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After today, I officially renounce my neutrality regarding the fairies. From this day forward, the fairies and I were one. Any oppression or mistreatment of them would be considered a direct challenge to the Executive Manager of the Prosecutors’ Office. Anyone who dared to oppose this would have to answer to me in a duel.

“Thank you! Thank you!”

“Sky lady’s energy feels great! We’ll finally be full for the first time in ages!”

“Kind human! Kind human!”

The energy of the Eternal Blue Sky was branded on my body like a tattoo. When I said they could take it for free if they could, the fairies circled around me, expressing their joy.

Some even clung to my hair or sat on my shoulders. Considering how they avoided touching anyone else except Tannian, this seemed to be their ultimate expression of gratitude.

Such good children.

Watching their innocent chatter made my blood boil with anger toward Apels. To think that such pure, righteous creatures were driven to the brink of extinction—could those responsible even be called human?

Apels, you deserved to be destroyed.

“Um, Carl? What do they mean by ‘sky lady’s energy’?”

Unlike the joyful fairies, the others were understandably confused. From their perspective, it seemed like the fairies were drawn to some divine power within me, but I wasn’t a priest or even a devout believer. To those who knew nothing, there was no way to make sense of this.

“There was an incident involving a heretical cult up north. The nomads there worship a sky god. It’s probably related to that.”

I said this while lightly tapping my chest, and Marghetta, who had been looking blank for a moment, quickly nodded. Marghetta had seen the wound before, so she should understand with just this much explanation.

“Ah, I see, so that’s what it is.”

Marghetta’s expression darkened briefly, probably recalling the wound, but she quickly composed herself and ended the conversation. Given how many people were unaware of my injury, it wasn’t a topic to linger on.

Of course, only Marghetta understood; the others still looked puzzled, but—

“I don’t know what happened, but it seems the fairies will be able to resolve it.”

The Mage Duchess subtly cut off any chance for the conversation to continue. Once she had drawn that conclusion, it was awkward to probe further.

I gave her a slight nod of thanks, and she responded with a faint smile while shaking her head.

She must have been worried.

Marghetta wasn’t the first to see my wound. The Mage Duchess knew it before her.

We’d met after the Great War in the North, and I had shown her the injury during one of our early interactions, hoping she could heal it. Though other mages had failed, I was hoping that someone at the pinnacle of magic might succeed. Of course, it turned out to be impossible, which was why I was still in this state.

Anyway, it must have troubled the Mage Duchess a lot. After all, it was a wound left on her lover’s body that she couldn’t erase herself. She must be glad to see the possibility of healing from an unexpected source.

“Then, then! We’ll take it right away!”

“Go ahead.”

And the fairies were at the center of this miraculous healing. They hovered around me as I gave a gentle nod, clearly excited. Truth be told, I was excited too.

It had been a long, painful time. If the Eternal Blue Sky’s energy could be removed, the wound would become just an ordinary wound, healable by magic or divine power. Finally, I could say goodbye to this damned wound—

“Clothes are in the way. Let’s erase the clothes first.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“We’ll erase them!”

My mind froze at these sudden words. Kids, what do you mean by erasing my clothes? Weren’t you just going to take it as is?

But the fairies’ wings sparkled before I could open my mouth, and my upper clothes began to fade, revealing my body.

Oh.

So they weren’t completely removing my clothes, just making them transparent. They must be able to use such interesting magic because they were fairies.

“...”

After a short denial of reality, I looked around. Naturally, all eyes were drawn to the now fully exposed wound.

“Ah, uh, eh? O-oppa...?”

Seeing Louise trembling, I immediately closed my eyes.

What a disaster.

***It only took an instant for me to go from a lover to someone accused of hiding a terrible secret.

“Oppa! H-How, how did this happen?!”

Irina screamed with tears welling up in her eyes.

“A-a wound like that and I knew nothing...”

Louise stammered, clearly on the verge of panic.

“He split the sky with a body like that?”

“And he never once showed any sign of pain?”

Erich and Rutis whispered to each other, their voices quick and filled with disbelief.

I was definitely screwed. I wanted to keep it hidden as much as possible and planned to reveal it gradually on my own terms, but here it was, exposed all at once.

The only silver lining was that Marghetta, noticing my shirt fading, had quickly shielded the young duke’s eyes. No ten-year-old needed to see something this traumatic.

But that was where my luck ended.

“Come to think of it, oppa, you wore regular clothes instead of a swimsuit at the beach too.”

