"Good afternoon, everyone," Colbert said as he entered the classroom, as he described it the first time as a room full of people learning from a teacher such as him. "I hope lunch was satisfactory after the... hiccup yesterday."

  Ever since coming to this strange place that was supposed to be the terrifying land of demons a month ago, Fia learn something new every day. This kingdom, no country, was called the United Races of Terra, URT for short. It was a strange name for a strange place where all races of Erdale could supposedly live together peacefully. Anyone outside would laugh at the idea.

  And yet, here she was in a room full of humans, elves, dwarves, and beastmen taking lessons from a half-elf. Like her, everybody else was new to this country and was equally in culture shock as Colbert told them. The Terrans seemed to know this, which was why these classes were held to teach them all about this country.

  "Now, for today's lesson," Colbert then went for the white stick called a chalk and wrote a word on the chalkboard and circled it. "What do you all know about fairies?"

  That was a first; Colbert had taught them many things, but to talk about fairies was rather new. But now that Fia thought about it, no one had seen a fairy for centuries, so much so that the shorter-living races thought they were a myth. But here, fairies were everywhere, and Fia thought the first fairy she met at the immigration center was a rare sight!

  "I remember my mother telling me about them before both of us came here," Fia then spoke up, raising her hand as she did so. "She said they were mischievous children who liked to play pranks."

  Speaking of her mother, after tearfully reuniting with her, Fia was arranged to immediately go live with her with Chloe, the black cat beastman she had befriended when they were still slaves, in tow after being given a clean bill of health. They have since lived in an apartment, which was like the tree houses she lived in Rosa village, but was instead a large block of a building made out of stone that her mother called concrete.

  Inside was just as strange as everything else, so many things like the television in the living room, the shower in the bathroom with running hot water, and the like. Fia felt like a child again as her mother taught her and Chloe how to use them all. Because she had been hoping for her return, her mother had always had the apartment to have a bedroom just for her; it was just that the addition of Chloe was a surprise. So for now, she was sharing the same bed with the catbeast child.

  "Yes, they were, but so much has changed since," Colbert said rather melancholically. "And I am sure you are aware of that, given that this country is the only place where you will ever meet a fairy."

  "We have arrived at the target location. Over."

  Under the night of a new moon, five shadowy figures overlooked the opulent mansion from the small hill beside it. They wore dark, body-covering cloaks like the rogues of this world do, but under their fabric were anything but ordinary. Knives sharper than any blacksmith could forge, small firearms of shapes and sizes to their preferences, and various gadgets that combined science and mystics, all attached to a body suit that belonged to another era.

  They observed the outskirts of the mansion and found it lacking. The guards patrolling the walls don't seem to keep a very close eye out to notice the incoming intruders. Some were even dozing off the job, confident that nothing bad would come out of it. Such lax attitudes have been fine deep in the empire, where none would think of harming a noble in his estate, but that was about to change.

  "Copy that, proceed infiltration," was the quiet sound from their earpieces. "Over and out."

  Lifting their gear, they silently climbed down the hill. Before doing so, one of them, unmistakably an elf by his ears pointing out of his headgear, whispered a spell, and in an instant, what remaining light shied away from them, turning invisible to the untrained eye. The incompetent guards were even more unaware of the oncoming threat to their lord, whom they were supposed to protect.

  "Fairies are indeed childlike beings by nature," Colbert explained, lightly tapping the board. "And are always so for their entire lives."

  "Is that why they all looked like children?" Peter, a blonde human boy with one open eye as his other eye was cut by a beast as a child, asked, raising his hand.

  "Yes, a fully-matured fairy still remains a prepubescent child in stature," Colbert continued, loosening the cuffs of his shirt as always when preparing to draw a picture on the board.

