"Ho there, young 'un. Wake up, awaken from your slumber."
"Hn, Hng......"
Stirred awake, I turned to look up at the preparator with drowsy eyes.
"......Who are you?"
"That is my line. I came here under the call of the spirits. You, why are you here? How did you get here?"
"Why? How did I?......"
It was daytime when I was lulled into sleep by irresistible drowsiness but when confirming my surroundings, the glow of the daytime had been replaced by the veil of the night.
Perhaps because I overslept, I felt languid and my mind was a bit lacking in clarity.
"I was walking in the forest when I realized I was lost and arrived here. Then, seeing no way out, I felt sleepy... fell asleep...... and then—"
"Sigh, Young 'un. You have likely been kidnapped by fairies. And it appears your mana has been almost completely sucked by them."
'Well, of course you wouldn't want to wake up, and couldn't think straight,' that person further mumbled.
Fairies...... I remembered a kind of spirit called that. I recalled the details with my foggy mind.
There were many types of spirits, 'spirit' generally referred to the type that modeled themselves after creatures like the one employed by Altair-san (a lizard spirit), and then there was 'fairy', referring to those who took their appearance after humans.
"So I was indeed kidnapped, huh?"
"That's right. Fairies closer to reaching the rank of intermediate spirits must have kidnapped you to absorb your mana to promote themselves quickly. I think it is called 'changeling' in human habitats."
'And looking at you, are you a child of a magician family?' That person further muttered looking at my robe and the triangular hat on the ground.
"But I didn't see any fairies when I was investigating the surroundings......"
"Indeed, it's nothing strange for a child magician to see the bodies of spirits. If I am not wrong, one can peer at the unseeable by gathering mana into the eyes. However, if the other side doesn't want to be seen, they can also hide themselves. Especially for the spirits that govern nature, it's very easy."
'Plausible for sure,' I nodded at the words that sounded like a lecture to a young kid and broke into a smile.
Also, I noticed when that person pointed out the absorption of my mana, it had only decreased to around 10,000 units. However, I didn't feel the usual symptoms of low mana like nausea so I assumed that they stopped before it hit rock bottom.
Perhaps because of that, it had also caused the barrier I had erected around me and the «Body Strengthening» magic to come off, and realizing that I was pushed into such a defenseless state made me depressed.
No matter whether I was one of the few A-ran adventurers and had a vast amount of mana at my disposal, it didn't cancel out the fact that my body was that of a 12-year-old girl.
When I raised my lethargic body and looked up, I could faintly discern the outline of a woman's face.
Dense flowing hair reminiscent of gold, blue eyes, skin as radiating as snow, an indigo-blue nightgown cascading over her alluring body, and finally, her captivating bare legs showing their presence from the slits of the nightgown.
It was an appearance unsuitable for the forest, however, she was so beautiful that it even shocked me, a member of the same gender, and pushed me out of my lethargic state.
"Elf......"
"Hnn? Yeah, I'm an elf. Is it odd?"
"No, I didn't mean that......"
I mean, her pointed ears were the obvious proof of her being an elf, however, the picturesque beauty this woman in front of me held was incomparable to the elves I was acquainted with.
"Well, let's put things about me aside, tell me, child, what should be done about the ones who kidnapped you?"
*Snap*
After asking that, the elven woman snapped closed the folding fan in her hand, and, following that action, a faint glow emerged from within the darkness of the night. They were fairies, taken prisoner by the wind.
"They're the fairies that willfully captured you and drained your mana. Though that has promoted them to intermediate-level spirits, as their neighbor, I must enact a punishment. However, the one suffering is you, so how shall they be punished?"
There was a saying that the anger of a beauty was like an enchanting blossom, but just the mere sight of the elven woman's lip bending into a sadistic smile brought the captured fairies to the brink of tears, frightening them.
"Even if you ask that, I don't feel I had suffered that much, so maybe something like a warning would suffice. That being said, there's one thing I want to say."
My thoughts gradually cleared up as the mana used by the elven woman to capture the fairies aided in my recovery.
Furthermore, I also am used to sharing my mana with Teto, the mythical beasts from the «Empty Wilderness», my magic tools, and many others to replenish their mana, so I didn't consider it that big of a deal.
"That's why, I hope you don't punish them too severely. For the sake of my mental health as well......"
"You're one precocious child to know difficult words like mental health. If the victim herself asked to reduce the punishment, so be it, I will punish them lightly."
The elven woman pouted as if my answer wasn't interesting to her, exhaled a sigh, and then decided on their punishment, taking just a few moments to consider it.
"O' Fairies. Hand over the spirit stone as compensation for draining this child's mana. This is your punishment."
The spirits, to whom the elven woman pointed her folding fan and passed down her verdict, clasped their hands in front of their chests with reluctant looks, condensed their power, and produced a gem.
"This is...... neither a mana stone nor a mana crystal. But I can feel an incredible amount of mana from it."
