The Dreamland Fairy
Day 2.
00:03
Young Lily was fast asleep.
Factoring in her fatigue and physical capacity, the earliest she'd wake on her own was around seven in the morning. I could force her awake, of course, but that wouldn't be a great choice.
"I'm thinking."
It was already known through the system window that the Calamity of the Seawater, the Kraken, was stirring. But I doubted the Kraken would burst out and swallow the village on Day 2. Young Lily had only just become aware of the Kraken's existence—she hadn't even grasped the full picture of the incident yet. If the Kraken appeared in a state like that, it would effectively be telling me not to wake her at all.
Which meant that, with six save slots at my disposal, the intent was to make clever use of them while progressing. Since merely obtaining a hint had been enough to push past Day 2, finding hints could serve as the goal for passing the other days as well.
"Seven days at the absolute most, I'd say."
One per day for six days. And then the next day—Day 7. I couldn't know whether one hint would appear each day, but at the very least, a hint would surely be required to cross over into any new day. Within that window, I had to use the hints and whatever items I could gather to slip free of the Kraken.
Which meant that today, too, I'd ultimately have to go hunting for that hint...
She can't get there on her own yet.
At the very least, until she fully understood the situation and set her heart right, I would have to move myself.
If only there were someone who could help her...
Flap.
"?"
A breeze slipping in through the window flipped over the book I'd left at her bedside. It was the one Young Lily had been reading before she fell asleep—a picture book suited to a child of seven or eight, depicting a woman smaller than the girl herself, pure white, wearing a gentle smile.
"The Dreamland Fairy, hmm..."
07:50
"...I'm tired."
Faint light streamed in through the window. Even so, I sank back into the blanket, gazing up at a sky that was still dark. Maybe because I'd played with my friends until nine last night—sleeping that much should have been plenty, yet I felt strangely weary.
I lifted my wrist.
"Seven... no, it's almost eight."
Eleven hours of sleep. Why was I tired?
"Haaahm~"
Rubbing my eyes, I headed downstairs, where Mom was already preparing a meal. She greeted me warmly and told me to go wash up first. I splashed cold water on my face. Above the washbasin hung a small mirror.
"...No dreams last night."
When I'd napped the other day, I'd had some inexplicably frightening dream, so this time I resolved over and over in my head not to dream before sleeping—and sure enough, no dreams came.
Splash!
Finished washing up, I went to the kitchen, where breakfast was waiting. Dad had left for work before dawn, so he always ate breakfast separately. I ate quickly, wiped my mouth, and stepped outside.
"Off to see your friends?"
"Yep!"
"Alright, play safe."
I breathed in the early-morning air as the sky slowly brightened. It was a bit early to call it dawn, but the hours of daylight had been shrinking lately, so calling this dawn didn't feel odd.
"Hmm..."
The air felt strange as I breathed it in, thick with the scent of the sea. It hadn't been like this just a few weeks ago. I shook my head and brushed off the uneasy feeling.
Let's see... the time.
08:47
We'd agreed to meet the friends at nine thirty. Since I'd left earlier than I needed to, I had a good forty minutes to spare.
Should I just go home and read for a bit?
The story of the Dreamland Fairy I'd been reading yesterday...
Or maybe take a stroll around the village?
"A stroll? I've been all over it hundreds of times."
I argued with myself and shot my own idea down. My friends and I had roamed the village inside and out, a hundred times over. I knew this village so well I could proudly say there wasn't a single corner of it I didn't know.
Well. Except for one place.
"...Hmm. There is that."
One of the only off-limits areas in an otherwise utterly peaceful village. Calling it "off-limits" made it sound terribly dangerous, but the truth was it was just a tall hill with rough paths, blocked off to keep little children from wandering up there. Even when my friends and I had sneaked up to its foot a while back, nothing unusual had happened.
"Hm... shall I go?"
Playing with the friends had grown tiresome anyway—we always ended up at the same old places. We were bigger now than we'd been back when the warning was given, so there'd be no problem!
I set off for the hill.
09:12
I'd been rather nervous at first, but the hill turned out to be lower than I'd imagined—little more than a small garden, ten minutes on foot. The path wasn't even all that rough, and pretty grasses grew thick at the top, making it a perfect spot to play. Sitting on the hill and gazing down at the whole village, I snorted a laugh.
"What was that all about? It's nothing at all."
Come to think of it, I'd only been told it was off-limits about six or seven years ago.
Back when I and the other kids were around five to seven.
The me of that time would have struggled just to climb it, but to twelve-year-old Lily, it was nothing. Whoosh. I went beyond merely sitting and flopped flat onto my back. The sky was slowly brightening, and the breeze was cool.
"This is the life..."
I could fall asleep just like th—
"No... the friends are coming soon..."
