Chapter 313

"Sorry I'm late, Director." Roman said as he scurried into the room holding a stack of papers.

"You're always late." The Director, seemingly used to Roman's tardiness, just rolled her eyes.

"Director, you're always so mean to me." Roman slumped his shoulders with a sigh, setting the paperwork down on the nearby table.

"Then stop fooling around." She huffed. "Did you bring what I asked?"

"Of course." He smiled warmly. "I have the medical documents you asked for, and everything else."

"Will Roman be staying while we conduct the test?" I asked.

Olga looked contemplative. "It would be beneficial if he was on standby."

It's funny, as much as she complained about the effort she put to help with B-Team matters, saying how it was beneath her and everything, she genuinely seemed to like being involved in some capacity. More so than just a 'keep me informed' mentality that I originally thought she meant. No, she often made time to come on over to inspect everything and even sometimes give lectures or advice.

"Test for what?" Roman blinked. "And hello, Takao!" He gave a warm greeting.

Honestly, the few times I've met him since the whole Beryl debacle, he had been very friendly to me.

"Hello, Roman." I chuckled.

Night and day compared to the other Roman.

"We're going to conduct the first Self-Reinforcement test on a B-Team member." Olga briefly explained. "Shimoda here tried a different approach to their training, and we're going to see if it's worth it to continue down this path or if we need to scrap it for something more practical."

We were right around the point where we had to commit on a direction otherwise time limits wouldn't allow us to do anything. At this point, if Olga felt like it was a wasted effort, we still had time to focus on something else as the Singularity deployment approached.

"Oh right." Roman nodded. "I heard you were doing that. I can't say I necessarily agree with inexperienced Magi like them attempting something like this, but I can also see the logic. It's the most well rounded spell for nearly any given situation."

"And I was specifically going to focus on their lower half. Basically, I wanted them to have the best tool to just get out of harms way with. Nothing can really beat being able to run away quickly."

Roman looked like he agreed with my thinking. "I guess it's my job, regardless of where I am."

"How surprising, you remember you have a job." Olga said dryly.

"Director…" Roman whined.

"What? Do you think I don't know where you disappear to when trying to skip work!?" She huffed with arms crossed. "And I know all about your secret stashes of sweets. Caster showed me all of them."

"W-what, no, Leo wouldn't do that!"

"She would if I threatened her budget!"

"Nooooo, Director, please don't touch my snacks."

"Then I better see you doing your job." She harumphed.

I couldn't help but smile at the pair. They really did get along well, despite the harsh way she was chiding him, it didn't really feel like she was actually upset.

"Hmph." Olga ignored his continued please as she reached for the stack of papers. "Who's going to be first, Shimoda."

"I want to choose Samuel." I replied having given it thought previously. "He's not the most talented out of the bunch, but he's never tried to push boundaries and he's very hard working. Good at following directions and rather meticulous"

"Twenty six years old, born to a wealthy family in Texas. Grew up on a farm and graduated College near the top of his class." She summarized the information provided. "His Medical report looks alright, nothing that would stand out….a low amount of Circuits, but they are average in quality. Not bad considering he was randomly brought in without any real pedigree to speak of."

"Out of curiosity, are there any talented ones among them?" Roman asked. "I mean….not in a bad way, I'm not trying to say they're untalented or anything…." He awkwardly tried to correct himself.

"I get what you mean, no harm done." I assured him. "Well, it seems the youngest is probably the most talented. Benjamin, conveniently grew up in London."

Olga didn't keep track of the minute details of B-Team as a whole, she had to rummage through the pile of papers to find who I was talking about. "Twenty Two years old, College dropout." She frowned, skimming over most his information. "Parents are in prison, joined a gang for several years…." She continued to scowl. "Did we really hire such a scoundrel?" She looked up in disbelief with a scoff. "Atleast he stopped selling drugs on the corner of the street like a vagrant before being recruited."

"Not everyone is dealt a good hand in life, Director."

Olga frown deepened, looking at me before relenting with a sigh. "I haven't heard of him misbehaving, so I won't question it." She shook her head for a moment before flipping pages. "…..Below average quantity of Circuits, but high quality. Of course the drug dealer would have the best Circuits out of all of them. I know scions of noble families that have worse Circuits."

"He's a good kid, just a little too playful." I leaned back against the desk. "Give it a few years and he might be someone worth picking up."

The Director snorted again. "We'll see when his contract is up. If he shows promise, I can recommend him to some places."

That was about the best I could do. If Benjamin wanted to pursue a career in this world, he was more than welcome to after his tenure at Chaldea. I would see if I could help the others of my team once everything was settled.

I pushed myself up off the corner of the desk, giving a light clap. "Alrighty, shall we get this show on the road?"

[***]

"Welcome, Samuel Washington." Olga was sitting in a chair as Samuel stood straight, trying not to appear nervous infront of her.

"Director." He greeted very directly, earning a nod from her.

Good, he's learned well. If you don't know how to respond to someone in these kind of circumstances, be very simple but polite in the greeting, in this instance, using her title.

"Let's see, you've been with Chaldea for a little over a month at this point. How have you settled in?" She looked up from the papers in her lap.

