Sugar Apple Fairytale - Volume 7 - Chapter 6.2

I want to do that, too.

The feelings of her childhood rushed back to her. Thrilling excitement accompanied an eagerness that seemed like it would make her heart leap right out of her chest. Anne’s emotions seemed like they would catapult her off toward some unknown but exhilarating destination.

With my teacher.

Hugh called Lulu his teacher, and Lulu hated it because he used the word to tease her. But maybe Hugh actually did respect Lulu, and maybe that was exactly why he called her his teacher, even if he did it jokingly.

“If you repeat this process twice, it gets as thin as a strand of hair. But this thread hardens quickly. After a day, it breaks easily. Before that happens, you need to use it to form your sculptures. Speed is a requirement. As is careful work.”

Lulu sat down in her chair again with a thump. It was like she had run out of energy.

“The tools are all here. Now practice. That’s what you’re here to do, right?”

Anne moved her eyes over to the workbench. Sitting there were several spindles. Not attempting to suppress her enthusiasm, Anne was about to reach out for one.

But she saw Stella slowly walking toward Lulu, and her hand stopped.

“What is it, Nobody?”

Lulu looked up at Stella.

Stella looked like he was in sort of a daze as he stood before Lulu, but his eyes were glinting sharply. Challe seemed to slightly raise his guard, as if he sensed something dangerous in his gaze.

“What do you do?” Stella asked.

“What do you mean, ‘What do you do?’”

“You make that thread, and then? How do you turn it into a candy sculpture? Teach me, please, quickly.”

The desire to know seemed to be rising from his whole body like a haze. Even Stella, who was always cynical about everything, was stirred by a will to learn. Although he was always derisive about everything else, he must be strongly drawn to this knowledge, which he simply could not dismiss or pass up.

“Hmph. I don’t even know your name, so you’re no pupil of mine.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you my name now and become your pupil.”

“No, I don’t need any more students.”

“Why?!”

“Foolish boy! You must learn that there are limits to other people’s patience. When you want something, is there always someone around to bring it to you? Or teach it to you?!”

Lulu shoved Stella away and rose to her feet. She was trembling slightly, but even so, she firmly stood her ground and regained her bearing, then looked around at Stella and the other four crafters with unsparing eyes. Her wing stretched taut and turned a transparent orangey color.

“You don’t give it a bit of thought—you just ask for it to be handed to you, is that it?! Are you just here to steal the techniques of the fairies?! I’m sick of you. I don’t want to teach a damn thing to novices like these. I don’t care if the Silver Sugar Viscount threatens me. My life will be over soon anyway. I fear nothing.”

Lulu was suddenly seething with anger. Panicking, Keith tugged on Stella’s arm and pulled him away, then stepped forward himself.

“We’re sorry, Lulu!” Keith said. “Please forgive our insolence, we—”

“Silence, human! I didn’t want my final pupils to be some lowly humans anyway. What a disappointment. You five don’t think about anything. People like you are no students of mine.”

“We’ll think things over!”

Without meaning to, Anne spoke up.

“We’ll put our heads together! All of us!”

Anne didn’t want to make Lulu feel hopeless. She had come to this place as one of the chosen few, and if Lulu gave up on her now, she felt like she would never be able to call herself a candy crafter again.

Lulu didn’t have enough time left to train new candy crafting fairies and impart her techniques to them.

That was why she had no other option but to take humans as her final class of pupils. If she was overtaken by despair, then the skills that the fairies had developed would be lost. As a candy crafter, Anne had to prevent that at all costs. If she didn’t, she felt like humans would lose all rights to even make sugar candy.

“We’ll practice the technique until we can produce this thread. Then we’ll think about how the thread might become a candy sculpture and try to make it into something. So you see, we are your pupils!”

Lulu snorted dismissively.

“If you think you can, go ahead and try, little girl.”

Anne nodded firmly.

“Okay.”

Lulu gave Challe her hand. She was still unsteady on her feet. Together, they ascended the spiral stairs.

I said I would think about it. What should I do now…?

