Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 5 - Chapter 3.2

“Who are you?” Anne asked.

“As if I would ever tell my name to thieves!”

“Th-thieves? Wait, do you mean us?”

“That’s right, you thieves! Just you wait and see—I’ll get you!”

No sooner had he finished shouting than the fairy tried to break into a run. But he suddenly tripped on nothing and tumbled over.

“Are you all right?!”

Anne rushed over and helped him sit up. His body was limp, with absolutely no strength in it.

“A-am I…to die at the hands of thieves…?” he muttered under his breath. “I’m sorry, Master… They were too much for me.”

“Um…so first things first, we aren’t going to kill you…”

The fairy had closed his eyes and slumped over in Anne’s arms. He wasn’t dead, but he seemed to have passed out.

Challe gazed off into the distance, looking annoyed. Bewildered, Anne glanced over her shoulder at him.

“This boy… Seriously, who is he?”

“This is the true form of your evil spirit. As for who he is, I’m sure it will be quickest to ask the boy himself.”

As they were having this exchange, they heard a flurry of footsteps and voices from afar. Apparently, the others had heard the disturbance and had come running. Before long, the candy crafters and Elliott from the first floor, as well as the members of the fairy vigilante corps, all gathered in Anne’s room.

“There were footprints in the corridor. If it had been some sort of ghost, it surely wouldn’t have left behind footprints. That’s why I was certain it was something living.” Challe crossed his arms and looked down at the unconscious fairy.

Elliott clapped his hands together. “Ah, so that’s it! When you said something was here, that’s what you meant.”

Challe nodded. “Yesterday afternoon, someone appeared in the corridor, and their footprints stopped right in front of the wall that connects to the western tower. It was as if they had passed right through it. And last night, someone went around entering locked rooms and opening doors. They couldn’t have gotten in normally, which meant we had to be dealing with a creature with the power to pass through solid objects—probably a fairy. Since he played pranks on the first floor’s occupants last night, I reasoned that he would come to the second floor this evening, and I waited in ambush.”

Fairies each had their own special powers. Cathy, the fairy owned by Jonas, had the power to make herself invisible. Challe could conjure a sword out of light. Mithril could create droplets of water. Fairies’ powers were extremely varied and wide-ranging, so it wasn’t strange for there to be a fairy with the power to pass through walls and doors.

“And this boy…rushed right into your trap…” Anne sat on the edge of the bed and stared down at the fairy.

He was lying on Anne’s bed. They hadn’t been sure what to do with him after he passed out and had laid him there for the time being.

Ultimately, just as Elliott and Challe had said from the start, there were no ghosts—just this fairy, who lived in Hollyleaf Castle and had been causing the mysterious phenomena.

In that case, the man’s voice and the sound of breathing that Anne had heard, the flame of her candle going out, and the strange sights she had seen—all those happenings must have been figments created by Anne’s anxious mind, making up things that weren’t there because she was so frightened.

Am I really that much of a scaredy-cat? I’m a little disappointed in myself.

The other four candy crafters withdrew to their rooms, thinking about all the work they had to do the next day. They seemed glad to know the true form of the evil spirit and reassured enough to get some sleep.

Danna, Hal, and Gladys, the other members of the fairy vigilante corps, had also murmured their approval before returning to their quarters.

Only Mithril Lid Pod, their captain, remained. Or rather, he seemed unable to move. He had his arms clasped around his knees in the corner of the room, with his back to the others. There was a dark shadow hanging over him. The fairy vigilante corps had dissolved in no time, and it hadn’t been Mithril but Challe who had caught the evil spirit. His self-esteem seemed to have suffered a serious blow.

The captured fairy had been carrying only one thing: a little embroidered bag that had been tucked very carefully into the belt around his waist. It was now placed on the side table.

“Who could he be, this boy?” Anne tilted her head to the side thoughtfully, and the fairy lying in her bed groaned.

He opened his eyes slowly, and when he saw the faces of Anne, Elliott, and Challe peering down at him, he drew back in alarm. “Th-thieves!”

“Don’t be afraid. Listen, what’s your name?” Anne tried to calm him down, but the fairy glared at her sharply.

“No name that I would give to thieves!” he shouted.

“Now listen,” Elliott said, “it’s not nice to suddenly call people thieves, is it? We paid money to rent this place. We should be asking you what you’re doing, going around the place as you please.”

At Elliott’s words, the fairy thrust the blankets aside angrily and sat up. “You can’t just decide to borrow and lend this place at will! This is the castle of Master Herbert—the younger brother of Master Stewart, the head of the Chamber family! This is Hollyleaf Castle!”

