Chapter 23

We arrive back at town and like always the guards greet us and thank us for our work as we walk in.

When they notice Piccy behind my shoulder, she dips down a bit to try and hide. Curious, they give Silvia an inquisitive glance, when she gave them nod they smiled and didn't ask any questions, letting us pass through without any trouble.

I'm glad she's with me today. It means I don't have to explain this awkward situation.

"Rough day today huh?" One of the guards say as he notices the blood stain on my arm.

"What? Oh, this. Yes, I had a few close calls today." I suppose you'd consider it a rough day when a back liner shows up bloody.

"Well, what's important is that you're still alive. Get inside and go clean yourself up adventurer."

"Will do." And with that we enter the town.

As we walked the night streets of Grant towards the guild building, I notice we're catching a lot of eyes and whispers tonight. Guess it's not everyday you get to see a fairy flying around town.

Piccy is understandably nervous and is trying to hide between me and Silvia all the way to the guild.

"Welcome back. You're done already?" Glendel greets us from the counter as we enter.

"Hounds defeated." She hands a peace of parchment to Glendel.

Glendel checks the parchment for a bit before looking back at me, "Congratulations Ether, you are now Copper rank."

She looks back up and finally spots Piccy who is currently flying above my shoulder. "And who might your new companion be?"

"This is Piccy, she's a fairy. She got lost while wandering the forest so I'm letting her stay with me until we can find her a way back to her village."

As if satisfied with my explanation, Silvia turns back to Glendel and continues. "Well, thank you for taking over my shift. I can take over now until Malina gets here."

"Thank you, I'll take you up on that offer." Silvia went to the back and quick changed into her receptionist uniform before coming back to switched with Glendel.

Silvia, "Ok, give me your your guild card and I can update it for you." I give her the card and she starts.

"Oh, I already sent the request for your storage bag, it should be here in a few days."

"Oh, I can't wait, thank you."

She nods, "And if you really want to learn more about magic I'll have some free time in a few days, let's talk then ok?"

"Yes sure, just let me know when you're free."

She hands me back my back my guild card after finishing with all the documents. "Here you go. You are now officially a Copper rank adventurer. Congratulations."

It's getting late, so after that we went for dinner at the same place as yesterday before heading back home.

I wanted Kujo birds but they didn't have any. What they did have though was beef. So I ordered beef stew for tonights dinner.

Again, the food in this place is a bit salty, but when paired with the bread, it becomes really tasty.

It didn't take long for me to finish it.

On the way back…

"Sorry we couldn't look for your village today, I didn't think the test would take that long."

"It's ok. I get lost in the woods so many times I'm already used to it by now. This time I can even stay in a warm house, so I don't really mind staying a little longer."

"Wait, so this isn't the first time you got lost?"

"Nope. Actually, ever since I was small, I think I've spend more time being lost than I spend in the village."

Seriously? And you still haven't learnt your lesson? And ever since you were small? Does that mean you're big now?

"Well, uhh. We can go look for your village tomorrow. But for now, let's get some sleep."

"Agreed. Flying around while invisible for so long is tiring." She yawns and falls on the pillow right we get back. Not even bothering to wash her face.

....

Morning comes and yet again I find the little fairy drooling on my belly. Yet again I grabbed her wings and looked her in the eyes...

"Eh hehe he..." She jolts awake with drool still on her cheek.

"Sigh.." and we go through the same routine as yesterday. I thew her out the window and began to wash myself and clean the sheets.

For breakfast I decided to go to the bakery Alice told me about. She said it was close, but I never thought it would be literally just around the corner. I've been living here for a few days now, how did I not noticed this place.

*Ring ring*

"Mornin! Welcome to Corner Town Bakery. What can I get cha?" The man at the counter greets us as we enter.

"... oh? Aren't you the kid who moved in nearby recently?" He has short black hair, black eyes and small beard. Though his belly is bulging out a little, his arms look quite built, which leads me to believe that that's not fat on his tummy.

"Yes, I am."

"Then welcome to the neighborhood. My name is Markus, I'm the owner of this bakery, nice to meet cha." He extends his arm for a hand shake and I return it.

His grip is pretty strong. "I heard you gave my little Kenny some work a few days ago, thanks for taken care of him, I appreciate it."

"Oh it's no problem, I needed the help anyway. And I'll be asking for him again when the grass grows back."

"Haha! Well, it's a little late, but as a housewarming gift, I'll give you a discount on the bread today, go on pick what you want." He slaps me on the back, and notices Piccy as I moved out of the way.

"Oh? Is that... a fairy behind you?"

"Uhhh... hello.." she shyly greets.

"This is my friend Piccy, she got lost so I'm letting her stay with me for a few days until we find her village."

"Ohh.. poor thing. Tell ya what, I'll give you one of those custards over there. Go take a look, pick which ever you want."

