Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 6 - Chapter 7.1

Chapter 7

A NEW DREAM

The following day was sunny. The surface of the snow covering the roads of Lewiston melted slightly, and glistening clumps of it sparkled in the sunlight.

The inside of the sanctuary of the Church of Saint Lewiston Bell was also flooded with light. Anne took one step inside and was momentarily dazzled by its brilliance. When she thought about decorating the space with sugar candy sculptures, she buzzed with joy and excitement.

They had eight snow-crystal towers that were a little taller than Challe, ten half that height, and a further ten one-third the size of the tallest ones.

To transport them from Hollyleaf Castle, they loaded the towers onto a wagon. They surrounded each tower with a wooden frame, protected it with cloth, and lifted it onto the wagon. They drove very carefully so that the wheels of the wagon wouldn’t slip on the snowy roads.

Normally, only one of the huge doors leading into the sanctuary was open, but on this day, both had been spread wide.

The sugar candy sculptures themselves were light, built out of irregularly stacked snowflakes made of open fretwork. It had been like piling up sheets of thin ice. Though it took a team of five crafters to move a single sculpture, that was less because of the weight of the sculptures and more due to the weight of their wooden frames.

They made one round trip between Hollyleaf Castle and the church in the morning, and two more in the afternoon, completing three trips in total. By the time they’d carried all the finished candy sculptures into the sanctuary, the sun had completely set.

Danna, Hal, Benjamin, Noah, and Cathy brought them potato soup and bread for dinner. The crafters ate on the steps outside the sanctuary.

It was chilly eating dinner on the windswept stone steps, but the candy crafters, who had been complaining that they were starving, finished their meals before the cold set in and hurried back into the sanctuary.

Inside, they lit candles. Then by their light, they arranged the sugar candy sculptures, placing each one in exactly the right spot. By the time they were finished, it was nearly midnight.

They had decided to leave the wooden frames in place until the day of the First Holy Festival and to only remove them that afternoon, for safety.

Moving the sugar candy sculptures had really worn down their nerves, and the crafters seemed more mentally exhausted than anything else. Once they decided that they’d done enough work for the day, they quickly lay down to sleep.

They were staying in the priests’ anteroom in the back of the sanctuary. It was a cold, bare stone room, but it contained several couches long enough to lie down on. They wrapped themselves in blankets, curled up on the couches, and got to sleep.

Anne and Bridget were the only girls, so they got to use the head priest’s anteroom instead. It was small, but it contained a sofa spread with blankets just the right size to function as their bed. The two of them lay down and curled up to sleep.

Bridget seemed exhausted from the unfamiliar work, and she soon began snoring quietly. Bridget’s body heat warmed the space under the blankets, and a lovely floral scent wafted off her. Anne figured she must be wearing perfume.

What a nice smell.

It was a very elegant scent, and it made Anne jealous. So far in her life, Anne had never done anything fashionable. She wondered if she put on lovely dresses, wore perfume and makeup, and painted her nails like Bridget, if she could become more mature and lovely, like a regular sixteen-year-old.

Then would Challe stop thinking of me as a scarecrow?

She recalled that night in the fort out in the wilderness.

Challe’s hand had touched her cheek, and his face had been so close. Back then, she’d really thought he was going to kiss her. Maybe he’d simply felt like doing it on a whim.

For someone so brusque and cold, Challe was actually very kind. He realized that Anne relied on him and had promised to stay with her always and to protect her.

That made her so happy.

But Lafalle had told her she would only make him unhappy.

Challe might indeed be the one the fairies were waiting for—the one meant to become their king. And yet right now, he was with Anne. That might well bring him misfortune.

Instead, he could be freely traveling the kingdom, finding his fairy comrades and living among them. He could wed a fairy woman born from another gemstone someday and live with her for a very long time. Thinking about it objectively, that seemed like the most ideal, most natural path for him.

I’ll be so lonely.

The moment she imagined Challe’s future, a voice in her heart whispered those words to her. Feeling disgusted with herself, she got up with a sigh. She’d been struck with an overwhelming desire to look at sugar candy.

Anne slipped out from under the covers and groped around for the lantern sitting on the floor. She was careful not to wake Bridget as she left the room, and once she was out, the moonlight streaming through the windows in the hall was bright enough to see by. The moon’s light reflected off the snow and shone radiantly. Anne decided that she didn’t need the lantern, so she set it down on the spot before heading into the sanctuary.

As soon as she stepped through the door behind and to the right of the altar, she stopped in her tracks.

