Reginald was perched on the edge of the altar, peering down into Lafalle’s coffin. His bodyguards were gathered around him.
Reginald squinted suspiciously at Anne as she came rushing in and at Challe standing behind her.
“What’s this? Well, if it isn’t the little Silver Sugar Master!”
Anne ran up to the altar.
“The Earl of Downing is planning to attack this place and make it look like the work of robbers,” Anne told him impatiently. “They’re going to kill Lafalle and you, too. You have to run away, quickly!”
Reginald looked dubious. “You’re scheming to do something after you’ve driven me out.”
“We aren’t! Your life really is in danger!”
“And why would you tell me such a thing? I don’t understand.”
“It’s not coming from me. These are instructions from the Silver Sugar Viscount! The Viscount needs the fairy dealers’ cooperation in order to train silver sugar fairies. He said he has to protect the other party or there won’t be any negotiations! That’s why he told me to look after you!” At that point, words failed Anne, and she bit her lip. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from crying.
Challe stepped out in front of her and glared at Reginald. “The Silver Sugar Viscount is acting only for the sake of sugar candy,” he said quietly. “The difficulties between your lot and the royal family are a mere annoyance to him. But if you die, he can’t negotiate with you. So he told us to save you. If it weren’t for that, I would never have run all the way here for a wolf like you.”
Challe wondered what he was doing, coming here to rescue a fairy dealer like this. He hated fairy dealers so much, it made him sick. Obviously, he couldn’t hide his disgust, and Reginald stared at him, searching his expression.
“The Silver Sugar Viscount would defy his guardian, the Earl of Downing? He must know what will happen to him. I doubt he would do something so stupid.”
“All these guys are idiots,” Challe spat.
Anne and Hugh were utter fools, both of them. And if it weren’t for their foolish wishes, Challe would have liked to satisfy his anger right then and there. But as stupid as they were, everything they were doing was for the sake of the fairies.
“Mr. Stowe, please believe me,” Anne pleaded with him. “Run, I’m begging you.”
“So the royal family is going to make up some excuse and come capture me or kill me, huh? I expected it would be one or the other. That’s why if something happens to me, the Fairy Merchants Guild will disband and go underground. I’ve already made the arrangements. If they attack me, it will ultimately be the royal family’s loss. Understand?”
“This has nothing to do with the royal family!” Anne insisted, her voice getting louder. His refusal to believe her was irritating her. “The Silver Sugar Viscount needs you because he wants to negotiate with you!”
Anne was worried and anxious about Hugh, she was annoyed with Reginald, and she was afraid the Earl of Downing’s troops were closing in on them. Everything was causing chaos in her heart. Her voice was wavering.
“He doesn’t like you at all. But he needs you. He needs you to negotiate with him.”
“Couldn’t he just act like the royal family and take what he needs by force?”
“Surely, you understand there are some things you can’t take by force! Isn’t that why you’re picking a fight with the royal family in the first place?!”
Anne lost her cool and started shouting at him. She was biting her lip and clenching both her fists as her shoulders heaved with every breath. She looked like she wanted to tear the doubt out of Reginald’s chest with her hands.
The sound of the wind blowing across the hill made Challe impatient. Reginald’s silence was frustrating.
Move, wolf.
As he silently urged the man into action, Challe searched for any presence outside the church. He thought about how he might save Reginald if they were attacked right then and there, his brain automatically forming a plan.
Reginald slowly nodded at Anne. “All right. For now, I’ll believe you. I’ll get ready to leave.”
Reginald signaled his bodyguards with a look, and Anne’s shoulders slumped in relief.
“Hurry,” said Challe, emphasizing the need for haste. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they attacked this place right away.”
Then he left the church, pushing Anne along in front of him.
Reginald’s wagon was immediately brought out into the front yard of the church. Then Lafalle’s coffin, with the lid closed tight, was loaded into the wagon’s bed and secured with cords to keep it from falling. Challe stood watch in the yard and kept an eye on the preparations. Anne stood next to him, watching her own wagon.
