"So, what do fairies eat?"
"You don't know? Humans really haven't done their research. You lot act like you're at the top of the food chain, but you're so ignorant."
"Glad to see you're enjoying fairy life despite being a former human. So, what do you eat?"
"Not telling."
"If I don't know, you're the one who'll end up in trouble later."
"I'm not planning on being kept by you, so I'm not telling."
When I turned my face away in a huff, he just silently smiled at me. It was terrifying.
I was recalling this morning's conversation.
Judging from the way the boy had been acting, he had absolutely no intention of letting me go.
I've been stuck here ever since I was caught three days ago. The bedroom and study are both on the second floor of this house, so as long as he placed me by the window, I could pass the day watching the scenery, and even sing a little too. But there's a limit to how much time you can kill like that.
I was in the bedroom, slumped down inside the cage. Maybe it was from being stuck inside a silver enclosure for so long, but I was feeling sluggish.
As I sat there stewing in those long hours, a "hck—" came from somewhere.
An unfamiliar girl was coughing. A few rooms over. It was violent; that cough was definitely not a shallow one.
So Stillus-san isn't the only one who lives here. As that thought sank in, a creeping unease began to take root. Because right now, there was probably nobody in this house other than me and that girl. The boy had gone off to work. There was no one here who could look after her.
Cough, cough.
The muffled sound coming from far away sounded utterly exhausted.
"...!"
--- Isn't anybody there?
I stood up and rattled the door of the cage. But thanks to the silver, all it did was make my body feel heavier.
What flashed through my mind was me back when I was human. Even if I caught a cold, even on days off, my parents never took time off work for me.
--- Stillus-san. Stillus-san.
Come home for her, I called out to him silently.
Even though Stillus-san is eight years old, he's away at work from morning till night. When he came home, he would carry me, cage and all, back into his study, and I would protest "Let me out—!", but Stillus-san kept his eyes on his book.
"Are you hungry?"
"No. Fairies only need to eat once a month."
For the record, we eat natural things like flowers and leaves. The higher the mana content, the better. One day I'd love to try a leaf from the World Tree.
That aside,
"There's someone else in this house, right? A girl."
"Did you get out of the cage?"
"I-I can't get out."
Why did he have to pull such a scary face?
"Then that's fine."
"It's not fine. I heard her coughing really badly all day. Isn't there anyone to look after her? Any adults?"
He closed his book and walked up to the cage. He rattled the door clang, clang, as if he were teasing me on purpose.
"There are no adults in this house. It's just me and my little sister."
"No way."
"It's just how things are. Our parents died. There's nobody to take us in. All that's left is the house, some money and the eldest son who can earn a living and a sickly little sister. That's all there is to it. This world doesn't have a welfare system as developed as Japan in our past lives... Of course, it's not as though there are no institutions of that kind at all, and we did receive adoption offers. But rather than hand the money our parents left behind over to someone else, I thought it'd be better for the two of us, brother and sister, to live off it ourselves."
"But to leave a little girl on her own all day..."
"There are grown adults, never mind children, without a home wandering the streets of this city; the fact that we can live a civilised life like this is nothing short of a blessing."
How terrifying. This world isn't peaceful enough to leave a little girl all alone at home. Humans fight amongst themselves; there's kidnapping and robbery. And on top of all that, this is a world of swords and magic. It's fundamentally different from Japan, where just carrying a weapon is a crime.
I couldn't put my thoughts together. I don't know what he thought of me opening my mouth and closing it again, but he stuck his index finger into the cage. I was gripping the bars, and didn't move from where I was. I knew he had no intention of attacking me.
"You're kind."
"I'm not kind, this is normal."
"If you'll worry on behalf of a human you hate, then you're kind."
It's only because I'm not a fairy from the bottom of my heart.
His index finger stroked my head. That finger was kinder than I was.
"My little sister's name is Lumina. It's an awful way to put it, but she's used to catching colds. She understands why I need to go to work too. She's a clever girl."
"You do realise that cleverness has nothing to do with how lonely she feels?"
