"Sir, please watch your words. It is a servant's duty to share the Master's burdens."
Although Hundred Faces was the model worker by Jiang You's side, taking care of almost all the chores, she herself was actually quite happy about it. As a tool, being useful is the highest praise. Jiang You didn't lack combat power around him, so a servant like her was the most useful. Just look at Shuten-dōji and Ibaraki—after being brought to the timeline of the Fifth Holy Grail War, they basically had no screen time.
At the time, because Jiang You restricted Shuten-dōji from attacking humans, Ibaraki threw a temper tantrum for a long time. Shuten-dōji, however, was more open-minded about it, because there was plenty of alcohol. Although modern alcohol is industrially produced, you can still buy good stuff if you are willing to spend the money. Modern society is much more colorful and diverse than the Heian-kyō era in Japan, so hedonists of the Oni Clan like Shuten-dōji and Ibaraki adapted very quickly. By the way, Ibaraki's pockets are now stuffed with candy (referencing swimsuit Ibaraki).
"Where did you find such a satisfactory subordinate?"
Romani looked at Hundred Faces' serious expression, realizing that this Assassin genuinely supported Jiang You from the bottom of her heart. It was hard to imagine that someone with such an erratic personality like Jiang You would have such a loyal servant.
"I figured you have quite a lot of subordinates too, isn't there a single one who is to your liking?"
Seeing Romani's expression of unbearable past memories, Jiang You thought to himself that a King of Magecraft shouldn't be like this.
"Are you talking about those seventy-two guys?"
Romani grabbed his head. The Great Halo was still floating in the sky. "The reason I'm so busy right now is exactly because they're causing trouble! Really, they won't even let me have peace after I've retired."
"Seventy-two... Could it be?"
Referencing Jiang You and Romani's way of speaking, Hundred Faces immediately pinpointed the corresponding legend. "This middle-aged corporate slave who looks like he works year-round without breaks is King Solomon?"
This time, Romani used both hands to cover his face. After his true identity was exposed by Jiang You, he had somewhat given up on keeping up appearances in front of him. But there was an outsider here now, and he had accidentally exposed his identity due to a moment of carelessness. His lifelong reputation had been ruined in an instant.
"You guessed right, this middle-aged corporate slave who looks like he works year-round without breaks is the legendary King Solomon. However, he has currently abandoned most of his rings, so his present functions are about the same as an ordinary person."
Romani actually looked quite young, but his disposition was so rundown that he seemed like a middle-aged man.
"Let me emphasize this again: thank you so much!"
Romani expressed his gratitude through gritted teeth.
"You're welcome."
"To think the famous King of Magecraft would look like this."
By Jiang You's side, Hundred Faces had also gained an understanding of the concept of "Grands." After learning that the First stood at the apex as a Grand Servant (basically no one could substitute for Assassin, and Caster was pretty much the same before Solomon stepped down), Hundred Faces also felt a sense of shared honor. At the same time, she inevitably began comparing him to other Grands; seeing that the Grand on the Caster side looked like this, Hundred Faces puffed out her chest with pride.
"It seems a lot has happened here. Rest assured, I will complete my tasks even better than they did."
Hundred Faces felt that Jiang You definitely had another purpose in mind, and as a servant, she had to gather all the intelligence here.
"With you being so motivated, I actually feel a bit embarrassed."
Jiang You only had two people who handled a heavy workload for him, namely Hundred Faces and Medea. Medea would often complain and was never shy about taking her rewards, whereas Hundred Faces bore the burden of hard work completely without complaint.
"I'll give you a vacation after this is over. If there's anything you want to do, you can ask me for help. I don't even know what your wishes are anymore."
"I wouldn't dare ask for more from you. The trust you've placed in me is already the best reward."
Jiang You had helped her resolve her long-standing inner conflict right from the beginning, allowing each of her selves to have their own independent good dreams—something she hadn't experienced even when she was alive. Her wish was just that simple. Her only pursuit now was to turn her title of "Hundred Faces" into a literal "Thousand Faces." She was trying to separate out more individuals, and being able to experience all kinds of different jobs by Jiang You's side was of great help toward this goal. Therefore, she really didn't have any demands to make of Jiang You. His strange requests were nothing in her eyes, as each of her individuals also had different preferences.
