"Massive magical power detected in the Heroic Spirit Summoning Chamber! A portion of the energy matches Jiang You's signature, but the majority of the wavelength is extremely similar to the god previously associated with Abigail. All departments, prepare mental defenses!"
In the Control Room, Da Vinci, who was adjusting the equipment, immediately noticed the anomalous magical power readings. After comparing the wavelengths with recorded data, her expression turned grim. Just two days ago, Chaldea had been "visited" by Yog-Sothoth, dragging everyone into the Dreamlands.
Fortunately, the entity hadn't come for them specifically and bore no ill will. Otherwise, Chaldea would have been annihilated then and there. Although there were no casualties, the forced slumber left some areas unattended, requiring several devices to be reset and maintained. Chaldea's current capabilities were utterly powerless against an opponent of Major God-class or higher.
"No need for all that trouble. I already see him—it's Jiang You."
As the field team leader, Gudako immediately rushed to the scene with Mash. Thanks to a certain someone's actions, although Chaldea had performed three Heroic Spirit Summonings, their actual combat strength still consisted of only Mash. It seemed Gudako and Mash's life as overworked models of diligence would have to continue.
"But his Spirit Origin readings... He's still a Foreigner, but there's clearly something else mixed in. Please be extremely careful!"
Jiang You hadn't been present when Chaldea returned to normal, so Da Vinci had no idea about his current condition.
"Don't worry about that. He already explained his situation to me. This is normal," Gudako said, demonstrating her unwavering trust. "He's recovered his True Name. I kept forgetting to mention it because we've been so busy lately. We can discuss the details later. But for him to suddenly appear here... I have a bad feeling something's up again."
Due to the severe aftereffects of the Dreamlands, Gudako and Hakuno had been swamped with Chaldea's affairs until today. They hadn't found time to give Da Vinci a detailed explanation, and Gudako hadn't even had a chance to properly investigate her "Miko of the Outer God" identity.
"You guys... why are you looking at me like I'm the plague? I haven't done anything recently, have I?"
After settling matters with Kiritsugu, Jiang You had arrived in Chaldea's timeline. Since he was inviting acquaintances to the event, he couldn't play favorites. But the moment he appeared, he was met with a barrage of disdainful glares.
"What do you think?" Gudako retorted, her expression clearly saying, How can you be so clueless?
"Nothing good ever happens when you show up."
Jiang You thought back. Sure, I altered the course of the Sixth Singularity, but the outcome was the same, and I was the main damage dealer. And I only pulled one big stunt during the Seventh Singularity. Is that really enough to earn this much hostility?
"That's nonsense! I haven't done anything! Besides, I'm here to invite you all to a Duel Tournament."
"I'm not going!"
Gudako's stance was firm. "Last time you invited me on vacation, we nearly wrecked Chaldea! Now Nero's Spirit Origin has changed, causing problems with my contract. If I go again, you'll probably end up blowing this place up!"
"Nero's situation isn't necessarily a bad thing," Jiang You argued. Due to the fusion with the Pied Piper's Spirit Origin, Nero was no longer purely a Roman Emperor. But considering she'd fused with Venus before, this wasn't exactly out of character.
"Her power has increased significantly now, which should make your final battle easier. How about this? Besides the winner's wish, if you join the Duel Tournament, I'll summon every Servant I know to back you up during the final showdown."
"Wait, so you're saying you won't help if I don't participate?" Gudako rolled her eyes. "Didn't you promise to stand with us through thick and thin? Speaking of which, you even formed a contract with me back then. Are you a Chaldea Servant or not?!"
Jiang You scratched his chin. He vaguely recalled something like that. At the time, he'd been eager to start a new "Script" and had even planned to find a "new love" (meaning betraying Illya to become Gudako's Servant). However, even original Command Spells had no effect on him, let alone Chaldea's self-regenerating, nerfed version.
"Don't sweat the details. You're my miko now, aren't you? If worse comes to worst, just drag Goetia into a card game. He won't be able to handle it."
