Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3

FIVE SUCCESSORS AND ONE LAST INTRUDER

“It’s cold.”

Slouching in an armchair, Stella Knox mumbled and coughed slightly. He didn’t look well. The room couldn’t have been that cold, but perhaps he had a chill. He had on both a blanket and a thick jacket, and he had been rubbing both of his arms for a while.

Elliott was sitting cross-legged, relaxing on the carpet spread out in front of the hearth. He turned over and brushed back his bangs, which looked even redder than usual in the light of the fire.

“Want to come over here? It’s warm, Stella dear.”

As soon as Elliott said that, Stella raised his eyebrows.

“Hey, don’t call me anything weird like that…!”

Stella started to yell at Elliott, then coughed violently. Elliott’s eyes went wide, but Keith was the one who panicked, rushing over to Stella and rubbing his back.

“Stella. You mustn’t speak too loudly.”

“…Fine…then tell that ginger jerk…to shut up…!”

Stella pointed at Elliott as he had a coughing fit, and Elliott made an expression like a child who had found an amusing toy.

“So sorry. Stella is a girl’s name, so I can’t help it if I find it cute.”

Keith spoke to Elliott, trying to smooth things over. “Mr. Collins, the thing about Stella’s family is that his father made it big as a trader in just one generation. The heirs of successful people are often cursed by the jealousy of others, so they gave him a girl’s name to avoid that. There’s a good reason for his name, you see.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ve got it hard, the rich do,” Elliott sneered. “I’m glad I was a poor family’s brat!”

Stella’s coughing finally settled down, and he looked up, glaring at Elliott with eyes like ice. “All right, from now on I’ll call you a little brat!”

“I don’t like that much. Maybe you can call me Daddy instead. Come sit on my lap?”

“Stop joking around. But I am cold. Move out of the way.”

“Oh, but can’t we at least sit close beside each other?”

“If I sit beside someone like you, my eyes will start to droop, too.”

At their exchange, Keith slumped and heaved a sigh. “Cut it out, you two. It’s unbecoming.”

The crafters had been granted rooms in the first castle keep, from which they could see the Cocoon Tower looming over them. They were to begin taking lessons from Lulu the following day, but for the moment, they had been ordered to remain in the castle.

There were five rooms side by side, and they’d each been assigned to one of them. At the end of the hallway, past their quarters, was a large room that they were being permitted to use as a living room and dining space. It had a table set with six chairs and a hearth. There were also sofas and armchairs placed in front of the hearth for them to relax in.

The floor and walls were bare stone, not dressed with plaster. It was an old castle, so this was unsurprising, but it made everything feel chilly. There were tapestries on the walls and a rug on the floor, perhaps to ward off the cold as much as possible. The furnishings were all brand-new.

It was easy to see that the castle keep, usually empty, had hastily been made into a living space for the candy crafters.

After finishing their dinner, the crafters had gathered in front of the hearth in the large room. They were all on the couch or in armchairs, relaxing in front of the fireplace.

Anne was staring into space on a chair near the fireplace, watching the dancing flames. She couldn’t help but worry about Challe. He had disappeared to an upper floor of the Cocoon Tower with Lulu, and that was the last they had seen of him.

Stella and Elliott were arguing about one thing or another, but Elliott showed no signs of moving away from the hearth, and Stella didn’t seem able to handle the cold, so they ended up sitting in front of the fire together.

“Stella, should we build the fire up more?” Keith asked, looking concerned for Stella. The two of them had apparently gone to school together, so perhaps looking out for Stella was an old habit from those days.

“Please do. What does the Silver Sugar Viscount expect us to learn here? And from a fairy, no less!”

“What’s wrong with being the pupil of a fairy? Aren’t we lucky to get a beautiful lady to teach us?” Elliott asked nonchalantly.

Stella made a perplexed face. “It’s not a question of wrong necessarily, but fairies are supposed to defer to humans, right? I mean, I bet you don’t bow to that fairy you’re keeping, do you, Anne Halford?”

Anne came back to herself as she was suddenly pulled into Stella’s conversation.

“Huh, what?”

“Today you showed up with the pet fairy that you keep, didn’t you? Do you bow to him?”

