"By the way, hasn't Touko come back from Britain yet?" Aoko munched on snacks while asking Alice, who was adjusting the PLOY.
"...She came back for a few days in the middle of the month," Alice replied while carefully carving a new vessel for the robin Robin who had accidentally killed itself. "But apparently, someone used connections to ask her to resolve an issue—something about a girls' academy."
"Oh?" Aoko stopped eating, magically cleaned her mouth, and asked curiously, "A girls' academy? Even the famous Third Magician needed for that?"
"Maybe it was a junior of hers...?" Alice answered vaguely after thinking. "Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem. She should be back soon."
Aoko tossed the snack bag aside, crossed her legs, and lay back on the sofa, trying to recall which junior could get Touko to help. She remembered Touko had also attended a girls' academy in high school.
Could it be Reien Girl's Academy...?
Aoko frowned and searched her previous life's memories for details of the 'Reien Fairy Incident', pondering the key points to watch for.
The current time was 1997; from her memories, Ryougi Shiki and Azaka Kokutou handled the incident around 1999, two years from now, and the most threatening figure at Reien, Satsuki Kurogiri, probably hadn't joined yet.
Aoko had always noticed that events in this Type-Moon world happened at times both similar and different to her past life's memories, so she couldn't be sure the Reien Fairy Incident would happen in 1997.
If Touko encountered Satsuki Kurogiri, even with her abilities, she might not be able to catch that guy. After all, he was regular on the Sealing Designation list, just as slippery as Touko used to be—a thorn in the Clock Tower's side.
As Master of Babel: Unified Language Master, this language allowed its user to speak to anything and manipulate phenomena with words alone. Because this system was so terrifying, some god abolished it at Babel, splitting human languages apart.
Touko's magecraft was top-notch, but her Third Magic didn't synergize well with Unified Language. She wouldn't be harmed by Satsuki Kurogiri, but she probably couldn't catch him either.
If even a Magician couldn't resolve a minor anomaly at Reien, the Aozaki family and Magicians would lose face... But Aoko didn't care about such things—after all, it was Touko.
Aoko was more concerned about Ryougi Shiki, a Root vessel, than Satsuki Kurogiri.
Ever since becoming a Magician, she'd avoided meeting Ryougi Shiki out of concern that the Root might do something to her, an outsider—she felt she wouldn't stand a chance against a Root avatar.
As Aoko rolled on the sofa, torn about whether to go check out Mifune City, Alice finished repairing Robin's vessel and got up, giving Aoko a smack on the butt.
"You, no slacking off," Alice said, savoring the feel of Aoko's soft butt and giving her a warning look. "Go, cook! Artoria and Gray are coming, and Kohaku and Hisui will be home from school soon."
Aoko crawled reluctantly off the sofa, giving Alice a resentful look, feeling for a moment like she was back to being a beginner mage under Alice's tutelage—walking on eggshells.
…
…
..
Having spent a few days thoroughly enjoying herself with Alice, Aoko decided it was time to get back to work, starting with settling the fairies.
She planted a Golden Tree sapling on a hill behind the Kuonji mansion. While not as huge as the one in the Land in Between, it could easily grow dozens of meters tall.
With her massive magic power, the sapling quickly sprouted and grew into a shining golden tree, about ten meters tall.
The Golden Tree wasn't just for show—the main purpose was to use it as a leyline node, strengthening and unifying the local leyline, and boosting the surrounding land's mystery.
Aoko had heard the Great Source was rapidly drying up in recent years. Though she didn't know the cause, she could locally boost the leyline density using the Golden Tree—a way to mind her own business.
Alice was very pleased with the golden tree, as it expanded her range of activity. Previously, she couldn't leave the mansion for long, but now, under the tree's power, she wouldn't turn into Yumina.
As for the fairies, the first to decide were the royal clan and their queen, Cnoc na Riabh. The northern fairies chose to follow her to the Star's Inner Sea, unwilling to live under others.
After receiving the request, Aoko used her contract with Arcueid to summon the True Ancestor princess back to exercise her authority as the Star's Brain, sending the innocent northern fairies to a good land in the Star's Inner Sea to rebuild their Edinburgh, along with some humans who chose to follow Cnoc na Riabh.
With the northern fairies gone, the Ark World suddenly felt emptier, but the Camelot fairies were still curious about their new home. The central town and Camelot were beginning to feel like real cities, not just big dioramas.
The girls loved Habetrot, who acted like a big sister around them, often taking Gray, Hisui, and Kohaku around town, introducing the shops.
To Aoko's surprise, Habetrot took a special interest in A;oce, saying she had great 'bride potential' and volunteering to make her a wedding dress.
This left Alice both shy and embarrassed, but instead of refusing, she asked Habetrot to make an ordinary dress instead.
Excited by her first commission in the new world, Habetrot gave her all, producing a custom dark green, gorgeous dress with a matching bonnet in just three days.
Alice was very impressed—at a time when the Great Source was declining, having a legendary fairy-made outfit was a status symbol among magi. If she visited the Clock Tower, the witches would be green with envy.