Chapter 13

Soon enough.

The little fairies, their bellies sticking out, huffed and puffed as they dragged a large piece of fabric over and hovered with difficulty in front of Xie Juanhan.

Their eyes were large and bright.

When they blinked, their eyes were full of anticipation.

"Could you try working on this piece of fabric?"

"It's made from sea angel hair. It's extremely strong and can hold a lot of Magic Power."

The little fairies strained to lift the fabric in front of Xie Juanhan.

The fabric shimmered with color, its sheen resembling mother-of-pearl.

Xie Juanhan reached out and lightly touched the fabric. "I can do it, but I have an ice attribute. Once I put Dragon Power into it, it won't keep anyone warm. Instead, it'll constantly give off cold air."

The fairies' eyes sparkled, and one of them said, "Ice-attribute fabric is wonderful! Summer is coming, and ice-attribute fabric is really popular."

Xie Juanhan said, "I'll give it a try."

The little fairies all looked at him expectantly. "Okay!"

Telingewei was watching his hand too.

Xie Juanhan reached out and lightly tapped the fabric with a finger.

Dragon Power poured from his long, slender fingertip.

In the blink of an eye.

The entire piece of fabric turned a brilliant, sparkling silver, while the subtle pearlescent shimmer of mother-of-pearl still flickered across it.

"It's done," Xie Juanhan said.

The little fairies stared at the fabric before them, their mouths hanging open in astonishment.

One little fairy reached out to touch it, then turned to the others and said, "It's cool! And soft!"

"My lord, you're amazing!"

"You truly are the divine Lord Silver Dragon!"

The other little fairies who were working on the down feathers gathered around as well.

They pulled the fabric taut and examined it in the sunlight.

The fabric had the shimmering appearance of ice crystals and felt cool and smooth to the touch.

When they looked up again, their gazes were filled with intense admiration for Xie Juanhan.

Xie Juanhan had been admired by all sorts of creatures plenty of times before.

Even so, being looked at like that by the little fairies still put him in a very good mood.

At the little fairies' request, Xie Juanhan helped them put Dragon Power into another six pieces of fabric.

In the end, he earned twelve level-three magic cores.

Not only had he earned back the magic cores he had paid the little fairies to sew the down bedding, he had made some extra as well.

The little fairies were delighted that Xie Juanhan had helped put Dragon Power into the fabric, and they worked even harder.

They chanted "heave-ho" as they continued working on the down feathers.

The woods grew lively again.

Xie Juanhan had originally thought that, given the little ones' size, the bedding would take at least a week to finish.

But on only the third day.

The Companion Beasts came running excitedly to tell him that the bedding was finished.

They were so excited that they even tugged at his pant legs with their mouths, wanting to take him to see it.

As soon as Xie Juanhan saw how the little ones were acting, he knew the bedding must have turned out very well.

He hurried to the fairies' territory with the little ones, and when he saw the finished bedding, he found it was even better than he had imagined.

The little fairies had yet to take the bedding off the looms.

The quilt and mattress pad shimmered on the looms, their pale golden fabric looking extraordinarily beautiful.

Xie Juanhan also caught a scent like sunshine, warm and inviting, making him want to cast everything aside and take a long nap right there in the woods.

"My lord, what do you think?"

The little fairies hovered in front of Xie Juanhan, their eyes sparkling and their faces expectant for praise.

"You did a wonderful job," Xie Juanhan said, looking at the bedding. "It's even better than I imagined."

The little fairies looked at one another, smiles on their faces.

"My lord, we have another gift for you."

"What is it?"

"Just wait a moment and you'll see!"

With that, the little fairies flew behind the trees.

Soon, several little fairies came out carrying a piece of clothing together.

Xie Juanhan couldn't make out what it was at first.

Only when the little fairies flew up to him did he realize it was a nightcap.

A nightcap with a star sewn onto its tip.

"My lord!" the little fairies said. "This nightcap is for you."

"When you sleep, you can put your hair inside it, and it won't bother you anymore."

"We also sewed our blessings into it. It'll help you have sweet dreams more easily!"

Xie Juanhan reached out and gently accepted the light, soft nightcap, which had the same pattern as the bedding. "Thank you."

"You're welcome!" the little fairies said happily. "Thank you for your Dragon Power!"

==========Author's note:==========

See you tomorrow~

Thanks to Li Yumi, Da Lang Luobo, Nanzhi, Master Falcon, Gu Ling Jing Guai Xiao Yatou, Ersan, Microscope Slide, Stop Looking and Go to Sleep, and Won't Stop Until 95! for the landmines.

Chapter 13

That night, Xie Juanhan took off the coarse-cloth bedding he had bought at the human market and replaced it with the bedding the little fairies had sewn.

When he lay down in it, his first impression was how soft it was.

Soft and warm.

