One month after Beryl's death.
Antarctica, Chaldea.
Naoki and Gray returned to visit this polar observatory.
After greeting Romani and Mash, and leaving Gray with Mash to keep watch, Naoki went to find Marisbury alone.
"It's been over a month, Mr. Natsukawa. How have you been?"
In the guest area, Marisbury warmly welcomed Naoki's arrival.
"My daughter hasn't been troubling you, has she? I've heard from her letters—she wrote about your meeting on the Mystic Eyes Collection Train."
"We only encountered a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Nothing too serious happened."
Naoki said casually.
Seeing his indifferent attitude, Marisbury couldn't help but be impressed: "Only that? Einnashe Forest. Even the Animusphere family, who live in the mountains, have heard of its name. And yet, in your eyes, it's just an insignificant existence?"
"It's not exactly that. How should I put it… I've seen far too many unbelievable and strange things. Compared to that, meeting an Ancestor isn't particularly special."
Thinking back, the events Naoki had experienced over the years—there was the Beast Baby incident, the Great Misaki City War, more recently the Holy Grail War, and the rebirth of the world in a parallel world… which of these hadn't left a deep impression?
Compared to those, merely meeting an Ancestor truly couldn't be considered anything too serious.
"Compared to that, Marisbury, my reason for coming today—aside from visiting Mash—is that there's something I'd like to discuss with you. Look at this."
Naoki suddenly pulled a document from behind his back and placed it on the table. Marisbury picked it up and looked it over. He recognized it as the list of candidate Masters he had given to Naoki a month ago.
There were no changes to the document. Aside from signs of having been read, it looked as if it were brand new.
"Is there a problem with this document?"
"It's not the document itself. It's about the forty-eight candidate Masters you wanted. I think… there's no need to select so many."
"I might be enough on my own."
On his own?
Marisbury paused in thought: "Do you mean, Mr. Natsukawa, that in the process of restoring the Human Order, you don't need the assistance we've prepared for you? You can handle it alone?"
"More or less."
Abandoning the original candidate Masters and resolving future issues with Gray and the others—this was the idea Naoki had come to after a month of internal struggle.
Of the forty-eight Masters, Naoki didn't know the circumstances of the others, but for several members of Team A and Fujimaru Ritsuka, Naoki had decided not to involve them. Though perhaps somewhat subjective, he felt it would be better for them.
At the very least, they could continue living peacefully within Human History.
Kirschtaria, Ophelia, Arou Myourenji—aside from Beryl, who was already dead, Naoki didn't want them to die one by one in the Lostbelts. Whether it was the Burning of the Human Order or the Freezing of the Human Order, as the bearer of the Star Holy Sword, he would do his best to resolve it.
Of course, Naoki believed he had the ability to save them all. With Beryl now dead, Kirschtaria and Myourenji should be able to survive. He would also do his best to defeat the fire giant Surtr. Even if other accidents occurred, with himself involved, it shouldn't be a problem.
However, this was only the ideal scenario. Naoki himself didn't know what would actually happen. It might truly come to pass that situations arose which he couldn't handle in time, resulting in their deaths one by one—rather than that, it was better to disband Team A from the start, and he would take full responsibility.
After all, the Bearer of the Star Holy Sword was meant to do this kind of work.
Marisbury fell silent, staring at Naoki. After a while, he said, "May I ask for your reasoning? Mr. Natsukawa, why do you want to take on everything alone? I know you're strong, but isn't this too much to bear? What if something were to happen to you…"
"I won't be doing it alone. Otherwise, when I return, I'll be punished by kneeling on a washboard again." Naoki said with a bitter smile. "I'll bring a few people I trust—say, Artoria, say, Aoko… Compared to the magi you've chosen, our team is clearly more reliable, right?"
Indeed, if they were Magicians, they were far more dependable than any magus. Given the connection between the Fifth Magician and Naoki, there was no way he'd refuse to help.
"Then, what's your reason for doing this…?"
Still, Marisbury didn't understand why Naoki was doing this.
After a moment of reflection, Naoki said, "Do you still remember the Root Knowledge I told you about earlier?"
"Whether by coincidence or not, I saw several people from this list within that Root Knowledge. For example, your beloved student, the young heir of the Wodime family—frankly, I witnessed their deaths in the knowledge I obtained. I find it deeply regrettable if they were to die so pointlessly. So now, I want to avoid that future in my own way."
"Call it my own will."
Will?
A self-assessment perfectly suited to the actual situation.
Simply because of the knowledge he had obtained, he felt these people didn't belong in such a future, so he wanted to make changes now to alter their destinies—Naoki's actions could truly be called an act of [will].
Resting his chin on his hand, Marisbury fell into deep thought, then—
"Canceling everything entirely might not be possible."
"The construction of Chaldea relies heavily on support from the UN and the Mage's Association. Even if just to appease them, I can't fully entrust such an important task to you alone. You might not care, but for us, negotiations and maintaining trust with various parties are absolutely necessary."
"However, what you've said also makes sense. Forty-eight people—now that I think about it, that is indeed too many. How about reducing it to two people?"
Two people?
Naoki frowned. "Who are these two people?"
"One you choose from this list, and the other—I'll initiate a global selection of candidate Masters. At that time, we'll choose the one with the highest adaptability as the second. How does that sound?"
One person already decided, and he had to choose the other?
"Fine."