The Siege of Fairy's Hill
The enemies that had swarmed the school numbered a little over ten Aindiums. When the second-year seniors launched a surprise attack from the rear, the invaders couldn’t respond in time and collapsed with shocking speed. The protagonist Rendel’s performance stood out above all. Every time he pushed forward, enemy Aindiums fell one after another. Thanks to my sniper fire breaking their formation, White Fang could hunt them down with ease.
I kept my promise, Rendel. I let out a long breath and lowered my rifle. We had miraculously halted their offensive with almost no casualties. Now all that remained was to follow the operation we had prepared in advance….
“Huh?”
At No. 1’s urgent cry I swung Black Fairy around. Through the broad forest stretching from Fairy's Hill to the sea, I caught sight of Aindium heads. Not one or two—dozens of them. Their destination was unmistakably this place: Fairy's Hill.
The moment I saw them, the puzzle pieces clicked together in my mind. When I had watched this episode in the original work, one of the details that puzzled both me and the other fans the most was the enemy’s true objective. If their goal had simply been large-scale terrorism, they possessed both the opportunity and the firepower to rampage through the streets of Alob City or strike the academy buildings directly. Even without any prior preparation on our part, the damage had not been catastrophic—despite dozens of Aindiums attacking with the strength of a regular army unit.
Back then I had dismissed it as nothing more than an episode meant to showcase Rendel and the CT Club’s heroics. Now it was clear their real target had been Fairy's Hill and the laboratory belonging to Dr. Carol hidden within it.
“It’ll be all right, won’t it? Once they reach this place the Aindiums are supposed to fall silent…”
I muttered while watching No. 1’s reaction. The fairies’ response was distinctly negative.
The fact that most of the fairies assigned to guard the hill and the laboratory had been spread across the island to prepare for trouble elsewhere had come back to bite us. In the original story the enemy had never even set foot on Fairy's Hill before retreating; now they were closing in moment by moment.
I had meddled with the original plot and committed yet another serious blunder. My heart sank. Cleanup came first—there would be time for self-recrimination after the fight was over.
After contacting my ally I lifted Black Fairy’s secondary armament. Not the anti-materiel rifle that had only one round left, but a weapon I had prepared separately. Good thing I’d mounted it in advance. Whether I could actually shoot it accurately was another matter.
I lay flat on the hilltop, assault rifle with grenade launcher in hand. I could not allow the enemy to seize control of the high ground. If I bought even a little more time the fairies would return, and once more than half the enemy machines were silenced they would no longer be able to approach recklessly. Besides, holding the advantage of elevation meant I might be able to destroy a few myself.
Oh, right. I had almost forgotten to call the most important person.
“Enemies are breaking into Fairy's Hill. It’s the route opposite the school, so detection came too late. I count more than twenty visible.”
But the enemy had already encircled Fairy's Hill. Running away had never been part of the plan anyway.
I aimed not at the machine closest to the slope but at those following behind it.
“It’s too late to run. Black Fairy, commencing interception.”
Fortunately Rendel seemed to have caught the transmission as well. He had been at the school entrance only moments ago; five minutes should be enough for him to reach us. As long as the fairies and Rendel were here, we could win. I just had to hold out until then.
Pivit— The lead Aindium’s headlight died and its head drooped. It looked like auxiliary crew fairies 2 and 3 from Limpid were doing their jobs perfectly. I left the silenced machine alone and prepared to fire on the next when a sudden doubt struck me.
“What if you get caught in the grenade blast?”
“Then I can just open fire?”
With permission granted I felt no hesitation. After watching the second Aindium fall silent I fired a grenade toward a cluster gathered a short distance away.
Thump— The round, larger than a human torso, flew through the air and vanished into the forest. A huge explosion followed, shattering several trees. Because it had landed far from the enemy I couldn’t gauge its direct destructive power.
“I’ve hardly ever fired grenades before.”
Even firearms I had used countless times in a human body required an adjustment period inside an Aindium; there was no way I could hit accurately with a weapon I had never practiced. The armament-control fairy who should have been helping me was busy pinning the enemy down.
Whirr—
“Huh? Why are they moving again?”
I had been told that any Aindium attempting to climb Fairy's Hill would suffer system shutdown, yet the silenced machines were reactivating. Barely a minute had passed.
“Special how?”
“Then are they using a different language? Like a foreign tongue.”
“Oh, right. Never mind. I misspoke.”
In Galaxia every nation used the same language. It was obviously a convenient setting for the anime, but for the people living here it was simply truth and common sense. The fairies, having inherited Dr. Carol’s knowledge, naturally had no concept of foreign languages.
Aindiums that spoke a tongue the fairies could not understand… Still, since they could be temporarily halted, total incompatibility was unlikely. It probably meant the AI language or system architecture was slightly different.