He wrapped himself in the bedding and closed his eyes. It was as though he had burrowed into some thick layer of sun-warmed cloud, gently enveloped within it.

Xie Juanhan rubbed his cheek against the quilt and soon fell asleep.

Perhaps it was because of the nightcap, or perhaps it was the new bedding.

Xie Juanhan slept very soundly that night.

Even when he heard a faint, unusual disturbance in the middle of the night, he didn't get up.

It wasn't until early morning, when sunlight filtered through the gaps in the forest and the birds began to stir, that Xie Juanhan opened his eyes.

After a full night's sleep, his body felt as though it had received a deep massage. Every muscle had relaxed, and his mind was clearer than ever.

Xie Juanhan sat up and reached out to feel the bedding.

The bed was warm, and after a night's sleep, the bedding was still fluffy and soft, wonderfully comfortable.

It seemed he could go back to the woods in a couple of days and ask the little fairies to make him two sets of pajamas.

As Xie Juanhan thought about this, he felt around under the bed with his feet for his slippers and stepped right into them.

The slippers had also been made only recently, and the animal-hide slippers were very comfortable.

Xie Juanhan was in a very good mood.

But his good mood didn't last until he finished washing up.

He was holding a beast-hair toothbrush dipped in magic herb tooth powder, brushing his teeth diligently.

Suddenly, a furious stream of curses rang out from the opposite bank.

Xie Juanhan's shoulders jerked in surprise.

What happened?

Xie Juanhan tilted his head and listened.

Such filthy language.

He quickly rinsed the tooth powder from his mouth, washed his face with clean water, and walked to the riverbank to look.

A crowd of people stood in the farmland across the river, appearing as small dots in the morning mist.

Even so, with his eyesight, Xie Juanhan could see that the soil in the fields had been churned up and wheat seedlings were scattered everywhere.

Not only the farmland, but the turf in the communal pasture around it had also been torn up, with drops of blood scattered nearby.

Had livestock been attacked last night?

Xie Juanhan frowned.

He had faintly heard something the night before, but he had been sleeping so comfortably that he hadn't gotten up to look.

The attack across the river looked rather serious, so when Orfrey came to bring Xie Juanhan the fresh milk he had ordered, Xie Juanhan made a point of asking about it.

Orfrey had already been bursting to talk, and as soon as Xie Juanhan asked, the words came pouring out. "It was a Chimerao."

Xie Juanhan had never heard of that kind of magical beast. "What?"

"A magical beast with a lion's head, a goat's head, and a snake's head," Orfrey said.

That sounded familiar?

Xie Juanhan thought hard.

Orfrey explained, "It's a magical beast that inherited the bloodline of the legendary magical beast Chimera."

"This place is Lord Dragon's territory, so a high-level magical beast like that shouldn't normally appear here. I don't know where the Chimerao came from."

Xie Juanhan said, "That sounds rather serious."

"Yeah." Orfrey grumbled, "The village just grew its first crop of Milien Grass, and I fed some to two of my dairy cows yesterday. Their milk should have been wonderfully sweet and fresh after eating the Milien Grass, but those two cows were so frightened they barely produced any milk..."

Xie Juanhan interrupted him. "In that case, is the village safe?"

"There shouldn't be any major trouble. It's already been reported to the estate steward. This morning, the steward, the priest, and the sheriff brought people over to take a look. Things should be peaceful again soon."

Orfrey made a gesture of prayer and looked up at the sky. "Goddess bless us."

Ailan Village, where Orfrey lived, was the territory of a hereditary knight.

Ailan Village and several nearby villages also belonged to the same parish, and there was a country church nearby.

Both the hereditary knight and the parish were quite powerful.

It was only one magical beast, so Xie Juanhan thought the humans would probably deal with it quickly.

But things still went beyond Xie Juanhan's expectations.

Less than two days later, the humans organized adventurers to pursue the Chimerao, chasing it all the way to the opposite bank of the river.

Xie Juanhan rarely saw human adventurers fight, so he deliberately stopped at a distance to observe them and judge their strength.

Across the river.

The adventurers had surrounded a strange magical beast with a lion's head, an additional goat's head growing from its back, and a snake's head at the end of its tail.

It was the Chimerao of legend.

The Chimerao darted nimbly through the crowd, charging this way and that and occasionally spitting flames, ice pillars, and poisonous mist to force the humans back.

The human adventurers, meanwhile, were very good at coordinating and running.

Archers, knights, mages, necromancers... adventurers of all kinds worked together seamlessly.

Several times, the Chimerao nearly broke out of the humans' encirclement, only to be driven back.

Watching the humans fight from a distance, Xie Juanhan felt as though he were watching a dance drama about a hunt.

The Chimerao and the humans were evenly matched in strength.

The alert magical beast might finally have realized that the adventurers were very dangerous.