Type-Moon: Does a Small Start Still Count as a Start?

"Don't disturb us while we eat."

"You half-breed."

"We're about to begin."

"Begin? This is the first time I've heard you put it that way. What are you going to eat? Could it be something interesting? Let me see."

Although the owner of that youthful voice seemed to be somewhat disliked by the fairies, they continued asking as if they did not care at all.

"None of your business."

"Human. A human, half like you."

"Eat, eat."

"A tasty smell. A fragrant smell. A delicious smell."

"First time seeing one. First time bringing one in."

Just from their voices alone, Avia could already picture the fairies tearing apart his clothes, scraping off his flesh, and eating him.

He was probably the only human ever taken away by fairies to be eaten.

Yet one second, two seconds, then three seconds passed, and Avia still did not feel himself being bitten.

Instead, after three seconds of silence, the silver-haired boy heard something fall to the ground, followed by—

A voice that sounded utterly heart-wrenching rang out:

"Ah! You finally came over here... You are... mine... Is this... is this my father?!"

A Request from a Half-Nightmare

"Human. Your father."

"Is that true?"

"You weren't abandoned? That's wonderful."

"But I really want to eat him."

"I'm not fooling around, you know. Besides, the Great Mother told me so." The owner of the voice continued, "You understand now, right?"

Fairies had many origins. Some were downgraded deities, remnants of resentment from humans or animals, longings with nowhere to go, beings born from humanity's inheritance. Ordinary fairies relied on human intelligence as sustenance to maintain their existence.

Pure fairies, meanwhile, were beings born solely from the Inner Sea of Stars. They were the gods among fairies, called Great Mothers or Great Fathers, fragments of the planet's soul.

So, the moment they heard that the Great Mother had said it, the fairies immediately handed Avia over. In their eyes, no one would dare make up such a lie.

Avia, however, was not particularly surprised to suddenly have some inexplicable child.

Though this fairy's tone sounded agonized, most of it was an act. Those words had merely been meant to deceive the other fairies, and the claim about the Great Mother was probably just bluffing.

"Then I'll take him away."

This fairy did not accept Avia from the others right away. She first picked up the staff she had dropped earlier while pretending to panic, then used some unknown magecraft to make it float in the air again. Humming a tune, she waved her staff as she walked through the world saturated with immense magical energy.

Just as all the fairies assumed she would take him through that door, she immediately tapped the ground with the tip of her staff.

Tap. A soft sound.

In an instant, vivid colors like waves swept over Avia and the fairy.

When the waves faded, both of them had vanished.

When Avia came back to his senses, he found himself back on Avalon Island in the present world, and he could move again.

"The magical energy in there was so dense that a human should have started breaking apart from the inside after taking just one breath."

As she spoke, she turned toward the silver-haired boy, who was slowly rising to his feet, from where she sat atop a broken rock.

"But if you passed through that door, your body would dissolve and only your spirit would remain. I saved you, you know."

Avia silently watched her as well. She looked familiar, somewhat like a smaller version of that Half-Nightmare.

"Oh my, are you happy to see your daughter?"

Her lips breathed out an amused tone. Her adornments were simple, but her robe had been woven from the finest fibers.

Sunlight streamed through the sparse shadows between the treetops, falling upon her white hair and crimson eyes that resembled flames without quite being flames.

"Thank you immensely for your help. May I ask your name?"

"How boring. I thought you'd have some kind of reaction."

She suddenly looked disappointed, but a smile immediately returned to her lips.

"If you want my name, I am a half-blood of human and Nightmare. My name is Meli."

As expected, she was the Half-Nightmare Avia had suspected.

She was only around one hundred and forty centimeters tall now. Both her limbs and face were still immature, which was why Avia had not recognized her at once.

The legends of King Arthur likely took place somewhere between AD 500 and 550. Encountering the not-yet-grown Magus of Flowers a century earlier did not seem impossible.

