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Episode 4
The fairy began throwing books haphazardly and growling menacingly at Lingling.
Startled, Letty perked up her ears, but she couldn’t understand most of the foul words spilling from the adorable fairy's mouth.
Something about intestines, something about pulling out guts and using them as a jump rope.
In summary, the fairy boasted about using Lingling's body to prepare meals, which caused Lingling to shrink her neck into her shoulders.
"Wha-what is this... Mom..."
"Why are you suddenly calling for your mom? Scared?"
The fairy mocked Lingling, who flinched and retreated.
Lingling, buried under the pile of books, yelled at Letty.
"Hey! Aren’t you going to get rid of this bug right now?"
"What? A bug?! You’ve got some nerve, don’t you?"
"Eek! What even is this fairy?!"
It’s hitting me! Not even my mom hits me!
Lingling raised her voice in indignation but quickly lost her nerve and looked away when the fairy scowled fiercely.
“Lingling, what’s going on?”
At that moment, Feyrin stormed in through the slightly open door. She spotted Lingling crouched on the ground and turned to glare at Letty with her eyes wide with anger.
"You! How dare you make my daughter cry?"
To be precise, it wasn’t Letty who made Lingling cry—it was the fairy. But Letty, startled, flew around in panic, trying to hide the still-fuming fairy in her hands.
‘She might kill the fairy!’
The thought of Feyrin crushing the fairy’s adorable wings with her harsh palm sent chills down Letty's spine.
Though they hadn’t known each other long, Letty had already grown fond of the fairy. After all, the fairy was the first being to take Letty's side since her mother left her in Feyrin's care.
‘...If she doesn’t kill it, she’ll sell it off for sure.’
Even if Feyrin didn’t kill the fairy who threw books at Lingling, she had a history of selling off anything valuable Letty had.
‘I have to escape!’
Letty imagined the fairy being locked up in a cage and displayed in an antique shop. She grabbed her furry cheeks in horror, inhaled deeply, and braced herself.
"Why aren’t you answering? Did you swallow grass or something, huh?"
Feyrin approached Letty menacingly, glaring as she hesitated to answer due to her nerves.
Right on cue, Lingling started crying loudly, seemingly for her mother to hear.
“Wahh! Mom! Its hit me! And threw books too! That weird bug—!”
“A bug? What bug?”
Taking advantage of Feyrin's momentary distraction as she turned to Lingling, Letty clutched the fairy tightly and bolted for the door.
“Hey! Stop right there!”
Feyrin shouted furiously and started chasing after Letty.
“Panpan, grab Lettie!”
Panpan, who had been standing clueless in the hallway, opened her arms at Feyrin's yell, but Letty, holding the fairy in her mouth, dashed on all fours.
Whoosh!
Letty successfully slipped between Panpan's legs and exhaled heavily, sprinting out of Feyrin's mansion.
To the forest, deeper into the forest.
Letty didn’t stop until Feyrin's piercing voice was no longer audible.
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“Raccoons are faster than I thought?”
“Letty… Huff… Raccoons… Huff… That’s not it… Huff…”
Letty couldn’t properly deny the fairy’s confusion about her species. She was out of breath, to the point where her head was spinning.
"I... I feel like I'm going to throw up..."
At Letty's murmuring, the fairy, who had been fluttering around a clearing in the middle of the forest, landed on Letty's limp back.
"Are you okay? Is it too much?"
"Ughhh..."
"It's my first time meeting a non-main character. Extras seem weaker than I expected."
The fairy glanced at Letty, who was lying on the ground with her cheek pressed to the dirt, showing no intention of getting up. Then, the fairy shrugged.
"In that case, once you regain your strength, we should head down to a nearby village. I've been in your mouth for too long, and I'm all damp."
"A village?"
"First, we need to wash up at an inn and come up with a clear plan for what to do next."
The fairy, trying to sound magnanimous while promising to wait, left Letty mumbling.
"Uh, um, but I can’t stay at an inn."
"Why not? If you don’t like inns, hotels are fine. But since we don’t know what lies ahead, we should save our money, shouldn’t we?"