"Of course."
Which is why he was apparently heading in to work day after day, doing his best to wrap up his research as quickly as he could.
"In that case, if I told you I'd let you keep me, would I be allowed to look after her?"
If he isn't going to let me go anyway, doing a little "good deed" here would be much easier on my mental state. Far better than sitting in a cage.
When I made my case with my eyes, he smiled ambiguously and said, "That's a tempting offer."
He promised to let me see his little sister once he was mentally prepared. I'm ready whenever.
In the second week, my treatment was upgraded from imprisonment to house arrest. Believe it or not, he started letting me out of the cage.
He still wouldn't let me out of the study, of course.
And if I touched a window or a door, for some reason I'd get caught by some sort of barrier and writhe in agony from some sort of electric shock.
So what! I'm free!
Enjoying the up-and-down motion for the first time in ages, today I sat in seiza on top of Stillus-san's head while he was cheerfully absorbed in his reading. Then I flew around again. I tried sitting on his shoulder. Then bounced around some more.
When he told me to settle down and I ignored him, he silently left the room and returned with a rolled-up bundle of paper from who knows where, so I decided to restrain myself.
With his shoulder as my default spot, I peeked into a book titled Magical Psychology or something. I had absolutely no idea what was written in it.
The fact that he was here meant his little sister must be asleep.
He does the housework, looks after his sister, and then comes to the study once things settle down. That seems to be his daily routine. He carries me all the way into the bedroom with him, which makes it easy to forget, but the time I actually spend with him in a day is surprisingly short.
Come to think of it, it just occurred to me: Eleanor is actually a rather powerful fairy.
The one I know is the male version, "Eren", but Eleanor's basic specs shouldn't be any different. She's a high-spec support character renowned for almost never dropping out of your party, with mana on a completely different tier compared to other fairies. There are even challenge-run videos titled things like "Clearing the Game Without Eleanor".
In other words, I, "Eleanor", should be able to become a powerhouse in this world.
And so,
"I would like to try using magic."
"Rejected."
"Why!?"
He dismissed me without a second thought.
He finally looked up from his book and stared at me intently. Terrifyingly expressionless.
"If you could use magic, you'd run away, wouldn't you."
"And yet why won't you let me go? As long as you don't become the Demon King, even if I get asked to go to another world, it wouldn't concern you, would it."
I don't know what generation he is, but there is a Demon King right now. Leave the evil deeds to him, and as long as young Louis just walks an upright path in life, there's not much chance for him to end up being killed by a hero.
I was only going to take care of his little sister if I couldn't escape from here; but if I can then I'll escape at the speed of sound.
"I have no intention of becoming the Demon King, but that's a separate matter. You learning magic is out of the question. Letting you go would be such a waste."
A chill ran down my spine.
I've come to realise lately that his gentle smile is his standard feature. Smiles come in varieties, and the smile that looks like he's really fond of something usually appears when we talk about his little sister. The dark, menacing smile usually comes out when I insist I want to run away.
It's scary, but I can't give up on magic. I waited for the cold atmosphere to dissipate, then leapt down off my master's shoulder (sarcasm, of course). Standing on the desk,
"Stillus-san, could you pull a book out from that shelf for me?"
"Any book will do?"
"Yeah. Ah, ah, don't move! Stay right there!"
"... Right."
He seemed to have guessed what I wanted to do. He settled back into his chair and pointed at the bookshelf a few meltres [1] away. He picked one of the books and curled his finger upward, as though he were hooking his fingertip on something in midair.
The book began to move on its own, gliding smoothly from the shelf to his hand. Such smooth control. That alone was enough to give me a glimpse of his real skill.
"Will this one do?"
He set the book that had flown over down by my feet. I think that gentle levitation magic falls under the wind element.
This isn't something an eight-year-old can do.
--- No question about it. His talent really is something.
"Is this book no good?"
"Huh? No, it's good. It's good."
The book's title was The Good Child's Magic Dictionary. It might not have been so good after all.