Aozaki Aoko [618-619] (Patreon)

Chapter 618: Why are your ears so pointy?

After finishing the snacks and black tea, Asuka felt even hungrier. She was now especially looking forward to the sumptuous dinner the witches had mentioned.

Don't get the wrong idea—this doesn't mean there was anything strange in the afternoon tea that Alice had sent in. It was precisely because it tasted so good that it roused the little glutton in Asuka's tummy.

While Asuka was dizzy with anticipation for the real dinner, Alice stood up, took her small hand, and led her to wait in the dining room. After all, no matter what, you don't eat dinner in the living room.

Seemingly resigned to her fate, Asuka followed Alice into the dining room, where she was lifted and set into a child's seat equipped with a safety belt.

Asuka remembered there was one like this at home, too. She knew it was designed specifically for children—did that mean there were other kids here in this den of witches besides her?

Thinking of that, Asuka couldn't help peering out through the dining room's huge floor-to-ceiling windows. The garden outside the manor was neat and elegant; a strand of moonlight hung from the sky, spilling over some unknown blue flowers by the window, making the scene exquisitely beautiful.

Unreal—that was Asuka's first reaction as the daughter of a scientist. Real moonlight shouldn't be this strong.

But all of it—the manor, the food she'd eaten—told Asuka this was reality. A place like a fairy-tale paradise really did exist in the world.

"Will Morgan and the others be coming tonight?" Touko picked up a piece of pastry, tasted it, swallowed it in a few bites, then asked Alice.

"Probably." Alice thought for a moment. "Though she felt a kind of rejection the last time she went out, she's very interested in this brand-new world and is researching ways to circumvent that rejection."

"To manage something on that level, it must be something similar to the Counter Force," Touko said, stroking her smooth chin. "A rejection of species not descended from Lilith—that's probably the contract between humanity and it."

"That's about the same conclusion I reached," Alice remarked. "Have you found anything at Bethany Base?"

"I just started the job!" Touko complained. "The only solid intel I've gotten is that this world's mystic side has plenty of great stuff. At the very least, those sealing pillars of unknown purpose really interest me—they're excellent works that combine mystery and technology."

Asuka listened carefully to the conversation between Touko and Alice, but realized she couldn't understand a thing. All she felt was that it sounded impressive.

These three probably weren't the old witches Mom's stories had mentioned… Asuka reached a conclusion closer to the truth. But she also realized these people definitely weren't ordinary. Ordinary people don't do magic, and they don't have manors this pretty, right?

While Asuka's little brain was working overtime, Morgan led the others in one after another. Besides the King of Knights in a casual suit, she brought Melusine and Gray—who followed close behind into the manor.

"You got here pretty fast, didn't you?" Touko looked at the sight of this one big family and said, "Where are Kohaku and Hisui?"

"They're still at Habetrot's shop," Morgan reply. "They recently ordered new clothes from Habenyan and go check the progress every day."

"They should be able to make it in time for dinner," she added after a moment's thought.

By now Asuka was awestruck by the newly arrived beauties. She had always been very confident in her and her mother's looks, but first came Aoko and the other two, then this whole clan of blonde and silver-haired beauties; it thoroughly shattered the tiny bit of pride about her own looks in Asuka's young heart.

And that blonde in a suit, and the other beauty in a lovely dress—both were women, so why did they have two daughters?

"Hello, I'm Gray." Gray sat down very kindly beside Asuka, smiling as she held out her hand. "Can I ask your name?"

"...Asuka—Asuka Shikinami Langley." Without thinking, Asuka extended her hand, took Gray's, and gave it a gentle shake.

She didn't dislike Gray's manner. The girl, younger than the others, treated her in an almost equal way, not as a child who knew nothing.

Even though Asuka understood that she was in fact a child, she couldn't help lowering her guard a little around Gray.

Once the manor filled up, the adults sat together to talk about adult matters, while Gray and little Asuka sat off to the side and chatted about things kids cared about.

"I was adopted by Her Majesty," Gray explained. "Her Majesty happened upon the village I lived in, defeated everyone who defied her will, then took me away and adopted me as her daughter."

Huh? Her Majesty? Did I just hear something outrageous?

Asuka blinked and didn't know how to respond.

No, wait—didn't Gray just say she was also taken from her village by that "Her Majesty"? Isn't that the same as me? Are all the kids here forcibly brought back by these women to be their daughters?

"Hm? You're asking if Melusine was also 'brought back'?" Gray thought for a moment, then answered, "More or less. But Melusine's situation is more special—Big Sis and Her Majesty brought her back together."

I'm done for, Asuka thought as her heart sank. I'm going to be forcibly adopted. Even if these girls look like they're doing fine… the thought of never seeing my real mom again…

Before this over-imaginative little girl could brew up fresh tears, the manor doors opened again. In came the lively sisters Kohaku and Hisui, followed by Habetrot, who floated in on her tiny spinning wheel.

If the earlier assortment of beauties still fit within Asuka's understanding—at most, extremely good-looking—and those silver maids could be chalked up as cutting-edge robots, then the little dwarf on the spinning wheel looked exactly like someone who'd stepped out of a fairy tale.

She wore puffy, cute clothes, and both her movements and expressions were lifelike—there was no way she was a robot. The floating spinning wheel didn't look like a hologram either…

The little dwarf called Habetrot had body proportions that absolutely couldn't be explained away as those of a very young human child. Even her ears were pointy.

Asuka's conclusion: this little dwarf definitely wasn't human.