“But it’s not your castle, is it?”

“Of course it’s not my personal castle. But I am Master Herbert’s page, Noah! I was instructed directly by Master Herbert to protect this place!”

“So your name is Noah, is it?”

“That’s right!”

The fairy was apparently so angry that he didn’t even notice he had inadvertently given his name. His purple eyes seethed with rage.

“Hey! It’s disrespectful to Anne for you to call us thieves.” Mithril jumped up on Anne’s lap. Apparently, Noah’s awakening had attracted Mithril’s attention and pulled him out of his slump. He thrust his index finger at Noah with his usual pompous attitude. “Besides, what are you even talking about?! The Chamber family was stamped out fifteen years ago. That Herbert guy is totally dead, along with the rest of them.”

“Don’t you dare say he’s dead!” Noah’s right hand whizzed through the air and landed a direct hit on Mithril’s side.

“Aaah!!”

“Mithril Lid Pod!” Anne screamed his name.

Challe caught Mithril before he could go flying off to the side of the room, but the little fairy’s vision was still spinning from the impact.

“Master Herbert is coming back!” Noah yelled. “No matter how many years it takes, he’s definitely coming back! So I have a duty to stay here and protect the castle until he does!”

Anne was baffled. It sounded like Noah was a page for a man named Herbert Chamber, who had been the master of Hollyleaf Castle fifteen years earlier. But Noah didn’t seem aware that his master had died. He also didn’t seem to know that after the castle was seized by the Millsland royal family, it had been donated to the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell. Or that after that, the Paige Workshop had rented it.

With how fired up he was, Anne wasn’t sure he would believe her even if she explained the situation.

“A little while after the castle’s master left, didn’t the soldiers of the Millsland royal family come raid this place, Noah?” Challe asked, gently placing the dizzy Mithril Lid Pod on Anne’s lap.

“What? Do you work for these thieves?”

Challe didn’t get angry at Noah’s sullen tone. With a blank expression, he produced a small pouch from his breast pocket. It was the pouch that contained his own wing. He pulled the wing from it, then without hesitation, spread it out in front of Noah and showed it to him.

Noah widened his eyes. “Is that…your own wing?”

“Take a good look at that groggy fellow over there. He carries his own wing as well. The young lady before you gave both of us our wings back.”

Noah shifted his focus to Anne’s lap and stared at the wing wrapped around Mithril’s neck. Then he looked up at Anne. His aggressive posture vanished, and his eyes wavered, as if he was recalling a fond memory.

Challe returned his wing to its pouch and stashed it back in his breast pocket.

“Neither of us is owned by anyone. We’re with these people of our own free will. He’s Mithril Lid Pod. I’m Challe Fenn Challe. Now, I’ll ask you again, Noah. Did the soldiers of the Millsland royal family come to this castle?”

“…They came.” Noah made a face like he was in great pain. “A whole bunch of knights in filthy armor came in without asking and stomped around. And they wrecked the castle. They stripped down the Chamber family crests and slashed all the portraits. They burned any furniture with the crest carved into it out in the garden.”

“And when that happened, what did you think the outcome of the war between the Chamber family and the Millsland royal family had been?”

Noah looked at the ground. “That the Chamber family had…lost…”

“That’s right. The Chamber family lost. And after this castle was seized by the Millsland royal family, it was donated to the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell. These humans are renting this castle from that same church. They are not thieves.”

As Challe explained everything in a detached tone of voice, Noah bit his lip several times and looked like he was going to make objections. But ultimately, he kept silent.

Meanwhile, on Anne’s lap, Mithril slowly came around. Holding his head, he blinked his eyes dramatically, then suddenly sat up and shouted at Noah.

“You! How could you do such a thing?! I thought I was gonna die!”

“Yes, the Chamber family may have lost. Hollyleaf Castle may have been taken by the Millsland royal family and rented out to you. But this is Master Herbert’s castle. And I have to protect this place until Master Herbert returns.” Noah grasped the covers tightly, wringing them in his hands as he spoke.

Mithril stood up, apparently having lost his patience.

“I told you. That Herbert guy isn’t coming back! He’s absolutely, positively dead!”

“Don’t you dare say he’s dead!” Noah grabbed a pillow and swung it around.

“Gaaah!!”

The direct blow from the pillow sent Mithril flying off Anne’s lap again. He rolled three times across the floor and passed out face up.

“Mithril Lid Pod!” Anne put both hands on her cheeks and shouted his name again.

Challe looked annoyed, like he couldn’t believe this had happened twice, and picked Mithril up once more.

