Chapter 121: Lift the curse and return to the Fairy Forest.

Shu Li stared at the back of his right hand, now flawless and pale once more, and felt his entire body relax. The curse that had bound him was gone.

No wonder he had needed to deliver the letter personally to lift the curse. The metal tube had merely been a decoy. The curse itself was the real “letter.”

The queen stared blankly at the mage’s translucent figure. “You...”

“Please do not be afraid, Your Majesty,” Claude said. “I am only a remnant of a soul. Once I have said what I must, I will disappear.”

The queen anxiously clutched the blanket. Trying her best to remain calm, she nodded to the apparition.

Claude raised his right hand over his chest and bowed to her.

“I heard the concerns you expressed just now. Although the outcome is regrettable, I understand. In fact... before I left the Kingdom of Pedam, Queen Anrina told me not to pressure you if you were unable to help. She understands the difficulties you face as a queen.”

“Anrina... I’m sorry...” The queen burst into tears again.

“Please do not cry, Queen Helati. This is not your fault. Queen Anrina has only one request: she hopes that you will help care for her two children.”

“Children?” The queen froze.

“Yes,” Claude replied. “Queen Anrina and I agreed that if reinforcements failed to arrive, she would find a way to send the prince and princess away to the Dalia Empire. I would then persuade Queen Helati to take them in. I simply never expected that even an Archmage like me would prove powerless against the forces of nature. With the last of my magic, I sealed my soul within the treasure chest and clung to a final sliver of hope.”

“The Light God heard my prayer and delivered the treasure chest into this child’s hands.”

Claude looked gratefully at Shu Li.

Shu Li blinked at him, signaling desperately for Claude not to reveal his true identity.

Claude smiled faintly, then turned back to the queen. “The princess has now arrived safely. Please take good care of her, Queen Helati. As for the prince, I am certain that he is already on his way here.”

“Rest assured. I will care for both the princess and the prince.” The queen wiped away her tears, then asked in confusion, “But you said that the princess has already arrived. Where is she?”

Shu Li pointed at Nasha, who lay on the floor. “She’s right there.”

“What?” The queen sprang out of bed and hurried barefoot to Nasha’s side. She helped the girl upright and removed her hood, revealing a young, delicate face.

She looked exactly like Anrina had as a child.

Claude bowed to the queen once more. “My magic can no longer sustain me. Please keep your promise...”

As long as the prince and princess remained alive, there was still hope of avenging all those who had died in the war.

“I will! I promise I will!” The queen embraced Nasha, tears streaming down her face.

Claude smiled with relief. Turning to the Elf and Little Fairy disguised as humans, he bowed respectfully. “Thank you... Please convey my sincerest regards to your king...”

Ilio and Shu Li solemnly returned his bow.

The apparition gradually blurred, dissolving into motes of starlight that drifted through the window and rose into the sky.

Shu Li followed the receding starlight with his eyes and sighed. “He was a truly admirable hero.”

“He was.” Ilio returned the black low-rank magic staff to him and gently patted his shoulder. “We should leave as well.”

Now that the curse had been lifted, there was no reason to remain. It was time to return to the Faerie Forest and report to the Elven King.

“Oh!” Shu Li put the mother-tree-brand magic staff back into his storage ring and looked at the queen, who was still holding Nasha and weeping. “Thank you for your help, Your Majesty. And please forgive us for the disturbance.”

“No! I am the one who should thank you.” With some difficulty, the queen lifted Nasha onto the bed and laid her beside the little princess. “You not only saved my life, but delivered my sister’s message and brought her child to me.”

Shu Li smiled. “Everything happened through a series of coincidences. We merely lent a hand.”

The queen gazed into the young boy’s pure eyes, wondering what kind of place could have raised such an innocent, unblemished child.

She reached into the bedside cabinet, took out an exquisite silver box, and handed it to him. “This is my gift of thanks. Please accept it.”

“Uh?” Shu Li stared at the silver box without immediately taking it.