"Umm... thank you..." What's with the puppy dog eyes, c'mon.

Hesitantly and slowly she flies away from me towards the sweets section while I pick up a wooden tray and start picking out whatever looks good.

There're so many options I can't decide. There're several different kinds of breads, sandwiches, cookies, there're several types of everything, and they all look so good. Especially all the sweets. Hmm... what to choose...

Having a lot of options is good and all, but sometimes it just overloads you, and I don't like that feeling. I wish I could just buy all of these.

... Wait... I can! Food that I store in my storage doesn't spoil, so I can buy as much as I want and just keep them for later.

Ah. Mmm... but that would be a bit suspicious. Let's just pick enough for a few people.

I ended up picking one of almost everything in the shop, and more than one of each of the sweets. Making mountains on 4 wooden trays. Piccy only just picked the one strawberry custard that the owner gave her.

It's decorated with strawberry slices and what looks to be blueberry slices, but blueberries are almost the same size as the strawberries.

Markus, "That's a lot. You got an event going on or something?"

"Ummm, yeah, you could say that."

"Well then, I hope you like them, hehe. All of that will be 97silver and 6copper."

"Oh I'll pay for all these in full, since I bought a lot of them."

"Don't worrry about it kid. I told you I'd give you a discount. And besides, it's not like I'm making a loss. I usually give all the leftover bread to the orphanage anyway so don't worry about it." Orphanage... huh...

Piccy, "Ether, is something wrong?"

"Huh? No, no, nothing wrong."

Markus, "Hmm... well... I hope you have a great day then."

"Yes, thank you." and I put a gold coining the counter before walking outside with our gigantic purchase.

Even if I'm strong, it's really annoying to have to lug around all this bread. So I waited until no one was looking to stash it away in my storage. Then we started eating as we head towards the western gates.

"Mmm.. sho guud. It's so sweet and it's so soft, I've never had anything like this before." She finishes the whole custard, and I'm here only taking the first bite out of my cheese sandwich, questioning where she puts an entire custard in that finger sized body of hers.

I mean I don't think her size has changed, and she still looks slim, so where did all that custard go?

"Can I have another one?" She wants more?! How does it even fit?!

"Umm.. well... sure. But are you sure you can still eat it?"

"Yeah." No hesitation. Is this what people mean when they say a different stomach for dessert?

"Well alright then." I pull out a strawberry eclair.

By the time we got to that gate she finishes the eclair too, and I'm still eating my sandwich!

What?! What is happening right now? What happened to the law of conservation of mass? She just ate more than 5 times her body size! What is happening here?! Have I been giving my students the wrong information all this time? My god I'm about to lose my mind here.

Ok... ok. Breath in... breath out... breath in... breath out... huuuuu... ok. This is a different world. Things works differently here. I mean there's magic after and you haven't learnt much about it yet. Maybe magic can make something like this possible.

Yeah, yeah, there are storage bags that can hold more stuff than there actual volume. Yeah. Phuuuh. Ha ha, I almost forgot magic existed in this world for a moment there, yeah it's gotta be magic. Ok, I feel a lot better now that I have a possible explanation in my head.

After narrowly escaping my mental breakdown, we made our way deep into the forest. I'm using my perception skill to try and find anything that might resemble a fairy, but I'm not seeing anything but trees and some forest animals.

"We are going to be here for a while..."

"Eh hehe, sorry for all the trouble…"

We are way deep in to the forest now, hours away from town, and it's now about a bit past noon. So we decided to take a short break, and have lunch lunch under a big tree. I pull out a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for Piccy but…

"Umm.. us forest fairies don't eat animals."

Correction, I pull out a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for myself, and for Piccy, a lemon tart.

*ham*... wow. This is good, I can still smell the scent of freshly baked bread on it, and insides are still soft and slightly warm while the crust is crunchy.

The soft bread with the slightest bit of chewiness, the salty bacon, slightly sweet egg, and the amazing after taste of cheese. This is an amazing sandwich.

"Ouuuu... it's so sour..!" she takes another bite. "Ouuu..." and another. "Ouu.." and the cycle continues until she finishes the whole tart, and I am here still perplexed by how she's able to fit all that inside her tiny body.

Now she's just sitting there waiting for me to finish my sandwich. I'm feeling a bit self conscious now because finished before me considering our size difference, so I finished up quickly.

As I finish the sandwich and stood back up, I notice something. I can only tell its general direction, but I'm sure it's looking at us. Cautiously, I step forward, one step at a time. When I get closer to the tree line, a white dot pops up on the edge of my mini map. I pull out my bow and arrow and have it at a low ready.

"Who's there!" I shout, pointing my bow at the rustling bushes, ready to pull the strings.

"Wait!! Don't hurt me!!" A voice shouts out from a distance as two small hands, one with a green band on the wrist, pokes up out of the bushes.

Yep, judging by the size of the hand, that's definitely a fairy.