Quania coughed, followed by a puke of blood onto her own dress.

She could do nothing as she sat there under the tree, leaning her back on the sturdy wood.

She had lost.

Or rather, he had won.

It wasn't because he managed to take her left arm, albeit at the cost of his right. Which was a miraculous thing in itself, seeing how he was just a young human, barely in his adulthood.

No. It was because he had proven himself, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he wasn't lying at all, wanting to have both her granddaughter and that human female as his wives.

He didn't hesitate. He sacrificed his arm just so he could take hers. He knew it was the only way he could do significant damage on her. And to save that Felicia woman.

He knew he was weaker than her. And yet he fought anyway, with sharp eyes full of calm resolve, showing wisdom far beyond his age.

He rejected her offer. Even though he knew he could just lie to take the easy way out. No. He wanted to prove himself to her.

Still, she wished she could test him a little further. If only she could bring herself to take hostage of her real granddaughter…

...Not feasible. She had become strong — too strong for her to easily subdue.

She coughed again, puking some more blood on her chest.

Her right hand gripped her chest, feeling a significant amount of pain coming from it.

She was suffering from a cardiac arrest.

Thanks to his spell, her heart, and all her organs and blood vessels, were all messed up. If she hadn't mastered the technique of regeneration, and if her innards weren't as tough as they were, she would be dead for sure.

Blood also poured out from her stump. He had completely shredded her left arm into nothingness. If he merely cut her arm, she could've attached them back. But this… this was unrecoverable. She wasn't a slime that could regrow body parts.

She would have to live without a left arm from now on.

It was all worth it. She now knew that her granddaughter was in good hands. And that that fairy was lying.

Her hair flew to her stump, covering it up to stem her blood loss.

She glanced to the two women now crowding over him.

Two wives. An Izurd sharing her husband. It was completely unheard of.

But, perhaps, if it were them...

...

“Aaaaaaa…. No… nononononononononono…”

Felicia, once she realized what had just befallen Hugo, immediately went into panic mode.

She ran to grab her staff and promptly took out healing potions and blood-coagulating potions from her Dimensional Storage as well as some bandages.

Why… Why didn’t she stop him?! Why didn’t she just tell him to take the deal given by that foul woman? She knew by their fight that she was too much for him! And yet, she kept her silence, allowing him to rush in to try and save her, losing his arm in the process.

And now, he was bleeding profusely from the fresh stump that demoness had made. If he wasn’t quickly treated, he would lose his life for sure!

As she poured potions after potions into his mouth, there was only one answer that came to her.

Her selfishness.

Yes, the only reason why she couldn’t do that was that she didn’t want him to be with that skank instead of her.

Sure, she might reason that the former demon lord could be lying, and that she would snap her neck the moment Hugo agreed, but that wasn’t the real reason.

No, she simply didn’t want to lose to her. She couldn’t take him choosing the Izurd over her. Even though if the Demon Lord didn’t lie, they could just reunite outside this place and pretend the whole deal never happened.

She was acting illogically, irrationally.

And her beloved paid for it.

“I’m sorry… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…”

Tears burst forth from her eyes. But it didn’t keep her from doing her job.

She couldn’t reattach his arm. But she sure could keep him alive.

…

On the other side of the field, Sherry stood like a statue.

She saw it, clear as day, of his arm flying to the distance in the middle of his fight with her grandmother.

And it was all because of her.

He asked her for her help and yet she refused. Just because of her foolish pride.

He, who had been so kind to her when she was little. He, who had been through so much misery in her absence.

She had made him lose an arm. She had deprived him of something he would never get back again.

She ran, as fast as her feet could take her to him.

"Move! I'll stop the bleeding with my hair!" She yelled at Felicia before shoving her away. As her strength far exceeded the much older woman, she could do it with ease.

"You! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!"

"The hair of an Izurd has healing properties. They're much better than those bandages you humans use," she replied, not even bothering to glance at her.

She knelt down, ordering her hair to wrap around the stump, covering it completely before she detached it from her head. All the while having tears falling from her eyes.

The moment she finished, Felicia lunged after her.

"YOU! IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT HE… HE…"

The two were now on the ground, with Felicia pinning Sherry on top. Sherry didn't do anything as Felicia grabbed her on the collar. She merely continued to cry with her eyes open.

"Why…" Felicia whimpered. "Why didn't you help him? Just because you're jealous of me? Do you know how much he talked about you? Even when we're in bed together, baring our bodies to each other, he'll say that he'll keep his virginity to you! You! The scum that abandoned him in his hour of need!"

A small trail of snot had escaped from Felicia's nose. Every time she cried, it would be an ugly cry like this. But she didn't care. The man she loved had lost an arm. It was no time to care about her looks.

