Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 7 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5

FADING POWER, PRESERVING POWER

At Challe’s question, Lulu grimaced in a way that made it obvious that she knew she had made a mistake.

All of a sudden, her strength gave out. And she hadn’t had much strength to begin with, either to restrain Anne or to thrust the knife at her. Lulu was so weak that Anne could have shaken loose all by herself.

“How vexing… So I don’t even have the strength to escape…”

The knife fell from Lulu’s hand and hit the stone floor with a metallic clang. Lulu tried to cling to Anne as she slowly collapsed. In no time at all, she lost consciousness.

Hugh quickly loaded Lulu into the carriage and headed back to the royal castle with the candy crafters. Anne propped up Lulu as they were jostled in the carriage. The fairy would not wake up. When Anne felt how light and delicate Lulu’s body was, she recalled Noah, the fairy who had refused to eat anything for years because of an order from his former master. Noah had grown nearly too weak to continue living; he had almost disappeared. The way Lulu looked now reminded her of how Noah had looked back then.

Challe carried Lulu to the third floor of the Cocoon Tower, where she lived. The candy crafters watched her after she was laid in her bed.

“We’re not getting any more work done today. Go back to the keep.”

Hugh looked down at Lulu’s limp form and ordered the candy crafters away.

“You told us that when Lulu became bedridden, it was decided that she needed to train her successors, right, Viscount? But is she still unwell? I wonder if someone in such poor health can teach us anything at all.” Stella frowned, looking annoyed.

Hugh grimaced. “Well…no matter what happens, she’s going to teach you,” he said. “It’s her duty. Now go, all of you.”

His evasive words gave Anne a hunch.

Hugh is hiding something.

“What are you standing around for? You too, Anne, go on,” Hugh prompted.

She was about to walk away, when—

“…Wait. Anne, let me apologize.”

Anne heard Lulu’s thin voice and paused. The fairy had finally regained consciousness.

Anne looked at Hugh, wondering what she should do, and he urged her to move close to Lulu’s side.

The other candy crafters had already gone down the stairs. Challe alone remained near the top of the steps.

Anne returned to the bed and crouched beside it. When she looked at Lulu’s face, so pale that it looked almost transparent, as though she might vanish at any moment, Anne’s heart ached.

“That was wrong of me, Anne, to frighten you like that.”

“Oh no, I wasn’t afraid at all.”

Anne answered honestly, and Lulu grimaced.

“Well, that’s pretty bad, then. If I couldn’t scare you even just a little bit, then escape is out of the question.”

“Why are you so weak? I’ll make you some sugar candy. I probably can’t make anything as amazing as you can, but even so, I think eating some will give you a little energy.”

Even when Noah had been on the verge of vanishing, Anne had been able to save his life with candy. If Lulu ate some sugar candy as well, Anne thought she might improve at least a little. But Lulu shook her head.

“I don’t want it. There’s no need.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it’s not necessary,” she asserted forcefully.

Then Lulu looked up at Hugh. He was looking down at her with a stern expression.

“Silver Sugar Viscount,” Lulu said. “How will you punish me, now that I’ve attempted to run away?”

“I won’t punish you. I won’t even tell the queen. As long as you teach the five candy crafters, that is. So long as you just keep that promise, I can overlook almost anything.”

“Just what I’d expect from you. Sugar candy comes first, and everything else hardly matters, so long as it doesn’t disrupt the status quo.”

“That’s right. I am the Silver Sugar Viscount, after all. But tell me, teacher of mine, were you really planning to run away? Or was that just some sort of act? You must have known that you’d never get away.”

“I was serious. I’ve spent so, so long thinking of nothing but escape, so I wanted to try it. That’s all.”

“…What is going on here? Lulu, Viscount…”

They heard a voice quietly reproaching them.

Anne and Hugh turned around simultaneously to see who had spoken. Challe, who had been standing at the top of the spiral staircase, moved aside slightly, and Queen Marguerite came up the stairs.

The queen slowly approached Lulu with an angry expression on her face.

