The following morning, a wagon left, taking eleven fairies back to the fairy market. Everyone at Hollyleaf Castle saw it off.
Anne’s chest ached as she watched the vehicle depart in the bright summer sunlight.
I’m sorry. Thank you. I’m sorry…
Words of apology and gratitude filled her mind. However, Anne knew she couldn’t afford to let her feelings crush her. She had to do everything she could to repay the fairies for their determination.
Thank you. Because of you all, we can keep working.
As she stared after the distant wagon, Anne straightened up and put on a firm expression.
She had to teach Allele and the others—the four remaining fairies—the techniques of candy crafting. And the next day, another group of fifteen fairies would arrive from the market.
“Well, we’d better begin,” Keith said, startling Anne out of her trance. She was still gazing at the same spot, despite the wagon having disappeared. The only ones left in the front garden were Anne, Keith, the four chosen fairies, and Noah.
Anne looked around restlessly. “Oh, where are Challe and Mithril Lid Pod? And Kat and Benjamin?”
“Challe and Mithril Lid Pod are still inside the castle,” said Keith with a wry smile. “Mr. Hingley said he was going to the fairy market to make arrangements for the fairies coming tomorrow.”
Allele shrugged in disbelief. “Hey now, are you sure you all know what you’re doing? We’re supposed to be learning from you.”
“I have my shortcomings,” Anne answered. “But I’m confident when it comes to silver sugar. Well…I think so anyway.”
Allele and the other fairies laughed.
“It’s true!” Noah said earnestly. “Anne is an amazing Silver Sugar Master, you know.”
“Amazing, huh? Right. I place my future in your hands, Silver Sugar Master.” His words were casual, but his crimson eyes were serious.
“Yeah. Let’s go to the workshop.”
Anne and Keith led the way.
The aroma of Saint Ellis Nut was strong. Every morning, Noah cleaned the workspace and carefully scattered the powdered seed all around for them. Cleaning and caring for the tools were two of the apprentices’ tasks.
“You four—Allele, Riesis, Schulei, and Cereh—we’re going to have you start working as apprentices from today forward, just like Noah has been doing for some time now. We’ll ask you to clean the workshop in the morning and take care of the tools at the end of the day.”
Anne walked to the back of the room, touching each of the stoves as she went.
“There’s something I need you all to know,” she said. “About a month and a half from now, at the end of the summer, the principal crafters from the Mercury Workshop and the Radcliffe Workshop—two of the factions making sugar candy—will come here to watch you work.”
“What does that mean?”
Allele and the others were unfamiliar with the world of crafters and didn’t understand Anne’s serious tone.
“One of the three main factions, the Paige Workshop, has already started accepting fairies as apprentices. But the other two are still human-only. That’s because the candy crafters there are opposed to letting fairies join them. The faction leaders think you might change their minds by showing the crafters what you can do. So they’re coming here to watch.”
“No matter which faction they belong to, a crafter is a crafter,” Keith said quietly. “The only way to reach them is through the art of candy making.”
Noah spoke up timidly. “Um, does that mean if the crafters who come at the end of the summer aren’t convinced, then fairies won’t be able to join their factions?”
“That’s right.”
Allele and the others finally seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. They groaned quietly and looked at one another.
“You’ll probably be fine, Noah,” said Allele. “But what about the rest of us?”
There was a note of apprehension in his crimson eyes, which were typically so self-assured. But Anne nodded and smiled confidently.
“I know you can do it. Kat, Keith, and I chose you. As for the other fairies who come here, time will be an issue, and I don’t know how well they’ll be able to learn the necessary skills. But the four of you have over a month and a half left.” Anne spoke firmly to the concerned fairies. “Believe in us. We decided that you could do it, and as crafters, we aren’t too shabby ourselves. Trust our judgment.”
When she said that, Allele’s deep-indigo wing darkened and stretched tight as a drum.
“All right, I will!”
His cheerful shout was reassuring. The rest of the fairies nodded in agreement. Anne sensed the improvement in their morale, and her heart skipped a beat.
“Great. Please do,” she said.
Anne placed her hand on a barrel of silver sugar, took off the lid, and touched the contents. She felt increasingly assured as she watched the sugar pour smoothly through the gaps between her fingers.
It’s okay. They can all do it.
