Japan, Tokyo.
At a university.
*DING-DONG!*
Accompanied by the bell signaling the end of class, the professor who was teaching at the podium stopped his movements: "Alright, today's lesson ends here. You're all graduating soon, so hurry and finish your theses; time is not on your side."
"Yes, thank you, sensei!"
Amid the students' voices, the professor left the classroom.
And immediately after, all the students began packing their bags. It was now eleven forty in the morning, and the previous class was the last for the morning session. Next, they had to rush to the cafeteria to get seats and have lunch.
"Fujimaru, wanna go together?"
Several male students sitting in the front rows turned to the girl in the back row, inviting her to lunch together.
The girl—Fujimaru Ritsuka—hearing that, smiled and shook her head: "No, I have an appointment today. Next time. See you tomorrow."
After saying that, Ritsuka left the classroom with her shoulder bag.
"What a pity."
Another male student, draping an arm over the shoulder of the student who had invited Ritsuka, teased: "Well, don't get discouraged. Over four years, not a single guy has succeeded in asking Fujimaru out on a date. Try again next time."
"Shut up! I know, it's just that since graduation is coming up, I wanted to succeed at least once."
"Then you should get in line. There are many guys in our department who like Fujimaru—by the way, there's a rumor that Fujimaru actually likes women, you know."
"No way!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Such conversations could be heard from the classroom behind.
Ritsuka didn't pay attention to such conversations. After all, over her four years of university, situations like this had occurred multiple times. Rather than dealing with such trivial matters, she cared more about the person she was about to meet next.
Running out of the lecture building, following the flow of people, Ritsuka ran a short distance along the main campus road, then arrived at a small park.
Called a park, it was actually just a rest area surrounded by flower beds and trees, with a few long benches. However, the students here were used to calling it a park.
When Ritsuka arrived, there was already someone sitting beside one of the long benches.
Hearing Ritsuka's footsteps, that person turned and smiled: "Good afternoon, Senpai."
"Huff... huff... Yes, good afternoon, Mash."
The one sitting there was Mash Kyrielight.
"Sorry, there were many people after class ended, so I was a bit late."
"No, I just arrived too, and my last class was quite close from here—more than that, Senpai, let's have lunch. I already prepared it."
"Ohhh~~~~ Thank you for your hard work, Mash. It's troublesome for you to prepare my lunch every day."
Mash shook her head with a smile: "It's not troublesome, because Senpai tends to sleep late—anyway, it's been six years, Senpai should start learning to cook. When I went home last time, Mom said the same thing, something like 'how will she get married' or something like that."
"Ah... that... I'll definitely learn when I have the chance!"
Ritsuka smiled bitterly.
(But... six years? Time passes so fast?)
Yes, it had been six years since that time.
After completing the Lostbelt exploration and the journey to find Naoki, Ritsuka, like most of the gathered people, left Chaldea together with Mash, returned to Misaki Town, Japan, and restarted her life as a high school student.
However, because of the excessively long absence, their attendance was very poor. So, even though she and Mash tried hard to catch up on lessons after returning, and also asked Atalanta for private one-on-one tutoring, they still had to repeat a year.
Therefore, the two repeated their second year of high school, and two years later successfully completed high school, then entered the same university in Tokyo. However, as mentioned earlier, Ritsuka and Mash were not in the same department and faculty.
Due to the experience of the Human Order Incineration and the subsequent Lostbelt journey during high school, Ritsuka became interested in history. So, when choosing a major, Ritsuka chose the history department. Her high school aspiration was even to become an Archaeologist.
After all, after interacting with so many Servants, it was natural for her to have such thoughts.
Meanwhile, Mash chose mechanical engineering.
Not because she herself liked machines. In fact, for Mash, her future goal was certain. After graduating from university, the company under the name Chaldea would send her an invitation, and she would directly work at Chaldea. The major itself wasn't important.
The reason she chose this major was because Mash felt that with this, she might be able to help in Da Vinci's workshop.
Of course, this also applied to Ritsuka.
A rare physique with 100% Rayshift adaptation. Even though the Rayshift project hadn't been restarted for the past six years, this didn't mean Ritsuka had no value. Moreover, she was one of the heroes who had participated in saving the world, the brother-in-law of Chaldea's Director, an honorary member of Chaldea...
So, no matter what, Chaldea would make arrangements for her.
"By the way, how's your thesis preparation, Mash?"
During lunch, Ritsuka suddenly asked out of curiosity.
"My thesis, it's already finished under Da Vinci-chan's guidance when I did routine contact with Chaldea before."
"Eh? Really?"
Ritsuka was immediately stunned.
"By the way... isn't that cheating?"
Guided by the famous genius in human history, omnipotent... what would her thesis be like?
Mash smiled awkwardly: "Because at that time I happened to be preparing my thesis, Da Vinci-chan casually... Has Senpai's thesis not been completed yet?"
"Ah... yeah... a bit stuck."
"Three months left until submission. Will you make it?" Mash asked with concern. "Senpai's topic... if I'm not mistaken, it's about King Arthur. Want to ask Lia-san?"
"Eh? Is Lia-san in Japan now?"
Mash nodded: "Yes, it seems she came back for a family visit."
Family visit?
"Ah~~~~ then the Department Head is there too."
"Yes."
"Good! Then let's go this afternoon. Anyway, I don't have classes until next Wednesday, even if there are, it's just to show the final assignment to the professor. Let's use this last week to catch up on the backlog."