Challe was already there, sitting in a pew in front of the altar. He had one knee up and was staring intently at the mural on the ceiling.

There in the sanctuary, which was filled with bluish-white light and freezing-cold air, Challe’s wing was a peaceful light-blue color. In the dim twilight, his pale profile seemed to sparkle faintly, and thin white puffs of breath escaped his lips. He was unbelievably beautiful, with a beguiling quality that would enchant any human.

Anne wasn’t sure what to do, but after a moment, Challe looked up at her, so she approached him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to look at the sugar candy. What about you, Challe? Were you looking at that?”

She glanced up at the ceiling and saw the figure of the legendary fairy king, Riselva Cyril Sash.

The first time she saw that painting, she had thought there was something about the fairy king that resembled Challe. Their coloring was different, but she had sensed his elegant strength and was struck by his beauty.

Anne took a seat beside Challe. The pew was chilly. Cold, even. But she saw that Challe was unbothered and remembered that fairies didn’t feel the cold.

She and Challe even experienced temperature differently. That was one difference between their two species, and one more difference between the two of them.

When she had first come to this place with Challe, Anne had thought that fairies and humans weren’t that different. But as Challe had said back then, the truth was that they were.

That night at the fort, Anne had been particularly aware of those differences. And once she noticed them, she began to feel guilty for getting too close to Challe. He also seemed to feel the same way and had been keeping his distance from her. Now the two of them were sitting next to each other, but there was still a vast space between them.

“The fairy king…,” said Anne. “That’s what Lafalle called himself. And he said you were one, too. The fairies all seemed to expect something from you. Why was that?”

“Lafalle and I were born from gemstones collected by the last fairy king, Riselva. He intended for them to produce an heir for the next generation. That’s what Lafalle believed. And it seems like the other fairies believed it, too.”

Anne was astonished to hear that there was truth to the legend. But if Challe said that was the purpose of his birth, she found she could believe him. Compared with other fairies, Challe seemed to have something special about him.

“What are you going to do, Challe? After this?”

“About being the fairy king and all that? I don’t know. It’s not something I can simply decide to do, now that I’ve found out about it. If a time comes when I am needed, I may have to take some kind of action, but now is not the time.”

“So what will you do? Now, that is.”

Challe shifted his gaze from the ceiling down to Anne and answered her quietly.

“I’ll keep my oath and stay by your side always. I’ll protect you. I will not break my vow.” Challe stared straight into Anne’s eyes. “I’ll protect you so you can live a happy life as a human. And for that purpose, I will be with you always. Do what you want to do and go where you want to go. Love who you want to love. I’ll protect you so you can do it all.”

Those words made Anne want to cry.

Challe really was kind. Even though he was aware of the differences between their races, he had still promised to protect her.

Ever since that night in the fort, Anne had been keeping her distance from Challe. But even though he could sense the growing gulf between them, he was still trying to shelter her. It felt impossible not to fall in love with him.

That was why, when he said she could love whomever she wanted to, her heart ached terribly.

She had to give Challe something back in return for his kindness. Something that would lead to a happiness of his own.

“Thank you… But if I ever feel like I am perfectly happy, then there won’t be any more need for you to protect me, right? And if there’s no need for you to protect me, won’t that mean you’ll have fulfilled your vow? If that ever happens, you don’t have to stay with me forever. Then you can do whatever you want and go wherever you’d like and love whomever you will. Actually, I wish you could do that now. But if you say you can’t break your oath, then you’ll have to do it after you’ve fulfilled your promise.”

Anne forced herself to smile.

“You made a troublesome vow, didn’t you? I’m sorry, Challe.”

It was probably a weakness in Challe’s nature that made him unable to leave her be. She seemed to him like a baby bird struggling helplessly before his eyes. Among animals, fairies, and humans alike, the strongest were probably the most kind.

Challe smirked. “Usually, the word forever means…”

“Huh?”

“Nothing… If that’s what you want.” He stared at Anne with his beautiful black eyes and smiled. “Anne, complete your final tower and bring good fortune to every living thing in the kingdom.”

Anne was surprised to find that despite the vast, suffocating distance between them, their conversation felt so tender and light.

She gazed up at the sanctuary’s ceiling. She wanted to fill this place, this world, with the good fortune of sugar candy. Her heart ached with pain and sorrow, and that was exactly why she wanted to do it.

It was her job.

When Challe said “forever,” his meaning was not as trivial as Anne believed.

He studied her face in profile as she stared up at the mural on the ceiling.