A black hole portal swirled open in the middle of a shady garden area. From inside the portal, Ritsuka, Mash, and Rikka stepped out side by side.
Mash appeared to be wearing her usual casual jacket, while Ritsuka and Rikka were still wearing the standard white Chaldea uniforms.
"Senpai... where are we?" Mash asked softly.
The short-haired girl stared at her surroundings in amazement. Her attention then completely shifted to the expanse of the sky above them. Mash's eyes instantly welled up with tears seeing how bright, vast, and blue the sky was in that place.
Ritsuka smiled gently seeing his mesmerized Kouhai's reaction.
"This is the most famous headquarters belonging to the Mage's Association. You must be very familiar with the name of this place from your data, Mash," Ritsuka answered.
Mash's eyes widened, her shock overcoming her amazement. "Do you mean... i-is this place the Clock Tower?!" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"Clock Tower? Hmm..." Rikka tilted her head, trying to dig into her memory. "According to that annoying gray-haired woman, the Clock Tower is a place where Maguses study, right? Some kind of college or magic university like that?"
"Correct, a hundred points for my smart little sister," Ritsuka praised as he smiled and gently patted the top of Rikka's head.
"Hehehe~" Rikka smiled widely with a slightly silly proud expression, thoroughly enjoying the affectionate rub on her head.
"Are you done with the pampering session for your little sister?"
A deep, old voice suddenly interrupted the warm moment. Ritsuka and the others immediately turned towards the source of the voice.
There, Zelretch could be seen standing casually not far from them, smirking with an evaluating gaze.
"Sensei!" Ritsuka called out while correcting his posture. "Why did you call me here? Is there something very important we need to discuss?"
"Yes, of course, there is something very important I need to discuss with you," Zelretch answered.
The old Magician's red eyes then glanced towards Rikka, or rather... pierced through the empty space right behind the girl's back, where an Assassin was on full alert in his spirit form.
A faint smirk was etched on Zelretch's face. "It's good that you brought him too. This will make things even more fun."
Ritsuka remained silent, not arguing because he knew hiding something from Zelretch was useless.
"Now, follow me to my temporary workshop. We can talk more freely there," Zelretch invited, starting to turn around and lead the small group down the grand corridors of the Clock Tower.
However, as their steps entered the main area of the magic facility, the atmosphere suddenly felt suffocating. Rikka, who was walking behind Ritsuka, began to draw her shoulders in. Dozens of pairs of eyes from the Maguses passing by them seemed to pierce her skin.
Those gazes were laden with arrogance, suspicion, dislike, and... hidden fear.
"Brother... the way people look at us in this place..." whispered Rikka, shuddering in horror, feeling as if she had been thrown into a nest of venomous snakes. Beside her, Mash also pulled her jacket tighter with a stiff, vigilant expression.
Hearing his sister's whisper, Ritsuka didn't turn his head at all. He kept walking with an upright posture.
"Get used to it from now on, Rikka. You are my little sister," said Ritsuka in a casual and ordinary tone, as if he were already immune to such discriminatory pressure. "And as long as you live in the magus world, from now on you will receive hostile gazes like this from them much more often."
"Senpai..." Mash murmured softly, staring at her Master's back with mixed feelings filled with sympathy.
"Hahaha! That is a very natural reaction!" Zelretch's laughter echoed, completely unbothered by the sharp glares of the surrounding magi. "You are walking side by side with me. It's a given that you will receive horrified looks like that from these amateur aristocrats!"
However, Zelretch's laughter instantly subsided and his steps suddenly halted.
At the end of the corridor right in front of them, the group's path was blocked. Two figures radiating an extraordinary magical aura.
The first was a woman with straight brown hair wearing an elegant white suit. Her posture stood perfectly upright, exuding authority, pure aristocratic pride, and deadly arrogance like a queen looking down on everything.
Meanwhile, standing no less arrogantly by her side, was the figure of an old man with glasses. His face might look calm, but the gaze behind his spectacle lenses was as sharp as a scalpel, full of calculation, cunning, and profound political experience.
The two of them stared straight at Ritsuka's group, making the air in the corridor seem to freeze instantly.
The old man in glasses bowed his body slightly, placing one hand on his chest in a very careful aristocratic gesture of respect.
"Welcome back, Wizard Marshal," greeted the old man in a formal tone. "What has brought you to deign to set foot in this place?"
The brown-haired woman beside him performed a similar gesture of respect, though the arrogance didn't fade from her face in the slightest. Instead of looking at Zelretch, the woman's pair of cold eyes glanced sharply, observing every movement of Ritsuka and the group behind him.
Seeing the stiff welcome, Zelretch only stroked his white beard.
"Hoho... Barthomeloi Lorelei and Rocco Belfeban. Truly a rare sight to see two Clock Tower top brass bothering to come greet me," Zelretch chuckled softly.
However, a second later, the chuckle vanished. The atmosphere in the corridor suddenly felt void and oppressive. "Then... do I really have an obligation to explain my reason for coming here to the two of you?" he asked in a heavy tone of voice, exuding a warning.
Feeling the suffocating pressure, Rocco Belfeban hurriedly bowed deeper.
"N-No, of course not. You don't need to do that at all, you may come and go as you please," the old man quickly deflected, trying to defuse the tension. "We purely only wanted to welcome your arrival properly. It's just..."
Rocco glanced at Ritsuka and the girls behind him with great caution. "...who are these outsiders? Are they—"
"He is my disciple."
Zelretch's voice cut in firmly without any room for argument. "So, he has every right to step in and walk in this place with me."
Silence instantly enveloped the entire grand corridor.
Barthomeloi Lorelei and Rocco Belfeban jolted stiffly where they stood. The eyes of both Lords widened, barely able to believe what their ears had just caught.
Not only them, all the Maguses around the area heard those words very, very clearly. With that one simple sentence just now, Zelretch had just dropped a political declaration. He acknowledged the young man as his legitimate disciple openly in front of the highest rulers of the Clock Tower.
Realizing the crazy implications and how massive the shield that now protected Ritsuka's back was, a drop of cold sweat slowly flowed down, wetting the temples of both arrogant aristocrats.
Ignoring the pouring cold sweat, Barthomeloi Lorelei, enveloped in pride, still gathered the courage to speak up.
"Could it be that this young man comes from one of the Magus family lineages—"
Before the woman could finish her sentence, Rocco immediately gave her an incredibly panicked signal to shut her mouth right away. However, it was all too late. Zelretch had already caught the meaning of the condescending question.
"Famous Magus family, you say?" Zelretch cut in sharply.
His tone of voice suddenly turned extremely cold, trampling on the pride of the elite magi in that room. "Do you think I would be willing to pick up and take in a disciple from those conservative, rotten family lineages of yours? I am not a lowly person who cares about such a narrow concept of blood! Get out of my sight right now, before my patience completely runs out."
Hearing the threat from the ruler of the Second Magic, a dense killing intent seemed to choke their necks.
The people and the Maguses around the corridor immediately dispersed in a panic. The two grand Lords who welcomed Zelretch—despite having expressions holding back shame, anger, and fear—were forced to bow their heads. After conveying a rushed apology, both immediately turned around and hurried away.
Following the departure of those magi, the corridor became quiet again. Ritsuka let out an exhausted breath.
"Sensei, are you done having your fun?" Ritsuka remarked flatly. "Your little act just now was really going overboard, you know."
"Hahaha! What else can I do? Their existence and arrogance are indeed very annoying!" Zelretch laughed freely, his aura returning to being cheerful as if nothing had ever happened.
The man smirked. "Like empty vessels making the most noise. You saw for yourself how they looked at you just now, right? How dare they give you evaluating and condescending looks, when in my eyes, they are the ones completely unworthy to even look you in the eye after everything you've done."
Zelretch patted Ritsuka's shoulder proudly, then turned around to step forward.
"Well, since the pests have moved aside, let's continue our journey to the workshop."
While walking down those grand corridors, Rikka and Mash gazed at the Clock Tower's architecture with sparkling eyes full of awe. Ritsuka smiled slightly seeing the innocent behavior of the two girls.
However, his curiosity could not be contained. Ritsuka glanced at his teacher beside him.
"Sensei," Ritsuka called out softly, "what was your actual purpose in deliberately opening the portal in the outside garden earlier and not opening it directly in your workshop? You just wanted to cause that commotion, right?"
Zelretch only shrugged his shoulders casually. "Who knows?" he chuckled mysteriously, then glanced at Ritsuka from the corner of his eye. "But at least, this proves one thing. It seems those two still don't consider your existence as a threat."
"Eh? Who are 'those two' you're referring to?" Ritsuka's forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"Who else but Alaya and Gaia," Zelretch answered casually. "Up to this second, you still haven't been sent their 'dogs'. So, these two Guardians of the world still seem to tolerate the anomaly of your existence."
After that conversation ended right as they arrived in front of a thick oak wooden door belonging to Zelretch's workshop.
"Well, we have arrived. What a coincidence, there are a few other guests already waiting inside," said Zelretch as he pushed the door.
The moment the door opened, Ritsuka's gaze swept across the entire room, and his eyes instantly widened completely.
"L?!" Ritsuka exclaimed in surprise, seeing the messy detective from the Gathering squatting casually on one of the chairs.
However, his surprise wasn't over yet. When his gaze shifted to the figure of a long-haired man standing in the middle of the room, Ritsuka immediately panicked intensely.
"Z-Zhuge Liang?!" Ritsuka shrieked.
Thinking there was a rogue strategist Servant who somehow appeared in the Clock Tower, Ritsuka hurriedly tried to lunge forward. However, his collar was quickly held back from behind by Zelretch.
"Hey, my Disciple. Has your brain started going senile, huh?" Zelretch reprimanded with amusement. "Open your eyes and look closely at that person."
The man mistaken for Zhuge Liang let out a long sigh, looking utterly exhausted as if bearing the weight of the entire world. He walked over to Zelretch and slightly bowed his body.
"Welcome back, Wizard Marshal. You've finally arrived," the man greeted in a polite yet stiff tone.
Behind the man, stood two female figures. One was wearing a gray cloak with her face hidden beneath a hood. While the other one... was a blonde girl in an elegant dress whose face and aura were a truly perfect carbon copy of the Sima Yi that Rikka had just summoned in Chaldea!
"Hahaha! You guys don't need to be so stiff with me, El-Melloi II. Just relax," Zelretch laughed. He then patted Ritsuka's shoulder proudly. "Now, come here. Let me introduce you, this is my favorite disciple, Ritsuka Fujimaru."
Hearing the name Lord El-Melloi II mentioned, Ritsuka's brain felt as if struck by lightning.
The pieces of information in his head instantly fell into place. He stared at the long-haired man, then shifted to staring at the blonde girl behind him with a silly expression. Ritsuka was now fully aware. The people standing in front of him were actual humans and his name was...
"Waver Velvet..." Ritsuka muttered unconsciously.
Hearing his old name suddenly mentioned, Lord El-Melloi II instantly jolted stiffly. The long-haired man immediately threw a sharp, suspicious glare at Zelretch.
Realizing the accusing glare, the old man immediately raised both his hands.
"Hey, hey, don't look at me like that. I wasn't the one who leaked your past to him," Zelretch evaded while chuckling softly.
Amidst the awkwardness, L, who had been squatting on the chair all this time, slowly stood up.
"Zelretch, I have finished talking with those two," said L in his signature flat tone, both his hands casually stuffed into his pockets.
The moment the Wizard Marshal's first name was spoken so loudly and without any honorifics, Reines immediately glared at the strange young man with a murderous look. However, L didn't care in the slightest about the threatening aura from the aristocratic girl.
"Hahaha! You don't need to glare at him so sharply, Reines," said Zelretch, trying to calm the blonde girl down. "You yourself know that L is a special friend of mine. His casual attitude doesn't mean to be disrespectful."
Zelretch then turned to L with a wide smile. "Oh, and congratulations, L! You've been officially accepted into that highly legendary 'El-Melloi Classroom'. Believe me, that class is full of wonders, mysteries, and the seeds of stars of hope. You will definitely love it."
"Alright, I'll entrust L entirely to you, El-Melloi II," Zelretch continued while firmly patting the long-haired man's shoulder. "He is someone I specifically recommended to you. I dare guarantee, his brain will not disappoint you."
El-Melloi II sighed in resignation, bearing an additional burden on his shoulders. "Yes... I will try to teach him to the best of my abilities, Lord Wizard Marshal."
After their business was finished, El-Melloi II's group bowed respectfully and walked side by side toward the exit.
However, right as the group crossed paths, Ritsuka's shoulder accidentally brushed against the shoulder of the gray-cloaked girl tailing behind El-Melloi II.
—ZRRRNG!!
In a split second, a magical resonance exploded within both of their minds!
The hooded girl froze stiff. In her subconscious, she saw the silhouette of two swords crossing each other. The first sword radiated a golden light that offered hope and salvation for humanity.
While the second sword radiated a terrifying pitch-black darkness, bringing despair and destruction.
Yet, strangely... the two swords with completely opposite foundations did not repel each other in the slightest inside that young man.
At the same time, Ritsuka was also dragged into a suffocating vision.
Within the sea of his consciousness, he saw the figure of a majestic adult woman. Her face was hidden behind a black mourning veil, radiating an aura of ice and an incredibly terrifying authority of power like a true ruler. However, even behind the black cloth covering her face, Ritsuka could clearly see her beauty—a pair of ice-blue eyes that pierced the soul and strands of platinum blonde hair tied gracefully.
The mysterious woman stared straight through Ritsuka's soul, her lips curving to form a faint smile that froze the blood.
"Found you."
That single word echoed in Ritsuka's head, bringing him instantly jolting back to the real world. The young man gasped, drawing in greedy breaths as if he had just been drowning.
The hooded girl in front of him also just regained her senses. She hurriedly pulled down her hood to hide her face, which was flushed with panic.
"I-I'm sorry!" the girl squeaked, stammering, then hurriedly half-ran to catch up with Lord El-Melloi II and Reines out of the room.
Ritsuka was still standing frozen in his spot. He bit his lower lip hard, his fingers clenched tightly until they turned white. The face of the Savior of Humanity was now as white as paper, deathly pale, and his body trembled.
Seeing her Senpai suddenly acting strangely, Mash hurriedly approached and patted his shoulder anxiously.
"What is it, Senpai?! Are you okay?!" asked Mash in a panic.
Ritsuka turned his neck stiffly towards his Kouhai. He tried to smile, but what formed was only a despairing smile like someone who knew their end was near.
"Mash..." whispered Ritsuka with a severely trembling voice. "It seems... I am currently in danger."
Mash stared at her senior with an expression of confusion as well as fear. She had just opened her mouth to ask for details, but the sound of a door slamming from outside the corridor held back her words.
From behind Zelretch's workshop door that had just closed, the sound of Reines' thunderous scolding directed at L could be faintly heard.
"What the hell was your behavior just now, Huh?! He is not just anyone whose first name you can call out so casually, you Weirdo!" shouted the aristocratic woman's voice.
And following behind that shout, Mash could faintly hear the sound of a long, resigned sigh from Lord
El-Melloi II, confirming that the professor's days full of suffering at the Clock Tower had just gotten longer.