"His eyes lit up whenever he talked about you! He always praised you, saying how much he likes your stubbornness and honesty. His memory of you stopped him from taking his own life! Do you know how that makes me feel?!"

She threw Sherry back down before standing up, looking at her with a wrathful look. "You… you don't deserve him…" She averted her gaze. "And neither do I…"

Her anger was now replaced by sorrow. She looked back at Hugo and the arm he was missing. She didn't even notice how the armor he had summoned had melted away completely, a natural consequence to him losing his consciousness.

...

At another dimension, separate yet so very close from where they were, a woman was laughing out of her lungs.

It was the Archfey, and she laughed at the comedy she just saw on her screen.

Oh! This is—this is glorious! A lover's spat ending up with the man losing an arm? Humans truly are lovely creatures!

She looked at the other mortals she had in her custody. They were now yelling at them to let them go. Some might even be attacking her. It didn't matter. Their transient existence could not even touch her true presence.

...Hmm? What's this?

The two pets he summoned before… they're entering my domain?

...No. Those aren't projections. They're here! With their real bodies! And they come here to my domain out of their own will!

...Aha...ahahahahaha...hahahahahaha!

So loved by his pets that he could make them help him even after he fell into his slumber! And they even haven't told him their real name!

The Archfey decided.

She had to intervene.

She would not let them help him any further.

After all, their despair must be absolute. And as an Archfey, she knew what those two would be capable of with their true potential.

They would have to be put down.

-------

Victoria

The fairy had come to her many, many times.

And every time, she would do so right when the Pig Prince was about to violate her.

As the Fairy of Dreams, it was an easy task to put him to sleep and give him a dream of violating the big-boobed blonde girl.

They would then use the opportunity to have a conversation. The fairy only had one goal in mind—teaching her how to project herself, like all Feys could do.

Why? So that she could meet her true mother, of course. Titania, the Queen of all feys.

And one day, she managed exactly that.

…

W-where am I?

All around her, she could only see trees. Not normal trees, mind you, but weird trees, possessing all kinds of colors and shapes, almost as if they weren't trees at all.

The last thing she remembered was meditating on her bed, just like the fairy instructed. Which meant...

I'm now inside The Great Fairy Forest?

Slowly, she began to walk.

Even though her feet were bare, she felt no discomfort whatsoever walking on the rough soil. She quickly attributed that to her being a projection, and not because she was a half-fairy. She still had yet to believe fully on what the dreamer fairy said.

She didn't know how long she walked for. Perhaps a minute, an hour, an entire day, or even a hundred years. All she knew was that the more she walked, the more she felt strangely at ease, as if this was her garden back home and not a strange, unfamiliar forest.

And then, she saw them.

Fairies—small girls with bug-like wings coming out from behind every leaf.

They quickly surrounded her. Or, to be more exact, they all flew around her as she walked.

"Ooh? Who is this?"

"A half-fairy?"

"How rare! Let's play together!

"Nononono! She's Lady Titania's guest! We can't play with her, remember?"

"You're right… But we can take her to her place!"

"Follow us!"

"Follow us!"

"Follow us!"

Victoria had no choice. Hearing them all beckoning to the same direction, she just had to follow them.

…

"This is it?" Victoria asked with a puzzled look.

"Yes! This is it! Her palace is right inside that hut!"

They brought her to a clearing, where there was a simple straw-roofed hut standing in the middle. The house also had a chimney and a small well and garden to its side.

This? Surely, this couldn’t be the dwelling of a fairy queen? She expected something more—grander. Fantastical. Like the forest she just walked through.

"Come in!"

"Come in!"

The fairies pushed her forward, producing enough force to nearly make her stumble.

Glancing backwards nervously, she slowly walked towards the hut, gulping in the process.

And once she was right in front of the wooden door, she knocked.

"E-excuse me. My name is Victoria. I think you may be expecting me."

At first, no response. She had to stand there for a few seconds with bated breath, waiting for whoever was behind that door to answer.

And then, an answer.

"Come in~"

The voice of an old hag responded to her. How could this be? She thought fairies couldn't age. And besides, surely the queen of all fairies wouldn't be an old hag, would she?

With a tense, frightened look, she pushed the door open.

Only to find complete darkness behind it.

Before she could say anything, she was sucked in by said darkness in a flash.

…

When she came to, she was in yet another unfamiliar place.

The floor was pale white, made by white square stones with small gaps between them. And between said gaps, tiny grasses grew, barely taller than the floor tiles themselves. They tickled her feet. And yet, she didn't feel uncomfortable in the slightest.

"Welcome. To my palace."

