In the distance, a single boat was drifting toward the shore.
"...Hm?"
By sheer coincidence, the boat washed ashore right where I had laid out my nets.
My brow furrowed naturally.
"Tsk. After all the trouble I took arranging them. Now they're all tangled."
With a sigh, I approached the boat. I had to know who was responsible.
When I pulled back the cloth covering the boat, I found a baby wrapped in a bundle.
"...…I'm getting a strange sense of déjà vu."
My intuition screamed at me to abandon the child.
I ignored it and took the baby into my arms. The reason became clear almost immediately.
"Ah. You're the baby who has come to kill all us fairies, aren't you? The Fairy of Paradise, was it?"
A being born from the sins of our ancestors.
The witch who will burn this Isle of Britain to the ground.
The reaper sent from Paradise.
If left to grow, she would surely do just that.
She would wield a fearsome staff, conjure unimaginable magic, and drive us to extinction.
"A bit frightening."
Unexpectedly, I felt no particular emotion.
I've spent a lifetime ignoring the warnings of my intuition, after all.
I took the baby and returned home.
"Mother. I've found a strange baby."
"Wha…?! What in the world is this…."
My mother, also a fairy, recognized the baby's identity at once.
"Kyle. I was always at ease with you for being so composed, yet you have brought the greatest trouble of all."
"What is your stance as Queen? Must she be killed?"
My mother, the Queen of the Isle of Orkney, looked down at the baby with a searching gaze.
The child, resting on my mother's lap, looked so fragile it seemed she might perish at any moment.
Unaware of her own plight, the baby cooed, her sparkling eyes truly adorable.
"So, will you kill her?"
"...Do you wish for me to kill this child?"
"I would prefer it if you let her live. She is just a baby, after all."
A baby. Mother mulled over the word several times.
"Hah..."
"Goo."
The baby, mistaking my mother's finger for a toy, fumbled with her own delicate hands, playing with it earnestly.
"Mother?"
"Kyle. Are you certain this child is the 'Fairy of Paradise'?"
"I am certain."
"Then you must also know that she will grow to harm us in the future?"
I nodded. I knew that when I brought her here.
"And I suppose you also brought her here knowing I would let her live."
"...That is correct."
Mother lowered her head.
"Goo-da."
"She drifted here all alone, with no guardian. What would have happened if other fairies had found her?"
"She would have been killed, most likely."
"Kyle."
Mother gently admonished me. I bowed my head in penitence.
"Perhaps this, too, is fate. Perhaps raising this child well might be our atonement…"
And so, my mother took the 'Fairy of Paradise' as her own daughter.
My younger sister, Mia, who was the first to hear the news, was aghast.
"Eeeeh?! Is this child really the 'Fairy of Paradise'?"
"She is. There is no mistake."
"Wow. It's true. I feel an instinctive aversion to her."
My sister carelessly lifted the baby.
The baby, far from crying, stared at her face with a curious expression.
"And she's totally adorable. I love it. I approve."
"You really are simple-minded."
"You can go, big brother. I'm going to raise this child into a princess. Yep."
"She's already a princess the moment she became Mother's daughter."
Was that so? My sister looked shocked.
"Th-Then how am I supposed to raise her? What about my 'Heart-Thumping Ten-Year Plan to Raise a Princess'?"
"Mia, put the baby back down. And stop your strange delusions."
"Eeeek. Mother, you're so mean. Hmph. I hate you."
My sister stormed out.
She says that, but she isn't really angry.
She's probably hurrying back to look for clothes for the baby, or food she can eat.
Mother looked out the window. For a long time, she watched the scenery of the fairies going about their lives.
"I don't know what I should tell my people. The 'Rain Clan' is gentle, but would they truly accept even the 'Fairy of Paradise'?"
"Are you not the leader of the 'Rain Clan', Mother? I am sure the people will understand."
"Thank you for your kind words, Kyle. Especially coming from the one who brought this problem to our doorstep."
"…I will do my best to help."
Mother smiled.
"It is alright. Is the 'Fairy of Paradise' not a fairy like any other? I have sworn to embrace all fairies. This child was no different from my own from the very beginning. Just like you."
I am not my mother's biological child, either. I was a strange fairy of an uncertain clan.
An outsider who awoke one day on this Isle of Orkney,
with neither memory nor name.
But the fairies of the 'Rain Clan' took me in.
Mother gave me the name Kyle and made me her son.
"Did you bring her here because you felt a sense of kinship?"
"No. That's not it."
The baby quickly took a liking to Mother, and to my younger sister Mia as well.
But she was particularly fond of being held in my arms.
"I just couldn't bear to leave her there."
"Hehe. You are such a kind fairy."
Mother's hand rested on my head.
"As her older brother, treat her well, won't you?"
"Yes. I'll do it right this time."
*This time? Why did I say something like that?*
"Yes. Do your best. I am going to meet with the other fairies."
After Mother left, only the baby and I remained in the room.
The baby babbled and touched my face.
Allowing her touch, I was lost in my own thoughts.
-Father.
The voice of someone whose face was but a blurry memory echoed in my ears.