Starting in Type-Moon, but as an A Certain Magical Index Magician

Mephistopheles sat in the back seat. The man driving in front was actually from the Clock Tower; after all, Chaldea had deep ties to the Clock Tower.

"I heard you were qualified to attend classes at the Clock Tower, but never went. By now, you've missed nearly a year's worth of classes." Perhaps the journey had simply become too boring, because the mage assigned to take Mephistopheles there started chatting.

"I'm a lazy person." Mephistopheles looked out the car window at the endless white landscape. What he said sounded ridiculous, or at least the driver thought so.

"You're not lazy. The Clock Tower specifically investigated you and found that you attended classes diligently at Westminster School. Your grades were fairly good too." The man said something that would make anyone uncomfortable.

"Sir, can I use that statement as evidence to file a complaint against the Clock Tower? You monitored me without my permission!"

"You can. In fact, you can make as much trouble as you want. I think it would make for quite a show." The man casually added, "Of course, I won't admit I ever said any of this."

So this guy was one of those people who lived for entertainment. Then again, few mages were mentally normal. Mephistopheles thought to himself and smiled. "Honestly, I just don't like that place, so I didn't go."

The driver laughed too. "I don't like it either. It's too stifling, full of old fossils who can't keep up with the times."

Mephistopheles looked at the driver in surprise. Perhaps the man saw his expression in the rearview mirror, because he shrugged. "Of course, I won't admit I said that either."

Mephistopheles waved his phone. "I recorded it. Video and all."

The man's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, only for Mephistopheles to say with a grin, "Just kidding."

"Scaring me like that could get us into an accident, Mr. Macremis." The man's tone grew more serious, almost threatening. Mephistopheles said nothing more. He began recalling the opening plot of Fate/Grand Order and reviewing his plan once more.

As someone who only watched others play, Mephistopheles still remembered quite a bit of the plot. At the very least, he remembered the early parts clearly. Most of the later plot, though, had been glimpsed here and there whenever players were fighting online—bits from the east, pieces from the west, the kind of fragments that could not even be pieced together.

But that did not matter. As long as he killed Lev, the later problems would never happen. It was that simple.

"The plot starts with the protagonist, Gudako, falling asleep and getting kicked out. Then there's a test. Lev sets off the bomb, the crisis begins, Olga Marie dies, everyone else is seriously injured, and only Gudako—the dead last, someone with barely any magical ability—becomes the person who turns the tide.

"Before the explosion, I should have a chance to meet Lev. Should I just take him out? If I do, I won't be able to confirm whether those bombs will still explode. Bombs can be triggered automatically as well as manually...

"Mm, I'll meet Lev first and see what's going on, then kill him. Happily decided. He's never seen me before, so he shouldn't be on guard. He'll just think I'm an ordinary mage."

As Mephistopheles thought, he raised his head and looked at the massive building that had appeared before him.

It was filled with a sense of technology, like a gigantic white structure from a science fiction movie. There were huge floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere to light the corridors, making it vastly different from the traditional image of a mage's workshop.

This was the intersection of technology and magecraft, a cutting-edge scientific base and humanity's greatest special organization for protection.

The Human Order Continuity Assurance Organization, Finis Chaldea.

Looking at the building that would later stand alone in the void, Mephistopheles could not help taking a few extra looks. The driver had already stopped the car and said to him, "We're here. I hope you enjoy your life at Chaldea."

"Mm, I don't think it'll be very enjoyable."

"If you mean that director whose menopause came early, then I have to say you're right. It won't be very enjoyable." The man smiled and waved at Mephistopheles, then drove away, leaving him alone at the entrance.

Antarctica was freezing cold. Normally, it would make people want to put on down jackets or something similar. Mephistopheles, however, wore only his usual outfit. It might have been considered warm enough in Britain, but in Antarctica, it was nowhere near enough.

Even so, Mephistopheles showed no sign of being cold. It was not that he truly felt no cold; he had simply grown accustomed to it as a magician. Training always involved some degree of ascetic hardship.

If he truly did not want to feel cold, he only needed to activate the spell engraved onto his clothes.

Watching the car leave, Mephistopheles pulled a magnetic card from his pocket. It looked something like an ID card.

He swiped the card over the sensor beside the sealed entrance, and the enormous base called Chaldea opened its doors to him.

"Ah, sorry, sorry! Kept you waiting!"

A man in a green coat with messy long hair walked over with narrowed eyes as he spoke.

"You're the forty-ninth person, right? Morpheus Flaga Macremis. That's quite a fine name. Sounds like the name of someone destined for greatness."

Mephistopheles narrowed his eyes at the man approaching him, then gave him the same smile. "No, you came at just the right time, Mr. Lev."

The newcomer held out his right hand to Mephistopheles. "So you know me. Then just call me Lev. I hold a fairly important position here."

