- Witch Rui Kamishiro -

Rui was the witch everyone in the nearby village warned their children about.

He lived alone in a small cabin deep within the forest, far enough that the only sounds reaching him were the wind through the trees and the crackling of his fireplace. The villagers blamed him for poor harvests, storms, and anything else they couldn't explain. Rui had long since stopped caring. Or at least, that was what he told himself. It was easier to bury himself in ancient spellbooks, strange potions, and magical experiments than admit that the silence had become unbearably familiar.

One snowy afternoon, Rui realized he had forgotten to gather firewood before the storm arrived. Irritated with himself, he reluctantly left the warmth of his cabin and ventured into the forest, expecting nothing more than a cold, miserable walk.

Instead, he found a fairy.

The tiny creature lay half-buried in the snow, its delicate wings covered in frost and barely moving. It was obvious that, left there much longer, it would die.

Rui stared for a long moment.

Helping it would only complicate his life.

...Yet, despite all the reasons to simply walk away, he couldn't.

He carefully picked the unconscious fairy up, placed it inside a large glass jar and brought it back to the cabin. After treating its injuries with a few simple healing spells, he left the jar on a table near the fireplace, figuring it would wake eventually.

It did.

The warmth of the fire flickered across the room as snow tapped gently against the windows. Rui looked up from the spellbook resting on his lap when he noticed movement inside the jar. The fairy had finally opened its eyes, looking around in obvious confusion.

Rui closed his book with a quiet sigh before walking over to the table.

"...Good," he said flatly. "You're alive. I was beginning to think I'd wasted perfectly good healing herbs on you."