Stella seemed to have misunderstood a few things. It was only natural he would assume, if she had a fairy with her, that she was his master. And judging by Challe’s appearance, it wasn’t strange for Stella to think that he was a pet specifically.

“He…Challe isn’t under my control. He’s my friend. His wing is in his possession, so he’s free. And if I have a request for him, I do bow to Challe when I ask it. When you ask someone a favor, it’s normal to bow to them, isn’t it?”

Stella looked perplexed. “That doesn’t make much sense to me.”

He didn’t seem to find the idea horrible or bad; Stella appeared to be genuinely confused. Keith had said that Stella’s father was an important merchant. He’d probably been around lots of fairy servants from a young age. It was possible he felt he had the right to command them and that this state of affairs was so normal to him, he had never thought to question it.

“But everything comes down to the Viscount’s instructions,” Killean said from the sofa. “We ought to follow them.” He was cleaning his monocle with a handkerchief.

Stella made a displeased face. “Don’t you feel any reservations about doing whatever the Viscount tells you?”

“I have no reason to doubt him. Moreover, what is there to doubt about this situation?”

“Leave the fairy thing aside for now. I’ve got a few issues with how the Viscount is going about this. He summoned us all here and only revealed the secret once there was no turning back, right? Who wouldn’t have reservations after something like that?” Stella pressed the point, coughing slightly.

Killean tersely put his monocle back on. As light glinted off it, he declared, “Well, I don’t doubt him in the least!”

“Ah, sure. It’s plain to see that you adore the Viscount. I’ve had enough. It’s so cold in here, I can’t stand it. I’m going back to my room,” Stella mumbled sourly. Still wrapped in his blanket, he shuffled out of the room.

“What a rude guy.”

Killean seemed annoyed as he watched Stella go, but Keith frowned a little.

“Certainly, it was rude of Stella to put it that way. But I was also thinking that the Silver Sugar Viscount should have considered his methods more carefully. I personally don’t have any complaints about it, but then there are people like Stella. I think it would have been better if the Viscount had laid everything out for us and explained what was about to happen and what possible outcomes there were.”

When Keith said that, Elliott smiled bitterly.

“It’s a sound argument,” he said, “but what naive little princelings you are. You too, Keith.”

Keith didn’t seem to like being called that. He looked annoyed. “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.

“Rulers are all unreasonable and domineering. And the Silver Sugar Viscount may be the guardian of candy crafters, but he’s still a vassal of the ruler. Isn’t it naive to think that you can complain about the fact that his methods are coercive?”

“But—”

“But what? You gonna tell him to think about our feelings? You’re up against people who could have our heads on a whim, for any reason they please. That’s why I say you’re naive. Stella and you both.”

Keith didn’t seem to be able to find the words to object, and he bit his lip, looking a little frustrated.

But Killean crossed his arms and answered in a low voice, “Collins, the way you’re speaking about the Viscount is not appropriate. This project is one of the Viscount’s responsibilities, so we can’t say he’s being coercive.”

“Well, darling Stella said it, and I have to agree! Killean, you really do love the Viscount, don’t you?”

“This isn’t a matter of liking or disliking him! The Viscount is our leader, so it only makes sense that we treat him with respect.”

“You don’t have to be shy about it, you know? It’s common knowledge that ten years ago, when he was still named Ackland, you were so smitten by the sugar candy sculptures of the head crafter of the Mercury Workshop that you dropped out of seminary school to become a candy crafter, you dope.”

“What?! Is that true?!” Anne gawked. “You were so taken with Hugh’s sculptures that you dropped out of seminary school?!” She was amazed to hear that.

Killean raised his eyebrows. “That’s hardly common knowledge, is it?! If you hadn’t said anything, Anne wouldn’t have known! Plus, when I was at the seminary, I was told I had a chance of becoming the youngest priest ever. I was top of my class, so I’d appreciate you not calling me a dope.”

“What else would you call someone who walked away from the path toward becoming the youngest priest ever to become a candy crafter?”

“You really make me mad. Unbelievable! I’m going to bed now, too.”

Killean announced the end of that conversation, then left the room in a huff.

Elliott watched him as he left, suppressing a smile. “He’s a real cutie, that Killean,” he muttered. “He’s awful shy. Welp, guess I’ll turn in, too. Gotta be ready for tomorrow. You should get some sleep as well, Anne. And you too, Keith.”

