Why Did You Summon Me？

Back in Eom Village, Baiyi, the Fairy Walker, and the Elder were also wracking their brains in a bid to decipher the same conundrum: Where is little Miss Nydore? She didn't even leave a number.     

"It can't be helped! That dastardly Fairy King went too overboard! Two months ago, large horse carriages frequented this village daily. These carriages were overloaded with red roses and accompanied by bards from different species, who were singing love songs and annoying poetry. All these were so… offensive to our eyes! We had to ask her to leave the village," the Elder growled, explaining why the Zephyr was asked to leave the village.      

At that moment, he remembered that the Fairy Walker had also been asked to leave, so he quickly added, "Um… It was only temporary. She didn't venture out alone! She is being taken care of by some archers, Mr. Bear, Grandfather Tree, and the Horse. She's gonna be fine! Completely and absolutely fine."     

'You gotta admit that it is a waste of money. Good thing she left already, or else my cheap granddaughter would have long since been won over.' Baiyi thought, but outwardly he asked, "Then?"     

"Then! We crushed those red roses into fertilizer! We catapulted those bards out of our neck of the woods. And, we stopped people from visiting us; after that, the Wise Mad King stopped his antics."     

"Um, I meant… any news from Nydore?" Baiyi made his probe more specific.     

"We told her to contact us every once in a while, and that she could return to the village once the coast was clear. A while back, she sent us a letter via a pigeon, telling us that she was safe, but we have not gotten any letters from her recently. We are not sure where she is and if she is in danger," The Elder replied, looking a little anxious.     

Baiyi glanced at the Fairy Walker, and fortunately, she shook her head sideways and said, "The undulations from the Caudillo Butterfly bow are steady. That means it has not been used in battle for a while now, or at least, she has not been in a fight where she needed to use the Caudillo Butterfly bow."     

"As she has not reached out to you recently, it could mean that there was something she had to attend to? Could she have been tagged? Maybe, she needed to keep her location and this village's location a secret?" Baiyi's said, offering his own conjectures.     

"Very plausible." The Elder replied gravely. "That Wise Mad King would not have stopped disturbing the village if something else had not drawn his attention!"     

"Got it. Since my grandniece's life is on the line, I suppose I will have to do something about this. We'll take a break for the rest of the day, and then, the first thing the morning tomorrow, we'll start looking for her," Baiyi said. "With Sylvia, it should be easy to find the coordinates of her location."     

"This is best!" A smile appeared on the Elder's face. "Whoa, who would have thought that the boss would change so much after leaving! Now she has brought good luck to the village...!"     

Although he did not mean to sound harsh, the Elder quickly realized that those words were not the best ones to say in front of the Fairy Walker right now; hence, he shut his mouth quickly and sighed. It was as though a millenia had not gone by, and he was still that little brat following a young Fairy Walker around.      

Nevertheless, he was right; the Fairy Walker really had changed. She no longer got annoyed by things she deemed trivial. Instead of flying into a rage, she stood up and calmly wrapped her arm around Baiyi's. "Come, lemme show you around our village."     

Baiyi nodded. However, he was more curious about Mr. Bear and the Guardian Horse couples than he was about this village in the woods.      

After leaving the Elder's house, Baiyi and the Fairy Walker traversed through a path between some very huge trees, walking back to the clearing where they left the students. When they arrived, they found the happy students surrounded by fairies, who were showing them around the village. Surprisingly, the students and the fairies were not communicating with words; instead, they used smiles, eye movements, and body movements to get their points across, so everywhere was quiet. This made the surrounding resemble a gathering of mute and deaf people.      

Most of the surrounding fairies were female, and they were all so beautiful, it was difficult to point out a flaw in their physiques. Furthermore, as spring was arriving, these female fairies seemed to have the same idea as Baiyi's girls about keeping themselves cool; they also wore shorter clothes. Their arms were bared; their slim, alluring waists were bared, and their skirts were so short, most of their supple thighs were visible. With so many of them wearing these revealing clothing, it was easy for a random passerby to go blind.     