I wasn’t part of the maintenance crew or an AI developer, so I couldn’t say for certain. The important point was that a handful of fairies could not possibly hold back twenty-plus Aindiums climbing the hill.
I raised my weapon once more. While the fairies’ pranks slowed the enemy advance I fired several grenades and gradually grew accustomed to the recoil. Once Aindiums began to fall or lose legs to my fire, the enemy launched a full-scale counterattack.
Fortunately they seemed to know the laboratory lay below and refrained from using heavy explosive ordnance. By the time I had emptied the grenade launcher the only damage we had taken was a few grazing bullets.
I thought I had held out for a long time, but the clock showed barely three minutes had passed. Why was Rendel taking so long?
As the fairies I had dispatched across the island returned one by one, every Aindium approaching the hill froze in perfect unison. The sight was almost beautiful.
Wow. With only the fairies, could we win any war without breaking a sweat?
No. 1 smiled as though he had read my thoughts.
“Really?”
Kwaaaang—!!
“Kyaa!”
A projectile launched from the sea exploded against the hillside, shaking the earth.
“Is… is that bad?”
After I barely stabilized the tilting Black Fairy, the enemy had already closed to point-blank range. Some had even set foot on the torn-up slope.
“Good. Keep interfering. I’ll do what I can too.”
I detached the empty grenade launcher and switched to the rifle. The cliff was high; to fire on the enemies above I had to lean out. In a normal firefight the height advantage was surprisingly difficult to exploit.
After a brief exchange of gunfire Black Fairy’s exterior was left ragged. There were simply too many enemies for me to handle alone. Should I flee now? Black Fairy’s flight systems carried some risk of being shot down, but staying here seemed even more dangerous. If another missile came I would be finished. Yet I could not abandon the laboratory or Limpid.
While I hesitated over whether to press the flight switch, a welcome voice cut through the chaos.
“Senior?”
Rendel, arriving well after five minutes, had never looked more welcome. I cautiously peered toward the school and spotted White Fang a short distance from the hill. Three Aindiums lay toppled behind him; the enemies on the slope still seemed unaware of the protagonist’s arrival.
“Senior! There are roughly five enemies on the hill. The rest are being restrained by the fairies, but it isn’t easy.”
“Yes.”
With no magazines left I would have to follow his order and hide. I needed to master dark mana as quickly as possible. Then Black Fairy could deploy optical camouflage, which would have been invaluable in a situation like this. I felt the painful gap in my own abilities. Had I reached the level where I could operate the anti-materiel rifle without fairy assistance, I could have suppressed them far faster. Even from an overwhelmingly advantageous position pouring grenades from above, I had failed to eliminate the enemy properly. The road ahead was still long.
By comparison Rendel was growing exactly as a protagonist should. His movements were far more varied and quicker than before. A spark of jealousy rose unbidden and I startled myself. I had told Rendel that a single year’s difference was enormous, yet here I was envying someone a year ahead of me. I slapped both cheeks to chase away the gloomy feeling and settled in to watch his fight.
The enemy had reached the hilltop but could not move properly thanks to the fairies’ constant interference. Deciding he still had time, Rendel began picking them off methodically from the outskirts. As more Aindiums fell in the forest the enemy finally reacted.
“That one…”
Unlike the other dark-gray machines, a striking dark-green Aind-class climbed the slope. The rest surrounded it protectively.
“Rendel senior, the dark-green Aind appears to be the leader. It’s currently positioned on the hill.”
The enemy was maintaining tight security, preventing Rendel from closing in easily. If only I still had grenades. I sighed.
“No. 1, tell the other fairies to focus on suppressing that dark-green unit.”
At the same moment No. 1’s surprised voice sounded, the ground trembled violently. Uuuuung— The vibration was strong enough to make the control lever shake in my hand, spreading through earth and air alike. It seemed the machine on the hill had done something. Even so, the level didn’t appear insurmountable—yet No. 1’s condition was clearly wrong. The fairy who had been fluttering beside me suddenly staggered and collapsed onto the instrument panel.
“No. 1?”
“Did something happen?”
“Was the vibration strong enough to knock out fairies?”
The strongest force currently at my command was useless. Worse, the fairies themselves could be in danger?
“Tell the others to run.”
“Good work. Leave the rest to us. Make sure none of you get caught in the crossfire.”
To be precise, leave it to Rendel. He too seemed to have sensed the abnormality and was preparing a surprise attack. I considered doing something to match his timing when another missile streaked in from the sea. There were only enemies on the hill. A friendly-fire mistake?
“Huh? Why is it heading this way?”
Before he even finished speaking I slammed the flight switch. Shwoong—
Kwaaang!!
The instant Black Fairy shot skyward an explosion erupted beneath us. The shockwave we couldn’t fully escape tossed the machine about in mid-air. Balance lost, Black Fairy began to plummet rapidly.