The Fairy Forest / Are You Willing to Be Fooled?

"..."

"Fifty-seven doses, no more, no less. That's the only amount of serum extracted from the corpses of Honkai Sickness found by the Fire Moths worldwide. Currently, only those at the captain level or above can apply for it, and it can only be used after approval."

Fifty-seven—behind this number are the deaths of 570,000 Honkai Sickness.

They will be used in critical places. Out of the six billion people in the world, only fifty-seven people can use these serums. Those fifty-seven people are entrusted with the mission of saving humanity.

So compared to some ordinary children in nursing homes, they sound so... insignificant.

"Forest?"

This time, communication was truly cut off.

Chapter Eighteen Fairy Forest

"Teacher!"

Upon seeing the man, Daniela excitedly waved her hands and skipped and hopped towards him.

"Teacher, teacher, have you made up with Aponia yet?"

"... Ah, of course."

"So what will the teacher teach me next? I've written down everything you said!"

"Let's cook."

"Um?"

The man's gloved hand gently stroked her hair as he whispered, "You can't date someone if you can't cook. Being a good cook will make you more attractive."

"Is the teacher a very good cook, which is why so many people like her?"

"... No, my cooking is terrible."

The man knelt down under Daniela's puzzled gaze and whispered gently in her ear, "So you need to learn how to cook delicious meals."

"Hold the knife like this so you won't cut your fingers. You can go slower and there's no need to rush."

"Don't skip the step of heating the pan and adding oil. Pay attention to whether the oil temperature is appropriate when you add it, and also pay attention to controlling the oil temperature."

"After adding seasonings, you should taste it yourself to check the saltiness. Dishes that the chef is not satisfied with cannot be served."

The man patiently taught Daniela how to cook. The person in charge of the meals was standing blankly at the door, watching the two people, one big and one small, take his place. But since he could get paid without working... it didn't seem so bad.

Daniela breathed a sigh of relief after putting the lid on the pot. The man handed her a towel to wipe the sweat from her face. She was too short to cook, so she had to stand on tiptoe and sometimes had to use a stool, which made it especially tiring.

However, seeing the dishes she made ready and knowing that she would later share them with her friends, her sister Aponia, her Chrono Brother, and her teacher, filled her with a sense of satisfaction.

Here, take a break.

The man handed her a bottle of beverage, but Daniela shook her head after seeing it. "Sister Aponia said drinking beverages is bad for your health."

"... Will you listen to her or the teacher?"

"Listen to Aponia!" She puffed out her chest proudly, then waved her hand mischievously. "But the teacher can definitely convince Aponia."

The man unscrewed the bottle cap and placed it in her hand. She gulped down most of it in one go. Perhaps she had never drunk a beverage before, because she seemed even happier than before.

Daniela put down her drink, looked the man up and down for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Teacher, you know so much, what did you do before you came here?"

"... to safeguard world peace."

"Hmph, it's that ' Ultraman again. Teacher, you can fool Chrono Brother, but I won't fall for it." Daniela proudly patted her chest, showing off her superb discernment.

"Real."

"No way! How could a hero who protects world peace be playing with children in the Dusk Street?"

"Yeah, so I'm not a hero."

The man read leisurely, "It's not just heroes who want to protect world peace; there are many others, in different ways... with different beliefs."

"Which category does the teacher belong to?"

"... None of them."

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey." Daniela stuck out her tongue and snorted, "Isn't that still lying to me? I've already learned the teacher's lying skills, so I won't be fooled anymore."

The man didn't refute anything, or rather, he didn't know how to refute it.

"Teacher, will you stay in the sanatorium forever?"

The man paused for a moment, then nodded.

"That's true, Aponia is here." Daniela lowered her head in disappointment. "But I want to leave Dusk Street in the future."

I didn't ask why.

On the Dusk Street, all the men see is suffering, and it's only natural that they want to leave.

"I want to see everything. The book says there are watery areas that are wider than muddy ground, trees taller than houses, all kinds of small animals, volcanoes, peaks, canyons, extreme points..."

"And it's so tall, I can't even see the whole city of buildings when I look up!"

"And what Sister Aponia said about a dreamlike castle hidden in the clouds!"

"And there's a candy park..."

"Besides..."

Daniela dreamed of a child born in Dusk Street who had never seen the sky beyond it; she longed for the outside world more than anyone else.

Is the sky there a different color?

Will the people there be different?

There...

"Teacher, is everything that's said in the book, and what Sister Aponia said, true? You're from outside, so you must know, right?"

"It's all true."

The man said with absolute certainty, "The sky castle, the candy house, the fairy forest... they're all real!"

"Where... where is that castle in the sky?"

"The Sky Castle is located on a sea south of the Mu Continent. It is hidden high in the sky using an anti-gravity levitation system and a light refraction device."

"A tech vibe?!"

Daniela was clearly surprised by the man's explanation, which differed "somewhat" from the fairy tale she knew.

"What about the candy store?"

