Chapter Text
Prologue
Oberon-Vortigern is falling.
Up above, the small light blink and disappears. He clicked his tongue.
In the end they made it.
His avatar body ached all over. Was it from getting pummeled by Chaldea forces, or from that damn dragon blasting a hole on the side of his ‘real’ body? Judging by how the hole had mended shut with his bruises still in place, it’s probably the former.
Oberon-Vortigern kept falling.
What went through his mind as he plummet deeper into unending darkness?
The long drawn, meticulous scheme?
The flowery asshole stuck in the tower?
The burning forest?
The small, intelligent moth with an obvious crush on him?
The pilgrimage?
The blood on his hands?
He will never tell. We will never know.
Oberon-Vortigern wondered how long he would continue to fall.
Off-screen deaths are common in plays. After all, they couldn’t actually kill the actor. The uncertainty of the villain’s fate can often be more engaging for the audience.
But this is a really boring way to go.
He wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. He started to wonder if there’s a way for him to completely crush his Spiritual Core and just end everything.
He wondered if he'd fall long enough to see the little moth that he had coldly thrown overboard.
Oberon-Vortigen thinks that he deserves to fall forever.
His job is done. The Apocalypse had descended upon Faerie Britain. Soon, just like the other Lostbelts, it would be Pruned and perish forever. Just like any other useless, rotting branch. He too, should perish alongside its decaying root.
A story should not overstay its welcome. A dying story stubbornly prolonged would only spiral into unreadable garbage. The ending is a part of the story too. Arguably, the part that will stick the most to the readers. That’s why all stories must end.
And his story is coming to an end.
His story will end.
But not here. Not yet.
He heard the tolling of bells.
“Oberon-Vortigern.”
And the stern voice of someone so familiar yet different.
He lazily opened his eyes, and spoke without hiding his venom. The story is ending, he doesn’t care to play an act.
“What is the Guardian of the Holy Sword doing here? Came back to finish the job?” He sneers. She does not react.
“That girl had one more wish.”
He knows who she talks about. There is only one foolish, stubborn girl that fits the bill. No, maybe there is another. But there is only one who is directly connected to the Avalon le Fae.
“While it is questionable if this wish would be wise to grant, her feelings were genuine. Even if it was all crafted through your web of lies, the girl truly cherished those moments.”
Oberon-Vortigern scowled.
“She’s just stupid. She’ll just die in a ditch somewhere if I don’t step in. My plan won’t progress like that. I don’t care about her at all.”
He expected her to frown. To get angry. To denounce his vile existence.
Instead, she smiled softly.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s the truth.” The way she said it made his ears itch for some reason. “But she still wished for your happiness.”
That left his jaw hanging open. “Me? Happy??”
She had the audacity to actually chuckle at his face.
“Even I think it’s ridiculous. I at least know you enough to know that it’ll be a pointless endeavor. You can’t be happy. Not in here. Not in the Proper Human History.”
Happiness is a concept that he understood. As a concept, that is. He’s an expert when it comes to using anything to manipulate everything. But happiness as an emotion? Oberon-Vortigern is only allowed to feel contempt and disgust. It came as a set with being a literal doomsday machine.
“So I will just send you somewhere else. That much, I am able to do as I am now.”
“Huh?” Is this girl serious?
Oberon-Vortigern felt a pull, and to his horror he realized that this lunatic is completely serious.
"I’ll give you a chance to write your own story. Of course, should you decide to do something stupid, in that girl’s words: I will manifest to kick your ass.”
Oberon-Vortigern is falling. This time, towards a bright light.
The last thing he saw was the girl’s glittering eyes.
“You don’t have to lie anymore, Oberon.”
He heard the tolling of bells, and the light swallowed him.
—
Suzuki Iruma thinks that he should probably be more angry. His parents sold him to a demon. That’s a new kind of low that Iruma wouldn’t imagine even in his fever dreams. But it really did happen. And said demon adopted him as a grandson, gave him food, bed, and clothing, then sent him to school.
And today would be his first day.
And right now they are going to summon their familiars.
The scary Kalego-sensei had expressed very clearly his dislike of Iruma. After what he did the previous day, Iruma thought that maybe he does deserve the animosity. It doesn’t change the fact that it was very scary though.
Iruma watched in awe as students began to summon various beasts. Az-kun summoned a very cool looking snake.
Soon, his turn came.
He fidgeted nervously with the piece of paper. He’s a human with no magical power, can he even do this? Kalego-sensei’s stare felt like pinpricks.
Wait.
Maybe it’s better if he fails?
If he fails this, won’t he be deemed useless and get expelled? Then he’ll be able to go home!
Home..
His.. home..
Was what he had in the human world.. really a home..?
Iruma shook the thoughts away. He survived for 14 years. He’ll survive more.
So he stepped into the magic circle, unsure of what to hope for.
Summoning is a ritual that calls upon beasts to a demon’s heed.
Summoning can also be a ritual that calls demons to a human’s order.
That’s how it normally is. That was how it should be. However…
Summoning is also a ritual that calls Servants to Masters.
Suzuki Iruma shouldn’t have any magical energy. He shouldn’t have been able to do this summoning.
But the hand of fate reaches far.
A helper of humanity. From a place impossibly far yet familiarly close. From the Inner Sea where the Faerie of Paradise returns.
There was a line. No, a bridge. So small and fragile, like the star that guided that girl.
Wisps as thin as spider’s thread weaves and stretches, cutting through the Abyss. They gently cradled the Insect, nursed his wounds, and restored his Core. And with a farewell like a butterfly’s kiss, they released him.
—
Iruma felt the back of his right hand burn. The wince forming on his face turned into him shutting his eyes tight as light flooded the entire room.
He opened his eyes to the gasps of his classmates and the sight of his ‘familiar’.
The figure emerging from the smoke was breathtaking in various ways.
It was humanoid. It- He looks like a beautiful young man. Iruma thought of the fairytales he had heard in his childhood, and this person seems to have walked right out of one.
His clothes look a lot like a fairytale prince, or at least royal in some kind. Long tunic and cape lined with fur. His hair was pale in color, and he had a star-like crown on his head. Large butterfly wings on his back noted his inhuman nature. His big blue eyes gazed downwards on his own arm, inspecting it sharply.
For a second Iruma thought he saw the man scowling and mumbling. But like a lie, the scowl went away to a serene and gentle expression.
The man fully turned towards Iruma, and in a practiced, flowing manner, he bowed with a flourish.
Iruma is completely convinced that he had somehow accidentally kidnapped a prince.
“Greetings!” The man said in a sing song voice. His blue eyes gazed directly to Iruma’s, and he felt goosebumps all over his arm.
“I am Oberon, Faerie King Oberon. Are you my Master?”
Ah.
He didn’t just kidnap a prince. He kidnapped something so much worse.