Chapter 3: Chapter 3 I’m not Olivia anymore (3)
After she mustered up all her courage, she grabbed the creature between her tangled hair and took it out. Several strands of her hair were torn off when she did it.
“Oh, thank you. I thought I was going to die in there. Boohoo...If I had not had your help, I would have been caught in that nasty spider’s web and eaten. Boohoo.”
A girl with her dark yellow hair caught in a sticky spider web dropped big tears, fluttering her hands. The girl soon clung to her finger as if it was hard to keep her balance.
She was about the size of three knuckles of Olivia’s finger.
Olivia swallowed while looking down at the little girl wiggling her limbs. Although she cried so much that her eyes were swollen, she could clearly see a ridiculously small human wriggling on her hand.
“Boohoo...The spider web won’t get off me!”
The girl sadly grumbled as she could not move freely as she wished. Olivia looked down at the little girl’s sticky body and felt sorry for her, so Olivia used her other hand to clean up the spider’s webs and tangled hair. The girl flinched a bit at Olivia’s touch but remained still after noticing her intention.
“Who the hell are you?”
“My lady, I’m Juasonette. Boohoo...I’m a forest fairy who has come of age this year.”
The girl introduced herself, breathing faintly. When Olivia pulled out the cobwebs, she revealed her silver hair. Olivia opened her eyes blearily and stared at it for a while. She had never seen the girl’s hair with such a golden color.
Olivia couldn’t believe when the girl introduced herself as a wood fairy, but she thought that the girl’s claim might not be false given her tiny little body and shiny hair. In fact, it really didn’t matter to Olivia whether the girl was a fairy or not. In other words, it didn’t matter whether it was a fairy or a jewel before her eyes in this situation.
“Oh, lady! Don’t look at me like that...Okay. It’s next year, not this year when I come of age. Boohoo...I’m sorry for lying.”
Looking at Olivia, Juasonette flinched a bit and confessed that she was a minor.
Olivia just nodded a couple of times nonchalantly.
“You have saved my life. Twice!” She sniffed, “At first, you saved me caught in a spider web then you saved me from almost dying while I was caught in your tangled hair. Boohoo...Thank you so much! I have to repay your favor, swearing on the name of the fairy because I’m a fairy who knows how to repay someone’s help! Boohoo.”
At that moment Olivia felt bad for some reason and narrowed her eyebrows.
She felt the girl seemed to treat the sticky webs and her hair equally. Olivia unconsciously stroked her tangled hair and vowed to keep her hair spick and span.
“Oh, I see. I’m glad I have helped you out, too. By the way,…how did a forest fairy like you get caught in a web and couldn’t move at all?”
In response to Olivia’s suspicious tone, the fairy wrapped her blushed cheeks with both hands and said, “Normally, I would have removed spider webs without any problem, but today I couldn’t use my strength because I was hungry...”
The girl muttered and looked down with a sullen expression, scratching Olivia’s finger gently as she was embarrassed.
“Did you say you were hungry?”
Looking at the fairy’s sloppy outfit, Olivia tilted her head. The girl was not neat and clean enough to be called a forest fairy.
“Did you…Did you run away from your house? ”
“Pardon? How did you know that?”
Juasonette sat down on Olivia’s palm with a stunned look. Whether it sat or stood, the fairy weighed the same. But the fairy soon got up again, saying that she made a mistake on Olivia’s palm.
“Please, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t run away from my house but went out briefly to see the forest. Boohoo. How can I leave the house alone when I am not an adult? So, don’t misunderstand me…”
Looking at the fairy crying again, Olivia made a suggestion to persuade her to stop crying, “Okay, got it. If you’ve been out for a long time like you said, you must be hungry… Is there anything you can eat around here?”
“Boohoo. Anything to eat?”
Charmed by her suggestion, the fairy stopped crying and looked around quickly. Then, the fairy began to guide Olivia, gesturing with her hands cutely in excitement.
Although Olivia felt uncomfortable because of her torn shoes, she silently moved her feet as the fairy led her. On the way, her legs were scratched by burweeds and bled a bit, but she didn’t care. She didn’t know how long she walked, pretending not to notice the fairy’s noisy words.
Finally, she saw an incredibly open place before her eyes.
Olivia frowned because of the strong sunlight that came through the trees suddenly. The place the fairy guided her was a beautiful place with a brook and strawberry trees surrounding it.
Olivia approached a strawberry tree with a sour scent and picked up one that looked delicious. Looking at the fairy swallowing saliva, she put a strawberry on her palm. Juasonette hurriedly began to eat it.
Thinking the fairy must have been very hungry, Olivia, too, put a strawberry into her mouth.
“Delicious! Miss, thank you so much for picking it for me. I don’t know how to repay your favor…”
The fairy put lots of strawberries into her mouth and politely thanked Olivia while chewing on them. Thinking the fairy was well-mannered, Olivia put another strawberry on her palm.
“Thanks, Miss! By the way, what kind of gift would you like ? As a fairy, I have to repay you, so please make yourself at home and tell me. A fairy who doesn’t repay one’s favor can’t be called a fairy!”
Juasonette exclaimed cheerfully as if she would grant any wish.
“Gift?”
“Yeah! Let me grant your wish with the power of a fairy!”
The fairy put her lips on another strawberry and drank its juice. Funny enough, Olivia recalled the countess at that moment, who blamed her for being uncultured. At the same time, the images of Dylan and Francis kissing each other filled her vision. She wanted to get even with them by obtaining a higher status than them.
“…Make me reborn as a woman of a noble family… Can you do that? For example, a daughter of a duke...or a princess of the royal family...Can you help me to be born like that? ”
When Olivia said her wish, the fairy opened her mouth, dropping a piece of strawberry that she was eating, as if she didn’t even dream of Olivia making such request.
“Oh… Don’t you want to see a fairy’s dancing that lets you feel good or fairy powder that helps you feel refreshed?”
“I don’t want that.”
At her resolute reply, the fairy almost cried and stuttered, with her face stained with strawberry juice.
“Well, how about a fairy spell that can get you your love?”
“Love? Gosh! I don’t need anything like that. ”
Olivia shouted in a strict manner. The fairy flinched at Olivia’s shouting and flopped down on her palm. Olivia sadly dropped her sharp eyes after seeing the poor fairy who was about to cry.
“Oh, Juasonette, just forget what I told you a moment ago. My wishes of being born a woman of a noble family...Yeah, what’s the use of anything like that? I just feel ashamed to have such a shameful hope at this point. ”
Olivia said with a heavy heart, glancing at the stream sparkling brightly. Her dark green eyes sounded lonesome like the empty sky.
“Ah…Miss, I don’t know what’s going on but having a dignified status is nothing good. I was born from the blood of a queen, but I’m having a hard time every day because of that. The reason I came out of my house was because I found it too hard to get by in a tightly scheduled daily life. Ahhh! No matter what, a dignified status isn’t good.”
Stuttering like that, the fairy looked up at Olivia’s green eyes, “Instead, I’ll give you something really helpful to you.”
Junasoantte raised her body, shouting “Usha!” cheerfully, and wiped her hands which were red with strawberry juice. Then, she began to rummage through her pocket. After groping around for a while, the fairy pulled out a small bead.
The bead seemed to reflect various colors, depending on the angle of view. The fairy held the bead and agonized for a moment before passing across Olivia’s palm to her index finger with a determined look.
“Miss, don’t be surprised!”
After quickly glancing at Olivia, Junasonette pressed the bead in her hand onto the pad of Olivia’s finger. Olivia felt it tickled her fingertip a bit, but the fairy seemed to be using all her energy to do it.