"The candy house is a house inhabited entirely by worms. All the worms in the cavities of people who love sweets will go to the candy house after they die and enjoy the sweets to their heart's content."

"Why are the woodworms enjoying the candy?!"

The man glanced at her and said coldly, "That's how cruel reality is. Beauty is just a fabricated lie, but there will always be someone who dares to expose the lie and offer the truth to those who refuse to submit."

"Oh..."

Daniela was stunned. She hadn't expected that the captivating stories she had read in the book and those told by her sister Aponia were all dark tales disguised as beautiful and hypocritical.

Thinking about this, she admired her teacher even more. The teacher must be the one who was willing to expose the lie, right?

"Teacher! What about the Fairy Forest? Was it also a lie?"

"Of course, the Fairy Forest is..."

The man suddenly stopped.

Under Daniela's suspicious gaze, he stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and continued, "The Fairy Forest is a place where a group of fairies, all of whom have long pink hair, live. They are all exceptionally cute women, and their speech is punctuated with musical notes. They only have one expression: smiling. When they meet someone, they will say, 'Did you miss me?' We call them Miss Pink Fairy."

"... Eh? Isn't that great?"

"It's not good at all; the Fairy Forest is the most terrifying place."

"But the Miss Pink Fairy doesn't sound scary at all. Do they do bad things?"

"... Most of the time he just plays pranks, but he also does good deeds."

"Then I want to meet Miss Pink Fairy sometime in the future."

"Why?" the man asked incredulously.

"Because the Miss Pink Fairy praised by the teacher must be someone that people admire."

She smiled, her eyes shining.

Chapter Nineteen: Are You Willing to Fall for It?

"Can't you just sleep properly every day?!"

Chrono couldn't stand the man's daily routine of going out in the middle of the night. It was as if he didn't need to sleep; he would go out without even taking off his clothes after returning to his room.

"... Don't you also have things to do to pass the time? Like those dolls and wood carvings." The man turned around and pointed to an inconspicuous box in the corner of the room, which earned him Chrono Jie's tangible anger.

"You have a problem with that?"

"No." The man shrugged. "I know someone who also likes playing with these...little things. I heard her and her sister say that boys can like dolls too, so I have no objection."

"Hmph, get lost."

The man left respectfully, and at least this time Chrono didn't say anything more.

According to his observation Chrono was not as unruly and rude as he appeared. On the contrary, he was very thoughtful. However, he and Mobius were perhaps the two extremes. Men can never guess what Mobius is thinking, while Chrono always conveys his thoughts in the most direct way, which is why he seems so domineering.

Moreover, Chrono did not dislike the sanatorium at all; he enjoyed the atmosphere there, in other words... he enjoyed having a "home".

Now the man seems to have become a member of the family as well, a member with a different personality from Chrono.

After turning off the light and stepping out the door, the man took a breath, removed the mask from his face, and his face, which had flashed briefly in the moonlight, was quickly covered by a large, dark net.

"Teacher~ Teacher~"

Several deliberately lowered shouts were silenced by a gesture to quiet them down.

The clouds dispersed, revealing a group of people in the moonlight—

A child wearing stockings on their head.

A man with a stocking hanging down his back like a ponytail slowly walked up to them, counted the children to make sure they were all there, and then nodded. "Do you all know what today's task is?"

"Aren't we going out to play?" a boy asked blankly.

"It's to fight against the forces of evil," another child wearing pink stockings said in Daniela's voice.

"Oh... then why wear stockings?"

"Because fighting against evil forces requires secrecy, you can't reveal your appearance or whereabouts," the man commanded sternly. "Do you remember the routes and methods I taught you?"

"I remember~"

"... Mr. Lin, why were you playing 'house' at that sanatorium?"

The Gray Serpent... or rather, one of the Gray Serpent, stood hidden in the shadows, observing the man leading the group of children away from the sanatorium as if they were on a terrorist tour. He couldn't understand why the man would stay in the sanatorium; it was too abnormal.

After receiving a message from another Gray Serpent, he nodded in sudden realization.

"I see... But Mr. Lin, why do you insist on doing this? Life is like a leaf falling from a tree branch; even if you can change the direction of the wind, you cannot change the fate of returning to the earth."

Even if you stir the wind, you can no longer catch the falling leaves.

The Gray Serpent observed the man's every move, Gray Serpent it wouldn't interfere, including what would happen next. The Gray Serpent would simply be an observer and a thinker, watching what the man would do and pondering why he would do it.

"... Still not asleep tonight?"

The Nun, sitting on the edge of the bed in her pajamas, opened her eyes and saw the man who had landed lightly on the windowsill. His austere black clothes spread out like ink in the moonlight.

However, the stockings he wore completely revealed his perverted nature.

"..."

"Sorry, I didn't have time to change." The man belatedly touched the stockings on his face, realizing that he hadn't changed back into his mask because he thought the Nun was asleep.

The Nun sighed almost imperceptibly, "I wanted to see how you usually get up here, so I was waiting for you today. Why are you..."

"Something's up."

"..."