(Jamie)

The Freedom Army's help was readily accepted by the majority of the people in the city, and since their arrival, it's been returned to a stable state, much of the mess cleared away already. A few of the Freedom Army were or are laborers of one type or another, so they've been helping with rebuilding as well.

They still camp outside the city, but they're still accepted in helping others. There are those who've resisted, and they've sort of banded together, but it's not going anywhere, since most carpenters and such are eager to accept the help.

At least one town's changing, but it's the whole damn world that needs to.

"So," Colton walks over to me, sitting at the table across from me and holding a finger up to the server. "I'm mostly done for today. I've also been wondering – when am I meeting your harem?"

"Caleb and Adam are away," I answer. "And Light and Cole are-shit."

"What?" He asks, and I feel my face heat up a bit.

"I forgot to let them know," I tell him. "They're probably in the Dungeon still, training. Actually, I think today's the end of the training period the Dungeon's allowing."

A prickling sensation hits my neck, and I recognize it as Threat Detection working. I twist, catching the spear that had been thrown at me, a shockwave spreading out and damaging tables, the floor, and the ceiling.

"Light!" I tell him. "We just got this place fixed up this morning! Fix it!"

The Fairy looks stunned.

"Now!"

He mumbles something under his breath, then starts flapping his arms around, light emitting from the damage, which fades, everything returning to normal.

"No throwing spears inside, either!" I tell him, and he huffs, then floats towards me as Cole follows, looking amused. "Sorry for forgetting about you – stuff came up."

"Like fucking someone not in your harem?" He grumbles, snatching his spear from me.

"I haven't fucked anyone in my harem," I remind him. "Though I'm sure you did something with Cole, right?"

"He wants you to be his first," his face flushes, then looks up and down Colton. "Who are you?"

"Hero of Freedom," I answer, and Light's eyes widen.

"Koomo took on a Hero?" He exclaims. "That's so cool! Though how free are you? 'Cause you ain't naked!"

"He's not a Fairy," I smack him on the back of the head. "And why did you assume that we'd been having sex?"

"I can smell it."

"That's disturbing."

"You prefer cat-guys instead of wolf-guys?" Cole asks, and I look at him. He looks… hurt. "Oh."

"That's… that's not at all it," I tell him. "You're attractive, too, Cole."

"But-"

"I've told you why," I tell him. "He's a bit more mature. He's been free for years, too, and was not a virgin. Considering how much you've matured since we met, I do think you're ready now, mentally. So don't think it won't happen ever, Cole."

Cole looks at Colton skeptically, and he and Light sit down and chat with Colton, with the Fairy pressing for his history and how he became the Hero of Freedom. Throughout the conversation, Colton gives me curious looks, looking between Light and me, and I can tell it's confusing Light.

"Light," I put a hand on the naked Fairy's shoulder. "Would you mind putting on your disguise?"

"Sure!" Light says, then begins to change, his body shifting and expanding until it's in his slightly-chubby form of an eighteen year-old human. "Why'd you want me to do this?"

He can't quite get the meat aspect right. He thinks he's making himself muscled, even after having examined me well – and a couple of others – for reference, but a Fairy's perspective is just so skewed. I have the sense that it's not just him of the Fairies who thinks of non-Fairies as being larger.

"Light," I squeeze his shoulder. "You've a bit of excess fat formed."

"I do?" He looks at himself, then at me, then back at himself, his face tensing up in concentration, and his fat begins to fade, giving him a slightly-more muscular frame. "Is that better?"

"Yeah," I tell him. "Eventually, you'll manage to stop doing that."

"Hopefully!" He reverts his form, then looks back to the astonished – but no-longer-curious –Colton. "So how long are you in town for?"

"No chasing him out," I smack him in the back of the head.

"Wanna arm-wrestle?"

I snort.

"What?" He looks at me. "I bet I can beat him!"

"I bet you can't."

"You're on!"

I shake my head to Colton, but he agrees to arm-wrestle Light, and wins, just as I expected. Even though he's mostly speed-oriented due to his rogue Classes, he does receive some STR bonuses, has Squire for some weird reason, and has a decently-muscled body with pretty dense muscles.