Anne made room for her, and the queen knelt down in the spot where Anne had been and took Lulu’s hand.

“What’s going on, Lulu? I received word from the Silver Sugar Viscount that you went out to look at the sugar apples and collapsed. Didn’t you recover from your spell? You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you? Tell me, please. I’m beside myself with worry.”

The queen’s expression was angry, but her voice was fearful.

Lulu turned her face away on her pillow and shook the queen’s hand off. “Oh, enough. What a pain. I can’t deal with this crybaby right now. Viscount, you explain. It’s too loud, so everyone go downstairs. I’m going to sleep.”

“Lulu!”

“Shut up! Go!”

Still facing away, Lulu yelled, and the queen shut her mouth tightly. She looked like she had been slapped. Hugh gently touched the queen on the shoulder.

“Your Majesty, go downstairs. I will explain.”

Hugh urged Anne, Challe, and the queen down the stairs.

In the workshop where the smell of silver sugar hung in the air, Hugh ordered Anne and Challe to return to the castle keep.

Anne started to head down the spiral staircase with Challe, but when they had gone halfway down, Challe tugged at her arm. When she turned around, he placed his index finger against his lips, signaling her to be quiet. He motioned toward the floor above them with his eyes.

They could hear the queen’s voice.

“Explain it, please, Silver Sugar Viscount. Why is Lulu in such a state?”

Even though Anne knew that it wasn’t good to eavesdrop, she wanted to know Lulu’s true situation. She couldn’t bring herself to leave. Instead, she peeked stealthily into the workshop. The queen had her back to them as she confronted Hugh.

“She’s at the end of her life,” Hugh announced with a sigh.

Anne was startled by his words and looked up at Challe. He frowned.

“She was born from a great tree, so Lulu’s lifespan is very long. I heard from her that at its longest, it could reach about a thousand years. But apparently, she’s been feeling her strength ebbing for the last century or so. When she collapsed four months ago, she knew that her time was near. She figured that at best, she had only half a year left. She informed me of this. At that point, I made a suggestion to His Majesty. I told him that we ought to train more successors in the candy making techniques of the fairies. Lulu was weak, but she agreed to take on students. In exchange, I promised to grant her wishes to the fullest extent possible.”

“It’s been four months since Lulu collapsed.”

“That’s right. She has one or two months left to live.”

“One or two months”?!

Anne felt like her head had been shaken violently.

She recalled the words of the doctor in Knoxberry Village, when he had called Anne out of the house after examining Anne’s mother, Emma, after her fall. “Your mother has half a year to live,” the doctor had said. At that time, Anne had just gaped at him, overwhelmed by it all. Nothing had seemed real, and her whole body had felt numb.

“One or two months”?! That’s…so soon? How awful.

“You decided this without consulting me? And then you concealed it from me? Something as important as this?”

“Yes.”

As soon as he said this, the queen slapped Hugh’s cheek.

“Why would you disregard me and act on your own?! Everything to do with the silver sugar fairies is my responsibility. Your behavior is unacceptable for a retainer! You should have told me!”

Despite having been struck, Hugh did not turn away from the queen. He stared straight at her.

“It was unacceptable as your retainer. However, my teacher wished for me to move things along without informing you. And I consider her my master. It was the final wish of a fairy who has spent the last five hundred years imprisoned here, doing nothing but working silver sugar. Like a good student, I was going to grant my teacher’s wish, as long as it didn’t cause any problems.”

“Why didn’t she want you to tell me?!”

“Because Lulu knew that you would become emotional, as you have.”

“Emotional?! When have I—”

“…You’re crying, aren’t you?”

Hugh quietly pointed this out, and the queen shook with a start.

“I don’t know what hardships you went through after marrying His Majesty at the age of seventeen. But I do know that when I met you again ten years later, that sensible, timid, and shy girl had become a dignified queen. The royal castle is not a relaxing place to be. You can’t let your guard down. You can’t show anyone your true feelings. But there is one person here who has nothing to do with castle politics: the silver sugar fairy hidden at the center of the castle. You were entrusted with her, and I can imagine what kind of conversations you had with her and what kind of times you spent together. Lulu hated the idea of making you cry. You know her and her disposition.”

