After we came back from Fuyuki, the Director returned to a homunculus body since she didn’t have a physical body anymore. The problem was...
“I don’t really understand the situation, but there’s one thing I can say for sure.”
“What is it, Uncle Albus?”
“Lev is a pervert.”
“Agreed. How could someone do that...”
Romani, Mash, Ritsuka, and I all stared at one spot.
“W-What?!”
There was the Director. She looked almost exactly the same as before—no, 99 percent, maybe practically 100 percent identical.
“I knew homunculi were expensive, but anyone who makes one look that much like a real person has to be a pervert.”
“And they even reproduced her bust size perfectly...”
Ritsuka reached out to knead the Director’s chest, but Mash stopped her.
“So can I go home now?”
“As if.”
“Damn it.”
Romani led us to the briefing room and explained the current situation.
“...So right now, the only Masters and Rayshift-compatible candidates are Fujimaru and Albus. And the Servants in Chaldea are Mash and...”
Romani’s words were cut off when a woman entered the briefing room.
“That would be me! Leonardo da Vinci!”
“...Unlike King Arthur, Da Vinci should absolutely be male based on the historical record and the situation...”
“Right now I’m based on the Mona Lisa...”
“My head hurts. Let’s stop this conversation here.”
Romani massaged his temples and shut down any further nonsense.
“So? What’s the point?”
The Director calmly整理ed the situation and asked for the necessary information.
“The Heroic Spirits currently in Chaldea are Mash, Da Vinci, and...”
The door opened again, and the blue-hooded skintight guy who had fought with us in Fuyuki appeared.
“Yo! We meet again this fast!”
With that, after a brief round of introductions, we learned his True Name: Cú Chulainn.
“Anyway, if what that guy said is true, the Director only has a year left to live, so we don’t have much time, do we, Doctor?”
“It’s Romani. Doctor Romani. How long are you going to keep calling me that... Yes. Before the Director’s lifespan runs out, we have to complete the destruction of the Singularity and the restoration of human history no matter what.”
As the briefing was nearing its end...
“But with this much combat power, it’s still worrying. We need to strengthen our forces.”
“So we should summon more Servants...”
“No, if we had something like that, we should’ve done it in Fuyuki...”
At Ritsuka’s complaint, the Doctor answered calmly.
“Chaldea’s summoning ritual is, to put it bluntly, closer to gacha. If we summon someone uncooperative, that can actually be dangerous in the current situation, so there was nothing we could do.”
“They’d at least know the situation to some extent, so even if they’re not as bad as me, they’d cooperate. But like that doctor said, you never know what you’ll get, so it’s better not to call them if you don’t have to.”
“But we can do it now, right, Doctor?”
“Yes. If the Director approves, we can start immediately.”
All eyes turned to the Director.
“We can’t afford to be picky right now. Execute it immediately.”
“”””
“First, to summon a Servant, you need three Saint Quartz. You might get a Craft Essence instead of a Servant, and...”
“This is a ticket I developed. With just one, you can summon immediately.”
“Romani, how many Saint Quartz does current Chaldea have?”
“We make about five tickets a month, and the Saint Quartz...”
The door opened, and several staff members came in carrying dozens of boxes full of Saint Quartz.
“We found about 990 in Lev’s room.”
“...Good. That’s more than enough. Now, Fujimaru, throw the Saint Quartz at Mash’s shield and recite the chant I taught you earlier.”
“Yes!!”
So Ritsuka threw in 30 rolls’ worth and began the summoning... and got nothing but Craft Essences.
“Hahaha! Hahahaha!!”
“Director, Ritsuka has lost her mind.”
“Calm her down for a moment and let’s try again.”
After comforting Ritsuka, we summoned again, and this time... Cú Chulainn appeared. The Lancer we had wanted so badly.
“You’re me from the Caster side?!”
“Master, I hate to say this, but since you’ve only summoned me on the Lancer side, it might be better to pull one or two more. Preferably an Archer or Assassin.”