But Avia knew this female Half-Nightmare's personality very well. Though she appeared extremely gentle on the surface, she did not truly worry about others or grieve for them. She was a creature without emotional fluctuations. Put simply, she possessed the alienation of a different species; she could not coexist with the intelligent life of this planet.

Then the reason she had saved him was probably because she wanted him to help her do something.

Only now did Avia realize why he had been unable to move after the fairies took him away. The magical energy there had simply been too dense, and his body needed time to adapt. Now that he had returned, it needed to adapt to this place again...

"My name is Avia. I am a Hun."

"What are you telling me you're a Hun for?" The young Meli narrowed her crimson eyes, raised her head to look at the silver-haired boy, and waved her staff. "That doesn't matter. In short, you're human. As long as that hasn't changed, it's fine."

"You told me your name and background, so I should respond in kind. I cannot conceal anything."

Avia gave a gentle smile somewhat similar to Meli's and looked at her with azure eyes.

"I am deeply grateful for your help, Meli. I will certainly spread tales of your deeds everywhere in the future. If there is nothing else, please allow me to take my leave."

"Oh, wait, wait. I saved you, didn't I? Can't you say a little more? Don't be in such a hurry."

Meli called out to Avia as he turned away.

"I can never repay the debt of saving my life. For the rest of my days, I will sing praises of the beautiful Nightmare maiden's great deeds, ensuring your name endures for generations as a cherished tale."

Avia truly did not want to get involved with this not-yet-grown Nightmare. Never mind that he already carried the curse of Rhine Gold; dealing with someone so heartless was troublesome. Who knew when she might trick him into some pitfall?

"Wait—"

The moment she saw this human wearing a smile so similar to hers, Meli knew he was not the sort of person she could simply fool with a few words into helping her. He was probably a troublesome sort, but that did not matter. She had to make him do her a favor and go to Wales for her.

The reason Meli did not go herself was not that she feared anything. Such an emotion did not exist for her.

It was simply because, when she had just been born, the parents who brought her here had told her:

Meli, no matter what happens, you must never leave this place. Wait for us to return, and then our family can reunite.

It was such a simple reason. That was why she had never entered anyone else's dreams.

Meli was half human and half nightmare, a creature existing in such a mixed state.

If she had been born as the child of a nightmare, her heart would only have desired to play in the world of the mind. Yet the individuality she gained through being human, allowing her to sustain herself through her own dreams without relying on the dreams of others, also made her feel fortunate.

She roughly liked humans, yet she clearly believed, "Humans are humans, and I am me."

But compared to the mature version of herself, the young Meli had one piece of news she absolutely needed to know—

"I hope you can go to Wales and find news of my parents. In return, I can do one thing for you."

Swiftly, Decisively—

In rare crimson crystal eyes, the blue sky was reflected, along with the spring-filled earth and a silver-haired human.

"Your parents?"

"That's right. After bringing me here as a newborn, they went to Wales. They never returned after that, so I want to know what happened to them."

The Half-Nightmare looked at Avia, her petite figure displaying an earnest attitude.

She was a wanderer of paradise, the immature form of the Court Mage and mentor who appeared in King Arthur's legends, a prophet. Her mother was a girl from Wales, while her father was a supernatural creature born between the moon and the earth—a nightmare.

Generally speaking, love between an ordinary human and an abnormal being, or rather a humanoid creature, usually ended in tragedy.

Take witches, humanoid beings who were essentially fairies, for example. There was once a witch from the Clock Tower's Department of Botany. After giving birth due to love, her body and appearance aged rapidly, and she was ultimately abandoned. The child she had given birth to and raised did not kill her when she wanted to die, but merely blinded his mother. That child's name was Beryl.

Yet there were also a few happy endings. Aoko Aozaki's mother, for example, was also a witch, but her father had always cared for the woman he loved.

And Meli's parents, who had been able to bring her here for protection, likely shared the latter kind of love.