Even though Anne was the one who’d said she would think about it, she had a feeling that with her basic skills and knowledge, she had little hope of deciphering the techniques and knowledge of the fairies.

But I have to try! If I don’t, Lulu will lose all hope.

The silence lingered, and Anne grasped her spindle tightly.

Keith and Stella were both in a daze, still staring in the direction that Lulu had gone.

Killean let out a long sigh, took off his monocle, and rubbed his eyes. “You sure made Lulu mad. What were you thinking?” he demanded. “I bet now she won’t teach us anything else.”

When he said that, Elliott grinned. “There’s nothing to do but try, right, Anne?” Elliott said. “Since you made a point of it and all.”

Anne raised her head and looked at Elliott. She was startled to see the excitement of a new challenge in Elliott’s expression. Suddenly, Anne felt the tension and worry leave her, and she started to relax.

That’s right. Right now, we have five people.

Elliott, Killean, Keith, and Stella were all candy crafters who had been hand selected by the Silver Sugar Viscount. Their skills were top-notch. They were people with real talent and confidence.

With five candy crafters, there was a good chance they could come up with something.

This is the first step. It’s just like when I first touched silver sugar. Exactly like that time.

This seemed like a challenge that she ought to enjoy. Along with all the impatience and anxiety, excitement began to bloom in Anne.

In the world of sugar candy, crafters do not learn every little detail from their teachers. They watch what their teachers do, commit this to memory, and practice it to sharpen their skills. Then they think about it some more on their own and work out even more clever techniques.

They had seen Lulu show them her method for making silver sugar dough once. Now it was up to them to learn from that and work it out on their own.

That was probably the right way to go about it.

The sun had fully set, but not a single one of them was ready to leave the workspace.

Over and over again, the crafters kneaded their silver sugar dough and spun their spindles.

The workspace was illuminated by lamplight, but the glow offered no warmth. The interior of the tower, which was surrounded by lingering snowdrifts, was cold enough to chill their toes, yet none of them seemed concerned about it. Far from it—each had a thin film of sweat on their forehead.

“Aww, it broke again!”

Elliott, who had been twirling his spindle, let out a strange cry. At his feet, the tool, with silver sugar thread wound around it, rolled and rolled on the floor.

Stella snapped back at him, “Why you… Stop whining over there. Now mine’s all tangled!”

He was carefully unwinding thread from his spindle and placing it on his workbench. It had tangled into knots in several places.

“Well, I’m not gonna let you blame me for that.” As he picked up his spindle, Elliott peeked over at what Stella was doing. “But you’re actually getting pretty good, Stella dear.”

“Of course I am!”

“Maybe ladies really are better suited for this kind of work.”

“Wait a second. What did you just say?”

Ignoring Stella, who was glaring daggers at him, Elliott peeked over at Anne’s work next. “Sweet Stella is doing well,” he said, “but Anne’s thread is the finest and the longest.”

As she spun her spindle, Anne forced a smile.

“I don’t think that’s true. There’s still some unevenness in the width. But this is work that demands patience, so girls probably are better suited for it.”

There wasn’t that much difference in their threads. Given that they were all first-rate crafters, they had all basically figured out how to do this difficult task already.

They just hadn’t mastered it yet. There were inconsistencies in the thicknesses of their threads, and if they lost focus, their threads quickly snapped. Anne was facing the same issues.

But she wasn’t as exhausted as the men. Persevering and repeating the same minute movements over and over again seemed to be better suited to the feminine temperament. Men seemed to get more fatigued by it than women.

It was the first time that something actually came easier to Anne than her peers.

When making sugar candy, Anne had always been aware of the difference between men’s physical strength and her own. It had always taken all her effort to complete tasks that men could do with relative ease. But now their positions were reversed. Anne didn’t feel all that tired, but dark circles had formed underneath the men’s eyes.

By the time nine days had passed, the crafters had started to master the skill of spinning candy thread, and their results had improved dramatically. They’d gotten to the point where they could spin smooth strands of silvery thread from their fingertips, and the tops of their workbenches had quickly been covered in mountains of thread.