Chapter 619: Asuka's Grand Adventure

Asuka decided she'd been taken to a fairy-tale world.

If you asked her why, she'd point to the varied crowds of fairies in the street and say to anyone skeptical: Are you stupid?

Although there were humans in this world, too, both their clothing and their day-to-day habits were far removed from the humans Asuka knew.

The fairies and humans all had some kind of wondrous power—strong or weak, it didn't matter. To Asuka, they were all great fun.

Those three women might not be witches or ogre-grannies, but they were definitely witches with extremely high status in this world—that was Asuka's conclusion from observation.

By the way, Asuka had become friends with the quiet, gentle Gray. Her foster parent were noble rulers. In the words Asuka had learned from her own mother, you could call them a "power couple."

Even more intriguing was Gray's sister Melusine. Though she looked small, she was awe-inspiring—

Like a knight.

No, not like a knight—she was a knight.

According to Gray, her sister was a dragon fairy, the strongest and last dragon in this world, and also the Queen Mother's fairy knight.

Apparently there were several fairy knights in all, though Gray hadn't met them yet. She'd heard they were pretty busy.

Asuka met the thread-fairy Habetrot.

In Habenyan's introduction, she said she'd once served as a fairy knight under the alias "Totorot," but had retired and devoted herself to being a fairy tailor.

"Huh? You're new? Why are you wearing this mishmash of clothes?" Habenyan said after looking over Asuka's winter outfit, which made Asuka feel a little self-conscious—after all, whether it was Gray or anyone else, their clothes were much prettier than hers.

"T-this… this is what my mom bought me…" Asuka felt a bit wronged; she didn't want to admit the clothes her mother had bought weren't anything special.

"Sorry, I wasn't badmouthing Asuka's mother," Habenyan hurried to say, then comforted her. "What I mean is, most human-made clothes can't compare to a thread-fairy's work. I can be confident about that!"

"How about this," Habenyan said after thinking a moment. "Tomorrow, have Gray bring you to my shop. I'll take your measurements and personally sew you an outfit. How about it?"

"Eh?" Before Asuka could react, Gray had already answered for her.

"You'll see tomorrow, little Asuka. Have a good rest here tonight!" Gray told her. "The clothes Habenyan makes aren't just ordinary pretty clothes—each piece has a special ability!"

The moment Asuka thought about getting a set of magical clothes tomorrow, she got so excited she temporarily tossed aside the matter of finding her mom. There was no way she'd sleep tonight…

And sure enough, Asuka didn't sleep well. The room was beautiful, the bed and quilt soft and fragrant, but just thinking about going to a thread-fairy's shop to get new clothes made had her too excited to sleep.

…

The next morning Asuka got up with dark circles under her eyes and was teased by the magician named "Aoko." Even so, Aoko gently brushed a fingertip under Asuka's eyes—there was a flash of golden light, and all the fatigue from her poor sleep vanished without a trace.

So this is magic? Way too convenient!

With high hopes, Asuka finished a delicious breakfast. The three witches seemed to have business and left the manor first, which made the one waiting behind feel a little lonely and scared.

But Asuka's loneliness and fear were soon proven unnecessary, because her new friend Gray showed up right on time to pick her up.

Asuka dressed up, slung on her red backpack with a little teddy-bear charm, and went out with Gray—only to be hit by the sun's intensity the moment they stepped outside.

It had been full-on winter in the outside world—so why was this fairy-tale world so hot?

"There aren't four seasons here," Gray explained as she and Asuka walked along a sunny, birds-and-flowers mountain path. "It's always spring. Lady Aoko's magic sustains everything here."

Huh? That child-abducting woman is that amazing?

The two followed the mountain path for a little over ten minutes and came to a terrace halfway up the slope. Only then did Asuka realize the manor was built on a mountain. Looking down from the terrace, the sight shook her young heart to the core.

First to meet the eye was a boundless sweep of forests, mountains, and rivers. Under the light of "the sun," these natural features glittered, breathtakingly beautiful.

Scattered among the forests, mountains, and rivers were villages of exquisitely designed buildings, connected by gravel paths. They looked a bit like the elven villages Asuka had seen in movies with her mother.

Farther away lay a city, huge compared to those villages. Although Asuka came from modern society, she'd never had the chance to view a modern metropolis from above, so this city in the fairy-tale world seemed truly vast to her.

The city was roughly divided into two parts. The outer section was a ring of streets enclosed by walls. On one side of the ring was a palace-like structure; according to Gray, that was where the Queen Morgan and Knight Artoria lived.

Further in, the architectural style changed a bit. To Asuka's eye, the colors of the houses shifted from multicolored to more unified—mostly white walls and blue roofs.

Encircled by these harmonized neighborhoods was the true center of the city: a magnificent castle built atop a hill.

Asuka didn't know how to describe it; in fact, she'd only seen similar castles in cartoons. The castle before her was clearly one you could see and touch.

It was made up of many soaring buildings and countless spires. Between this forest of spires drifted a mist that glowed with an eerie blue light.

The tallest of the spires rose like a Tower of Babel straight into the heavens, and at its very tip shone a sunlike brilliance, visible from anywhere in this world—a beacon to guide your way.

"Over here," Gray called to the spellbound Asuka. "We're going to that city today—using this."

Asuka looked down. Her new friend Gray was standing on a stone disc carved with intricate patterns, and at the center of the disc rose a stone pillar a little shorter than Asuka herself.