Just then, Mithril popped his head out from Challe’s pocket.
“Hey, that was Gladys, wasn’t it? Lafalle Fenn Lafalle?” He looked fearfully at the black coffin in the distance.
“Mithril Lid Pod, what happened? You were so quiet in there.”
Mithril made an unpleasant face at Anne’s question. “That’s because the esteemed Mithril Lid Pod despises seeing the faces of fairy dealers. So I hid myself in here.”
“In other words, you were scared,” Challe asserted.
Mithril’s face turned bright red. “I was not s-s-s-scared! Hmph, not of a guy like that!”
Challe understood Mithril’s feelings of disgust and terror very well. Any fairy who had ever been enslaved by a fairy dealer hated and feared them from the bottom of their heart. The horrible memories of the humiliation and abuse they’d endured being treated as merchandise never truly faded.
Challe shifted his gaze back to Lafalle’s coffin. The fact that it was being shoved around like a piece of luggage was shameful. He would sooner have killed Lafalle. But for the moment, he had to endure it.
Anne gently brushed Challe’s clenched fist with her hand.
“I’m sorry. Thank you, Challe. I’m asking you to do a lot of unpleasant things. But Hugh and I both will work hard to make your hopes into a reality…”
Anne herself was probably at her limit. She was dealing with matters far too heavy for a sixteen-year-old girl. And yet here she was, speaking to Challe from the heart like this. He had decided to suppress his own feelings for the sake of her happiness and had been cold to her for so long. But she hadn’t changed one bit.
What am I going to do with her?
He was tired of treating her coldly. Anne’s unwavering persistence had defeated him. Challe gently smoothed down her hair, which was being tossed around by the strong wind.
At that point, Reginald came out of the church. Anne watched him toss his bags into his wagon and frowned.
“Mr. Stowe doesn’t have his sugar candy. He left it behind. I’m going in to get it.”
Anne left her spot in a flash and ran off toward the church.
Mithril watched her go. “Anne is still Anne, after all,” he said, exasperated. “All she thinks about is candy. It’s the only thing she pays any attention to.”
“You’re right about that.” Challe couldn’t suppress a wry smile.
When Anne reemerged, she was holding a sugar candy sculpture of a light-pink fairy. She walked over to the other wagon and approached Reginald, who was still loading his bags.
“Mr. Stowe. Take this with you, please.”
“You’re really persistent, huh? Fine. Set it over there.”
At that, Anne gleefully placed the candy sculpture in a corner of the wagon’s bed. She borrowed a piece of thin twine and carefully secured it so it wouldn’t break from the vibrations.
Just then, a strong wind blew roughly past them, and the sound of rustling leaves filled the churchyard, as if something was sweeping through the thicket of trees. Reginald covered his eyes with the end of his sleeve to ward off the sand swirling up into the air. Anne held down the fluttering hem of her dress. Mithril ducked his head and dived back into Challe’s pocket, and Challe narrowed his eyes and held down his wildly dancing hair.
Eventually, the wind stopped, and everyone’s eyes went wide.
There, standing in the center of the churchyard, looking as if he’d been carried in by the gust of wind, was a young man. On his back were two wings. He was a fairy.
He was just a little bit taller than Anne and looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old. He had whitish-silver hair like the light of the stars and silver eyes. His skin was pure white. He was dressed in an oversize white shirt and black trousers that followed the lines of his body. They didn’t seem to be the right size for him. There was a blue shawl wrapped around his shoulders as well. It looked like he had picked up the first set of clothes he’d come across. And yet the outfit seemed somehow refined. He was incredibly, strikingly beautiful.
The young fairy cast a leisurely, sidelong glance at Challe, and a smile crossed his pale-scarlet lips.
He emitted the unyielding strength of a gemstone. And guessing from his coloring, he had probably been born from a diamond.
My brother stone.
Challe felt it instinctively.