  Aside from all of the buildings and objects, the first thing that Fia saw was the clothes of this country. Mister Colbert, for instance, wore a white shirt with buttons running all the way down and dark blue trousers. It looked rather plain compared to what she was used to seeing people in her village wear. The buttons being there to fasten the shirt were also a rather strange touch; all of the slavers and nobles mostly used them as decoration, not something functional.

  Elven fashion in this country, by contrast, still has some familiarity. Currently, Fia was wearing a green one-piece dress similar to what she used to wear in Rosa village. It wasn't as intricate as her old one. In fact, it was originally a plain dress that her mother embroidered herself. That said, it was comfortable to wear, much better than the rags she was forced to wear for several years.

  SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

  Then, the teacher proceeded to draw an elaborate tree on the board. Throughout the many classes Fia had with him, he always seemed to create beautiful illustrations of anything and everything while keeping that neutral expression of his. "And it is contributed to the Great Fairy Tree."

  Even if the guards were less incompetent, the five shadows would never get caught, even as they vaulted over the wall with near-perfect silence as they had done many times before. The concealing magic perfectly hid their presence from sight, smell, sound, and even instinct. Even the large wolf beastman among them, carrying very bulky gear, could stroll through the garden with no one the wiser.

  Of course, opening the front door will catch everyone's attention no matter what, which was why the dwarf picked the lock from the other side with another spell and opened the window from there to enter, but not before the elf erased the sound of the lock clicking open. Once again, none of the guards noticed that the window magically opened on its own. Once the elf cast another spell to check that the hallway was empty, they vaulted over the window in quick, practiced motions that wasted no energy or sound.

  The wolf beastman entered first and immediately secured one end of the hallway, double-checking in case someone entered after the scan with his eyes naturally seeing the dark. This was followed by the elf who kept watch of the other hallway with his sharp eye and night vision goggles. As the last three entered the mansion proper, they closed the window behind them and proceeded deeper inside.

  Let's go, one of them motioned, gesturing his hand forward. With swift motion, all of them lined up and went deeper into the hallway with their guns in hand.

  "Its origins remain a mystery. Only that hundreds of years ago, it sprouted in Erdale and gave birth to the first fairies: the fairy king and queen Oberon and Titania," Colbert explained. "From there, thousands of fairies were born as their subjects and children."

  SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

  As he explained it, he drew numerous simplistic yet sufficiently detailed images of fairies coming out of the tree. While those fairies were children, the two fairies flanking the base of the tree on both sides were adults representing the fairy king and queen with little crowns to highlight the fact. It was these kinds of drawings that always captivated the class, despite Mister Colbert's rather flat and serious narration in contrast.

  "And they remain like children, as I mentioned earlier, an adult fairy is still a child in stature," Colbert continued, moving to the other side of the board with empty space. "And they do not reproduce like the rest of us. In fact, death is temporary for them."

  "We will start the briefing," the commander said, turning on the projector to show a map with certain blue and red marks in it. "Two weeks ago, a Blue Doves transport was attacked by a band of knights who were annihilated by the staff."

  "They were sent by Count Hamburg of the Holy Erdal Empire with the intent to abduct one of the migrants after failing to secure her in the auction," he continued, switching the projector to two pictures of a silver-haired elf and a rotund noble. "He has been harassing the Blue Doves since."

  "This is a classic mission." He then showed a picture of the Hamburg mansion taken from afar by a Blue Doves employee. "Infiltrate his home and extract anything we can use to take him down before resorting to assassination. Liberate any slaves if possible. Happy hunting."

  They found Count Hamburg's office on the top floor rather quickly, considering they were entering the mansion without any map, only relying on their experience with breaking into other mansions with similar architecture. Regardless, the dwarf opened the lock, and the squad began the process of finding anything of worth. The elf made sure to cast a spell on the entire room to ensure no one outside could hear any noise coming from it.

  "Documents of embezzlement," the wolf beastman huffed, only needing to look at the ledger he found inside the shelf once to know it was full of holes.

