Anne was stunned for a moment.

“…Buy you…? Was that…an order?”

Surprised, the fairy dealer put his hands on his belly and laughed.

“Incredible! That’s the first time I’ve ever heard him tell someone to buy him. Did you fall in love with the young lady at first sight, boy? How ’bout this, miss? You’ve got no choice but to buy him now, right? I’ll give you a great bargain, only one hundred cress. If he wasn’t so crude, I would have sold him as a pet fairy. I bet someone would want him as one, even if I asked for three hundred cress.”

“That’s only if he didn’t have a foul mouth, of course.”

But the price the fairy dealer had suggested was certainly cheap. Warrior fairies and pet fairies are not very common, so they fetch high prices. One hundred cress is one piece of gold. Purchasing a warrior fairy for that price would be an incredible bargain.

“Listen, fairy. If you’re bold enough to tell me to buy you, you must have confidence in your skills as a warrior, right?”

When Anne asked, a glint of light flashed across the fairy’s eyes, and he looked up at her.

“What would you have me do?”

“Guard me. When I leave here, I’m headed for Lewiston, alone. I want you to protect me along the road.”

The fairy smiled confidently. “Easy. And maybe while I’m at it, I could perform extra services. A kiss, perhaps?”

“Don’t look so smug. I have no need of any such ‘services.’ And anyway, I would never give up my very first kiss so cheaply.”

“So you’re a child.”

“Well, excuse me! For being a child!”

Anne certainly would have preferred a more serious, docile warrior fairy. But she didn’t have time to make a detour to Ribonpool. Anne made up her mind.

There’s no other choice!! He might be a little rude, but I can’t afford to be picky.

She pulled out a little pouch from her dress pocket, opened it, and grabbed the single gold coin that was mixed in with all the copper.

“Mister, I’ll buy this fairy.”

“Heh-heh, you made up your mind, missy?” The dealer smiled, showing yellowed teeth.

Anne held out the gold coin, and the fairy dealer took and examined it. Then, he removed a small leather bag from around his neck.

“All right then, check the wing.”

The fairy dealer opened the mouth of the little leather bag and pulled out something that looked like a transparent square of cloth, folded up to about the size of Anne’s hand. He held the tip of it and gave it one good shake. When he did, the folded-up square gently unfurled.

A wing about as long as Anne was tall appeared before her eyes. It was so beautiful, she hesitated to touch it. As the light shifted, the transparent membrane shimmered a rainbow of colors. Despite having been folded like fine cloth, it retained no wrinkles or creases. Anne reached out to touch it gently and found it had a texture like silk. The softness made her shudder.

“This is his wing?”

“Sure is. Here, I’ll prove it.”

True to his word, the fairy dealer gripped the edge and the center of the wing and twisted it forcefully. The moment he did, the fairy under the tent groaned.

The warrior wrapped his arms around himself, and his whole body went stiff. He clenched his teeth.

“Stop!! I get it, that’s enough!!”

At Anne’s words, the dealer loosened his grip.

The fairy weakly put one hand on the ground. When he looked up, he glared hatefully at his captor.

The fairy dealer folded the wing back up, put it back into its bag, and handed it to Anne.

“Wear this around your neck, close to your body. And be careful. If this bag falls out of your hands, you don’t know what the fairy might do. An acquaintance of mine accidentally let a warrior fairy in his employ steal their wing back and got himself killed. Warrior fairies are violent. That’s why they’re sold as such. If he gets his wing back, he’s not going to just run away. There’s a high chance he’ll kill his master.”

“But then what should I do when I’m sleeping? Won’t he kill me in my sleep or something?”

“When you’re turning in, make sure to hide the wing under your clothing and sleep holding it.”

“And then I’ll be all right?”

“Think about it. Imagine someone keeping a tight grip on your heart. If in the moment you killed them, that person squeezed and crushed your precious heart… Especially since fairy wings are so fragile, you see? They’re scared and can’t make any reckless moves. The idea of you hurting their wings terrifies fairies on an instinctual level. You saw the pain it caused this one just now, didn’t you?”

