Time flew by, and Shirou and Morgan had already been staying in the village for half a month.
During that time, Morgan and Baobhan Sith became very close friends.
Just as Shirou had expected, the two of them got along extremely well. You could say they wished they had met sooner.
Morgan liked Baobhan Sith's kind heart, while Baobhan Sith deeply admired Morgan's strong-willed nature.
Baobhan Sith had her own work during the day, so every evening, around dusk, she would run over to their house to chat with Morgan.
At first, they mostly talked about life in the village, but before long, the conversation somehow drifted to the outside world.
Although Baobhan Sith was a fairy who had lived for over a hundred years, she had never once left this village since the day she was born, and she was full of curiosity about the world beyond it.
Morgan proudly began recounting what she had seen on her pilgrimage, with a great deal of dramatic embellishment.
"And so, thanks to my efforts, peace returned to Cornwall. But peace can never last forever. Before long, a new enemy appeared, invaders from the moon this time. There were more than three billion Mors. I wiped out two billion of them by myself, and Shirou took care of the remaining billion..."
"Amazing!"
Baobhan Sith clapped with a face full of admiration.
"Witch-sama and Knight-sama are both incredible!"
Hey, that's such obvious bragging... don't just believe every word of it, Shirou thought, smiling helplessly from the side.
"So that means everyone gets to live happily thanks to Witch-sama?"
"That's right. It was all my doing."
Morgan proudly puffed out her petite chest.
Ever since Baobhan Sith had started spending time with Morgan and Shirou, the bullying she suffered from the village fairies had noticeably decreased.
Bruises still appeared on her cheeks and arms from time to time, but the overall number of injuries was visibly going down with each passing day.
Naturally, that was because Shirou and Morgan had given the village a large sum of money.
Since Morgan and Baobhan Sith were so close, rumors had recently started spreading through the village that she had been chosen by the outsiders to become an attendant. Naturally, the villagers no longer dared bully her so casually.
Baobhan Sith herself was slow to catch on, but even she had begun to notice that something had changed.
"Ever since Knight-sama and Witch-sama came here, every day has been so happy~"
The red-haired fairy spoke cheerfully.
"I wish you could stay in this village forever."
Shirou and Morgan exchanged a silent look. They both knew that was impossible.
Once they dealt with the accumulated calamity here, they would have to set out on a new journey.
At first, the villagers had not believed Morgan when she warned them about the calamity, since the last large-scale disaster in this area had happened a thousand years ago.
So in the end, the preparations to fight it could only be handled by Morgan herself. Baobhan Sith enthusiastically offered to help, but she simply was not suited for combat.
As for Shirou, he really had no time to spare.
Not long after settling into the village, he had become something of a celebrity among the fairies.
Every fairy in the village wanted to get on good terms with Shirou. They brought him gifts every day to curry favor with him, or invited him out to spend time together.
Even the Wind Clan and the Earth Clan, who had been at odds for thousands of years, acted as though they were getting along perfectly whenever Shirou was around.
The reason was simple. Shirou was a human who was naturally loved by fairies.
Although Shirou kept the fact that he was human hidden, the fairies still lowered their guard around him even without knowing why, and naturally wanted to be close to him.
"Morning, Shirou! Yesterday was so much fun!
Seeing you eat so happily really made me like you!
I'll bring even more food today, so I'm counting on you!"
"Good day, Shirou. There is life in your voice, and hearing it is as refreshing as a spring breeze.
Why not recite some poetry today? I'd like to play the harp again for the first time in ages."
"Shirou, if your clothes get torn, come find me.
I still have some fine fabric left. If you wear it, there's no way the clothes will outshine you."
Shirou did not even have to do anything. Just being there beside the fairies was enough to put them in a good mood for the whole day.
Someone like that was, naturally, welcomed and adored by all of them.
Shirou did not like fairies at all, so being liked by them only left him feeling troubled.
After venting to Morgan about everything he had been dealing with in the village, he got this response:
"Isn't that a good thing? I'll leave negotiations with the fairies to you, Minister of Foreign Affairs!"
That was the Witch's declaration.
"Oh, right, right. Getting along with the fairies is fine...
But don't get too close to the girls from the Wind Clan... and not the Fang Clan either!"
