In the Audience Hall of Yggdmillennia Castle, Darnic reported an unexpected development to Sovell, who sat on the throne. Sovell raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised, yet not entirely caught off guard:
"You're saying that after Caster selected three artificial lifeforms as materials for his golems, one of them broke out of its tank and escaped?"
"Yes. I inspected it myself, and the tank was indeed broken from within using magecraft. We were uncertain how to proceed, so we came to report the matter to you."
Sovell shook his head and told Darnic:
"There's no point asking me about this. From the very beginning, I opposed your use of homunculi-especially homunculi born with self-awareness-as magic power batteries.
"I told you I could lead you to victory without those homunculi. However..."
Looking at the four-sided golden mask on Caster's face below the throne, Sovell continued:
"Since Caster's wish is to realize his Noble Phantasm, and completing it absolutely requires a Furnace Core, I will allow you to 'retrieve' that homunculus. But I won't intervene."
Only when Sovell finished speaking did Darnic let out a relieved breath. The gesture was slight, but Sovell noticed it nonetheless.
Sovell couldn't help shaking his head. Self-aware homunculi were certainly more advanced than ordinary artificial lifeforms, but without sufficiently refined technology, anomalous individuals like this were an inevitable accident.
His intuition told him that if things continued this way, it might not be many years before all these homunculi rose up and threw off their shackles.
Before his thoughts could wander any further, Avicebron's Linked Lampstand suddenly activated. The image it displayed showed a scene on the Transylvania Highway-
A blonde girl in a high school uniform was riding in a pickup truck, heading toward Trifas.
*Oh? I'd heard a Servant of the Ruler-the Arbiter-class would appear