Anne’s wagon rolled down the road, with fields of wheat stretching out to the left and right.

By the time the sun was high in the sky, she had arrived in Redington, the provincial capital and the largest town in the vicinity of Knoxberry.

Redington was a castle town, with streets radiating outward from a round central plaza. Up on a hill stood the castle from which the province of Redington was governed.

As Anne advanced slowly through the town on her wagon, she saw a crowd had formed in front of her and was blocking the street.

Anne shrugged and alighted from her wagon. She tapped lightly on the shoulder of a farmer who had his back to her.

“Hey, excuse me? What’s everyone doing? The street is blocked, and I can’t get my wagon through.”

“Well…you can pass if you want, but are you brave enough to cut across that scene, young lady?”

“What scene?”

Anne peeked under the farmer’s arm to see what everyone was staring at.

She spied a brawny man standing in a patch of mud, with a bow slung over his back and a sword hanging from his belt. He wore leather boots and a vest made of animal hides. He looked like a hunter.

“You little bastard!” the hunter shouted as he stomped again and again on a little lump on the ground. Mud splashed into the air. Each time the hunter’s foot fell, the lump made a pitiful noise.

Looking carefully, Anne could see that the mound in the mud had the shape of a person, though palm-sized. On the back of the tiny individual lying facedown in the mud was a single dainty, translucent wing that was somehow unsoiled by the muck.

“Is that a fairy?! How cruel!” Anne cried quietly, and the farmer nodded.

Fairies are humanoid creatures who dwell in forests and meadows. They vary greatly in shape and size, but a distinctive characteristic shared by all are the two translucent wings on their backs.

Fairies have special abilities, and they can do all sorts of jobs well.

Anne had heard that royalty, nobles, and knights employed many fairies for different purposes.

Even common, middle-class households might have one or two to help with the housework.

In Jonas’s house, there was a fairy named Cathy who was about the size of a palm as well. She looked after Jonas’s daily needs and helped with the preparation of sugar candy.

“It’s one of the fairy hunter’s worker fairies. Looks like it tried to take its wing back and escape.” The farmer lowered his voice and pointed stealthily toward the hunter.

In the fairy hunter’s hand was a single thin wing. It matched the one on the back of the fairy in the mud.

In order to control fairies, slavers tear off one wing and keep it.

A fairy’s wings are the source of their life force. A fairy can live with one wing separated from their body, but if that wing is damaged, the fairy weakens and dies. To compare it to human physiology, the wings are like the fairy’s heart. Any human would tremble in fear if someone else held their heart captive. No one can disobey the person gripping their heart.

So by stealing one of their wings, slavers can make their fairies follow their commands.

But fairies don’t want to be slaves. Many of them try to take back their wings and escape without their masters’ knowledge.

“Even for a fairy, that’s pretty cruel treatment.”

“That fairy is gonna die!”

The people in the crowd murmured to one another, but no one moved.

Anne looked up at the farmer beside her and the other men around her.

“Hey, everyone! Are you going to let him get away with such heartless behavior?!”

But the people around Anne averted their eyes, seemingly fearful.

The farmer mumbled weakly, “I feel bad for the poor thing, but that fairy hunter has a violent temper. I’m afraid he’ll retaliate… Besides, it’s only a fairy…”

“What do you mean, ‘only a fairy’?! If we hesitate, he’s going to die! Fine, I’ll go!”

Anne pushed past the farmer and stepped forward.

“Hey, a young girl like you shouldn’t go out there!”

“I am not a child. I’m fifteen. In this country, girls are considered adults at age fifteen, right? So I’m legally an adult. I would be ashamed of myself for the rest of my life if, as a full-grown adult, I stood by and watched a fairy get tortured to death. This is no joke.”

Anne drew herself to her full height and walked quickly toward the fairy hunter.

Perhaps because he was so agitated, the hunter didn’t notice Anne. Trampling the fairy under the sole of his boot, he gripped the wing in his hands.

“Let me show you what I’m gonna do to your wing!”

“Stop it, you insolent dolt! Stop it!!”

The fairy bravely flailed his little arms and legs, kicking up mud. He shrieked in a shrill, piercing voice.

However, the fairy hunter mercilessly squeezed the wing between his fingers.

Down in the mud, the fairy let out another scream.

“You filthy thievin’ fairy, I’ll kill ya!”

The hunter pulled harder, as if to tear the wing in half. That was the moment Anne stepped up behind him. She bent her knees and charged forward.

“Oh, excuse me!!”

The hem of Anne’s dress flew up as she shouted. With one foot, she delivered a powerful kick to the back of the fairy hunter’s knee. It was Anne’s signature move, her knockout blow—the knee buckler.

The fairy hunter was caught off guard, and his knee gave way immediately. He lost his balance. His mouth was still open in surprise when he fell face-first into the muddy street.

In the same instant that the curious onlookers burst into laughter, the fairy, suddenly released from under the man’s boot, sprang up nimbly. Anne hopped over the man’s head and quickly grabbed the fairy’s wing from his enslaver’s hand.

“Why, you!!” the hunter shouted, lifting his muddy face.

Anne effortlessly jumped out of his way. She extended the recovered wing to the fairy, who was standing there looking dazed.

“Here. This is yours, right?”

The fairy seemed startled, but he quickly snatched his wing back. His face was covered in mud, and only his blue eyes sparkled with a strange light.

The fairy looked up at Anne and shouted, “Tch! Don’t expect me to say thanks to a human!!”

Holding his wing tightly in his arms, he dashed past the feet of the onlookers, who gasped and made room for him to pass. The fairy cast a backward glance at the astonished crowd, then disappeared toward the outskirts of town like a swift wind.

Anne shrugged. “Oh well, I am one of those awful humans, I suppose.”

Dripping muddy water from his chin, the fairy hunter stood up and started shouting, “How’re you gonna repay me, little girl?! You just let my valuable worker fairy escape!!”

Anne turned to him and said, “But, mister, you were going to kill that fairy, weren’t you? So what does it matter as long as he’s gone?”

“What’d you say?!”

The enraged fairy hunter raised his arm.

But the crowd surrounding them immediately voiced their collective outrage.

“You’re an adult—are you going to raise your hand against a child?!”

“That girl is right!”

“You’re acting barbaric!!”

The man flinched under the harsh criticism of the crowd. Anne looked the man directly in the eye, without fear.

The fairy hunter let out a small groan and lowered his hand.

“Thank you,” Anne said sarcastically. “I’m glad you’re such a kind person. And since you’re so kind, I know that you’re going to treat fairies nicely from now on, too. How wonderful!” She smiled at him sweetly.

The fairy hunter’s expression was inscrutable, neither angry nor smiling.

“Bye, then!” Anne said a simple farewell to the fairy hunter, passed through the crowd that was praising her enthusiastically, and returned to her horse and wagon. “That makes me so mad. People are so cruel. Treating fairies badly just because they’re fairies!” Anne mumbled angrily.

Fairies are built a little differently from humans. But they have thoughts and feelings, and even speak human languages.

Anne didn’t think of them as being any different. Her conscience ached at the idea of using fairies as slaves.

That was why Emma had never employed a fairy.

We don’t use fairies.

That had been Emma and Anne’s belief. And yet—

Anne’s expression suddenly turned dark.

“…And yet…I’m on my way…to do something awful, too…”

Anne whipped the horse again, and the wagon started rolling.