[Chapter 138] — It Wasn’t Exactly a Wish
As I followed Veronica out onto the terrace, a quaint little cottage appeared before my eyes in an instant. I always thought so, but this kind of spatial travel through the cottage was truly amazing.
I had heard that when other witches traveled through space, they had to use the ‘Fairy Path,’ or else employ magic that came with extreme dizziness. Like the magic Frang had used when she took me to Katarina.
But by using the cottage, I could come straight here without having to pass through the vomiting-inducing magic or the Fairy Path. The cottage was the one and only place even that great witch could not find.
When we reached the cottage door, Veronica gestured for me to wait a moment and wore a slightly flustered expression. She looked like someone checking whether her house was clean enough to let a guest inside.
“J-just wait a moment. I’ll go check what kind of situation the kids are in right now.”
As soon as Veronica entered the cottage, I heard her shouting.
“I told you to clean up!!”
Her booming scolding carried all the way outside the door. I hadn’t known Veronica could make sounds like that.
Were the dwarfs giving her trouble? The dwarfs in the game had all possessed strong personalities, but I didn’t remember them being the type to cause Snow White any trouble. As I tilted my head in puzzlement, the door suddenly burst open.
“Sorry. Katarina still hasn’t woken up... I think I’ll have to explain things myself for now.”
Ah, so she had been shouting at Katarina. It was a scolding that made perfect sense the moment I understood. If that girl wasn’t working, she was usually the unemployed type who woke up at dawn and slept during the day.
“...Come to think of it, you said Einsel was helping you too, right? Did you move Einsel’s main body here as well?”
“Ah, yes. Even if Einsel uses an avatar, she can’t enter the cottage from outside, but she can go in and out from within the cottage. So she’s staying in my cottage for her convenience. She’s probably asleep right now. She pulled an all-nighter with me yesterday, too.”
When I nodded with an “Mm-hmm,” Veronica narrowed her eyes at me as if asking, ‘Are you sure you understood?’ Well, I understood more or less, so I kept nodding.
“Anyway... come in. It’s your first time entering the cottage, right? It’s a little complicated, so be careful.”
“Complicated? This tiny cottage?”
When I asked, tilting my head, Veronica let out a soft giggle and opened the door for me.
From the outside, it had certainly looked like a quaint little cottage, but once I stepped inside, the interior was an entirely different space. It felt more like a gigantic mansion. Come to think of it, the explanation was actually quite simple.
“The more fairies live in the cottage, the more its interior expands. Since there are seven dwarfs, it’s probably about as spacious as a large mansion by now.”
“A cottage that expands on its own...”
“Ah, Katarina’s room is right in front of the entrance. It’s dirty because Brownie hasn’t cleaned it, so don’t go near it.”
Since the game had never particularly shown the inside of the cottage, I had never imagined it would be this spacious. I had only thought it would be big enough for seven dwarfs to live crammed together...
As I followed Veronica around and looked over the expansive interior of the cottage, we eventually arrived at the second-floor room where Veronica researched the ‘Fairy Egg.’ There hadn’t been a second floor when viewed from outside, though.
Just as Veronica had said, the other dwarfs had all hidden themselves to avoid me. Despite the considerable distance we had traveled to reach this room, I couldn’t find even a single strand of their hair.
“Come in. This is my laboratory.”
Once I entered the room, the most striking thing was, of course, the ‘Fairy Egg,’ glowing golden. Perhaps because of the golden light pouring from the egg, Veronica’s laboratory was extremely dark.
Maybe it hadn’t been given the name ‘egg’ for no reason. The egg radiating golden light flickered as if it were pulsing. As I stared at it, the words from the game suddenly came to mind.
[An egg containing a fairy. It is unknown which fairy sleeps within the egg. However, it must not be awakened, nor can it be awakened normally. This egg, which exists as a massive mass of magical power, is the subject of a superstition that it will grant the user’s ‘wish.’]
It made no sound, but the longer I looked at it, the more it seemed as though I could hear a heartbeat in my ears.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It looked as though something might break out of the egg and be born at any moment.
“So that’s... the Fairy Egg.”
“Ah... wait a moment? I’m sure I organized it yesterday and put it here...?”
Veronica tilted her head in confusion as she rummaged through the mountain of documents.
Feeling as though I would only get in her way, I waited some distance away from her. Then, from beyond the door came an uproarious crash—something falling, something breaking, and a cat howling fiercely.
A moment later, the laboratory door flew open, and Veronica’s dwarf, ‘Brownie,’ ran inside. She hopped up and down in place as she looked at Veronica and began explaining what had just happened.
—Master!! Caitsith caused trouble again!! She got into a fight with the others and broke something in your room!
“What? Ah, no, wait—why?”
—I-I don’t know! I think a fight started when they were petting Caitsith’s fur... Caitsith yelled at them to stop petting her, but the others kept doing it, and in the end...
“Ah, seriously, just a moment...”
Veronica pinched the bridge of her nose as if she had a headache, then sighed and looked at Titania and me. These seven dwarfs really were the type to give Snow White a hard time. Seeing Veronica experience the pains of childcare, I couldn’t help but smile contentedly.
