"Are we really taking her with us?"
After parting ways with Grímr and leaving Manchester behind, Shiomi and Aesc began their journey toward Oxford, the territory of the Fang Clan. On the road, Shiomi posed the question.
"Are you worried, my husband?" Aesc asked in return.
She could understand his concern.
Trustworthy fairies were few and far between. The only reason the Mirror Clan's Lake District had become one of their secure rear bases was that those fairies were naturally averse to conflict—a peaceful clan that allowed Shiomi to rest easier than most.
"A little, maybe." Shiomi shrugged.
He glanced ahead at Totorot, walking briskly down the road.
Though she had a weaving wheel she could ride, she insisted on walking before them with her tiny steps. Her reason was simple: as a fairy of the Wing Clan, she knew the route to Gloucester best.
But her bouncy, excited pace gave her away completely—the little fairy's enthusiasm was written all over her.
"Then keep that bit of worry," Aesc said with a small laugh. "I'm not exactly the cautious one, so I'll rely on you to cover that part for me."
"That's not what I meant," Shiomi sighed.
It wasn't that he feared Totorot would suddenly turn on them or betray them.
"Then what is it?" Aesc offered her thoughts. "Totorot says she's a fairy born to care for and support brides. I may already be married, but her sincerity doesn't feel like a lie. I think she can be trusted."
Shiomi, however, looked displeased. "That's easy for you to say when she keeps calling you 'our bride.'"
"Talking about the 'Bride,' are we?"
Totorot, with her uncanny sense for anything involving brides, perked up immediately. Even if the topic wasn't directly about one, she'd still catch the word the moment it drifted her way.
"..." Shiomi fell silent.
Aesc couldn't help smiling. She knew perfectly well what was bothering him—it was the way Totorot addressed her.
"No, we were just talking casually," Aesc said. "But I am already married. Calling me 'our bride'—don't you think that's a bit odd?"
"What's wrong with it?" Totorot tilted her head. "To us, a 'bride' is the most precious treasure in the world. Because we can never 'grow up' enough to become one ourselves."
"Oh?" Shiomi raised an eyebrow. "So you mean—"
"Since I can't become a bride, I'll give everything I have to protect the futures of the beautiful girls I fall in love with at first sight!" Totorot declared proudly, puffing out her chest.
Unfortunately, she was so small that both Shiomi and Aesc had to look down to meet her eyes, and any sense of grandeur she was going for instantly vanished.
"So it's a case of compensation, then," Shiomi said, stepping ahead of them before pausing as a thought struck him. "Though I'm not sure if you two are counterparts from parallel worlds…"
"What now?" Totorot asked, realizing she couldn't keep pace if Shiomi led the way, and quickly mounted her spinning wheel.
"There's a fairy in the legends of my homeland called Habetrot, with the same traits as you," Shiomi explained.
It was something Morgan had once told him, though he hadn't expected he'd one day be the one passing that knowledge on.
"Habetrot?" Totorot's eyes sparkled. "Tell me! What kind of fairy is she?"
"Even if you ask, I don't really know," Shiomi admitted, glancing at Aesc, who looked just as curious. "I've never seen one myself—only read a few records."
He tapped a finger against his temple. "But my Primordial Runes tell me that you and she are the same kind of being."
"The more I hear, the less I get it! Different histories? What's that supposed to mean?" Totorot asked, utterly puzzled.
Aesc shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's just a private matter between us."
"Well, can't be helped then. A bride's most important secrets have to be shared with her groom, after all," Totorot said with a carefree laugh. "Different versions of me, huh? Maybe I should try living up to that idea too!"
"According to the legend," Shiomi said, raising a finger with a teasing tone, "Habetrot would marry off one bride and immediately go looking for the next. Even with a bride already by her side, the moment she found another lovely girl, she'd fall head over heels again. You could say she had quite the wandering heart."
"Totorot, so that's the kind of fairy you are?" Aesc looked a little melancholic.
Totorot, the one being questioned, turned her eyes away guiltily. "...Probably... not..."
"…Sigh…" Aesc let out a long sigh. Her fairy eyes had already discerned the truth. "And here I thought I'd finally found a friend I could truly get along with."
"Don't say that! I'm not Habetrot—I'd never just abandon you like that!" Totorot quickly explained.
Unfortunately, Shiomi's earlier words had already pointed out the truth of her fairy nature, leaving Totorot unable to deny it.
"My husband really is the best," Aesc said as she moved gracefully closer to Shiomi, slipping her arm through his and resting her head against it, matching his stride. "Compared to fairies, he's in a league of his own."
"I feel like I was just insulted," Totorot protested.
"No, not at all." Aesc smiled.
She was only teasing. Totorot's excitable, easily riled nature made her especially fun to mess with. Shiomi, on the other hand, was always calm and composed—no matter how outrageous Aesc's jokes got, he handled them without missing a beat.
"So, you finally found yourself a 'toy,'" Shiomi said, shaking his head.
"It's not a toy," Aesc corrected, tapping his shoulder lightly with her wand. "It's an interesting companion."
"True. Compared to Grímr, who looks reckless but is actually steady, or the Black Knight Ector, who's so serious it's stifling, Totorot is definitely different from the rest."
"Black Knight?" Totorot's eyes lit up. "You've got other companions?"
Shiomi nodded. "A fairy from the Earth Clan. We met after the Earth and Mirror Clans joined forces. Later, during the battles against the Wind and Wing Clans—and the Great Calamity—they contributed quite a bit."
"Oh, I get it now. So the human man beside Aesc the Savior—the sage rumored to have lived for countless years—that's you, isn't it?" Totorot finally realized.
"That was fast. I thought you wouldn't figure it out until my husband introduced himself," Aesc said, covering her mouth with a soft laugh.
"I'm not stupid!" Totorot protested again.
...
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