A Villainess Should Be Strong

Estelle's trip was going well. Thanks to her constant maintenance of the ship, she had a safe ride across the skies. Because she passed through the lands, she would be able to create a space rift in future events.

Perhaps it was because Estelle still treated the monsters well even after locking them up, but they started opening up to her and wasn't as hostile as before.

For instance, they used to refuse any approach from Estelle, but now, they began to seek interactions with her. In addition to menial needs like asking for food and water, they also began to show humane actions like making funny faces to each other and having intonations in their speech, as if they were communicating with each other.

She could even open the cage and they wouldn't riot.

The risks she took had the potential to be fatal, since they were flying through the sky. Thankfully, all went according to her predictions.

Although Estelle didn't know what caused the change, she was still wary of the monster's intentions and kept her guard up.

After all, she did kill their brethren even if they were already that corrupted. If she was in their place, she would despise herself.

She didn't know if the monsters knew that she was the one who brought this upon them. All that she knew, was that the monsters' corruption lessened each time she checked.

Her first assumption was that the monsters had short - term memory. Through spending time with her, they forgot about their original identity and behaved as if she was their acquaintance.

Intriguing as it is, Estelle chose to leave them be and treat them like she should. Call it the compensation for her actions. She'd give them the best possible treatment as a captive.

The four Strays she captured was strange in a good way.

She healed them to full health since it felt agonizing to look at their horrendous wounds. Pity was aroused inside her heart.

Days later, Estelle had arrived in the outskirts of Sylvania. It had been a week since she departed from the Clareste Dukedom.

The first thing she saw was a huge bundle of trees protected by a dome - shaped translucent layer. Sylvania was home to the spirits, or what some might call 'faes'.

[Heine, I've arrived. Do I just enter?] Estelle contacted Heine through a spirit connection.

[Huh? Ah, it's you. Yeah, you should just enter. The spirits won't be hostile to you since you have the blessing, so... right, I'll send a guide to you. Just explore for a bit and wait for her to arrive.] Heine replied. He still sounded busy.

[Wait, where can I park my ship?]

[Ship? The turtle ship Yulia told me about? Uhh.. anywhere you want, we have plenty of unused spaces.]

[Got it. Go do your thing, then.] Estelle was confused as to what Heine was busy over, but decided to wait until they met personally.

[En, see you!] Heine cut off the connection and did as what Estelle said.

Estelle got down from the ship and enchanted it with a protective seal for preventive measures. She then started to walk around the breezy forests, feeling the abundant mana fleeting about.

She met a spirit along the way, which then increased to two, then three, and before long, she was covered in curious spirits who deemed her as interesting.

Be it balls of light or tiny fairies with sparkly wings.

She was reminded the day she met with Heine. He infiltrated her room using the light sphere form before showing her his true form. That was six years ago. How fast.

Luckily, she was able to understand the spirits' language, so she conversed with them smoothly.

The spirits recognized her as one of their own despite the differences and quickly got close to her.

[Maybe it's because of the [Spirit's Blessing] title?] Estelle found their voluntary approach to be funny, because her understanding of Spirits were that of a reclusive race that disliked interacting with other races aside from their own.

After a while, the envoy Heine sent finally arrived and greeted Estelle with high respect.

"Lady Estelle Clareste, if I am not mistaken. I am Het, a royal attendant. Lord Heine has bestowed upon me the task of escorting you to the castle. Please follow me," Unlike the other spirits, who looked like balls of light or small fairies, Het maintained an adult form.

An androgynous beauty, who possessed an unnatural air that surrounded him. Thankfully, the male pronouns he used exposed his gender. If not, Estelle would have to hold an internal debate on what to call him.

Before leaving, she wanted to part properly with the Spirits she just met. They were great companions to spend time with.

"Ah, yes. Little Spirits, I must leave now. I'll come back later, okay?" Estelle smiled as the Spirits crowded around her frantically.

"Elle, don't go~" A spirit whined. The Spirits had chameleon - like properties, as seen from how they started to radiate dark hues as opposed to the bright colors they showed previously.

The first colors she witnessed were orange to brown before they accepted her as their own. Once they surrounded Estelle, they changed color to white, gold, and other bright shades.

[Light colors are happier emotions, dark colors for negativity, and colorful ones displaying other expressions?] Estelle concluded.

[It'd be easy to tell what they're feeling.] Estelle chuckled internally. She found the creatures to be cute.

