FAIRY CANON
1
Lefiya Viridis was a kind, compassionate girl.
Never unbearable or prone to pride or lacking in concern for anything besides other elves, which could make her fellow elves seem stubborn and hardheaded.
She was pure and innocent in her dealings with every race, every person. It would probably be fair to say she was a bundle of curiosity. Put simply, she was the opposite of the common stereotype. She was an elf who was easy to get along with.
That was all due to the village where she was born and raised.
Lefiya’s home, Wishe Forest, was an unusual place.
Even among the many elven villages in the world, it was widely known to the outside world.
Located in the great river of trees that spread across the center of the continent, Wishe Forest was a transit hub for merchants and travelers crossing the continent. Many people of other races visited the village and passed through it on their travels.
That was an extraordinarily unusual situation compared to most elven forests.
The isolated and isolationist elf villages were in the process of adjusting to the changes that came with the dawn of the era of gods. But none were so open as that. Most of the elves living in the forests protected their sacred trees, followed the teachings of their people, and drew a distinct line between themselves and the outside world. It was common for elves who left their homes to be stunned to discover the diversity of the world.
There was none of that for the people of Wishe Forest.
They proactively interacted with people of other races, dreamed of the world outside their forest, and eventually left on journeys of their own. Sociable, compatible with other races, and possessing magic powers that stood out even among fellow elves.
That was the trademark of a Wishe Forest elf.
It all traced back to the inspiration for the village’s name.
Ahh, ’tis so silly, so trite!
What meaningless fairy customs!
My fellow elves, leave the woods and gaze upon the world.
Build bonds and expand the circle of fairies.
Elves, know ye true pride!
It was one of the works of Wishe, who was known as one of the three great bards whose names survived from the distant past.
And it was, to this day, one of the core teachings of the village.
By all accounts, Wishe had been an uninhibited, rootless traveler who would never stay still in any place long enough to build a village.
But elves who looked up to that bard recovered the forest where Wishe was born from the monsters that had taken it over and established a village there, taking the bard’s name for the village. That was the origin of the place that was called Wishe Forest to this day.
Following the teachings of an elf who was freer than any, they possessed a greater interest in the outside world than any other elves.
And the young Lefiya was no exception.
She often listened excitedly to travelers at the village tavern, begging them for stories, and became enchanted by the souvenirs that villagers brought back with them from the outside world.
“A grand waterfall hiding a sea…a sea of sand called the Kaios Desert…and the Dungeon…what sort of places are they?”
Sometimes she would crouch down low on the mossy ground and crawl through a tunnel of tilted trees to enter a secret garden.
This was a field of countless little white flowers that only Lefiya knew about. This was her special place.
“I…want to see the outside world.”
She would sink into imagination, sitting on a fallen log, a picture book of the outside world in her lap, while looking at the sacred tree of Wishe Forest, famed for its crown of light.
Kind, a little bit cowardly, and a little bit indecisive, Lefiya found it difficult to set out alone with such vague feelings. She was scared, uneasy, and had nothing to rely on. But she intended to leave the village immediately if the opportunity ever arose.
Some guidance from a spirit would be more than enough. It was a bit embarrassing, but she would not have minded a prince on a white horse coming to take her away. Indulging in childish, fairy-tale-esque fits of imagination, Lefiya hoped for an opportunity to come knocking.
She was an elf who could race ahead if she had a reason. Something. Anything.
She spent every day hoping while staring up at the sacred tree. However, against all expectations, that opportunity came sooner than she had expected.
“Lefiya, did you hear?! The School District showed up in the port town to the south!”
“They did?!”
“Yeah! The school that travels all around the world!”
It was the day she turned eight.
According to an excited local merchant, the School District had stopped in a harbor that lay south of the river of trees. Any child ages six to ten, no matter who or their race, was allowed to enroll. There was no tuition required, either.
The only requirement was the determination to study.
Hearing that, Lefiya’s long, pointed ears pricked up.
“Mother, Father! I’m going to the School District!”
““A-all right.””