These days, the sight of any beautiful, exquisitely crafted box frightened him. Who knew whether another curse might be lurking beneath its lid?

Ilio lightly tapped him on the forehead. “Take it.”

Shu Li stuck out his tongue, then accepted the little silver box with both hands. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

The queen regarded him warmly. She could not imagine what kind of place could have nurtured a child so pure and transparent.

Ilio’s gaze fell upon the necklace around the queen’s neck. “If Your Majesty does not wish to fall unconscious again, you should stop wearing necklaces made from those gemstones.”

“This?” The queen removed the necklace. “Do you mean... this necklace was responsible for rendering my daughter and me unconscious?”

The necklace was extremely valuable. The local lord’s wife had given it to her while she was visiting Mithril Lake.

There had been two necklaces in total, each composed of dazzling gemstones. The moment she saw them, she fell in love. She wore one herself and gave the other to the little princess.

She could never have imagined that the necklaces concealed a deadly danger and had nearly claimed both their lives.

Had these two mysterious mages not intervened, neither she nor the little princess would have survived much longer.

Had the lord’s wife of Mithril Lake known how dangerous the necklaces were?

A chill flashed through the queen’s eyes.

“The gems in that necklace are called Black Netherstones. They come from Vanaku, where the Dark Elves live, and contain extremely pure dark power. When ordinary humans wear Black Netherstone jewelry, that dark power gradually corrodes them,” Ilio explained with a frown. “Mages often misdiagnose the condition as a curse, causing the best opportunity for treatment to be lost. In severe cases, the victim dies. In milder cases, they remain unconscious forever. The dark power within Black Netherstones is also extremely tenacious. Ordinary purification magic has no effect on it.”

The more the queen heard, the more frightened she became.

She could never have imagined that a small necklace could be so dangerous.

Shu Li was equally astonished.

So the Black Netherstones from Vanaku were responsible.

The offshoot of the mother tree had been corroded by dark power from beneath Vanaku. Even the Elven King had been unable to purify it. Only Shu Li could.

That was why, whenever he went to study in the Elven Kingdom, he secretly slipped into Vanaku at midnight to purify the mother tree’s offshoot.

Ilio had previously claimed that Shu Li’s purification magic was the only kind on the entire continent capable of saving the queen. Just how much did he know?

Shu Li tilted up his little face, a question mark practically appearing in his gray-green eyes.

Ilio glanced at the confused Little Fairy, pulled his hood over his head, and bid the queen farewell.

Coming back to her senses, the queen pointed at the people sleeping all over the floor. “Could you... wake them?”

Ilio pulled up his own hood, wrapped an arm around the Little Fairy’s waist, and walked to the open window. He effortlessly stepped onto the sill.

“They will awaken on their own in half an hour. Farewell, beautiful queen—”

With a casual wave, he leaped out of the window with Shu Li in his arms.

“Ah?” Shu Li hurriedly wrapped his arms around Ilio’s neck.

Why couldn’t they use the front door? Why did they have to jump out of a window?

Ilio recited an incantation for a wind-element flight spell. Wind gathered beneath his feet, carrying both of them into the sky. In the blink of an eye, they had left the enormous castle far behind.

Twenty minutes later, an inconspicuous carriage departed the royal capital of Diaran.

Shu Li leaned against the carriage window and watched the city gates recede into the distance, releasing a long sigh.

At last, his curse had been successfully lifted, and they were returning to the Faerie Forest.

He could hardly wait to get home.

“Al, is there a shortcut we can take?” He returned to his seat and asked Ilio, who was turning a silver box over and over in his hands.

After flying out of the castle, they had secretly landed in an alley within the royal capital. They had then purchased provisions, hired a carriage, and left the city without stopping to rest.

The journey here had taken six or seven days. Would the return trip take just as long?

He could not bear to wait another moment before returning to the Faerie Forest.

He missed the Elven King. He missed his little companions. He missed the delicious fruit of the Faerie Forest, and most of all, he missed his little home.