“I can’t trust anyone who goes on and on about Master Herbert being dead without any proof! That’s it—I’m driving you all out!” Noah threw back the covers and leaped out of the bed. But he immediately tripped over his own feet and fell flat on the floor.

“Hey! Are you all right?!” Anne ran to Noah’s side and peered down into his face. “What’s wrong, Noah?”

Noah had closed his eyes and gone limp.

“Considering how excitable he is, this evil spirit doesn’t seem to have much stamina.” Elliott looked exasperated.

Challe laid Mithril on the edge of the bed and walked over. He crouched beside Anne and close to Noah’s face and gently touched one of the boy’s soft-looking cheeks.

“He’s weak,” said Challe. “I bet he’s hardly eaten anything.”

Anne turned to Challe. “Huh?”

“This is a castle, so I’m sure they had stores of food somewhere. Fairies don’t need to eat as much as humans, and he was alone, so it should have lasted him quite a while. But fifteen years is too long. His provisions must have run out. Judging by how weak he is, he probably hasn’t eaten properly in several weeks or more. He’s lost of a lot of strength. If this keeps up, he won’t last.”

“By ‘won’t last,’ you mean he’ll die?! Then we’ve got to feed him something fast!” Anne jumped to her feet.

Elliott laid Noah back on the bed as Anne quickly left the room and headed for the kitchen at the back of the castle. There, she made a sweet soup with milk, a little bit of sugar, and some dried fruit.

When she returned to her room with the soup, Mithril was no longer there. He seemed to have regained consciousness and gone back to his own quarters. After getting smacked across the room twice, it was understandable that he’d grown sick of being there.

Elliott and Challe were staring down at the bed where Noah was lying face up. His eyes were open.

“Hey, Noah,” Anne said. “Why don’t you leave talk of the castle aside for now and eat something?”

When Anne set the soup down on the side table, Noah turned his head on the pillow and looked away from it.

“I won’t eat it.”

He closed his eyes tightly and crawled under the quilt and blanket. That seemed to be the closest thing to running away that he could manage, weak as he was.

The night before, in an attempt to drive out the intruders, he must have mustered all his strength to go around patiently opening all the doors to the candy crafters’ rooms. And in doing so, he had used up whatever energy he had and fallen into this sorry state.

Elliott shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing more we can do. Let’s get some sleep already, Anne. This is going to impact our work tomorrow.”

“Please go to bed, Mr. Collins. I’ll sleep here.”

Anne didn’t want to leave the side of a fairy who was so weak, he could hardly move.

“But what will you do if he eats the soup and regains his energy, only to run riot?” Elliott asked. He sounded a little concerned.

“I’ll stand watch,” Challe said. He was leaning against the wall beside the bed. “I’m the one who caught him in the first place, so I have a responsibility.”

“Well then, I’ll leave it up to you. You take it easy, Anne, and try to get at least a little sleep.”

Once Elliott left, Anne sat beside the bed and stroked Noah’s head through the blanket. Challe continued leaning against the wall, watching stoically.

Won’t he eat just a little bit?

Anne had initially felt relieved when they caught the evil spirit, but now she had a different problem to worry about. If she couldn’t get Noah to understand that they weren’t a threat to him, he would probably never eat. In order to convince him, Anne patiently stroked his head through the blanket.

After doing that for a little while, she was struck by drowsiness. Even Challe had quietly closed his eyes. Anne started to nod off in her chair.

Behind her ear, she heard the sound of someone breathing.

Again? But there are no ghosts. It was all Noah. I must be imagining things again…

Then there was a sudden burst of sparks behind her eyelids.

“I’m sorry, Your Lordship! Please forgive me!”

The pleas of the boy, mixed with the sound of screaming, stuck in her ear. It was exactly the same scene as the night before. And she could clearly make out the face of the boy who was screaming. It was Noah. His purple hair stuck to his tearstained cheeks.

Noah was looking up at a very large man with black hair and a black beard. The man was scary. Anne felt Noah’s fear as if it were her own. The man raised a whip over his head.

“Master!”

At Noah’s scream, Anne awakened with a start. Her back was bathed in a cold sweat. Noah was under the blankets, sleeping peacefully.

That was Noah.

She couldn’t understand why she had witnessed such a scene.

Anne borrowed the blanket from Challe’s room, wrapped herself up in it, and napped beside the bed. Then the following morning, she asked Danna to put breakfast for three people on one tray and carried it back to her room.

Challe was sitting on the windowsill, gazing out at the thicket of trees now dusted white by settling frost.

“I brought us some hot breakfast, Noah,” said Anne. “I figured it would be boring for you to eat alone, so I brought mine and Challe’s up, too. Let’s eat together.”