Taken aback by the look on the girl’s face when she came home and slammed her hands on the dinner table, her parents agreed without argument.
Lefiya was almost impossible to stop once she had made up her mind. More than anything, Lefiya wanted to learn about the outside world and discover what she wanted to be. She wanted to be more than just a Wishe Forest elf. She wanted to become Lefiya Viridis. She was sure that the School District, which could allow her to travel the world and experience all sorts of new things, was the perfect fit for her.
Determined not to miss her long-awaited opportunity, she diligently set about packing her bags.
No one stopped her. Per Wishe’s teachings, they encouraged their children setting out into the world.
Her parents were lonely, but they sent her off with smiles on their faces.
Her amber-haired mother and dark-blue-eyed father held a small party for her the night before she left. Lefiya’s eyes filled with tears while growing a little hesitant and worrying about how it would be pathetic if she failed the examination and came back right away.
“Come home whenever you need. Be it tomorrow or ten years from now.”
“Your mother’s right. It can be one day’s worth of stories or ten thousand days’ worth. We would love to hear about what you saw and learned traveling the world, just like Wishe did.”
Her parents noticed her worries and gently patted her head while telling her just what she needed to hear.
After Lefiya shed some tears, a smile came to her lips.
After burying her head in her parents’ sides, she loudly declared that she would come back.
On the day she set out, there was a crown of light atop the great tree.
It seemed like the sacred tree was sending her off like all the villagers who had come out to see her.
There were glimmering shards of light.
It was magical energy scattering like the petals of a Far Eastern sakura tree—fragments of a bond.
What a beautiful circle of light.
No matter what happened, no matter what she saw, she would never forget the sight of that fairy ring that had taken root in her heart.
Certain of that, Lefiya set out on her journey.
After she was brought to the harbor town by the local elf merchant, Lefiya’s first reaction, like everyone else’s, was awe at the size of the enormous ship floating out in the harbor. Once she got over her initial awe, she adjusted her backpack, steeled herself, and took her next step, walking alongside countless other children toward where applicants were being registered.
The School District’s curriculum differed from places of learning established anywhere else in the world.
Ordinarily, students at various academies and schools would graduate at set times as new students were admitted, taking their place. But there wasn’t a clear progression at the School District.
At most, the triennial return to Orario for an overhaul was the closest thing they had—and it was the busiest time for admissions when people gathered in Orario and Meren hoping to enroll—but even that wasn’t a firm graduation date.
Students who made up their minds could choose at any point to disembark from the ship and leave as a graduate.
Destinations were as varied as the students, including the global powerhouse known simply as the Empire; the nation of magic, Altena; the city of pleasures, Santorio Vega; the land of song and dance, Maelstra; the sea nation, Dizara; the Kaios Desert…and countless other countries and regions. Students who found their dreams or met someone who changed their life could embark on a new journey in any and every land.
“It’s an incredible school custom. It’s so free, some can’t help but be see it as irresponsible.”
“That’s the School District for you. The epitome of laissez-faire.”
Many described it like that, but the goal was not wealth, prestige, or power.
The School District’s calling was showing all the many possibilities to children who did not yet know what path they wanted to take in life and help them set out on their own. It was a place that gave people goals.
Of course, many students who graduated in a rush ended up failing. The school tried to accommodate its students’ desires as best as possible, but there were occasional differences between dreams and reality. However, even for those students who failed, their experience at the School District was by no means wasted. Its ideal was to foster a spirit of inquiry.
That inquiry included self-examination. Learning how to study and live, the students usually became far more tenacious than when they enrolled, learning how to handle most things themselves even when faced with failures.
Students could graduate at any time as long as the deities and instructors agreed there wouldn’t be any problems.
The fastest graduate left after only three months.
Getting back to the subject at hand.
With graduates setting off in every land it visited, the School District usually had open seats, as odd as that may have seemed. Children from all over would travel to the lands and towns it visited, hoping to claim one of those empty seats.
When Lefiya took the admission exam, six spots were available for the twelve hundred applicants—1-in-200 odds.
