I Became a Cub in the Elven Kingdom

With a casual toss from Siet, the wooden name tablets were enchanted and floated into the air, arranging themselves in neat rows. The characters carved into them shimmered with brilliant light.

Every Fairy cub loved sparkling things.

Shu Li was no exception.

One of the wooden tablets drifted in front of him. Curious, he reached out to grab it, but before he could touch it, the tablet suddenly darted backward as though it were alive, leaving him grasping at empty air.

”Huh?” Shu Li awkwardly withdrew his hand.

Had he just been discriminated against by a wooden tablet?

Redhead, sitting to his left, frowned when he saw the tablet show such disrespect to his ”big brother.” With a fierce expression, he lunged at it.

The wooden tablet seemed intimidated by his imposing manner and actually remained perfectly still. Redhead caught it with ease, raised his chin proudly, and looked unbearably pleased with himself.

Shu Li gave him a thumbs-up. ”Amazing!”

Redhead grinned and offered him the wooden tablet.

”You don’t need to give it to me. You caught it, so it’s yours.” Shu Li shook his head.

”Yah!” Redhead pouted unhappily.

Hadn’t Shu Li wanted it? He had gone to all the trouble of catching it for him, so why was he refusing?

He stubbornly tried to stuff the wooden tablet into Shu Li’s arms, but before he could let go, it transformed into a chain and automatically fastened itself around his own neck.

Redhead and Shu Li stared in astonishment.

Siet and Aisha exchanged amused smiles.

Redhead touched the chain on his chest in confusion. The wooden tablet had shrunk, becoming an exquisite pendant, and the characters engraved on it no longer glowed.

”Dixio. That is your name.” Siet pointed at Redhead with a warm smile. ”Remember, from today onward, your name is Dixio. Come, repeat after me: Di-xi-o.”

Siet repeated it twice. Redhead tilted his little head and opened his mouth to imitate him.

”Di-xi-o.”

”Excellent! Your pronunciation is perfect.” Siet pointed first to himself, then to the others as he introduced them one by one. ”My name is Siet. She is Aisha... and he is Sperien.”

When Shu Li saw the adult Fairy point at him, he immediately sat up straight.

After listening to them go through the introductions, he finally understood what those words meant.

They were the Fairies’ names.

The characters on each wooden tablet represented a name. As long as a cub caught one, that cub would gain a name of their own.

Redhead truly was a native-born Fairy cub. His gift for languages was completely maxed out. He only had to hear an adult Fairy say something once before he could repeat it.

Shu Li looked at Redhead with intense envy.

He had quietly tried to repeat the sounds himself, but his tongue refused to cooperate. No matter what he did, he could not curl it correctly. His pronunciation was worlds apart from Redhead’s.

If he could not even pronounce the simplest names, how was he supposed to learn the much more complicated Elven language?

Shu Li began to grow anxious.

When Whitehead saw that Redhead had not only received a beautiful pendant after catching a wooden tablet but had also gained a name, his competitive spirit immediately flared. He spread his wings and lunged toward one of the tablets floating overhead.

He was fast, but the wooden tablet was even faster. It dodged him instantly and shot upward.

Whitehead missed. His amber eyes darted around, and he immediately turned toward another wooden tablet.

That one was the closest to him. Caught off guard, it was seized before it could escape.

Whitehead let out a delighted cry, pushed off with his toes, and landed in front of Siet, proudly holding up the wooden tablet for him to see.

Siet bent down and gently rubbed his soft silver hair.

”Angier. That is your name.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the wooden tablet transformed into a chain and fastened itself around Whitehead’s neck.

Whitehead’s eyes curved into crescents. Clutching the pendant, he carefully repeated every word.

”An-gier-that-is-your-name.”

”No, not ’your.’ It should be ’my,’” Siet patiently corrected him. ”When you introduce yourself, you should say... My name is Angier.”

Whitehead only half understood. He stumbled through the sentence after Siet.

After repeating it four times, he finally managed to say his name clearly.

