"If that's the case, I'll give you a present too!"
Neelim said seriously, "I'll remember that, my human friend!"
"My name is Iver. Don't call me human. Just as I don't call you a fairy, all right?"
Iver raised his palm and spoke to her earnestly.
Neelim flew over, hugged Iver's nose, and kissed it—but Iver couldn't feel it at all. It was even a little like being bitten by a mosquito.
"Mm! Iver!"
she said happily. "My friend, Iver!"
But Neelim quickly came to her senses. "Iver, what are you doing here?"
"—He came here to find me, Miss Neelim."
A somewhat weary yet steady voice rang out from within.
A cane tapped against the soft soil, and boots brushed across the fallen leaves as Sherlock sauntered out.
At that moment, Neelim's fur stood on end.
She vanished from the spot in a flash, then appeared behind Iver. Her wings fluttered noisily as she grabbed a lock of Iver's hair and shouted, "He's a bad person! Bad person Sherlock!"
Iver awkwardly extended one finger and lightly tapped Neelim's head in lieu of patting it, while asking Sherlock, "What did you do to her?"
Sherlock shook his head. "Nothing. I said the wrong thing. We were having a pretty good conversation, but one thing led to another and I said the wrong thing."
Iver immediately understood.
Sherlock had definitely forgotten the fairies' taboo and thrown out the word "fairy."
There was no way to change something like that—because if "Joy Spirit" were made the academic name for fairies, then "Joy Spirit" would become the term they hated. They simply disliked being defined or studied by others.
This was probably the fundamental conflict between the Path of Wisdom and the Path of Beauty.
"Don't play with bad people, Iver! I don't