Elliott shot to his feet and winked lightheartedly at Anne. Keith still refused to look at him, so Elliott shrugged slightly and left.

Everyone was on edge, and not just a little bit. They were all worried. Anne didn’t think that Elliott would normally have said something so harsh to Keith.

“Are you all right, Keith?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Well, how about we all get to bed? I’ll see you to your room, Anne.”

Keith let out a sigh and lifted his head to show her his usual gentle smile. Reflexively, Anne smiled back.

“Keith, you’re like a prince or something, offering to show me to my room. I feel like I’m being treated like a princess.”

“Oh? I just thought it was the proper thing to do.”

Keith sounded embarrassed when he said that. He stood up first and helped Anne to her feet by pulling on her hand. That gesture was also rather aristocratic.

They left the combination living and dining room and emerged into the dark and chilly hallway. Small windows lined the corridor at regular intervals, from which streamed dim light.

They could also see the Cocoon Tower through the windows. Light was shining out of its own windows, illuminating the hallway of the castle keep. Every last window of the tower was glowing, giving the briar vines a glossy radiance and making the tower look as though it were floating in the darkness.

The Cocoon Tower wasn’t moving, and yet it seemed like a living plant that was slowly inhaling and exhaling.

Anne stopped to look at the tower. Keith also came to a halt beside her.

“What do you think the sugar candies that the silver sugar fairies make are like?” Anne asked the question without thinking.

As soon as it left her mouth, Keith looked at her in surprise. “I tend to have lots of different matters on my mind, but you never have anything but sugar candy on your mind, do you, Anne?”

“That…kind of sounds like you’re making fun of me…”

“Not at all. I envy you. I try to be deliberate and work hard, and I try to be serious about sugar candy. But you already maintain the attitude I go to such lengths to keep up, as naturally as you breathe. On top of that, you’re much more serious about sugar candy than someone like me…”

His voice was subdued, but he looked toward the floor as he spoke. He sounded very critical when he talked about himself.

“Keith?”

When Anne touched his shoulder, Keith bit his lip hard and looked up at her.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That was…it was nothing. Just me grumbling. Come on, I’ll see you to your room.”

Anne nodded, but she couldn’t help but be concerned about what was happening out the window. If Challe didn’t come back, she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to settle down and sleep, even if she returned to her room.

“Keith, I’m still worried about Challe, so I’m going to go take a look at what’s going on in the Cocoon Tower.”

“You are? Well, don’t stay up too late, okay?”

Keith smiled gently as he always did, then turned around.

He was straightforward with just about everything. Perhaps he was too straightforward, Anne thought. It probably got him into trouble.

Anne shivered against the cold and hugged her own shoulders. Just as she started walking, intending to go to the Cocoon Tower—

She heard footsteps. Hoping that they might mean Challe was coming up the stairs toward her, she squinted down the dim corridor. Then a figure emerged from the gloom. It was an unfamiliar man wearing a light-blue jacket. He appeared to be in his late twenties. He was an elegant man with beautiful blond hair and light-blue eyes. His arms were folded behind his back, and he walked toward her at an easy pace. He came to a halt when he noticed Anne but immediately started walking again and came up to her.

“So…”

When the man reached Anne, he mumbled as if he was about to say something, then cleared his throat and started again.

“Who are you?”

In spite of his age, the man had a very composed voice. Anne didn’t know his social standing, so she hesitated over how to react. Ultimately, she curtsied slightly and offered a simple greeting.

“I am a candy crafter. My name is Anne Halford. I came here because I was summoned by Her Majesty the Queen.”

“You’re that Halford?! Turn toward the light a little. Wow, you really are.”

Anne did as she was told and faced the windows. “You know about me?”

“I saw your face at the Royal Candy Fair,” the man said happily.

There was elaborate embroidery on the man’s jacket. It seemed to be a very fine garment. Thinking about who might have been wearing clothing similar to his jacket at the Royal Candy Fair, Anne concluded that he might be an attendant who waited closely upon the royal family.

But there had been many attendants standing beside the king and queen at the Royal Candy Fair. She hadn’t memorized each one’s face. In fact, she hadn’t even gotten a good look at the king’s face because she had been so nervous.

