The green light lit up.
"Phew."
Texas let out a breath. She no longer had to stress over how to get Shirou to medical treatment.
This machine was specially brought back by Emperor so that the few of them could self-test after delivering Originium-containing products or after combat, so its reliability was very high.
24 Croissant, eat up
Seeing the relaxed expressions on the group, Shirou let his guard down as well.
It seems they care a lot about infected status, Shirou thought silently to himself.
In reality, however, the Penguin Logistics members were worried that if Shirou was infected and refused treatment, it would spell trouble.
Meanwhile, Shirou assumed the others cared deeply about infection matters.
After all, the latter was the prevailing mindset of people across this land.
An infected person was a ticking time bomb, someone who could die at any moment and turn into the next source of infection.
Even the crystals on the surface of the body—if accidentally rubbed against, one could become infected.
Once turned infected, one had to live with medicine until death.
The costs of treatment and medication were also quite high, leading to a cascade of other problems.
"That's great then. This way, Shirou, you won't have to shoulder extra treatment expenses."
Seeing that the result was good, Sora was extremely happy.
"Totally. Treating Oripathy is a bottomless pit, you know."
Croissant voiced her own thoughts.
"Huh? Aren't you guys afraid of infected people?"
Hearing the two of them focus on the worry that if he were infected, the treatment burden would be heavy, Shirou blinked.
"Of course we'd be scared you couldn't afford the treatment. Treating Oripathy costs a lot of money, you know."
Exusiai slouched completely over the sofa, her voice drifting out.
"Yeah, and you still owe Emperor money, don't you?"
Texas said.
Listening to their words, Shirou was stunned for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief.
In this world where most people feared the infected, he was extremely lucky to have met such a genuinely kind group of people.
From books and the internet, most of what he saw was disgust and fear toward the infected. Only a handful of people could rationally understand and interact with the infected.
Shirou formed a completely new perspective of the group. He had originally thought they were just a bunch of free-spirits with erratic personalities and super-optimistic vibes like Taiga, never expecting them to have this kind of side.
"Then I'll go make breakfast first."
Shirou stood up, only to be stopped immediately by the others.
"We just made it, it just needs heating! Wait for us!"
Croissant finished speaking and dashed into the kitchen.
"Shirou, just rest these past two days. Your physical condition seems even worse than when we first fished you out."
Texas poured a cup of water and handed it to Shirou.
"Is it really that bad..."
Shirou thought back on it.
Well, it did seem pretty bad. Previously, he would at most feel sore, but now it hurt just to move a muscle, and there was even some numbness.
If not for knowing it was a problem with his Magic Circuits, perhaps he wouldn't have been nearly this calm.
"Anyway, you should get a good rest these next few days. Though it's only... two days."
Exusiai hesitated near the end of her sentence.
She felt two days might be a bit long; should she shrink it to one?
Glancing at Shirou's unbalanced movements when shifting, Exusiai decided she had better endure it.
These two days would have to rely on apple pie to get by!
"Besides, Shirou, you basically haven't been resting, right? Not your usual kind of resting by reading books—I mean actual, meaningful rest and relaxation."
Sora pointed at Shirou and said.
"I know you're cramming knowledge, but a person still needs to relax. If a bowstring stays taut all the time, it's very easy to snap, you know?"
"I understand."
Facing the group's overbearing stance, Shirou decided to give up struggling.
"Coming, coming!"
Croissant brought out a large platter holding five pressed sandwiches.
"One for each!"
Croissant handed the pressed sandwiches out one by one to the others, with Shirou receiving his last.
The moment Croissant handed the sandwich to Shirou, he sensed something amiss.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Shirou's outstretched hand hesitate, Croissant shoved her portion directly into his hands.
"No, I'll take this one."
Shirou bypassed her hand and directly snatched the very last portion off Croissant's tray.
"Eh!? That one's mine!"
Croissant failed to stop him in time, watching with wide eyes as Shirou took her portion away.
"What's wrong? They should all be the same, right?"
Sora bit into the sandwich in her hand. Because everyone made them together, it tasted especially good.
"Croissant, could you possibly..."
Texas's eyes narrowed slightly, seeming to see right through the truth. However, since Shirou had already avoided the trap and the culprit now had to deal with the mess she created herself, she didn't pursue the matter.
"Hm?"
Exusiai off to the side had already finished her sandwich and was sipping yakult while watching the two of them.
"Croissant, eat up."
Shirou said to Croissant like that.