That was asking a bit too much.
After all, Shirou had absolutely no way of telling the Fang Clan's sexes apart.
"But Shirou really is popular with the fairies. Must be nice.
Ah, I'm not saying I envy you for being liked by them. I mean, if I had that kind of ability too... things probably would go much more smoothly."
When she said that, a faint trace of melancholy appeared in Morgan's blue-green eyes.
The reason she was hiding her name and calling herself Aesc the Savior was because Paradise Fairies were hated by other fairies.
Morgan's true identity was that of a Paradise Fairy, a Star Seed that had drifted down to the surface from Paradise, the Inner Sea of the Planet.
If one was fortunate enough to take root on the surface, it would be born in a larval form.
Until reaching adulthood, it would grow much like a human.
That was why they were also called growing fairies, loved by some fairies and hated by others.
Morgan had drifted to Orkney, the island at the edge of Britain, where the chief of the Rain Clan took her in and raised her as his daughter.
But that act enraged the chiefs of the other fairy clans.
The nobler the bloodline of a high-ranking fairy, the more they hated and feared the Paradise Fairy and her mission.
The Wind, Earth, Fang, and Wing clans joined forces to wage war and destroyed Orkney. Morgan barely managed to escape.
Even so, she never abandoned the mission of the Paradise Fairy. Even while hiding her identity, she remained determined to complete her pilgrimage to save the world.
Not for revenge against the enemies who had killed her adoptive parents, and not for the sake of the fairies who despised her.
Everything was for the sake of the Britain she loved.
"Even though I don't want the fairies to like me at all, being as popular as Shirou would make a lot of things easier."
At that moment, Baobhan Sith suddenly spoke with complete seriousness.
"I really like you, Witch-sama! Of course, I like Knight-sama too... Shirou gives off this special feeling all over. Just seeing him makes me feel better.
But Witch-sama is different. You're cool and dashing, cheerful, and you know so much. It feels like there's nothing you don't know, nothing you can't do..."
The red-haired fairy looked at her with longing.
"I want to become a fairy like Witch-sama too... ah, s-sorry! Did I get carried away?
For someone as useless and worthless as me to dream of becoming a fairy as amazing as Witch-sama... I'm so, so sorry... uuu..."
Morgan froze for a moment, then smiled and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Thank you, Baobhan Sith!"
On the twentieth day of their stay in the village, the calamity erupted.
It was a night that seemed peaceful on the surface.
As usual, after offering their daily prayers of atonement, the fairies shut the village gates.
Thanks to Shirou's persuasion, the villagers had voluntarily organized patrols, and at night they would make rounds through the village.
But then, the anomaly appeared.
The gates were smashed apart, and dozens of calamities poured into the village.
Unlike any calamity they had faced before, these things were less "terrifying" and more outright "mentally contaminating" in appearance.
They were... hands, scuttling rapidly across the ground.
The cursed toxins released by those Hands eroded the fairies' skin and nerves. Even the Fang Clan, with their resistance to Moss, could not escape unharmed.
The calamity slipped into houses and slaughtered sleeping fairies.
The village quickly fell into chaos.
Shirou and Morgan were both shocked by this enemy, unlike anything they had ever seen before, but they threw themselves into the counterattack almost immediately.
According to their plan, Baobhan Sith led the villagers to shelter, Morgan was responsible for setting up barriers, and Shirou fought the enemy alongside the fairies.
The fairies could do little against the calamity in direct combat, so their role was to lure the creatures to designated locations, where Morgan would wipe them out all at once with Grand Magecraft.
The battle was going fairly smoothly. By the latter half of the night, half of the invading Curse Hands had already been destroyed, though the villagers had naturally suffered devastating losses as well.
This accumulated calamity was not especially large in scale.
If it had been one of the great calamities that appeared on a centennial scale, the village probably would have fallen long ago.
Just as Shirou and Morgan were about to finish off the rest in one final push...
The Curse Hands suddenly began converging from every direction, eventually fusing into an even larger Hand of Calamity.
Staring at the gigantic arm rising into the night, Morgan's face turned pale.
"What in the world is that...?"
She had never heard of such a monster existing in Britain.