"If you think of anything, be sure to tell me."
Jiang You didn't push the matter. Hundred Faces generally wouldn't leave his side anyway, so they could just talk about it when something came up.
"Since it's all decided, go notify the staff to pack their luggage. All expenses are on me, but you'll still have to prepare your own clothes and things."
"Have you decided this for us just like that? What about the opinions of our staff?"
Romani did indeed want to take a break, but he still felt the need to put up a token resistance to maintain some modesty.
"They won't have any objections, because I've already sent them work emails using your account."
Romani suddenly noticed a glasses-wearing Hassan standing beside him, evidently a Clone of Hundred Faces. He had no idea when she had released a Clone and snuck into his main control room.
"Chaldea's firewalls are indeed absurdly strong, and you even use Spells as cover. But once breached physically, the interior is basically completely unobstructed. It was so easy that I'm starting to doubt your competence."
"If someone can physically breach the interior, firewalls wouldn't be of much use anyway, right?"
Romani retorted. If it came to that, Chaldea would be on the verge of falling, so what would be the point of protecting an account? The true secrets weren't even stored as data anyway. "Also, aren't you an ancient servant? How do you even have hacking skills?"
"My Noble Phantasms ensure that my Clones possess their own areas of expertise. Having adapted to modern life, isn't it perfectly normal for me to have a modern Clone?"
This was the confidence of Hundred Faces as a utility servant.
"Fair enough."
Da Vinci chimed in, saying she was also utilizing the convenience of modern technology now. Even writer-type servants, after experiencing the convenience of tablets, wouldn't choose to write stories with a pen anymore. Of course, with the exception of some stubborn traditionalists. "Romani, aren't you Solomon too? You're also using a computer to work now."
"I suppose..."
Having come this far, Romani could even hear faint cheers from next door. Saving the world put a lot of pressure on everyone, so it was about time to relax a bit.
"Then, let me kindly remind you, are you really going to cover all of our expenses here? It's not too late to back out now."
Jiang You looked at his backpack. The money left by the Oil King still wasn't used up, and along with Goldie's treasures he had embezzled before, he was incredibly wealthy.
"Don't tell me you guys plan to use my money to play the stock market? As long as they don't do something crazy like buying land, just tell them to do as they please. No need to hold back for my sake."
Since Jiang You was so confident, Romani swallowed the rest of his words. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Chaldea staff were mostly nameless; they actually all came from various Spell families. Their concept of money was far more outrageous than those young masters and ladies in the secular world, and they could easily find rather outrageous channels to spend it. He just hoped Jiang You wouldn't regret it.
"Then I'll leave the arrangements here to you. I'll come pick you guys up later."
After Gudako reminded him that someone was missing, Jiang You was in a hurry to find Tiamat to apologize; the longer this kind of thing dragged on, the worse it would get.
After saying goodbye to Gudako and Hakuno, Jiang You arrived at his Transit World.
"Bubble, where did you throw Tiamat?"
As soon as he entered the door, Jiang You found Bubble flipping through a book. Jiang You had no idea what was so interesting for her to read. Strictly speaking, this Library was just a materialization of the knowledge in her brain. People who came here to read (although there were none right now) were actually just learning the knowledge she already understood.
"I thought you would never remember."
Bubble couldn't foresee anything regarding Jiang You, so to her, this was still quite interesting.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know. At that time, my main body set up a filtering concept for the passage leading here. This was also for your own good, because the companions you brought before were greatly affected. Only allowing you to enter was actually a form of protection. Theoretically, that filtering System was only supposed to bounce them back to their original world."
"Then Tiamat should still only be in the Timeline of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Where is she?"
Jiang You pressed further. Tiamat was nowhere to be seen in the Fifth Holy Grail War, so where exactly was she sent back to?
"Don't panic. Because you are the Master of this space, this concept isn't very stable. And Tiamat, as the apex of this world, also possesses a certain level of resistance. At the time, she chose to forcefully break in. This caused a deviation in the filtering concept, randomly bouncing her to another world."
Bubble spread her hands helplessly. "The coordinates she was bounced to depended on the magical power and direction she was using at the time. I'm sorry, but I didn't record the data back then, so I don't know either."
