PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

After playing for six hours with a bunch of energetic fairies, Desmond came to accept the truth; maybe he wasn’t ready to be a father. Thinking about it carefully, this made a lot of sense. At his age, he should think about other things; the same applies to Claire.

Due to how quickly Desmond had been forced to mature following the death of his parents, he never used age as a way to judge someone. That leads him to never consider the subject when Claire talks about having children.

It’s not like this new revelation will change anything either since Desmond hadn’t planned on agreeing to Claire’s unsubtle advances. The only reason Desmond thought about all this was that he didn’t want to get off the ground and fall victim to the gang of mischievous fairies around him.

Desmond might not be anywhere near ready for fatherhood. Still, Cecilia certainly seemed more than up to the task of motherhood. The soft and warm Cecilia could deal with a dozen fairies without even breaking a sweat. Seeing her motherly approach, Desmond gave compliments in his mind; It seemed that fairies were quite amenable to obeying a female authority figure.

Lying on the ground as he gazed at the boundless sky in the distance, Desmond began to worry about Kyuru; she had been gone for a few hours, and there was still no sign of her.

“The gentleman seems somewhat tired.” Exclaimed a wind faerie as she fluttered around Desmond.

“His skin is a little pale, and he’s breathing hard; maybe he’s sick.” A flower fairy answered.

“Oh, I have an idea. Let’s give him some berries.” A water fairy exclaimed excitedly.

.....

Desmond smiled bitterly at the antics of the fairies floating above him. He was a victim of the wounds he suffered in his last battle since some had not finished healing, and others had healed poorly. Desmond was one step away from being a cripple; no berry in the world would change that.

Desmond was well aware of the extent of his injuries, but he couldn’t say no to the cute, hopeful faces of the fairies who came over with berries in their hands. To top it off, none of the berries were even the same; it was pretty obvious that these fairies just gave him whatever they found on hand.

Without thinking too much, Desmond popped the berries into his mouth. The berries were just the right size for a fairy to eat in a couple of bites, so one can already imagine how small they were. Desmond could put all the berries in his mouth and eat them in one sitting.

Have you ever done something stupid and only realized it a second after? That is the feeling that Desmond had when eating the berries. Only now did he realize that fairies weren’t human beings; only God knew what they considered food. Worse yet, each different type of fairy gave Desmond a different kind of berry; none brought the same berries that the others ate. Once again, God only knew why.

Feeling the strong elemental essences poured into his body, Desmond felt the need to have a time machine to travel back in time and find out when he became so stupid. Unfortunately, medicine for repentance is not sold; even if it was sold, it was unlikely that these fairies had anything with them.

Desmond was about to cry tearlessly when a strong combination of medicinal essence flooded his body. This healing essence came from all the berries; they all had some kind of healing property, although they were all slightly different from each other.

The multi-colored torrent of healing energy washed over Desmond’s body inch by inch. Those wounds that had not yet healed were healed. More importantly, the wounds he had healed poorly showed improvement.

Desmond could feel the two poorly fused ribs returning to their original position as they healed the damage caused by the rearrangement. Thanks to that, Desmond’s damaged lung finally got some rest and space to heal.

The nearly non-existent ligaments in Desmond’s right knee and left shoulder also healed rapidly. The same thing happened with some torn muscles that had healed poorly.

There is a saying that there is only one step from heaven to hell. Desmond now wanted to argue that all it took was a bunch of berries to get back from hell to heaven.

In his panic, Desmond had missed a couple of things. The first was that fairies were innocent, not stupid; they wouldn’t give him something that could kill him. The second thing Desmond forgot was where he was; with how dense and pure the mana was here, it would be weird if all sorts of medicinal plants didn’t grow.

Now that Desmond’s countenance began to improve by the second, the fairies that fed him celebrated by dancing around him happily. Looking at the bunch of simple and pure-minded faeries having fun without a care in the world, Desmond couldn’t help but remember Titania’s words.

Titania was right; Kyuru was different from her sisters. Simply put, regular fairies were much less spiritually and intellectually complex. These mischievous girls, daughters of the elements, had no complex ideas or desires; they just lived happily every moment that passed.

From a particular perspective, fairies were the perfect life form; they lived to love life itself and the world in which life was given to them; in return, the world showered them with its love. Of course, from the human point of view, they were just stupid.

Desmond, of course, didn’t think fairies were stupid. It was not the fairies’ fault that evil existed in other beings. And even supposing fairies were really stupid, having a guardian like Titania; they could afford that luxury. Desmond might not be aware of the full extent of Titania’s power, but the fact that she could create a world was more than enough to set a standard.

So another hour passed, and by the end of it, Desmond could already feel his body approaching full recovery from his injuries. Then, a familiar voice came to the ears of the exhausted young hunter and the motherly holy priestess.

“Are you having fun?”

It was Titania or a puppet that belonged to her. Desmond got up from the ground and answered. “Saying your daughters are energetic is being nice.”

Titania laughed lightly. She pointed to Cecilia and answered. “She seems to be doing quite well.”

Desmond refused to answer, to which Titania shrugged her shoulders and continued. “Anyway, I come here to tell you that Kyuru is on her way. She shouldn’t take long to come back. You should rest now so you can leave in the morning. I know it’s hard to say since the sky here is always the same color, but you guys have already been here for too much time.”

Only now do Desmond and Cecilia realize that detail. The sky in Avalis always seemed to be between sunset and dusk; that hadn’t changed since they arrived. Desmond would have been able to keep track of time if he had his phone or watch handy, but both were inside the hunter’s book, which still didn’t work until now.

“Don’t worry, the flow of time here isn’t too different from Serefia’s; by the time you get back, it will only have been two or three days. Still, don’t go before I come to see you again; I have a present for you, young Desmond. It should help you make up your mind about that little problem you have with the fire.”

While everything Titania said was of interest, her last words caused Desmond great curiosity. “How do you know I have a problem with fire?”

The fairy queen responded matter-of-factly. “It is not something difficult to notice. I must say that even nature makes mistakes. To think that you would awaken an element you lack affinity with while taking your first step down the path of mana. I can only assume that something happened to you before, which left your body impregnated with a lot of fire elemental essence, which caused the accident.”

Immediately, Desmond had flashbacks of all the exploding incidents he’d had in the past. In fact, he also had a couple of them around the time he had his advancement to the one-star class.

Titania continued. “Whatever the case, I recommend that you stop. No one has the talent or resources to waste on an element they have no affinity with; you should have noticed it yourself. It is already quite surprising that you managed to understand some fire-related concepts, but that is your limit.”