It was not a calamity born from fairies transforming into Moss. So where had this calamity come from, and whose curse was it?
"We can study it later! Focus on the fight first!"
Shirou's voice snapped Morgan back to herself.
"Ah, right!"
Shirou looked at her.
"There's no way we can destroy it in one blow now. Can you at least drive it back?"
"I'll try!"
Morgan decided to pour all of her remaining magical energy into her next strike, and raised both hands high.
Terrifying magical power began to whirl around the witch.
What she was about to unleash was the strongest secret art Aesc the Savior currently possessed, the ultimate Magecraft of destruction.
"...Holy Lance, Anchor Release."
The blonde girl loudly invoked the True Name of a Divine Spirit level Grand Magecraft.
"Shining at the end. Rhongo..."
A storm of True Ether formed above the village, and the laws of physics began to collapse and twist.
"...myniad!!!!!!"
A torrent of pure white magical power pierced through the overbearing Hand of Calamity, scattered the curse, and lit up the night.
And so, through the valiant efforts of Shirou and Morgan, the calamity was finally driven back.
The village paid a terrible price. More than thirty fairies died in a single night.
The next day.
Morgan and Shirou gathered the surviving fairies in the village and announced that the calamity had not been completely destroyed, only temporarily repelled.
"What do you mean it wasn't destroyed?"
"Is it going to come back again?"
"You've got to be kidding! I don't want to die!"
"Give me a break! I never want to fight that kind of monster again!"
Shirou stepped forward and signaled for the fairies to quiet down.
"The calamity hasn't been destroyed, but it was badly wounded, and the enemy is no different from us in that regard.
With our strength, plus what we learned from last night, if we spend the next few days properly preparing our defenses, then when the calamity attacks again, we'll definitely be able to destroy it completely this time."
Shirou's words reassured the fairies a little, and the villagers began voicing their willingness to defend their home under the Witch and the Knight's leadership.
"..."
Shirou and Morgan exchanged a smile.
They had run into walls again and again before, but this time, they just might be able to reach a happy ending.
Working together with the fairies to defeat this mysterious calamity.
That thought in their hearts was, in the end, nothing more than a fantasy.
...
...
A few days later, one afternoon, Morgan suddenly came to Shirou.
"I haven't seen Baobhan Sith since this morning.
We were supposed to go outside the village together today to survey the terrain. Do you know where she is, Shirou?"
"No. But she's pretty absentminded, so maybe she just forgot about it."
"Baobhan Sith would never forget a promise she made to me!"
Morgan puffed out her cheeks like a pufferfish.
So, under Morgan's orders, Shirou went to look for Baobhan Sith, but even after searching the entire afternoon, he found nothing.
He could not get any answers even by asking the villagers. If he had possessed the Mystic Eyes of the End at that moment, perhaps he would have noticed something.
By nightfall, the more Shirou thought about it, the more wrong it felt, and an unprecedented sense of unease began to rise in his chest.
"When was the last time you saw Baobhan Sith?"
"Hmm. I think last night?"
Tilting her head, Morgan said, "While you were out on patrol, I invited Baobhan Sith over to the house.
Hehe, I even painted her nails."
"No, I really don't need to hear about the girls' pajama party."
Shirou muttered, "Did anything strange happen over the last couple of days?"
Morgan pinched her chin and thought for a moment, then said, "Now that you mention it, a few villagers asked me a strange question yesterday afternoon."
"A strange question?"
"Yeah. They asked me, 'Is Baobhan Sith your attendant?'"
Shirou froze.
"...And how did you answer?"
"Obviously, I shot that down immediately. I even drove them all off while I was at it!"
Morgan crossed her arms and huffed.
"Baobhan Sith is not my attendant. That's not the kind of relationship we have. She's my most important friend... Huh? Shirou, where are you going?"
Shirou rushed out of the hut and headed for the square in the center of the village.
The fairies, who normally all returned home as soon as night fell, had gathered there tonight instead.
In the square, the villagers stood hand in hand, forming a circle.
The fairies' singing drifted on the night wind, spreading in every direction.
"Forgive us, forgive us."
"The prayers are done, now close your eyes."
"Happy times never last for long."
"The curtain of night has fallen, so put out the lights as well."
