Chapter 67 - Why We Shall Care

Looking around, Eun Ha saw the beautiful bookstore, quietly buzzing with its natural stream of book-seeking customers by the late afternoon. Eun Ha didn't usually come to this place, but she discovered herself liking being there. The place was beautiful, and the atmosphere, pleasant.

"It's a good place. I could stay here for hours ..." but as she was questioned about it, the young fairy thought there might be something more. ' Why, what will it be? Is there a secret passage to another world or something? '

"I suppose it's quite different from some places, such as the cafeteria we visited…" the Hunter hinted.

"Yes! No doubt! Even without seeing through the monocle, I just didn't want to be there."

"If you just relax in a place like we are, you'll feel good. You will connect to the magic of this place. It is so with all fairies. We do not have an intrinsic magic, but in fact we absorb the magic. Or chi; or quintessence... Although magic is like neither of those terms, it's something related to," the Hunter sighed, as unsatisfied with his own explanation.

"Do we absorb it? OH! What does Professor mean?" the expression ' psychic vampire' came immediately to Eun Ha's mind, but she would not dare to speak her mind to her tutor.

"Usually, art, beauty, feelings of contentment, harmony, balance… Ah, you know. The good stuff. These things create good magic. Magic circulates and permeates everything. Ahn… When this energy exceeds and leaves living things, it can only flow and dissipate, or pervade objects or places. Our kinfolk only absorbs this energy that flows in the air when it's not into any living being… It's not natural to us do it otherwise, I mean. We only feel when the energy is appropriate, and when it is not. However, we do not control what we absorb. We only absorb the chi to which we are exposed. No matter what,…"

"Ahhhhhh!" after listening with enormous attention, Eun Ha exclaimed with relief. It made perfect sense, and many synapses formed the more she related her master's simplistic and clumsy explanation to her own personal experiences. The girl's considerations of her previous experiences with events and places drew her attention from the Hunter, who had interrupted his last sentence in the middle with a sigh_ but Eun Ha noticed none of this.

"What about the bad places?"

"Well, when things don't go well in one place, and the energy stagnates, you've seen well what that can turn into. It's not so common for places to be that way in nature, but because it's contaminated… somehow. Those place loses all magic they once possessed, if it was the case. And when a fairy stays for a long time in such places, ah… It's not good..."

His tutor didn't seem at all comfortable in the role of educator, however. It was clear that he had no talent or didactics.

' Considering that he believes there is a tax on spoken syllabes, he's doing well…' she thought. Even so, perhaps from some kind of empirical knowledge, she was able to understand what he meant. The Hunter seemed frustrated with himself, though. But he continued,

"Jung, did you see the creatures parasitizing those people in the cafe? That's called a wraith."

She rubbed her arms and cringed, just remembering, "They were not ghosts?"

"No. Wraiths are not ghosts. They are not restless spirits of the dead. They're just another kind of creature."

"But… I don't understand! Weren't they possessing those people's bodies? "she was shocked by the information.

The hunter scratched the back of his neck, looking agitated. "Why don't we walk?"

"Because I don't want to get out of here anymore?" she said charmingly, and this time, he smiled, while getting up.

"Of course you don't want to. Why would a fairy want to leave a place where people exchange dreams?"

"Exchange dreams?" she knew she was sounding like an echoing parrot, but she couldn't help but look like a curious and fascinated child, as she walked behind the Hunter towards the exit. She realized that if she wanted to see the door, she would have to look around, or his shoulders would block her view. Eun Ha also guessed that the people in front of him could not imagine that a woman was right behind.

By the time they reached the sidewalk, she already felt the difference between ' energies ' in the interior and exterior of the building. Something, a primal feeling, perhaps, was attracting her towards the bookstore. And now she could name it.

It was magic.

It was the same feeling she had as a child thinking of going to Jolly Bakery. A moth to light, a hummingbird to gardens… Knowing magic was a common commodity created and wasted so superficially was intriguing. Humans were able to produce magic in their everyday affairs_ but not to use it, at least in a conscient level… This piece of information was mind-blowing.

