Aozaki Aoko Case File

Atop a tower in Camelot, Aoko squinted down at the northern fairy brought over by magic mirror magic—her last collection in Fairy Britain. The lives and deaths of the remaining fairy and humans were none of her concern.

Aoko knew, however, that with the pride of the Royal Clan, it would be hard to persuade them to become citizens of her Ark World. Even so, she was willing to do them this favor, giving this innocent fairy a better ending than in the original timeline.

She planned to relocate the Royal Clan fairy to the Sea of Stars within her world.

While Aoko couldn't send large numbers alone, Arcueid could. Led by Cnoc na Riabh, these fairies bore no original sin and would face no obstacles returning to the Sea of Stars.

If not for problems with the Sea of Stars in the Fairy Britain timeline, the northern fairy would have long since left this ruined land.

As spirits of nature, the more fairy there are, the stronger the planetary vitality.

With a great mother fairy like Cnoc na Riabh joining—one who controls a fairy domain—she would surely be welcomed by Gaia, the will of the planet. This would also benefit Arcueid, the Earth's favorite daughter, and even Aoko, making the planet less hostile toward her.

After all, harming your timeline is different from robbing another. The Counter Force has no morals; as long as Aoko provided benefits, she was an excellent citizen.

She cast her gaze toward the massive pit in Camelot's center, usually silent, but now echoing with strange sounds, and occasionally, a couple of eerie black arms would reach up, only to be incinerated by Camelot's sealing magic.

While Aoko had faced god-level enemies at the Land of Between, she rarely defeated them alone. Land of Between Gods was limited in power; even the Mother of Fingers was just a high-level god.

Now, facing Cernunnos—the old grudge-holder sealed for over ten thousand years—Aoko was confident they could win together, but the cost was unknown. She also hoped to add Camelot, the ring-shaped city, to her collection.

Indeed, it was Aoko's idea to build Camelot in a ring. She'd spent time modifying the Ark World's castle-surrounding towns, and in this quasi-demi-plane, she had great power over terrain.

She and Morgan had thoroughly studied how to fit Camelot onto the Ark World's outer city. With perfect synchronization, they could merge the city into the Ark World intact.

They had tried several times and were confident of success. Even if it failed, Aoko could forcibly backtrack—the final battle with the Worms of Naraku would just come sooner.

Fairy Britain was finished, this Lostbelt timeline was finished; Aoko calmly reviewed every asset she wanted to bring back, feeling this trip had been truly rewarding.

Speaking of assets, at Melusine's request, Aoko had agreed to let her bring part of Albion's bones from the northern marsh into the Ark World.

Unlike Morgan with Camelot, Melusine's control over Albion's bones wasn't as strong, but she could still take about a third and deposit them in a lake in the Ark World's northern forest.

These dragon bones, saturated with True Ether, were so potent that even a magus of Pepe's caliber couldn't approach them without protection.

These dragon bones vastly increased the Ark World's mystery; considering the volume, the environment inside Aoko's Principle Blood Ring was now close to the Age of Gods—or, in some ways, even more so than when Artoria ruled Britain.

A sudden sound of something huge cutting through the air caught Aoko's ear. She looked back to see a sleek, pearl-white ship—still bearing scars, but mostly restored. Captain Nemo's damage control was truly impressive.

Aoko patted off her skirt, stood up, and with a leap, soared toward Chaldea's ship.

…

"Fast-approaching object detected!" Jingle Abel Meuniere shouted. "Spirit foundation scale… undetectable! Spirit origin type… Foreigner!"

"What?! Is this a trap?" Goredolf Musik turned pale. "Was the previous tech advisor's message a fake?!"

"Calm down," Sherlock Holmes reassured. "I don't think it's an enemy. If it were, they wouldn't wait until now to attack."

As Chaldea's crew panicked, a heavy thud sounded on the deck—something had landed on their ship.

"What happened?!" Goredolf cried. "What is it?"

Meuniere silently brought up the deck camera. On screen was a tall, voluptuous young woman with long red hair, dressed in modern fashion utterly unlike this world, smiling and waving at them.

"Wait, could that be…?" Goredolf, well-informed in magus circles, instantly guessed her identity, though he dared not confirm.

He blinked, and the red-haired woman vanished from the deck—then, the next second, appeared on the Storm Border's bridge.

"Hi!" Aoko winked, taking in the familiar yet unfamiliar faces. "Nice to meet you, I'm Aoko Aozaki."