Aozaki Aoko Case File

In Proper Human History, Tintagel Castle is part of Cornwall, known as the home of King Arthur and the magus Merlin.

But in this Lostbelt, Tintagel is a small village on a barren peninsula in southwestern Fairy Britain, north of Cornwall, where fairies from different clans live together.

Aoko vaguely remembered that this village was where the Black Knight Ector lived in seclusion after the start of the Queen's Calendar, and also where the second generation of Paradise Fairy savior, Artoria Caster, spent her childhood—until the six major clans' troops wiped out the Paradise fairies. The raid was led by the Fang Clan chief, Woodwose.

She didn't know if this generation's Baobhan Sith had been tortured to death by Tintagel's beasts, but based on what Toneriko said, the last time she helped Baobhan Sith was years ago, so her current state was probably bad. The sooner she arrived, the sooner she could rescue her.

Artoria didn't go with Aoko to Tintagel. After hearing about the sacrificial body in the Hollow, she thought it was more important to protect people's safety than to save a pitiful stranger.

Aoko agreed, and in a way, now understood why so many people fell for the British king—after just a few days, even the savior was charmed by the King of Knights.

Mash wanted to go to Tintagel with Aoko, but Aoko refused. At this stage, anything Mash did in the Lostbelt risked affecting her Queen's Calendar self, so it was best for her to hide for now.

Aoko didn't intend to solve everything in the Fairy Calendar in one go—she couldn't, anyway. No matter how many fairies she killed, or even if she sank the whole island, it wouldn't fundamentally affect the Queen's Calendar. At most, it would reduce the number of fairies or change some faces. The core wouldn't change.

The reason was that the history of the fairies was a micro-universe at the bottom of the imaginary sea, sealed by the Fantasy Tree. Its state was chaotic, and Aoko could only resolve one state at a time. The Queen's Calendar was a history that would inevitably occur.

But the Queen's Calendar was different—a new Lostworld nailed to the planet by Morgan. Without the Vortigern and the Three Calamities, it could even compete with Proper Human History. Even defeating future Morgan couldn't solve the problem.

So Aoko planned to use her principle blood ring's pocket dimension to hide the fairies she wanted to collect, then gather important figures from the Fairy Calendar and bring them to the Queen's Calendar for a final confrontation.

The only imperfect part was that switching between the Fairy and Queen's Calendars required Toneriko to do it personally. Physical hardships could be avoided, but the mental stress from the Round Table's defeat and betrayal by the clans still had to be borne alone.

No... perhaps not alone—Artoria could stay to accompany Toneriko through these difficult years. With Avalon, she wouldn't age or be injured, immune to time's erosion. Even without Aoko's extra mana, as long as she was in the Age of Gods, her dragon heart would ensure she had endless magic.

Flying through the air, Aoko finalized her plan. She'd discuss it with Artoria later. Whatever her answer, Aoko was prepared—only the mental burden would differ, but both routes led to a good ending.

Aoko wasn't doing charity—if you wanted the magician's salvation, you needed to pay a price. For Toneriko, that meant enduring about 2,400 more years of the fairies' malice.

[Dividing line]

The red-haired fairy had been bullied by other fairies since birth.

There was no real reason for this—maybe because she was kind, or maybe because she was weak. Either way, malicious fairies always hurt her, making it impossible to live in the big cities and forcing her to wander the dangerous wilderness.

Years ago, the red-haired fairy girl arrived at this deserted peninsula village. Her clothes were in tatters, her magic exhausted. Just as she was dying and instinctively drank blood spilled during some unknown conflict, the village fairies saw her.

"Ew, she's drinking blood, how gross!" one fairy said.

"Yeah, who knows where this wild fairy came from, and now she's here—so disgusting!" another said.

"Hey, you, didn't you hear? Get away from our village, you disgusting thing!" a Fang Clan fairy rushed forward and kicked the girl in the stomach. With a barely audible whimper, she was sent flying like a ragdoll.

"Tch, so weak, didn't even feel good to kick," said the Fang Clan fairy.

"Why don't we chop her up?" suggested a Soil Clan fairy. "She's weak, but still a fairy. If we bury her pieces in our fields, maybe we'll get better crops!"

"Great idea!"

"Yeah, let's do it!"

As the cruelly naive fairies were about to act, a fairy claiming to be the savior appeared, using magic the Tintagel fairies had never seen before to drive them away and rescue the red-haired girl.

It wasn't the first time Toneriko'd rescued such a fairy. She'd saved several fairies who looked like the battered red-haired girl before. This latest one was another descendant.

At the time, Toneriko was already struggling to survive herself, making it impossible to care for such a weak fairy. After some thought, she used contract magecraft—similar to self-geis—to bind the village fairies so they couldn't harm the red-haired girl.

After some persuasion, the healed red-haired girl was temporarily accepted by the villagers, and Toneriko left.

But even with the contract preventing harm, they could still exclude her. Until Aoko's arrival, the weak fairy Baobhan Sith could only barely survive on the outskirts of the village, living off wild plants and garbage.

Though she was no longer in mortal danger, she was still sometimes beaten by passing fairies who hadn't signed the contract. How these fairies found Baobhan Sith's usual hiding place was another mystery.