“Sorry, I can’t exactly target the result...”
“...Hey, Ritsuka. Mind if I try once?”
“You, Uncle?”
Then the control room erupted with the Director’s shout.
“Hey!! Stop butting in for no reason!!”
“Director, no matter how I look at it, Ritsuka’s luck in this area is absolute trash. Couldn’t you trust me just once? It’s random anyway, so just one time.”
The Director wanted to object, but Ritsuka’s luck—getting a Servant in 20 pulls—was hard to argue with.
“Hah... If you fail...”
“You’ll fire me?”
“I’ll dock your pay.”
“Ritsuka, just do it yourself...”
“If you said you’d do it, then hurry up and do it!!”
“Fine, damn it, I don’t know!!”
So I threw 30 Saint Quartz into the summoning circle, and the result was... three Servants.
“I... I only got one Servant in 20 pulls...”
“What does that matter? You’re the Master anyway.”
“In that case, Uncle, you do it from now on.”
“My luck swings wildly, so I have no idea what’ll happen from now on... So who came out...?”
Then Romani in the control room told us which Servants had been summoned.
“The summoned Servants are Rider, Saber, and Archer.”
“Two of the Three Knights... So who are they?!”
Then a handsome man in Chinese-style clothing with narrow eyes introduced himself first.
“Greetings. For some reason I came as a Rider instead of a Caster, but I am Taigong Wang. Ah, if I had come as a Caster, I would have been Grand for sure...”
“Anyway, you can call me whatever’s easiest—Jiang Ziya, Taigong Wang, whatever works.”
“I don’t really know Heroic Spirit names, but if it’s Taigong Wang, isn’t that a huge name?”
“He’s an absolute big shot! The Taigong Wang of immortal-level fame!!”
But there were still two left to admire.
“Servant Archer, EMIYA. From now on, I’ll...”
Before EMIYA could finish, his eyes met Cú Chulainn’s.
“Ha! Yeah, if I’m here, it’d be weird if you weren’t, too, Goldie!! Master! I guarantee this guy’s skill, so don’t worry—work him to the bone!”
“That’s my line, Lancer!”
Taigong Wang and Cú Chulainn had to stop the two from fighting.
“If Cú Chulainn says so, then his skill is proven...”
And now the last one remaining was...
“I ask you! Are you my Master?!”
—the blond Saber asking me that.
“No, that orange-haired girl is your Master. I’m the one who summoned you.”
“???”
“I’m just the mana tank. Command authority and Command Spells belong to her.”
I showed them the back of my hand, where no Command Spells were present.
“Then aren’t you a Master too?”
That was Taigong Wang, who had been breaking up the fight between EMIYA and Cú Chulainn.
“The female Master has weak mana, so you provide the mana support in her place... Your roles are simply divided, but in the end, you’re no different from being our Master.”
To my flustered silence, Cú Chulainn added one more thing.
“When we fought Archer, skeleton soldiers showed up too, and then you just went all out and fired your Noble Phantasm over and over to keep them from getting through. That was all thanks to your mana support. You’re definitely our Master too.”
“Caster...”
So then...
“So that was you, huh? The one who nearly sucked me dry and killed me~?”
“...Sorry.”
After that little incident was somehow settled, we heard the last Saber’s introduction.
“I am Saber, Richard the First. I look forward to working with you, Masters.”
“Another big shot appears...”
The Director sounded tired, but there was relief in her voice.
“So I’m not getting my pay docked, right?”
“I always keep my word, so don’t worry. Though, about that...”
I could feel an incredible killing intent.
“Didn’t I say I’d make you run drills in the training room after work?”
A monstrously wicked smile spread across the Director’s lips.
“Oh no, look at the time. I should get back and sleep...”
Just then, a girl grabbed my ankle.
“Uncle... If your stamina is even worse than mine, you should just quietly let yourself get dragged along, shouldn’t you?”