  "He has love letters to a married noblewoman," the elf scoffed, staring at the offending piece of paper he pulled out of the desk drawer. "He clearly wasn't reciprocated every time."

  "Found it, records of smuggling Magic Ores," the dwarf declared after fishing out the offending parchments from a hidden container. "He's been skimming off the ores he owed to the empire to sell to the black market. This will lock him up for good." As Magic Ores were what fueled the Holy Erdale Empire's might, the count stealing and selling those ores to other parties was tantamount to treason.

  "Good," the human operative with an unmistakably red hair sticking out of his headgear said as he pulled out another particular document from the other shelf. "Let's break the slaves out."

  "Fairies do not need to eat or sleep, for mana is their nourishment. When they 'die' from fatal injury, their bodies return to the Tree and resurrect," Colbert explained. "When a fairy passes from old age within three hundred years or so, they will be reborn with most of their memories intact. So it could be said they cannot truly die. Notably, the fairy king and queen seem to be immortal in this case."

  "Then what happened to them?" another student asked. He was a short human who could be mistaken for a tall dwarf.

  "For a long time, the fairies lived blissfully, playing around in civilization and occasionally pulling pranks on unsuspecting dwellers," Colbert said as he reached for the eraser to wipe the board. "That is, until Fairy Dust was discovered."

  After waiting for a guard with a lamp to pass by the hallway, the shadowy operatives were able to go back down to where they came without incident. The elf then scanned the ground floor deeper and found the entrance to the basement. They went into the location, being mindful of the guards outside glancing into the windows, and found the trapdoor in a secluded corner in the back of the mansion. It was locked, naturally, to make sure the inhabitants under it wouldn't escape.

  "...This is the most secure lock I've seen for this," the dwarf muttered softly as he opened the lock. "Still not a problem for me, but this is suspicious."

  "Like it's not just to keep slaves in," the human remarked as he watched the dwarf lift the trapdoor open.

  Most of the slaves kept by nobles in the empire were kept in the plantations or the mines of their territories. The few slaves kept in households were usually for laundry, stable cleaning, and other menial jobs that wouldn't pose much damage from sabotage, whether intentional or not, with only the most trusted and skilled slaves being allowed to do the paid servants' work or even serve their masters, who were few in between. Only the more degenerate aristocrats like Count Hamburg would keep female slaves for carnal pleasure, but even then, it wouldn't warrant an extra secure lock to keep them from escaping, since the guards should still know how to catch escapees.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Then stay sharp," the elf said as they prepared to enter the basement. "There will be something inside."

  "Fairy Dust is made from the wings of a fairy, which contain immense amounts of mana, far greater concentration than Magic Ores and Liquid Mana in weight," Colbert explained, drawing a diagram of a fairy's wings. "It is indeed where most of a fairy's magic prowess is stored. But, fairy wings are not just large stores of mana for mages to exploit; they can also be used to cast powerful spells only fairies have access to."

  SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

  "Healing at the level of full restoration of lost limbs and even organs, a feat even our advancements have not come close to replicating; curing of nearly every disease known to man," Colbert listed, writing every keyword on the board. "Strength enhancement by several factors, where non-fairy enhancement spells could only make you at most twice as strong; for magic, fairy dust not only provides vast amounts of mana, but it can also amplify the effectiveness of existing spells."

  SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

  "Near instantaneous acceleration of crop growth, fairy dust spread throughout farmland allows one to literally witness all of the plants grow in real time; mixing feed with fairy dust also allows animals to grow bigger much faster and to a lesser extent, even we can consume fairy dust to boost physical and magic training," Colbert continued, somehow also drawing small and cute pictures representing what he explained while still keeping his near-boredome expression of his. "Finally, because fairies used magic to fly like other winged races, fairy dust allows one to fly and can also be used to levitate and move objects or people in the air."

  TAK

  As he finished, the half-elf teacher put down the chalk and faced the students. He had a bit more serious look in his otherwise passive face, usually reserved for the more sensitive topics. He took a deep breath and sighed, having possibly told the same thing to previous students countless times.