Mephistopheles reached out and shook his hand. "Then you can call me Mephistopheles, Mr. Lev."

"Come on. I'll take you to your room first so you can rest a little. We'll notify you when it's time for the meeting. You can take your first test then."

Lev led the way ahead of him and asked as they walked, "That outfit suits you quite well, Mephistopheles. It makes you look as though you stepped out of Victorian London."

"I like this style. Actually, I enjoy movies about that era the most, including Sherlock Holmes."

Mephistopheles gave the excuse he had prepared long ago, making Lev hum in understanding. "I see. Then we can watch movies together when we have time. I like those things too."

Mephistopheles was somewhat surprised that Lev had come personally to receive him. The friendly warmth Lev showed while talking to him also made Mephistopheles quietly wonder what the man's true purpose was.

Even if Lev tried something underhanded, though, Mephistopheles was not afraid in the slightest. As long as he wore this outfit, ordinary attacks would have no effect on him.

Finally, under Lev's guidance, Mephistopheles arrived at the room where he would be resting from now on. Just as he was about to enter, he saw someone nearby.

She was a girl around his age who looked a little blank and was curiously looking around.

Beside her stood another girl wearing glasses, talking to her about something.

"That's the forty-eighth suitable candidate, Ritsuka Fujimaru. The one with glasses is a Chaldea employee named Mash Kyrielight." Lev enthusiastically introduced them, though Mephistopheles had recognized the two of them immediately.

The protagonist of Fate/Grand Order, and her Servant, Mash Kyrielight.

At the moment, neither of them had noticed Mephistopheles, and Lev had no intention of introducing him to them. He opened Mephistopheles's room door and said, "Go in and rest for now. I'll come find you later."

"All right. In that case, I'll be relying on you, Mr. Lev." Mephistopheles walked into the room. As he watched the door slowly close, a flash of wild joy passed through Lev's eyes.

Especially when he saw the door shut completely, he actually let out a deep sigh of relief!

Lev's Trap

Ritsuka Fujimaru looked to the side in confusion. "Did someone pass by just now?"

The cute girl with glasses, Mash Kyrielight, shook her head. "I didn't see anyone. Maybe we just didn't notice."

The two had indeed been chatting and had not noticed anyone else arriving. However, a man approaching from the other direction said, "Someone did come by just now. Probably a newcomer. He arrived even later than you, Ritsuka."

The man wore a white lab coat and had light brown hair tied in a ponytail. His name was Romani Archaman, and he was one of the doctors here.

"Ah, Dr. Romani!" Ritsuka happily waved at him, then asked curiously, "Someone came even later than me?"

"Mm. His name is Morpheus Flaga Macremis. He's from House Macremis, though the fact that he's the adopted son of House Macremis is no secret."

"The adopted son of House Macremis? I think I heard the director mention him. His father clearly pulled strings to get him into the Clock Tower, but he turned around and attended an ordinary school instead, leaving the Clock Tower behind."

Mash spoke from the side as well, as though showing off what she knew. Her eyes sparkled.

"The director really dislikes people like that. She sounded obviously disgusted when she mentioned him."

Romani Archaman laughed at that. "She's always like that. You'll get used to it. Once you actually get to know her, she's a good person, aside from being too serious."

Ritsuka Fujimaru had known absolutely nothing about mages before this. She listened to all of it with curiosity and seriousness, like a curious child who had suddenly stumbled into an entirely new world.

Ritsuka asked, "So if he isn't interested in magecraft and didn't go to the Clock Tower, choosing an ordinary school instead, why did he come here? There are forty-eight people already. Including me, isn't that enough?"

"I don't know." Romani spread his hands. "It might be related to some internal considerations within House Macremis. Or maybe they wanted to make his résumé look better, so he could find a comfortable position to retire into later."

Ritsuka thought for a moment. "If he just wants a more comfortable life, I think continuing through high school and going to university would suit him better."

Clearly, that was the thought process of an ordinary person, with nothing to do with mages.

"All right, let's go. The meeting is about to start. If you're late, you'll get scolded. The director is very serious about this." Romani urged the two of them to hurry toward the place where the meeting and experiment would be held.

"What about him?" As they walked, Ritsuka pointed at the door nearby—Mephistopheles's door.

"Lev is handling him. He probably has some other arrangements, so we don't know yet." Romani said unconcernedly, "Lev takes his work seriously too, so there won't be any problems. Let's go."

Ritsuka nodded and walked onward with Mash and the others. At that moment, she was filled with curiosity about the forty-ninth suitable candidate, whom she had not yet met and only knew by name.

We'll be able to meet soon, right? Maybe we can talk then. We might even become friends.

Inside the room, Mephistopheles lay down on the bed first and felt the softness of the mattress. He let out a satisfied moan. "That's♂good!!!"

