Arthur watched Ritsuka and Mash, both completely red-faced, for a few seconds.
Then he let out a long, tired sigh.
"...You really didn't need to tease them like that."
Merlin simply smiled calmly.
"But then it wouldn't be fun." she replied innocently.
"Merlin!" Ritsuka protested, utterly flustered.
Arthur slowly rubbed his forehead.
For some reason, this entire situation was giving him a mild headache.
Then his gaze suddenly stopped on the massive shield beside Mash.
His expression changed slightly when he sensed something extremely familiar.
"Hm?"
Mash blinked.
"...Senpai?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
He simply walked slowly toward her shield.
His eyes carefully observed the center of the enormous metallic structure.
Then, a small smile appeared on his face.
"...As expected."
The four girls immediately looked confused.
"What is it?" Ritsuka tilted her head.
Mash also looked completely lost.
Arthur slowly raised his hand and touched the exact center of Mash's shield.
The moment his fingers made contact, a faint golden light began to emerge from his hand.
Merlin's eyes widened slightly.
"...Oh?"
Arthur kept smiling calmly.
"Seriously..." he murmured with an amused smile. "Nobody knows me better than myself."
Then he slowly pulled his hand away from the shield, and along with it, a small whitish sphere began to emerge from the center of the shield.
It floated gently above the palm of his hand.
Mash widened her eyes.
"...What is that?"
Ritsuka also became completely curious.
But before Arthur could answer, Merlin quietly murmured:
"...This is unbelievable."
For the first time since meeting them, her gaze carried genuine surprise.
Ritsuka immediately turned toward her.
"What IS that?!" she asked.
Merlin kept staring at the small sphere.
"...It's a fragment of a soul. Something very close to a Saint Graph."
Silence.
"..."
"..."
Arthur then calmly confirmed:
"More specifically..." he said while observing the small glowing sphere in his hand. "A fragment of my own soul."
The entire group froze.
"...Your soul?"
Arthur calmly nodded.
"Explaining everything from the beginning would be ridiculously tedious and would take hours..." he commented while still watching the glowing fragment in his hand. "So I'll summarize it."
"Before I left Chaldea in 2007..." he said calmly. "I partially recreated the summoning system used by the Grail."
Mash's eyes widened slightly.
"...You recreated the Servant system?!"
"A highly simplified version." Arthur corrected casually. "I'm not insane enough to try reproducing a miracle of that level completely."
Merlin smiled.
"How humble~"
Arthur completely ignored her comment.
"Using that mechanism..." he continued, "I created a replica of myself using a fragment of my own soul."
He lightly raised the small white sphere between his fingers.
"This is what you're looking at."
Ritsuka stared at it in shock.
"So... the Arthur who traveled with us..."
"Was basically an exact copy of me... Well... not exactly identical. It seems he inherited most of my playboy side." Arthur answered bluntly. "He was a copy of me, but at the same time, an independent existence created from my soul, memories, and Saint Graph."
"After that, I left behind a catalyst capable of summoning me in the possession of Marisbury's daughter, Olga Marie. It was an earring shaped like a red katana."
The instant they heard that, Ritsuka and Mash froze.
"...Then that earring?" Mash repeated slowly.
Arthur nodded.
"I knew that a few years after I left, Marisbury would die, Olga would become Chaldea's director, and at some point in the future, her life would end up in danger inside a Singularity. I didn't know which one or exactly how." he explained calmly. "So I programmed the system to activate automatically at that moment."
Then he pointed at himself.
"As soon as that event happened..." Arthur concluded. "This version of me would be summoned immediately to help all of you."
Silence.
Ritsuka spent a few seconds processing all of that.
Then her eyes widened.
"...Wait, I'm confused about something. How can you manipulate souls?" she asked.
"Didn't I mention it? One of my main abilities is soul manipulation. Besides, since the Fourth Holy Grail War in 1994, I've been the Magician of the Third Magic." Arthur replied calmly. "I've been planning this ever since."
Ritsuka immediately pointed at him.
"You planned this for over twenty years?!"
