Earl And Fairy
The story is serialized in Cobalt magazine and illustrated by Asako Takaboshi.
Shueisha has commercially released two drama CDs, and a manga adaptation has begun serialization in The Margaret since the September issue in 2008.
An anime adaptation was broadcasted from September to December 2008. A visual novel for the PlayStation 2 was released on April 30, 2009.
Plot
Story
The story is set in Victorian England.
It follows the adventures of 17-year old Lydia Carlton, who is nicknamed the "Fairy Doctor" due to her interest in fairies. Her life takes a 180-degrees turn when she meets Edgar J.C Ashenbert, the "Legendary Blue Knight Count" and his crew on a sea voyage to London.
Edgar hires her as an adviser during his quest to obtain a treasured sword that was supposed to be handed down to him by his family.
Characters
Lydia Carlton (リディア・カールトン?)
Voiced by: Nana Mizuki
Lydia Carlton, the daughter of Professor Carlton, is a 17 year old fairy doctor. She has the rare power to see fairies, an ability she inherited from her mother.
Lydia also possesses green eyes, a trait of those with the gift to see fairies. She ends up working for Edgar as his consultant on fairy-related matters after helping him retrieve the Merrow's Sword (key to him being recognized as the Blue Knight Earl by the Queen of England).
Her goal is to become a full-fledged fairy doctor, and frequently places herself in danger willingly when it comes to anything to do with problems between humans and fairies.
She appears to have some self-esteem issues, referring to her own hair as "rust-colored" and comparing herself to her mother, who was apparently a woman of considerable beauty; everyone who knew her mother before she died says that they don't look anything alike. Once, in an outburst, she confesses to Paul Ferman that she thinks that she isn't cute at all, and that it's part of the reason why she tries so hard to help in other ways (by working hard).
Her physical differences from her parents also leads her to wonder if she is, in fact, a changeling.
It is later revealed that she is indeed part fairy; her mother Aurora was half-fairy (due to familial circumstances that forced the real Aurora to be exchanged with a half-blood changeling.)
Because of past difficulties, Lydia dislikes the idea of falling in love and even seems to be afraid of it. When she was a child, she was given a love letter by a boy who - as it turns out later - was dared to do so by his friends, crushing her.
She also used a "spell" to ward off Kelpie so that he would not come near her, as his aggressive advances were troublesome to her. At first, she also rejects Edgar's advances and brushes them off, but as she falls in love with him, she demonstrates substantially less distrust of his confessions of love.
Lydia currently is considered Edgar's fiancee, a status she vehemently denies, despite Edgar's overt courtship of her and multiple fairies calling her that.
She obtained this status when she accepted a moonstone ring (previously owned by Gwendolen, the countess of one of the past Blue Knight Earls before Edgar), which effectively meant that she accepted his proposal. The moonstone ring apparently has some protective powers of its own; it prevented Lydia's soul from being fully trapped by the fairy world in volume 6 of the novel series, as well as enabled Lydia to break Kelpie's spell on her when he tried to bring her to the fairy world by magic (to prevent her from being hurt in the crossfire between Edgar and the Prince).
Recently, Lydia has truly accepted Edgar's proposal, and afterwards it is shown that Lydia has hence been accepted as part of the Blue Earl Knight's family (as Edgar's fiancee).
When she takes what should have been a fatal blow from the Blue Earl Knight's sword, she emerges unscathed, proof that the sword has acknowledged her as the Knight's family. Following this revelation, she becomes able to form a shining bow from Gwendolen's moonstone ring, and is able to use it to repel Unseelie Court.
Strangely, even though he is the Blue Earl Knight, the sword still inflicts physical harm on Edgar.
Ashenbert (エドガー・J・C・アシェンバート?)
Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa
Edgar is a flirtatious man in his early twenties with very distinctive ash mauve eyes. As a result, he was shipped to America as a white slave.