Just a tiny nap, then. ...Why not?
Helplessly, I sank into sleep.
Day 2.
09:13
I, in possession of Young Lily's body, flexed my fingers. Just as before, I lulled her into a deep sleep, layered on the awareness of fatigue, and claimed ownership of the body within moments. It was earlier than I'd expected—but what mattered was that I'd gotten it.
The problem was that because of the "playdate" with her friends, the time I could hold the body was a mere seventeen minutes. An incredibly short span compared to the two hours and twenty-five minutes I'd had before. But it hardly mattered.
"It won't take long."
The moment Young Lily became aware of the calamity, the range of techniques I could use had broadened. It meant the category of anomalies she could accept had widened. Not that she could use spears or hammers or the like yet—
Whoosh...!
—but at least this much was possible.
I gathered pure white light together and molded it into a single shape. Hair like a white cascade poured down like a waterfall, and a woman with a gentle expression slowly opened her blue eyes. She was only the size of Young Lily's forearm—small enough to be a fairy, or perhaps a spirit. And last of all, a pure white book appeared in her hands.
A familiar book.
A tiny fairy of light, resembling someone, drifted slowly toward me. A being with neither ego nor soul—purely an illusion spell woven from light, nothing more. It had no special meaning, carried the risk of exposure, and honestly seemed to hurt plausibility more than help it...
"But no matter how I think about it, nothing else comes close."
The original plan had been to keep uncovering hints each time I claimed the body, working my way toward the final destination. Young Lily, inheriting Gio's role, was meant to be the one who held back the Kraken, after all.
But a question nagged at me.
Why should Lily be the one saddled with this?
Setting aside system mechanics like time and saves, there was no reason Young Lily needed to face the world's evil and sacrifice herself. Even Gio, who had presumably fled, hadn't chosen that burden himself—so why should she carry it in his place?
Later on, more hints might surface and reveal that "oh, so-and-so was the reason Young Lily was given this duty~"
But I don't like it.
The role and plausibility this dungeon had arbitrarily assigned. None of it sat well with me. So I would grant my own version of "plausibility."
"This is a fairy who delivers power and the future to Young Lily. Think of it as taking over the role of the 'sorcerer' that Gio encountered."
Just as the sorcerer had given Gio the crystal, the rituals, and knowledge of the future, I would use the fairy to pass power and knowledge to Young Lily. No need to stray from imagination or plausibility at all.
Flap.
The cloud-shaped book in the fairy's hands turned a page.
The very Dreamland Fairy book that Young Lily had been happily reading until yesterday.
"Because the Dreamland Fairy herself will tell her, of course."
From this moment on, I was the Dreamland Fairy.
Everything felt hazy. My whole body was soft and woolly, without a shred of strength in it. Somehow it felt like this had happened before...
Don't tell me...
"Am I dreaming?"
You are.
"Kyaah!"
I woke up. Or... did I? I'd risen in my pajamas, but surrounded by soft white clouds, I didn't seem to be standing at all.
On top of clouds?
It was a place I'd never seen before, wonderfully strange—yet somehow it felt familiar. It was the place from the book I'd read just yesterday.
"The Dreamland Fairy's..."
Lily.
Whoosh! The Dreamland Fairy appeared right before my eyes!
Her face was far more beautiful than in the illustrations—far, far more—but surely...!
"Y-you're really the Dreamland Fairy?!!"
I am. I am the Dreamland Fairy.
"Wow..."
I was stunned. To see the Dreamland Fairy herself in a dream, of all things! Compared to those strange nightmares I'd had before, this was a hundred times better!
Grinning from ear to ear, I approached the Dreamland Fairy.
"Dreamland Fairy! You know every dream there is, right?"
That's right.
"I had a weird dream yesterday, and it was so scary. But somehow it felt so real..."
Just in case.
"It, it wasn't real, right...?"
The Dreamland Fairy knows every dream there is. So she would know about the strange dream I'd had, too!
The Dreamland Fairy's expression turned a little troubled.
...Or sad, maybe, if you looked at it a certain way.
"...Dreamland Fairy?"
That was no dream.
"Huh?"
But don't you worry. The Dreamland Fairy likes good children.
Boop.
A pure white touch brushed past me. A soft white glow circled around where I stood.
Three times a day. If you call for me, I will always come to help.
So if there's anything you need, don't hesitate—call for me anytime.
"What do you m—"
.
.
.
"...?!"
Bolt upright!
I woke up.
Chime~
Along with a soft white glow drifting at my side.
[You have discovered ??? of ???!]
[Lily (Day 2) becomes aware of the existence of the Calamity.]
[Lily (Day 2) may now call ??? of ??? three times per day.]
[Record — 'Day 2 — 9:30' has been saved.]
[Slots remaining: 2/6 (+?)]