"Yes," he answered at last. "Where there are so many books, and so many people circulating, there is magic flowing. People come to such a place to seek fantasy, poetry, knowledge and enlightenment. That is, they are exchanging dreams."

"Ahhh…" Eun Ha looked, open-mouthed, at Shin's face. She didn't expect to hear such beautiful words from that mouth. And not expected to find out that his moving lips were so s.e.xy_ pink and plumpy… ' wow, it's hot in here!' she felt her cheeks burn.

"What?" he looked up and behind him, suddenly searching for something.

"Uh?"

"What are you looking at?"

"Oh… just… thinking about the bookstore…"

"Right. Let's go. I'll take you somewhere. As I was saying…"

"Professor Shin!"

"Yes, Jung?"

"Fairies go to romantic dates at bookstores and places like that?" she had trouble walking at the same pace as her tutor, but tried anyway. The question was legitimate… But Hunter Shin turned around with a funny, astonished expression:

"What ?!"

"I mean… well, fairies are born, so there's romance. And… what's the romance like?"

"Omo, Jung, why are you so random?!" he shook his head and refused to think about it just moving forward with an even faster step.

"Why 'random'?!" Eun Ha was outraged, but her teacher even more so:

"Why don't you even let me carry on a subject?!"

' Oh, well… he's right… Now that he's coming out, I shouldn't interrupt.' Eun Ha ran in front of him, and made a gesture of zipping her lips. Shin just gestured for her to get out of the way, or get run over.

' Random… I'm not random, I just don't have a linear thought!' she mentally justified herself, following the hunter down the sidewalks.

After a few blocks, they came to a pleasant tree-lined street, and Shin led her to the window of a small candy store. Sugary Dreams was the name written in small, elegant letters. The facade itself was rather discreet, in a traditional brown tone. But Eun Ha felt the magic, which was strong there.

She looked surprised to her teacher:

"Every candy store is magic?"

"Usually. Haven't you heard of Gretel and Hans?" he chuckled at the look of horror on his student's face, for when Eun Ha searched her mind about what he was referring to, she remembered the Witch and the Candy House, and got an involuntary shiver.

"Aish! Professor Shin!"

He turned back to the facade, and they both watched the small building for a moment. Eun Ha noticed the closed sign on the door. But she also realized that from the dusty look of the sidewalk and the shop window, the shop had been closed for a while.

However, her previous experience at the coffee shop and muffin factory was not exactly encouraging, so she asked,

"What is this place and what have we come here to do?"

"If you were more experienced, you could say that this place is slowly changing... It's been closed for some time and the magic will slowly estagnate… which is not good. Remember the family that owned the coffee shop and the muffin factory?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"They had a patron. A fairy godmother…godfather, actually."

"Oh! And what happened…"

Shin showed Eun Ha the wooden spoon they found with the awgi at the muffin factory. Eun Ha didn't need to listen to understand.

"Wraiths usually act that way. Wraiths are very common. They are attracted to the stagnant energy of depressed people. So they parasitize them, and begin to feed on the energy of humans. Over time, if the connection goes on, they even begin to look physically like the human they bonded with… The longer, the more they look alike. They are not creatures with great intelligence unless they are with the same person for a long time. Its only malice is to imitate humans: voices, whispers of words already spoken… All this to attract and try to parasite the human. Therefore they can be confused with ghosts. All they need is a weakened person. Which was the case with that couple. They were quite susceptible… After all they had big problems…"

Somehow, talking about a subject he mastered very well made the usual monosyllabic Hunter Shin talk a lot, which surprised Eun Ha.

"I think they knew that their son had killed Instagrammer Han."

"I also believe that at some point they had acknowledged it."

"So the Wraith found those people suffering and were just eating them little by little ... Wait! Are they demons?"

"Demon is a very generic concept, but it is possible that humans call them that, or even confuse them with actual ghosts. But… Those wraiths didn't act the usual way. They attacked a fairy when usually they usually run and hide from us."

"Why? I mean, why did the creature attack me?"

"Because somewhere in this town, is there something devouring fairies," he said, staring again at the storefront.