The gem was tiny, but my senses told me it shouldn't be inferior to a mana stone of a B-rank monster.
And those gems, one of each of the 6 attributes, were passed to me.
"You foolish fairies! How much mana have you drained from this child?!"
The elven woman, upon witnessing this, emanated mana from her body, flickering like flames of anger.
"Just how many days have passed since you kidnaped this child from the outside world!? How many days have you held her captive in this place!? I did find all your promotions suspicious, but to think you'd even drain the mana that was supposed to be acquired ahead of time!? How dare you commit such an outrage against an innocent child, who is not even an intruder of the forest!"
Seeing the enraged elven woman releasing her mana in a fit of rage, I hurriedly stopped her.
"Stop! Stop! I am alright so stop!"
As I told her that I didn't feel any discomfort or strangeness, the elven woman directed her apologetic gaze at me.
"You don't feel anything? You see, a spirit stone is a special mana stone created by spirits that possess tens of times the mana density of ordinary mana stones."
So in short, the elven woman was worried about how much mana had been drained from me to produce such a special mana stone.
"This whole 20 million units is the amount of mana drained from you. I don't know your original mana capacity but if that much is drained, it's normal for the vessel to break, destroying any hope of being able to use magic ever again!"
Various physical conditions occurred when one fell into a manaless state.
And further using magic forcefully in that state and pushing out mana may result in reduced lifespan due to insufficient magic power, damaging the internal mana pathways and rendering one unable to use magic again, and may even pose a life-threatening risk.
However, I had never stopped eating the «Mysterious Nut» in these tens of years since the trade began and had expanded my mana reserve to a total of 700,000 units. Aside from that, the mana drained from me was only around one month's worth of mana considering my mana recovery speed.
"So, this means I have been sleeping here for a long time?"
"That's the gist, apparently......"
I looked at the fairies who slowly nodded their heads.
But thinking about how they might have tended to my food and bodily needs made me so embarrassed I felt the urge to go home right there.
"But rest assured! This place is under the influence of Goddess Leriel-sama's power. The passage of time inside and outside is different, so it shouldn't have been that long in the outside world."
Now this was surprising, could this be like a hyperbolic time chamber? (T/N - Yup, DB reference. Both source words are the same without any censorship, so keeping it as such. Lit. Spirit and Time Room)
It was a perfect training place for an immortal like me, but thinking about how such a prank against ordinary people may result in shortening their lifespan brought a headache to me.
"Sure enough, you're not well! I must punish them severely in that case!"
"No, please wait. I was just surprised to realize I slept for so long, that's all. You can feel my mana, right? It's recovering without any problems. Besides, the fairies seem to be careful as well as they apparently stopped before I fell into a manaless state."
'Isn't that right?' When I asked the captured fairies, they all vigorously nodded their heads in response.
"But still, the amount of magical power they absorbed from a human mage and the magical power they used to create these spirit stones seems to be mismatched......"
"I remember I placed a «Mana Crystal» around to serve as the landmark when I was investigating the area so the extra mana could have been obtained from there. It might also be because I had been stockpiling my accumulated magic power until now!"
It seemed like she was mistaking me for an ordinary child magician, and I feel like she would find it incredulous if I told her my mana reserve was higher than 700,000 units to clear the misunderstanding, so I fabricated a convenient excuse.
'Is that so?' Although the elven woman didn't look convinced, she still nodded in the end.
"Very well. You fairies, you are free for now but there will be no second time."
After saying that, the elven woman released the fairies and they immediately left the place as if running away.
"Well then, child. How about you stay tonight at my place?"
"......I will be taking up on your offer then. I want to meet with Teto...... the girl who was with me."
"Umu! Just leave it to me! Then, follow me!"
In the pitch-black night, I stood up and took the hand of the mysterious and breathtaking elf beauty. Together, we jumped into a large shadow summoned by her and what unfurled on the other side was a sight different from spring.
It was a chalk-white townscape, illuminated by the light spirits even as the night covered the sky.
Crystal clear water was flowing in the water channels and, in the distance, I could see structures tens of times larger than the tree houses I had seen in the elf village. Further away, beyond these buildings, stood a chalk-white castle, complementing the townscape.
"Welcome to our country, the Eldar Forest Kingdom, child. I might need to leave your side for a while since some important people are scheduled to arrive, but I swear to treat you with the utmost respect and return you to the care of your lost companions afterwards."
It seemed like in a strange turn of events, I had reached my destination, and just like that, with the elf woman pulling my hand, I walked through the streets of the town.
Editor's note: So I was right in that it really was fairies but it was apparently more serious than a prank. Though I find it hard to believe a bunch of low-level fairies (remember they evolved to intermediate through Chise's mana) could kidnap someone as experienced and powerful as Chise so easily and make her their power bank.
T/N - A beautiful elf and sadistic, doesn't it kind of sound ho--- *Ahem* Indeed hard to believe, but the reason is explained in .