After traveling outside for a while, he had realized that nowhere was warmer or more comfortable than home.

Without looking up, Ilio replied, “I discussed it with the driver. We’ll travel west as directly as possible without deliberately passing through towns.”

For an Elf and a Fairy, remote mountains and wilderness were actually the safest places. Magical beasts and ordinary animals would avoid them.

That was why, when choosing a carriage, they had deliberately hired a particularly courageous human driver.

“If we avoid detours, we can make it back in three days at the earliest.” Ilio’s nimble fingers continued manipulating the mechanism on the silver box.

Shu Li rested his elbows on the low table and propped his chin in his hands, watching Ilio struggle with the box the queen had given him.

The silver box had no seal on it, but it did possess an intricate combination lock.

Yes, a combination lock.

A row of movable tiles ran along one side of the box. They had to be shifted into the correct positions before the lock would open.

The mechanism resembled a sliding-block puzzle.

Shu Li had tried moving the tiles numerous times, but every attempt had failed, so Ilio had taken the box to study it himself.

Even after spending most of the day on it, Ilio had not managed to open it.

Shu Li was beginning to suspect that the queen had deliberately given it to them just to torment them.

“Al, let me try again.” Shu Li reached out and poked the back of Ilio’s hand.

Ilio stopped moving the tiles. Looking at the Little Fairy’s soft, fair cheeks, he curled his lips into a smile and handed the silver box back to him.

Shu Li accepted it and began moving the tiles as he would in a sliding-block puzzle. His mouth remained just as busy as his hands.

“Um... since we left like that, will the king blame the others?”

Ilio took out a bag of nuts, placed it on the low table, and began shelling them unhurriedly. “With the queen there, he probably won’t.”

What a worrier this Little Fairy was!

“Oh, good.” Shu Li discovered part of the pattern and began shifting the tiles in the correct direction. “The Human World is so complicated.”

In his original world, his family had been wealthy and his life comfortable. As a student, his only daily concern had been studying. Even when he saw news online about terrible suffering in foreign countries, he had treated it as nothing more than distant news. It had been too far away for him to feel personally affected.

Now that he had entered human society in this other world, he had witnessed all manner of suffering and the complexity of human nature in only a few days. The experience had profoundly shaken his outlook.

He had once wholeheartedly dreamed of becoming a hero, shouting slogans about saving another world. Looking back now, he realized he had been just a teeny bit naïve.

Well, fine. He had been extremely naïve.

Although the realization was a little embarrassing, he had not changed his mind. If anything, his determination to become a hero had only grown stronger.

At the very least, he would do everything within his power to pursue what he believed was right!

“You are still young. You don’t need to trouble yourself with these matters. Humans have their own ways of resolving them.” Ilio placed the shelled nuts in front of him.

Shu Li stopped working on the lock, picked up a nut, and took a bite.

Delicious!

“I’ll grow up very soon,” he said earnestly.

Ilio patted his little head. “Take your time. I still want a few more years to bully you.”

Shu Li gave him a sidelong look.

Was that any way to speak to someone?

Shamelessly eating his nuts, Ilio remained completely unaffected by the child’s glare.

Shu Li sighed helplessly and resumed moving the tiles. Suddenly, there was a click.

The lock opened.

He froze for a moment, then grinned proudly and burst out °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° laughing. “Hahaha! I’m so clever!”

Ilio nodded. “Yes. Little Amo is very clever.”

Shu Li quickly flipped open the lid to see what treasure was inside. A single sheet of yellowed paper lay folded atop the velvet lining.

What was this?

Why protect one piece of paper so carefully with both an exquisite box and a combination lock?

Ilio reached out, removed the paper, and carefully unfolded it.

“This is a treasure map.”

“A treasure map?”

Shu Li’s eyes widened.

“Yes.” Ilio carefully examined the lines on the map and soon reached a conclusion. “It appears to depict the snow mountain labyrinth in the Kingdom of Snow.”