Maid Fairies (Toward The Finale, Part 1)

In the forest, wrapped in the refreshing morning air, a stone-paved road continued straight ahead.

Sparse woodland spread out on both sides of the road, and white Unicorns running between the trees and fairies flying while fluttering transparent wings flickered in and out of sight.

This was the Fantasy Realm.

A world where fairies, spirits, and phantom beasts lived.

Having newly become the god of this world, I was walking along the road with Liricia to go greet the Fairy Queen.

Incidentally, since I had lost the demon god sword, I was using a mithril sword in its place.

I probably would not use a sword much anymore, but it was just in case.

After we walked for a while, the forest ended and we emerged into a grassland.

In the grassland, flowers of every color bloomed wildly, ignoring all sense of season.

In the distance, a fairy-tale-like castle with onion-shaped roofs towered.

The road led to the castle.

As we walked, besides winged fairies, I could also hear the voices of fairies about the height of children and phantom beasts like hippos.

“It’s the Hero!”

“No, it’s the Savior!”

“He’s so cool!”

“There’s an angel too!”

“She’s so cute!”

The winged fairies laughed lightly in young voices.

Just hearing their voices soothed me.

Liricia, walking beside me, was also smiling naturally.

“They are adorable, hehe.”

“I guess fairies are normally like this.”

The fairies I knew had been nothing decent.

Back when I was a Hero, I had defeated any number of wicked fairies stained by darkness, and just recently I had met the worst fairy in history.

My impression of fairies had not been good, but the Great Fairy Sylph had apparently been an exception among exceptions.

However, as I walked with a calm feeling, I noticed a grim building standing right beside the castle, utterly unsuited to this fairy-tale world.

It was surrounded by several layers of high walls, and barbed wire was stretched over the tops of those walls. Fairies dressed like stern guards were keeping watch from high tower-like lookout posts.

“What is that?”

“A prison, perhaps?”

Liricia also tilted her head in wonder.

When we arrived at the castle, we told the gatekeeper our business.

Immediately, rounded double doors with adorable decorations were opened.

The inside of the castle was also adorable. The walls were striped in white and pink. Above the entrance hall, a strawberry-shaped chandelier was shining.

We were greeted by a stoutly built boy in butler clothes—was he perhaps a gnome fairy?

Guided by him, we climbed the stairs directly ahead.

The second floor was the throne room. A red carpet had been laid out.

At the far end of the hall lined with pillars, there were several steps, and atop them was an empty throne.

When we went right below the throne, a small-person type fairy wearing a pointed hat stood on the platform and raised his adorable voice.

“Her Ma-je-sty, the Queen, has ar-rived~!”

From the side of the platform, a woman in a white dress appeared. She walked gracefully while swaying her long pink hair, which hung down to her back.

She did not sit on the throne, but came down the stairs and stood before us.

“Welcome to the Fantasy Realm. I am Titania, the Fairy Queen.”

“I’m Alec, the one who newly became World Master, and this is Liricia.”

“I know of you, Savior-sama and Guiding Angel-sama. Thank you very much for saving so many worlds.”

Titania bowed gracefully.

I shook my head.

“Don’t worry about it. I just lived selfishly, and this was the result.”

“To think your own desires would lead to the salvation of worlds. As expected of you.”

“Thanks. Is there anything I should do as a god?”

“First, I must thank you on behalf of the Fantasy Realm.”

“Thank me?”

“Where will you be living from now on? The Heaven Realm?”

“No, for the time being, it’ll be the mortal world. My mansion in the Forest of Saint Sophi, near the Fortis Royal Capital.”

“If you enlarge your mansion in the future, will you not be short on hands?”

After the queen said that, I thought for a moment.

“I do want to make the mansion a little bigger, true. I want to make it into two stories.”

“In that case, I shall send maid fairies, who bring good fortune simply by being allowed to live in a house. —Dinashee, Cooshee, Catshee, come out.”

“““Yees.”””

Fairies who were child-height but about four heads tall appeared in the hall. All of them were wearing maid outfits. Their deformed proportions made them look like stuffed dolls.

They lined up beside us and introduced themselves.

“I’m Dina.”

“I’m Coo.”

“I’m Kett.”

Dina was a humanoid fairy, but Coo had dog ears, and Kett had cat ears.

The queen smiled as she gave them an order.

“All three of you must do your best.”

“Yes!”

“I’ll do my best, woof.”

“I’ll clean, meow.”

Liricia smiled with the gaze of someone watching over children.

“They are adorable.”

