What in the world was happening?
The protagonist taken out before the story even gets going? Is Jack really that useless? Tom and the others had hardly expected that Jack, who was supposed to be the hero of this little adventure, would be nabbed by the giant so quickly.
"..."
Hermione and Cassandra exchanged surprised glances.
The flower fairy reacted as well. No wonder the giant hadn't come raiding in so long. It turned out he'd caught Jack climbing up the beanstalk and hauled him back to the castle.
"Tom?"
Nagini's tone was questioning, wondering what Tom planned to do next. Should they bother rescuing Jack, or just ignore him?
"Let's go take a look."
Even with Jack's little mishap, the objective remained the same: get the harp back from the giant's castle.
...
"So what? A squirrel sat on Hermione's shoulder..." Tom glanced at the flower fairy perched on his left shoulder. "Are you copying them?"
He hadn't cared that the flower fairy insisted on tagging along, but sitting on his shoulder... others wouldn't even dare to think of it.
"Eh, don't mind me too much." The flower fairy swung her legs happily. "I'm not heavy anyway."
"..."
Tom's eyes narrowed, thoughts hidden behind their depths.
He raised his hand and grabbed the flower fairy, intending to stuff her into his pocket. But then he remembered he had no pockets. Instead, he crammed the fairy into the inner pocket of his robes, to keep the old wand company.
To Tom's surprise, the flower fairy struggled for a moment and then went still. Good, that's less noise. And one less thing to worry about.
"..."
Cassandra, sitting next to Tom on the magic carpet, looked deeply unhappy. So this is the perk of being small?! Cassandra didn't even want to imagine what she would do if she were small enough to be stuffed into a pocket!
"Teacher! Let me help you hold that green... thing!" Cassandra immediately offered a plausible "suggestion."
"Oh? Fine, then."
Tom blinked, grabbed the flower fairy, who seemed reluctant to leave, from his robes, and tossed her over to Cassandra.
"..."
The flower fairy had overheard their conversation. As soon as she was within reach of Cassandra, she shot Cassandra a displeased look—bad person daring to get in the way of opportunity!
But Cassandra's eyes were even more dangerous than her own. Out of Tom's sight, Cassandra pulled a long, rectangular box from seemingly nowhere and shoved the flower fairy inside, despite her resistance!
After all, most of the flower fairy's magic focused on the harp, and she couldn't resist Cassandra, who possessed plenty of magic power and a variety of "advanced equipment."
As soon as Cassandra finished, Tom turned around.
"This is..." Looking at the long box in Cassandra's hand, Tom felt the shape seemed… coffin-like?
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Cassandra hid the box, which was now shaking behind her back. "She's fine! Nothing's wrong! We get along very… wonderfully! Yes! Very pleasant!"
"..."
Obviously, nothing escaped Tom's notice, but he said nothing. After all, he would always favor his own apprentice above a flower fairy he'd just met. And while he hadn't made the box, Cassandra probably bought it. He could sense that its sole function was to imprison, so he'd let them play their games.
The flying carpet continued forward, covering more distance.
The giant's castle wasn't far from the fairy town, but it wasn't exactly close either.
The flying carpet was swift, however, and it only took about ten minutes to reach the top of the giant's castle.
They didn't bother with the huge wooden door, landing directly inside the giant's castle.
They found a window made of massive gray stone bricks, easily more than ten meters high, and flying in was no problem at all.
Inside, it looked like a giant's lair, with enormous beds, huge tables, and gigantic chairs… Everything here was incredibly oversized.
"The harp isn't here."
Sitting on the flying carpet, Malfoy looked around, a little dispirited.
But Nagini's eyes focused on a huge round wooden table. "Tom, there!"
Hearing this, Tom's gaze followed to the table.
There, they spotted a bird's nest, the size of a wooden house. Inside the nest, a very small but distinctly white figure could be seen.
"That's a… goose?" Hermione reacted immediately. "A goose that lays golden eggs?!"
Seeing that Tom also seemed interested in the "goose that lays golden eggs," Malfoy curled his lip. "Please! So what if it lays golden eggs? It's not like I actually need the money!"
Harry said nothing, but the corners of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
"Let's go down and take a look." Tom said, guiding the magic carpet toward the giant bird's nest on the table.
...
Inside the giant bird's nest, a big white goose had its eyes closed, as if asleep.
Asleep, that is, until it was abruptly awakened by a strange noise from above. "Your Majesty?" the confused white goose looked up. "What's wrong with me?!"
Suddenly awake, it flapped its wings and stood up. "Don't come any closer! I am the Goose Minister in this castle! If you touch me, the owner of this castle will not let you get away with it! He's a giant! And he's formidable!"
"..." Looking at the big white goose, who looked a bit bewildered by its overreaction, Malfoy curled his lip with disdain.
Hermione seemed to have heard something incredible, staring at the big white goose. "Wait a minute! Weren't you captured?!"
But the tone of this big white goose didn't sound like it had been captured. It seemed more like… it had come here willingly?
Cassandra, whose attention had also been caught, didn't notice that the box in her hands had stopped shaking.
"Uh~ None of your business!" The big white goose looked flustered. "In short, if you don't leave, I'm calling him!"
But Hermione was more concerned with another implication. "You're telling us to leave? You want us to take you away?"
"..."
The big white goose was stunned.
Before it could speak, the box in Cassandra's hands began to rattle violently again.
This time, not only Cassandra, but everyone else, noticed.
Surprised, Cassandra barely had time to react before the box shattered, splintering apart from some kind of explosive magic!
"It's you! You betrayed me!!"
The flower fairy's petite body flew in front of the big white goose in the blink of an eye.
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