Moonlight Under the Hill - The Artificial Fairies
It had been a long time since I last went hiking. The last time was probably during my military service, climbing those rugged mountains. In Lewina’s memories, the only outdoor activity had been a simple picnic on a gentle hill. Still, this wasn’t particularly difficult. The height wasn’t extreme, the slope was mild, and the path was reasonably maintained. Since it was the mountain right behind the academy, it seemed people did visit from time to time.
But the flat trail ended quickly. There were signs of side paths branching off where others had wandered, yet in the direction of Fairy's Hill, only piles of rotting leaves covered the ground. It was hard to tell if this was even a proper mountain trail or just a random path into the wilderness. Fortunately, the low stone walls lining the route helped me reach the hill safely.
Still, why would there be stone walls here? This place was supposed to be off-limits. Unless… someone who could actually enter Fairy's Hill had built them?
The walls looked quite old, half-buried under fallen leaves and broken in several places. They clearly hadn’t been constructed in the last few years. That meant there was little chance of running into whoever had made them.
After walking steadily for about twenty minutes, the casual post-meal hike was already nearing its end.
RESTRICTED AREA A-04
Instead of a sign reading “Fairy’s Hill,” a marker labeled A-04 hung from a chain stretched between two trees. The chain creaked in the wind, letting out an ominous groan.
“Hoo…”
Was it really okay to go in? I wiped away my sweat and hesitated for a moment, but there was no reason to turn back now. Ah, whatever. What could possibly happen? Even if I got lost, I could just keep walking until I found my way back to the academy. The headmaster must have had a reason for believing I could enter Fairy's Hill.
The moment I lifted the waist-high chain and took one step closer to Fairy's Hill—
Kikik.
“Huh?”
A laugh echoed from somewhere. It sounded like the mischievous giggle of a prankster watching someone about to fall into a trap they had set. I carefully scanned my surroundings and took another cautious step forward.
Rumble—
A faint vibration shook the ground, rustling the piled leaves. Then came the sound of something heavy rolling toward me.
No way.
“Whoa!”
A massive boulder was suddenly tumbling down the path. And I was standing right in its way.
They said it was safe! I’ve been tricked!
When I spun around, all I saw was that awkwardly high chain. Jumping over it would be difficult, and crawling underneath would leave me vulnerable to the incoming rock. Without a second of hesitation, I threw myself sideways.
Rumble…
The boulder shot past with barely a few seconds to spare. If I had been even a little slower, I would have been crushed beneath a rock the size of a house.
After calming my pounding heart, I stood up, brushed off the leaves and dirt, and looked back.
“Huh?”
The boulder that had just passed my position was nowhere to be seen. It should have smashed through the chain and rolled down the slope, but the chain was intact and there wasn’t a single trace of the rock’s passage.
"Kyahaha! Look at this one. It's been ages since I've seen a human react like that!"
"That prank was a bit too much."
"Who cares? It was just an illusion anyway. Huh? This kid seems a little strange?"
"What? Wait..."
I stared at the tiny figures floating a short distance away. They looked like little girls with translucent wings, palm-sized imps hiding among the trees. These were the reason the place was called Fairy's Hill, and in the original story, they were the ones who had led the protagonist Rendel here.
They were Artificial Fairies equipped with AI.
**
The Artificial Fairies weren’t making their first appearance in this series. They had debuted in the fifth installment—a short, six-episode anime called Meister’s Spring.
Meister’s Spring told the life story of the engineer who first created Aindiums. The entire work was one giant bundle of foreshadowing. The plot itself was straightforward: the protagonist, a power armor engineer from the Empire, defected to the Republic when internal strife began brewing. There, he turned the paper-only concept of the Aindium into reality. It was also established that the Aind Alpha piloted by the first work’s protagonist had been built by this very engineer.
He helped his fellow countrymen—who had fled the Empire amid a near-civil war over the imperial throne—settle in the Republic. In his later years, he built a private laboratory in some remote location and left a major hint that he was researching something called Artificial Fairies. It was only natural that readers would eventually realize this island was that very remote place. After all, the Artificial Fairies he had been researching were appearing right here.