The sheer number of candidates shocked Lefiya, but the daunting odds did not make her lose her nerve. In the interview that was the admission exam, she expressed her determination frankly.
“I want to know about the outside world. What’s out there, what’s happening, and what I can become. That’s what I want to know.”
The examination ended easily, almost anticlimactically.
And the results were delivered that night.
The School District welcomed Lefiya’s aspirations toward the wider world.
“We approve of your admission, Lefiya Viridis.”
Lefiya would never forget the joy she felt when she was called into the room, and Balder said that with a smile.
At the time, Lefiya was by no means smart or strong. But her desire to know the world and to find herself had been acknowledged.
To an institution of learning that chased after dreams, that desire, that curiosity, and that impatience for self-discovery were the most valued traits of all.
Beneath the gaze of deities who could not be deceived, Lefiya had demonstrated her passion for learning and the strength of her desire. She had won one of a mere handful of open seats for herself.
When she reported the results to the young merchant from her home, he leaped into the air in excitement, and after saying farewell, Lefiya left aboard the floating school.
A white jacket and skirt. A lovely girl’s uniform.
A badge marking her class.
She received these emblems of the school and a falna. With that, she became a student.
“So you’re my new roommate. I’m Alisa. What’s your name?”
“L-Lefiya. Lefiya Viridis!”
She met Alisa in one of the multipurpose rooms in the seventeenth sector of the residential layer.
Lefiya entered a two-person dorm room, taking the place of a student who had graduated. She was immediately welcomed with a handshake.
As a member of Balder Class, Lefiya was quickly blessed with good friends, starting with Alisa.
“So you’re the new student! I’m Bardain! A bull person, as you can see! I like big boobs and love even bigger boobs! So a flat-chested little girl like you doesn’t meet my standards! Sorry! But never fear! In terms of potential, you’re not any worse off than Alisa and the others! I know that a desolate plain today can become fertile ground in the future! Join me in chest exercises!!!”
“Curl up and die already, Bardain.” “Seriously.” “Stay away, Bardain.” “How would you make it up to Lefiya if your perverted thoughts got her pregnant? Begone.”
I—I can certainly tell all the girls dislike him…
Despite being the same age as Alisa, Bardain was already big and tall enough to tower over them.
Always enduring withering glares from the female students, he was, as expected, in the Combat Studies Department and, indeed, a problem child who always broke the school rules. And he had an abnormal passion for large breasts.
Generous and always smiling, Bardain was like everyone’s older brother and hurting Lefiya or the others was the last thing he’d ever want to do.
“Lefiya, you’re from Wishe Forest, right? Tell me about that odd place. I’m curious.”
“O-of course! But tell me about your home, too, Nassen!”
“I don’t wanna. It’s enough for me to learn. Other people learning doesn’t benefit me.”
“Ehh…”
That was the curious prum, Nassen, in a nutshell.
Quiet, small, and bespectacled, he was always carrying a dictionary that seemed far too big for him. He knew far more than Lefiya or Alisa and might have had the makings of a genius, but he was awful at interacting with people. With the various incidents he caused for the sake of satisfying his curiosity, he could hardly be called a model student.
Bardain often dragged him and Lefiya into fights and messes.
“I never wanted to become a fighter!”
“Don’t cry, Lefiya! If you don’t put that Wishe Forest magic power to use, it’ll build up and explode in your boobs! You have to let out your magic for the sake of better boobs!”
“That has nothing to do with anything!”
“Quit mouthing off about breasts while dragging a little girl around, Bardain. And breasts don’t get bigger just from channeling mana. If that theory were true, elves and the other races with high magic affinity would have an enormous number of women with big breasts. And if by ‘boobs,’ you mean a woman’s chest region rather than the breast specifically, then you would have to consider men’s boobs as well, thus requiring further evaluation of the relationship between mana and boobs—”
“Quit talking about boobs this and boobs that while we’re surrounded by monsters!!!”
Lefiya and Nassen, picked for their magic and knowledge, were dragged into this predicament by Bardain. Alisa often raced after them and also got drawn into many battles against monsters and people. It was an everyday sort of thing from the moment Lefiya enrolled, and somewhere along the way, the four of them were considered inseparable and were placed in the same squad.