She moved the cold soup over and set the tray on the side table.

Noah had pulled the blanket up over his head. He didn’t move.

“Hey, Noah?”

Anne put her hand on the blanket to pull it back, but Noah’s hand resisted her slightly. He was surprisingly weak, however, and he quickly let go. When she turned back the blanket, his face was pale, and his eyes were stubbornly squeezed shut.

Fairies usually had pale skin to begin with, but Noah’s face was strikingly white.

Anne had heard that when fairies died, they turned into beads of light that dispersed and disappeared. As she looked at Noah’s face, she got the feeling that the outline and coloration of his too-pale features had thinned and might vanish at any moment.

“Noah, please. Eat.”

But Noah squeezed his eyes shut even more tightly. “I only eat things that Master Herbert gives me.”

“Well then, do you have anything left of what Master Herbert gave you somewhere? If you have it, we’ll go get it for you. Where is it?”

“I ate all the provisions in storage. There’s no food left. There’s nothing for me to do but wait until Master Herbert returns.”

“If that’s your answer, then you’ll die.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Why must you only eat food that Master Herbert gave you?”

“If I want to stay here, I can’t eat anything else! Those are Master Herbert’s orders!”

So his master commanded him to eat only the food he gave him? Anne frowned. What a cruel order.

She recalled the scene that had flashed into her mind twice in the past two nights. She didn’t understand why she was seeing it or whether it reflected reality. But what if it was a scene from Noah’s past?

That man with the black hair and black beard might have been Herbert. If that was true, he was a brutal master. Anne felt sorry for Noah, who was faithfully following the harsh orders of such a man.

She thought he might feel like eating if people around him started their own meals, so she invited Challe over, and they ate their breakfast right by Noah’s pillow. But Noah didn’t show any sign of movement.

“Guess there’s no need to stand watch, is there?” said Anne. “I think I’d prefer that he eat something and make trouble instead.”

After Anne and Challe finished, Anne stacked up their plates and put them on the tray, sighing in spite of herself. She left the cold, sweet soup and one portion of breakfast on the side table.

“I’ll leave these here. He might feel like eating once no one is watching.”

Noah moved his head on the pillow and glared at Anne. “I don’t do vulgar things like sneaking food when no one’s looking! Anyway, I said I won’t eat, and I won’t.”

“But if you feel like it, please do.”

“I will not! Never mind that, you thieves should get out of this castle!”

Noah’s determination appeared solid. Moreover, he seemed to really hate Anne and the others.

Anne didn’t want to leave him alone in such a weakened state with no one to watch him, but she also felt bad about relying on Challe to stick with him all day. After considering her options, she decided to ask Challe to rest in his own room. In his place, Anne would personally check on Noah and bring him food during her breaks from work. With that plan in mind, she left the room.

As expected, Challe looked exhausted. He went straight back to his own quarters.

Anne was worried and anxious. What if Noah refused to eat anything? Her chest pounded when she thought that Noah might be gone the next time she peeked into her room. Whether someone was fairy or human, friend or stranger, the thought of them dying while within her reach frightened her. She couldn’t help but remember the occasion of her mother Emma’s death.

When Anne returned to the lesser hall with the tray in hand, she found that the other candy crafters had already gone to the workspace. She had just missed them. Knowing that she also had to get to work right away, Anne carried the tray into the kitchen at the back of the castle. She handed it off to Danna and Hal, who were washing up, and quickly retraced her steps.

“Anne, good morning.”

As Anne was cutting across the first floor hall, headed for the east wing, someone called her name from above. When she looked up, she saw Gladys. He was waving elegantly, so she stopped. It was the first time Gladys had ever directly spoken to her.

The fairy made his way down the stairs.

His hair color appeared to be a blend of white and warm yellow. It was usually a mix of blue and green melted into white, but its color seemed to change from time to time with the lighting conditions and his own mood.

“Good morning,” Anne said.

“How is the fairy you caught yesterday? Have you decided what to do with him?”

“No, not yet. We can’t decide anything with him in that condition.”

Gladys cocked his head slightly. “What’s the matter, Anne? You look down. If there’s something worrying you, you can talk to me.”

Gladys’s right hand gently brushed Anne’s right cheek.

“Huh?!” Startled, Anne jumped back.

She wondered when they had gotten close enough for him to touch her. Gladys’s movements were smooth and natural enough that she hadn’t been aware of him closing in.

“You don’t have to run away like that.” Gladys smiled, looking amused.

“S-sorry. I was a little surprised.”

“This time, don’t run away. I won’t do anything. I won’t touch you.”

Gladys opened both arms wide and stood before Anne again. Then he slowly brought his face close to the top of Anne’s head.