The Artificial Fairies were AI that assisted with Aindium calculations and magical abilities. After Meister’s Spring, they weren’t mentioned for a long time. Then, in this work I had entered, the protagonist Rendel happened to spot one, followed it, and met Lewina for the first time at Fairy's Hill. After that, one of the fairies attached itself to Rendel’s machine, the White Fang, becoming the catalyst for his dramatic growth in power.
In other words, the fairies in front of me right now were extremely important for this encounter.
Important or not, though, I couldn’t just let them get away with rolling a fake boulder at me.
When I crossed my arms and continued glaring at them, the fairies slowly backed away before shooting off toward the hill in a flash.
Think you can get away?
I dropped my bag and ran after them along the path. Their flight was fast, but I wasn’t trying to catch up. Their destination was already decided anyway.
"Kyaa! Do something about her!"
"What am I supposed to do?! This is all your fault!"
"What's going on? Why is there another human here?"
"Wait. I think she can see us."
"For real? Didn't you all activate the optical camouflage? Is it broken?"
"No abnormalities. Humidity and sunlight levels are both good."
The closer I got to the hill, the more fairies appeared. At a glance, there were already well over two dozen visible. I left the panicking fairies behind and chased only the original pair.
"Help! A fairy killer is chasing us!"
“Who are you calling a killer!”
I hadn’t even laid a finger on them, let alone killed anyone. Not yet, anyway.
My shout startled the fairies, sending them scattering in every direction in a panic.
"She can understand what we're saying?"
"Tighten communication security immediately!"
After running for a while, I finally reached the top of the hill. I paused to catch my breath before stepping into the clearing.
The fairies flew around, whispering among themselves. Their voices were quieter than rustling leaves in the wind, yet strangely clear to my ears.
"The dizziness and vertigo spells didn't work."
"Could she be a compatible one?"
"No way. The country where compatible ones appear is far from here."
"Still, just to be safe, let's run a mana scan."
One of the fairies approached me with a frightened expression. After the chase, most of my anger had faded, and making enemies with the fairies would only hurt me. So I decided to behave.
I raised both hands to show I meant no harm.
“Hurry up and do that scan or whatever. I’ll stay still.”
"Is she for real?"
"What if it's a trap? She's already inside. Number 11, hurry up."
"Okay. Eit. Eit."
Her approach was as cautious as if she were touching a dangerous object. But where on earth had she learned to keep poking someone’s head like that? I was getting the strong urge to flick her forehead.
After tapping my head a few times, the fairy eventually sat on top of it and began playing with my hair, twisting it this way and that.
"Hehe. It's so soft."
"Number 11! Do it properly!"
"Ah, right. Mana scan… Yap."
A refreshing breeze gathered above my head, swept across my body, and then scattered. The fairy named Number 11 fluttered back up and returned to her companions.
A meeting among the fairies began. From the occasional words I caught, it seemed there was something unusual about my mana. Lewina’s dark-attribute mana specialized in stealth, concealment, and special maneuvers. Maybe that was why traps didn’t work on me—like the abilities of a spy, thief, or intelligence agent?
A short while later, the fairies who had finished their discussion approached me.
"Hello? We're fairies."
“I know. You’re Artificial Fairies. The AI supporters for Aindiums created by Dr. Carol, right?”
"That's right. You know a lot. Do you know our master too?"
"Wow. She must be older than she looks."
“We’re not personally acquainted. And I’m exactly as old as I look. Anyway, is it okay for me to enter this hill?”
"Of course. You're a compatible one, after all. But haven't you already come in?"
The fairies smiled innocently and guided me forward.
*
Fairy's Hill was a grassy clearing deep within a dense forest. The opposite side of the path I had climbed was a steep cliff, and on one side of the clearing rose a tall rock face. Embedded in that cliff was a single mechanical door that looked distinctly artificial.
“This is…”
"It's Master's laboratory. We've been maintaining it ever since he passed away."
It was the fairy who had first created the fake boulder to mess with me. Since she called herself Number 1, she must have been the very first one created. After apologizing for the prank, Number 1 began guiding me.