"Yes."
"HOW ARE YOU ANSWERING THAT SO NORMALLY?!"
"Because I already expected everything that happened would eventually happen."
"YOU CAN'T JUST PREDICT THE FUTURE LIKE THAT!"
Arthur slightly tilted his head.
"...Even though I dislike using that ability very much, I actually can predict the future."
"..."
Ritsuka immediately became speechless.
"The Arthur you knew probably also foresaw something like this happening. More specifically, he most likely foresaw his own death the moment he was summoned." he explained. "So he left part of his soul hidden inside Mash's shield."
"He transmitted his memories to this fragment the same way you'd save the most important files from your computer into a special folder."
Ritsuka blinked several times.
"...Wait, you aren't planning to—"
Mash immediately realized what he intended to do.
Arthur smiled and calmly raised the small sphere toward his face.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he placed it into his mouth.
"GULP."
Absolute silence.
"..."
"..."
"...HE ATE HIS OWN SOUL?!" Ritsuka screamed in complete horror.
"That doesn't seem healthy..." Mash murmured in shock.
The next instant, an overwhelming amount of memories violently invaded Arthur's mind.
Arthur immediately brought a hand to his face.
"...Tsk—"
The amount of information was monstrous.
He saw Jeanne smiling at him beneath the skies of Orleans.
He also saw another white-haired Jeanne trying to burn him alive for sleeping with both of them.
Gilles's madness and Mash's exhausted smile.
Nero proudly smiling while clinging to his arm and the absurdly noisy nights in Septem.
Drake laughing loudly while drinking beside him.
Atalanta silently watching the sea.
Euryale shamelessly teasing him just to annoy Medusa in Okeanos.
Tamamo no Mae lying on his lap while dramatically complaining about life in London.
Scáthach pinning him against a wall after training and Nightingale trying to forcibly medicate him in America.
Finally, he remembered everything that happened in Camelot.
The moment Artoria pierced him with the Holy Lance.
Her arms trembling while holding him.
The desperate expression on her face as he slowly disappeared into golden particles.
The memories continued flooding into his mind mercilessly.
Including the countless intimate moments he shared with various women throughout the Singularities.
"...He's definitely seeing indecent things." Merlin murmured as she observed the changes in his expression.
After finally absorbing everything, Arthur sighed.
"That bastard really inherited all of my womanizer side..." he muttered to himself.
There wasn't even a way to count how many problems he'd gotten himself into because of it.
"Lev Lainur, you son of a bitch." Arthur muttered furiously.
The infinite future possibilities of that world had prevented Arthur from knowing exactly everything that would happen.
He knew about the Incineration of Humanity, but not precisely how it would happen nor exactly when.
That prevented him from creating more countermeasures.
Ever since joining Chaldea after the Fifth Holy Grail War, he had known there was something wrong with that bastard, he just couldn't pinpoint exactly what.
But now he knew.
The bastard was a Demon God.
Not only had he tried to kill Olga in Singularity F — fortunately Arthur managed to stop him —
He also tried to kill everyone in Septem, despite failing miserably.
Arthur slowly turned his gaze toward the bracelet on Ritsuka's wrist with a smile.
That was a communication device connected to CHALDEA.
"You heard our entire conversation, didn't you, Olga?"
At that same moment, the CHALDEA communication line fell into absolute silence for approximately five seconds.
Then, an extremely familiar voice finally came from the other side.
{"O-Of course I was listening!"} Olga immediately answered defensively. {"As CHALDEA's Director, it would be irresponsible not to monitor a situation of this level!"}
Even while trying to sound authoritative, the slight trembling in her voice was impossible to hide.
Arthur smiled even wider.
"You really haven't changed at all, my Stress Queen."
Olga completely froze on the other side of the communication the moment she heard that nickname.
{"...Huh?"}
Arthur continued speaking as naturally as possible.
"I'm really proud of you, Olga."
The response took several seconds.
When it finally came, Olga's voice sounded completely shaken.
{"...W-What kind of nonsense is that...?"} she muttered. {"Saying something like that so casually..."}
Arthur tilted his head slightly.