They looked very inviting, mind-blowing, and sensual. This form of dressing had obviously been picked up from human females; Baiyi knew this because, in the Fairy Walker's memories, fairies dressed more conservatively than this. However, he could not help but wonder if the one thing that the traditionalist fairies could not help taking from the secularist fairies was a good fashion sense.     

Strangely enough, the surrounding male fairies were only showing interest in Zakum the fox and Potter the owl. Whenever their gazes shifted to these two students, the male fairies would be unable to stop complimenting them. "Good fur!""You look mighty!""You look like a boss!" Zakum looked very pleased with all the flattery.     

"H-holy… This must be heaven! My comrades! I... I feel like rejoicing! Rejoice!" The Engineer Walker began to scream within the Void, making it evident that he had lost his self-control.     

"Oh! The most perfect faces! The most perfect bodies! Most importantly! They don't give a damn about concealing their beauty, and instead, they generously and confidently show it all off in front of us! This is the part that truly moves me!" The Paladin Walker exclaimed, echoing the Engineer Walker's sentiments.     

The Cleric Walker was even more direct, however. "Words can no longer accurately describe my state. Sir Hope, allow me to descend into the Hammerhead Shark Plushie and enjoy what paradise has to offer. I promise you, after your act of compassion, I'll do anything for you!"     

Baiyi said nothing. He just opted to mute these perpetrators of indecency, including the Bard Walker, who had yet to put his feelings into words. However, before the Bard Walker was forcefully muted, he managed to bellow "You prude piece of puritan! Even these conservative fairies are more open-minded than you are! You crappy moderator! I don't care if I'm about to be muted, I'll sing it at the top my—ooomph!"     

When peace and quiet finally returned to the Void, Baiyi noticed that a gorgeous, demure female fairy had brought her pet sabercat along. This was a large cat which could be used as a mount or a hunting partner. Sabercats were said to be one of a fairy's most trusted furry companion and battle comrade.     

This particular sabercat was one of their species' finest. Not only was it tall and intimidating, but it was also covered with a mighty coat of black fur, its fangs reflecting cold glints. It was a beautiful creature.     

Mia and the other girls did not stare at the sabercat for too long, however. Their gazes soon shifted to the small furballs following the sabercat around.     

These were cubs; this sabrecat had become a mother only recently.     

The cubs had heads slightly too large for their bodies, making their limbs look short. Their fur was much thinner than their mother's because they had been borne recently. As they trotted forward, they would occasionally slip, making them look like furballs moving like warms. Every time they tripped, the cubs would yelp very softly.     

The girls could not resist these little balls of cuteness and charged at them. Little Mia, who was running the fastest, screamed, "Aaah! So cute!", and she dashed right past the adult sabercat, who had long since been forgotten by everyone.     

Mia picked one of the cubs and rubbed her cheeks against it gently, drowning herself in the pleasant feeling of its soft fur against her cheeks. She could not help but purr, "Cute kitty!"     

The cub was not taken aback in the slightest; instead, it looked to be enjoying Mia's cuddling, probably because it had detected her friendly intentions. The cub returned the show of love by nudging itself even closer to Mia's cheeks, licking her hand with its little tongue, and gently prodded her face with its soft paws.      

Mia chuckled, loving the cub even more.     

The other girls were doing the same, and the cubs they were cuddling all returned the show of love. One would think that these cubs were used to being scooped up and cuddled, allowing them to make adorable actions which won the hearts of their cuddlers in very little time.     

Meanwhile, the adult sabercat did not make a move to stop this show of affection. If anything, one could say that the adult sabercat seemed proud at that moment, happy at how much its kids were loved by all and sundry.     

'Little Mia's treating your kid like a kitty, though,' Baiyi thought. He moved towards a cub and tried to pick it up.     

However, the cub seemed to have sensed that the embrace of this armor set, whose every movement made clanking sounds, would not be able to give it the warmth and comfort it sought, so it escaped Baiyi's hand and jumped into the embrace of a nearby female fairy.      

'You little rascal, at what age did you learn to be so calculating?' Baiyi thought, with a deadpan expression appearing on his face.     