But honestly, Avia had not expected this emotionless Half-Nightmare's request to be finding news of her parents. He had thought she would use him for amusement.

Then again, that was normal too. They were her parents. Perhaps they were the only ones to whom she had any emotional attachment. Once they died, she would feel nothing toward everything else. And that would happen soon enough. Children born from such love inherited the responsibilities and abilities of one parent, after which the other parent would immediately die.

As Avia fell silent, Meli continued:

"Because my parents told me not to leave this place, I can only ask someone else to search for them. But over these years, you are the only human who has come here. I can only ask you."

The Half-Nightmare raised her head through the gaps in her white hair and looked into Avia's blue eyes. He lowered his head and met her gaze.

After listening quietly for a while, Avia finally spoke.

"You don't want to leave... Could it be because you're afraid that when your parents return, they won't be able to find you? You're worried?"

Upon hearing this, Meli neither laughed nor grew angry. She merely smiled faintly and answered as though it were only natural.

"That's right. I'm waiting for them here."

This matched Avia's original impression of Meli. Yet the Meli who had earnestly asked him to search for her parents was not false either.

Like how day and night each had their own meaning, their expressions might differ, but neither was counterfeit. The feelings hidden deep within the heart might not be openly displayed, but they undeniably existed.

As for the region Meli mentioned, Wales, Avia had heard about it on his journey here. It seemed to be the Holy Church's main stronghold in Britain, responsible for managing faith and supernatural creatures across the island. But despite the official claim, rumors said it was actually exploiting everything ruthlessly. The Church did not recognize nonhuman beings. The fact that it did not directly massacre them like Dead Apostles was already considered fortunate.

That was why those fantasy creatures unable to enter the inner side lived in constant fear, terrified that humans might kill them someday.

As for why Meli's parents had gone to Wales and never returned, Avia suspected they had most likely been imprisoned by the Church.

"Well? As long as you help me find news of my parents, I'll do one thing for you..."

Meli had thought she had explained herself well enough. Yet the silver-haired human before her did not answer immediately. He even wore his usual smile, though it seemed subtly different, as he looked past her.

Was he refusing...? There was nothing to be done. It could not be helped. She would wait for the next one... Though she did not know how long that would take...

She knew that most humans these days followed the Church's faith, so it was only natural for him to refuse an act that might anger the Church.

Meli's mood did not change, but she still unconsciously sighed. She was about to return and soothe the fairies she had deceived. If they truly complained to the Great Mother, she would be in trouble too—

"A child wants to find her parents. I'll help."

At that moment, the human's voice came from behind her. The young Nightmare quickly turned around.

Beyond the sparkling ripples across the lake, with the gently swaying grass and trees behind him—

That human closed his eyes and answered swiftly, decisively.

And on the previously quiet little island, perhaps because of his voice, birds suddenly began singing, while the wind rustled through the flowers and grass.

Half a month later, sharp bird cries occasionally rang out in Wales, Britain.

Though it was the Holy Church's regional branch on the island of Britain, the closer one got, the more rugged paths appeared, along with recurring bumps and slopes that seemed designed specifically to efficiently ruin human feet.

Avia could not help feeling puzzled. The Roman Empire had always placed great importance on roads. Even the undivided Roman Empire would not have ignored such conditions. Why had the Church chosen such a region...?

Moreover, the smells of earth, blood, excrement, and rotting fruit mingled together, as though they had seeped into the soil of Wales itself.

Faced with scenery that remained unchanged no matter how long he traveled, an ordinary person would likely have suffered a mental breakdown. It was less a region than a maze. Each step felt like approaching the land of the dead, or gradually being swallowed into a monster's stomach. Some massive magecraft had likely been set up here...

Thinking that far—

Avia suddenly took a deep breath.

Because just then, a sound arose. The flapping of wings echoed in a rush as nearly ten crows took flight at once, flying toward a distant height.

Naturally, he looked toward where the crows were flying.