On the morning of the tenth day, Anne entered the workspace and looked down at her mountain of thread. She touched it gently, and all the threads except those that she had spun the night before crumbled into bits and scattered across the top of the workbench.

“What am I supposed to do with all this?”

She frowned. Then Keith approached her, holding up his spindle.

“It dries out as quickly as they say, huh? If you’re going to make something out of this, you probably only have one day to do it, don’t you think?”

“You’re talking about making something out of it, but how do you even begin turning this into a candy sculpture?”

“It’s got to be for animal fur, right? Other than that, is there any other way to use it?” Elliott said jokingly from behind them. He and Killean had been carrying barrels of cold water up the stairs.

They set their barrels down, and both Killean and Elliott came over to Anne and Keith.

“I know Collins was just joking, but to be clear, I also can’t think of any other way to use this stuff in a sculpture,” Killean muttered. He sounded tired.

“Well, you’re not gonna figure it out standing around looking at each other, are you?” a voice said from the spiral staircase. It was Stella. He seemed to hate mornings, and he always showed up in a bad mood around the time that Anne and the others were nearly done getting ready to work. And he didn’t appear the least bit ashamed of it, either. Untangling his silvery hair with his fingers, he walked over to them.

“Hey, listen… That candy sculpture,” Stella said, suppressing a yawn. “The one that Lulu showed us in the beginning. What if we look at that?” he suggested gruffly.

“Oh, that’s right!”

Anne ran over to the candy sculpture that had been sitting in the corner of the room and returned carrying it in her arms. She placed it on her workbench and removed the protective cloth.

The translucent flag bearing the Millsland family crest. With its vivid colors, it was swathed in light, as if woven from a rainbow. However—

“It’s not a very showy motif, is it? I wonder why Lulu chose this design?” Elliott said, frowning as he stared fixedly at the candy sculpture.

Anne looked down at the candy again.

Certainly, as a work of art, it was pretty plain. But the quality of the light and the vividness of the colors shone through wonderfully. Lulu had probably chosen the motif because it would be easy for anyone to understand.

Easy to understand?

Suddenly, something clicked.

“A flag…”

She felt like she was on the verge of grasping something. She mumbled to herself, and Keith cocked his head.

“A flag? What about it?”

“What makes a flag special?”

“What makes it special…? Well, let’s see—it’s a symbol.”

“What else?”

“People get mad at you if you get them dirty,” Elliott said jokingly.

Killean, on the other hand, answered after a moment of serious thought. “It waves in the wind.”

Sounding bored, Stella said, “In the end, it’s just cloth.”

Anne started.

“Cloth…!”

She quickly looked around at the other four candy crafters.

“Flags are made of cloth!”

“And so?”

Anne turned to Stella, who was frowning and looking annoyed at Anne’s exuberance, and said in an even louder voice, “Cloth is woven from thread!”

At that very moment, the expressions on the four candy crafters’ faces changed.

“Weaving…,” Stella muttered.

Elliott swiftly looked around. Then he seemed to hit upon something and whacked Killean on the back.

“That’s it! Killean, come with me!”

From the messy jumble of tools in one corner of the workspace, Elliott and Killean pulled out a wooden machine of some sort that was about the size of a workbench. They carried the heavy-looking thing over. Anne had seen something like it before.

“This looks like a loom.”

“We’re weaving!” Elliott was keeping his voice low, but it still had a ring of excitement to it. “We’re going to weave our silver sugar threads. But it’s not going to be easy to do, I bet.”

The wooden machine that Elliott and Killean had pulled out was indeed a loom. Its frame was about the same size as a workbench, and its legs were like a table’s. The wooden frame was built so that warp threads could pass through it, and down at the feet were plank-like pedals for moving those threads up and down to advance the weave.

Lulu had said something after showing them how to spin the silver sugar threads. “The tools are all here.”

“So you finally took that thing out, huh?” a voice said from behind the crafters, who were all overcome by their discovery.