“Hah... This is where the standard line should be... ‘Don’t come any closer to me!!!’”
“Nope~”
“I can help if you want to train the Master. Would that be all right?”
EMIYA flashed a wicked smile beside her.
“I can also support with various Taoist arts from the side...”
Taigong Wang, with his eyes only slightly open, chimed in.
“Let’s do some Celtic torture... no, training!”
Cú Chulainn, who had just said torture, maybe?
“Eek! I brought Satan with me!!”
“You know my nickname?! Are you very interested in me, Master?! Good!! Then let’s do Crusader-style training!!!”
Even Richard, now cheerfully shirtless...
“Eek!!!!”
I had no memory after that...
“”””
Whenever I lost my mind, I’d be woken up by strange Taoist arts, and even when I was truly exhausted, I still couldn’t sleep and was forced awake again...
“I want to go home...”
“Uncle looks really tired...”
How was it that Ritsuka was perfectly fine even after going through the same training?
“The male Master needs to lose some weight first. That’ll increase his stamina.”
“Wait, are you telling me to starve here too?”
“Not starve—just control your diet.”
“But I don’t even eat that much...”
At mealtime earlier, Ritsuka looked like she ate twice as much as I did...
“Your lifestyle is wrecked. From now on, it’s seven hours of sleep a day and nonstop exercise.”
“Yo, Master! Are you okay?”
“That’s not really something the person who pushed me the hardest should be asking... Still, I’m fine because Taigong Wang kept healing me with Taoist arts and Romani checked me over too.”
Then Richard, shirtless and with a towel over his shoulders, appeared.
“I thought a normal person would’ve given up earlier, but you still went that far. That was cool, Master!”
“You kept waking me up even when I passed out...”
“You kept encouraging me to keep going, so I’d be embarrassed to quit. Besides, if it really felt like I was going to die, I figured I’d stop then. So I just decided to go all the way. And more than anything...”
The Director’s gaze from earlier, glaring at me through the screen, came back to mind.
“If I fail, she says she’ll dock my pay and make me do another hour, so I’m just swallowing my pride and doing it...”
“That lady probably said it because she’s worried about you, though...”
“I know that much. She’s just bad at being honest. She’s really a good person.”
“Uncle, you seemed to talk a lot with the Director back when you were at school. Did something happen between you two?”
“We just ate ramen and talked about random stuff... I’ve done all kinds of part-time jobs and whatnot, but I’ve never met anyone who worked as hard as she did.”
“What were you doing before you came here, Uncle?”
“I was originally going to be a nurse, but I got sick of it and quit, so I picked some random major in college.”
Thinking about it again, that was such a shitty time...
“Anyone who feels responsible for what they do and works hard is an excellent leader, I think. She’s the best boss I’ve ever met in my life...”
If I wanted both Ritsuka and me to listen to the Director properly from now on, conversations like this were necessary.
“She does seem like a good leader. Back when I was king, I had a tendency to leave my subordinates behind when fighting...”
“Well, some people might not like her, but nobody’s perfect. We should help each other steadily, even if it’s slow. You can’t make one leader carry everything alone.”
“Hmm~ Uncle, do you like the Director?”
“What the hell is this kid talking about?”
“Master, can you say that in front of her?”
“Even so, in front of the person herself... ah.”
The world went silent as if my brain had frozen, because she was right in front of me.
Clang!
She dropped the plate in her hand and hurriedly ran off somewhere.
“Uncle, what do we do...”
“What the hell do we do...”
“But you didn’t say anything bad, so... she won’t die, right?”
“”””
When do you get that feeling of, “I’m so screwed”? Probably right now. Why?
“You’re back early. So you must have something to say, right?”
Goddamn it, what sin did I commit in my past life...
“””””
For the first time in my life, I had a carefree, happy conversation with someone and spent time with no walls between us...