”Angier! Angier! My name is Angier!” Whitehead waved his arms and legs excitedly, loudly announcing his name to every Fairy present.

Not to be outdone, Redhead patted his tiny chest.

”Me, Dixio! Dixio!”

Shu Li looked at Redhead, then at Whitehead. Listening to their soft, childish voices, he was filled with admiration.

They were both language prodigies!

They had learned their own names in such a short time.

Meanwhile, he was still silently trying to figure out how to pronounce them.

The other Fairy cubs had already been eyeing the wooden tablets eagerly. The moment Whitehead announced his name, they rushed toward them, each afraid there would be none left if they were too slow.

For a while, wings fluttered constantly, and chaos erupted above the vine table.

Siet and Aisha did not stop them. They simply allowed the cubs to play their chasing game with the wooden tablets.

The tablets had been infused with high-level magic. They would only allow themselves to be caught by the Fairy cub whose nature matched the name they carried.

The cubs did not know that. They simply chose whichever tablets they liked, and two or three of them often fought over the same one, triggering chaotic scuffles.

Whenever several cubs became tangled together, Aisha and Siet immediately stepped in to separate them before anyone could get hurt.

Shu Li sat listlessly on his little stool with his chin propped in his hands.

The excitement belonged to everyone else. He had nothing.

The wooden tablets would not even let a Fairy who already had a name touch them. Before he could so much as reach out, they fled as though equipped with radar.

He did not even know when he had been given a name.

Had it happened on the day he first awakened in the flower cradle?

Shu Li raised a hand and touched his forehead.

Back then, the handsome blond Elf with the beautiful voice had touched his forehead with one finger, and a strange string of symbols had appeared in his mind.

Afterward, Shu Li had repeatedly heard the same word from the red-haired Elf, the silver-haired Fairy, and the brown-haired Fairy.

That word was probably his name.

What the brown-haired Fairy had said while teaching Redhead just now confirmed his suspicion.

Spi...ri...hmm?

No, no!

Maybe it was... Speirit?

That was wrong too!

Shu Li repeated it over and over in his mind, but he could not grasp the correct pronunciation. Out of habit, he reached up to scratch his hair and touched the little flower crown nestled among the strands.

The little flower crown had also been a gift from the blond Elf.

He had no idea what it was made of. A row of emerald-green gems was set into it, each one crystal clear, lustrous, and incredibly beautiful.

Every night before sleeping, Shu Li removed it and placed it beside him. Yet whenever he woke, the little flower crown would already be back on his head.

In any case, it seemed to possess a will of its own. No matter how far away Shu Li threw it, it would return without a sound by the following morning.

After a while, he stopped bothering to take it off.

He was only a cub now, anyway. Having a little green on his head did not matter.

Shu Li was an optimist. Once he reasoned his way through a troubling problem, he would not continue obsessing over it.

At present, the only thing bothering him was how he was supposed to master a new language when he understood absolutely nothing.

He was different from the other Fairy cubs.

The other cubs were blank sheets of paper that could be written on freely. He, on the other hand, was already a finished painting. Adding new content would look completely out of place and might even trigger outright rejection.

Chinese was his native language. He had spoken it since childhood, and it was already rooted deeply within him. Learning another language now was fraught with difficulties.

Shu Li had always believed that his brain had limited capacity. Once it accepted one language, there was no room left for a second. Otherwise, the two would clash and destroy each other.

To protect Chinese’s position of absolute priority, his brain automatically rejected all new languages.

That was why his English was so catastrophically bad.

Without the slightest hesitation, Shu Li found himself a perfect excuse.

However, in his original world, his parents and brothers had sheltered him from every hardship. Now that he had transmigrated to another world, he was alone and helpless. He would have to rely on himself for everything.

Learning the new language could not be delayed.

Unfortunately, both his brain and his mouth were hopelessly uncooperative. No matter how hard he tried, he could not learn it.