"It's been difficult, Ma'am." He said honestly.

Olga wasn't put off but his admittance. "It's good to be honest. I understand how our world may be hard for you to acclimate to." She had a rare smile about her as she continued. "We called you here because we're going to begin the next phase in your training. Know that your Team Leader has been training you in a very unorthodox fashion, understandably due to the time constraints we're operating under. This is both a test for him and yourself to see how you perform, are you okay to proceed?"

"Boss has been good to us, Ma'am, I don't know much about how things are supposed to be, but he's treated us well and been helping us a lot. I trust Boss to be doing his best."

Jeez, he was going to make me blush.

Olga had a strange look about as Samuel spoke. "Good, let's begin with activating your Circuits."

Samuel nodded, holding his arm out and a couple seconds later they were filled with the familiar patterns lighting up under his skin.

"Roughly two seconds to activate, not horrible." Olga noted, writing something down. "Especially after only having about a month to practice with them. But I expect it to be near instantaneous in the coming weeks."

"I'll keep practicing, Director."

"See that you do." She said with a small amount of encouragement. "We'll begin the first test, Shimoda present him with the object."

"Here you go, Samuel." I tossed him a Glass Orb, just like he'd been practicing with before. "Do the same that you've been doing and tell us when you're done."

Samuel nodded, holding it up to his eyes as he very clearly began to concentrate. It took longer than just to activate his Circuits, probably about thirty seconds in total before he relaxed slightly. "I'm done."

Olga lifted herself off the seat, stepping forward to take it from his hand. "Standard Reinforcement, consistent frequency of parallel augmentation with an overlapping matrix of Magical Energy." She held it up to the light. "Surface level is pristine, crystalline structure shows only very minor damage from spell cast, advisable for some inspection on the micro level fractures for the future. Otherwise, high marks." Olga replied, a rare amount of praise leaving her lips. "However, there is one last test." Olga reeled back her arm, planted her foot on the ground and threw the Orb hard at the wall. Perhaps with more force than necessarily as the wind whipped with her movement.

The Glass Orb slammed into the wall, but it didn't shatter into pieces. It deformed, cracked and nearly imploded into itself, but it still retained a nearly solid shape as it bounced onto the ground.

"Erm, guess I didn't do too well." Samuel said awkwardly.

"Nonsense." Olga replied, beating me to it. "Do you expect a Glass Orb to sustain no damage even with a cast of perfect Reinforcement with the force I used?" She flipped her hair back. "The Nature of the Reinforcement spell is to augment and strengthen the concept of the object in question. Regardless, it is still a glass object, holding the understanding and Mystery of brittle and delicate. Yes, there is room for improvement, but it did not shatter and retained its form in a general shape. It was a good cast, well done."

"…thanks." Samuel said kind of awkwardly again.

"I couldn't have said it better myself." I walked up, patting Samuel on the shoulder. "But don't get too happy, the next part is going to be difficult."

"He's right. And as the head Doctor on staff, I'm going to warn you again of the dangers of using Reinforcement on yourself. I don't think I need to go into detail after seeing all your failures." Roman walked over, picking up the deformed Glass Orb. "It won't be pretty if things go wrong."

"I….want to try, sir." Samuel resolved himself.

"Good, you have courage." Olga smiled lightly at his insistence on continuing. "Keep Roman's words in mind, but do remember, we have medical facilities that are beyond what you can imagine. Don't be afraid to fail, that's why we have the set up as we do."

She was being weirdly gentle with the whole thing.

I'm starting to wonder if she just has a hard time connecting with people and just defaults to her normal Director attitude for every situation. That and it must be very tiresome and stressful to handle Chaldea's matters on her lonesome.

I don't think she's a bully or something that likes to lord herself over others. So, given the situation, she's probably acting more in tune with her true self.

"I'll be helping you along this time." I reassure him. "Take a seat, cross legged, I'll help be your guide for the first few times so you can get a good idea of what to do."

"You may proceed when you are ready." Olga said, not rushing us.

Samuel nodded, taking a seat as I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't fight my Magical Energy, you should know the feeling now, so just relax."

Granted, his body would do it unconsciously as all would, but if he where to actively struggle it would be more detrimental and likely dangerous.

"We're going to focus on a single part, specifically your legs." I told him, getting a good look at his inner workings with the help of Structural Grasp. "Normally, this kind of spell work would involve another Spell, Structural Grasp, which allows you to view the inner workings of something at its most basic. However, in complexity, it can rival Reinforcement on just theory and learning alone. With the time constraints, we're skipping that step to get you all to have a general idea of how much you can push yourself without self-harming."

"Got it, Boss." Samuel closed his eyes and I was feeling rather warm by how much he was trusting me right now. I never really had students before, but I kind of thought of them in that way. "I'm going to start."

"Alright, I'm right here, just do it slowly like you did with the glass." I said quietly, not to distract him.

His Magic Circuits flared as the Magical Energy filled his body and he focused it towards his legs. It took hold as the spell cast began.

"Even it out, left leg needs more, but only a tiny bit." I whispered as I watched him adjust himself. I used my own Magical Energy to help guide him, a very gentle touch to help him feel his own body out and not overexert any specific part too much.