“What a wonderful aroma. I can smell silver sugar, the scent of a Silver Sugar Master. You’re adorable, Anne.”

Anne blushed at his flattery. It made her nervous.

“I think Orlando, King, Valentine, Nadir, and Mr. Collins probably all smell the same way…,” she muttered.

“You’re right; they probably do. But I suspect you have the best aroma of all.”

Startled, Anne looked up and saw that Gladys’s ambiguously colored eyes, not quite blue or green, were very close. Anne was flustered by his closeness, and she dodged out of the way.

“I’m off to work now, okay?!”

She could feel his gaze on her back as she ran off. She was confused about why Gladys would make such comments. But most of all, she wanted to get away from his peculiar gaze. Quickly, Anne made her way to the workshop.

On mornings when frost settled over the land, the whole world looked like it sparkled in the light of the sun.

Challe knew that, so he wanted to go out into the garden before he lay down for a nap. He liked to breathe in the invigorating morning air that seemed to permeate the depths of his body.

He did go back to his own room briefly, but he immediately left and headed for the lesser hall. There, he casually gazed past the banister, down at the lower floor, and caught sight of Gladys and Anne. Unconsciously, he halted in his tracks.

Gladys touched Anne’s cheek. She backed away, seeming startled, then Gladys took several more steps forward and made a gesture like he was smelling her hair.

Seeing this sent Challe into a rage.

Anne dodged Gladys again, looking even more flustered, and then hurried off. As he watched her go, the corners of Gladys’s lips curled into a smile.

Once Anne was out of sight, Gladys looked up at Challe.

“Challe. She’s wonderful. She smells great. And she’s cute.” He spoke shamelessly. He must have known Challe was there the whole time.

“Cute? That scarecrow? You’ve got some strange tastes,” Challe said coolly, so as not to expose his true feelings.

Gladys came up the stairs and peered into Challe’s face inquisitively. “You don’t find her cute?”

“Not especially.”

“Oh, really? You’re here for her sake, aren’t you? Aren’t you with her because she’s lovely and cute and you just can’t leave her alone?”

Challe felt like some formless tentacle was coiling around his body, trying to probe inside his mind. This Gladys person was someone to be wary of; he was sure of it.

Challe had hardened his heart so that nothing could touch the things he needed to protect. With a surly expression, he stared back at the other fairy.

“She’s cute, so I can’t leave her alone? What a naive way of thinking, Gladys.”

Gladys frowned and was silent for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. Then he grumbled, “I see you keep your true feelings hidden. Or are those your true feelings? You are made of the same stuff as I am. Does that mean I can assume your thoughts are similar to mine? And that your behavior, too, stems from thoughts like mine?”

“I have no interest in your thoughts.”

“Whether you’re interested or not, the two of us are very closely related, and that’s a fact. You and I ought to be together, Challe Fenn Challe.”

“What kind of nonsense is that? I’m tired of listening to it.” Challe slipped past Gladys and started down the stairs.

And then—

“The dark chapel,” Gladys said suddenly.

“It was a chapel in the back of a tunnel carved into a cliff,” he continued, “where an altar had been set up. There were no windows. The entrance was decorated with stones in the way you would expect of a holy place. But inside, the ceiling and walls still bore the scars of excavation.”

Challe was taken aback by Gladys’s words. He froze.

Impossible.

Slowly, he turned around.

“Do you know about it, Challe? Do you know of such a place?”

The dark, stagnant air of the chapel. The sound of the wind whipping past the tunnel entrance was fierce, like a shrill flute, but no breeze made it to the altar deep inside. The air was always cold and still. The silent darkness made the chapel seem as if some great, sleeping thing were buried behind it.

A strong wind always blew outside. Challe felt like he had always, always been able to hear the sound of the wind.

At some point, a single candle was lit in that darkness. Day after day, clumsy little hands had lit the candle.

“How do you know about that?” he asked.

“So you are familiar with it. Just as I thought. If you let me see a little of your true feelings, I could tell you how I know.”

What Gladys had just tossed before Challe was bait. Challe wasn’t sure how Gladys knew about that place, but he was sure that if he took the bait, the other fairy would seize the initiative. Challe had a hunch that it would cause trouble in the future.

Keep your guard up and don’t show him any openings, whispered his instincts as a warrior fairy.

“That place no longer exists,” Challe said quietly. “So I don’t care how you know about it.”

That was all he said before he turned his back on Gladys and descended the stairs. Gladys met Challe’s cool demeanor with a look of slight bewilderment.

How does he know? Challe wondered. How does he know about that place? What is he?