The fairy, sounding like a thrifty planner, lectured Letty. But Letty bit her lip, unsure how to explain they didn’t even have a single coin.
"...What? You mean you don’t have money?"
The fairy detected the hint of poverty in Letty's unusual expression. Sliding down Letty’s back, the fairy grabbed the red panda's nose with both hands.
"What? No money?! Are you broke?"
"Yes... I have nothing..."
"Then why did you run away so recklessly? How could you leave home unprepared?"
Do you even know how far the Grizzly Grand Duke’s estate is from here?
"I was scared Aunt Feyrin might kill you, Fairy!"
The fairy, who was about to scold Letty for her rash decision, fell silent at her timid answer.
What more could the fairy say, knowing the reason for her unprepared escape was to protect its?
"Fine. Just stay here and wait."
Shaking its head, the fairy pressed its tiny forehead with its even tinier hand and turned away.
"Uh, where are you going?"
"I'll check out some nearby houses. My small size is perfect for sneaking in and grabbing some money."
"Stealing?!"
Letty, shocked by the fairy’s casual tone, tugged at her cheek fur in disbelief.
"Stealing is wrong!"
"Then how do you plan to reach the Grizzly Grand Duke’s estate? Are you going to walk through this snowy weather?"
Letty could only open and close her mouth at the fairy’s realistic sarcasm.
The fairy shrugged, thinking that this baby red panda, despite its fluffy appearance, was incredibly expressive.
"How else are we supposed to afford a carriage without money?"
The fairy, of course, didn’t need money. It could simply revert to its true form and fly to the Grizzly territory.
But for young Letty, who was just a red panda, that was impossible.
"But still..."
Letty trailed off, glancing at the fairy. Stealing was bad. And if you got caught doing something bad, you'd end up in jail.
‘What if this tiny fairy gets locked up?’
Letty imagined the fairy, crying in a tiny hand-sized cell, and swallowed nervously.
"I-I’ll earn money instead!"
"...You’ll earn money?"
How? With what skills?
The fairy tilted its head in curiosity, and Letty slowly nodded.
Although she had never earned money herself, she remembered what her mother did and how she got jobs.
"Trust me, Fairy."
Letty firmly resolved that she would never let the fairy go hungry. With this determination, she headed toward a nearby village with the fairy.
✦ ✦ ✦
◈ We recover unpaid debts, find runaway husbands / Specialized in collecting evidence of infidelity / Complete confidentiality guaranteed ◈
"Uh... What is this...?"
"It's a signboard. Mom used to hang it on our front door, but since I don’t have a home right now, I’ll just carry it with me."
This is what people will look at when they want to hire us.
Letty waved the scrappy wooden sign she had made herself at the naive fairy, who had no idea how the world worked.
The part where it said 'Trust · Reliability · Integrity' wobbled so much that it looked like it was moving. The fairy, confused, shook its head from side to side in disbelief.
"...So, you’re saying this was the work your mom used to do?"
"Yes!"
Letty answered brightly to the fairy’s question.
“She said it was about helping people in need.”
And they got paid in return.
"...Wow. I didn’t realize this because it wasn’t in the book.”
The fairy cleared its throat awkwardly and took a seat beside Letty, who was crouching on the street with her sign.
"But how are you going to recover unpaid debts?"
"I’ll go to the debtor myself and ask them to return the money."
"Wow, amazing idea... I’m sure they’ll definitely give it back."
The fairy scratched its chin slowly and began looking around after Letty's cheerful response.
"And what about runaway husbands?"
"I’ll tell them their families are waiting for them at home!"
Hearing Letty's reply, which wasn’t much different from her first one, the fairy let out a faint laugh of disbelief.
Even though the fairy itself wasn’t familiar with this world, it doubted people would pay for such a mild approach.
‘This won’t work. I’ll have to step in.’
At that moment, the fairy’s gaze caught sight of an elderly man walking by, his eyes somewhat unfocused.
The fairy realized it was finally time to make a career move—into thievery.
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