Hugh had come up the stairs and was slowly walking over to them. After looking around at the speechless crafters, he ran a finger across the frame of the loom.

“This machine is finicky. The silver sugar threads break easily. You have to treat them carefully, but if you take too much time, they dry out and fall to pieces. Even getting the threads into place is difficult. Do you think you’re up to the task?”

As the Silver Sugar Viscount, Hugh had learned all these techniques from Lulu. But he didn’t seem inclined to teach the crafters a single thing himself. He would only give them hints. He had barely even shown his face the whole time they’d been there. Even now, he’d just dropped by to stir them up. But Anne understood that this, too, was a way of mentoring.

Lulu and Hugh are very similar.

Neither of them coddled the candy crafters. They didn’t have time for people without enthusiasm or skill. They just scolded the crafters to come meet them where they already were. They wanted their pupils to show their true abilities.

“We are. We will,” Anne mumbled as if she was speaking to herself, and the other four crafters nodded.

Hugh ordered them bluntly, “All right then, try.”

The crafters show up at the workspace in the Cocoon Tower early in the morning, and they stayed there until the middle of the night. They struggled the entire time, spinning thread with their spindles, then trying to weave the thread they had spun into cloth. They did not rest. They showed surprising perseverance and focused only on their silver sugar.

They kept this up for ten days.

Challe stayed on the top floor of the Cocoon Tower the whole time, gazing out at the snowy scenery from its sole window. From time to time, he would hear Anne’s voice from the lower floor. Whenever he heard her lively, clear voice, his feelings were soothed.

He could tell that she must be engrossed in learning a new skill and that all unnecessary thoughts had vanished from her head. She might not even have realized that he hadn’t even shown up once the whole time they’d been working. That was just like Anne.

“Hey, you okay?”

Challe heard Mithril Lid Pod’s voice, so he turned around just as Lulu was wobbling up the stairs. Mithril was standing close to Lulu, looking worried.

“Don’t you worry. I want to get some outside air,” she said.

She staggered forward unsteadily, so Challe rushed over to support her.

As soon as he did, Mithril glared angrily and leaped up onto Challe’s shoulder, then yanked on his hair.

“Hey! Challe Fenn Challe! Unhand her, you pervert!”

“Shut up. I’m not planning on doing anything weird to this poor woman. Instead of worrying about me, how about you fetch some water for her?”

“Oh? Ah, right. Wait a minute, please, Lulu Leaf Lean.”

Mithril disappeared downstairs. Lulu watched him go and smiled wryly.

“He’s a good fellow, that one.”

“He’s just loud, but if you like him so much, you could ask him to marry you.”

“I think I’ll refrain.”

Challe guided Lulu over near the window, where she could lean against the wall. Lulu narrowed her eyes, looking pleased.

“The crafters are working hard. I’m sure they must be having a difficult time of it.”

“Why did you make it seem like you were so angry with them?”

Lulu had not shown her face in front of the candy crafters since she had yelled at them. But Challe knew that she hadn’t really been angry when she did that. She had made a scene on purpose. His proof was that there hadn’t been any of the characteristic shaking in her wing that occurred with an outburst of anger.

“How much capacity does the human animal have for learning, I wonder? I still don’t have any idea,” Lulu mumbled, not answering Challe’s question. Then she asked him one of her own. “What about you? Has your time here allowed you to collect your thoughts?”

Challe also looked out the window.

“When the time comes, I’m going to need to be ready to negotiate.”

“‘Negotiate’? With who, over what?”

“You’ll see when the moment arrives. There’s something I need to check, too…”

Challe was still hamstrung by doubt.

Lulu smiled at him. “Anne, is it? You still haven’t made up your mind to find out how the girl feels? Plumbing the depths of a human’s heart is a scary business, even when you’ve lived for hundreds of years. Especially when it’s someone you love.”

Anne and the other crafters continued attempting to work things out.

Everyone had made a certain amount of progress in spinning the silver sugar into thread. But weaving the thread into cloth was many times more difficult than making it.

