The butter melted across the frying pan, filling the empty cafeteria with a rich, savory smell.
As I beat the eggs and skillfully finished the fried rice with bacon and rice, I could hear Ritsuka's bright humming and nonstop chatter behind me.
"Wow, Yaiba, you're seriously good at cooking! Do you make food for yourself a lot?"
"Yeah, well. You get used to it when you live alone."
"Alone? Then your family... Ah, sorry. That was insensitive of me."
Ritsuka quickly covered her mouth in alarm. I just shrugged like it was nothing and transferred the finished fried rice onto plates.
"It's fine. I grew up in an orphanage. Taking care of my own meals has been normal for me since I was little."
At the casual words that left my mouth, the mood around the table sank in that strange way again. Shuten-Douji and Baobhan Sith's gazes turned chilly, Kojiro let out a faint breath, and Olga Marie's hand trembled slightly around her teacup.
But Ritsuka didn't look flustered or pitying. She simply looked up at me with clear eyes.
"I see. Then I guess you won't have to eat alone anymore! Your cooking's this good, so I'm going to mooch off you every single day from now on. Better be ready!"
Ritsuka grinned brightly, spoon in hand. At those artless, honest words, I found myself smiling faintly as I set a plate down in front of her.
"Just eat. I can't guarantee how it tastes."
"Thanks for the meal!"
Ritsuka scooped up a huge spoonful of fried rice and stuffed it straight into her mouth. A moment later, her eyes went wide, and as she chewed with her cheeks puffed out, she raised both thumbs high.
"Woooow! This is really good! Forget being a Master, I bet you'd make a killing if you opened a restaurant!"
"You're making too much of it."
I let out a short laugh, sat down, and started on the rest of my own meal.
The table grew lively in an instant. Ritsuka's absurdly strong social charm was enough to peel away even the wariness of Servants as fierce as attack dogs.
Quietly chewing my food, I let my thoughts drift while keeping one corner of my vision on the translucent system window floating in the air.
The reward from the side quest I'd just earned by building a friendly relationship with Ritsuka over a meal.
Which meant this system might have more than just quests that followed the main story line and side quests tied to relationship levels with specific people.
System. Besides the Main Quest and side quests, are there other kinds of quests too?
I kept moving my spoon as I casually asked the question in my head. After about a second of silence, blue text rose across my vision.
[Confirmed. In addition to Main Quests and side quests, there are also event quests that unlock when specific conditions or timings are met.]
Event quests, huh.
Then can I check them right now?
[There are currently no unlocked event quests that meet the required conditions. When conditions are fulfilled, the system will automatically send a notification.]
Yeah, figures.
I calmly dismissed the system window. We'd only just made it out of Fuyuki. Chaldea's situation hadn't even been properly stabilized yet, so I had no time to worry about events or anything else.
And before any event, France would probably come first anyway.
"Hehe, but Shuten, your horns are so cool! Can I touch them?"
While I was going back and forth with the system, Ritsuka had turned sparkling eyes on Shuten-Douji and started talking to her.
"...What a strange little thing. You've got no fear at all. Touch an oni's horns carelessly and you could lose a hand. Still, since you ate the meal my husband made so well, I'll allow it just for today."
"Waaah! They're really hard! And Baobhan Sith, your dress is super fancy and pretty too. Where did you buy it?"
"...Y-you think I'll be happy just because you compliment me? This is a custom dress from the Fairy Kingdom. It's a luxury piece far too good for a human like you to wear."
Baobhan Sith tried to sound prickly, but she couldn't hide the way the corners of her mouth lifted slightly at Ritsuka's frank praise.
Watching the scene, Kojiro also laughed heartily and tipped back his teacup.
"Hahaha, what a delightful young lady."
A noisy mealtime. For someone like me, who had spent his whole life shoving food down alone in the shadows, this kind of warm and bustling table was a strange but comforting sight I had never experienced before.
That was when it happened.
A loud burst of noise rang out from the speakers installed along Chaldea's silent corridors, and then a hurried, irritated man's voice came over the intercom.
