"What dissatisfaction do you have with this young lady personally summoning you?!"
Charlotte issued a soul-searching question in the chatroom.
Emiya, who had been staring at the screen and about to type, hesitated, his fingers stopping midair. He had always felt rather out of place in this chatroom.
Ever since Chip Girl had accidentally exposed herself over the Wa Lord dating incident—revealing that this veteran shut-in girl was actually the Black Gold Swan who dominated Wall Street—Emiya had been stunned to discover that he was the only wage slave in the entire group.
But Miss Charlotte felt quite good about herself.
She had discovered that, among this group of wealthy people with prominent family backgrounds, her alchemy was the best. At the same time, among alchemists, her family background was the most distinguished.
So she was no worse than anyone else! With the two comparisons combined, Charlotte successfully applied the spirit of victory method and instantly felt much better.
In high spirits, she unleashed a deadly chain of calls on Emiya in the group chat, saying:
Hey, hey, you brat who ditched me to become someone else's butler. This young lady's alchemy has made a new breakthrough. Why aren't you showing yourself to marvel at my great invention?
Perhaps because the chat was so quiet and Charlotte performing alone would seem pitiful if no one responded, Emiya tapped away at his keyboard:
What crooked scheme is Miss planning this time?
Emiya had figured it out. Charlotte was still at that age when children fought wits with pushy parents. If he had wanted to bully her, he might have sent: "Charlotte, turn around. I'm your grandpa!"
What do you mean, crooked scheme?! This is definitely a great invention! Charlotte excitedly launched into a nonstop explanation of her "great alchemical invention":
Using 140 kilograms of mercury solution as the main body, I inscribed an Alchemical Array for AND, OR, and NOT logical judgments. Then I asked Grandpa to get a massive question bank and exam papers from the school and input them. Since it has fluid properties, it can independently produce answers after extensive training. The more it trains, the more accurate its answers become. Hehe, I've already raised the accuracy rate above 95%...
Emiya thought, as expected of a child traumatized by Grandpa's year-round devilish cramming. Look at her—she had been pushed into becoming a mercury AI trainer.
But then he suddenly remembered that the genuine genius prodigy Kenneth also had a Mercury Mystic Code called Moon Spirit Marrow Fluid...
"Did you add automatic attack, automatic target acquisition, and automatic defense functions to your Alchemical Array?"
"Huh? Why add those?" Charlotte had never expected that, before she could receive Emiya's praise and admiration, the topic would suddenly veer in such an unexpected direction.
"To keep Grandpa from catching you copying answers, and to protect yourself from getting beaten up even if he does catch you."
Charlotte was nearly silenced. But honestly, that angle had hit exactly where it itched for Charlotte, who lived under the shadow of a pushy parent. Her opinion of "traitor Emiya" temporarily improved, and she unilaterally classified him into the righteous camp fighting evil parents alongside her.
Two minutes later, she said in a very tsundere tone, "I didn't expect... you, you hateful traitor butler, would still stand on my side and support me..."
Emiya's fingers trembled slightly above the keyboard. Had she misunderstood something?
Just then, the Governor of Gaul came online. "Oh, what a familiar and wonderful atmosphere of youthful innocence."
To keep himself from somehow opening another bizarre route, Emiya quickly changed the subject and said to the Governor of Gaul, "By the way, Governor of Gaul, you seem to have a lot of experience with romance?"
"Unfortunately, I do not. To this day, I have yet to meet the girl worth stopping for," the Governor of Gaul said coolly as always.
"Still, knowing how to please girls is another matter. Like that Maddalena who went sailing with me a few days ago—she said I should fulfill the promise I made that night and elope with her from the family... but I never said anything like that."
The Governor of Gaul's words carried a refined, invisible sort of showing off: a man as outstanding as him would always make women fall head over heels without even trying.
For a moment, Emiya did not know how to respond. He felt that the Governor of Gaul lived in some sunlit, splendid Rome, wearing aristocratic robes every day and leading a crowd of flattering admirers and attendants through beautiful bubbles of light woven from women's perfume, strong liquor, and cigars.
A single poke would burst it.
So Emiya delivered a devastating blow: You family heirs will still end up in political marriages arranged by your families, won't you?
Family arrangements? The Governor of Gaul's elegant composure seemed to vanish from his face, and his words turned disdainful and rebellious:
Who cares about that? Let them arrange whichever women they fancy. A real man only runs unshackled toward the boundless ocean of free love!
An estate in the outskirts of Rome, Italy.
This was the estate of the Gattuso Family, one of Cassell College's most important board families within the Secret Party. Within the family, this place was known as the Pantheon. It was where the family elders slept in Turtle Breath, its function similar to the Zhou Family's underground palace.
At this moment, the elders wore white robes. Their aged faces were dignified, their eyes bright and sharp as they carefully examined the documents before them.
Forty-eight hours ago, they had still been lying in low-temperature alloy chambers, their bodies shriveled and desiccated like ancient tree fossils, wrinkled skin clinging tightly to their aged bones.
The elders' hibernation and awakening process was clearly far more complicated and troublesome than that of the Zhou Family's Nuwa Clan—
After the awakening procedure began, the elders' body temperatures were raised and blood and tissue fluid injected into them. Their chambers were opened in an oxygen-rich environment. Only after two days and two nights of recuperation, light meals, bathing, and changing clothes would they enter the estate's Ancient Ultramarine Hall to hear the current family head report on affairs.
At this moment, Frost Gattuso, the acting head of the Gattuso Family, respectfully explained the purpose of awakening the elders—the final fate of Chen Motong of the Chen Family, the next generation family head's fiancée candidate whom the family had taken notice of, still required the elders' approval.
"Has an investigation team already been dispatched?"
Most of the elders merely read the documents quietly. Only one spoke. He was their leader, codenamed "Alpha," and was rumored to be over three hundred years old. The elders stood above worldly affairs, deciding major family matters, including the marriages of family head successors.
Before them, even the family head and acting family head were merely executors of daily affairs.
Frost naturally did not dare show any disrespect. "They arrived in advance. These are the preliminary investigation results."
The elder called Alpha exchanged glances with the other elders—in truth, their thoughts were interconnected, and they had no need for a medium like language to communicate. Finally, after Elder Alpha finished reading the materials, he asked:
"I heard Chen Motong is not permitted to leave the Chen Family estate?"
Frost said awkwardly, "The Chen Family head said that because they have become involved in internal conflicts among the great families of Shenzhou, their family's current situation is not very safe. Chen Motong... requires closer and safer protection."
"And what is his request?"
Under the collective gaze of the elders, Frost's lips trembled slightly, and he was so nervous that cold sweat nearly poured down his face.
"He hopes we will send additional personnel... The Chen Family wants to draw us into the fray."
Before you continue