Chapter Text
“—Why?” Phainon growled. “Did you keep this hidden?”
Phainon stepped in front of the others. His fur bristled, claws digging into the dirt.
Two hundred years. He had served this village for two centuries and was none the wiser about the secrets hidden within it.
Something hot and bitter twisted in his chest, but he swallowed the words pressing at his throat.
Why was he never trusted with this?
“Because,” Dolimem said as she looked at the wolf. Mana glazed her eyes as her gaze drifted past him, fixed on a future only she could see. “Your survival depended on it.”
Phainon froze.
Her voice echoed. There was no change in her scent. She treated him no differently than she always had. The anger that had been shimmering beneath his skin collapsed with nowhere to go.
“Had you known,” Dolimem continued softly, “you would have made the same choice you always do. And that choice would have damned you to a path of ruin.”
Phainon could only speculate what fate she could have foreseen.
Dolimem then shifted her gaze to Anaxa. “Although I did not expect what would have changed fate to be the one they despised the most.”
Phainon looked at Anaxa, who didn’t react, with an unreadable expression. What did she mean?
“… Chief,” Solimem said, finally finding his voice. He barely seemed able to keep floating, eyes fixated on the bodies ahead. “Are they… dead?”
“No,” Dolimem said. “They’re just sleeping.”
“Then, why…” Solimem swallowed. “Don’t they get up?”
In Relimem’s hold, Anaxa carefully observed the rhythmic rise and fall of the fairies’ chests. Their breathing was slow and measured, as though they were in a peaceful dream. Although dust had gathered around their sleeping figures, their fur was brushed clean and well-maintained.
“Because as beings born from calamity, we cannot grow old or become ill,” Dolimem said as she floated further into the crypt. The illumination followed her, pushing the shadows against the walls. “When starvation took its course, we turned inwards. And what occurred was not death, but sleep.”
“… in a never-ending dream.”
The surrounding light faded in strength as though sensing the seer’s grief.
“And for us… this is death,” Dolimem said at last.
The group fell silent. Phainon clenched his jaw as though to prevent himself from saying anything else.
“Chief,” Relimem said. “What… happened to the man in the story?”
Dolimem frowned. Anaxa observed the emotion flicker in her aged eyes.
“I don’t remember.”
A week had passed after the crypt reveal. Long enough for shock to settle into resolve. Anaxa sat in silent contemplation before the fields in the lowest tier of the village.
After the shocking discovery, Solimem and Relimem sought ways to feed the village, with ideas bouncing back and forth between them for days.
A Few Days Ago
“So first,” Relimem started. “I think we need to find the fairies that are starving, mem. That way, we can prevent the disaster from a thousand years ago from happening again.”
“You’re right, mem,” Solimem pitched in. The two fairies started thinking about what they should do to prevent mass starvation.
Anaxa sat on the bed as they discussed matters hovering above him. They were at the wolf’s dwelling, which unofficially became their secret meeting place for discussing sensitive matters. Phainon was working in the fields today.
It was a relief that these two had somewhat recovered from the ordeal.
He kneaded the bed as he listened.
“—What about a delivery system, memi?” Solimem said.
“A delivery system?”
Solimem nodded. “Bringing food to those who are starving should be our top priority.”
“But how do we know which fairies are in danger?”
Anaxa wondered the same.
“Memi, what about the fairies that don’t go to the food courtyard?” Solimem said.
Relimem thought for a moment before perking up. “Maybe the ones who aren’t going are too weak to leave home!”
Anaxa’s tail swayed as he listened. The correlation was not incorrect; it was just unreliable, as some fairies may have been rationing correctly while others were not. If he considered the fairies to be like humans, then their logic was far too naive to work.
“Meow.”
And if the food shortage was that dire, would they have enough food for those who need it?
“Anaxa’s right, memi,” Relimem said, nodding. “Not every fairy goes to the food courtyard to eat.”
“Meow?”
“I can only understand a little, but I can finally hear you, Anaxa!”
His aqua eyes lit up.
Relimem leaned forward in earnest with a smile.
He mewled his own ideas on the delivery system. Relimem nodded as she tried her best to listen.
“So… what did Anaxa say?” Solimem questioned once the kitten stopped mewling.
“Uh… he said something about how fairies not leave… uh likely… magic empty… sleeping…” Relimem wobbled as she held her head. “Sorry, memi. A lot of words Anaxa said… I just couldn’t understand.”
Solimem’s ears drooped the more Relimem translated.