[Ah, ah! Mic test! Attention all areas of Chaldea! We have confirmed that Master Number 48, Miss Fujimaru Ritsuka, has disappeared from her bed in the infirmary! If you can hear this announcement, please return to the infirmary immediately, immediately! You're still not fully recovered, and it's dangerous to be walking around alone! Can you hear me?!]
It was the doctor's voice. After the explosion, the only surviving hope had suddenly vanished, so from his perspective as a physician, his heart must have nearly stopped.
"Eek!"
Ritsuka flinched with her spoon still in her mouth.
"That's Romani's voice... I came out without telling him! He sounds really mad!"
She hurriedly swallowed the rice in her mouth and sprang up from her chair.
"Yaiba! That was seriously, seriously delicious! But I think I need to go back to the infirmary."
"Yeah. Be careful."
When I gave her a light wave, Ritsuka smiled brightly and bowed repeatedly to my Servants and Olga Marie as well.
"See you all later! Thanks for the food!"
With quick, bouncing steps, Ritsuka pushed open the cafeteria door and ran out into the corridor in a hurry. Once her fading footsteps died away, that strange silence settled over the cafeteria again.
"That girl really is a whirlwind. Feels like a storm just blew through."
Shuten-Douji clicked her tongue and pointed at Ritsuka's empty plate with her chin, but there was no displeasure in her voice.
I rose from my seat to clear the empty dishes.
"All right. If everyone's done eating, should we get moving too?"
At my words, Olga Marie set down her teacup and nodded.
"Right. First, we need to get Chaldea's current situation properly sorted out. And... I'll make sure to draw a firm line regarding your stay here and how you'll be treated."
Olga Marie took the lead, and my Servants and I followed behind her. Leaving the cafeteria, we headed straight for Chaldea's control room.
When the automatic doors opened, nearly all the staff were gathered inside, including the doctor, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mash Kyrielight.
The doctor looked like he had been about to head to the infirmary right after that announcement, and was in the middle of putting on his coat.
"Huh? D-Director? Good timing. I was just about to go to the infirmary..."
The doctor greeted her in a rush and tried to head for the door, but Olga Marie stopped him with a cold voice.
"Stop, Romani. The infirmary can wait. Right now, every member of the staff needs to hear what I have to say."
At her icy command, the doctor froze in place, and the air in the control room turned heavy in an instant.
Da Vinci and Mash were tense as well, staring at Olga Marie, and then at us standing behind her. The staff's eyes were still thick with disgust and wariness toward me.
Olga Marie strode proudly into the center of the control room.
"From this moment on, I will announce Chaldea's official treatment of Togabito Yaiba."
At her firm declaration, the staff began to murmur.
"Togabito Yaiba will be treated as one of Chaldea's official Masters alongside Fujimaru Ritsuka, and he will be deployed with top priority in all future missions."
"...What?"
The first to object was Da Vinci. She frowned and stepped forward.
"Wait a second, Director. Isn't that decision far too hasty? The nature of the magical energy pouring from his body, the unknown factors tied to your revival, all of it. There are still far too many things that need to be verified before we can trust him completely. We should investigate more thoroughly first, and then..."
"Da Vinci."
Olga Marie's voice dropped even lower.
At that moment, a single geometrically shaped horn slowly emerged from the center of her forehead.
Her pupils split into vertical diamond shapes, and the overwhelming magical energy of an immature Beast crushed down over the entire control room.
As if pinned beneath invisible gravity, the staff gasped for breath and collapsed to the floor, and even Da Vinci went pale and bent to one knee.
Mash's legs were trembling too.
"Don't misunderstand. I am not asking for your agreement. You have no right to object to my decision."
Partially releasing her power, Olga Marie looked down at Da Vinci and Romani with arrogant, merciless eyes as she declared it.
"I have no intention of persuading you with tedious, academic nonsense. Even if I explained his innocence at length, you'd still fail to control that petty, vile instinct of yours and keep suspecting and rejecting him in the end. I have no expectations for your reason or your morality."
Her words were like daggers driven into the hearts of everyone in Chaldea. Olga Marie turned and pointed at me as she drove the point home.
"He is my Master, he is my man, and he is the pillar this Chaldea will rely on from now on."
My man.
At that blunt, devastating declaration of possession, Shuten-Douji and Baobhan Sith glared at Olga Marie from behind me, but she paid them no mind.