"Hm? Why would that be nonsense?"
{"I-I'm CHALDEA's Director!"} Olga immediately continued, clearly trying to regain her composure. {"The bare minimum expected of me is competence! So don't act like your praise is something special!"}
That sounded dangerously close to someone on the verge of crying.
Arthur simply smiled calmly.
"Even so." he replied. "You did an excellent job while I was gone."
{"...Idiot..."} Olga quietly murmured from the other side of the line.
Her voice trembled slightly at the end.
Arthur silently observed the bracelet for a few seconds.
Then casually said:
"Besides, I also have complete awareness of that night we spent together."
The next instant, the communication line exploded.
{"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"} Olga practically screamed from the other side.
Arthur remained absolutely calm.
"You don't need to worry about anything, Olga. You're CHALDEA's Director and the head of the prestigious Animusphere mage family, so I intend to take responsibility for my actions."
Silence.
[Olga Marie.exe has stopped working.]
"..."
"..."
"..."
Then—
{"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! YOU SHOULDN'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF MY SUBORDINATES!!!"} Olga screamed through the communication line.
Ritsuka burst into laughter when she heard that, while Mash merely blushed and glanced toward Arthur, who himself was also laughing.
"It's still fun teasing her." he murmured.
---xXx---
After several minutes of chaotic arguing, and Romani ending up receiving an extremely deserved punch from Olga after trying to make a joke about "love affairs."
The communication finally managed to return to some degree of normalcy.
Or at least something relatively close to it.
{"A-Ahem!"}
Olga's voice echoed once more through Ritsuka's communication device.
Even while trying to fully recover her usual posture as a strict and flawless director, there was still slight embarrassment hidden in her tone.
{"Changing the subject completely!"} she declared quickly. {"You're talking so calmly that you apparently forgot about that Enkidu imitation!"}
Ritsuka blinked several times.
"...Ah."
Mash also seemed to finally remember Kingu's existence.
Arthur, meanwhile, remained completely calm.
"You don't need to worry about him." he replied casually.
{"...Uh?"} Olga murmured in confusion. {"Why?"}
Arthur answered as naturally as possible:
"Because I sent him flying very far away from here."
Absolute silence.
{"..."}
{"..."}
{"..."}
On the other side of the communication, nobody knew exactly how to react to that answer.
Ritsuka slowly raised her hand.
"We thought exactly the same thing, Director Olga."
Mash immediately nodded.
"He said that so naturally that it's hard to even process..."
Merlin delicately covered her lips while smiling in amusement.
Mash then looked around the destroyed forest before asking:
"...What should we do now?"
"We're going to Uruk." Merlin answered immediately.
The Mage of Flowers gently spun her staff between her fingers before turning toward Arthur.
"And you?" she asked with a calm smile. "Are you coming with us?"
Arthur raised an eyebrow as though that were the most obvious question in the world.
"Of course." he answered casually. "What are we waiting for?"
Ritsuka immediately let out a small sigh.
"...He really hasn't changed at all."
Mash couldn't help but smile slightly upon hearing that.
Just his presence somehow made everything feel strangely lighter, even in such an absurd situation.
Merlin then calmly began walking, leading the group toward Uruk.
As they walked, she discreetly observed Arthur talking with Mash, Ritsuka, and Olga from the corner of her eyes.
Her smile deepened slightly.
"...It seems I'm going to experience a very interesting adventure." Merlin quietly murmured to herself.
The Mage of Flowers genuinely looked forward to discovering how that journey would end.
---
(End of Chapter)
A/N: Initially, even though I had already planned to make this joke about Arthur being a womanizer, I wasn't planning to include Olga in the mix. More specifically, I wasn't even planning to keep her alive. But then I started doing some research to avoid getting information wrong (or at least minimize mistakes), and I ended up discovering some things about her, especially what happened to her mind after being betrayed and killed by Lev Lainur, which eventually led to the birth of U-Olga Marie.
Also, WE REACHED 200 CHAPTERS 🎉🎉