When Sol woke up, he had never felt so refreshed. His head was completely clear and awake.
He didn’t have to stay tense all night while sleeping, nor did he have to keep his senses searching for threats all around him. He was in a safe and relaxed environment, where nothing could hurt him.
It was only after going through the training in Tartarus that Sol realized how important such small things were as they were so easy to take for granted.
“You are finally awake, sleepy head.”
Opening his eyes, his gaze met with a smiling Nent. The curve on her mouth showed how entertaining she found the current situation.
“You watched me sleep all this while?”
“Indeed.”
Nent nodded with an even larger smile. Watching Sol sleep after he came back from Tartarus had been quite entertaining. Staying in the same position all night was no problem for her as she didn’t particularly need sleep anyway.
Sol brought his hands to his face in embarrassment. He wasn’t foreign to waking up in the bed of a woman since he had shared his bed with many. But for some reason, this particular instance felt way more embarrassing than any previous one.
“Stop thinking so much.”
Nent chuckled as she took his hands away from his face before giving him a small kiss on the forehead.
“Let’s go take a bath.”
From the enticing smile on her face, Sol did not doubt that it would be quite the long bath session.
—-
After a few hours of ‘bathing’, Sol, now in sage mode, wandered in the hallway of Kiyohime’s castle, leaving a defeated Nent on his bed.
Now that his mind was clear, unlike the previous day, there were many things he began to think of.
One such thing of course was about the events of yesterday.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
“Who?”
“It’s me. Sol.”
*Crash* *Bang*
“Wait! Wait a minute.”
*Crash*
“...Give me five minutes.”
Sol gave a strained smile as he imagined the chaos that was happening on the other side of the door. It was clear that Isis’s room was quite messy.
After way more than five minutes of standing there with nothing to do as his mind wandered, the door was finally open to a welcoming room.
“...It took quite a while, just how messy it was?”
Sol was really curious. This castle had servants who should regularly take care of all this. How did she manage to make her room so messy then?
“Haha…Don’t sweat the small details. Will you enter or stay there?”
“*Shrug* If you say so.”
Despite what he had imagined, the state of the room wasn’t as bad as he had initially imagined it to be. Taking a seat on the large Sofa, Sol leaned back and looked at Isis and Sheherazade.
“I believe you guys have something to explain.”
Sol did not ignore the fact that Sheherazade had been accused of being a criminal and a fugitive.
The only reason he didn’t insist on more details yesterday was because of how tired he was and because he believed that as her friend, Isis had the right to listen to what happened first.
Sol did not believe that Sheherazade could commit any big crime. But then again, he believed that his uncle Gerald would never betray him.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Sol wouldn’t let someone with a sketchy past follow him if he couldn’t be sure that the person in question wasn’t a danger for those he held dear.
Sheherazade and Isis fell silent. They could feel the silent determination Sol was emanating. Clearly, he wouldn't leave without getting an answer.
During the night, the two of them had indeed discussed and Sheherazade was able to ascertain the truth. No lie could go undetected in front of her after all.
"You see. I am not really a fairy. At least not entirely."
"A hybrid?"
"Not really?"
Sheherazade frowned as she tried to explain.
"Do you know the difference between fairies and faeries?"
This was Sol's turn to frown. He did have some knowledge about fae but he never really studied this topic deeply.
"I can see you don’t. Ugh. How to explain it… Well in short. Faeries and Fairy are fundamentally the same[1]. But you could say that Faeries are a more powerful version. Ah…I know."
She shouted excitedly. "Imagine Wyverns and Dragons. See? It's basically like that but to a lesser degree."
"I see."
"Mhm… Anyway. A fae is an evolved version of a fairy. They have a special power that allows them to affect reality in different ways depending on the Courts they belong to."
"Courts?"
"There are a total six. Four Dukes Courts: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. And two Kings Courts: Sun and Moon. All of them are under the control of the Tuatha de Danann[2]."
"I see… So how is this related?"
Sheherazade sighed, "Only royal fairy can evolve to become Fae and even their power is limited by where they belong to. But…I am different."
The rest of the story was pretty simple. Sheherazade was a rare commoner fairy that was lucky enough to evolve into a fae.
As if that wasn't enough, the power she awakened was an extremely rare and potentially powerful one.
The power of wish. A power that could affect causality itself. Of course, like all power, this was a power limited by the one controlling it.
Another reason was that while a wish could be made, the way it would be realized was unknown. One had to be as careful as possible when wording the wish to avoid nasty results.
However, there was no doubt that in the right hands, the effects could be devastating.
If the one that had awakened this power was a royal fairy, then there would be no problem.
Sadly this wasn't the case. Sheherazade was not affiliated with anyone and as such became fair game for everyone.
Her days became a true hell as she had nowhere to hide and had to run from everyone.
This was why she wished to leave that place.
Her wish certainly worked. But in what way?
By opening a crack between two different territories that sucked her in as she fled desperately.
This was how Sheherazade managed to leave Yggdrasil's territory and entered Gabriel's territory where she met Isis.
Back then Sheherazade had nearly died and she wished for someone to help her, that thankfully just resulted in Isis meeting her.
From this last part, Sol deducted that her wish power should also be affected by how hard her wish was.
Initially, she wished to escape while in a situation where it should have been nearly impossible to do so. But for her second wish, since Isis was already in the zone, it was way more easier.
Sheherazade finished her story before looking at Sol worriedly. She had been completely honest, but this didn't mean that Sol would necessarily believe her.
Furthermore, Tuatha de Danann was headed by a very powerful Demigod. She wondered if Sol would believe she was worth the trouble.
Of course, Sheherazade was thinking too much.
"I see. Thanks for sharing your story."
Sheherazade was a little bewildered.
"That's it?"
"What did you expect?"
"I-I mean…"
"Haha. No need to be so tense. I honestly like your bubbly personality more."
Sol laughed a little before shaking his head, "I am happy to know your past. I am even happier to know I don’t have to worry about you. As for those chasing you…"
Sol frowned and stood up.
"Why don't we visit Tiamat?"
"Wha-!?"
Isis and Sheherazade were aghast at the bold words of Sol.
But it was Sol who showed a disappointed expression as he shook his head.
"Let me teach you something important."
He looked at them seriously, "It's admirable to want to do things by yourself. But when you are unable to do so, there's no shame in relying on your connections. In fact, the dumbest thing to do is to let pride cloud your judgment and not use all the cards at your disposal."
Why should Sol bother facing a demigod faction alone when he had two powerful divine beasts at the demigod Level behind him?
"Well…It's time to act cute."
Of course, he also wished to use this occasion to verify the reality of the Sheherazade situation.
After all, he couldn't just hear one side and make a decision, right?
[1]: They are totally not the same just to be clear. But in my story they are. For Fairy, imagine Tinkerbell. For fae, they are wayyyy more diverse and are from Celtic myth. Even Goblins are technically fae. So yeah. Diversity.