“Go on. I’ll wait here.”
“Ha... all right... Just a moment. I’ll be right back.”
Veronica hurried out and began shouting at the dwarfs at the top of her lungs. Seeing her like that, was it fair to say she looked exactly like an ‘older sister’ or a ‘parent’? It made me think that she hadn’t taken on the role of Titania’s ‘older sister’ for no reason.
I stood with my arms crossed, leaning against the corner of the room as I waited with Titania. Then I noticed something wriggling beneath Veronica’s desk.
What was that?
Looking closer, I saw a small child squirming and crawling out from beneath the chair.
And that child...
didn’t have a head?!
“Eek?!”
Startled by the headless child crawling out from under Veronica’s desk chair, I seized Titania’s arm, hugged it to my chest, and clung to her as I asked,
“M-Mother?”
“T-Titania, d-do you see that...? That thing wriggling under the chair...?”
After clearing her throat, Titania narrowed her eyes and looked toward the spot I was pointing at. Then she nodded as if she understood, gently embraced me, and answered,
“Mother, that child isn’t a ghost. She’s one of Sister’s dwarfs, a ‘Dullahan.’ Dullahans are ‘fairies’ whose heads and bodies are separated. It seems she must have lost her head again. That child sometimes loses her head like that.”
“...A Dullahan?”
Looking more closely, I saw that she was indeed waving her hands around beneath the chair as though searching for something. Judging by the documents strewn around the Dullahan, it seemed that child was the reason Veronica couldn’t find the papers she was looking for.
“Ah... I see? She’s a dwarf? Not a ghost?”
“Hehe, Mother, you’re a witch, yet you’re afraid of ghosts?”
“Fairies and ghosts are different...”
I knew all the dwarfs from the game, so I had thought I wouldn’t be surprised even if I met them. But the sight of a headless child flailing around beneath a dark desk was pure horror. I couldn’t help being startled.
I slowly took hold of the Dullahan by both armpits, lifted her from beneath the chair, and set her upright. Perhaps because she was being touched by an unfamiliar hand, the headless child’s body began to struggle violently.
“I-I’m trying to help you, so stay still! Ah, right. You can’t hear me because you don’t have a face...?”
As the Dullahan jumped up and down in place, making a huge fuss, I stepped backward to avoid her little fists. My bottom struck the desk where the Fairy Egg sat.
“Titania, what should I do? I can’t just leave her like this...”
“Perhaps... the other dwarfs will find her head and bring it back soon. We just have to wait a little—”
Before she could finish speaking, the door burst open, and Brownie ran into the room carrying the Dullahan’s head. On top of Brownie’s head, the face of a girl with long gray hair was crying out shrilly, swallowing sobs.
—Found it! The body!
—Waaah!! Vivian’s here toooo!!
The Dullahan grabbed her own head with a sudden snatch, then fled out the door, sobbing as though she were having a fit. It was a little awkward that she had cried because she was frightened by me, rather than from joy at finding her body.
Fortunately, before Brownie went outside, she bowed her head and greeted me on the Dullahan’s behalf. Brownie really was a good child. She was the only one of the seven dwarfs who didn’t avoid Vivian.
“Children are nice. They’re so cute, and you can really feel their energy.”
“Mother... for some reason, you seem to like young children more?”
“Hehe, aren’t they cute? Sometimes I even want to become young again and run around among them—”
At that moment.
The ‘Fairy Egg’ beside the desk gave a great pulse along with a throbbing heartbeat.
Thump.
Titania and I tensed for a moment at the sound. Then, with another thump, the Fairy Egg moved.
“Huh? Titania, this...?”
“Mother, get away from there for now—”
Just as I was moving away from the Fairy Egg at Titania’s words, I suddenly felt as though my field of vision had dropped sharply. It felt as if my knees had given out. But my knees hadn’t buckled.
Because my perspective had sunk in an instant, I had no choice but to look up at Titania. Until then, I had thought that I had simply lost the strength in my legs. But when I saw the expression on Titania’s face—
“M-M-Mother...? Mother has...!”
“Titania...? Hk?!”
I clapped a hand over my mouth at the sound that escaped my throat.
It wasn’t merely thin. Or high-pitched. The word ‘childlike’ was the only way to describe it.
And the surprises didn’t end there.
The hand covering my mouth was small. Far too small. My slender, elongated fingers had somehow become short and chubby, like a child’s hands. They looked like the hands six-year-old Titania might have had.
“Uh... six years old...?”
The moment I instinctively stepped backward, I stepped on some kind of fabric and fell hard onto my bottom. I couldn’t understand what was happening or what had happened to me.
“M-Mother...”
Titania’s hand reaching toward me seemed enormous. No—everything was enormous. Titania, the furniture in the room, the shoes on my feet... Even the clothes I was wearing no longer fit. They slipped off me, leaving me with no choice but to become naked.
Titania slipped her hands beneath my armpits, lifted me up, and pulled me into a tight embrace. Once I was completely nestled in her arms, I finally understood the situation.
Titania smiled so happily as she rubbed her cheek against mine, breathing hard.
“M-Mother has...! You’ve become so cute...!”