"Fighting!! Fighting and pooping!!"
I could understand fighting, sure—but what the hell is looping?
Was it so kind of secret technique?
{Master, I believe she said "pooping." A term describing—}
(Yes, thank you very much, Professor Platform, for the reality slap I didn’t ask for.)
We talked a lot after that, and I did my best—truly—to steer the conversation away from disgusting jokes. But it was a losing battle.
No matter where I turned, Bina had a way of dragging the topic back into the pit.
Then, I asked her, at one point, what she’d do if our Pact ever ended.
She answered, in a small, lonely voice, "I’ll... go back to the mountains."
Like a lost animal!
This feral girl...
Well, a hundred years isn’t a short ti. Surely, she’d learn sothing from my deep well of wisdom.
Only... what would I even teach her?
All my fighting knowledge cos from mimicking the humans who used to hunt in the past.
I was even planning to have Levi train soon—get so actual technique under my belt.
*
Well, I guess that was enough bonding for one night.
As I stared at the moon glowing over Coastelle—still baffled how there was a moon but not any trace of a sun—I turned to her.
"How fast can you move right now?"
Bina cracked her knuckles and stretched with a grin. "Even if I nearly drained myself fighting you, and almost lost my life using Big Sis Alicia’s weird beads, I’ve still got juice left to offer!"
...I don’t know whether to be proud or apologize to her.
Anyway, we took off in a burst of wind—racing through the world like arrows fired by fate.
We zipped past massive forests: towering mushrooms, coral-trees, fields of glittering spirogyra that glowed green in the dark. Still gross, nonetheless.
We glimpsed strange seas and mountain ranges that stacked into the clouds.
Snowy terrain, too—where sothing massive and snake-like slithered just beneath the snow. We ignored it, of course.
Because we were almost there.
At last—
We arrived.
At the very heart of Coastelle!
A massive cliff stood between us and the Colossal Forest—a jungle so vast it pierced through the sea sky itself. It also appeared to go far deep into the realm.
If this forest was the size of a normal forest, then I and Bina were the size of rodents.
A roaring waterfall thundered along the forest’s edge, pouring endlessly toward the depths below.
It looked as though the towering branches themselves were squeezing the sky, wringing water out of it.
Maybe, the branches piercing the oceanic sky was causing it to gush?
Anyway, I knew exactly where the waters were going.
But what I didn’t know was what laid within those monstrous timbers.
"Bina! Let’s go."
"Yes, Master Ruben!"
We dug our feet into the icy cliffside and launched—so hard the rock crumbled behind us.
Midair, we clutched the nearest trees like parasites and began to climb.
The forest was a marvel on its own. An ecosystem unlike anything in the surface.
But we weren’t here for sightseeing.
Because the true heart of Coastelle pulsed above—at the very top, beyond the canopy, hidden on the far side of the sky.
It was waiting for us. Like it was excited with our visit.
I hope it’s a friendly kind of excitent. Not the it’s-al-ti kind.
And so that’s where we were headed.
We climbed—faster, harder. From a distance, we probably looked like cockroaches crawling up a tower.
It took us about four hours in total.
By the ti we nearly reached the top, Bina was sweating buckets, gasping like a fish out of water.
Even our duel hadn’t winded her this badly.
I offered to carry her, like a good and noble master.
She declined. "The pain feels aweso!" she wheezed.
...So I respectfully recoiled and let her suffer in peace.
"Bina, brace yourself," I warned as we neared the treetop branches. "The water pressure here is—!"
Just then, the flow began to shift.
Instead of crashing down on us, the waterfall bent midair—curling away, as if intentionally sparing us from its wrath.
Which wouldn’t have been funny, cause we’ll be going under Coastelle for a claustrophobic ride.
The branches, thick as pillars, began to part—like primordial doors opening wide.
Without hesitation, we leapt through the gap.
And—
Landed in a different realm entirely.
I looked up.
The sky had dimd.
There was no more water above—only stars, twinkling like tiny watchers in a backdrop of abyss.
But we weren’t in darkness.
The forest emitted its own light—an ethereal, yellowish-green glow that clung to everything like soft moss.