Anne had indeed seen how he’d suffered, and she doubted that he’d be able to raise a hand against her.

However, Anne wasn’t happy about the thought of controlling a fairy with fear and pain.

“Be careful, especially with this one. Up to now, every time I’ve tried to sell him, he’s spat insults like you couldn’t imagine out of that pretty mouth and angered the customer. I haven’t been able to get rid of him. I don’t know what kind of whim made him want you to buy him, but it’s a miracle.”

“Is he that much of a pain?!”

“You want to back out of the deal?”

Anne thought about it for a second, then shook her head.

“I don’t have time to go to Ribonpool. I’ll buy him.”

“That’s great. Handle the wing carefully. Whatever you do, don’t let him get it back.”

Anne nodded, and the fairy dealer unlocked the shackles on the fairy’s ankles.

The fairy wore a faint, shrewd smile as he whispered to the dealer, “You just wait. Someday, I’ll come back to kill you.”

“That’s fine. I look forward to the day.”

Accepting the fairy’s unsettling words of parting, the dealer finished removing his chains.

The fairy stood up. He was tall. His wing, reflecting the colors of a rainbow when it caught the sunlight, stretched down to the back of his knees.

“Now then, I bought you, so first of all, nice to meet you,” Anne said.

The fairy smiled with his beautiful face. “You must be well-off if you’re carrying gold around…scarecrow.”

“Don’t call me scarecrow! I’m Anne!”

The fairy dealer looked worried, watching their exchange.

“Miss, are you really gonna be able to handle him?”

“She can handle me. Right, scarecrow?” It was the fairy who answered.

When she saw him looking down on her mockingly, Anne shouted again, “My name is Anne! Anne Halford! Next time you call me scarecrow, you’re gonna get it good!”

“…Looks like you’ll be fine,” the fairy dealer muttered.

Glaring at the fairy, Anne huffed through her nose as she replied, “Yes! I’ll be fine! Don’t you worry, old man. All right, you come with me.”

“Say, what’s your name?” Anne asked the fairy sitting next to her as she prodded the horse onward from atop her wagon.

Her bodyguard was leaning back against the wagon with his long legs drawn up and his arms folded across his chest, looking arrogant. Between Anne, who was busily handling the horse, and the fairy, the latter looked a hundred times more self-important.

The fairy glanced over at Anne as if she was a nuisance.

“What good will it do to tell you?”

“I mean, I don’t know what to call you, do I?”

“You can call me Tom or Sam or whatever human-style name you like.”

Normally, when a human acquires a fairy, the owner gives them a name. But Anne didn’t want to do that. She thought being addressed by anything else must be humiliating.

“If it were me, I would want to be called by my real name. Don’t you feel the same? I don’t want to pick something random to call you. So tell me.”

“I don’t care what you call me. Don’t ask such a silly thing. Give me whatever name you like. Call me anything.”

The fairy looked away uncooperatively. Anne glanced over at his profile and said, “Fine, how about Crow?”

As one might expect, the fairy regarded Anne with an incredibly disagreeable expression.

“To get back at me for ‘scarecrow’?”

“That’s right. Crow.”

The fairy frowned. After a moment of silence, he muttered, “Challe Fenn Challe.”

“That’s your name?”

The fairy nodded. Anne smiled.

“What a pretty name. It’s much better than Crow. Challe Fenn Challe… Which part is your first name, and which part is your last name?”

“The whole thing is just…my name. Unlike with humans, there’s no distinction between first and last names.”

“Oh really? But Challe Fenn Challe is too long, so…I think I’ll just call you Challe. Is that all right?”

“I told you to call me whatever you like. You are my master, aren’t you?”

“Well…that’s true.”

Hearing that come out of the fairy’s mouth again didn’t make Anne feel good. She felt intensely guilty about purchasing and employing her own slave.