“I’m sorry, Anaxa.” Her tail sagged with effort. “I need more time to learn.”
Anaxa’s own ears flattened. Apparently, this was more difficult than he thought. “Meow.”
“Mem? Bring…? You want us to bring you?”
He nodded. He needed to confirm something, and the best way to do it was to be in proximity to the fairies whose bodies were failing.
Preferably soon.
Present
Relimem and Solimem still had their own work to finish while taking turns looking after Anaxa and brainstorming the plan. Phainon took over for the hours when the fairies weren’t available, looking exhausted every time he came back to the house. Anaxa suspected the wolf had been grinding himself raw to level up. He’d checked Phainon’s status the last time the beastkin collapsed and seen the change.
After Anaxa’s fiasco with diving into danger to find the garden, the others had become more vigilant in watching over him. Phainon, more or less, trapped him in the same room, keeping the door closed while he slept.
It vexed Anaxa. Phainon knew Anaxa couldn’t open the door himself and locked it anyway. Even so, he didn’t dare interrupt the beastkin, who clearly needed the rest.
He sighed, absently watching the worker fairies work on the farm. The watchfulness was starting to remind him of his time on Earth.
Once the fairies had completed their delivery plan, they told Phainon. Despite the dubious look on the wolf’s face, he agreed to help once the plan was implemented.
Otherwise, Anaxa had spent the week looking through the menu interface and reading up on the world—Calypso had helped with some of that, even with her outdated information, before she became unavailable. The reading was something he hadn’t had the time for until now.
Everyone had silently kept word of the graveyard a secret so as not to cause panic.
Today, Solimem had to work in the courtyard, and Relimem took Anaxa with her to negotiate rations with Dosolmem on their delivery idea.
“Anaxa, how would you say…,” Relimem questioned while they waited for Dosolmem to make time for them.
He mewled back.
Although still learning, Relimem had gotten better by the day as she kept up with her lessons in the cat language. It had been a wonderful surprise when Relimem had understood the mewls that Anaxa had slipped when he had asked some questions about the village. Specifically, the food shortage situation.
What was most unfortunate was that she still continued to call him by his shortened name. He wondered if the language just didn’t translate well, considering the nuances—even he didn’t fully understand cat.
(“A-na-xa-go-ras. It’s Anaxagoras,”) Anaxa mewled for what felt like the hundredth time.
Relimem nodded. “Okay, Anaxa!”
His eye twitched violently under her innocent stare.
“—Relimem!” A green fairy with a farmer’s hat waved as he flew over. He hovered just before the kitten. “Mem! You must be Anaxa, I’m Dosolmem!”
Anaxa’s ears flattened as he looked into the vibrant eyes. Not at his own name, but at the volume. “… Meow.”
Dosolmem grinned in response before turning to Relimem. “You wanted to talk, mem?”
“Yes. Not here, somewhere more private, memi,” Relimem whispered.
“Memi… I guess we can talk inside if that helps.” Dosolmem gestured towards the shed.
Relimem nodded, then turned to the kitten. “Anaxa, I’ll be right back. Please stay here, mem.”
She looked at him pleadingly, and Anaxa sighed with a mewl of affirmation.
Relimem brightened and followed Dosolmem to the storage shed to negotiate. Anaxa’s nose twitched in recognition. The spell that Relimem cast on the door was the same one used on the wolf’s bedroom door.
Within a heartbeat, Anaxa pulled up the transparent screen that only he could see. Now with no one watching him closely, he finally had the chance to look at his findings. Anaxa inspected the object in his inventory.
So this was what the wolf meant…
The unknown, clear crystal teardrop that had been dropped by the serpent.
He mentally used IDENTIFY on the crystal. Within moments, information popped up in front of him.
[Stelleron — An indestructible object that responds to the desires of those around it. Extremely rare and known to fulfill wishes at a cost.
“No one knows where these cosmic anomalies have come from; even researching one of these objects in a contained environment can bring catastrophic events.”
—Unknown Researcher
Objects can be obtained through dungeon completion. However, not all dungeons contain stellerons.
Use with EXTREME caution.]
Dawning understanding flooded him as he continued reading about stellerons—opening several tabs. His eyes quickly shifted through the text as he absorbed the limited information and history of stellerons.
After a few minutes, he mentally closed the tabs—having read enough—and stared at the small crystal tear in his inventory. He now understood why the wolf had specifically targeted the serpent that day.
This stelleron could have solved the food crisis immediately. Helping the fairies maintain a permanent food supply regardless of population growth.
