The Stained Thing

"Mmm, you're quite talented when it comes to learning languages."

"You'd never even been exposed to human language before, but now you can already speak and write it. And all in about a year! That's impressive!"

Beside the Holy Lake, the mage looked at the words on the page and smiled.

"Merlin, tell me what my next goal is."

Though the mage had praised him, Anno had nothing more to say. He simply washed the blood from his body in the lake and spoke to the mage without looking up.

In the lake, the fairy watched Anno's wooden expression and sighed.

What kind of life was this? She didn't even know whether to call him pitiful or something else.

But at least for now, she really didn't like the aura coming from Anno.

Over the past year, aside from learning language and writing by the Holy Lake, along with some courtly manners that might never be of any use, Anno had followed Merlin's guidance and killed fairies.

Fairies who posed a threat to humans.

Though he had never been knighted, Anno had become a figure of rumor.

Some said he was a fairy disguised as a human, kind and powerful, fond of humans and unusually shy.

Others said he was the child of a human and a fairy, but couldn't speak human language. He had merely followed his parents into the human world to save his own kind.

Still others said he was simply a powerful knight from a distant land, noble and imposing, who used his own misfortune to save those who suffered.

There were many different stories.

But no one knew the truth.

Anno simply appeared, killed fairies, then left without a word and returned to the Holy Lake.

Because of him, that thoroughly unlikeable mage had been squatting by the lake for quite some time.

"Do you really need his guidance?"

The fairy found herself speaking to Anno.

"Maybe you could do something else. Something besides killing things."

She didn't want to keep watching this pure white cloth be stained with blood, little by little.

"But, Fairy, I don't know how to do anything else."

Anno's eyes were as still as the lake beneath her feet.

"Mmm, then do whatever you like."

The fairy rolled her eyes helplessly, stuck her tongue out at him, then sank beneath the water and disappeared to who knew where.

"She does have a point. So, Anno, is there anything you want to do?"

Merlin smiled and handed Anno the iron sword, which he had wiped clean of blood.

Anno shook his head, at a loss.

"Then—how about this?"

"From now on, I won't guide you anymore."

The mage stood and took a step back.

"...Why?"

"Because it'll be interesting."

Beautiful flowers appeared beneath the mage's feet, and his figure gradually turned translucent.

His gaze held both anticipation and amusement.

"Go on, Anno. I won't stay here."

"Go and see the beautiful things for yourself. When you start to feel lost, come back to me."

"Then I'll guide you again."

Splash—

The mage vanished in a shower of flowers, leaving Anno looking rather lost.

—Even so.

The truth was, Anno really didn't know how to do anything but kill fairies.

With the mage's voice gone from his mind, he wandered alone along the border between the human world and the Fairy Realm, following his instincts.

He killed fairies and continued saving humans.

But as he walked, Anno gradually stopped seeing beings like himself.

He had wandered deep into the Fairy Realm.

Its depths teemed with all kinds of powerful fairies and Phantasmal Species. Driven by their desires, many curious or greedy beings bared their claws at Anno.

Fortunately, though Anno wasn't a true knight, he was stronger than one.

He stabbed the Fang Clan's fairy chief to death with his iron sword, crushed the Earth Clan chief's bones beneath his feet, tore the Wind Clan's wings apart, and snapped a wyvern's neck with his bare hands.

No living thing could stop Anno.

He sank into fear and unease.

Perhaps he was afraid because he hadn't seen a human in so long. Perhaps he was frustrated because he could no longer hear the mage's voice.

Anno's methods grew more horrifying, more

cruel.

The fairies and Phantasmal Species stopped attacking him. Instead, they began to flee, even running at the sight of his shadow.

But perhaps fleeing triggered his instinct to hunt, only bringing everything closer to the worst possible outcome.

Still—Anno had encountered a worthy opponent.

After rampaging through the Fairy Realm for who knew how long, Anno's sword clashed with another, a Water Sword.

"Can you really call yourself human, looking like that?"

The fairy across from him challenged Anno.

He froze, bewilderment in his blood-red eyes.

"What did you say?"

He couldn't help asking.

But his question seemed to make the powerful blue fairy even angrier. The fairy's sword clashed twice more with Anno's.

Bang!!!

The sound of breaking steel rang out. Anno looked down—his iron sword had snapped.

"I said—can you really call yourself human, looking like that?"

The fairy's voice rose, brimming with unmistakable anger.

I'm human, aren't I? Why would this evil fairy ask me that?

As far as Anno knew, fairies were evil and had to be eliminated.

But this fairy's question... Was I not human?

He instinctively glanced toward the water beside him. The water was a mirror; he could see his face in it.

But this time, the sight in the water made Anno recoil in fright.

—Was that really a human?

His blood-red eyes held a brutality and madness that had no place in a human being. He was drenched in blood, his long hair tangled with his unkempt beard. Unless you looked closely, it really was hard to tell that Anno was human.

"You look no different from a fairy now."

The blue fairy standing on the water sneered. He clenched his fist again, conjuring another blue longsword.

"Why did you invade my territory? Why did you kill innocent fairies?"

"I can't think of a word to describe what you're doing besides 'madman.'"

As he spoke, the fairy walked toward Anno.

"You savage monster. I'll kill you, just as you killed the fairies."

Far away, beside the Holy Lake, the mage finally smiled.

Something interesting was finally about to happen.