"Un, un! Being around Elle is comfortable, don't wanna separate!" Another spirit followed and protested against the higher spirit who wanted to take away the lovely human they just got to know.

This was strange to Het, because lower Spirits were normally apprehensive towards higher - ranked Spirits.

Higher Spirits had the ability to consume the energy of lower ranks. A Spirit was essentially made of pure mana, which was beneficial to one's growth. Some high ranks regularly picked suitable Spirits to increase their power, which created a natural dislike towards them.

Thus, lower ranks usually went to hide when a high rank got close to them.

"Don't abandon us!"

"Yeah, yeah!" The other Spirits cried in unison.

"I'm not abandoning you guys! I promise I'll come back.. Ah, that's right! I'll give each of you a gift," Estelle opened her inventory and took out several beautiful orbs.

The orbs were the same as the one she gave to Sheila. Those mini spheres that contained Estelle's mana would serve as a token of remembrance for the little ones.

"Let's see... There we go!" Estelle made the orbs' color change into those that matched each of the spirits' hair or eye color.

"What's this?"

"Hm?" The spirits were curious.

"A present for me. Grip it tight when you miss me," The spirits were friendly, too friendly, even. They were already treating her as a close kin.

"Hmm... I will let you off this time~" A spirit happily received the orb and spun around in delight.

"This is so pretty! Thank you, Elle!" Another one chirped.

"Then.. I will too!"

"Yep, yep! G 'bye, Elle!"

Having settled the matter peacefully, Estelle fulfilled her mission and was satisfied.

"Bye!" Estelle cheerfully replied.

Estelle took out the monsters she captured and planned to bring them to the castle along with this trip.

The monsters, numbered four in total, peacefully came out of the cage and followed Estelle willingly.

Het, who observed the strange actions marked the information down as he led the little girl and the four creatures following behind her to the castle's direction.

Once she got to the castle, Het led her to Heine's location.

"Heine!" The familiar fae entered Estelle's line of sight. "What happened, really? You've been so busy lately,"

"Estelle.. Nice to see you," Heine greeted. "To put it simply, there's a problem with the world,"

"What do you mean?" Estelle was hit with the sudden gloomy news and was shocked.

"The world.. No, to be precise, the world's core has been corrupted," Heine's expression was grim, and the spirits that floated around him also felt down. He sighed in distress.

"Corrupted..?"

[Like the Strays.. How peculiar.] Estelle frowned.

Widespread corruption that even reached the Spirit Kingdom. What could've caused it?

Heine began explaining to her one by one. More or less, she was able to understand the severity of the situation.

The Core Heine spoke of meant the Spirit Tree, otherwise known as the World Tree. The world's heart.

The sacred being that has been progressing extremely well was now showing signs of corruption, which could potentially affect the world's balance itself.

Not only that, the Spirit Tree was also the being the spirits and fae revered and praised as a guardian deity, if the matter of corruption was to be leaked, it would certainly cause a nationwide chaos.

"King- My apologies. Milord, may I have a word with you?" Another spirit, who by the looks of it seemed to be of a high position, approached the two.

"Sui," Heine acknowledged the other's presence. He told Estelle to wait and left with Sui to hear her out.

Estelle was left alone. The castle did not have as much lower leveled spirits as the outside areas. Most of them were humanoid, and possessed the same androgynous outlook from the first glance.

[They're all beautiful as hell.] Estelle observed the race's looks and found out that they all looked like they were we crafted by the Gods themselves.

[I mean, their race is the closest to God, so that ain't wrong.]

[..Well, I have great genes as well, so I can't complain.] Estelle began spacing out, thinking about her unsolved problems. From time to time, her mind would wander to the monsters that she brought to this country.

[I wonder if they're treated well here. They went through a week of extraordinary treatment, what if they're suddenly dropped into harsh conditions?]

"Estelle," Heine soon came back, but Sui, who wanted to share her stories with him unexpectedly did not leave.

Heine had a distraught expression on his face. He rushed towards Estelle, so his breath was unsteady. It made Estelle laugh since the fae had the same case with Minerva: a stunning lack of exercise.

The trio she frequently interacted with all didn't engage in physical activities. By mingling with them, would she grow up to be just like them?

"What did you do?" Heine questioned.

"Eh?" Estelle didn't know what caused the question, so she tilted her head in confusion.