However… Anaxa dug his claws into the dirt, thinking. Although the information could have been outdated, stellerons had existed for eons, with a well-known penchant for disaster.
Anaxa mentally closed his inventory, sealing the stelleron away with it.
The sun shone above him and radiated over the fields. The fully grown crops glossed in healthy dew as the fairies took turns to harvest the various vegetables. According to Relimem’s explanation, the crops grew within a day. Following the harvest, workers must maintain the soil, ensuring it is free of debris before sowing new seeds. He could feel the raw, unadulterated mana circulating from under his paws.
The forest provided for the monsters, and the monsters provided for the forest in a never-ending cycle.
Anaxa gazed at the crops as a few fairies placed them all in a separate pile of different vegetables. One of them passed by Anaxa, their face weary, carrying a pumpkin. The orange-colored squash looked big, but was about the same size as one would see on Earth, though of better quality.
From the conversations with Relimem and Solimem, Anaxa had already deduced several major problems causing the food crisis. Too many mouths, too little space, and too few who understood what scarcity truly meant.
Fairies weren’t born by choice, nor by planning. They simply appeared when calamity demanded it. And once born, they endured. The last surge in population occurred over a century ago, but its consequences lingered like a wound that never healed.
The village itself couldn’t expand. That much was obvious. Light dictated where the crops could grow, and the forest was nonnegotiable.
And the last problem was… education. His tail flicked in irritation.
Isolation bred stagnation. Knowledge dulled when it had nowhere to go. If fairies didn’t understand scarcity, then waste wasn’t cruelty. It was ignorance. And ignorance didn’t disappear overnight.
Longevity had preserved the fairies, not sharpened them.
Right now, the first one was the immediate issue. The second problem was unlikely to be resolved within the time he had available. The third takes time—years, even.
The kitten frowned as his eyes caught sight of a small green bean that had fallen forgotten from a fairy’s hold while passing by him.
Perhaps… the solution was something within reach.
“—Anaxa?”
The kitten jumped, his mint fur bristling in surprise when Relimem popped up behind him.
“Sorry, mem.”
Relimem smiled awkwardly as she waited for Anaxa to calm down.
“Mew?”
“Oh, we’re done, mem. Dosolmem said that he’ll do his best to support us.” Relimem smiled in victory.
“Meow.”
“Huh, memi, you want to know why Phainon is big in his wolf form when you met him?”
Anaxa nodded.
“Maybe he eats a lot?” Relimem tilted her head.
He made a face. If that were true, then the fairies would have been bigger from their own consumption.
“Err… because he’s a beastkin, mem?” An ear drooped.
He shook his head. Though genetic mutation was worth thinking about.
“Uh, maybe because he used to be of a higher level?” Her tail sagged. The curse was still a sore subject for her, which the kitten knew from their talks.
However, what she said made Anaxa blink, then look back at the fallen green bean. He walked up to it to use IDENTIFY.
[Green Bean — Edible, mundane vegetable. This long, slender bean is rich in nutrients and has a slightly sweet taste.
Common rarity.
Uses: Made in various dishes. Leaves are also edible.
Quality: Low-Mid tier]
He lingered on the last line.
Quality.
That was new—but useful.
Anaxa leaned back and, with his menu open again, turned to his alchemy page.
Relimem hovered above him, patiently, knowing that the kitten was looking through an interface she could not see.
Somewhere on the outskirts of the village, a white wolf stood in an isolated clearing of light.
Phainon tore into what remained of the carcass, forcing it down despite the stench.
His stomach clenched.
A violent cough tore from his chest, followed by another. He staggered, gagging, until the rot came back up in thick, blackened sludge. It burned on the way out.
He spat, panting, saliva stringing from his jaw.
The interface flickered to life.
[Experience gained: negligible.]
Phainon’s claws dug into the dirt.
Two centuries of hunting. Two centuries of relying on this. And here—
Nothing.
The carnivorous vines scuttled at the edge of the clearing, held back by the light.
He tore his gaze away from the rotting remains that the vines had consumed and spat out.
“…you would have made the same choice you always do…”
Cyan eyes narrowed, agitated. Dolimem’s words had played on repeat in his mind for the past week.
If he had known what starvation had truly meant for the fairies back then… he wouldn’t have saved the traveler from the shadow creature.
He would have taken what he needed and left without looking back. His own ruin, disguised by necessity. The life of one stranger would not have outweighed the lives of hundreds.
Phainon’s white ears flattened back on his head.
… Anaxa would have died.