From the strange feeling to the evasion and then to Croissant's changing complexion, Shirou was thoroughly certain there was definitely something fishy inside.
Combining how he teased Croissant yesterday with the chili sauce incident the day before, he could guarantee that sandwich was packed to the brim with chili sauce!
"Ugh... Evil Great Demon King Shirou... I, Croissant, will not admit defeat!"
Croissant finished speaking and took a vicious bite of the sandwich in her hand.
Shirou clearly saw a certain red sauce smeared on top.
This bread man really tried to screw him over here!
"Croissant, you..."
Sora naturally saw that red chili sauce too, but considering Croissant was the one getting hurt by her own doing, she could only say she deserved it.
"Hopeless."
Exusiai delivered a follow-up blow. She genuinely didn't understand why Croissant kept wanting to challenge Shirou; wouldn't eating peacefully be nice?
"Eat slower. I'll go pour you a cup of yakult to neutralize it, or you're going to have a stomachache later."
Shirou's heart softened in the end. He went to the kitchen and poured a large cup of yakult for Croissant; otherwise, judging by that level of spiciness, Croissant's stomach would likely feel uncomfortable all day long.
"What an extraordinary level of tolerance... Shirou, are you an angel?"
Watching Shirou pour her a large cup of yakult out of worry that she would get a stomachache from the spiciness, Croissant instantly lost any desire to butt heads with Shirou again.
"I'm not a Sarkaz, you know?"
Shirou took a bite of his pressed sandwich. Although slightly cooled, the texture was still quite fresh; he could consider adding it to the menu later.
Additionally, Shirou planned to research some new cooking utensils over the next two days to expand his menu.
"I didn't mean that... I mean you're a really good person."
Croissant originally wanted to say a different kind of angel, but considering Exusiai was present, she changed her wording.
"Pfft, what nonsense. Croissant, did your brain get scorched by the spice?"
Hearing Croissant's evaluation of Shirou, Exusiai let out a laugh.
"Agreed."
Texas nodded in agreement with Exusiai's words.
"Croissant, didn't you get enough sleep?"
Sora chimed in with another follow-up strike.
The three of them were still holding a grudge against Croissant for waking them up early in the morning before daybreak!
Even though Shirou's situation had unexpectedly popped up afterward, annoyance was still annoyance.
"Don't bully an honest person!"
Croissant gulped down a large mouthful of yakult and went toe-to-toe with the three of them.
A century-long 1v3 showdown played out right before Shirou's eyes.
24 Projection Magic Notes
Watching the Penguin Logistics battle conclude, Shirou saw the group off as they headed out.
Under Sora and Texas's strong demands, Shirou promised them he would rest properly at home today.
"Alright, what should I do now?"
Looking at the tidy living room the group had cleaned up before leaving, Shirou grew a bit bored after about ten minutes.
The books in the room were mostly read through, and the remaining ones were quite obscure and difficult to comprehend, so reading was out of the question—after all, he still had to wait until he finished other books or asked someone to guide him.
None of those were urgent, though.
Shirou completely forgot about the existence of his phone and was now considering whether to take a trip outside.
"Ah, right. Let's organize the things I just saw."
Having survived the recent commotion, Shirou almost forgot what he was supposed to be doing.
"Paper and pen... I'd better take a couple extra sheets of paper, there's quite a lot of stuff to record."
Shirou retrieved a few sheets of paper and a pen from his room, sat down at the chair, and began recording.
The key points provided by this memory were extremely numerous; Shirou had to document them properly.
"Gan Jiang Mo Ye, Unbreakable Sacred Saint, pseudo-Spiral Sword, Seven Circles of the Burning Sky..."
When writing down the latter two, Shirou made a special note that the Spiral Sword was used for arrows. He had mainly witnessed the Spiral Sword twice: the first time was when sniping Berserker from afar, producing a massive explosive effect; the second time was against Caster.
As for Seven Circles of the Burning Sky, it was used for defense.
Aside from Gan Jiang Mo Ye, the precision of other projected finished products was much lower than Archer's. For example, if Seven Circles of the Burning Sky was projected by Archer, it was a seven-layered shield, whereas when projected by himself in the memory, it only had four layers.
Only the precision of Gan Jiang Mo Ye approached Archer's, the main reason likely being that he had wielded those two blades to duel Archer in his memories.
"And besides that... Unlimited Blade Works?"
After briefly recording the usage essentials of several Noble Phantasms, Shirou wrote down the four large characters of Unlimited Blade Works with a pen and underlined them.
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