"Kyaa! W-who are you?!"

"Ah..."

After confirming her destination, Madoka arrived at Romani's world. However, she didn't expect she will arrive inside a dormitory room.

"I'm sorry!"

"W-why did you enter my room? Wasn't it prohibited—"

"It's an accident! Really! I was supposed to meet the headm—I mean, Romani-san."

"Romani-san? The director?"

The white-haired girl became curious at her. She wore a regular school uniform for middle schoolers. Her most surprising characteristic is her 'lifeform'.

She—Caster Illya—was summoned in this world as a servant. With the amount of enemies they faced up until Babylonia, she saw many Divine Spirits. The girl in front of her is similar to such beings. Considering her condition for arrival, she must have traveled from a dimension at the very least.

"By chance, are you related to that grandpa?" She asked.

"Grandpa?" Madoka immediately thought of something. "Perchance, are you Einzbern-san?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Zelretch-san mentioned your name a few times."

"I knew it!"

Illya pitied the girl who became a 'victim' of Zelretch's whims.

"Uhm... Do you know where Romani-san is?"

*****

"Why can't we deal with the Crypters as well? I've heard someone's playing god and wanted to fool the world itself."

"It will be troublesome later. To solve the problem at its root, we need to lure the leader out."

"It's like that, I suppose." Kouzuki ended their conversation. "It's a pain to live in your world, Romani."

From the beginning, Chaldea was used by Marisbury Animusphere to carry out his secret plans. That involved humanity being the enemy of the world itself, going so far as to be called a 'scourge'.

In exchange of humanity's safety, they become the enemy of the world.

It stands that Marisbury is already dead. However, Romani has a feeling that he is out there somewhere. The lostbelts occurring in his future is a proof that his plan will continue. Dealing with a hidden enemy is far more difficult than a visible enemy.

That's why—

"Do you really have to do this, Romani-san?" Shino asked. She was silent until the end of their talks. "You are a pillar to everyone in Chaldea. Your disappearance would mean... It's going to be hard for them to take it."

Inspired from Lelouch's story, he plans to 'die' in the eyes of Chaldea. It will be inevitably weakened after this, but it is a necessary step to go through. He have to make Marisbury believe that everything's going within his plans. It is for this reason that not all chat group members publicly appeared to Chaldea.

There are people like Sinon, Shiro, Euryale, Surtr, and Altera who publicly appeared before leaving. They are all considered 'foreigners' who briefly appeared in the base before leaving. Their cases are similar to Voyager and Abigail who left Chaldea after a period of time.

Though, the others who remained unseen will contribute to Romani's plan. Once Marisbury appears, all of them would show up and subjugate him. Romani believes that everything would be useless as long as Marisbury is out there planning something else. 

Nevertheless, he plans to act on the background. Within each lostbelts, there are a huge amount of unjust deaths. He is planning to shoulder the responsibility of saving the lostbelts' denizens in his shoulders. As a human, he could not simply turn his eyes away from such massacre.

"The problem has to be solved in its source. Without knowing Marisbury's goal, it will be more dangerous for everyone. If he knew about the Temple of Time, he must have guessed my decisions in the original timeline. He knew I will sacrifice myself for everyone."

Romani felt bitter towards the friend he once trusted. He never expected for him to hatch a long-term plan. Then again, it becomes understandable once he knew about the events of 'Land of Steel'. The calamity of Types descending to Earth is something horrifying. 

If Zelretch was having a headache against [The Spider] which will be fought by Chaldea later on, how about multiple Types on its level?

Click.

The door to his office opened. Two familiar faces appeared.

"Greetings."

"Hello, everyone."

Lelouch and Madoka soon arrived, totaling the current chat group members to five.

"Sigh... Apologies for the late arrival."

Touka followed next with an exasperated look.

"Showing her magic is the wrong decision."

"I could imagine it..." Kouzuki responded.

Meanwhile, Sinon also gave her thoughts regarding it.

"Touka-san's sister... She's a chuunibyou, right?"

