"You won't be able to contact Chaldea," Aoko said, watching Pepe, who kept fiddling with the communication Mystic Code along the way. "Because the Mystic Code in your hand was never designed to communicate with Lostbelts in the first place. It's not because I'm interfering, you know?"
"Ah, ah, sorry," Pepe blushed, looking like a schoolboy caught doing something wrong by his teacher. "I was just curious about the existence of Lostbelts, so I couldn't help but want to give it a try."
"Just consider this as part of your fieldwork for Chaldea," Aoko shrugged. "With Artoria and me here, the fairies on this island can't make much trouble. Besides finding Hinako Akuta, I have some other things to do."
Pepe didn't ask what those "other things" were, instead focusing on delicately distributing his magical energy throughout his body to counteract the fatigue from long hours of walking—making him look just like a real backpacker.
"After the War of Summer, the northern fairies have been fighting with the southern fairies in constant skirmishes," Toneriko sighed, introducing to Aoko as they walked side by side. "But compared to the great war back then, things have been better overall in recent years."
"How long ago was the War of Summer?" Aoko thought for a moment and asked.
"About 1,600 years ago…" Toneriko replied. "But in recent years, due to the activities of the Round Table coalition, the human knight Uther defeated the other fairy clans in the War of Autumn and unified Britain. Next, as long as he marries Mab, the Fairy Queen of the North, all wars on the island of Britain will finally end…"
So, about the 400th year in the Fairy Calendar… Aoko thought. Looks like she'd arrived at a rather critical moment—not too early, not too late.
Artoria, walking nearby, heard another familiar name. Her expression shifted slightly, but soon she returned to her poker face, following behind Aoko like a proper knight escort.
Since the sky over Fairy Britain always looked the same, it was impossible to tell what time of day it was. However, once night fell, the sky would instantly darken, turning into night.
The group walked through a pitch-black forest. There were no sounds of insects—only the crunch of footsteps on fallen leaves.
A few glowing orbs summoned by Aoko hovered around the group, lighting up their surroundings so they could move safely in the dark.
"There's a clearing up ahead," Toneriko said after carefully recognizing the terrain. "We can rest there tonight and continue in the morning."
No one objected, of course. Neither Aoko nor Artoria were particularly tired. Among the Chaldea trio, only Pepe felt a bit of fatigue from magical energy expenditure, but even that wasn't severe.
After about another ten minutes, just as mentioned, the six of them arrived at a clearing in the woods. Totorot immediately flew over on her spinning wheel and began rummaging behind a large rock.
"Found it!" Totorot said happily, "The fuel we stored here last time is still here~"
With that, Totorot jumped off her spinning wheel, and pulled out a cloth bag from behind the rock, and the bag made a rattling sound with her movement—like stones clinking together.
"Great! Since we didn't lose it, we can save some magical energy tonight," Toneriko said, smiling as she picked up her staff and tapped it on the ground in the middle of the camp. Several stones floated over and arranged themselves into a campfire setup.
Totorot skillfully opened the bag and poured its stones into the campfire. Then Toneriko pointed her staff at the fire, and the stones burst into flames.
"Miss Aozaki, are those 'stones' actually…?" Pepe quietly approached and whispered to Aoko, looking quite shocked at the fuel the three fairies used.
"Magical energy crystals—you saw right," Aoko answered. "Most likely formed from the residual magical energy left behind when some fairies died."
Magical crystals of this concentration would be worth a fortune in Aoko's era. Even giving a small one to a minor family could result in a treasured magical furnace. But here, they were only used as campfire fuel.
On the other side, the Black Knight took off his heavy pack, dropping it onto the ground with a "thud," its weight apparent.
From the pack, he pulled out a frying pan and some cooking tools—though Aoko was sure they weren't made of iron. He also took out some tuber-like plants and put them in the pan. The other fairy fetched some carefully prepared but not-too-appetizing rations and came to the fire, seemingly ready to make dinner.
"Campfire dinners can be charming, but at your level, I don't think it'll be enough," Aoko suddenly said. "Allow me to show you a little something—think of it as a token of our friendship."
With Artoria's expectant gaze on her, Aoko took out a huge supply of fresh meats, vegetables, seasonings, sausages, and other ingredients from her storage in an imaginary space, then set up a grill over the fire.
Since neither the grill nor the tools were made of iron, the three fairies didn't sense anything odd about the metal. They watched curiously as Aoko prepared and arranged the food on the grill, patiently brushing on oil and seasonings.
The delicious aroma soon filled the air. Artoria was already swallowing her saliva, and even Pepe began to look forward to the impromptu dinner.
"W-what is this? It smells amazing…" Totorot asked, leaning over, a little drool at the corner of her mouth.
Fairies didn't need to eat; they could survive by absorbing magical energy from the planet's origin. But since they liked imitating humans, they occasionally ate food, though their cooking was rough and flavorless.
Toneriko was a bit different. Her traits made her closer to human physiology, so she needed to eat to maintain her strength and recover magical energy. It wasn't that she couldn't live on just magical energy, but she was more reliant on eating than other fairies and even benefited from it.
Everyone stared, entranced, at the sizzling grill. Aoko focused on cooking, and when it was ready, she took out six plates and forks, divided the grilled meat into six portions, and set them on a big stone nearby.
"Come and try," Aoko said. "I'm pretty confident in my cooking. You fairies have never tried food like this, have you?"
Of course, they hadn't. Aside from fairies, it was hard to find any other creatures in Fairy Britain, let alone pork and beef like what Aoko brought out. Toneriko had some knowledge—gleaned from Morgan's memories—but it was like book-learning, lacking the real taste of the experience.