In the dreamlike garden courtyard of the Millennium Castle.
Rin and Arcueid were currently sitting in the garden gazebo, staring at each other.
Perhaps it started out as just curious glances, but now it seemed to have been tacitly agreed upon by both sides as a little game where whoever blinked first would lose.
Seeing this side of Rin for the first time, Gudako couldn't help but turn around and cover its mouth, painfully suppressing the laughter that was about to burst out.
Sion, standing to the side, glanced at Rin and Arcueid, while its hands nimbly disassembled the Chaldea communicator provided by Rin.
"Two childish brats!"
However, Rin and Arcueid, who were locked in a contest, ignored Sion's snarky comment and continued their staring contest. But if they kept going, it was likely that Rin, who was cheating by relying on nearly infinite mana, and Arcueid, who was a True Ancestor, would play this game until the end of time.
After carefully studying the communicator provided by Rin, Sion walked straight up to Rin, reached out its hands, grabbed Rin's soft eyelids, and forcibly closed Rin's eyes.
"What are you doing!"
"Yay! I won!"
Sion stared at Rin with a look of disdain, tossed the communicator into Rin's hand, and said.
"You've probably made a mistake. Your communicator is fine. The reason you couldn't contact Chaldea must be a problem on Chaldea's end! So, your plan..."
Although Sion didn't say it explicitly, one could tell from the expression on its face that it was already angry.
However, the slap in the face came so quickly. Suddenly, the signal on the communicator went to full bars, and then a small light screen was projected from the communicator, and Da Vinci's exquisite face suddenly appeared on the screen.
"It's Rin! Communication is restored!"
"Is it? Don't crowd! Let me and Sakura see!"
Then, Fujino and Sakura's heads shoved Da Vinci aside and appeared on the screen.
Sion, having been slapped in the face, turned its head away, its eye twitching. If it weren't for the fact that it still needed to provide Aether Threads and techniques and Formulas related to thought operation to Chaldea, it would have already slipped away.
"Eh! Director Sion!"
At this moment, a Chaldea employee from Atlas saw Sion appearing on the screen through the wide main screen in the Chaldea Command Room.
Hearing this, Sion's expression became even uglier. After all, unlike the Sion of proper human history, the Sion of this Tsukihime timeline was wanted and hunted by the Church and the Atlas Academy due to a series of reasons and its semi-Dead Apostle transformation.
Arcueid, with its keen senses, noticed Sion's abnormality. Knowing that if things continued like this, Sion might explode, Arcueid quickly tugged on Rin's clothes and leaned in to whisper something into Rin's ear.
Receiving the hint from Arcueid, Rin immediately put its hands on its hips, pointed at the screen, and shouted.
"Everyone shut up! Let Da Vinci and me explain the current situation in Chaldea first!"
Da Vinci, which had managed to get back onto the screen, looked at the slightly angry Rin with a confused expression and reported without understanding.
"Everything is normal in Chaldea now! Although there was a small accident before, it has all been resolved. But Rin, what's the situation on your end?"
Rin first glanced discreetly at Sion, whose expression had improved quite a bit, then slowly began to tell Da Vinci everything that had happened since arriving at the Singularity over the past few days, while also proposing its plan and issuing the command to activate all of Chaldea's equipment.
As all of Chaldea's departments and systems entered operational status and equipment was activated, a steady stream of supplies and intelligence was gathered into Rin's hands.
"So, this Singularity is actually only as large as Honshu, Japan, and a part of Europe, right?"
"Yes!"
"Is the link between the Throne of Heroes and the fate system ready?"
Da Vinci looked at the data flowing down like a waterfall in front of it and nodded in confirmation.
"No problem, Rin, the system is in place!"
Having received confirmation from Da Vinci, Rin turned its head to look at Gudako and Fujimaru Ritsuka behind it. With a pained expression, it took out two thumb-sized Saint Quartz and handed them to the two of them, then held one itself and began the fate summoning.
Then, three magic circles appeared simultaneously in front of Rin, Gudako, and Fujimaru Ritsuka, accompanied by the three of them chanting and a beam of light shooting straight into the sky.
Servants from the Throne of Heroes, which had almost separated from the main body and were about to become independent individuals, appeared within the summoning circles.
"Saber Lily, here to assist in accordance with the contract! Master, you may call me Lily!"
"Servant BB reporting to Elder Sister! Eh! Why is my Master you, of all people? What happened to the Elder Sister I was promised?"
"Yo! Little Miss, we can finally team up this time! Let us conquer to the ends of the sea of stars! Hahahaha!"
Arcueid, which had witnessed the entire summoning process from the side, had little stars sparkling in its eyes. It pounced into Rin's arms like a cannonball; the huge impact caused Rin and Arcueid to roll into a ball and fall into the flowerbed.
"Rin! I want to too, let me summon one to play with!"
Sion, who was nearby, helplessly walked to her princess's side and twisted Arcueid's ear, "lifting" her off the dazed Rin who had been crushed.
The genius alchemist Sion, who had also watched the entire process, now had a preliminary understanding of the fate system. Knowing that such a system definitely required a suitable match, Sion didn't think Arcueid could do it.
Of course, Sion's guess was not wrong at all; Arcueid indeed had no possibility of becoming a Master of the fate system, but the possibility of her becoming a Heroic Spirit within it was almost a hundred percent!
At this moment, the people from Chaldea, having come to their senses, hurried to Rin's side and helped up the still-dizzy girl. BB even glared with a face full of anger at Arcueid, who was currently playing innocent.
Rin, having recovered slightly, hurriedly patted BB's shoulder to stop her. After all, even if that guy Gilgamesh came to the Dead Apostles' headquarters, he wouldn't dare to mess with someone else's princess like this!
In the Chaldea supply warehouse, Touko shivered in distress as she watched the supplies being constantly converted into spiritrons and transmitted to the Singularity. Currently hiding in Imaginary Space, Chaldea had no way to replenish supplies from the outside world. If Rin hadn't suggested that they could replenish through the Singularity, Touko would never have agreed to Rin's plan, even if it killed her.
But even so, Touko still looked miserable. After all, if even a small problem occurred on Rin's end, let alone saving the human order, it would be a miracle if the hundreds of personnel in Chaldea didn't starve to death.
Facing the supplies that were still disappearing one after another, Touko gave a few instructions to the warehouse supervisor nearby and then simply went to the infirmary to get it out of her sight and mind.
Compared to the original work, where Roman should have been the busy Acting Director, the Roman of this timeline was far too idle—so idle that he could watch 'Meruru' anime while monitoring the vital signs of the candidates taken from the coffins.
"You really are idle, Dr. Roman."
"Ah! Touko, no, listen to me explain!"
Touko, with a cigarette in her mouth, rolled her eyes at Roman.
"Don't worry, I won't tell Rin. I assume you won't tell Rin about me smoking in the infirmary either, right?"
"Of course!"
Having reached an agreement, the two shared a smile.
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