  "Normally, a fairy can break off a piece of their wings and extract Fairy Dust from it. The wings will then regenerate the missing piece in time," Colbert spoke in increasingly lower tone. "However, people found out that it is much faster to rip them off manually."

  They had saved no less than a dozen slaves in the basement. All of them were malnourished and cramped in inhumane living conditions, as expected of their treatment. The operatives had slowly escorted them to right under the trapdoor to prepare for the massive breakout, with the wolf beastman guarding the exit to ensure they weren't jumping the gun. As expected, all of the slaves received the rescue offer very well, considering their situation and the fact that most of the rescuers were non-human.

  "That's all of them, actually. Looks like we won't have to visit the Count in person," the elf muttered, then pointed in a particular direction. "That room is all that's left." And it was a suspicious one, considering all of the slaves were kept in visible cells that didn't give them any privacy, while this one was a room all on its own.

  "Open the door," the human commanded, to which the dwarf swiftly did his magic.

  CREEK

  It was like any other area in this decrepit basement, if only a bit neater. There were a couple of wooden tables spread throughout here and there in contrast to the many crates stacked everywhere. Most of them were empty, as were the tables, but the ones that had something in and on them shocked the operatives.

  "Fairy Dust..." one of them muttered.

  Giving off colorful glows, the operatives saw numerous glass bottles of Fairy Dust, the power behind fairies, on the tables and in the crates that had them. Even the crates with tarps on them couldn't hide their presence. In the darkly lit basement, the essences of fairies stuck out even more than a sore thumb.

  "How? We searched everywhere for these!"

  The items' presence was the furthest thing they expected to find in this mansion belonging to a fat noble. The Blue Doves had scoured even the deepest of criminal underworlds for any sale of these products and found none. It would have been normal if such items hadn't been found in Erdale. After all, all of the fairies now live in URT.

  All but one.

  "Tearing off and grinding fairy wings yields less effective Fairy Dust, but volume of the dust obtained far exceeds the downside," Colbert explained, without pictures this time. "That is why throughout history, fairies were frequently hunted for their wings. Many sought after Fairy Dust for all the benefits it could bring. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, kings, mages, merchants; all of us were guilty of the exploitation of fairies at some point in time."

  "Worse, because fairies can still regrow their wings even after being torn off, it is in the captor's interest to keep fairies like sheep with wool to shear," he continued. "And because fairies can escape to the Great Fairy Tree by committing suicide, they are often tied in chains to ensure they cannot do so until they reincarnate."

  At the end of the chamber was unmistakably a fairy bound in the middle of it. The childlike figure had unnaturally short blue hair covered with dirt and grime, while the clothes he wore were tattered from time spent in captivity. The boy couldn't move a muscle, with his arms and legs pulled tight by metal chains attached to the floor and ceiling, putting him in an X-shaped position rather uncomfortably.

  "His wings are torn," the human muttered after quickly checking the fairy's back. "How did the Count find him?"

  That was the biggest question shared with the others. That the last fairy still outside of URT was inside the mansion of a frankly, relatively irrelevant count was not something they even considered possible. The URT Army Special Division had conducted many raids, even on a duke's residence, and never once found a fairy locked inside.

  "The simplest answer is he got lucky and found him," the dwarf said with a look of disbelief. "Nothing in the files says the Count is embroiled in any conspiracy."

  It was improbable that a lone fairy could survive not being captured forever. Some of the wilder speculation from the analysts included the fairy being kept by a duke they haven't raided, and was extracting as much Fairy Dust as possible for an eventual coup against the emperor. The Holy Erdal Empire had usurpers using Fairy Dust as part of their arsenal before, so it had precedent.