Friends? No way. We’d only just met, and not even a week had passed. He was just a subordinate who listened well... That was all, really.
I still couldn’t fully trust them yet... not as people, but in terms of ability.
A half-baked guy who couldn’t even draw out mana properly, a complete outsider who knew nothing about magecraft, and a newly awakened Demi-Servant...
I honestly didn’t know if they could handle the journey ahead, or even beat the enemy in front of us right now...
“”””
My worries were unfounded. In the end, they defeated King Arthur right before my eyes.
And then Lev, who we thought had died, appeared before us and declared that he was the true culprit behind the incident.
We still hadn’t fully grasped the situation when Lev—no, he—used some force to lift me up and tried to throw me into Chaldeas...
Just as I was about to die so meaninglessly, the real me that I’d kept hidden all this time came out...
Yeah. I was going to die here. Like this, I’d be forgotten by everyone, praised by no one, and...
“Damn it, whatever!!”
But the mana tank—no, Albus—grabbed my leg, and then Mash and the forty-eighth one...
Albus was held back, and I was pulled free. Lev finally gave up, or maybe he only managed to rip out part of my Spirit Origin, then threw me—no, threw us—into Chaldeas like trash and challenged us to beat him within a year.
I still wasn’t fully in my right mind, but I could feel it clearly.
He was terrified. His hands were shaking like crazy, and he could barely breathe...
And yet he still tried to save me. Why? Was there something he wanted to get out of me?
After Lev’s betrayal, I didn’t want to believe in anything anymore. I would just do what needed to be done...
But... why did I keep showing my true self to them? I’d hidden it so well until now... If I expected anything again, I’d just be betrayed...
When he trained hard, I found myself jokingly threatening him that if he failed his squats, I’d dock his pay.
And yet, somehow, this felt fun... I shouldn’t be feeling this way so soon after being betrayed...
I’d never had friends before. But was this what friendship from the media looked like?
And after training ended, I went to check on the exhausted staff under the pretense of bringing them a bottle of water... That was really all it was...
And then he started talking about me...
Ah, I see. So he really does hate me...
I don’t resent him. I know better than anyone that none of the things I’ve done would make him like me...
I know myself well enough to understand that I’m not someone who’s easy to praise. What’s so good about a person who only intimidates and pressures others? Right, so there’s no need to expect anything more...
“Anyone who feels responsible for what they do and works hard is an excellent leader, I think. She’s the best boss I’ve ever met in my life...”
Thump.
My heart pounded. For the first time, I’d received a pure compliment, and I couldn’t help but be shaken.
I wanted it, but getting it so suddenly left me completely flustered...
In my panic, I forgot why I’d even come, met his eyes, dropped the water bottle in my hand, and ran away.
And now...
“You’re back early. So you must have something to say, right?”
I’d come to thank him for what I hadn’t been able to say before...
“”””
Ah, I want to go home...
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d done anything bad, but what was I supposed to do now?
“Th-the...”
“You said I was a good boss earlier, didn’t you?”
I didn’t say anything bad at all...
“Th-th-th... goo...”
Ah. So that’s what this was?
At times like this, neither refusing nor awkwardly saying thanks is the right answer. Just waiting is the most effective.
And so, ten minutes later...
“Th-thank... you... for rushing in like that to save me...”
I’m not good at comforting or encouraging people. I’d probably half-botch it and end up getting cursed at or hated, so...
“I was still hung up about not being able to bring you chopsticks, so don’t take it too seriously. Let’s both keep working hard from now on.”
“...You’re not very honest either, are you?”
“In some ways, I’m worse.”
“Anyway, this is how things will keep being from now on, so if I thanked you every time, it’d be a pain. Just get used to it.”
After hearing me out, she answered with the same bright smile I’d seen before.
“Okay...”
“But...”
I looked at the bed she was sitting on...
“I need to sleep...”
“...”
In the end, I got buried under a mountain of paperwork and only fell asleep much later.
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