That very day, Noah and the other four fairies started the basic work of apprentices—cleaning and caring for their tools—and began drills in kneading silver sugar.
Once every seven days, Anne and the others would repeat the process of receiving fairies from the fairy market, evaluating their talents, and selecting candidates for training. During that time, they would spend their evenings instructing the fairies who had been chosen.
There was much to be done every day, from early morning until the middle of the night. The only rest they got was on the days when some of the fairies were sent back to the fairy market.
When that happened, those who had been chosen would also take a break from working. Noah, Allele, and the others had insisted they wanted to keep training without any breaks. However, Kat had firmly refused, saying, “You need your rest to be able to work hard.”
Each group of fairies from the market always included a few with the aptitude to become silver sugar fairies. Out of fifteen, without fail, three or four would have the potential. And out of that smaller group, one or two would display a remarkably good intuition for silver sugar.
Allele was one of the fairies who stood out for his perceptiveness.
It didn’t even take him a month to get to the point where he could knead his silver sugar until it had a magnificent luster. Allele’s style of kneading resembled that of Orlando, the head crafter at the Paige Workshop. He didn’t put much strength into it, and yet by drawing his hands back and forth and carefully timing the addition of cold water, he could knead the dough in no time at all. With his incredible sensitivity, he managed to pull off a technique that humans only mastered with years of training.
And the fairies’ ability to make silver sugar threads using spindles was even more shocking. Once Anne and Keith showed them how to do it and told them the tricks, the fairies learned how to spin the thread smoothly in just three days. After only twenty days, they’d mastered the technique.
The ease with which they learned made it obvious that fairies had been the ones to discover how to refine silver sugar from sugar apples.
Silver sugar and sugar candy had both originally belonged to the fairies. Anne felt like she was seeing proof of that right before her eyes. She was bursting with happiness at the sight of them kneading silver sugar and spinning it into threads.
However, even if their foundations were solid, they still needed time to learn how to form sugar candy. That was the one thing that seemed impossible in the short time they had left.
The temperature rose, and the season least suited for candy making arrived.
Compared with other countries on the continent, summer was comfortable in the Kingdom of Highland. That said, you could still work up a sweat just standing in the afternoon sun this time of year.
The fairies’ training was going well, but Mithril Lid Pod’s situation weighed on Anne’s mind. He had been helping out with all sorts of tasks around the workshop, but sometimes, he would suddenly disappear. When Anne asked him what he was doing, he wouldn’t answer. At night, he seemed to pass out in Anne’s arms. He used to thrash as he fell asleep, but now he rarely tossed and turned.
Anne asked him if he was worried about something or if he was feeling unwell, but he didn’t answer. And that made her anxious.
One day, Anne and Keith were sitting in the workshop in the east wing, instructing the chosen fairies in kneading techniques and the use of the spindles, as always. As they worked, Anne lost sight of Mithril, who had been in the room with them just a moment ago.
He’s gone again.
Overwhelmed with concern, Anne couldn’t stand it any longer.
I’m going to look for him. Then I’m going to hound him for an answer. Today’s the day.
However, right as she had made up her mind…
“Oh, you two sure are working hard!”
…a carefree voice came from the doorway leading to the entry hall. Resting his elbow on the doorframe, Hugh casually raised his hand. Perhaps because of the heat, he had his brown jacket slung over his shoulder, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to his elbows. It was the perfect informal look to suit his wild appearance, but it wasn’t at all befitting of a Silver Sugar Viscount.
The Viscount hadn’t informed them he would be dropping by, so both Anne and Keith were startled. They ran over to the doorway.
“Viscount, what brings you here so suddenly?” asked Keith.
Anne added, “We didn’t hear you were coming.”
“I didn’t tell anyone, so that makes sense. Where’s Kat? Gone out, has he?”
“No,” Keith answered. “Mr. Hingley is working on something in the west wing.”
Kat was in the auxiliary workshop, working with the fairies newly arrived from the fairy market and assessing their talents.
“That’s perfect. Go get Kat, then come up to the lesser hall.”
Hugh spun around and headed for the entrance, then he trotted up the stairs. As always, Salim followed after him.
Anne and Keith told the fairies to take a break. In small groups, they headed out into the garden or up to their rooms, scattering. After watching them go, the two crafters went to get Kat.