Depressed, Shu Li curled into a ball, forming a stark contrast with the energetic Fairy cubs around him.

Aisha noticed something was wrong and came over to ask with concern, ”Sperien, what is the matter?”

At the sound of his own name, Shu Li’s eyes lit up.

So it was Sperien, not Spirihmm, and definitely not Speirit.

To keep Aisha from growing suspicious, Shu Li pointed toward the chaos in the air, raised his head, puffed out his chest like an obedient child, and indicated that he was simply waiting for the others to catch their wooden tablets.

Seeing that he had regained his spirits, Aisha turned her attention back to the other Fairy cubs.

The first cub to catch a wooden tablet rushed over to Siet and asked him to pronounce the name written on it.

Siet taught him patiently, repeating it again and again without the slightest irritation until the cub learned it.

As more and more cubs caught their tablets, Siet was soon surrounded so tightly that he could barely move. Aisha hurried over to share the work.

Before long, the cubs holding wooden tablets had formed two long lines in front of Siet and Aisha.

Only Shu Li, Redhead, and Whitehead, the three Little Fairies who had received their names earlier, remained quietly seated on their stools.

Shu Li pricked up his small pointed ears, concentrated with every ounce of his attention, and tried hard to memorize the other Fairy cubs’ names.

They were Little Fairies from the same group, practically brothers and sisters born together. He ought to know everyone’s name. How awkward would it be if he called someone by the wrong name later?

After memorizing four names in a row, Shu Li’s face twisted in agony.

Sorry. He had truly done his best!

His brain refused to listen. Before he knew it, his attention had wandered, and then...

There was no then.

Shu Li puffed out his cheeks helplessly.

Forget it. There was nothing shameful about admitting that he was hopeless at languages.

At least he remembered his own name, as well as Redhead’s and Whitehead’s.

Wait. What was Redhead called again?

Shu Li reached out and poked Redhead’s shoulder.

”You are Di... Di...”

”Dixio!” Redhead answered loudly.

Now that he had a name, he wanted to proclaim it to the entire world and make sure everyone knew what he was called.

Shu Li nodded and poked Whitehead’s shoulder next.

This time, Whitehead spoke before Shu Li could prompt him.

”Me, Angier! Angier!”

This time, Shu Li firmly committed both names to memory.

”My name is Speirit.” He pointed at the tip of his own nose.

Dixio frowned and corrected him.

”Sperien.”

Shu Li’s face instantly flushed red.

He was a high school senior. How could he be worse than a baby?

His pointed ears drooped, and his wings folded tightly against his back. He silently turned away, curled himself into a tiny mushroom, and withdrew from the world.

Throughout the entire morning, Aisha and Siet busied themselves teaching the Fairy cubs to pronounce their names. In the meantime, the cubs were fed nectar and dew once. The little ones were brimming with enthusiasm and studied tirelessly. Not only could they say their own names, but they could also pronounce the names of the other cubs.

After lunch, Aisha shook the bell in her hand and urged, ”Little darlings, it is time to sleep.”

Only with enough sleep could the cubs grow healthy and strong.

The bell sounded different for meals and bedtime. When they heard the short, brisk chime, the cubs knew it was time for their nap.

Already sleepy, the little ones yawned one after another and flew back to their flower cradles.

Holding his harp, Siet casually plucked the strings, and a soothing lullaby drifted through the nursery.

Suddenly, someone tugged on the hem of his robe.

Surprised, he looked down and met a pair of enormous pale-green eyes.

It was Sperien.

Was he not going back to his flower cradle to sleep?

The little fellow looked anxious, as though he needed something from him.

”Floor Mop, you promised to help me twist the silk thread, remember?” Shu Li looked up at him with a grave expression.

Siet stopped plucking the strings. His pointed ears twitched, and he wondered whether something was wrong with his hearing.

”Floor Mop?”

Was that supposed to be his name?

”It is Siet, not Floor Mop.” With a friendly but politely restrained smile, he corrected the little cub’s faulty pronunciation.