"Today is ending, so say your goodbyes."
"Today has ended too, ended forever."
"Forgive us, forgive us. Forgive our sins."
"Since everything has already missed its chance anyway, at least we should handle the aftermath properly!"
"Haa... haa... wait for me, Shirou!"
Morgan came running over as well, breathing hard.
"What happened to you all of a sudden? Why are you running to a place like this in the middle of the night..."
The Paradise Fairy went still with her mouth open.
Her blue pupils trembled violently.
At the center of the square, Morgan finally saw Baobhan Sith, who had been missing all day.
More precisely, it was what had once been Baobhan Sith.
She had been cut into dozens of pieces, so badly dismembered that she was no longer recognizable, but thankfully...the nail polish Morgan had painted on Baobhan Sith's nails the previous afternoon let her recognize at a glance who the severed foot on the altar had once belonged to.
".........Baobhan... Sith."
The Paradise Fairy dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she cried out and demanded to know why they would do such a thing.
She did not know about the conversation the fairies had the night before.
"I think I've seen the calamity that appeared that day before."
"What? Really?"
"Really. I once fell into a cave before, and I saw a mural in there!"
"That giant hand... it's actually a god's curse!"
"A god? What's a god?"
"Gods are evil Beasts! Beasts that want to take our land, our territory, away from us!"
"How scary! How scary!"
"How hateful! How hateful!"
"But... do we really have to fight something that terrifying again?"
"Even if Shirou says we'll definitely win next time, if it's a battle, people are still going to die, right? I don't want to get eaten alive!"
"Exactly. I don't know how, but those hands' curse doesn't seem to work on Shirou at all! That's why he can be so brave and fearless."
"Ahh, I don't want to fight anymore... isn't there some way to avoid the calamity without fighting?"
"There is... a way to do that."
"Really? What do we do?"
"All we have to do is offer a sacrifice to the Beast! I saw it on the mural! If we offer up a prepared 'priestess' as a sacrifice, it will calm the god's anger! Then the village will be safe!"
"That's great, that's great."
"Then nobody will die, and nobody will get eaten!"
"That's right. Let's prepare a sacrifice for the Beast together!"
"If sacrificing just one can save many more, then that's wonderful! Wonderful!"
And so, the fairies chose Baobhan Sith as the sacrifice.
The decision was unanimous.
There was no special reason.
She had done nothing wrong. Even the villagers who disliked her thought she was useful, obedient, and hardworking.
But if they had to choose one sacrifice from the village, then it had to be Baobhan Sith, didn't it?
The fairies were somewhat wary of the Witch, since she had been especially close to Baobhan Sith lately.
But when they went to ask her, the Witch angrily declared, "She's not my servant!"
See?
Even the Witch had abandoned her!
That awful nuisance, Baobhan Sith, really had been born just to become a sacrifice!
Baobhan Sith, the most hated and least valuable fairy.
If sacrificing her alone could save the entire village, then if that was not justice, what was?
By the time Shirou and Morgan arrived, Baobhan Sith had already been turned into a living sacrifice.
Since she was an offering for the Beast, of course she had to be cut into pieces small enough to eat.
"..."
Shirou walked straight through the line of singing fairies and stopped at the altar.
Because she was a priestess being offered to a god, her beautiful face had to be kept intact.
Shirou reached out and touched Baobhan Sith's cheek.
And yet, even in the end, the expression left on the girl's face was not fear, not anger, not despair, but a faint smile.
"A useless fairy like me can only be of use to others in this way."
"If I'm the only one who has to suffer a little, then everyone in the village can be happy... that must be something wonderful, right?"
Even at the very end, just before she died, that was probably what she was thinking.
"What kind of joke is this... what kind of joke is this! You bastards!"
In the next instant, a fluorescent green light shot through Shirou's arm like an electric current, and pure white heat suddenly burst from both his hands.
Blazing fire seized the pitch black, lightless night. With one furious swing of the red-haired boy's arm, the earth caved in and the air began to boil.
The fairies' song was violently cut off, snuffed out together with their wretched lives.
In the dead silence of the calm, dark night, with no calamity descending, the roar of a boy from another world rang out.
"Trace On!!!"