The queen hung her head. Her shoulders were still shaking.

“Marguerite.”

Hugh called her name as if trying to comfort her, and the queen lifted her head abruptly.

“I won’t permit you to look at me with such pity in your eyes. I am the queen, wife of His Majesty the King.”

“I will ask Lulu to continue instructing her successors.”

“You are an awful man, Hugh. To ask that of Lulu when she’s so weak.”

“It would be even more awful if the secret techniques of the fairies were to disappear. For fairykind and humankind both.”

His voice was cold, befitting a Silver Sugar Viscount.

“One or two months left.”

After they had eavesdropped on the conversation between Hugh and the queen, Challe urged Anne on, and they left the Cocoon Tower. Anne seemed to have been rattled by the discussion about the end of Lulu’s life, and she was wearing a doleful expression as they headed back toward the castle keep. Challe had also been rather shocked, but the revelation had been no great surprise.

Fairies born from large trees were said to have the potential to live from several hundred to a thousand years. But Lulu was already six hundred years old. Accounting for individual differences, it was no wonder her time to die was approaching.

Challe finally understood Lulu’s feelings and why she had simply wished to meet Challe, the fairy to whom Riselva had entrusted the future. Aware that her life was coming to a close, she must have wanted to check on certain things that were important to her.

As they stepped off the cobblestone path that led straight from the Cocoon Tower and into the hallway of the castle keep, Anne suddenly grabbed Challe’s jacket. When he stopped and looked down at her, she was hanging her head. All he could see was the hair on the back of her head.

“Listen, Challe…do you like Lulu?”

As a fellow fairy, he ached at Lulu’s circumstances. And she was not an unpleasant person. Still, it had only been two days since they’d met. He didn’t particularly like or dislike her.

“I don’t dislike her.”

He gave this initial answer, and Anne’s grip on his jacket tightened.

“Lulu seems to like you, too. Could she become your lover?”

“Lulu?”

Challe had spent a long time with Lulu the previous day, but she hadn’t been flirtatious in the slightest.

“She told me to ask you. Lulu did. To ask if you could become her lover, Challe.”

“What do you think?”

“Why ask me? This is a question for you and Lulu to consider. It’s none of my business.”

“None of your business? What does that mean?”

The tone of his voice demanded an explanation, but Anne didn’t look up.

“After all, it’s only natural. You and Lulu, I mean. I don’t have the right to object.”

Anne sounded indifferent. He couldn’t see her expression.

None of Anne’s business? Only natural? Quite right.

“So could Lulu become your lover?”

“…Is that what you want?”

The moment he asked, Anne’s shoulders shook with a start. Then she nodded sharply. If Anne desired something, Challe wanted to grant it, no matter what it was. But when Anne nodded, it suddenly became painful to be close to her.

“If that’s what you wish…very well. The question is whether I can become her lover or not, yes? Let me go try.”

Challe spun around. Anne’s hand, which had been holding tightly to his jacket, slipped away.

As she listened to the sound of Challe’s boots heading toward the Cocoon Tower again, Anne was unable to lift her head.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

She had practiced this over and over again in her mind, but in the depths of her heart, she could hear herself calling Challe’s name. There was nothing she could do about the conflict raging in her chest.

This is Lulu’s wish.

The moment Anne had learned that Lulu’s remaining time was only one or two months, the image of Emma lying in her bed for the whole half a year before she’d died had arisen in her mind, and now it wouldn’t leave her thoughts.

When Emma passed, Anne had been bitterly upset about those six months. She had blamed herself, convinced that if she had been stronger, she would have been able to make some more enjoyable memories for Emma during the end of her life.

Lulu’s time was even shorter. The end of her life was right before their eyes.

