Chapter 40 – It seems to be the procurement of a base of activity

The little girl, who was in a state of letting her head hang slightly, began to explain piece by piece. (T/N: *potsu potsu*)
It was around three years ago when the little girl became conscious in this house.

“I was in the basement of this house.”

“This house has a basement?” (Renya)

“There’s a hidden door in the floor of the workshop.”

She, who was born in total darkness, without even a single light, in a place stinking of dust, left towards the surface by going up the stairs without even sensing anything about that place because of her fairy body.

“In truth I should have been greeted by my family there or such.”

“It’s because it was a deserted house already. Is it normal for a silky to be born in a deserted house?” (Renya)

“I don’t know. I haven’t met any other silkies.”

The house had already fallen into that state and the garden was overgrown with weeds, too.
She wanted to begin the maintenance and cleaning of that desolated house as silky, if possible, however following something like the instinct of a fairy here, it was not enough to stop her actions.

“Silkies like me are basically fairies, who help their families. Otherwise we will only be able to change our behaviour after we have granted the requests of the family.”

“There was no family making those requests though.”

As result of that she wasn’t able to pick any other method but to 「maintain the status quo of the house」, which is one more task for a silky.
For the sake of maintaining the status quo of the house, it’s necessary to prevent people entering the grounds as much as possible.
If people enter, the present state of 「deserted house」 will end up changing.
Originally she should quickly have someone live in that house, act as their assistant and have them request something, however her having been born into a house with the status of being deserted from the start resulted in a contradiction.
Although she has realized that in her brain, she is unable to change her behaviour.
Her instinct as silky fairy, ending up functioning like some kind of curse, could be called a rare precedent.
Although one might say that a silky in itself is a fairy, who isn’t suited for combat, and has no more than simple magic, she can use, she acts in order to defend against intruders.
Since the race called fairies consist basically of mana, she could abundantly use it to some degree.
But, if she were to fight openly against humans, she would probably end up getting destroyed quickly.
Considering that, she coincidentally hears about the ghost story of that merchant due to the real estate person, who came to the area of the house to lead around clients, talking of it and decided for it to be usable.
Fairies, who are considered as mischievous, are proficient at simple manipulation and invisibility spells as well as illusion and auditory hallucination spells.
She believed that normal people won’t likely get close, if it’s spooky, once she prepares the stage of a property, having a cursed history as told by the real estate person, by using these spells freely.

“And there, such an oddball like Renya ended up appearing.” (Shion)

“Shion, I will scold you severely afterwards.” (Renya)

“Oddball…”

“Don’t repeat that, fairy. Certainly, I can’t deny that I came here in delight after hearing that it’s a property, where ghosts come out, though.” (Renya)

Due to the fairy trying to slightly get away from Renya, he spit out these words alongside a sigh wondering whether she has some amount of self-awareness.
On reflex, was her behaviour, huh? Due to the fairy correcting her sitting on the ground looking slightly awkward, Renya opened his mouth while pondering Now then, how should I negotiate with her, I wonder.

“So, you know, I’ve been pondering whether to buy this property.” (Renya)

The taken-aback fairy fixes her eyes on Renya.
Renya is unable to determine whether refusal or acceptance was reflected in her eyes, but it won’t do if he doesn’t tell her what ought to be said first and continues the way of talking similar to making her understand his words as gently as possible.

“Of course, if you insist here on absolutely not changing the deserted status of the house and refuse no matter what, I will also take into consideration to search for another property. I don’t really know anything about silkies and such, but are they beings that can keep existing by continuing to protect a deserted house?” (Renya)

The fairy shook her head.
Just as I thought, huh? Renya thinks.
Based on Shion’s talk and the message of the help function, the fairy, haunting this house, is expected to preserve her existence by mingling with the residents of the house.
Unexpectedly that is also including the contradiction of depending on eviction, if she isn’t pleased with the other party.
However, there’s probably no mistake in the fact that it won’t work, if she has no connections with people, Renya guessed.
And, if that’s correct, won’t this fairy, who determinedly keeps on protecting a deserted house, continue to weaken, though I don’t know how fast, until she ends up vanishing before long? 