"Isn't that a bit too lame?!"
Jiang You wondered, what happened to your prestige as an Outer God?
Bubble stared at Jiang You. Her abilities were significantly affected just by being around him, yet he still hadn't realized that he was the actual culprit.
Thus, Jiang You could only wave his hand to conjure an independent room before summoning Tiamat.
"Hmm... Where is this? Jiang You (???), did you forget about Mommy?"
As soon as Tiamat landed, she stared at Jiang You with a scrutinizing gaze. Back then, Jiang You had said there was a very troublesome opponent, so she hurriedly followed him. In the end, the moment she walked through the door, she had no idea where she ended up, and Jiang You hadn't come to find her for several days in a row. This made her a little angry.
"Bad child!"
"Sorry, sorry! Something came up, and I had great confidence in your strength, Tiamat, which is why I didn't come to get you right away. Please forgive me!"
Regardless, sweet words and excuses had to be said.
"Liar!"
Tiamat easily saw through Jiang You's lie, but a Mother is usually quite forgiving towards a child making their first mistake. "Mommy isn't that easy to fool. I'll forgive you this time. But don't let there be a next time! So, is the previous matter settled? Are you okay without Mommy's help?"
"It's already resolved. Strictly speaking, it wasn't an enemy, just a... friend? who came looking for me."
Jiang You didn't know how to describe his relationship with Bubble either. He couldn't very well say she was his daughter. Yog becoming Tiamat's granddaughter—that family hierarchy would be weird no matter how you looked at it.
Jiang You then gave Tiamat a brief recount of what had happened during this time.
"A foreign god? And you said your True Name is 'Azathoth'?"
Tiamat leaned a bit closer to Jiang You, her eyes carefully observing him from head to toe, making Jiang You feel uncomfortable all over.
"Hmm... Overwriting it in this way... It fits... but not quite. Jiang You, remember this: to me, you are Jiang You, not some Azathoth. My child cannot be replaced by anything else. As expected, your own name is the best."
Jiang You didn't quite understand Tiamat's meaning. She seemed to have seen through the fact that Azathoth's Spirit Origin was just an alternate persona for him. Logically speaking, shouldn't this be his own setting? Even Bubble had come over to verify it. But no matter what, it was indeed a good thing that Tiamat glossed over the fact that he had left her hanging for several days.
"So, Tiamat, where were you thrown to? The world on my side doesn't seem to have any news of you."
Bubble didn't know either, so out of curiosity, Jiang You could only take the initiative to ask.
"A little blonde girl and I squeezed out of a Summoning Circle together."
Tiamat touched her large horns, looking puzzled.
"After she used a Skill called [True Name Discernment] on me at the time, she was so scared that she immediately attacked me."
"Blonde? True Name Discernment?"
Jiang You could guess who it was with his knees. He even had her card on his end, although he hadn't had much chance to use it. "Is this Servant called Jeanne d'Arc?"
"That's right! A violent child like that naturally needs to be taught a good lesson!"
Tia waved her fist, but her long sleeves covered it completely, making it look like she was just acting cute.
"I went up and knocked her down right away. This child is also straightforward; she pulled out her sword and tried to attack me with her Noble Phantasm. I had no choice, so I had to seal her abilities."
To Tiamat, a Servant around the level of a first-rate gatekeeper like Jeanne d'Arc was incredibly weak.
"La Pucelle, huh? It seems she was really desperate. After all, your current Spirit Origin is a Beast, Tiamat, so it's no wonder."
Jiang You figured that even if Jeanne d'Arc had successfully released it, she wouldn't have been able to deal much damage to Tiamat; she would have only blown herself up.
"Judging a Servant by their Spirit Origin is too one-sided!"
Tiamat puffed out her cheeks. "So I taught her a good lesson, and she finally admitted her mistake. But mere verbal apologies are far too flimsy, so I told her to write a reflection letter!"
To Tiamat, Jeanne d'Arc was like a rebellious child. The concept of a reflection letter was something she had just learned recently during her time in Fuyuki.
"But she actually refused!"
"I think I know why... isn't she illiterate?"
Asking an illiterate person to write a reflection letter—Jeanne d'Arc would probably rather be burned at the stake again.