  "People, of course, knew if they could seize control of the Fairy Tree, all of fairykind would be at their mercy, and the fairies knew this too," Colbert continued. "To prevent this, fairies scattered themselves throughout Erdale to obfuscate the Tree's location, only returning to it as a last resort. Additionally, the fairy king and queen can also uproot the Tree and move it to another location if it's compromised."

  "And so it was throughout history, fairies would hide and get captured by the other races for Fairy Dust while making sure the Fairy Tree was safe at all costs," he then said. "That is, until the fairies joined this country."

  "He's just planning to sell them," the elf said, lifting a couple of parchments left neatly on the table. "The documents are a stock of the Fairy Dusts he's gathered so far and records of past prices in markets."

  "That's... anticlimactic to be honest."

  The Count had the sense to keep the fairy hidden to extract as much Fairy Dust as possible. With how rare finding a fairy was these days, there was enough motivation for other criminals to try and steal the fairy. If the Count had just taken the loss of the auction with dignity, he could have gotten away with hiding the fairy, as the Special Division wouldn't have a reason to raid his home, at least until he started selling the Fairy Dust.

  "We will discuss the history of the fairies' arrival in URT in another class," Colbert continued. "Just know that in this country, the sale of Fairy Dust is extremely prohibited and carries heavy penalties. The keyword being 'sale.' Fairies themselves are conversely prohibited from profiting on their own Fairy Dust. We still recognize that the benefits of Fairy Dust are still too large to outright ban its usage, but heavy regulations apply."

  SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

  One by one, the teacher crossed off several points of the Fairy Dust's abilities still on the board until a few remained. "The use of Fairy Dust is strictly for medical use, while the only time Fairy Dust is used for farming is when food shortages are imminent. Furthermore, medical use of Fairy Dust is on a donation basis where fairies must consent to and sign necessary documents on how much Fairy Dust is extracted from whom and what it is used for before donating the Fairy Dust."

  "How long has he been here?"

  "Based on these docs," the elf said, scanning the documents further. "About a month. The amount of Fairy Dust here checks out."

  "That's around the same time of the auction."

  "He must have been celebrating early on all the money he would get from selling these."

  "And that leads us here, all because he got horny too."

  "Damn! How did he even get him in the first place?"

  At this point, the consensus was to just wait for the fairy to reincarnate and return to the Fairy Tree that way. Having the Blue Doves trying to find a fairy who does not want to be found would waste too much time and resources unless Fairy Dust started to resurface in the market. The fact that a random Count was the one who captured the fairy felt something out of a rushed plot, given the circumstance, but such was reality that often times not everything was novel-worthy. Though his hubris in participating in that auction while the proverbial golden goose had yet to lay the golden eggs was so.

  "Doesn't matter, we got the evidence to take the guy down. We'd better get him out of here."

  "Since joining URT, the fairies as a race vowed to never let themselves be exploited again," Colbert then explained, wiping the board anew with a rough map of URT, random dots all around. "First of all, the Fairy Tree in URT always changes locations on an irregular schedule; the government only knows the location when it's time to move."

  "Additionally, fairies culturally became more militaristic, taking much advantage of their resurrection ability," he continued. "As such, roughly half of the fairy population is either in the military, police force, or other similar fields."

  That was very apparent. Almost everywhere Fia went, at least one police officer she saw was a fairy. On another day, she saw at least three firefighter fairies jumping into the burning apartment building to save the civilians trapped inside; only two got out with them, while the third returned to the Fairy Tree. And of course, one time watching the television, she saw a military parade where a good chunk of the marching soldiers were fairies, a far cry from the innocent childlike beings her mother had told before.

  CRACK

  CRACK

  The fairy jolted awake as he felt the chains on his hands loosen and fell on his butt. He was absolutely confused as to what was going on when he looked up and saw his fellow kin dressed in a strange, dark garb, extending his hand. Behind him was a dwarf in similar clothing, breaking the chains wrapping his legs.

  "Come on, brother," the other fairy said with a warm smile. "Let's get you out of here."