“If that’s how it is, I think I want to live here, even if it might be a bit pushy, but…” (Renya)

If the fairy starts to threaten us again according to her instinct of wanting to maintain the status quo, if we also make her surrender forcibly like this time and if we live here temporarily, it will turn into the original state of her wanting to be the helper of the family, was what Renya expected, but the fairy shook here head left and right to that as well.

“No good?” (Renya)

“No, well… I was defeated being a hindrance once. Therefore, currently my desire to maintain the status quo vanished following your will of wanting to live here.”

“Well, then it will simply end, once we live here afterwards?” (Renya)

“Yea, but…”

The fairy looks at Renya as if hesitating a bit.
As Renya wondered whether there was still some problem remaining, the fairy nervously came out with it,

“Will you be able to live in such suspicious mansion?”

“I want to flatly decline that.” (Shion)

Before Renya could open his mouth, Shion cut in and shrugged her shoulders at being glared at by Renya.
As the fairy gets close to crying due to Shion’s answer, Renya, in order to soothe her, says,

“We have another companion. Although we have to consult with her as well, I basically believe that we will live here.” (Renya)

“Is that so!? I shall wait for you, master!”

Renya gently stroke the fairy’s head while showing a complicated expression and Shion laughed at length for some reason due to the words directed at Renya by the fairy, who says them with her face brightening up in a flash.
After that Renya and Shion pass the night without sleeping until morning as they can’t be bothered to do so and head to the inn, where Rona waits, once dawn breaks.
Explaining the circumstances, they asked for Rona’s opinion, however having received an answer that she doesn’t particularly mind it, if both of them are fine with it, they hurry to the real estate agent.
Seeing the two come back in high spirits, albeit looking like they lack sleep, the real estate agent was surprised as that was something that didn’t happen until now. But his expression broke into a smile when Renya, who hid the matter about the fairy, told him that he would buy it as no ghosts came out in particular.
Going by what the real estate agent says, so far the people, who showed interest in that property, have run into ghosts, without even a single exception. It seems to have changed from a sellable to an unsellable, inferior property among the ones, the real estate agent owns.
Due to the real estate agent taking a breath of relief and at last having a weight removed from his mind because Renya said that he would buy it, Renya opens the negotiations by telling the real estate agent that he should offer a little bit of service to him, the buyer, if he has been troubled by it this much.
The real estate agent and Renya argued with humming and hawing before Shion, who watched intently while being amazed how someone could have such energy in a state of not having slept until dawn. In the end the real estate agent gave in and it resulted in a lump-sum payment in advance and it being fine to pay the remaining sum in instalments whenever they have money without any urging.
Taking out the money from the [Inventory] and paying the money to the real estate agent, Renya stores the written contract in exchange.
Receiving the key once again, the two hurry to the inn.
Renya carries Shion, who used up all her strength and succumbed to the sleepiness on the way, on his back, and reports the sealing of the sales contract to Rona after getting back to the inn. Returning to the inn, right after arriving there, the three, including Rona this time as well, head to the house he just bought.
Rona raised doubts while moving due to Renya proceeding in quite the impatient manner, but for the time being there was a reason for this forced schedule.
Renya doesn’t know about the fairies in the world over here, however if one were to speak of fairies, a somewhat capricious impression sticks to them.
Although he was, for the time, accepted to the extent of being called master, he had a feeling that it’s not unimaginable for that fairy to even tell him to redo it all over from the beginning if he takes too much time.
Once they have reached their destination, he introduces Rona to the fairy and declares that it had been decided for them to live here officially from now on.

“In line with this, since we will buy new replacements for the previous furnitures and such, I request you to cooperate.” (Renya)

“Yes! Please leave it to me!”