The only person whose face she remembered was the queen, and that was only because she was particularly eye-catching, since there had only been one woman wearing a gorgeous dress in the royal family’s tent.

“Are you a valet to His Majesty or to the queen?”

“Well, something like that.”

“Do you have some sort of business with one of us?”

“I’m just out for a walk. I heard that five or so candy crafters were invited here today, so when I was done with work, I came over to check things out. How about it—does it seem like your work will go smoothly?”

“We haven’t started yet, so I don’t know. But I do want to see it through, one way or another.”

“How reassuring,” the man said, giving her a youthful smile. “Oh yes, by the way, there isn’t anything the crafters need, is there?”

“Not at the moment, no. It’s our first day here.”

“Well, if the food isn’t to your taste or you don’t have enough furniture or something, I can help with most anything. If anything bothers you, please tell me. I won’t mind.”

“Thank you very much. If we ever need something… Ah, but how should we let you know?”

“If you ever have a task for me, you can tell the queen. Tell her you have something to ask Eddie, and you’ll be set.”

Apparently, he was the queen’s servant.

It was a bit suffocating to be confined inside the royal castle, but both Hugh and the queen seemed to be treating the crafters with great care. Anne doubted that one of her servants would have walked over to the old keep on an ordinary stroll. She figured that the queen’s servants must have been ordered to make sure that the crafters weren’t lacking for anything.

“I understand. That’s very kind of you.”

“Of course, my pleasure. Well then, I’d like to go check in on the Cocoon Tower as well.”

With an easygoing wave of his hand, the queen’s attendant walked off briskly down the hallway again. Anne quickly lost sight of him.

I’d better go to sleep, too, so I can do my job. But I wonder what’s become of Challe?

Just as she had that thought, she saw Challe appear in the door to the Cocoon Tower. Overjoyed to finally see him, she had started to head down to meet him, when—

Lulu emerged behind Challe. They faced each other, exchanging words. Challe smiled. Anne was shocked by that smile.

Anne had never seen Challe give such an unguarded grin to anyone but her. Lulu returned a superficial smile but then placed her right palm gently against Challe’s cheek.

The sight of the two fairies facing each other in the dim light was so beautiful that it took her breath away.

But the beautiful vision also made Anne’s chest ache, as if it had been hollowed out.

Lovely. So very lovely. The two of them really look great together.

Anne tightly gripped the fabric of her dress with both hands.

And then it dawned on her. The loneliness that she had felt that afternoon when she watched Challe disappear with Lulu, it must have been because he and Lulu were such a good match.

Beautiful.

Challe was with a fellow fairy. His single wing was glittering like it had been sprinkled with silvery-blue powder, and Lulu’s wing was glowing with a yellow color that was nearly golden. Their two wings looked magical, like visions floating in the dark night. Fairies’ wings were beautiful. And they were even more enchanting when they were shrouded in light.

It was an effortlessly beautiful, natural spectacle, akin to the morning sun painting the sky light purple or the moon illuminating the evening dew. It seemed fitting, as though Challe was meant to be there.

Humans with humans and fairies with fairies—that was the most natural order. Suddenly, Anne felt like crying. But she hated the idea of crying at such an important time, simply because she’d realized something that was glaringly obvious.

I don’t have a beautiful wing like that.

She ran off toward her bedroom.

Anne is always one step ahead of me. I can’t help but feel that way. She’s barreling ahead, and at some point, I’m going to lose sight of her.

When Keith got back to his room, he threw himself down on the bed, put his hand on his forehead, and closed his eyes.

A sense of uneasiness was burning inside his chest. It was excruciating.

He was aware of the differences between Anne and himself, which he noticed even in their most trivial actions. He would have liked to think that it was just a variance in disposition, that’s all. But he was worried the difference was actually that he was inferior to Anne.

Can I really stand on an equal footing with Anne? I’m not so sure anymore.

He had the urge to grab Anne’s hand and pull her back toward him, telling her to slow down. But he didn’t want to do as he had done earlier and expose his own shortcomings yet again.

If he was feeling uneasy, he just had to work harder—that was all. If he had time to worry, that was time that could be better spent kneading silver sugar or something.

I’m going to walk side by side with Anne.