They’d tried to pass hundreds of threads of silver sugar through the loom. But they all quickly broke into bits. Even when they thought they had gotten them safely threaded through, before too long, someone would end up handling them too roughly, and they would all break. Even when they successfully threaded the warp threads through, the threads had snapped when they tried to move to passing in the weft threads. And even when they managed to weave a weft thread, it broke as soon as they tried pushing it down.

If they were too careful, too much time would pass, and the silver sugar threads would dry out and crumble.

Yet the crafters kept at, trying again and again and again.

As usual, Lulu did not make an appearance.

And neither did Challe, who never went back to Anne’s room. Mithril had gone to her room once to make a puzzling announcement. “Don’t worry. I’m keeping an eye on that Challe!” he’d said before beating his chest and leaving again. Apparently, Mithril was also staying with Lulu. Anne was relieved to know that. At least that meant he hadn’t been captured as an intruder.

The fairies were all spending time together.

It must have been comforting, to feel like they were back in the age of legends, when the fairy king was still around. Since Challe was staying put, that must have meant he was spending his nights as Lulu’s lover.

That’s a good thing.

She felt herself wavering and told herself that many times over. She was grateful that working with the silver sugar would stave off such unwelcome thoughts.

If she didn’t concentrate, she would never make anything out of the silver sugar threads.

After twenty days had gone by, and the snow in the circular garden had dwindled further, the earth began to show its face. Once again, Anne and the others got to work in the morning and continued toiling away until the middle of the night.

Anne ate her late dinner with the other candy crafters, then went back to her room. She was exhausted. Day by day, a heavy fatigue had been building up in the core of her body. She couldn’t wait to lay down in bed.

As soon as she stepped into her bedroom, she stopped, startled. Challe was sitting by the far window. He had one leg up on the frame and was looking out the window.

Challe!

The faint light of the Cocoon Tower made Challe’s long eyelashes stand out in sharp relief. He noticed Anne standing there and turned listlessly to face her. In the dim light, he looked eerily gorgeous. He was so beautiful, he seemed like he could seduce the gods themselves.

Challe, Challe!

Anne was flooded with a deluge of joy and yearning. The feelings sprang up so strongly in her that it felt like they might fly right out of her. But she stifled them firmly.

Challe had spent twenty days with Lulu, and during that time, he must have become her lover. It was wrong for Anne to yearn for him now.

“Challe…it’s been a while… It feels a little strange even to say your name. What made you come here so suddenly?”

Anne smiled, trying to look as natural as possible.

“And how is Lulu’s condition?” she asked. “We’ve been working on our crafting. I don’t think it will be long before we can make sugar candy for Lulu.”

“Unfortunately, Lulu isn’t going to eat any candy.”

“Why not?! Doesn’t she want to be with her lover even just a little while longer?! You’ll be all alone if she refuses, won’t you?! I’ll persuade her. I’ll talk her into it, for your sake!”

If Lulu was going to continue being stubborn even now that she had a lover, soon Challe would be left behind. Anne was sure that he would be heartbroken. She whirled around, intending to head to the Cocoon Tower. But Challe got down off the window frame and grabbed Anne’s wrist to stop her.

“Wait! What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. Why did you say you would do it for my sake?”

“Because if Lulu lives longer, then you can be with her forever. You are lovers, after all.”

“Who are lovers?”

“What do you mean who? You and Lulu.”

“How did you come up with that?”

“I mean, you said you were going to go find out whether or not you could become lovers, and you left and never came back again. You’ve been with her for twenty days, so naturally…uh…? Am I wrong?”

“Oh yes, there was someone else caught up in that ridiculous misunderstanding… I guess I forgot…”

Challe looked up at the ceiling and sighed. He looked sincerely annoyed.

“Lulu was just joking about that. And yet Mithril Lid Pod also made that same strange mistake.”

“Joking?”

“That’s right. I have absolutely no such feelings for Lulu.”