“That they are. Well then, we have other business too, so let’s go home for today.”

However, the queen raised her hand and stopped us.

“Please wait. I have just one request.”

“What is it?”

The queen grimaced sadly and said,

“I want you to capture Sylph, the Great Fairy of Wind. She is about this size, with transparent wings—”

“No, I know her. I saw her recently. She was controlling corpses on a ghost ship and making a forest.”

“Is that true!? Sylph is an unforgivable villain among fairies who has committed murder, aiding and abetting murder, robbery, theft, kidnapping, confinement, fraud, abandonment of corpses, mutilation of corpses, incitement of suicide, and every crime imaginable.”

“She was that dangerous? I should have made sure to finish her off.”

At my words, the queen hurriedly shook her head.

“No, you must not! You must not kill her.”

“Why?”

“When fairies and spirits die, they reincarnate while keeping their memories. Dangerous fairies can only be locked away.”

“So that’s why there was such a grim prison.”

“That is the prison built for the Great Fairy Sylph. However, she has already escaped three times, so this time, we completed Alcatraz, a prison from which she absolutely cannot escape.”

“She escaped three times. Are you sure it’s all right?”

“The first time, we simply locked her up, and she tricked the guards and escaped. The second time, she used magic to kill herself and reincarnate. The third time, we put her to sleep with magic and locked her up, but before being captured, she had drunk a slow-acting poison, so she gradually weakened, and by the time we noticed, she had died, reincarnated, and escaped.”

“She’s incredible when it comes to dirty tricks, at least… Hmm?”

As I listened to the queen’s story, I recalled Sylph’s final moments.

—Huh? Did Sylph maybe get caught up in the ghost ship sinking and die?

I might have done it.

Feeling cold sweat appear on my forehead, I looked at Liricia. My face might have been twitching.

Liricia seemed to have noticed too, and she timidly asked with a troubled expression.

“Titania-sama. If Sylph were to die, would she revive immediately? Or would she reincarnate after some time had passed?”

“A pool of wind-attribute magic power would form, and from there, the magic power would gradually be shaped into the form of a fairy, so it would feel like she revived immediately.”

The queen’s explanation did not quite make sense to my head.

“Gradually, but immediately? —Let me ask in detail. How many years would it take in human time from death to reincarnation and revival?”

“Well. Unlike fire, earth, and water, wind is omnipresent throughout the world, so it would be ten years at the fastest, and around fifty years at the slowest.”

“I see. It seems humans and fairies have different senses of time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I might have killed Sylph, so ten years from now, when she reincarnates and revives, I’ll capture her. Is that fine?”

“Yes. Thank you very much, Alec-sama.”

The queen bowed deeply. Her pink hair made a sound as it flowed smoothly down.

I had only postponed the problem, but there was no issue for now.

Ten-years-from-now me, do your best.

After that, Liricia and I left the Fantasy Realm.

When we returned to the mansion in the forest, the maid fairies were already there.

While making cute sounds like “Hyah,” Dina was wiping the floor with a rag.

She was running across the ceiling from end to end, ignoring gravity.

The dog-eared Cooshee was standing on the wall and sweeping with a broom.

The cat-eared Catshee was wiping the windows with a rag. While clinging to the outside wall.

“It’s not very dirty, woof.” “This side isn’t either, meow.”

“Well, this mansion is part of a dungeon, after all.”

“Amazing, woof!”

“As expected of Master, meow!”

The maid fairies were surprised in cute voices.

“Just having you do your best makes me happy. Your sentence endings are adorable too.”

When Liricia said that with a smile, Catshee instead made a gloomy face and spoke in her normal voice.

“We appeared in the final episode, so we’re desperately trying to give ourselves character traits.”

“Huh!?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just kidding, it’s nothing, meow!”

Catshee returned to a smile and resumed wiping the windows.

They were probably doing their best in their own way. I did not really understand it, though.

After that, we had the maid fairies cook for us.

There was meat stewed in wine, fish coated in batter and fried, salad with herbs, and corn potage soup.

The dishes were far more elaborate than usual, and they were very delicious.

I said in admiration,

“They really are fairies who bring happiness.”

“A large mansion ought to have attendants. I am happy it has become livelier.”

Liricia smiled in satisfaction.

Until now, since we had needed to hide various things, we could not hire servants or maids, and I had made things hard for Liricia.

From now on, I decided to rethink things and live a little more freely.

—Before that, I have to do that for Liricia. The timing is bad right now, though.

When I thought about the peaceful time I would spend with Liricia from now on, I could not help but smile.