"That's right. I thought she grew up after everything that happened, but her childish personality sprang again."

Sooner or later, Touka will make her sister's wish of seeing their parents true. Hence, she introduced her to magic. Of course, she had done so after deeming  Takanashi Rika is mature for it. She went through much during her first year of high school. She even threw her chuunibyou persona away after having a 'lover's quarrel' with Togashi Yuta.

After that, Touka thought it was the best time to reveal it. What she did not expect, however, is that Rika reverted to her old ways upon knowing magic is possible.

"Excuse me."

The next one who arrived is Cardinal.

"I'm not late?"

"Nope. There's still much time."

"Fu... I need to fix my sense of time." She said. "It's quite difficult switching between worlds often."

Bzzt-!

Suddenly, a space rift emerged on top of the office. There, two more members fell.

Bam-!

"Ow..."

"Fighting a dragon is not enough, huh? Why did we have to head to the simulation room, Seol-nii?"

Just as the two quarreled, they noticed the broken glass table that they landed into. Then, they noticed the looks of the other chat group members.

"The two training maniacs." Kouzuki said with a smile. "How have you been?"

"I'm not a training maniac! Only he is!" Shinji denied her accusation. "Seol-nii doesn't know how to train in moderation!"

"Hey, why are you throwing me under the bus?! Didn't we agree to check out the simulation room?"

"That's after we ask for Romani-san's permission."

"...That..."

In the end, Seol couldn't find another excuse. They did agree on using the simulation room to fight against Phantasmal Beasts, but he totally forgot about the permission part. His blood boiled upon knowing he could further improve than he is. This is his temperament he cultivated after training with Jang Maldong.

"Restore."

With a spell, Shinji swiftly repaired the damaged table.

"I'm sorry."

"I apologize."

Seeing both of them apologize, everybody told them it was alright.

After that, a silent mage entered the room.

"Hello."

After bowing, she sat down. Since Altair was not attending, Meteora felt quite awkward. Of course, it didn't last when the members broke the walls down. She was able to integrate with everyone inside the room.

"A person born from an imaginary world... This is interesting." Kouzuki commented. "It does not employ the Quantum Theory of parallel worlds, but an entirely new phenomenon altogether."

Most members present did not understand her ramblings save for a few.

Suddenly, a shadow crept upon the room. It is a shadow soldier everyone was familiar with. Then, shadows crept on it before turning into a person.

"Why are you guys surprised? It is only I!"

Kuroneko nearly had some hiccups when she first arrived. She used an SSR-rated item to turn her presence to 'nothing', but there was still some Divine Spirits who almost caught her traces.

Fortunately, Romani funded the UR-rated item inside this office. It guaranteed that nobody could see through this place.

"Ah. It's the same Ruri-nee." Shinji commented.

"Same old, same old." Even Romani felt the urge to say this.

"Hm..? You feel somewhat different. What was it~?"

Hearing Kouzuki's words, Kuroneko became alert.

"As expected of you. Your senses are just as sharp as my rivals!"

"Rivals? Eh, so that's how it is."

"What did you two mean by that?"

Kouzuki answered Romani's question with a teasing smile.

"Go find that yourself~"

"Hm... Ah! I see, I see." Romani fixed his glasses victoriously.

The experience of the Harem King is not only for show. His EQ enabled him to understand everything that had transpired. Meawhile, the others deadpanned at their 'profound' discussion. They didn't understand their words at all.

Click.

The door opened once more, revealing the figures of Shiro and Kal'tsit. They were done settling everything in the parallel Terra.

"I see everyone is here."

Shiro's words caused some confusion.

"There's still one last—"

Just as Seol was about to explain, another figure appeared within the room. The person wore an oversized white hoodie. 

"Eh..?"

He was caught off guard before his brain kicked in.

"Meiko..?"

The girl looked at him with widened eyes. Clearly, she had recognized him, the only person who could discern her presence inside the room.

"Fukkun..."

"Well, it's been a long time..."

The curtain to his first life opens.