"You think there'll obviously be backlash? Fine. So what exactly are you going to do about it?"
Olga Marie sneered at the staff with a derisive laugh.
"The power is ours, and the authority is mine. I, the director, acknowledge him and vouch for him. No matter how much your bodies recoil from him and you want to suspect him of being a terrorist, the reality remains the same: he is innocent, and he has nothing to hide."
The doctor broke into a cold sweat and barely managed to speak.
"D-Director... surely you haven't been brainwashed by that boy? This isn't like you. Even if you're Chaldea's director, acting this arbitrarily...!"
"If you want to think I've been brainwashed or gone insane, do as you please."
Olga Marie cut him off coldly.
"I've already chosen my path. If you hate him, then I'll crush this hateful world with a power greater than yours and defend him myself."
That fierce, blind affection. That violent declaration.
I watched the suffocating scene for a moment, then finally let out a deep sigh and stepped forward.
Lightly resting a hand on Olga Marie's shoulder to calm her killing intent, I spoke in an even voice to the pale-faced staff and Da Vinci.
"I understand why you don't trust me. Even if you suspect me, that wouldn't be strange."
At my calm voice, everyone's eyes turned toward me.
"You don't have to believe me. I don't care if you curse me as a terrorist behind my back and throw your contempt at me. I've dealt with that my whole life, and being treated like that now isn't going to hurt me anymore."
I continued in a dry tone, calm and flat, like someone whose emotions had already been worn away.
"But... this problem happens because of my constitution, so throw your stones at me alone. Please don't look badly on the people standing behind me too. Their only crime is getting stained by the filth that is me."
My self-mocking resignation. That attitude of calling myself filth and trying to shoulder all the blame alone made Olga Marie clench her fists and bite down hard on her lower lip.
Shuten-Douji clicked her tongue in disbelief as well.
"Honestly, this is ridiculous. What's my husband lacking that he has to bow his head to trash like this?"
"Master! You didn't do a single thing wrong! Why are you the one apologizing?!"
Baobhan Sith burst out in frustration, but I only shrugged.
It wasn't an apology. I just wanted to avoid wasting emotions where I didn't need to. This curse wasn't the kind of thing that would break just because I struggled against it.
Unable to bear my resigned attitude any longer, Olga Marie once again let her killing intent flare and made her declaration.
"...I won't tolerate any more resistance or suspicion. How you choose to treat us is up to you. And whatever consequences come from that choice will be yours to bear."
She grabbed my arm at once, then turned sharply and strode out of the control room.
"Come on, Yaiba. Breathing air this filthy will only rot your lungs."
As Olga Marie dragged me out of the control room, Kojiro voiced no small amount of concern while we walked down the corridor.
"Hm. I understand the director's desire to protect you, Master... but aren't those people the ones who'll be managing Chaldea's systems from here on? If you openly turn them into enemies like that, things could become rather troublesome."
"Ha! So what? We don't need systems run by pathetic trash like them anyway."
Baobhan Sith snorted, and Olga Marie fired back without missing a beat.
"Exactly. As long as I have my power, I don't need support from people like them. I'll handle the calculations myself, proof of existence and all the rest."
"Oh, listen to you girls talk big. As if the CHALDEAS system would run so smoothly on your strength alone. What is this, some kind of game? You think it's that easy?"
Shuten-Douji cut in with an incredulous jab, and both Olga Marie and Baobhan Sith fell silent at the same time.
Listening to their childish yet dangerous bickering, I smiled bitterly to myself.
Somehow, it feels like we only made the conflict worse.
But at the same time, another thought came to me. No matter how much I explained myself and struggled to prove my sincerity, it would all be useless before this curse of the world's rejection.
If that was the case, then maybe Olga Marie's violent declaration had at least clearly established a business relationship where both sides would suppress their hatred and cooperate mechanically for one purpose alone: the restoration of Human Order.
Regardless of what I want, the world keeps trying to cast me as the villain, and my Servants are more than willing to destroy the world for my sake.
...Well, that's life.
Forcing myself to shake off the tangled, exhausting mess of emotions, I took another heavy step forward.
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