Then he began recalling his meeting with Lev.

"I really didn't expect the one receiving me to be Lev. Has Chaldea become so short-staffed that it's come to this? Lev is the second-in-command. He's the highest-ranking person beneath Olga Marie, the director. In some sense, Lev is the true highest authority in Chaldea.

"And yet he personally came to receive me. Did my father promise them some benefit when he contacted them? Like providing additional funding?

"That doesn't seem right either. Lev is about to blow up Chaldea. Benefits like money shouldn't matter anymore..."

Doubt rose in his heart. Mephistopheles felt that Lev coming to receive him personally was strange in itself.

That strange feeling made unease rise within him. He immediately got off the bed, intending to go outside and take a look around.

But when he reached the door and tried to open it, he found that it would not move at all!

He tried twice more, but the door still did not budge. It had been sealed extremely tightly. If he had to compare it to something, it was as sturdy as a vault door!

"I've been locked in?!" Mephistopheles immediately confirmed his situation and began considering how to solve it.

"Contact the Chaldea staff?" He picked up the telephone in the room and tried to make a call, only to hear nothing but dead air. Looking closer, he found that the phone line had already been cut.

"This was prepared in advance. My room was definitely arranged beforehand. Lev did this!"

As soon as that thought surfaced, Mephistopheles frowned.

"Why is he guarding against me? Can this guy see the future? But if he really could see the future, he should kill Gudako in advance. Why come after me instead?

"Mm, no, it shouldn't be foresight. Thinking about what he said earlier, it feels like there was something hidden in his words...

"Did my sudden participation in the test make him feel threatened? Is it because I'm connected to House Macremis?

"That can't be it either. How many people here don't have powerful backgrounds? If anything, someone like Gudako is the minority.

"Forget it. I won't think about it anymore. I'll get out first. Since Lev locked me up, that means the plan is already underway!"

After trying a few more door-opening tricks and finding none of them worked, Mephistopheles took a step back and drew a deep breath. A staff appeared in his hand.

With the appearance of the staff, an astrolabe, a dagger, and a Holy Grail appeared around Mephistopheles. The three objects floated around him, following the paths of the First Principle.

Then Mephistopheles began chanting.

"By the guardian star of Raphael, God's medicine, I summon the power of Mercury!"

Mephistopheles's life force was refined and converted into magical power. This required no Magic Circuits; it was something that could occur naturally.

That magical power caused certain changes within his body. Those changes affected only himself, even after his life force had become magical power.

As long as he ended the magic, the magical power could naturally revert into life force.

Therefore, it would not truly affect his lifespan.

As those internal changes emerged, the outside world changed as though in reflection.

Obvious wind elements appeared around Mephistopheles. They were dense magical power. A powerful force arose from within him and resonated with distant mystery.

At the same time, the yellow dagger emitted a faint glow. Along with that light, the power belonging to the archangel Raphael within the room surged once more!

If there had been a mage here, they would have been astonished by this bizarre magecraft. It was nothing like the magecraft they knew, an incomparably strange thing.

This was magic from the world of A Certain Magical Index. Or rather, even in Mephistopheles's original world—the world without mystery—so-called occultism followed similar theories.

A theory that truly allowed humans to step into the domain of gods with mortal bodies!

But the magic had not ended yet, because the door had not opened.

By now, the power of Mercury within the room had become abundant enough to overflow.

Drawing upon that power, he infused it with a new divine name.

"By the power of Hermes, guardian god of Mercury, to a thief, a door is useless and cannot obstruct!"

As Mephistopheles spoke, the power of Mercury originally summoned in the name of the archangel Raphael transformed once more, becoming the power of Hermes, Mercury's guardian god in Greek mythology.

Hermes was the guardian god of thieves and had himself once stolen something from Apollo.

At that moment, the door—a symbol that separated thieves from homes and protected those homes—was breached by this power. The tightly shut door opened!

The magical power in his body reverted to life force and flowed back to where it belonged. Mephistopheles stepped forward and walked out the door.

The corridor was the same as he remembered, with almost no one around. The only thing visible was the snowy view outside.

But after walking only a few steps, Mephistopheles frowned again.

He had been walking for several minutes, yet he still could not see an end ahead, as though the corridor had no end at all!

"It really is him!" Lev sensed the changes in the room he had prepared. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Olga Marie, who was explaining something to the experiment personnel nearby.

"Fortunately, besides sealing the door, I also set up the Imaginary Number Magic Dimensional Labyrinth outside it. Once he enters, he won't be able to get out anytime soon. It seems the plan must begin today!

"But that makes no difference. The plan was supposed to begin today anyway. And I even get to encounter the legendary Veritas000. I should say my luck is quite good!

"As for that Ritsuka Fujimaru, aside from her compatibility, she's useless in every other respect. She's just an ordinary person. It doesn't matter if she survives."