He was subsequently framed as a mass murderer and forced to flee from America for his alleged crimes. Stripped of his honorable name, Edgar embarks on a journey to find the famed Sword of Merrow.
He tells her it makes him uneasy to see her communicate with other men so easily and is unnerved by her friendship with Paul.
Edgar was actually heir to a dukedom (the highest rank in the British peerage) before his family was murdered. However, on more than one occasion, Edgar has wondered whether he is becoming more like the Prince by making use of the techniques taught him by the Prince in his quest for survival after his escape.
Later, it is revealed that the Prince murdered his parents to capture Edgar, believing him to be the most suitable successor to the Prince's name.
This is because Edgar was of both royal blood, and blood related to the Prince, and would hence easily absorb the Prince's memories. This is quite literal, in that the Prince was actually a title carried by several generations of Princes.
to the point that when the Prince transfers the memories from the entire lineage of Princes into the Prince-to-be, the new Prince accepts the memories so naturally that he believes himself to actually be the Prince.
Edgar was also trained as such, but he retained his own personality and will, and was not broken when he fled the organization. He maintains, though, that he cannot fully let go of the knowledge he learned by the Prince's side, because they are weapons that he needs in order to protect his loved ones.
Later, in order to save Lydia, he steals the Freya (a red gem created by a powerful wyrm, that is able to absorb and transfer memories) containing Prince's memories.
In doing so, he absorbs the memories and effectively becomes the Prince. At the time, Lydia mused that she's in an extremely ambiguous position, in that she is enough of an outsider that Edgar treats her as a pawn, but enough of a comrade that Edgar feels an obligation to protect her.
However, later, Edgar becomes uncertain of the wisdom of involving her in the battle between the Prince and himself, as he cannot guarantee her safety.
On one occasion, when Raven accidentally saw Lydia dressed in a revealing Arabic costume, Edgar commands him to forget what he saw.
Initially, his driving goal was revenge on the Prince for murdering his family, no matter the sacrifice. In order to achieve this goal, he cares little for his own life.
After the Ashenbert family's banshee saved him at the cost of her own life and entrusted the key to the land of Ibrazel to him, however, he tells Lydia that his thinking has changed, and now he understands that as the current Blue Knight Earl, even if he does not possess the ability to see fairies, he will persevere and find a way to defeat the Prince as the duty that comes with his title. Raven was then trained by fighting masters, but due to the speed at which he surpassed them, and his inability to control his sprite's killing impulses, as well as his own indifference to killing them in the course of his training, he eventually ended up being chained and locked away.
This was where he met Edgar for the first time, when Ermine brought Edgar to meet Raven, telling her brother that "she had found his master". While the sprite within Raven was actually supposed to serve and protect the king of Raven's (and Ermine's) tribe, Raven immediately accepted Edgar as such.
The giant serpent is the original servant of his tribe's king, while the giant bird is a manifestation of one of three magical gems sealed within Raven. This is hinted at early on in the series, when Kelpie met Raven for the first time and was unable to immediately identify whether he was a "snake" or a "bird".
His loyalty to Edgar is virtually absolute, and Edgar believes from the bottom of his heart that Raven is one of the few who will stand by him no matter what.
He will attempt to accomplish every task Edgar assigns him, even if that includes standing by while Edgar is in danger.
Because he was treated as a killing machine in the past, Raven has become almost emotionless, responding to the commands of those he obeys, and very little else. As the series wears on, however, he begins to show emotions of his own, a fact Edgar is glad about.
Together with the slow regaining of normal human emotions, he also begins to express opinions to Edgar, such as stopping Edgar from irritating Nico, and butting in sharply when another woman attempts to seduce him (because he understands that Edgar giving in would have repercussions on Edgar's and Lydia's relationship).
He is deeply happy about Lydia marrying Edgar, and is, in fact, frequently anxious that Edgar might do something that would make her turn away from him. Once, when Edgar asked him which female Raven thought suitable to be his countess, he answered that he would prefer Lydia to be the one.