Lulu was a fairy. If she ate some sugar candy, her life would probably lengthen, but she had already rejected Anne’s proposal, flatly and without hesitation. That reminded Anne of Noah. She got the feeling that deep down, Lulu did not want to live. Something about her gave one the sense she was weary of life.

If a fairy who had been kept prisoner by humans for five hundred years desired something, then Anne wanted to give it to her, no matter what it was.

Lulu had said that she wouldn’t mind taking Challe as her lover. If she had a partner like Challe, that might help her rediscover the desire to live. She might agree to eat some sugar candy and extend her life. And if that happened, Challe would also get a companion.

Everything would work out great.

“Anne? What’s going on?”

Someone called her name from behind her. It was Keith. But she couldn’t manage to turn around or even to raise her head.

“What’s the matter, Anne?” Keith asked in his usual kind, considerate tone. He was standing directly in front of Anne, peering down at her face.

“Are you crying?”

She wished she could say no and look up at him with a smile on her face, but it was impossible. Keith’s hands touched both of Anne’s shoulders, and he gently, hesitantly pulled her toward him.

“What’s the matter? I don’t know what happened, but I think it’s all right to cry if you want to, don’t you?”

The moment he said that, Anne burst into tears. Her shoulders shook.

On some level, Anne did want Challe and Lulu to become lovers, but even though she knew that was the right thing to be hoping for, the thought was so painful that it made her want to tear out her heart. Her feelings were in hopeless disarray.

“Anne. It’s okay to cry.”

Even though Keith was hugging her tightly, she was hardly even aware of it.

Anne looked different when she was crying. She didn’t seem like she was going to hurry off somewhere, like she usually did. Perhaps that made Keith feel secure somehow, because his impatience seemed to melt away in that moment.

She looked so pitiful as she sobbed that he instinctively hugged her. Holding her like that, he felt the warmth from her body and the feminine slenderness of her frame, so different from a man’s. That made him hug her even tighter. Anne did not resist. When he buried his face in her hair, he smelled the fragrance of silver sugar. A sweet scent.

“Anne, it’s okay to cry.”

When he whispered that, Anne sobbed even harder. A sweet, tender feeling flooded Keith’s chest.

I want to make her mine.

For the first time in his life, Keith felt a strong urge for someone.

Since Anne was his rival, someone with whom he wanted to stand on an equal footing, Keith had been feeling anxious about everything that she said or did. He’d been worried and scared that she might climb out of his reach someday. Anne was someone to compete against and work with. But she was unmistakably a girl, and her body was much slenderer and her skin much softer than his. That was abundantly clear to him now.

We’re both candy crafters. But Anne is a girl.

Feelings of affection flooded his chest. He hadn’t noticed the obvious because he had only seen Anne as a fellow candy crafter before.

Keith was worried that his fear of being outpaced would come back to haunt him as soon as Anne stopped crying. But he was a man, so he didn’t think he ought to feel so anxious or impatient.

Holding a girl made him sharply aware of his own masculinity. Keith was a man, and he was taller than Anne. He was stronger. His hands were bigger. When he thought about it like that, he felt ridiculous being worried and anxious.

If he was worried, all he had to do was work harder, until his anxieties disappeared. All he had to do was keep polishing his skills.

The girl crying in his arms was small and helpless, and he didn’t want to let her cry any longer. If he could hug her tight and remove the sadness in her heart, he would.

As a candy crafter, Anne was his competition. But at the same time, she was a weak little girl, and Keith was a man who was much stronger. He understood that clearly.

I want to stand with her and protect her. I want to make Anne mine.

His desire for Anne was more powerful than any he had ever known before. He couldn’t dismiss it. The light of the setting sun shone in, casting Anne and Keith’s elongated shadows down the hall.

Challe headed for the Cocoon Tower. This was what Anne wanted. If he kept that in mind, he could do anything without hesitation.

But this time, his chest felt painful and empty.

Hugh and the queen appeared to have left the Cocoon Tower. There was no sign of anyone inside. Challe climbed the spiral staircase to the third floor and cut across the room, going straight for Lulu’s bed.