Night.
In Scandinavia, the night sky often held auroras.
Chaldea had not seen any auroras over the past few days, but their luck seemed to be better today.
Sitting in Gerda's yard, watching the aurora in the sky echo the burning mountains in the distance, Fujimaru Ritsuka still could not shake the chill running down his spine.
—If anything, it had only gotten worse.
Rather than admiring the beautiful sight in the distance, he was filled with worry.
What a terrifying world.
"Mash, how are things now?"
Having lost the mood to keep admiring the aurora and flames, Ritsuka walked into the house and breathed warm air onto his slightly frozen hands. He looked toward Mash, who was holding a jeweled comb and brushing Norla's hair.
"The connection still won't go through. It was perfectly stable before."
Mash shook her head helplessly, though her hands did not stop moving.
Perhaps because she had spent so much time with Lawrence in the past, both Mash and Fujimaru Ritsuka were fairly skilled at braiding and tying hair.
—But that skill did not exactly suit a little boy.
"Mash, why are you giving me a little braid?"
Using the mirror in Gerda's house to look at the braid on his head, Norla—who considered himself a dependable young man—pulled a miserable face.
"Ah! It connected! ...Huh?"
Before Norla's voice had faded, the communication came through again. This time, the face on the other side was not Director Goredolf's exceedingly round one, but Leonardo da Vinci's adorable face.
Even Leonardo da Vinci froze for a moment when she saw the image on this end.
"What... are you doing?"
She looked at Norla, with his little braid on top of his head, caught between laughter and tears.
"Fou!"
Fou pounced over, crying out incessantly—he had several