Aozaki Aoko Case File

Perhaps due to Mash's recent trip to the Great Hollow, which disturbed Cernunnos's corpse, the number of Moss in southern Fairy Britain had increased sharply in recent days. Artoria even found a huge curse entity near the river outside Salisbury.

Such a powerful curse corpse would be impossible for fairies to handle. In a sense, it was an aggregation of Moss, with a natural advantage over Britain's fairies.

However, as part of the world-ending curse, it also counted as a humanity threat—perfectly countered by the Knight King's Excalibur. Thus, the giant curse entity was swiftly slain by Artoria without much fuss.

But that wasn't the end. After killing the curse entity and saving nearby fairies, some of them inexplicably tried to ambush Artoria as she turned to leave.

Of course, the ambush failed—Artoria, with her scabbard, was unhurt. But this behavior gave her a deeper insight into the fairies' nature: their so-called love of freedom meant they acted on every chaotic thought with no taboo. That wasn't evil; it was just how many fairies were.

Aside from the Salisbury–Londinium line, Aoko's first priority was to deal with the Fang Clan's hero Wryneck in Oxford. Once she recruited this powerful fairy, she needed to visit the dragon's remains near Orkney and secure the not-yet-formed dragon fairy Melusine, to lay the groundwork for switching the Fairy Calendar to the Queen's Calendar.

Aoko still had other fairies to look for—like Muryan of the Wing Clan and Gareth of the Mirror Clan. But Muryan was living well in the Wing Clan right now; if Aoko recruited her, she might blame Aoko if her clan had been destroyed later.

But the core reason was that, though the Wing Clan had joined the Round Table's allied forces, its members were a mixed bag—fairies untested by history. Aoko couldn't let them into Ark World lightly. It wasn't a matter of morality but of responsibility to her companions.

As for Gareth—a Mirror Clan member and wandering knight fairy, counterpart to the Round Table's Sir Gareth—Aoko wasn't sure whether to seek her out. Gareth might eventually appear at the National Slaughter Theater in Darlington, but for now, Aoko had no clue where she was. It would be a hassle, requiring repeated use of high-level divination. Best to let it happen naturally after the Queen's Calendar began.

Aoko scribbled on a sheet of letter paper, listing all the secret tasks she'd need to do after leaving Fairy Calendar via imaginary number navigation. Once she reached the Queen's Calendar, fewer tragedies should occur in Fairy Britain, and Morgan, as queen, would have a much easier time.

She folded the letter, sealed it with magic so only she could open it, eliminating the risk of key information being leaked.

On Mash's side, after some discussion, she and Toneriko agreed that it was too dangerous for Mash to stay in Fairy Calendar Britain—she might cause a timeline paradox with her Queen's Calendar self, damaging her memory. So it was decided Mash would enter Ark World and keep Sith company for a while. Everyone was busy recently, and Sith was lonely there.

Mash agreed, happily entering Ark World, where Aoko assigned her a garden to manage to keep her occupied.

With all that settled, Aoko gave Artoria some warnings about potential threats, then called over Pepe, who'd been slacking off in Salisbury for some time.

"You needed me for something?" Pepe smiled, wearing clothes very much in the fairy Lostbelt style.

"There's a job for you," Aoko said. "Or rather, something you should be good at."

"I need you to go to Norwich," Aoko said. "Nothing urgent—I'll pick you up before our next imaginary number navigation."

Pepe looked puzzled. Was he being sent away for some hidden purpose?

"I need you to build a reputation in Norwich," Aoko explained. "There's not much time, but I trust your creativity. That way, when we reach the Queen's Calendar, you can quickly inherit your 'legacy.' Understand?"

"…I see," Pepe grinned. "Over this time, I've come to understand the fairies' tastes and nature. I'm confident I can keep them hooked."

"Good." Aoko nodded in satisfaction. "One more thing: it's unlikely, but not impossible in the lower levels of the imaginary number sea's Fairy Calendar. Watch out for a fairy who might call himself Spriggan—he's a human from Proper Human History in disguise. If you get the chance, expose him in public."

"Understood." Pepe agreed readily; with his abilities, this was easy.

Having set everything up, Aoko took off, flying east-southeast to Oxford, now ruled by the Fang Clan and home to Wryneck.

…Nothing noteworthy happened on the way. But as soon as she landed, Aoko saw something she never expected: in Oxford's arena, a familiar, blazing figure was fiercely battling the Fang Clan fairies, with the others cheering them on.