The voice was now a completely different one. Instead of belonging to an old hag, it now belonged to a youthful woman.

Victoria, who had been squatting down all this time, stood up, averting her gaze from the floor she had been staring at.

Moving it towards the throne in front of her.

"My wayward daughter."

In an infinitely small instant, she realized the truth.

That the figure that sat on said throne—without any seed of doubt—was her true, birth—

"M-Mother! You're my mother, aren't you?"

The fairy queen smiled.

---------

When Hugo's summons regained their consciousness, they were back inside the Great Fairy Forest, in their true bodies.

What had happened didn't escape their mind. They saw it themselves. No, felt it. They felt the blade cutting through their defense, into the skin and flesh of their master.

Resulting in the loss of his right arm.

Water Fairy broke into tears. She had failed him. Just when he was depending on her too.

Earth Sprite, on the other hand, reacted much differently. Recognizing that it was her armor that had failed, she rammed her fists to the ground over and over, until a massive crater formed around her.

Then, she cried as well.

Was that it? Was there nothing else they could do to help him?

...No. They could still help him. They would just have to go to that place on their own, without his summons.

Even though the two were in different places, they had the same conclusion. They had to go to the archfey's domain at once.

Normally, they wouldn't be able to do so easily. Even though time and space were warped inside the feylands, that didn't mean any ordinary fey could manipulate them freely to their liking. However, thanks to the bond they had with Hugo, they could pinpoint his location and they could travel there in an instant.

For the two had a new, unwavering resolve in their hearts.

They would offer him their true names, whether he wanted to or not.

They would bind themselves to him forever and once they did, they would finally be able to grow to their maximum potential.

They would be able to help him at last.

…

"Oh? What's this? Human pets entering my land without an invitation?"

The moment the two entered the flower fields once again, they were greeted by the Minister.

And, judging by her frown, she wasn't happy. Not in the slightest.

"Leave. You two are not welcome here."

"N-no!" Water Fairy replied. "We're going to save him, no matter what!"

"She's right." Earth Sprite followed, a determined look drawn on her normally expressionless face. "You may be an Archfey but we won't bow down to you anymore."

The two were afraid. Of course they did. To a fey, an Archfey was akin to a goddess to them. Standing up to them like this would invite certain, inevitable disaster.

"Ohohohohoho!" The Archfey laughed, putting her hand near her mouth. "Really? Then I'll ask again. Kiri Dewdrop. Aria Earthroot. Leave my domain. And never come back."

The two feys froze.

She had just called them by their true name. And give them a command at the same time.

It was only natural for an Archfey to know a lesser fey's true name. That was another reason why no lesser fey dared to oppose them.

Kiri, the Water Fairy, formed a blade of water in her right hand.

“Oh? Are you going to disobey? Surely not. Not with that shaky hand you have,” the Archfey smirked. “Fine then. Come. Slice my throat.”

With great effort, almost as if there was some invisible force holding her back, Kiri took a step forward. And another. And another. Aria did the same, forming a fist of earth on her own right hand.

The Archfey, not frightened in the slightest, landed on the ground and opened her arms wide, still with the same grin on her face. "This is so fun! Your bond to that human allows you to ever so slightly resist my command. But I wonder, just how strong that bond of yours is?"

Their steps grew slower and slower, until eventually, they could not move in the slightest. They fell down on their knees, panting. Each of them looked at the archfey with both fear and anger.

"Ohohoho! I guess that's the limit of your bonds. Foolish human! He never took your true names, did he? You are willing to give it to him and yet, he never asked you for it!"

The Archfey walked closer to the two, cocking her hips left and right in an almost seductive manner. She then put her hands on each of their heads, resulting in them both flinching from her touch.

"You see…" She leaned down and whispered, "As punishment, I think I'm going to make you two my fairies. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Kiri's right hand shook. She only needed to move it a few inches to the left for her blade to connect with her abdomen.

And yet, she couldn't. It was as if her body, no, her very essence had decided to go against her wishes.

Then, she could feel it — the flow of magic coming from the archfey's palms. It entered their heads, then their bodies, all the way to their legs. It began to — to change them. Conceptually. If she were to finish the process, there was no doubt about it. They would have to serve her for all eternity.

Tears streamed down from both of them. They begged, prayed that they could hurt the archfey so the process could be stopped.

And yet, they couldn't. They could only sit there, unmoving, as she gave her her "blessings".

Master… Kiri thought. I'm sorry… I can't… be more helpful to you…

Master… Aria thought. Your warmth… I'll never be able to…

…

"DON'T GIVE UP!"

A comet, as bright as the blue sky itself, appeared from the sky above before descending like lightning and landed right in front of them.

No, it wasn't a comet at all.

It was a fairy knight.