The Fairy Kingdom drift diary. About ten years in.
In that time, which was short if you thought of it one way and long if you thought of it another, I’d memorized the faces and names of every fairy connected to the forge here, and thankfully I’d managed to keep on pretty good terms with most of them.
"Hey, Nakamura!! You here?! Tell us another fun story today!!"
"You idiot!! What are you doing, not even packed yet?! Did you forget this is our first business trip in fifteen years?!!! Nakamura!! Stop blowing these guys’ minds already!!! If you’re going to talk, at least tell them about jewelry!!!"
"Hah-hah-hah!!! What does it matter!! As long as things go well, that’s all that counts! Oh, and lend me some money!"
"Don’t worry, Land! The luggage is all packed and loaded already!! And Capris, did you drink yourself dry again?! I already lent you some last time!"
"Hah-hah-hah!! Sorry about that!! But it came in from Gloucester, didn’t it? How could I ignore it when it was something I’d never seen before!!!"
"And you drank it all yourself without giving any to the guy who lent you the money?!"
With a sharp crack, I smacked Capris on the head. Ow. Tough as stone.
Come to think of it, over these past few years of working together, I’d realized something: this guy... no, most fairies were incredibly curious.
They took interest in things they had never seen or felt before, and they wanted to satisfy that curiosity. Capris in particular was especially approachable because of his personality.
So on the very first day, driven by curiosity, he started talking to me, and after that he kept asking me all sorts of things.
Mostly it was about ornaments and armor from the era before I’d been swept here, but the stories Capris liked best were the foreign ones.
Well, the others were curious too and asked plenty of questions, but... there wasn’t another fairy here as easy to get along with as Capris. He seemed to serve as the forge’s lubricant, even here.
Still, just because he was curious and had never tried it before, he drank the whole thing by himself...!!
"Anyway, hurry up and load the wagon already!!! It’s been ages since our last trip!! The destination is... Gloucester!! Lord Murian himself summoned the blacksmiths!!!"
"Lord Murian? That Gloucester where the trends keep changing like crazy? What a surprise!! I figured we’d only be going as far as Darlington at most!!"
"Yeah, that’s the one!! No doubt some weird new trend has taken over there, but we get to sightsee in Gloucester for free!! It’s the kind of place where you can’t even hammer away properly, you know!!"
"Gloucester!! I’ve been there just once!! It was a good city!!! Hah-hah-hah!!!"
"Oh? Now that’s exciting! I’ve been stuck in Norwich ever since I came here! So, what was Gloucester like?"
"Hah-hah-hah-hah!!! It was a fun city!! Brilliant buildings, gorgeous ornaments inside them, and things I’d never heard of or seen before!! Hah-hah-hah!!! Whoever made it, it was beautiful!!!"
Capris laughed with obvious delight. Maybe because he’d already been there once, it made him even more eager to go back.
But of course I’d get excited if I heard that kind of thing, damn it!!! Norwich here, with all its soot, isn’t bad, but it’s not really my taste to begin with, and this was my first time going to another major city!!
Yes, it felt just like a child who couldn’t sleep the night before a picnic! I’m excited, so give me something worth the anticipation...!!
"By the way, was the lord there definitely Murian? Anything else unusual about the place?"
"Hmm... anything else unusual... Ah, right! In Edinburgh, nobody can fight each other!! Because of Murian’s Fairy Domain, everyone gets reduced to the same level!! I think it was something about erasing the strength you built up through training... Anyway, that means if we go there, we won’t even be able to hammer properly!! Hah-hah!!"
"Oh... a Fairy Domain, huh... I’ve never actually seen a fairy that has one."
That was the ability only some fairies possessed, right? The power to impose rules on the world. I’d only heard rumors, so was I actually going to see one in person?
"Hah-hah-hah!! That’s proof Murian is special! They say a fairy with a Fairy Domain usually gets crushed to death by it!"
"Wow... amazing...!!"
A fairy who had a Fairy Domain and wasn’t crushed by it, huh... What an incredible person. Come to think of it, in the original story... wasn’t she friends with Tamamo Vitch?
...Well, even so, I wasn’t going to be able to see the lord anyway! Besides, the rumor about the Child of Prophecy or whatever hadn’t spread yet, so I should be able to go there without worry!
"Nakamura!! Capris!!! Hurry up and get over here!! You’re the only ones left!!!"
"Ah, got it!! I’m coming!!!!"
"Hah-hah-hah!! Right, let’s go already!!!"
Still lost in thought, I heard Capris calling me and immediately climbed onto the wagon. Then I and the blacksmiths set off for Gloucester.
After a day of crossing a river you weren’t supposed to look down into, passing through dense forests, seeing a giant hole in the distance, the Queen’s castle, a massive restaurant chain, and then traversing the plains...
"Wow... it’s nowhere near Norwich in terms of splendor."
"Hah-hah-hah!! I like Norwich better, but this view is great too!!!"
Our group arrived in Gloucester.
*
This town called Gloucester was on a completely different level from Norwich.
Personal preference aside, it was like a different country altogether; the buildings, the culture, even the fairies’ way of life were all different.
Well, I had expected the cities to be pretty different from Norwich, where the Earth clan mostly stayed... but this was a lot more different than I’d imagined.
"...What’s with the thing where faraway stuff looks bigger and close-up stuff looks smaller, Capris? This goes beyond my expectations...?"
No, that wasn’t all. Even though rain was pouring down like a storm, not a drop got me wet, and then suddenly, flicker, the shape of a building would change. The place was full of bizarre things.