Vines wove themselves through every crevice—from the roots beneath our feet to the normal-sized trees around us. Everything was interconnected.
I realized then...
This was no ordinary place.
This was a subspace within Coastelle.
A sacred domain.
One made for the Queen.
And then ca the real discovery—
Lesser fairies. And spirit animals.
Real, living beings. No illusions, nor apparitions.
They fluttered, danced, and padded through the air and undergrowth—tiny, glowing things barely sentient but full of curiosity.
And it seed they were guiding us.
So we followed.
Through tangled vines and whispering leaves, past trees that humd with potent magical energy, we walked for maybe two hundred ters until we reached a peculiar mound in the earth.
A huge, grass-covered bump. Like sothing ancient and buried.
I opened my mouth to ask the fairies what it was—
—but the bump began to move.
It swelled. Shifted.
The treetops trembled with each subtle quake of its body.
And another revelation hit:
This was no bump.
It was alive.
A draconic creature, rising from the soil like a waking spirit.
Its eyes glead pale yellow.
Its body—grassy, earthen, cloaked in soil and vines.
Antler-like horns crowned its head, ford entirely of gnarled tree branches.
Its size rivaled that of a mature dragon—easily twenty feet tall—and it swam through the ground as though it were water, gliding closer to us.
The way it moved in the ground—it was as if it was swimming in the ground.
It was so ters away, but had begun to co dangerously close.
I wasn’t at alert or cautious. Neither was Bina... Though her case was probably from so weird anticipation.
But I wasn’t wary of this... Dragon-dirt-forest thing, because...
As it began to fold itself into a smaller, interactive form of a small girl, I realized:
This being was the heart of Coastelle.
The small girl had glossy green skin, like wet leaves.
Her eyes—black sclera with yellow pupils—pierced through the dim like stars wrapped in shadow.
Long, dark green hair pooled around her feet like liquid hair.
The branch-like horns remained, smaller now, but still noble.
She was basically naked, but vines cleverly covered parts of her.
My guess is, Alicia and Tamayō won’t like her one bit.
But... Looking at this ethereal being before —
"CUTE!!!!!!"
I tried.
I really did.
But I couldn’t stop myself from yelling that.
She was too adorable.
If she didn’t have the air of a queen, I’d have scooped her into my arms and squished her all over!
And no. Not that kind of squishing, Perverts!
"Pa..."
Hm?
The little girl was looking up at ; Trying to say sothing with her cute face, but her cute mouth wasn’t moving, though.
Actually, her voice had resounded in my head.
And now that I think of it, That Owl devil spoke to my mind before he turned into earth milkshake, right?
(Platform, you’ve been slacking.)
{I have not, Master. If I don’t sense threat in the ntal link, I allow it.}
(But Pluto was threatening when he sent that ancient spell via thought link.)
{...}
(We’ll talk about that later—you, doing whatever you please.)
Back to the adorable green goddess in front of —
She ran toward .
A radiant smile blooming across her face like sunrise.
"Master Ruben, watch out!"
Bina darted in front of , looking oddly serious (suspicious), ready to shield —
Only to get swatted aside like a fly by the green girl’s tiny hand.
I bet that was what she wanted.
But—
Ahhhhhh, this is...paradise!
She hugged !!!
And I returned the hug imdiately!
Of course, I did!
I’m not one of those awkward protagonists who freeze and stamr like "Uwawawawawa!! What? What? What?"
And... Oh!
She slled like fresh earth after rain. Like moss and herbs and all the cozy parts of nature wrapped into one small body.
I found myself sniffing her like a perverted lunatic, until—
"Hehehe, that tickles, Papa! Stooooop!"
...Eh...
Pa...pa...?
...?
"Ah, to think Master Ruben had a child this big."
"Bina, shut your mouth for a second."
I turned back to the little Lady.
"Why do you call Papa? I’m not your—"
"Papa is Papa!!" She threw herself at again, wrapping her tiny arms around like ivy. "I love Papa!"
"And Papa loves you too, dear!!"
Yep, I lost my head there.
I couldn’t handle intense cuteness overload like that.
And so what if she calls Papa?
My na actually echoes like Papa if you speak it properly.
Besides, she was cute enough to get away with it!
Even mass murder.
But—
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