Lefiya cried softly as she was forced to fire off magic left and right—this was the origin of her reputation for having ludicrous amounts of magic power.
“This is why I said recycling scarletite to make orichalcum would be fastest! What’s wrong with my formula?!”
“Scarletite is a miraculous metal created in the Far East. That alone is enough to make it equal to orichalcum in value and rarity. Your formula isn’t sublimation. It’s just equal exchange. If you don’t like it, then try making it from scratch, stupid four-eyes class president.”
“Nassennnnnnnnnn!!!”
“P-please don’t fight, you two!”
“Mm. Scarletite sounds more austere than orichalcum, so I like it more!”
“Be quiet, Bardain!”
Her school friends were like giant balls of curiosity molded into the form of students, and even for students of the School District, they stuck their noses into every little thing they came across.
They started debates about even the most trivial things, escalating into shouting matches at times. As young Lefiya grew, she was deeply influenced by them.
“Lefiya…I’m…in love.”
“What?!”
And beyond just studies and knowledge, there was love.
“Professor Leon scolded me, but he also smiled and gave me a serious advice! And when another instructor got mad at me for something I didn’t do, he defended me, saying that I wasn’t the sort of student who would do that and that I’m harder on myself than anyone else and that I’m always sincere with others! He’s a teacher, but he’s also my knight!”
“Eh? Alisa…?”
“And afterward, he even said, ‘Even as an instructor, I respect her’!!! That’s practically a confession, right?! Like a vow to walk down the aisle with me?!”
“No, that’s a little—”
“Aaaaaaah, I wuv you, Professor Leon!”
“W-whoa…”
Lefiya had no idea how to react when she saw hearts in Alisa’s eyes turn into hearts behind her glasses. An older female student flashed an almost godlike smile as she said, ‘Crushing on Professor Leon is a path everyone walks,’ and with that, Alisa broke free from Lefiya’s restraints and joined the LFC.
Puberty was a storm of youth, and the School District was a garden of sweet rendezvouses. Watching it unfold from a distance, Lefiya used her friend as an example of what not to do and did not experience love herself.
Studies, combat, and youth.
They enjoyed many encounters. And Lefiya was no exception.
The instructors and deities constantly introduced Lefiya to the unknown and things she never knew.
Every time, her eyes would sparkle. Gaining knowledge and learning something new was just so much fun. For Lefiya, learning was not a means to an end. She wanted to learn for learning’s sake.
And one day, she was asked the question.
“What do you want to become, Lefiya?”
“Eh…?”
“I’m going to be Professor Leon’s right hand as an instructor here! Bardain wants to be an imperial knight. Nassen wants to be a researcher in Altena…Everyone’s finding their dreams. What’s yours?”
“I—I…”
In the end, Lefiya did not answer the question.
Experiencing the world and meeting so many people had moved her heart countless times, but she had never discovered what she wanted to be.
While continuing to work on her studies, Lefiya turned inward, trying desperately to imagine what she wanted to be, not wanting to be left behind by her friends.
“There is no need to hurry…though that may not sound convincing now. In which case, go ahead and try fretting for once. This is the School District, the place to discover your path and the determination to pursue it. There is no better place to fumble in the dark for an answer.”
Balder had told her that with a smile and added, “At the same time, do not forget to rely on others.”
And so three years had passed since she enrolled, and around the time she reached Level 2 after Bardain and the others dragged her into all sorts of adventures, she arrived at the center of the world.
“I can see it, Lefiya! That’s it!”
“Waaaah…!”
Stepping out onto the deck beneath a cloudless blue sky, Alisa and Lefiya raised their voices when they looked across the crashing waves and saw land coming into view.
Like the other students around them, they leaned out over the railing, entranced by a single scene.
“So that’s Orario…!”
The center of the world.
Home to Babel, the tower of the gods.
And the Dungeon.
At the time, Lefiya knew nothing of the Labyrinth City that she had dreamed of, and her innocent heart raced with excitement.
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