had gotten off the carriage and were walking toward the inn. They'd gotten off early because the entrance to Kapsen Street was crowded with people due to the year-end.

"Stay alone once we reach the inn. I have business to attend to for a while."

"...Yes, I will."

After Regina's finger had been pricked by the pocket watch Noah carried, he'd been leaving her alone more often. With that watch, there was no point in Regina running away.

'At least he's not making me walk Kapsen Street alone like before...'

Perhaps because she'd encountered Sashar here last time, or because he'd learned that this street became dangerous in the evening, Noah didn't send Regina alone. Unlike the entrance, the deeper inside they went, the fewer people there were. The deserted street was filled only with the orange glow of streetlamps.

"……."

Only the sound of their footsteps echoed down the street.

Noah was silent, thinking about investigating what the light fairies were hiding. Regina was preoccupied thinking about Margaret's letter she'd received today.

That's when it happened. A black curtain descended soundlessly over the two walking silently. With a light gust of wind and the sensation of something brushing her hair, Regina suddenly stopped walking and turned around.

"We meet again, Lady."

The moment she thought she saw a black coat before her eyes, red lips captured her gaze. Red lips smiling in a gentle curve, and eyes shining just as red. It was Sashar, the upper-tier black faerie she'd met before.

"Uh..."

"……!"

Before the startled Regina could react to Sashar's sudden appearance without any sign, Noah spun around, drew his pistol from inside his coat, and pulled the trigger. However, Sashar's black curtain unfurled past Regina's ear and swallowed even the sound of the gunshot.

—Thunk, thud-thud.

Part of the black curtain that had absorbed the bullets fell to the ground. Noah's expression hardened with tension at the sight. Sashar had just cut away the part of the black curtain that had solidified from absorbing the bullets.

"Aha, I see—bullets made from blood! No wonder Owen fell to you. What an ingenious idea."

That he could immediately discard the solidified parts meant the magnitude of his power was on a different dimension from the black fairies they'd encountered before. As an upper-tier faerie who'd lived long, his power overflowed so much that cutting away a portion caused no damage at all.

The difference between them was as vast as the gap between dropping a drop of ink into a cup of water versus dropping a drop of ink into a massive lake. Noah swallowed dryly as he glared at Sashar, then his gaze stopped on Regina, who was awkwardly blocking their path in the middle.

'Why the hell is she standing right there?'

"You have reason to be overconfident in your own power. Blood like this is truly rare. Quite a thick, sweet taste."

Sashar spat the black power onto the ground with a furrowed brow, speaking admiringly. Meanwhile, Regina looked back and forth between Sashar and Noah with a bewildered expression.

'Uh, I think I'm in a bit of danger here.'

She felt like an insect surrounded by predators front and back. The kind of insignificant existence that could be crunch, flattened underfoot at any moment. The thought that she wouldn't remain intact if those two even grazed each other made her shiver with a chill running down her spine.

"Thanks for the compliment. So the rat bastard following us since the train was you, I take it? Did you come looking personally because you want to die a little sooner?"

"Rat bastard—such crude language. Should I kill you to shut that insolent mouth?"

When Sashar lowered his hand, the hem of the black coat wrapped around his body unfurled as if alive and surged toward Regina and Noah. Regina, who stood in front of him, turned pale and stopped breathing, but fortunately all the shadows passed without touching a hair on her head. Regina's hair and clothes whipped about wildly in the fierce wind that brushed past her.

"Isn't it luxury for a monster bastard to expect manners?"

"Look who's talking!"

Aiming at Sashar, Noah lightly dodged into the air as shadows bored in from both his sides simultaneously. Regina, who stood directly in front, widened her eyes at the sight. That he would fire his gun without any hesitation despite her presence—she saw it but couldn't believe it.

—Bang! Click, bang, bang!

"Kyaaah!"

Regina screamed, covering her head with both hands. The moment Sashar stepped aside to dodge the gunfire behind her, Noah swiftly approached Regina. He snatched her arm and yanked her backward, then shouted urgently.