"Then there's even less reason for me to go!" Gudako rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared into her skull. "Your Noble Phantasm is useless against multiple opponents! It makes no difference whether I'm there or not!"
It seemed bribery wouldn't convince Gudako to join the tournament. Jiang You pondered for a moment. While missing one or two contestants wasn't a major issue, it felt incomplete. That left coercion. As an Outer God, it was perfectly reasonable to demand his miko complete a few trials, right?
"Alright, I've sealed your authority. It'll only be unsealed once you make it to the top 32, which should be a freebie for you. Plus, there are rewards for good performance."
"Are you not even going to pretend anymore?"
Gudako didn't feel anything wrong with her body, but Jiang You saying he placed a lockdown definitely wasn't a joke. With Chaldea's current combat strength, they had absolutely no chance of winning against the Seventy-Two Demon God Pillars and Goetia. Jiang You's assistance was practically indispensable.
"Fine, I'll participate. Just remember to keep your word."
"Wouldn't it have been better if you just agreed from the start?"
Jiang You laughed with ill intent. Now, out of all his acquaintances, only Morgan over in the Faerie Realm was left uninvited.
"So Jiang You, which servants are you able to summon?"
Hakuno had been eavesdropping from the side since the very beginning—well, not exactly eavesdropping; she had rushed over immediately after hearing the broadcast. She still had some interest in these Spell-related matters.
"Let me think, quite a few actually. Going in order, there's Hundred-Faced Hassan, Berserker Lancelot, Medea, Hassan of Serenity, Medusa, Cursed Arm Hassan, White Lancer Artoria, Eresh, Shuten-dōji, Ibaraki, and Medusa's two Sisters, Fairy Knight Lancelot, Gawain, Tristan, Abigail... do Nero and Eli-chan and Bubble count...? Oh, right, although I've never actively sought him out, I can also summon Archer..."
Jiang You still felt like someone was missing, a very powerful servant.
"That's a lot, and it sounds like most of them are girls too."
Hakuno looked Jiang You up and down with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Did you forget someone?"
Gudako thought about it. Most of the servants were indeed ones she had met before, but Jiang You had left one out.
"What about Miss Tiamat?"
"!!!!"
Jiang You finally remembered. When he went to Bubble to fight a high-level match, he had also invited the strongest combatant on his side to hold the fort. As a result, Bubble used the concept of the Gate to send Tiamat away. After figuring out the situation at the time, he had ended up having a pretty happy chat with Bubble, and then some things came up in Reality, so he completely forgot about this!
"You really forgot about her?"
Gudako watched Jiang You's expression change and didn't know what to say for a moment. An opponent as strong as Tiamat should have left a very deep impression.
"So, here's the question: where was Tiamat sent?"
Jiang You opened the summoning list. As long as he summoned Tiamat over, he would find out. It was just that Jiang You was a little worried about whether he would receive a rather fierce beating; after all, he had forgotten about this for several days.
"I won't get beaten to death on the spot, will I?"
"There's naturally no need to worry about Miss Tiamat's strength."
Gudako had witnessed Tiamat's terrifying power as an opponent; she couldn't imagine any existence capable of threatening Tiamat.
"But that's not an excuse for you to completely ignore her, right? Show some manly responsibility and apologize if you need to. Dragging things out will only make it worse!"
"Well said!"
Jiang You never expected the day would come when he'd be lectured by an underage girl, let alone a game character.
"But did you forget that you're my miko now? Whatever you think in your heart gets sent to me as a prayer. So you actually just want to gloat and watch me get scolded, right?"
"Huh?"
Gudako's expression changed slightly. "You never told me that! Wasn't I just supposed to offer my purity to you?!"
"Don't use such easily misunderstood words!"
Seeing Hakuno looking at him with even more disdain, Jiang You, who had no such bizarre fetishes, hastily defended himself.
"Do you think I want to listen to your endless nagging every day? Next time you're thinking about things, avoid my name. Don't you know that a god's name is unknowable and shouldn't be invoked lightly?!"
Gudako pulled down her lower eyelid with her finger and made a funny face at Jiang You. Only at times like this did she look like a girl who hadn't even come of age yet.