“Is it really okay for me to go inside?”
"Of course. We've been waiting for a compatible one to arrive."
So this is what the headmaster was looking for.
I swallowed dryly and stepped into the laboratory.
It was an incredibly spacious interior, hard to believe it was built inside a cliff. Living facilities like a living room and bathroom were fully equipped, along with a research lab and a workshop. There were some documents in the lab, but nothing I could read or understand. The fairies had maintained it well—the paper was only slightly yellowed, and the overall preservation was excellent.
And then there was the workshop in question.
Inside stood a single black Aindium.
“A Nimust-class?”
"Hmm? What does that mean? That's not in our database. This is just an Aindium."
Of course she wouldn’t know. The size-based classification system had only been created after Dr. Carol arrived here out of necessity. A Nimust-class was the smallest type of Aindium, ranging from about five to seven meters tall. Most of the very early models—which could barely win one-on-one against similarly skilled Imperial power armor super soldiers but would lose two-on-one—fell into this category.
The black machine before me was roughly six meters tall. Since it had a cockpit large enough for a person, Nimust-class units were thicker front-to-back compared to Aind-class. Because of that, they usually didn’t receive great reviews in terms of design, but this one had quite a stylish appearance.
Once the early models were phased out and eight-meter-plus Aind-class units became the mainstay, Nimust-class production naturally ceased for a while. However, as Aindium size increased, the quality of mana they could wield decreased. This led to attempts to create smaller Aindiums instead. With advancing technology, Nimust-class units for special purposes were reborn.
This machine clearly belonged to the latter category. And it had been built in Dr. Carol’s later years—the man who could be called the father of Aindiums. Shouldn’t this be called an artifact, an out-of-place object, or a convergence of lost technology?
My blood boiled as a fan of the Aindium series.
The Aindium’s maintenance condition was decent. Perhaps because it was a prototype, it showed no signs of battle damage, and thanks to the fairies’ care, its exterior was spotless.
“Can I pilot it?”
"Of course. In fact, we've been wanting to ask you to do exactly that."
"Thanks to the compatible one arriving, we can finally transfer Limpie."
“Limpie?”
"That's her name. Limpid Fairy. We call her Limpie for short. Isn't it a pretty name?"
Since the fairies had been carefully hiding and maintaining this Aindium for decades, it made sense that its name would include the word “fairy.”
I climbed the ladder attached to the back wall of the Aindium and opened the cockpit door.
Clack. Whirr—
The cockpit hatch opened, and I carefully slipped inside.
"How is it?"
“Ah. You startled me. You’re coming in too?”
"Yes. It's our original role, after all."
Right. They were support AIs. The interior of the Limpid Fairy was narrow, but there was no major discomfort when moving. The controls looked simple enough that even a beginner like me should be able to handle it without too much trouble. And if I ran into problems, I could always ask the fairies for help.
When I started it up, the previously dim interior lights brightened to a comfortable level, and the instrument panel lit up. The once-opaque front wall gradually became transparent, revealing the workshop beyond. The field of view wasn’t much different from other Aindiums I had piloted. In that case, moving it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Um…”
Before seriously operating the Aindium, I discovered a critical issue.
“The entrance is way too narrow?”
The workshop interior was spacious, but the exit door was just a normal automatic door about two meters wide. Did that mean I would have to smash through the laboratory to get out? Since it was built inside a cliff, there was also the risk of getting buried alive.
"Entrance? What are you talking about? We just go up."
“Up?”
When I looked upward, the ceiling became transparent and displayed the view above. All I could see was pitch-black darkness with no way to tell how high it went.
“Is there an elevator or something? I can’t see anything.”
"Oh right. We need to open the upper door. We can't do that ourselves."
“What? Then how do we open it?”
"Originally, Master operated the mechanism to open it, but he destroyed it himself before he passed away. It can be opened manually from above, but it's impossible with our strength. Still… maybe someone will open it for us?"
The fairy smiled brightly as she looked at me.
In the end, I ended up going on a second hike up the steep mountain in the late afternoon.