Because they were a species that naturally dwelled in the forest, Leon easily located the faerie habitat. He saw the tiny beings, no larger than insects, flitting about like fireflies in the dark, constantly emitting a soft, radiant glow.
"So cute..."
Yuuki Asuna fell in love with the faeries' appearance at first sight. Though they were tiny, the image of a miniature maiden with butterfly wings truly appealed to human aesthetics. Even Kasumigaoka Utaha felt her heart stir.
Seeing the irrepressible affection in Asuna's eyes, Leon felt as though the maternal instincts of this perfect wife-to-be had been triggered.
"How should I form a contract with those children? Do I have to defeat them?"
Asuna expressed her intent in a single sentence: she had taken a liking to the faeries and decided to take one as a familiar.
"There's no need to defeat them. You just need to give them things they like."
Leon felt that Asuna didn't look like she was collecting a familiar, but rather adopting a daughter. While it felt a bit strange to him, he still provided guidance.
"Faeries are essentially vegetarians. They enjoy honey, cheese, bird eggs, berries, fruit, grains, and vegetables. They especially love cake, though they dislike milk. They drink dew or spring water and occasionally brew nectar from flowers. They often clash with other species while gathering food, but as long as you provide them with food they like, they will grant you their unconditional goodwill."
Faeries were very simple creatures. They followed a code of repaying kindness and avenging wrongs. If someone gave them food, they would do everything in their power to help that person. Conversely, if someone earned their ire, they would ruthlessly torment them until they broke.
They were elegant and sensitive, making them incapable of understanding human clumsiness or stupidity. Sometimes they played pranks on humans, and these pranks could be quite cruel—at times even beyond human endurance.
In Western folklore, faeries were keen on stealing beautiful human infants and replacing them with ugly, wicked "changelings" in the cradle. This was apparently because they liked pretty babies and wanted to keep them for themselves.
However, there was another version in folklore stating that faeries stole human babies as tribute to demons so that the demons would leave them alone.
Leon wouldn't go so far as to say this was entirely baseless. After all, human flesh and souls were very attractive to demons and could be used as sacrifices for many evil rituals. Some demons could even increase their power by devouring human essence, so it was inevitable that some demons would use faerie familiars to steal human children for their own selfish desires.
In any case, contracting a faerie as a familiar was never a bad thing for a devil; they were undoubtedly very useful helpers.
Thus, at Leon's suggestion, Asuna approached the group of faeries carrying several pieces of homemade cake.
The three dependents under his command were all near-perfect honor students. Not only were their grades excellent, but they were also skilled cooks; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to live alone.
When Asuna was at the manor, she would occasionally cook and bake treats. Leon simply deployed a small teleportation magic circle in his palm, and the cakes Asuna had left at the manor were transferred over.
With their favorite cake as bait, the process of Asuna contracting a faerie was remarkably smooth. She soon returned with a young-looking faerie wearing a petal dress and sporting long, straight hair.
"This child is named Yui. I just gave her the name."
Asuna let the young faerie sit on her shoulder eating cake and swinging her little legs, looking the picture of happiness.
"Yui..."
Leon's lips twitched slightly. He couldn't help but take a few extra looks at the young faerie.
"Is there a problem?" Asuna asked, confused.
"No, no problem." Leon rubbed his nose and said, "It's a good name. Let's go with that."
This was, in a way, a twist of fate.
"Should I also give this child a name?"
Yukinoshita Yukino, who had been hopelessly immersed in petting her cat, suddenly spoke up, seeking the opinion of Kasumigaoka Utaha beside her.
"I think you should." Seeing that her two companions already had familiars they were satisfied with, Utaha's heart seemed to have wandered off as well. She casually suggested, "How about calling it Hirano?"
"Cough!"
Leon happened to be drinking water and nearly choked upon hearing that.
"What kind of name is that? It's not cute at all!" Yukino frowned and rejected it without hesitation. "It would be better to call it Kobblue."
That name... Leon felt a cold sweat running down his face.
"What does the President think?"
Asuna poked the cheek of the faerie on her shoulder and asked Leon.
