Time rewinds ten minutes ago.
Chaldea, in the control room.
As usual, Olga Marie today also wore a cold expression, sitting seriously in the head seat of the control room.
Her mood was terrible—not something that had just started one or two days ago. Ever since she was entrusted with managing Chaldea two years ago, her mood had been bad every single day. In her view: incompetent subordinates, inefficient staff, research with no progress, the awkward position between the Mage's Association and the UN…
All of these weighed heavily on a young woman of twenty-three like herself. It would be strange if her mood ever improved.
Yet she persisted stubbornly—on one hand, driven by her desire to fulfill her father's expectations. Her relationship with her father wasn't good. After Chaldea was built, her father never returned home. But despite that, [From now on, Chaldea is in your hands]—for that one task her father had given her, Marie didn't want to give up halfway.
On the other hand, for personal reasons.
When the previous director, Marisbury, retired and left Chaldea, he left behind three trusted individuals to support Marie: Professor Lev as head of technology, Romani as head of the medical department, and Naoki as head of operations.
Thanks to these three people, even though she faced various problems over the past two years, Marie had always managed to overcome them. She was deeply grateful to them—especially to Naoki, who had cared for her since childhood and had practically been her guardian for the past ten years.
Within Chaldea, she trusted him the most. Not just because of her father's words, but also for her own emotional reasons. Therefore, whenever she faced something frustrating, she would immediately seek out this guardian to complain and vent.
Naoki was the one person who would never make her worry.
That's what Marie always believed.
But this time… the person frustrating her was Naoki himself—the very person she trusted the most.
She didn't even have a place to vent!
Marie glanced at her watch again, her face filled with anxiety, as she turned to Naoki beside her: "Still not here? The other Master you chose. Our time is running short. Didn't you say they arrived at Chaldea an hour ago?"
"Yes, I think they're on their way. Don't worry, Olga. They won't run away."
Unlike Marie's anxiety, Naoki looked relaxed, completely unbothered.
Even though she knew he was always like this, and had reasons for acting this way, the anxiety in Marie's heart wouldn't disappear: "Be a little more serious… CHALDEAS has gone dark. Doesn't that prove humanity is in danger? Now is the time to be serious—uh!"
Marie's words were cut short as a foreign object suddenly appeared in her mouth.
It was chocolate.
After tossing the wrapper into the trash, Naoki smiled: "Of course I know I should be serious, but it's not time to be fully serious yet. I know what I'm doing, so Olga, you don't need to be this tense. Eat some chocolate and rest."
"This isn't the time to—uh!"
Another chocolate was tossed into Marie's mouth. Fed twice in a row, although she was happy Naoki was so close to her, there were many staff members around. Marie felt her authority as director was completely crumbling!
And below, watching their director being controlled by the head of operations, the staff analyzing the CHALDEAS situation all felt relieved.
(It's such a relief Head Natsukawa is here. Otherwise, the entire control room would be filled with the director's oppressive aura.)
(Though I'm grateful, as an unmarried person, watching their interactions is honestly infuriating.)
(What's their relationship, really? Married or not, just give us clarity! If not, I still want to try getting closer to Head Natsukawa!)
(Who knows? But about marriage, for the head of operations' age, it's still too early. He looks barely twenty…)
(Why aren't boy-faced young men better!)
Though not spoken at all, the staff managed to complete the above communication through eye contact alone. Due to Marie's demanding work environment, the atmosphere in the control room was usually quite oppressive. To relax their minds, the staff had no choice but to learn this special skill.
Of course, fundamentally, it was all just guesswork and speculation.
As the staff below silently exchanged gossip through glances, the control room door suddenly opened. Two people stepped out of the elevator.
"Oh, you've arrived, Senior Akuta, Professor Lev. Thanks for going out of your way to call the senior."
Seeing them, Naoki immediately waved.
The ones arriving were Yu Meiren, whom Naoki had tricked and brought to Chaldea years ago, and Professor Lev, who managed technology. Actually, Professor Lev had already been in the control room, but after confirming CHALDEAS had gone dark, Naoki had sent him to fetch Yu Meiren.
And as soon as she entered the control room, Yu Meiren quickly walked toward Naoki, unintentionally giving him a sharp glare.
"So it's finally beginning?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, Senior, for making you wait all these years."
"You still remember, huh."
Looking at the situation on the large screen in front of the control room, Yu Meiren slightly frowned: "The light has gone out. Does this prove that humanity's future no longer exists?"
"You could say that."
CHALDEAS.
It was a Mystic Code replicating the soul of the Earth. Assuming the Earth itself also possessed a soul, by observing its condition, one could determine whether the planet's future still existed. As long as CHALDEAS's light remained on through the Near-Future Observation Lens, SHEBA, it meant human history would continue on Earth a hundred years from now.
But recently, CHALDEAS's light had suddenly gone dark without warning. The meaning behind this scene was that human history would definitely end within a hundred years.
This was truly shocking and unbelievable news. No wonder Marie was so tense—after all, Naoki had never told her about something like the Burning of the Human Order.
*KLEK!*
At that moment, the control room door, which had just closed, opened again. When Marie saw Gray walking out, followed by Mash and Ritsuka, she immediately scolded them: "It took you long enough! How much longer were you going to make me wait!"