Very mild blood-drinking content warning.
Monsters is the general term for creatures that side with the Demon King and attack humans.
Eleanor groaned under the new moon night sky. Stars large and small covered the ink-black sky.
It was a star filled sky unlike anything she'd ever seen in Japan, but given her current mood, it all seemed rather gloomy.
"Of all places, the Nild Hills."
"It's just right."
The reply came quickly. When Eleanor turned round, Louis was there.
Sitting on a rocky area with the starry sky behind him, he looked at her with a gentle smile. She'd seen this scene somewhere before. It was one of the stills she'd collected in the game, A Starry Sky and the Sorcerer?
"... What?"
"Nothing. Let's hurry up and get practice over with."
The Nild Hills, located north-east of the royal capital Grenol, is a place you pass through several times in the game too.
There are a lot of monsters, but passing through the Nild Hills is the shortest route for buying supplies from the port town of Shira. Merchants are constantly asking for escorts to pass through here.
The monsters that appear here are around level forty-five and are strong, and she'd lost count of how many times she'd been killed by poor calls during playthroughs in her past life.
"Right then, let's stick to water element spells today."
"'Kay."
"Well then..."
When Louis raised an arm, a ball of light hovered in his palm.
Monsters are drawn to the artificial light.
Several minutes later, along with a stirring, warm breeze, two snake-like monsters appeared. They had deep green scales and slender bodies. No limbs; they moved by writhing. They were mid-level monsters that crush their enemies with their developed fangs and jaws.
The instant she laid eyes on them, their names and HP became visible to Eleanor.
Python: 1500
Just these few simple characters floated above each enemy's head in a slightly distorted font.
This isn't any unique ability of hers, but a "combat scene" specific to this world. It's said to be a magical danger-detection that intelligent creatures have acquired through their long history of culture and evolution.
It's easy to forget, but this is the world of a game.
Enemy health being visualised is only natural here.
"Teacherrr, I have a question."
"Yes, Eleanor-san."
"I'm prettyyyy sure Pythons are water-type monsters."
"Yes, that's correct. You remember well. Very clever, very clever."
"And I'm prettyyyy sure that using water magic on water-type monsters halves the damage."
"That's right, I'll give you five points."
"I think bullying fairies isn't very nice!"
"The teacher respects his students' independence."
Louis's aim in this lesson was essentially, "you'll get plenty of practice that way, won't you?"
Having the damage halved simply means needing twice as much magic. And because it forces her to aim for vital spots by any means necessary, it doubles as practice in focused control, too.
With the enemy on the attack there wasn't much room for complaining. Facing monsters slithering in with their fangs bared, Eleanor steeled herself.
After taking the enemy out, Eleanor let loose a roar. Between the unreasonableness of her situation and anger at her teacher laughing carefree at her back with a "gooo for it—," the monsters that appeared had become her punching bags before she knew it.
"Humans, I tell you, humans!"
"You're wasting mana, rein your water-output in a little more. Your form is getting sloppy."
She took on over a dozen monsters. More than half had been water-type, and the magic she used was equivalent to four average mages'. Add to that the considerable mana she needed to maintain her human size, and she was close to her limit.
Louis rose from the rocks, opening his mouth to stop the raging fairy.
--- Poof.
It seems there was no need to stop her. Having burned through the mana she'd received from Louis, Eleanor blinked, now back to her natural fairy size.
"... I changed back."
"Yes. Practice is over for today. Good work."
This was the cue to stop. Called over with "this way," she obediently flew to Louis.
But she sensed a rustling and ominous presence behind her, so she turned around.
Her face paled.
"—! Louis!"
A monster, a Troll, had appeared, as if lured in by her small back. Stooped forward in an imperfect two-legged stance, it staggered along while dragging its club behind it. Tough, faded olive-coloured skin. It stood about three times the height of a human, and its bulging eyes were fixed solely on the defenceless fairy. Its target was obvious at a glance.
When the exhausted Eleanor flew into Louis's chest, she was softly enveloped by his left hand as if in shelter.
At the same time, he turned his eyes on the Troll. His gaze caught its target. And then.
It burned.
The vast red flames enveloping its massive body looked like advanced magic.
A beginner-tier spell that ought to have had an incantation and a name was shaped in an instant without a word, given the maximum possible output, and released under the kind of fine control required to thread a needle.
Not a single piece of charcoal remained on the gentle hill. Only the grating death cry echoed on, leaving a lingering resonance. Once even that faded, there was only silence. Nature as it had originally been.
The hills, as though insisting there had never been a Troll to begin with, and the beautiful starry sky, felt empty. But more than anything, it was Louis's unimpressed eyes that stiffened Eleanor's spine.
"Is something wrong?"
"Uh, ah... it's, nothing."
The expression turned on her was gentle, and Eleanor's fear had nowhere to go.
As she wore a puzzled expression and put some distance between them, Louis looked puzzled.
After handing Louis a towel once he'd finished his shower, Eleanor fluttered along behind him as he headed into the bedroom. Knowing she would follow, he left the door open.