His relationship with his half-sister Ermine seems rather distant, due to his upbringing.
He places Edgar far above Ermine, and sought to kill her after her second betrayal. However, he was also the one who pleaded with Edgar on Ermine's behalf to allow her to serve Edgar again after her first betrayal, and he had also hidden his suspicions about Ermine from Edgar briefly despite his overwhelming loyalty to Edgar.
He apparently does not like how young/childish his face appears, as he was noted by Ermine to have brooded over how a couple of maids thought he was only 15 years old.
He is also very particular about being treated like a gentleman rather than a cat, and as such obsesses over his attire (most frequently a single neck ribbon, but he has been known to wear suits and tailcoats), and the state of his fur and whiskers. Edgar would do anything for her if it will make her happy.
She is a beautiful woman who has fine fighting skills (though she is not on par with Raven), with short black hair, snow-white skin, and a womanly allure that "is not dimmed by her wearing male clothes" most of the time.
She was in love with Edgar, and the Prince used this fact to his advantage and turned her spy against Edgar. Later, she confesses her betrayal to Edgar and commits suicide by jumping into the sea.
Later, she is revived by the Selkies on Ulysses's command, and becomes a Selkie.
The reason for her betrayal is yet unknown, but she claims to Kelpie that her soul's master is and always will be Edgar. When the Prince realized this, he raped her in front of Edgar.
Lydia believes that Ermine is the one whom Edgar truly loves (she bases this conclusion on a few things, like how Edgar is never flirtatious towards her - Lydia takes this as a sign that Edgar loves her so deeply he cannot bring himself to be shallow with Ermine - as well as him muttering her name before falling into sleep while holding Lydia).
As such, even after she is vaguely conscious of her feelings towards Edgar, she continues to reject acknowledging them as it would be too painful for her to be with Edgar if his heart is with another.
Kelpie (ケルピー?)
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu
An impolite and arrogant water horse who aggressively pursues Lydia. He follows Lydia all the way to London to bring her back to Scotland.
He has the ability to purify water and cleanse toxins.
"Kelpie" is actually the name of his species, and not his given name Cain. Lydia discovers that the man is actually a Kelpie; the younger brother of the Kelpie that wants to marry Lydia.
His inspiration for art are the fairies, and he has always loved them but cannot see them, so he doesn't know if they are real or not, but likes to believe they are.
His father was killed by the Prince's organization, and he has since joined an organization - the Scarlet Moon - that opposes the Prince's.
Paul had once aspired to be a poet, but after meeting Edgar as a child, he is persuaded by Edgar to pursue painting instead. He cares for his daughter deeply but isn't above calling her a tomboy.
He works as a professor in a London university, specializing in gems and minerals.
Edgar takes the opportunity to glibly proclaim his undying love for her and ask for her hand in marriage, although Lydia immediately and heatedly protests the joke. This apparently "shocks" Carlton into realizing that Lydia has grown up.) Lydia has observed that his constant protests that she is "still a child" may reflect this.
However, he has lately approved of Lydia's and Edgar's engagement.
He eloped with Lydia's mother, Aurora, but the circumstances of their courtship are unknown to Lydia (who is understandably curious).
He was, however, not recognized as a heir because his parents were not wed.
He has, in fact, attempted to obtain the Sword of the Merrow before (and hence establish himself as the Blue Knight Earl). But because he interpreted the last line of the fairies' riddle as the Merrow requiring a blood sacrifice in exchange for the sword as Edgar did initially, he was washed out to sea by the Merrow.
He was the one to command the Selkies to revive Ermine as a Selkie when she committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
Prince (プリンス?)
A character shrouded in mystery.
By doing so, the human baby was infused with the knowledge and ability to manipulate Unseelie Court, as well as their arcane magic.
As a human, the Prince ages; however, through the use of Freyr (a red gem created by a powerful wyrm), he is able to transfer his memories and abilities to the next Prince, a candidate who is chosen and carefully groomed.