At Louise’s murmur, Irina’s gaze sharpened even more.

She still remembered that? I felt grateful she remembered even small details, but I really could’ve done without it right now.

“Did you two know about this?”

Then Irina, wiping her eyes, turned her gaze to Marghetta and the Mage Duchess, who were relatively quiet. It was almost pitiful to see them flinch at her accurate observation.

“I knew about it, but it was difficult for me to say anything since Carl was hiding it. I thought it would be right for Carl to tell you himself.”

“The scars look severe, and I understand your concern, but they aren’t as serious as they seem. As long as he doesn’t deliberately aggravate it, it doesn’t interfere with his daily life.”

Marghetta and the Mage Duchess, who suddenly found themselves in the position of having kept silent, hurriedly explained the situation. But no matter how reasonable their reasons, the fact that they kept quiet doesn’t change.

Perhaps because of this, Louise and Irina’s expressions remained dark. They seem shocked that they didn’t know about their lover’s wound until now, and even more so that they were the only ones who didn’t know.

“If I had known oppa was in pain, I wouldn’t have been so bothersome... During the inter-class competition, at the beach, and asking for other favors...”

Louise’s guilt-ridden words made me break out in a cold sweat. I wasn’t an invalid. Sure, the scars hadn’t healed, but they didn’t stop me from living a normal life.

“That human seems to be crying.”

“What do we do? What do we do?”

“Did we do something wrong?”

“Mom, Mom...”

Meanwhile, the fairies hovering around me grew restless, trembling as they clung to my hair. They seemed to think they were the reason everyone was upset.

No, it’s not your fault. This is because I handled things poorly. It’s all my karma.

“Um, everyone.”

So I plucked up the courage to speak up, and their tear-filled gazes stung like needles. Honestly, I was a bit intimidated.

“It was a difficult issue to talk about comfortably, so I couldn’t tell you until now. I wasn’t trying to hide it, I was planning to tell you someday.”

Still, their tearful gazes didn’t change. Even I thought it sounded like an excuse made only after being caught.

Still, I meant it. Why would I flaunt an unhealable scar? I’d wanted to share it thoughtfully, at the right time, rather than rushing it. But things had spiraled out of control. In trying to time it right to avoid worrying them, I ended up causing both worry and hurt.

“When we get back to the hotel, I’ll explain everything. Can you let it go for now?”

In the end, I proposed a strange compromise rather than trying to persuade them. It wasn’t appropriate to explain everything in detail here with club members and outsiders like the young duke present, and this wasn’t exactly a comfortable place for such a discussion.

I subtly pointed out the trembling fairies, which finally made Louise and Irina soften up. They probably didn’t want others to feel awkward because of our issue.

“You have to explain everything.”

“I will.”

I had a sinking feeling they’d grill me for hours when we were alone, but I’d consider it the price for my failure in timing.

“...You can come out now.”

“Okay. We got it, we got it.”

The fairies timidly emerged from my hair, placed their hands on my wound, and started to glow.

I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of regret. If I’d known this would happen, I’d have chosen to do it outside.

“Huh? Hmm?”

“Strange, strange.”

As I blankly watched the fairies, they started to speak anxiously.

What was it now? What was wrong this time? I was the one who had to deal with the aftermath if something went wrong here. If this kept up, I might have to consider downgrading our relationship from an inseparable one to just a normal supportive relationship.

“Sky lady, she was here.”

?

“What do you me—“

Before I could finish, everything around me turned blinding white.

***Today was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. Either that, or maybe I was being punished for trying to remove divine power through unofficial means.

And honestly, it was probably the latter.

Damn it.

Everything was pure white. Not just in front of my eyes, but my entire body seemed to have fallen into a completely white space.

At first, I thought it might be a teleportation spell, but I didn’t sense any mana movement. Besides, this didn’t feel like teleportation at all. Actually, was this even a physical space? Did I really fall somewhere, or was my mind pulled into some strange dimension?

But now was not the time to worry about such trivial matters.

“Well, well, we finally meet.”

In this empty void where the fairies and everyone else had disappeared, a new presence suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“I can’t remember the last time I met a mortal.”

It was a woman with deep blue hair grown to her waist, and blue eyes matching her hair color. A woman wearing the attire of the nomads I’d seen over and over in the North.

“Should I say it’s nice to meet you?”

The moment I saw the woman grin while holding a leather flask, I had a gut feeling.

This was serious. Something had gone very, very wrong.