It wasn't perfect, but I wasn't going to pick out every single minute detail right at the start, the important thing was for the spell to actualize completely without any major problem.

The familiar signs enveloped his legs as the spell took hold. Though, there were a few spots that began turning red, I was about to say something, but he noticed apparently as well as he went about fixing it by himself.

Samuel let out a grunt of pain as his body jerked, but he opened his eyes.

There was a moment of silence as I patted him on the shoulder again. "Well done, you did it."

"I….feel weird?" Samuel mumbled as he tried to stand up, but stumbled slightly.

"Careful, your legs are operating at a much higher level now." I steadied himself.

"Wait, don't move, let me give him a quick check up." Roman hurried over, also propping him up as he leaned down to inspect his legs. "Looks like you strained several muscles, prolonged use in this state will tear them if you aren't careful. There's a few ruptured blood vessels, and you inflated some veins which will flame up shortly as well. I also see a very faint hairline fracture along your shin." He listed off.

"What's the verdict, Roman." Olga asked.

"….In an emergency, it's passable." Roman stood back up. "Obviously, I'm going to take him back to my office for a more thorough check up. But….if this was all that happened while in the field, it's not too bad and passable. Granted, the spell effect is probably only at about a fifth of the standard of a more experienced variant."

"For a first try, these are acceptable parameters, well done." Olga praised again. "Roman, take him back to your office, to double check to make sure there's nothing we missed.

"On it, Director." He nodded. "And keep your Reinforcement active, I want to see if there's any other problems that come up from the short walk over." Roman said as he ushered the southern Magus out of the room.

I watched them go only to turn back in time to see Olga do a little fist pump into the air. She blinked, noticed me and blushed a little in embarrassment. "….pretend you didn't see that." She said firmly.

"See what?" I smiled wistfully, but I held back a laugh. "Is it up to your standards, Director?"

"You did good work, Shimoda. We just need to get them to be able to cast it quickly and efficiently without any major bodily harm and they will be field operable at a minimum." Olga preened. "And I can gloat to the investors and those vultures that we managed to teach a bunch of Mundane people something as complicated as Reinforcement in just over a month! That should keep their mouths shut for awhile and give me some breathing room."

She sounded rather enthused by that idea.

"So you agree with my direction for training?"

"I admit I was and still am skeptical, but the results prove themselves. We need to outline the whole process and begin making preparations for the incoming flux of new Master Candidates. I've held off on bringing the next batch until now so we could have a streamlined training process. However, I believe you're ready to take them on now."

"Next batch, huh?" I scratched my head. "How many are we talking?"

"Counting your current team and A-Team, we decided on a total of fifty Mastery Candidates. Not all of them will be arriving at the same time in the next batch, but it should be the vast majority minus a handful." Olga replied. "I expect them to arrive within the week after I give the go ahead."

"That should give me enough time to standardize everything and get my current team on the right track." I would be a little more busy, but it also solidified my spot among the staff. At this point, I'm pretty sure Olga was very appreciative of my talents.

It hadn't been entirely smooth sailing. I had no experience teaching people for extended periods of time. And most of those I had conversed with before had been among those I could call peers. It was slow going at first until I could get a hang of things for complete beginners.

But, it's apparently paid off after working for so long.

"Excuse me, Director." There was a knock at the open door as Wodime politely interrupted.

"Kirschtaria." Olga immediately took a rather even tone with him, the light fondness she was showing off earlier nearly disappeared entirely.

"I take it congratulations are in order for your excitement?" He asked.

"First test was a success." I didn't hide it.

"Remarkable. Perhaps there is some room to write a paper on the practical applications." He said idily but blinked and seemed regather his thoughts. "I apologize, I seemed to have had a stray thought. But I have come to request your presence tomorrow as I will be gathering A-Team to conduct a team exercise. While I don't expect you to participate in every aspect of my team, I was hoping you would come and acquaint yourself with them in the case of emergency and you will have to take Beryl's place. And I believe it would be beneficial if you were to associate with them regardless due to being the leader of B-Team."

"I can make time, I look forward to meeting the remainder of A-Team."

"Wonderful." The A-Team Leader smiled brightly. "The Singularity approaches, but I believe a few instances of cooperative training will do wonders in the worst case scenario."

That's right, they're going to deploy soon, should be right as the next round of trainees arrive. It seem odd on the surface, but they're going to 'attack' the singularity right as the moment presents itself, leaving quite a bit of time before things delve into a critical situation. Meaning, in the worse case, if A-Team Fails, we still have time for a proper response, I.e. B-Team.

Even in that case, we would still have several months afterwards to train and resolve the problem before it passed the point of irreparable damage.

Well, I can't say I had a lot of confidence considering the whole reason I'm here. But I think I'll get a lot of my questions answered once the Singularity approached in a little while.

[***]

I think I forgot to mention that I woudln't be posting monday / tuesday, woops. Anyways, work this week has been killing me, and for the same reasons, next chapter will most likely be friday. That being said, we're close to canon content now, only a couple chapters left before the main events start.

If you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone