Chapter 180: New Members

Roman: "...What happened with you being low-key?"

Kouzuki: "Damn..."

Kal'tsit: "..."

Shino: "Shiro..?"

"They're all surprised."

Seeing the reactions of the chat group members, it can be summed up to them being surprised. Usually, his charm stat is converged at his eyes. With it exhibited to its fullest, his appearance became the ceiling in reality itself.

"It's no wonder. But hey, it's only been a few months since we last met, yes?" Shiro asked rhetorically.

Touka: "And you're still the same."

Kal'tsit: "+1"

Roman: "Anyways... What happened after that time?"

After mentioning Roman's chat to Shiro, the latter told him what happened. To Shiro's side, it only took a moment for them to travel to Emiya Shirou's world. However, it took months for Roman and the others.

While the difference between the time flows are factored here, the other reason is him... rather, Fenrir and Magus messed up the fabrics of reality after their operation, which led to the irregular time flows.

Without the Chat Group or any other time anchor, those flows became unstable.

"Anyways... What happened in Roman's side?"

Hearing this, Shinji was startled. Recalling his feats based on Kouzuki's mouth, his mouth twitched.

"Er... Aniki, he became the Principal of a school... in the world where you did your last mission." He said.

Shiro digested the information swiftly before he nodded.

"As expected of him."

Roman: "I don't know if you're praising me or badmouthing me..."

Kouzuki: "Heh... Is it not that obvious?"

Kuroneko: "Wait a minute... Haven't you noticed something else?!"

Kuroneko, who got knocked down few minutes ago, is back once more.

Roman: "Wait a moment... This background seems familiar..."

Cardinal: "It's Emiya Shirou's dojo in fate/ stay night."

Once Cardinal pointed it out, the rest who didn't knew it realized the familiarity that came from it.

Cardinal: "Shinji-kun, can you point the camera downwards?"

"Alright?"

While confused, Shinji made the camera float further from them. The moment he did so, the rest of them saw that there's actually a girl sleeping in Shiro's lap!

Roman: "WHAT?!"

Kouzuki: "Isn't she..."

Shino: "Why does she look like Saber?"

Cardinal: "..."

Cardinal: "She's Caster Artoria... from the English Lostbelt..."

Roman: "I mean... How did..."

Kal'tsit: "Time doesn't matter for some extraordinary beings."

Cardinal: "Exactly."

*****

Inside the server room, Cardinal shut herself for 3 days straight. She updated the security of the company's databanks, which included a lot of blueprints and recipes for the technological and pharmacology fields, respectively.

Two months had passed in this world, though Cardinal spent more time as she traveled to various worlds. In total, she spent more than 200 days since Shiro disappeared.

Just as they've planned, Shiro and Cardinal's company grew enough to be included in the upper-class, only below the top-class ones like Rhine Labs, Blacksteel Company, and Babel.

Cardinal decided to recruit both the Infected and the Uninfected, with them providing an [Oripathy Suppressor] to the latter. Of course, they had a rough start due to this, but it only lasted for a week when she enacted the countermeasure for the ones unsatisfied by it.

After all, they provided generous salaries that are 5 times the normal company.

Since they decided on prioritizing loyalty, they decided to remove those biased against the uninfected from the start. Those ones tend to bear similarities with the toxic ones in the other worlds, hence their work environment is one of the best.

Together with the inventions that they have, it only took them two months to grow up. Of course, they experienced some problems such as spies applying, hackers trying to hinder and steal their technologies, and insufficient workforce.

Though, they are all solved by her alone.

With Cardinal's current processing speed, she can turn her consciousness into a virtual one and process thousands of tasks at the same time. Furthermore, she also created dozens of sub-AIs that would help her shoulder the workload.

In the end, the situation was stabilized and they're now producing many products in their assembly line that can handle the demands of a city every day.

"Another girl..."

Cardinal sighed as an unpleasant feeling arose from her chest. She missed Shiro since the day they have parted, but the first time that she's seeing him is with another girl?

Moreover, she can see that the relationship between the two of them is very intimate.

"Is she his wife..?"

She recalled some of their casual conversations, in which he mentioned that he has more than one wife. She thought that he's joking at first... or that's how she wanted to believe it. She knew that there's a chance of it being true, yet she denied it somehow.

After all...

"Right... Cardinal, I'll be visiting today. It's on our usual spot, so do wait for me there."

In an instant, she was jolted awake as she heard him. Unexpectedly, it was at this moment that she made a decision that would decide her future with him.

Cardinal: "I'll be waiting for you."

*****

It took them half an hour to catch up with everything. Halfway there, Medusa left and stood by Sakura's side, so they didn't saw her much.

Meanwhile, Shiro got interested in the things that occurred when he was gone, such as Kuroneko's new abilities, Kouzuki being a mechanic, and the new chat group members.

While he was gone, a total of five new members popped up. One of them is from a world with a mysterious power, so that member took more of his interest.

Strangely, they couldn't find her anime... and her own world is a very normal one. At least, that's what they've noticed at first. When the mission came in, it's all about fulfilling ten ghosts' wishes so that they can ascend to heaven.

"Mn... Shiro..."

"Looks like she's about to wake up. Let's continue this on another time."

"I'll be shutting this down, aniki."

"Alright... Goodbye for now~"

After Shinji turned off the livestream function, he also left, leaving the two of them behind. Reverting back to his original form, his figure became shorter than Castoria who sat up just now.

"What was that?" She asked.

"It's the chat group. The one that I've told you before."

"So it's that... It really resembled [The Root], so I thought that a Magician visited us."

At this time, Castoria is nothing like her true form, the one that temporarily resides inside the Throne of Heroes. At her best, she can destroy this universe—Chief Gods, Upper Gods, [Wills], and even Alien Gods... none could stop her.

It is mostly due to her nature that can turn into a sword, thus cutting down realities in that state. Meaning, her feats inside the Lostbelt, which she almost destroyed Cernunnos' Divine Core, can be considered as her weakest form.

Suddenly, a colorful sheen appeared inside the dojo. The jewels soon became an outline of a human person before it took the shape of an old man with a magus' attire.

"I was about to congratulate the new Magician, but it's actually you."

"Look who's here." Shiro said as he smiled.

An old man from the past revisits him once more.