"Anything is fine." Leon wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Kobblue is fine, or maybe Koyuki or Kofuyu. They all suit it."
He was terrible at naming things. His level was perhaps only slightly better than a certain "Sun" in another series—meaning he at least wouldn't name something like "Spiraling Flash Super Round Dance Howl Stage Three" to embarrass everyone. If they expected a cute name from him, they were definitely asking the wrong person.
Yukino didn't seem to expect much from Leon either. After agonizing over it for a while, she made a decision.
"Let's go with Fuyufuyu."
Well, she personally thought the name was quite cute.
"Okay" Leon didn't want to waste too much time on this topic. He finalized the decision and said, "Asuna's contract is complete. Only Senpai is left. Let's go, we need to hurry."
Leon turned to leave, and the girls hurried to catch up.
"What kind of familiar are you planning for me to contract?"
Utaha could no longer contain her cuLeonsity and asked the question.
"How do you feel about a Siren?"
As Leon walked, he thought for a moment before speaking to Utaha.
"A Siren?" Utaha paused, surprised. "Do you mean a mermaid?"
As a literary girl, Utaha's reservoir of knowledge was quite deep. She quickly connected Leon's mention of a "Siren" to its common depiction.
"Exactly. The half-human, half-fish type of monster. Beautiful women from the waist up and fish tails below. The legendary mermaid."
Leon nodded, confirming Utaha's guess.
Sirens were creatures famous for their beautiful singing voices. In myths and legends, they were often depicted as luring sailors to crash into rocks. While this image had been beautified in fairy tales, in reality, they were genuine monsters that fed on humans. They truly earned the title of "monster."
These creatures usually lived in the sea, but there was a massive lake in the Familiar Forest where many Sirens resided. They fed on fish from the lake and sang loudly by the shore year-round. They were very intelligent and yearned for communication with others.
Leon didn't know if a Siren could help Utaha with her writing, but to his knowledge, Sirens were among the most intelligent creatures in this forest.
"A Siren, huh..."
Utaha found herself hesitating.
She wanted to be an author, not a pop star. A familiar like a Siren seemed more suited for people who wanted to be singers, didn't it?
But since they were legendary mermaids with the ability to charm sailors and could communicate, they were likely a very intelligent species, just as Leon said.
Perhaps it wasn't just about singing; maybe they could write too?
Utaha wasn't very confident about it, but she decided to take a look.
And so, the group of four trekked through the mountains and forests. It took them over an hour to reach an open area where they saw a lake.
However, to their surprise, when they arrived at the lake, a commotion was already taking place.
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
Accompanied by a series of roars that shook the air, a massive creature was rampaging in the lake, churning the water into a frenzy.
Under the onslaught of the behemoth, the creatures in the lake were terrified, swimming frantically toward the outer edges to escape. Among them, several Sirens were fleeing in terror, but they were being pursued by the massive beast.
"What is that?"
Yukino, Asuna, and Utaha cried out in unison. Even the Ice Spirit in Yukino's arms and the faerie on Asuna's shoulder were frightened; the former tensed up and let out a threatening hiss, while the latter hid inside Asuna's hair.
"It's a Hydra!"
Leon recognized the massive creature at a glance.
It possessed a gargantuan body, like a monster from a tokusatsu film. It had a serpentine body but was topped with nine heads—a truly terrifying sight.
"A Hydra?"
"The one from Greek mythology?"
"The one that can supposedly poison gods?"
Yukino, Asuna, and Utaha had clearly all heard of this infamous monster, and their expressions changed instantly.
"It might not quite poison a god, but it is indeed extremely toxic. If someone is bitten by it or touched by its sprayed venom, anyone below the Demon King class can basically start writing their last will."
Leon's words didn't put the girls at ease at all; if anything, their faces grew even paler.
"Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar-roar!"
At that moment, the Hydra's nine heads let out simultaneous roars and actually charged toward Leon and his group standing by the lakeshore.
Yukino and the others were startled and instinctively prepared to attack, but they were stopped by Leon.
"This fellow is a bit dangerous. At your current stage, something might go wrong if you face it."
Leon stepped forward slowly, his eyes bright and piercing.
"So, I'll take this one."
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi