Within the Wandering Sea, with technical support from Sion, the former Chaldea personnel reconstructed several key Chaldea facilities using the workshops there. Under Olga Marie's leadership, they established a new organization called New Chaldea, dedicated to addressing the crisis of Humanity's Bleaching.
"According to the atomic clock within the Wandering Sea, taking January 1st, 2017 as the reference point, the crisis known as Humanity's Bleaching—one on par with the Incineration of Humanity caused by the Demon God King Goetia—has already lasted five months…"
Inside the control room, Romani muttered to himself while recording a progress report on everything so far. It was currently break time, and no one, including him, needed to stay at their post. Unlike the Incineration of Humanity, this crisis was filled with far more unknowns.
It wasn't something that could be solved just by one person staying awake day and night.
Halfway through his notes, he leaned back lazily against the chair, rocking slightly from side to side.
"After the planet was bleached, it lost all day–night cycles. No matter where you are on Earth, all you see is white land beneath a cloudless blue sky. Actual time can't be measured anymore. So it's reasonable to assume that this blue sky is the result of a planet-scale artificial firmament…"
As he muttered on, a cup of black tea and a slice of strawberry cake were set down beside his keyboard. Catching sight of them, Romani casually picked up the cake and prepared to take a bite.
"Thanks. Overtime really calls for sweets, Da Vinci—"
Romani thanked out of habit, only to realize the person in front of him was Shiomi.
"Sorry, it's me. Disappointed?" Shiomi said dryly. "Want me to call Da Vinci over instead? The big one or the small one?"
"That won't be necessary." Romani speared a strawberry with his fork and ate it first. "Don't you need to stay with the others? You came all this way just to check on me?"
"One thing is one thing," Shiomi replied, folding his arms. "There's something I want to talk to you about. I'm borrowing that well-informed brain of yours."
"What is it?" Romani sounded relaxed, but his attention sharpened.
He knew Shiomi wouldn't come to him without reason. Whatever was coming next was likely important, maybe even crucial for understanding what lay ahead.
"Simply put, I want to know just how far the King of Magecraft's Clairvoyance can actually see," Shiomi said.
"No wonder you came to me…" Romani chuckled in understanding. "You even brought tea and cake that suit my tastes. Very considerate."
The cake was still delicious regardless. As he ate, Romani asked, "Why ask this all of a sudden? Does it have something to do with Odin?"
"You're sharp…" Shiomi replied.
"That god also obtained the Eye of Wisdom by sacrificing himself to the gods," Romani said. "Judging purely by the specs of that eye, in some respects it might even surpass the King of Magecraft's Clairvoyance."
"That's not what I mean," Shiomi said, a distant look crossing his face. "When I was in the Lostbelt, staying by Morgan's side, Sétanta appeared again as Odin's proxy—"
"Right. Counting the time you were sealed within your soul, that makes three times," Romani nodded.
He already knew the rough details of the Britannia Lostbelt's past, having heard them from Baobhan Sith and the others.
"Every appearance was timed perfectly," Shiomi continued. "Setting aside the Incineration of Humanity itself, don't you think it's strange how Odin arranged things afterward? It's as if he used the Eye of Wisdom to see another crisis waiting right after the Incineration was resolved."
"So what you're suggesting is—" Romani said slowly, understanding dawning on him. "That Goetia, who carried out the Incineration of Humanity in the name of the King of Magecraft, also foresaw this crisis through the Clairvoyance of his physical body?"
Shiomi nodded.
"That's my inference. If Odin could see that future, then did Goetia see it too? Or maybe we should ask an even deeper question. Was Goetia's decision to enact the Incineration of Humanity really driven solely by complete despair toward humanity as a form of life?"
"You're saying that, regardless of whether Goetia chose to act or not, Humanity's Bleaching was inevitable," Romani murmured, his gaze shifting to the other screens in the control room.
They were filled with footage retrieved during investigations of the bleached Earth.
Romani imagined it for a moment. If he were still the King of Magecraft, still possessed of Clairvoyance that could see the future…
Upon witnessing this scene, would he have chosen a more extreme path as well?
The answer was no.
Solomon did not have that freedom.
Those who had already entrusted the future to humanity should not return to interfere after death.
"I still remember that during the London Singularity, Goetia said the Incineration of Humanity had already been completed," Shiomi continued. "His manifestation at the time was merely 'making use of some spare time.'"
"Combined with the information obtained from the Atlas Institute, the Incineration of Humanity was already complete, and Goetia had moved on to the next stage of his plan."
And then, that entire plan was completely overturned by Chaldea after the resolution of the seven Singularities.
No one knew what Goetia had intended to do next, unless the whereabouts of the missing Demon God King himself could be found and questioned.
"If that's the case, things may be even more complicated than we originally thought," Romani said, feeling a strange sense of relief. "The Incineration of Humanity wasn't simply an unprecedented act of mass slaughter. It may have been an attempt to save all of human history from a bleached future…"
"It's only a hypothesis. We can't draw conclusions yet," Shiomi replied thoughtfully. "Because if that hypothesis is correct, then the so-called Alien God didn't come from outer space at all, but was something born from this planet's own history."
"Only by destroying human history from its very foundation and recreating it could the possibility of the Alien God's birth be eliminated."
"So that's why the Lord granted guidance to Goetia…" Romani suddenly felt mentally drained. He suspected it was because, after finishing the cake, most of his blood had rushed to his stomach to help with digestion.
"It goes beyond that," Shiomi said, putting forward a rather chilling hypothesis. "Different gods have different agendas regarding this planet. Just as Goetia received a revelation, the gods, Odin included, have been observing, guiding, and even protecting me."
"According to what Grimr said in the fairy chronology, the reason I wasn't erased was also because other gods interfered."
"…That's really not something to laugh about," Romani said quietly, as a long-standing doubt in his mind suddenly unraveled, leaving him with a sense of reluctant clarity.
"Exactly. There's nothing funny about it," Shiomi nodded. "What I'd like to ask is that, when you analyze and organize the data on Humanity's Bleaching, and when you study the Lostbelts and Fantasy Trees, you keep what we just discussed in mind as one possible explanation."
"For the sake of strawberry cake, I'll do it," Romani replied with a gentle smile.
"There's still plenty left in the cafeteria fridge. Eat too much and you'll gain weight," Shiomi added casually.
With that, he waved his hand and left the control room.