The Fairy never stood a chance, even if he is powerful as fuck for a Fairy.

"He kept challenging me to races," Cole tells me as Light insists on another match with Colton, who obliges. "I'm not as strong as you, Jamie. I… couldn't resist him. He was so pushy."

"Yeah, he's that way," I say, watch as Light loses again. "Light, if you challenge him again, I'm locking you in the wine cellar for a week."

"But-"

"And putting the magic-blocking shackles on you."

He huffs, then pouts at the food our server puts in front of him before giving the rest of us ours. Light starts angrily stabbing his salad, and I roll my eyes, looking at Colton.

"Have I mentioned that he's over seven centuries old?"

"Yes!" He chuckles. "You told me he was competitive, but I didn't realize you weren't exaggerating."

"He just likes it for fun," I shrug. "Doesn't care much on if he wins or not, though if he loses, he'll keep trying until he's exhausted or you're too exhausted to continue… unless he somehow manages to win. Which, in a physical thing, is often because either he's innately better, or you got too tired to keep going. After seven centuries, he has a lot of stamina."

"I put it to good use in the bedroom, too," Light nods, then glares at me. "Though not since joining his harem."

"You don't have to be in it, you know."

"What other hot, awesome guys are there?" He asks.

"Well-"

"They aren't you."

"What about in the Fairy Realms?"

"I just left the Fairy Realms," he rolls his eyes. "Why would I-"

"You're also their King," I say.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"King Light!" A voice exclaims, and Light tenses up, horror filling his eyes.

I look over to find a trio of Fairies floating past the other booths and tables. All of them are male, and I can't read their Status, which means they probably have Level 10 Appraisal Resistance.

"Is this the human who's keeping you prisoner?" The one in the front of the trio asks.

"Do you need some assistance getting free?" The one to his right asks.

"We've brought the Fairy Freedom Brigade," the third one says.

The Fairy Freedom Brigade? The fuck is that?

"Is that the source of powerful magic I'm sensing being woven around the city?" I ask.

"Probably," Light answers, then swiftly looks at the Fairies in horror. "No! No! Bad! Bad Fairies! No Fairy Circle of Penance Light! Tell them to stop it! Jamie's a friend! He's not holding me prisoner! I'm staying with him willingly! How did you even hear that I was being-THE FAIRY FREEDOM BRIGADE?"

Light quickly bolts out of the booth, flying at a speed I've never seen him fly before, and the three Fairies give me a stern glare before flying after him. I toss some coins on the table and follow, keeping pace with them while also retaining a distance of ten yards, Colton keeping up with us, though poor Cole got left behind.

One day, he'll have epic speed.

People throw themselves to the sides to avoid getting hit by the Fairies, and Light is muttering furiously under his breath in some language – probably his native tongue. From his tone, he's probably repeatedly calling them idiots, morons, and various other things.

Speaking of his native tongue – didn't he have to learn Common when he left? How were we able to understand the Fairies? Or was there some sort of translation magic at work?

We reach outside, and find Fairies. Several have created a barrier on either side of the line of Fairies circling the city. The circling Fairies are holding hands, stretched out, and are chanting, glowing with a yellow light.

Light keeps yelling 'No', up until he passes through the barrier forged by the other Fairies to protect them – looks like there was a fight, judging by the wounded adventurers and the Freedom Army's injuries – and slams into one of the Fairies, breaking the formation.

"Stop, stop, stop!" He flails his arms around as the other Fairies try to continue the spell while stretching to try to get their hands to touch. "STOP IT! JAMIE'S MY FRIEND!"

He tackles another Fairy, breaking him out of the formation as well, and it's only then that they realize what's going on, and the chanting starts to cease.

Light and the Fairies start talking in heated… whatever their native tongue is. It involves a lot of arm-flailing from all involved parties.

"Can you understand them?" Colton asks.

"No," I shrug. "Looks like the translation thing wore off, or whatever. Though I do know this – every Fairy whose Status I can see? They're a follower of either Trickster or Koomo."

Priests and mages. The ones who follow Koomo are almost exclusively for the craft, while the ones who follow Trickster vary within all of his aspects. And then there are their Levels…

As Light argues with the Fairies, more show up, coming from circling the city. Considering the size of the city, there are probably four or five thousand Fairies here, minimum, and Colton and I give each other uneasy looks.

I really need to figure out what the hell's going on, so I crouch down, preparing to jump, then push, leaping through the air and landing right beside Light, startling many Fairies, who summon up their spells.

"Okay, Light," I say. "What in the fuck is going on? Were they about to destroy my town?"

His face reddens.

"So I may or may not have forgotten to tell them why I was leaving," he says. "And after I didn't return, it seems they, ah, tried to find me, and misunderstood what they were told, and thought that I was forced into your harem."

"And the circle?"

"The Fairy Circle of Penance Light?"

"Yeah."

"It would've emitted a light that would've eliminated anything that wasn't fae in nature."

"And the Fairy Freedom Brigade?"

"Ten thousand Fairies who have Ranked Up at least twice," he says. "It was formed thousands of years ago to free any Fairies enslaved by others. Though these are all newer members of it, of course, since, y'know, I'm the oldest Fairy."

Looking around, I realize that there really are ten thousand Fairies here, and if they're all Double Rankers…

"Light?"

"Yeah?"

"Why, exactly, do Fairies remain in the Fairy Realms?"

"Because people are mean."

People are… mean? You do realize that with ten thousand Double Rankers, there isn't really anything anyone can do to you, right?

"How many Rankers do the Fairies have?"

"I dunno," he shrugs, then looks at one of the Fairies, who speaks in their native tongue after Light asked him something. "Ilpuris said there are one hundred eighty-two thousand nine hundred fourteen Rankers."

And the Fairies refuse to leave their realm because people are mean?

Someone else says something, and Light starts arguing with the Fairies again, and it turns into a shouting match between them all as they try to… I'm actually not sure, since I can't understand them and Limitless Adaptation doesn't seem to consider this important.

Eventually, Light gets things settled, and I've still no clue what's going on. Once he's got them settling, the Fairies start leaving, though a few stay behind, and he tells me that they're going to stay with us, to make communicating with his people easier. I recognize the three who approached us in the restaurant among the thirty or so remaining.

"Thank you," I say.

"They also want to see a fight between the two of us."

"No, you want a rematch."

"That comes secondary to the desires of my people wishing to see me fight another with a Species Ultimate Skill."

"Have them create a barrier," I tell him. "One hundred yards across, so that we can spar again."

"Cool!" He exclaims.

"Before you do – how could we understand the Fairy language, them ours?"

He blinks at me several times, as if only now realizing this. He looks at one of his Fairies and asks something, and the Fairy blushes, then says something, and Light looks back to me.

"They used the Die of Mystery to try to understand us," Light explains. "And it apparently made it so that all of those following Riddle among the Fairies could communicate with anyone who's a follower of his."

He shouts something in their language as Colton asks what we mean by a rematch, and as soon as he asks that, the locals who had drawn close suddenly start running.

"What… is that about?" He asks.

"You're going to want to back up," I tell him. "And probably get the Freedom Army to move back as well. The barrier should prevent issues, but just in case, you'll want to make sure you're a bit behind it."

Colton looks at me nervously, but moves off to speak with the Freedom Army as Light and I stretch a bitch, taking a few paces to separate us as the barrier forms, a shimmering, pale blue field of magic.

Hopefully, it'll actually withstand our power.

Light summons Light's Spear, and I summon my Sword of Divine Retribution and Shield of Enlightened Will and take a stance, ready to fight. This will be the first time we've been able to truly put these to the test, and it's going to be nice to know just how powerful these weapons are.

"SOMEONE HOLLER START!" Light and I yell together.

"START!" Colt exclaims, and we look over to see him watching us from the other side, excitement and expectation on his face, his tail wagging furiously.