Tokyo shrouded in morning light.
A long convoy was driving toward the outskirts of Tokyo along with the morning sun.
In the lead car of the convoy, Tohno Shiki looked at the Millennium Castle slowly rising from the horizon in the distance and asked Aoko beside him,
"Sister Aoko, can we really trust those guys?"
Aoko, who was focusing on driving, smiled when she heard Tohno Shiki's words.
"Yo! Shiki, you've grown up! You actually look a bit like a leader now!"
Hearing Aoko's teasing, Tohno Shiki's face turned red and he lowered his head.
Tohno Akiha, seeing Tohno Shiki's reaction, glared at him with a look of disappointment.
"Sister Aoko, stop teasing my idiot brother. But my idiot brother is right—can those guys really be trusted?"
Kohaku and Hisui, hearing Tohno Akiha's words, also nodded in agreement.
Aoko, seeing this through the rearview mirror, thought for a moment before slowly speaking.
"Actually, I don't know either! I'm just a half-baked Magus and I don't really understand many things myself. But we don't have a choice now, do we?"
Tohno Shiki unconsciously clenched his fists upon hearing Aoko's words.
"Is it because we're too weak!"
Aoko kept one hand on the steering wheel and used the other to pat Tohno Shiki's head in the passenger seat.
"Don't think too much, you're all still children... yeah... you're all still children... and yet we need you to enter the battlefield... we adults are such failures!"
Soon, the convoy arrived at the open space beneath the Millennium Castle. The surviving humans looked up at the Millennium Castle floating in the sky, emitting a faint white light, and couldn't help but marvel at this great miracle. However, some discordant voices soon emerged from the crowd.
"Millennium Castle! Isn't that where the True Ancestors are! Run, we've been sold out..."
"Right! That's the legendary headquarters of the Dead Apostles! Let's run!"
Just as the crowd fell into a panic, several Innocentiuss, over ten meters tall, appeared near the crowd. Faced with these Innocentiuss that looked like fire giants from myth, the human survivors gasped and quickly huddled together.
At this moment, Rin in her Ishtar Form descended from the sky leaning on ishtars bow, arriving above the crowd and complaining to them in annoyance.
"Sold out? Betrayal? Traps? Hey, hey, hey! Did you get something wrong? If I wanted to kill you, why would I go through all this trouble? I could easily take care of you by myself. Don't think too much, you idiots!"
Down in the crowd, Aoko's mouth twitched as she listened to Rin's complaining. She clenched her fists with an unfriendly expression. 'Damned girl! I don't know who you are, but it seems you've included me in your insults too!'
Just as Aoko was about to lose her patience and challenge Rin, Zelretch quietly appeared beside her and held her back.
"Alright, Aoko. That girl isn't targeting you. Give your instructions, then we'll go up and discuss the next phase of the plan."
Hearing Zelretch's words, Aoko had to give up on the idea of fighting Rin. She turned to find the Tohno siblings, Shiki and Akiha, to give them their instructions.
Just as Aoko and Zelretch were about to head to the Millennium Castle, Tohno Akiha stepped forward to Zelretch and spoke.
"Um! Shouldn't your plan also include a representative for us ordinary people? As far as I know, Sister Aoko represents the Magi, and Ciel and Litz are representatives of the Church. So what about us ordinary people?"
Zelretch stroked his goatee and nodded with a smile.
"Little girl, you have courage. Then it shall be you!"
With that, Zelretch placed one hand on Aoko's shoulder and the other on Tohno Akiha's shoulder. They vanished in a flash of white light, leaving only a few words from Tohno Akiha echoing in the air.
"Brother, I'll leave things here to you!"
Then, several more flashes of white light occurred in the crowd. Simultaneously, the Innocentiuss turned back into gems and returned to Rin's hand. Seeing that no more white lights were appearing in the crowd, Rin herself turned into a golden light and flew toward the Millennium Castle floating in the sky.
Once everything returned to calm, Tohno Shiki, as one of the leaders of the human survivors, began to direct the crowd to build a new camp on the open ground beneath the Millennium Castle.
Although Tohno Shiki was just a boy, his status as a descendant of the Four Great Demon-Hunting Families and his performance on the battlefield over the past few months had established enough prestige among the human survivors. No one questioned him because of his age. At the same time, Tohno Shiki's nice-guy personality earned him many points among the survivors.
In this way, a large amount of supplies were continuously moved from the vehicles to the open ground by the survivors. Soon, the prototype of a simple camp was constructed.
Upon arriving at the Millennium Castle, Tohno Akiha was led by Aoko through a dreamlike garden and down a long corridor within the castle, finally reaching their destination: a solemn and dignified meeting room.
The meeting room was semi-circular, with tiered seating extending upward that could likely accommodate thousands. In the center was a small high platform, upon which sat an exquisitely carved marble long table, surrounded by twenty-six stone chairs also adorned with intricate patterns.
The twenty-seventh seat, the main one, was slightly higher than the others, and its material was changed from stone to a mysterious crystal. With Tohno Akiha's shallow magecraft knowledge, she couldn't tell what kind of crystal it was at all.
At this time, many people were already seated on the platform chairs and the nearby tiered seats, most of whom were Tohno Akiha's acquaintances.
Ciel and Litz from the Church, Zelretch who had just brought her up, and even Rin, who had appeared last night, were already seated on the platform chairs. Other exceptionally strange-looking individuals were also trickling into the meeting room.
Seeing Aoko's arrival, Zelretch squinted and beckoned to her.
"Aoko, why are you so slow?"
Aoko shrugged and led Tohno Akiha onto the platform. After arranging for Tohno Akiha to sit in the last of the twenty-six chairs, she walked over to Zelretch's side, pulled out a chair, and took a seat.
Rita Rozian nudged Meilian Solomon beside her with her elbow and whispered while pointing at Tohno Akiha.
"Meilian, look! There's a normal person!"
Although Tohno Akiha, born of the Tohno family, was actually an ability user with special powers, in the eyes of this crowd, such a person could probably only be considered a normal human.
Sion, sitting not far from Rita Rozian, gave Rita Rozian an annoyed look. However, as a Dead Apostle now, she had no standing to argue and could only turn her head away in frustration.
Meanwhile, the Magi and Dead Apostles in the tiered seats below also noticed Tohno Akiha, the 'normal person,' and began discussing her and pointing without any reservation.
While the meeting room was in an uproar, a blonde girl in formal attire, accompanied by Yumizuka Satsuki, entered the room, stepped onto the platform, and sat in the main seat.
"Greetings, Princess!"
"Greetings, Lady White Princess!"
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