Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

The effort needed redefine oneself was huge. Whether it was worthwhile was debatable. All that depended on results.

I was originally supposed to be a fairy. I figured once I evolved, if successfully avoided the demon route, I would also become a spirit just like Vorte. In that case, as a progenitor of strawberry plants in this world, that would make me a strawberry fairy queen or fairy princess? Princess sounded better.

I didn't watch that many princess related movies, or read much into their stories. From what I remembered, fairy princesses in stories tended to have silky hair either braided or decorated with jewelry depending on culture. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pretty hairpin, hair sticks, or anything like that. It was a serious blunder to splurge so much on food and forgetting the beauty products and accessories.

The beastfolks here didn't grow long hair so they wouldn't have much selection. On the contrary, humans and elves could grow long hair for some reason.

I wonder if human or elf country has lots of pretty hair accessories?

I didn't know where exactly the elf country was, but I knew where human country was. Back in the days, I planned to go there however that hunter ruined everything. They lost a valuable customer because of him. However, I hadn't resigned such a grand ambition. Someone like me had no lifespan and could easily outlive their trade embargo.

Anyhow, without any accessories, I simply just braided my blonde hair using magic. My hair was originally yellow colored or blonde that matched the yellow of strawberry flower. It really was an eye catching color. Sure, I enjoyed a bit of attention, but not so much to be an eyesore on the streets, thus I toned it down quite a few shades until it was a silvery blonde that gave off a bit of mystical feeling.

Then, as for my clothing, I went with simple white sweatshirt and blue jeans. There was a strawberry logo on the front of my sweatshirt. And finally, for my shoes, I had white sneakers.

I posed in front of the mirror, "Yep! I've done it again, plain and simple."

This style didn't exist in this world. Right now, I looked like a highschool girl. Although I could take both masculine and feminine forms, I preferred a feminine form because she was prettier. Either way, my appearance didn't reflect my status. My power remained the same regardless of how I appeared to the world. 

Let's go wake up Vorte. He's been meditating long enough.

I'm tired of waiting.

"Vorte, please wake up. Aren't you done evolving already?" I gently nudged his shoulder.

"Indeed." He replied without opening his mouth as usual.

"What!? How long have you been awake? I've been waiting for so long! Why didn't you say something?"

"It is essential to understand one's new powers."

"Oh I see. Well, did you manage to gain that guardian trait? I mean I see that you evolved into a spirit and not a guardian. What kind of race is that?"

"Unseen by you, I have the |force| trait. It allows me to alter the fundamental forces within my surrounding."

Fundamental forces? That sounds a bit too strong... Let's just confirm.

"Any type of force?"

"That, I am still in the process of understanding. It is of the physical that I am capable of manipulating. I believe it is not wise to demonstrate it within your subspace."

"Physical...? Can you lift a mountain?"

"That may be possible."

That's some serious power up. I doubt I can do that even with all my mana at my disposal. Hmm... Perhaps those floating islands are because of a guardian living in that region?

"Amazing! Are you officially a guardian now?"

"Yes. The Spirit race is the guardian race of this world." He stated.  

"Congratulations then!" I patted his back, "How cool!"

Without a second to waste, he said, "Now, the important matter is about you. I presume you did not nullify your contract while I was evolving?"

"Ehh... No. But I did try my best!"

That's what matters after all. It's all about effort. "A" for effort!

"Tell me, which one is your true fey core?" He asked.

"True fey core? Uhh... Yes, about that. How do I know where it is again?"

Smoothie briefly mentioned about something like this to me before but that was a super long time ago. She said all fey beings had one except me who had multiple due to my trait. Technically, going by her explanation, I had more fey cores than I could count with my fingers.

"I sense you have one in your chest."

"Ah, so that was what it was. I was told I have many."

"Indeed. That may aid you in nullifying that contract."

"For real? Please enlighten me!"

The explanation was quite long. In between, I asked many questions to clarify the method. Any mistake here could be fatal therefore I had to be extra cautious.

The idea was actually simple in of itself.

Currently, I couldn't exactly tell whether I signed a soul contract or a regular contract. Signing a magical contract with mana was fairly normal according to Vorte so that much wasn't enough to go on. However, we had to prepare for the worst, which was in the case of a soul contract.

A soul contract couldn't normally be removed, and was bound until it was nullified, fulfilled, or one soul was destroyed which also meant it was nullified. This meant that a normal death itself couldn't end the contract. And in my case, there was not end date specified on that contract. The only method I could rely on was either nullification or losing my soul. Though, nullification was the most difficult part. We didn't have lawyers here.

A fey core was different from a soul, which also would also have its own core. On one hand, a soul carried all the memories, knowledge, and wisdom. In essence, to lose one's soul would literally mean to lose everything. A fey core, on the other hand, was something formed around the soul when a fey being was born in this world. It would carry information related to traits and abilities, and even mana in my case. It also acted as a filter based on those traits and abilities and could be tampered with to some degree with sufficient authority.

Who would have thought fey cores are actually this important?

For a fey being, magical contracts were linked to their fey core only and not to the soul or its core. By destroying a fey core, abilities and traits along with other attached information would be destroyed. Soul contracts would mean a link to the soul core or at least a part of the soul.

Most of my clones had a fey core somewhere in their body. The tiny ones I used as weapons obviously didn't have any. To tell whether a clone had a fey core or not, I just had to know whether it had its own statuses or not. For me, I could easily track that through [creation] which was an upgraded version of [conglomerate] that used to track and modify all my clones.

Some of my clones had died before. It made me wonder if those fey cores were destroyed. The answer was no. Apparently the fey cores that lost their physical vessels, or clone bodies, would automatically return to me.

"Wait, if I have thousands of fey cores, what does that make me? Was I just casually creating souls out of nowhere?"

"Since those clones had no consciousness of their own, it should be safe to assume they have no souls."

"Then... They are just empty fey cores?" I asked.

"Not quite. If they operated independently with only your command, portions of your soul may be in a superposition state within those external fey cores of yours."

"This is getting too complicated. Can we get back to the main topic? How do I rid of the contract?"

"Transfer everything but the contract to a prepared clone. Then, sever the link and destroy that fey core."

"Oh I see. And what if it's a soul contract?"

"Sever that part of the soul and leave it in the fey core to be destroyed. Fear not, I am here to assist you in the transfer."

This! This sounds like serious and very scary business. I don't care what you say, I'm scared I'll mess up!

It was like preparing to go into a heart surgery.