Louis sat on the bed and waited for her, the towel still draped over his head. He wore a wide-necked top and loose bottoms. Drops of water dripped from his wet, slick hair, trickling down his collarbone.
Eleanor came in, shut the door, and opened her mouth straightaway.
"I think they've caught on that I'm not human. The townspeople have been acting strange lately. They're starting to notice that I haven't aged in ten years."
That was one of the reasons why they would give her a blank stare when she asked them for help.
Her lifespan and her rate of growth are different from a human's. It wasn't that Eleanor had forgotten this, but she'd also been taking it rather lightly. The years had passed by faster than she'd thought.
"... I see. I had been thinking it would come to this eventually."
The people of this world are different from NPCs, non-player characters. They have common sense, they have emotions, and lives of their own.
Even if some people spoke to her warmly, would they eventually find her creepy and end up looking at her in disgust? In contrast to the fairy, who was frowning, Louis was optimistic.
"As I am now, I'm confident I can shield you whenever your race ends up being found out. I didn't become Chief Court Mage just for the money... Though I sugarcoat my words like that, nine-tenths of it was because I wanted money."
Louis finished drying his hair with the towel and brought the conversation to an abrupt close, "right then."
He reached out towards Eleanor, who was looking gloomy.
"Come here."
He beckoned her. Whether it was the compelling force of his words, or the undeniable gap in their power, Eleanor rarely defied him when he used the imperative. As always, she stepped onto his knee.
"Is it all right?"
"You can't make breakfast tomorrow morning at that size. I hate being woken up early, so please eat while you can."
Louis took the fruit knife in his hand and cut into his own index finger. Eleanor's eyes were glued to the blood that was seeping out. Her pupils dilated with desire and she gulped. She gripped the offered finger tightly with both hands.
"Um, itadakimasu." [1]
Eleanor murmured obediently, and licked it.
Immediately afterwards, she couldn't focus on anything but the magic in front of her.
Even as her body grew to human size, she couldn't bring herself to move away from him.
Now cradled sideways on his knee, rather than feeling embarrassed, she grew only more ravenous. She wanted to steady herself and savour the blood. But she couldn't even spare a moment to shift her position... As she squirmed, he looped one arm round her shoulder to support her, and Eleanor did not let go of her "meal."
"Mn, mn."
Gulp, gulp, gulp. She gulped it down desperately. Louis's fluid of life, with single-minded devotion.
Her eyes were stripped of reason and her cheeks were flushed. Drunk on the sweet mana, she was even cuter than usual, and Louis's face softened into a charming smile.
Even as Louis watched her with passion in his eyes, she didn't notice.
Overwhelmed by the pleasure of the mana coursing through her, the strength drained from Eleanor. When Louis laid a hand on her head and gently pressed it to his shoulder, she entrusted herself to him like a lover.
Through the thin fabric, he felt a softness, gentler than a stuffed animal filled with cotton. Unlike ten years ago, this delightful moment of holding her snugly in his arms was, no matter how he tried to steady himself, tantalising.
"Mm, ... mmn."
"You mustn't make that sort of face in front of other men, you know?"
He knew full well that the warning wasn't reaching her.
Even though he had lowered his voice to a tone that was appealing to women as he whispered in her ear, none of it could catch Eleanor's attention. She clung to Louis's mana and wouldn't let go.
A pure and untouched fairy was shamelessly craving the bodily fluids of a human man.
The sight of that gave Louis a dark sense of joy.
"Haah."
Her eyes glistening bewitchingly as she reluctantly let the finger go.
Coming to her senses and worrying that she might have eaten too much, she looked at Louis apologetically. But what looked down at her was a smile more radiant than ever.
"I always think this, but you look like you're enjoying it."
"Me?"
"Yes. When I'm drinking your blood, you look like you're enjoying yourself, or happy?"
"... Perhaps so. Does it show on my face?"
"It shows."
"I should've thought I was grinning the same way I always do, though."
--- Ah, so he's aware of it.
Even now, as Eleanor remained speechless and silent, he looked suspicious with that smile on his face.
"Ah, sorry. I'm still on you. I'll get off now."
"..."
"Um, let me go."
"No."
"Let me go?"
"No."
The person inside Louis was supposed to be a fellow Japanese, but at this rate his sense of physical closeness was on foreigner levels. Possibly beyond that. Could Louis's past-life self have been a max-social-stats type uni student? She pictured Louis cruising about in a convertible yelling "whooooo!" ... Probably not that.
"I can't believe young Louis used to be Japanese. Is a sense of shame a matter of the body, rather than the soul?"
"... Who knows."
"Mmm, but my body should be exactly like Eleanor's."
In the game, Eren and Eleanor are fairies loyal to the Hero. In the latter half of their routes, they change into possessive characters who try to touch or act clingy to the protagonist whenever they get the chance. The complete opposite of a Japanese Eleanor.
"If it were tied to the character's body... I'm not used to this, so maybe it isn't a matter of bloodline or body after all... Right, I really can't get used to this, so just put me down already."
"No."
The position they were in, the kind lovers would assume, was far too stimulating for a clear-headed Eleanor.