“We need to break that jar’s lid. We can’t touch it ourselves.”

Uhu spoke excitedly as he watched Stella casually handle the jar. Just moments earlier, he had been frantic, trying to stop her, but now his face flushed with rising anticipation.

“So I need to open it.”

Stella hoped that nothing like snakes would emerge from the jar.

“I’m opening it now.”

Stella said as she placed her hand on the jar’s lid. Ark and Esta had climbed up a tree, even covering their eyes.

Uhu squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists, as if he couldn’t bear to watch. He resolved that even if something happened, he would face death heroically rather than flee from this place.

Stella took a deep breath and gripped the lid tightly.

“Here goes!”

After a moment’s hesitation, Stella lifted the heavy lid and threw it with all her might.

Crash!

The flying lid shattered into pieces as it struck the collapsed pile of stones. At the same time, faint letters escaped from between the broken jar pieces, floating into the sky like smoke before vanishing in an instant.

For all the tension and fear they had felt, it was an incredibly anticlimactic ending.

“Did it work? Is it over?”

Stella asked, her expression dazed as she looked at the broken jar lid.

Uhu, who had been squeezing his eyes shut, staggered over in disbelief and fell to his knees in front of the shattered jar pieces. Then, raising both hands as if cheering, he shouted.

“The curse’s words have all disappeared!”

“That’s, that’s good.”

As Stella prepared to stand up with an awkward smile, the ground near where she had been standing began to bulge and shift.

Thinking the curse might have been activated belatedly, Stella hesitated, ready to flee, when she heard the cheers that followed.

“Hooray!”

“Long live Stella!”

“The curse is broken!”

“We’re free now!”

Earth fairies burst forth from the ground one after another. There were at least twenty of them. They joined hands, surrounded Stella, and began spinning around her.

“Hurrah for Stella!”

“May the blessings of Goddess Terra be upon Stella!”

“May the blessings of the earth be upon Stella!”

It was overwhelming enough that so many fairies had suddenly appeared, but they were also showering Stella with words of blessing.

Stella looked around with a bewildered expression, and after a moment, she felt her body becoming lighter. She examined her empty palms, turning them this way and that.

“Huh? Oh!”

“Can you feel the blessing?”

“Can you feel the power?”

Ark and Esta scampered over and hopped onto Stella’s shoulders.

“Um, I feel a bit lighter.”

“Now Stella is very healthy.”

“That’s right, Stella will live for a very long time.”

Though she would have to live to find out, it felt nice to hear that she would be healthy and long-lived.

“But what’s inside?”

Esta, who was perched on Stella’s shoulder, stretched his neck to peer into the jar. Stella, who hadn’t paid attention to the jar’s contents until then, lowered her head to look inside.

A soft light emanated from the jar, but strangely, the inside wasn’t visible. It was odd, considering the jar wasn’t even that deep.

Could it be treasure?

With a pounding heart, Stella reached her hand into the jar. Her fingertips touched something cold.

Gold!

Stella was certain that what she felt was a gold bar, based on the sensation at her fingertips. She also felt something like a wooden stick, but she didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Take it out.”

Ark and Esta urged her from beside. They seemed excited too, hopping up and down on her shoulders, which tickled.

Stella looked at the fairies with a mix of excitement and fear, then plunged her arm into the jar. She gripped the hard object she felt and pulled it out with all her might.

Sparkle!

The object that shone brightly in the sunlight was, “A pickaxe?”

It was a pickaxe small enough to fit in one hand. Stella, who had secretly expected some precious treasure after digging up the fairy’s jar, frowned deeply at the unexpected appearance of a farming tool.

Although she wasn’t a highly regarded princess in Amalrune, she had never had to hold farming tools, which made it even more bewildering.

“Ooooh! It’s the noble pickaxe!”

“It’s brilliant! How can this be!”

Unlike the thoroughly disappointed Stella, the fairies were making a huge fuss as if they had discovered diamonds.

“Is this really valuable?”

Stella asked, still frowning. Now that she thought about it, the pickaxe’s head was unusually shiny. It looked as if it were made of silver rather than iron.

“It’s one of the items filled with the blessing of Goddess Terra. To think they hid it here! Those wicked earth goblins!”

“Earth goblins? What are those?”

Stella felt a chill run down her spine for no apparent reason.

“They look similar to us but grow by feeding on the evil energy of the earth. The more of them there are, the more the land loses its strength and dies.”

“Do they have black eyes by any chance?”

Stella asked, her expression suggesting, ‘It can’t be.’

“Yes. They’re round and black like grapes, without any whites.”

Ark shuddered, as if even the thought of them made him feel uneasy.

“And dark skin?”

“Yeah. Rough and dark like tree bark. They’re much uglier than us.”

Esta replied, and Ark clapped in agreement.

“And they can’t speak well?”

“Those guys can only mimic human speech. They don’t truly understand it. They’re not only ugly but stupid too.”

“Oh! Then Ark, you must be an earth goblin too, since you’re ugly and stupid.”

“Hey!”

As Ark and Esta bickered, the other earth fairies giggled.

Stella realized that the beings she had encountered in Amalrune were not earth fairies but earth goblins, and goosebumps rose on her arms.

“Is it bad if you talk to earth goblins for a long time?”

Stella asked, swallowing hard. She both wanted and didn’t want to hear the answer.

“They drag humans who talk to them for too long underground. But don’t worry. Even if they appear, if you pretend not to see or hear them, they’ll give up and go somewhere else.”

Esta answered, nodding his head while pinching Ark’s chubby cheeks. Ark swung his fists at Esta wildly, but his arms were too short to reach.

Stella’s thoughts became complicated.

If her mother hadn’t slapped her cheek when she was young, if she hadn’t disliked talking to the earth goblins, what would have happened by now? The thought sent chills down her spine. Did her mother know everything?

Seeing Stella sitting with a blank expression, Uhu approached and asked softly.

“So, what do you plan to do with that noble pickaxe?”

“I don’t need it, so you can take it.”

Stella thrust the pickaxe she was holding toward the earth fairies. But Uhu shook his head.

“The noble pickaxe has already chosen its owner. We weren’t chosen by the noble pickaxe.”

“Are you saying this pickaxe chose me? It just looks like an ordinary pickaxe to me.”

At Stella’s response, Uhu and the earth fairies’ faces turned red as if they had heard a severe insult.

“Don’t insult the noble pickaxe. It’s the same as insulting us.”

Uhu, who had been nothing but kind until then, showed an extremely stern reaction. Stella realized there was no helping it and sighed deeply, irritably sticking the pickaxe she was holding into the ground.

Then something strange happened. A deep euphoria, enough to make her hair stand on ends, coursed through her fingertips. It felt like being struck by a pleasant lightning bolt.

“What’s happening?”

Stella stuck the tip of the pickaxe into the ground once more. Her fingertips tingled, and heat surged throughout her body. Her heart raced, and strength filled her hands.

“I want to keep digging.”

Without realizing it, Stella began to dig up the ground next to her with the pickaxe. As the lush grass was uprooted, moist and soft soil shyly revealed itself.

“The grace of the noble pickaxe!”

“The blessing of Terra!”

Stella continued to drive the pickaxe into the ground while the earth fairies chattered beside her.

A little later, Milla sighed deeply when she saw Stella enter with her dress covered in dirt.

Although she hadn’t met many princesses before, this was the first time she had seen one come in covered in dirt from the garden.

Meeting Milla’s disapproving gaze, Stella hid the pickaxe behind her back and smiled awkwardly.

Somehow, she felt she shouldn’t let Milla see the pickaxe. No, she didn’t want to show it to anyone. It was just a pickaxe, but it felt incredibly precious.

It had truly been a strange day.

***

Upon entering her room, Stella quickly opened the window. She worried that the earth fairies might be able to climb up since the room was on the fourth floor, but she remembered that they had come in last time and felt relieved.

After opening the window and waiting for a moment, five earth fairies hopped in through the open window.

While the other earth fairies jumped straight from the windowsill to the floor, Ark gave up after several attempts and climbed down the curtain, grunting.

Unable to watch any longer, Stella caught Ark with her hands and set him down on the floor.

“Thanks!”

Ark’s face lit up as he smiled broadly.

“How did you get up here if you can’t even get down from there?”

There were no fixtures on the wall that the earth fairies could have climbed.

“Oh, I can climb up, but I can’t get down.”

“Why?”

“It’s scary.”

“Climbing up is scary too, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay. If I don’t look down, it’s not scary.”

Stella was about to ask if it wouldn’t be scary coming down if he didn’t look either, but she stopped herself. She figured he’d manage somehow, and it also felt like unnecessary meddling.

As Stella sat on the sofa, the earth fairies climbed onto the table one by one. Ark showed no hesitation in climbing up. It was fascinating. The earth fairies standing in a row looked like toy dolls.

“Stella, since you helped us, we have an obligation to grant your request. So, tell us anything. We’ll help with whatever we can.”

Uhu was the first to speak. His expression was more serious and solemn than ever before.