  DING DONG DING DONG

  "It appears we have run out of time," Colbert remarked, looking at the clock hanging above the board. "We will continue in the next class. You are dismissed."

  That morning, Count Hamburg woke up as usual and had a bountiful breakfast of bread, sausages, and wine brought to his bedroom by his servant. He felt stressed for the past month and felt too tired last night to have some pleasure before resting. It started when he had lost the auction of the elf slave to some merchant company. Then he sent his knights to try and seize her on transport, but instead of receiving his prize, he got the news that they were all dead, full of holes from magic spells, and stripped of their armor and weapons that had Magic Ores in them, when they didn't return for days.

  He had no idea what had done them in. It couldn't have been those merchants when they had such meager protection compared to the forces he sent. It couldn't have been a monster attacking them along the way, as that would have left different wounds. It left him perplexed and frustrated, which he alleviated with the slaves he had and dishing out petty revenge on those merchants who dared take his rightful possession. He was certain they lied about having a powerful lord supporting them.

  "At least I found that fairy," he muttered to himself. "I will be the richest man in the empire!"

  He couldn't believe his luck that day when he found a fairy in his hunting grounds. It had been a mystery for centuries where the fairies had gone, as sightings became non-existent to the point people believed they were a myth. Well, they weren't a myth anymore after he captured the fairy with much difficulty. The fairy unleashed so many spells, which knocked out many of his guards, but ultimately he prevailed as the fairy could do nothing against Magic Ore- embedded armor.

  He decided to keep the fairy in the slave quarters under his mansion and replaced the lock with a tougher one as an extra precaution. Word that he caught a fairy will come out eventually, so he has to get as much of the fabled Fairy Dust from the fairy as possible. Fortunately, extracting the Fairy Dust was quite simple, as the records described that he only needed to grind the wings into fine powder, and it worked as advertised when he tested it.

  After a month, he managed to collect a sizable amount of Fairy Dust, ready to be sold to the market. Soon, he will rise through the ranks and-

  CREEK

  "M-My lord..." came a timid voice from a guard who opened the door, breaking Count Hamburg's musing.

  "What?" the Count grumbled, irritated that the guard just barged in like that in the morning. He will be punished for the audacity later.

  "I-It's the slave quarters!" the guard yelped. "It's empty!"

  "...What!?"

  The Count, still in his nightwear, discovered to his horror that all of his slaves had escaped. The lock had somehow been broken, and all of his slaves ran away without any of the guards spotting them. Worst of all, the fairy had also disappeared along with all of the Fairy Dust he had collected. And just like that, his dreams and ambitions were gone like the wind, replaced with simmering rage and anger at the deities for these misfortunes.

  Little did he know, it wasn't the worst of his worries. Because it will be more than just slaves, fairies, and knights, he would lose.

  "For the next news, the URT Military has announced that the Special Division has rescued the last fairy outside of URT."

  "Nya?" Chloe, sleeping on Fia's lap on the sofa, hummed curiously at the news on the television.

  "A fairy?" Fia, rubbing the catgirl's hair, muttered in quiet surprise at the coincidence that she had a class about fairies earlier in the afternoon.

  "My, so he has been found," Fia's mother, Dela, sitting beside her, remarked with a cup of tea in her hand.

  "What do you mean, mother?" Fia asked.

  "Until now, there is only one fairy left still hiding outside of URT," Dela explained. "They've searched for him for decades and finally decided to wait for him to reincarnate, but it looks like he will come home early."

  "All of our children are home." On television, an ethereally beautiful fairy said with tears of happiness coming from her emerald eyes shining like stars, reflecting her large fairy wings covering nearly her entire body. She had long, wavy, light green hair that gave a gentle glow and was adorned with flowers of many kinds, which complemented the green dress she wore. The screen showed that this was Titania, the queen of fairies, giving an interview with her husband, Oberon, not too far behind her. "Oh, if only she could see this now!"