"Get back!"

Regina, who'd been staggering after losing her balance, immediately came to her senses at those words and frantically ran behind a streetlamp on the roadside to hide. As if that were a signal, Noah began firing rapidly, as if everything until now had been just a warm-up.

—Swoosh!

Sashar unfurled a curtain before him to block the barrage of gunfire. Despite the noise ringing out deafeningly loud—bang bang bang—no one appeared on the street. The space had clearly been cut off again. Regina, hiding behind the streetlamp, crouched down and pressed her ears shut in fear.

—Thunk, thud-thud-thud.

Black masses that had lost movement fell in a clatter from under Sashar's arms. He'd spat out all the parts that had grown sluggish after absorbing Noah's blood.

"...The taste of the blood is too sweet. I might vomit."

The gunfire stopped. Regina had hoped he'd taken at least some damage, but Sashar, revealed from beyond the curtain, was perfectly fine. He merely wiped his mouth, claiming his stomach felt queasy from gulping down something too sweet.

"So upper-tier fairies are different, is that it..."

"...Shall we end the games here? I'm rather busy, you see..."

Sashar brushed dust from his collar with an expression that said he'd grown bored.

Noah's blood hadn't worked. No—the magnitude of the black power that overflowed even after discarding all the parts that had absorbed his blood was tremendous. Sashar before his eyes appeared in human form, but to Noah's eyes he looked like massively undulating black smoke. The vastness of that power made his shoulders tingle.

'...This is dangerous.'

Noah ground his teeth and smiled. The thought flashed through his mind that if he made a wrong move, he might be the one to die here.

"Well, I understand why you're so arrogant despite being young—possessing such blood. To think it's such a strong poison. You must have easily killed ordinary fairies. But do you think I've lived all these long years without consuming hybrids with poison as potent as this?"

Sashar stepped forward, treading on the countless black masses scattered at his feet. Noah felt pressured by that momentum and drew another pistol into his other hand. Sashar merely looked at it with derision.

"Ridiculous. Do you think having two pistols will change anything?"

"Who knows? What do you think?"

Sashar mocked Noah's foolishness. Noah glared hatefully at those red eyes filled with amusement and pulled both triggers in succession.

"You should have realized those guns are already useless. You're more foolish than you look."

—Whoosh.

It was the moment Sashar waved his black power as if tired of it all, lightly blocking the bullets. The bullets flying toward Sashar exploded simultaneously before his face. Bang bang, they burst with the sound, the bullets made from blood shattering into pieces and spreading as powder.

"What...!"

Startled by the powder of blood spreading thickly around him, Sashar quickly covered his mouth and leapt back. Noah had shot bullets with his right hand and then hit all of them with bullets from his left hand, making them burst simultaneously.

—Bang, bang-bang-bang!

Noah didn't miss that opportunity. He fired at the positions where the retreating Sashar would step, timing the moment his feet touched down. With a thunk, a bullet lodged in Sashar's ankle. The bullet that burrowed into the shadow was instantly absorbed, weighing down his foot.

"……!"

Sashar, who'd been stepping down, staggered briefly at the unexpected attack, then quickly tore away part of the shadow at his ankle. The hollowed ankle immediately returned to its original form, but Sashar frowned at the barrage of bullets still pouring down.

That gunfire was unexpectedly troublesome. Like an annoyingly buzzing insect at his ear.

"Not bad for an insect!"

"An insect the size of a human—truly disgusting taste. Or do an insect's eyes only see the same things?"

Noah bantered back at Sashar's words while inwardly seized by impatience.

At a glance, Sashar seemed to have absorbed quite a few bullets, but he showed no effect whatsoever. Could he win even if he used up all the bullets he currently had? Perhaps he really would have to spill all his blood.

"How insolent!"

At Noah's sarcasm, Sashar's expression hardened. At first it had been amusing that this absurdly young specimen was showing off, relying on one poisonous blood, but as time passed, he grew angry. In response to his rage, Sashar's eyes stained a vivid blood-red.