He told himself that he would crush his anxiety and impatience. Anne would serve as his driving force to do so and motivate him to move even further ahead. He wouldn’t be defeated; he would carry on. Together with Anne.

Lulu had wanted to hear from Challe about where he was born, the circumstances of his encounter with Lafalle, and the details of Lafalle’s death. The sun had set completely while they were talking. When she noticed that, Lulu finally stopped asking Challe questions, suggesting that they stop there for the day.

“I assume you’re staying here, too, with that young candy crafter. That’s good… We should still have enough time. Probably.”

Lulu, who had come as far as the outside of the Cocoon Tower to see him off, sounded like she was trying to convince herself. Then, as if she had just remembered it, she asked him one more thing.

“That girl who is to become my pupil tomorrow—why are you with her?”

“At first, it was because she purchased me. But she said that she wanted to become friends with fairies and returned my wing. After that, we just stayed together as things went along.”

“She wants to become friends with fairies? And she gave you your wing back? What an unusual child.”

Challe recalled the blank look on Anne’s face and broke into a smile.

When he did, Lulu put on a superficial grin and lightly touched Challe’s cheek.

“So that means that you’re free, does it? I envy you,” she said. “My wing has been in human hands for five hundred years. Make sure you treasure your freedom.”

That was all she said before she removed her hand from his cheek, turned on her heel, and went back inside the tower.

A prisoner for five hundred years, huh?

As far as he could tell from the way the queen and Hugh acted, and from the environment that was provided for her, the royal family had been treating Lulu with great care.

But to the very end, she was still a slave. One of her wings had been taken from her, and she had been forced to make sugar candy in the same spot for five hundred years. Even if she had never known danger, she’d never known true happiness, either. Day after day had simply passed her by. That had gone on for five hundred years. It was brutality, in a sense. The thought of her situation—a fellow fairy’s situation—made his chest ache.

Challe walked away from the tower. Hugh had told him the location of Anne’s room. He headed straight there.

Hugh had also offered to prepare a separate room for Challe, but he had grown accustomed to being with Anne and wasn’t interested in sleeping separately, so he had turned it down. But he knew he would have to be careful, because he was liable to touch Anne if he let his guard down. Even if it would make Anne happy, he knew he shouldn’t get too close to her. If he did, he might forget himself.

He found the room right away. When he stepped through the door, it was dark inside.

The stone walls and floor were cold. Even so, every care seemed to have been taken to make the place comfortable. There was a rug with long pile spread across the floor, and the bed was wide and solidly built.

He had expected Anne to already be asleep, but instead he found a bulging ball of blankets on the bed, rolled up like a bagworm. It had to be Anne. The blankets didn’t so much as twitch. If she were sleeping normally, he would be able to hear her breathing, and she wouldn’t be balled up like that. She was holding her breath, curled up motionless inside.

He recalled that when Anne had been feeling down before, she’d assumed this sort of position.

Did something happen?

Suspiciously, he approached the bed and took a seat near where he thought the bagworm’s head was. When he did, the blanket bagworm responded to the movement on the mattress with a jolt.

“What a strange way to sleep. Is this some new health trend?”

He spoke to her, but there was no response.

“Are you sleeping?”

There was no response to that, either.

She was pretending to be asleep. But Challe couldn’t help but be concerned by her bagworm act. He lay down next to the bagworm, snuggling up close. The bagworm seemed bothered by that sensation and moved just a little, creeping around restlessly.

Challe lay motionless on his side, and after a little while, the blankets near the head of the bagworm shifted aside so that Anne could peek out. Challe and Anne suddenly found themselves face-to-face, close enough that their noses were almost touching.

“Eep!!”

Anne let out a strange shriek and tried to jump up. However, she was tightly wound up in her blankets, so just like a real bagworm, she stayed put and simply rolled over on the bed to face the ceiling.

Challe peered down at her from above.

“Pretending to sleep? Whatever for…?”

He started to say something else, but then he noticed that Anne’s eyes were damp with tears. The area around her eyes was puffy and red.

“What is it? Did something happen?” he asked.

“N-not really. It’s nothing.”

Challe placed his arms to the sides of Anne’s body to keep her in place, and she couldn’t sit up. He kept her there and peered down at her face.