"I will handle Tiamat's matter myself, so you don't need to worry about it."
Jiang You was planning to drag Tiamat back to apologize, just not in front of others.
"I'll send you over now. The tournament will last for about a week, so you can have a good look around during the time you aren't competing."
"I hope there won't be any accidents like last time."
Gudako actually did want to have a good rest in a peaceful city, but to her, unexpected events were a common occurrence.
"I don't think there will be anything like last time."
Now that Bubble was working as a librarian in Jiang You's own Library, the biggest threat had become an ally, so there was no reason for any more trouble.
"Just enjoy your vacation properly this time."
"Are you saying the winner can have a wish granted?"
Hakuno grabbed Jiang You. "Any kind of wish?"
Looking at Hakuno, who had a somewhat emotionless (not really) attribute, Jiang You couldn't tell what kind of wish she wanted to make.
"Theoretically, it's within the scope of my ability, since I'm the actual organizer of this thing. But you don't have to worry about the scope of your wish being too narrow. I have a lot of helpers right now, from all kinds of worlds, so most things aren't too difficult for me."
Jiang You wasn't bragging. Even if the other party wanted to be the King of the world, Jiang You could try to conquer it for her. There were even many ways to achieve this. For example, without bothering others, Jiang You could directly drag the leaders of various countries into a Shadow Game and make them obey the winner. Simple and crude.
"But you can't locate my original world, right?"
Hakuno wasn't in a hurry to go home, but she had to go back eventually. It would be great if she could find a way in advance.
"It seems I can't count on that. Well then, count me in too. I also want to see what my Deck looks like."
"No problem."
Adding the protagonist from next door as a contestant was also a good thing; now there was another person holding Nero's cards. Goldie and Archer should also be there, but he didn't know which one would be summoned. Jiang You was somewhat looking forward to her facing off against Shirou Emiya, and he would do a little behind-the-scenes manipulation when the time came.
"Since it's come to this, let's expand the size of the tour group. Call your relatives and friends, and bring Da Vinci and Dr. Romani along too... The Chaldea staff should come as well. If worst comes to worst, you can take shifts. What kind of way is that to work, with no days off all year round!"
"It's rare for you to actually do something humane."
Gudako raised both hands and feet in agreement. They hadn't rested much since the Incineration of Human Order began.
"Let's forget about this."
Romani's projection appeared in front of them. "I do slack off a lot, but when it comes to the survival of humanity, working overtime is a necessity. You're different, Ritsuka. You've shouldered such a heavy burden before even coming of age, so you definitely need a good rest. We can hold down the fort here."
"Are you looking down on me too much?"
Jiang You stated that he didn't know what would happen later in Part 2, but the Goetia of Part 1 was absolutely not a threat to him. Goetia's combat power was indeed very strong, but it hadn't reached the point where he could completely crush all Heroic Spirits. The only tricky part was his intrinsic skill, Anti-Summon. For combatants like Chaldea and Ritsuka Fujimaru, who relied almost entirely on Servants to fight (they couldn't even use Servant Shadows properly in Part 1), it could be said to be a pure, natural hard counter. It was different for Jiang You. No matter how he was judged, he would never be considered a summoned Servant. With his current Deck, even facing a Beast wouldn't be a problem at all.
"But..."
Romani wanted to say something else, but Jiang You cut him off directly.
"Aren't you just worried about Chaldea's operational issues? I can handle that too!"
Jiang You snapped his fingers, and instantly, over a dozen skull-masked Hundred-Faced Hassans appeared in front of him.
"Master, please give your orders."
Hundred Faces replied in unison.
"During this period, I'll leave the general operational work of Chaldea to you all."
As mentioned before, apart from combat, Hundred Faces was almost omnipotent. Considering that Chaldea had some secrets that wouldn't be revealed, Jiang You also expressed his understanding. In any case, the corresponding work definitely wouldn't require all of them anyway.
"Is that really okay?"
"Is it really okay for you to boss Hundred Faces around like this?"
Romani quipped.