“A joke? That was…a joke… So I’ve been…”

She felt her body go weak. For the past twenty days, she had been praying hard for Challe and Lulu, but apparently, she had been a fool. Little wonder, then, that Lulu still wasn’t interested in extending her life. In which case, Anne wondered, how were they going to get Lulu to eat some sugar candy? She suddenly felt even more exhausted at the difficulty of it all.

“Mithril Lid Pod seems to have gotten the wrong idea about something, and he’s still camping out in Lulu’s room. He says he’s keeping watch over me.”

“Mithril Lid Pod… Is that what he meant when he said he has eyes on you?”

Mithril had probably assumed that there was something going on between Challe and Lulu and barged into Lulu’s room. Anne was sure he had been getting in the way to interfere with Lulu and Challe’s relationship. She had no doubt that it was all part of his funny notion about repaying his debt to Anne by making her love come true. She was afraid that Mithril might have said something to Challe about her being in love with him while he was over there.

“By the way, did Mithril Lid Pod say anything? About me.”

“Nothing much.”

She was relieved to hear that, but her blood ran cold when she heard Challe’s next words.

“But he did say that you had been crying. What for? You’ve been acting strangely ever since we came here. You’ve been crying a lot, for no discernible reason. Why all the tears?”

It wasn’t really true that it was for no reason, it was just that she couldn’t tell Challe why.

“Why? Well, that’s…um…”

“I don’t want you to cry. I promised to protect you.”

Honestly, she had absolutely no idea what to say. How could she, when the person who was telling her that was also the very source of her tears?

“S-so anyway, Challe. Tell me, why were you with Lulu for twenty days? It seems rude to stay that long in a woman’s room when she isn’t even your lover.”

When Anne changed the subject, Challe stared at her with a serious look on his face.

“I was thinking. About the fairies…and also about you.”

Challe covered Anne’s cheek with his hand. It felt like it had been a very long time since he’d touched her.

That night in the fortress in the wilderness where Lafalle had taken them, when they’d felt strangely close—that had been the last time Challe had touched her so firmly.

Challe’s eyes were gentle, and in the soft light of the Cocoon Tower pouring through the window, his wing gleamed pale blue flecked with silver.

“I probably shouldn’t have come back,” he said. “I’m still confused. I’m not sure whether I should ask you.”

With both hands, Challe tilted Anne’s head back, peering into her eyes. Her heart was racing. She felt like she would be swallowed up by his seductive black eyes.

“Ask me what…?”

That’s when it happened. The door swung open with great force, and a small figure came bounding in. It was Mithril.

Simultaneously, Anne and Challe both took one swift step backward, but Mithril seemed too worked up to notice how unnatural this was. Pale in the face, he rushed over to them and jumped up on Anne’s shoulder.

“Terrible news! Lulu Leaf Lean isn’t looking well!”

Anne looked up at Challe. He, too, was wearing a grim expression.

“I’ll go to the Cocoon Tower. Anne, you inform the proxy maestro of the Mercury Workshop and tell him to get a message to the Silver Sugar Viscount. He ought to know how to get in contact with the Viscount. Mithril Lid Pod, you stay here. It’ll cause trouble if you’re discovered.”

After Challe said all that, he dashed out of the room.

Anne also left, just behind Challe, and headed for Killean’s quarters. As soon as she informed him of the situation, he immediately ran off to tell Hugh. Soon, the other crafters heard all the fuss and woke up. Once they learned Lulu’s condition had taken a turn for the worse, they immediately headed for the Cocoon Tower.

Anne also ran over to the Cocoon Tower. She burst in and dashed up the spiral staircase to the top room of the tower.

Challe was standing by Lulu’s bedside.

Together with the other crafters, Anne approached the bed. She was startled by Lulu’s appearance.

Her eyes were closed, and she looked limp. The strength had left her body. What’s more, the tips of Lulu’s hair, which was spread out across the bed, were dissolving into beads of light, as if they were melting softly into the air. The disintegration was happening so slowly that it was almost imperceptible. A chill of fear crept up Anne’s spine.

“Lulu!”

When Anne shouted the fairy’s name, Lulu opened her eyes slightly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I owe you an apology. About Challe…I was just teasing you with that.”

Anne couldn’t even answer her. She felt tears well in her eyes. Then someone grabbed her shoulders and roughly shoved her to one side.

It was Stella, and he was staring down at Lulu with an extremely angry expression on his face.

“You told us to think things over, and now we have. We’re doing it. Aren’t you going to stick around and see the results? You must have more to teach us after we’re done thinking.”

“I don’t care. Polish your skills by yourselves. That’s how practice works.”

“So you’re just throwing everything away? How can you be so irresponsible?!”

As soon as he started shouting, Stella had a violent coughing fit. Keith tried to rub his back, but Stella brushed his hand away and raised his voice again.

“Anyway, you have to eat some sugar candy!” Stella insisted.

But Lulu burst out laughing. “What are you so angry about, Mr. Nobody? You hated the sight of me, and soon I’ll be gone.”

“It’s not like that, and besides, you…you have to eat some sugar candy! Right this minute!”

“I’m not eating anything. Sorry.”

“Don’t mess around! I’ll force you to eat some if I have to,” he threatened in a low voice. “And while I’m at it, I may as well say, my name isn’t Nobody. It’s Stella.”

Then Stella ran off, headed toward the workspace.

Keith watched him go, then followed after him with a determined look on his face. “I’m going, too.”

“We’ll get you to eat something, Lulu,” Elliott said with an earnest expression. Then he clapped Killean on the shoulder. “Let’s go, Killean.”

“Got it.”

Elliott and Killean also headed for the workspace.

Anne also stepped forward, intending to go with them, but Lulu grabbed her wrist.

“You don’t have to go, Anne.”

“Just wait for us, please, Lulu,” Anne replied. “We’ll bring you sugar candy soon!”

“Given how weak I am, a candy sculpture would have to be made with the greatest expertise to prolong my life, and it would have to be made in a shape that has some meaning to me as well. No matter how fine the candy sculpture you all make turns out, there’s no way for you to know what you should craft when you don’t know my desires. So don’t waste your effort.”

“Then please tell me—what would be meaningful to you?!”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Please tell me! Let us make candy for you, please! We’ll use all the skills you taught us! We may just be pupils, but I hate the idea of you dying without us being able to do anything!!”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Lulu! Why not?!”

Anne felt so hopeless she could cry.

Just then, Challe knelt down next to Lulu’s pillow. “Would you still give up on life if you had the chance to teach fairy knowledge to other fairies?” he asked.

Lulu’s expression changed. Her grip on Anne’s wrist slackened.

“Riselva entrusted me with our future,” Challe continued. “I still don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do about it. But just now, I’ve figured out one thing that I ought to do.”

Challe spoke quietly. His profile was elegant and dignified, filled with imperturbable beauty.

“What do you think you can do, Challe? Don’t tell me that bargain you were talking about…was for my sake?”

“Not for your sake, no. For the sake of fairy culture.”

Challe stood up. Anne looked up at him, wondering what he was planning on doing, and Challe spoke to her gently.

“Anne, you learn all the fairies’ skills and techniques from Lulu,” he said. “I have a feeling that you can handle it. Lulu needs to live in order for that to happen. I’m going to need a strategy. If I fail, I may not be able to stay by your side as I have until now. But no matter where I am, I will keep my oath to protect you.”

“Strategy? Huh? What for? What are you planning to do, Challe?”

She wondered what Challe had made up his mind to do. She felt shaken by his words.

Just then, Challe’s face went blank. She saw him glance behind her.

“Silver Sugar Viscount. And…His Royal Highness, ruler of the Kingdom of Highland, Edmond the Second…?”

Anne turned around in surprise, and there was the Silver Sugar Viscount, Hugh Mercury. In front of him were Queen Marguerite and the Earl of Downing, along with King Edmond II.

Anne was astonished when she laid eyes on King Edmond.

“It’s him…!”

Challe slowly turned around to confront them.