The Fairy of Paradise lived on sheer perseverance.
The dream of creating a country where everyone could live in harmony.
She lived to fulfill the dream that her friends and family on the Orkney Islands had supported.
That was why she had spared the fairies, who deserved nothing less than annihilation.
Because there was no meaning in a country where no one lived.
She swallowed her hatred, swallowed her rage.
When the Calamities came to wipe out the fairies, she did not stand by and watch, but protected them.
With her own magic, she protected the lives of those detestable fairies.
Even though the very ones she had wanted to protect most were dead, sleeping beneath the soil of Orkney, killed by the hands of fairies.
-Are you alright?
The Fairy of Paradise smiled.
She sincerely worried for the well-being of those loathsome creatures.
She wore a mask and covered her eyes.
She had saved the fairies from dozens of Calamities, but they were not grateful.
She had saved Britain from several Great Calamities, but they did not bow their heads.
That was just the way fairies thought.
‘There’s this fairy named Tonelico, acting like some Savior.’
‘Isn’t she a bit annoying? Strange, isn't she? So annoying!’
‘So let’s kill her.’
‘Let’s hang her. Let’s tie a stone to her legs and drown her in the sea.’
‘How about tearing her limb from limb? That’s a brilliant idea!’
The fairies pointed their blades at their savior.
The reason was nothing special.
They just didn’t like her showing off.
‘So she saved us from a Calamity? So what.’
‘That’s all in the past.’
‘We never asked you to save us, you idiot.’
‘Hee hee. Look at her face! It’s hilarious!’
The Savior Tonelico did not break.
She was not so weak as to lose her life to the fairies' pranks.
She had already expected it.
The one who died was not Tonelico, but her double.
Her real self hid in the forest, watching them play with the fake, her face an emotionless mask.
Tonelico was the Savior. The hero her mother, her sister, and everyone in Orkney believed without a doubt she would become.
A dream that only one person had ever doubted.
With the sole determination to found a peaceful nation, Tonelico moved her body, which had been consumed by sorrow.
This was as far as I had seen of Tonelico in my dreams.
A future version of Tonelico that I did not know.
“For six months, I’ve seen dreams, big and small. Dreams containing your memories from life.”
Tonelico wore an expression so cold it was chilling.
It was the same expression I had seen in my dreams.
“So? Have you finally decided to face me properly? Brother Kyle?”
“…Yes.”
What did I want to say, Tonelico asked.
She pressed me for the reason I had asked about her family’s death.
She seemed furious at first glance, but I couldn't read her true feelings.
I, who have repeated countless reincarnations, have met innumerable people.
And I have realized that the human heart is incredibly complex.
The emotions I had so confidently concluded were completely wrong, leading to irreversible regrets.
I learned the hard way that one cannot carelessly judge others.
Having only glimpsed her dreams, I could not possibly know how Tonelico truly felt.
All I could do was convey my sincere feelings.
“We wanted you to be happy. It’s true that we all supported your dream, but we never wanted you to lose yourself by becoming buried in it.”
The Clan of Rain had accepted the Fairy of Paradise.
How could they have accepted the Fairy of Paradise, who had come to kill them all?
They didn't strangle her to death in her infant state.
Far from leaving her to grow up alone, they accepted her as a princess and raised her alongside them in the palace.
The Fairy of Paradise knew from the very beginning what an incredible love they had shown her.
That was why she began to dream.
To share the warmth she had received in a world rife with conflict.
To create a country where everyone could get along.
The little girl’s dream began that way.
But not everyone had a warm heart like the Clan of Rain.
The fairies of the mainland united with a single purpose: to kill the Fairy of Paradise.
The Fairy of Paradise was the end of all fairies. She was born with such a mission.
Who could believe her when she said she would abandon her mission to fulfill her dream?
The mainland fairies invaded the Orkney Islands.
The Clan of Rain made a decision.
Let us protect the Fairy of Paradise. Let us sacrifice ourselves for her dream.
That is what they decided.
They never knew what was in the heart of the Fairy of Paradise.
“If what we thought was a sacrifice was actually selfishness, and if we were the ones who led you down this path of hardship….”
There are times when being alive is a sorrow.
There are people who commit suicide, unable to bear being the only one left alive when everyone else has died.
There are times when life itself becomes a curse.
There are people who cannot die, and so they live, because a person who died told them to “live.”
“On behalf of everyone, I apologize. I’m truly sorry.”
I bowed my head deeply.
“I didn't even keep my promise to you. Maybe I thought it was okay since I would just be reborn if I died. I should have stayed by your side, I should have helped you….”
“Don’t apologize. Kyle was fated to die there anyway.”
“…What?”
“No matter what, he was destined to die for the ‘Fairy of Paradise’. That fact doesn’t change.”
What was she talking about?
Tonelico spoke as if she were a prophet.
“Mother and Sister Mia were destined to die horribly. In any possible timeline, Sister Mia disguises herself as me and dies in my place.”
“You knew everything that happened on the island? But at the end, you clearly didn't know anything. What is this…”
“I knew nothing back then. But I do now.”
Tonelico sneered at me.
It reminded me of the library on the rainy Orkney Islands.
The girl who always warmed her surroundings with a radiant smile.
The girl who smiled even more brightly whenever she saw me, who seemed like a child who knew no negative emotions.
The Tonelico before me was not like that.
The Tonelico in my heart would never sneer at anyone.
Then who, in the world, was this fairy before me?
I felt an unbearable sense of dissonance at this version of her that I didn't know.
“It seems you’re misunderstanding something, Kyle.”
“…What is it?”
“Why I answered the summoning in this form. How I, who am not a Heroic Spirit of Human History, could be registered on the Throne of Heroes. You don’t know a single thing, from one to ten, and you are even mistaken.”
I was wrong.
Tonelico declared it.
I felt a sense of alienation, far deeper than what could be explained by the simple passage of time and suffering.
“Are you the real Tonelico?”
My voice trembled as I spoke.
Tonelico, no, Caster laughed.
The color drained from her beautiful golden hair.
Gold turned to silver, and her warm skin became pale.
Her overflowing vitality was painted over with an aura of death.
Her gentle smile transformed into a cynical, emotionless expression.
“Of course. Though I now use my ‘original’ name, Morgan.”
Her clothes changed into a dress.
In her hand, a staff that was no different from a spear.
On her head, a crown.
Draped even in a black veil, she had the appearance of an undeniable queen.
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