I stood in the center of the cell. My heart is beating so fast, in this dungeon filled with nothing but the stench of flesh. The harpies beside me held each other in their arms. They were horrified…and sad…

They were horrified at the sight of me. And they were sad at the loss of their guardian fairy. 

I’ve done it, haven’t I?...

I’ve finally…killed someone…

Tears started pouring down my bloody red eyes, with a shade of purple, now etched into them. I took a deep breath while I looked at the ceiling above my head. 

There’s only one thing left for me to do…

Kill…every last one of those worthless…scums.

I touched the cell bars with my bare hands. And it snapped. The iron rod snapped with a touch of my fingers.

So, this is the strength of a vampire…

I guess I’m not a human huh…I never was one…from the start…

And now…I’m a murderer…who’s killed his saviour…

Once the butterflies entered my soul. Lydia’s memories merged with my own. 

She once lived a happy life. In the land of fairies, hidden from human eyes. A higher-ranking fairy is worshipped by the lower-ranked fairies. She was originally called Lydia Everberry, the fairy of youth. She was considered the guardian of all children, and she was one of the high-ranking fairies who mingled in the human territory. 

But the other fairies didn’t like it. They considered themselves as a superior species compared to humans. And they considered associating with humans to be crude. 

Lydia ignored them and went into the territory as usual. and that’s where she met him…

A black-haired boy with a pair of black eyes. He looks just like me…is he one of my ancestors? Is he the one Lydia mentioned earlier? 

He was searching for something between the bushes. His hands were bleeding heavily, but he didn’t care…he’s eyes were focused on what he wanted, just like a starving beast desperately searching for its prey…

Lydia hid behind a tree, hiding her presence from the boy. But to him nothing mattered, he scavenged the bushes for the object of his desire. 

In the process, he cut his delicate hands, blood dripping down his fresh wounds…

The fairy couldn’t help watching him anymore…Lydia desperately flew towards the boy, holding his hands tightly, stopping the boy from hurting himself any further. Lydia shrank herself into the size of a normal fairy so that no one would think of her as a high-ranking fairy.

The boy was shocked at the sight of a fairy for the first in his life. He’d only heard rumours of them, but never expected he’d ever see a fairy with his own eyes. 

“Are you…a fairy…?”

He looked at the fairy in front of him with wide eyes.

Lydia didn’t know what to do, she froze in thin air and wondered how she should reply to him. It was true that Lydia helped humans, but she had never directly conversed with one. She was at a loss for words…

But the boy didn’t stop because of his surprise, but a light of hope had been lit in his darkened soul…he had finally found some hope in what he sought. 

“Oh, great fairy!!!”

He got on his knees and slammed his head on the ground. He begged the oh-so-great fairy to save his mother’s life.

“Please! I beg thee to save my mother!”

The fairy got out of her trance after hearing his words. 

“Your…mother?! What happened to her?”

“My mother! She has been stricken by a deadly disease; she is unable to even eat her food properly. Oh, Great fairy! Please save my mother! I plead thee! I shall even offer mine own life if I have to!”

“Please raise your head. Tell me, child…where is it that your mother lies?”

The boy pointed at a single road in a dense forest. 

“I live in a small village in that direction. I shall guide you there, my dear fairy.”

The fairy followed the child. And the two of them hurried to the village, on the way back, the child was bitten by several snakes and other small creatures in the forest. But to his luck, there was not a single beast that could threaten his life or slow him down.

Lydia looked at the boy with concerned eyes, but she ignored his injuries, respecting his will to save his mother. She knew how desperate he was, so she followed him to his mother without a word.

They reached the village in a few minutes. They rushed over to the boy’s house. The moment Lydia looked at the mother, her eyes went wide open at the sight of the woman in front of her. The woman was breathing heavily and her whole body was shivering profusely.

Her skin was wrinkling up and her eyes were red, her lips were dry and cracked. I doubt she could even eat properly in the state she was in. The woman didn’t move her head to look at who was at the door…no…she couldn’t move her head, even the slightest movement of her body was taxing for her. 

The boy got closer to his mother and sat on the chair next to the bed. He got closer to her so that she could see his face properly. His eyes were welling up with tears…

“Mother…we finally have hope! The great finally will cure you, dear mother. You wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.”

Tears start pouring down his eyes, and the mother tries her best to look at the fairy floating next to the boy. 

Lydia couldn’t help seeing them suffer any further. She gets closer to the mother of the boy and pats her head warmly.

“It is alright now my child. You have suffered for so long. You will not have to bear this pain any longer…”

Lydia could easily heal the wounds on the mother’s body. And even if she were to completely heal the disease spread in her body, the wrinkles and the state of her bones wouldn’t change in any way. 

Her body would easily get infected once again and she wouldn’t be able to walk in the state she is in. 

…but there was one way for her to attain a body without any wrinkles and her bones would have gone back to normal. 

… ‘The Elixir of Youth’. If she were to drink this, the woman’s body would revert to how she looked 20 years back. It would also strengthen her body and extend her life span. 

For humans, it was considered a legendary elixir of life. And the source of this elixir of youth is the tears from the ‘fairy of youth’. Every high-ranking fairy possesses several lower-ranking fairies who follow them.

And Lydia was no exception to this perk. But the number of fairies under Lydia’s command is considerably lower than the other high-ranking fairies. These fairies usually contacted humans and helped them. 

They were the ones who introduced ‘The Elixir of Youth’ to the human world. through their tears, they were able to create an elixir which extended their life span. But Lydia’s tears were the only ones who could make the person younger and enhance her physically.

Lydia being the size of a palm, flew closer to the woman’s face and flew right above her lips. She instructed the boy to open his mother’s mouth and hold them. She looked into the woman’s eyes, and tears started dripping down her eyes, just like diamonds…

The tears entered the woman’s mouth and down her throat. She slowly closed her eyes and went into a deep sleep. Her body slowly started to transform, her skin started to contract, and her wrinkles slowly disappeared. 

And her dry and cracked lips started to heal themselves. In a few seconds, they turned into a pair of rosy plump lips. Her complexion turned brighter, and her face turned younger. 

And there she was…an unrivaled beauty with her eyes closed and fast asleep.