Shion raised a comfortable sleeper’s breathing on the back of Renya, who feels relived for having accomplished his mission for now after looking at the face of the fairy, who smiled cheerfully.
Next Rona and the fairy show their excellence to Renya and Shion hereafter.
First Rona has requested the supplying of new items, the disposal of the stuff, that can’t be sold, the sale of the stuff, that can be sold and the transportation of the old furniture to workers and merchants, she suddenly brought along out of nowhere.
While Renya has been bewildered, she coordinates with the merchants things like the positioning, numbers and specifications of the small furnitures. Lining up the carried-in items, she negotiates the amount of money and chooses even the method of payment.
The money on hand, Renya has, almost hit rock bottom, but over here Rona was cutting through her own savings and put out the payments.

“I will live here too, after all. If that’s the case, it will be better for it to be comfortable. … It will become a loan for Renya, too.” (Rona)

When she added the last words in a whisper, Renya felt a chill travel along his spine, he has never felt before.
On the other side, the fairy was largely helpful in the tidying up of the house.
At the beginning Renya was worried whether it will be alright, even if the merchants and others, coming and going, see her appearance, but at the time the three decided to live in this house, the fairy’s appearance of around 10 years old had changed into that of a girl in a maid dress.
Somehow it seemed that fairies had an appropriate personal appearance with a height of common people, but apparently her size decreased as her power was weakening over the many years of living in a deserted house.

“That, hadn’t it reached quite the dangerous point?” (Renya)

“Yea, but I was somehow able to preserve, since there was disgusting food.”

Renya cocks his head in puzzlement due to the words of the fairy.
In the first place, I wonder just what the heck are fairies eating?

“We are basically changing mana into food. We are haunting houses in order to receive mana, which naturally gets released by the family, as food.”

“… Somehow I’ve got a bad premonition, however what’s that disgusting food?” (Renya)

“The grudges of the person, who was apparently executed in the garden.”

Hearing that, Shion becomes pale and Rona laughs feebly.
It had apparently manifested halfway in a corner of the house at the time the fairy became conscious, but the soul of the merchant, which was on the verge of becoming an evil spirit and could be easily called a lump of mana, ended up vanishing by being chewed piece by piece guaranteeing the food supply for the fairy, albeit having an extremely poor quality.

“I wonder, do you call such stuff retributive justice?” (Renya)

“Something like the happiness of a serial murderer in the next world doesn’t matter aaa~t all.” (Rona)

“Since he ended up disappearing, he didn’t even fall to hell. Wasn’t that rather lucky?” is the remark of Rona, that will cause one to wonder whether that’s how a priest should think.

The fairy, who recovered quite a bit of power, called a wind and blew the trash and dust all over the house into the garden in one go. Moreover, she pruned the tree’s branches, which grew as they liked, and the weeds with wind blades.
Due to the magnificence of her performance, Shion and Renya, who were told that such thing was completely unrelated to combat potential, have absolutely no choice but watch in admiration.
In the end the trash has piled up to a small mountain in the garden and Shion ignites and burns the trash mountain while Renya is digging a hole in a corner of the garden.
Throwing the ashes into the hole, Renya dug, they plugged up the hole and with that a series of uproars came to a close.
It was an event of mere two days from the time Renya decided to buy it until now.
After having finished, all of them currently ended up laying dead tired on top of the newly provided leather-covered sofa.
Among them only the fairy is full of spirit. She prepared tea and tea snacks for the resting three, but before long she comes next to Renya.

“Master! The work hasn’t finished yet!”

“There’s something… left?” (Renya)

Shaking the shoulder of the inquiring Renya, the fairy said,

“A name, please! I will be troubled to be called fairy forever!”

“A name…” (Renya)

For an instant names such as Hanami or Tama appear and disappear in his head, but he denies those in a hurry.
She’s no dog or cat after all, frantically mobilising his tired brain, Renya comes up with a single name. It was accepted with a single reply by the happy fairy.
Thus Renya obtained a house with a garden and workshop attached. The domestic fairy, Frau Velde (T/N: >> Furau = Velude <<), who haunted the house, was turned into a companion.