"Hah-hah-hah!! That’s just how it is here!! Trends fly by in an instant, and this land changes just as fast!! Hah-hah-hah!! So, are you disappointed because it’s a lot different from what you expected?"
Disappointed? In a strange, dizzying place like this? Ha. As if.
"Of course not! If anything, I love it here!"
Gorgeous, dizzying, chaotic, strange, and dazzling.
I loved this atmosphere. I hadn’t really felt it in soot-covered Norwich, with its hammering sounds, smell of iron, and endless black dust, but this place made it clear that fantasy was still fantasy...!!
"Hah-hah-hah!! Is that so!! Well, you were always the type to like flashy ornaments and the like!!! I guess this city suits your taste!!!"
"Yeah, exactly! It suits me perfectly!! So I’m going sightseeing, Capris!!!"
"Hah-hah-hah!! You’re really fired up!! But wait a second!! It’s dangerous for a human to go off alone... ...Hah-hah-hah!!! You’ve already gone that far ahead!!!"
Before Capris could even finish speaking, my feet had already kicked off the ground and started running.
Everything here was strange, beautiful, and mysterious.
Massive bell towers and clothing shops, jewelry stores and art pieces that caught the eye. Museums and libraries, cafes and amusement parks.
It felt like I’d wandered into a bizarre country where everything changed from moment to moment. Amazing. It was full of the unknown.
Things I’d never seen before, fairies I’d never seen before, the little tools they carried around, and the objects and artworks here that I was seeing for the first time.
Of course, it couldn’t compare to the ornaments I’d seen back in Norwich, packed with blacksmiths, but that was exactly why it mattered.
Really, what fun would there be in life if everything were the same!!
"Ah, damn it. Once you’ve seen a place like this, there’s no helping it...!!"
Gloucester was like this. A city of ever-changing trends. A city packed with all kinds of objects, a city that drew people in.
Norwich was iron and fire. A city of fairies who worked iron with craftsmanship, and of the things that lived by employing those fairies. In other words, a city of laborers and bourgeoisie, and of armor and ornaments.
Then what about Oxford? What did the food at the restaurant run by that savage Fang clan chief taste like? How did they live while controlling that instinct of theirs?
Salisbury. What was it like in a city where fairies and humans enjoyed almost equal freedom? What did they see, and what did they think about?
And the north. What about that land ruled by the King clan? Wasn’t chocolate developed there? A place with fairies that were practically giant-kin, where every clan could equally become part of the King clan. Didn’t they also have a fair bit of human hatred there? Heh, that’s a little disappointing.
Ah, damn it. Now I’m looking forward to it. There are too many places coming to mind.
Camelot, ruled by Queen Morgan and inhabited by her close aides, the high-ranking fairies. Manchester, ruled by fairy knights and governed by the law of the jungle. Londinium, where exiled humans and those who dreamed of rebellion gathered. And the area near the northern lake where the Mirror clan lived, the clan that could see the future.
Gloucester and Norwich. Even these two alone were completely different.
So once I knew, there was nothing I could do. Once I’d heard, there was nothing I could do. The moment I found myself looking forward to it, I could no longer give it up.
"It was definitely twenty years from now, right...?"
Twenty years. Twice the time I’d already spent here.
If I could just endure that long, the human lifespan in this Fairy Kingdom would be considered over, and I’d be free.
It had been a vague thought. After my slave labor under the gnomes ended, I’d barely thought about what I’d do next because of all the hard work, and I’d just planned to drift along and stay in familiar Norwich even if thirty years passed.
And then I’d learned something like this.
A fantasy completely unlike modern life, a place where even changing cities meant the lord could alter the entire atmosphere.
I was curious. I was excited. What did those places look like, and what did the people there think as they lived?
Damn it, I got excited too early. How am I supposed to endure the next twenty years...!!
"Huff... huff... Hey, Nakamura! What are you so happy about that you’re running this fast?! Did you like this place that much?! Hah-hah-hah!!!!"
Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me, and Capris was there, panting as he grabbed my shoulder. So he really did come all the way here after warning me that it was dangerous for a human to go alone. Heh, lucky me.
"Hey, Capris."
"Hm? Why the sudden serious tone?"
"If I ever become free, I’m leaving Norwich. I mean, I’m going to travel around to other cities."
"Huh...?"
"I’ve gotten curious. Just like you keep asking me about things, I want to see other cities too, not just Norwich or Gloucester."
"What’s the restaurant run by Lord Woodworth like? What’s the north like, and how do people live there? How grand and beautiful is Camelot’s royal castle when you see it in person...? I’ve started wondering about all of that, a lot."
As if possessed by something, words spilled out of Nakamura’s mouth.
Edinburgh, Camelot, Orkney, Manchester—cities he had only ever heard about in rumors.
He was saying he would go there.
Twenty years. When the years of humans being used by fairies came to an end and he became free, he said he would leave Norwich, leave the forge.
Hah-hah-hah!! That’s a fine thing! Nothing is more desirable for a craftsman than creating something by his own thought! Not something ordered by another, not something copied from elsewhere, but thinking up what must be made with nothing but your own mind and moving forward on that path—that is the proper attitude!!
Ah, but... I don’t want that guy who satisfies my curiosity to go off somewhere.
Hmm... maybe if I cut off those two legs, he wouldn’t be able to run awa...
"Hmm?!"
"? What is it, Capris? Did something get stuck in your throat?"
"N-no!! I’m perfectly fine, hah-hah-hah!!!"
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