"Hee hee! They have always lived with us, so they got our smarts really early on." the Fairy Walker smiled. She ignored Mia and the girls, who were playing with the cubs, and dragged Baiyi along for a walk.      

The number of fairies living in Eom Village was only 600, so the village was not large. It did not take long before the tour of the village was over.      

At that time, Baiyi suggested that they go visit the legendary Mr. Bear and the Guardian Horse Couple. The Fairy Walker agreed because as she was curious as to the wellbeing of her childhood playmates.     

After walking a long distance, the pair spotted a complex structure of low, small caves ahead.     

Strangely, as Baiyi approached them, he began to feel a familiar aura amanating from them. The aura was not an energy pulse, but it still felt endearing, which he found puzzling.     

However, Baiyi did not get to dwell on the details for long, for a silhouette suddenly crept out from one of the caves and charged at them. Baiyi narrowed his eyes, but his expression quickly changed to one of suprise.     

The silhouette belonged to Mr. Bear, who had just come out to investigate the source of the auras it sensed lurking close to its home. It did not look anything like Baiyi imagined it would, though. It was not large and imposing; it was short and stout, sporting a height similar to Little Mia's, and that was when it was standing on its hind legs.     

Its fur was tender, unlike the bristly hides wild animals tended to have. Its head, torso, paws, and eyes were so round, it made Baiyi feel like he was looking at a living teddy bear.     

'Nope. This Mr. Bear is definitely not the mystical beast I thought it would be. It's basically a plushie!' Baiyi thought. 'No wonder the Fairy Walker dared to mess with it when she was only a small brat.'     

'Is it going to greet me with terribly lewd comments?' Baiyi thought, shuffling a little close to the Fairy Walker.     

"Sylvia! You really have returned to us!" Mr. Bear said, using the language of the fairies. It had been able to recognize the Fairy Walker despite her Soul Armature-like appearance. As Mr. Bear trudged forward, because it was so stout, it looked like it was walking while drunk.     

"Mr. Bear, I came back to see you," she replied in a very polite, demure way, which was very different from her normal boorish attitude. She skipped towards the approaching bear and tenderly pulled it into a hug.     

The bear was much shorter than the militia armor, so the Fairy Walker had to bend in order to hug it, turning what was supposed to be an emotional reunion into a jocular scene.      

"I really shouldn't have chased you out… I shouldn't have, I shouldn't… I regretted it the instant I did," Mr. Bear lamented dejectedly. "I don't care if you went to eat my nuts behind my back! I just knew right then that I'll regret that decision for the rest of my life. But, you have now returned to us, and that's… that's all that matters, isn't it? I just don't understand… Why do you look like this?"     

"A lot happened after I left, you see. I've got a long story to tell you," The Fairy Walker released the short bear and returned to Baiyi's side. "This is my husband! We're very happy together."     

"Oh? This child? Yes; there an endearing aura radiating from him, so he must be a good boy. Come, come in!" Mr. Bear waved its round paw forward. Suddenly, some nuts flew through the air and landed on their hands.     

Baiyi was in shock. He had felt nothing! Not wisp of mana or any other energy signature could be felt after the bear made that gesture, meaning it had not used magic. However, it still seemed like the nuts had sprouted wings and decided to fly over of their own volition.     

Even the First Walker, the Sage-Emperor of the Magi, was flabbergasted, and he exclaimed, "How is this possible? It can't be… the power of a Territory, right?"     

"Using the perilous powers of a Territory to summon nuts? I doubt that even gods would partake in such a daring practice," the Scholar Walker said, disagreeing with that notion. "It is plausible that this is a clandestine power that even our peers have yet to study, yes?"     

Mr. Bear may look like a soft toy, but to Baiyi, since his descent, it was the first thing that made him feel puzzled and cautious. The bear was an entirely mysterious being.     

"You look pretty dazed," Mr. Bear said, as it pulled away from the Fairy Walker. "Are you, perhaps, thinking about this?"     

The nuts in Baiyi's hand took to the air on their own and began to fly around like dancing bumblebees. After a short while, they returned to Baiyi's palm.     

Baiyi's expression turned gloomy. Even when performed at such close proximity, he still did not feel a single energy pulse!