Otherwise, you can find another savior.

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As the sound of three girls opening the bathhouse door was heard, the sound of rushing water came from next door.

"Mother is with her friends, so perhaps we should wait a bit—" Sakura thought she had disturbed them and quickly said she would come later.

Morgan waved his hand: "No need, let's do it now. It's not a serious occasion."

With her approval, the three girls immediately joined the group soaking in the hot spring.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Since we've run into each other, let's borrow some money.

Kumano Onsen is divided into two parts: the new building and the old building.

The new building is a modern eight-story structure with various guest rooms, and all guests stay in the new building; while the old building is a typical Japanese-style building.

The old and new buildings are connected by two corridors, one in the air and one on the ground. Each side has its own separate hot spring bath, allowing guests to choose their preferred bath.

In addition, this hot spring is said to have five secret baths that grant wishes.

The secret soup for rejuvenation, the secret soup for finding love, the secret soup for turning a woman into a man, the secret soup for family peace, and the secret soup for relieving shoulder pain.

It is said that the first person to enter alone each morning can have their wish granted, but this has no meaning for the Chaldea group who only soak in the hot springs at night.

Orange, the last one to emerge from the hot spring bath on the east side of the old building, casually adjusted the sleeves of her yukata.

The last time I dressed like this was a long time ago.

She had experienced hot springs in different countries while traveling around the world, but it had been a long time since she had soaked in a hot spring in her homeland.

"So, it turns out I can also experience what is called homesickness."

Orange adjusted her glasses and muttered to herself as she walked down the corridor, subconsciously examining her body.

The essence of spirit particle transfer is a technique that transforms an object into spirit particles and transfers it to any coordinate.

This technology, which was made practical with the assistance of the Atlas Institute, can transport "Masters" to different eras. In fact, it is a kind of idea of ​​"projection and observation" of object data.

Essentially, it involves transforming the Masters and Servants entering the basket into an unknown state where life and death overlap, and then transferring these spiritual particles to their destination.

During this period, the Chaldean basket was completely isolated from the outside world, and its interior was defined as nothingness.

Originally, the data for the destination of the spirit particle transfer was secured through Chaldea. Now, Neo-Chaldea can basically achieve this as well, but it can only travel to an era that is relatively close to the world that was blank after 2017.

For example, this year, 2001.

"Is it essentially something like time travel...?" Orange sighed lazily. "I wonder how similar it is to what the fifth magic inherited from the Aozaki family has achieved?"

They make comparisons with others, but the moment they say it, they lose interest.

Spiritual transfer is indeed an extraordinary experience. My ability to adapt to this is, to some extent, a form of cheating, relying on adjustments to my body to meet this need.

The backup body also needs to adapt to this change and continue with the necessary modifications.

While absentmindedly thinking about these random things, Orange was pondering where to go next.

Since everyone didn't leave the hot spring together, and since they all had to go back to their rooms eventually anyway, they had a lot more freedom of movement.

Should I relax in the massage chairs in the lobby, or should I buy a pack of cigarettes while I'm at it?

After all, it's impossible to take it with you when transferring spiritual particles.

Although her smoking addiction wasn't particularly severe, Orange felt a bit bored when she went a whole day without smoking, given the opportunity.

Moreover, this is not just a simple hot spring trip; it is also accompanied by anomalies whose situation is still unclear, as well as the disappearance of the "two people from 2001".

She needs a little nicotine to wake up her sluggish brain.

After all, you can't exactly go and take some amphetamines.

If Xijian saw this, he would definitely nag for a long time, but because he couldn't bring himself to stop her bad habit, he became depressed.

There are vending machines selling cigarettes in the lobby of the new building.

But when she got to the vending machine, she realized she didn't have any money on her.

Just as she was wondering whether she should go upstairs, she heard inconsistent footsteps beside her, and two people walked over.

Aoko and Yuzu.

The spacious hotel lobby was, coincidentally, deserted at this time of night, with not a single person in sight, not even the owner who was in charge of reception.

Nighttime, a quiet building, and these three people.

It really brings back memories of the old school building at Misaki High School.

However, compared to Aoko and Arisu's somewhat serious attitude, Touko was quite casual.

“Oh, you’ve come at the right time. I was just wondering about that. Aoko, do you have any money on you? Could you lend me a little to buy some cigarettes?” Orange said to Aoko naturally. “After all, I can’t bring myself to use magic to tamper with a vending machine for something like that.”

Aoko, who had prepared her questions, was caught off guard by her sister's question and immediately looked a little helpless: "...I have no money."

"Huh? Oh well, okay..."

Orange was taken aback, then thought about it again and realized it wasn't surprising.

After all, the sisters are all the same, not belonging to this era. It is estimated that when Qingzi came, she did not bring any extra things, including money.

“Then I’ll ask someone else—” Orange turned to look at Yuzu, who was standing a little behind Aoko, “Kuonji, do you have any money on you?”

"..." Yuzhu remained silent.

Rather than saying they didn't want to answer, it's more accurate to say they were expressing an attitude like "even if I had the money, I wouldn't lend it to you."

"You're hopeless. When did you become like this, almost like those upperclassmen who extort money from students at school?" Aoko showed a slight look of disgust.

"It's just borrowing money, no need to get so worked up, right?" Orange sighed, leaning helplessly against the vending machine. "So, why are you coming to me at a time like this to catch up? Or to settle a score?"

As she asked this question, Orange noticed the bags in Aoko and Ayumi's hands; they were probably planning to go to the hot springs together.

As roommates arranged to live together with the intention of fighting each other, the two eventually became friends, and their friendship did not fade with time.

It's not uncommon for people to go to hot springs together like this.

“No, I’m just puzzled by your presence in a place like this, eldest sister,” Aoko said. “And with those strange… no, I should say extraordinary people. What are you all doing here?”

“I’ve already said it, this place has now become a singularity. People living in this era cannot perceive it, but we observed the distortion here in the future, and then came here to correct human history.” Orange shrugged.

Yuzhu stared at Orange: "In my opinion, Miss Orange doesn't seem like the kind of magician who would worry about the future of humanity."

“That’s not true. But let’s think about it another way. If one day you saw that all civilizations on this planet had disappeared, leaving it as a blank sheet of paper, what would you do as one of the last remaining humans?” Orange smiled nonchalantly, turning her gaze to Ayumi. “The witch over there can also think about this, although I don’t know how much you care about human civilization… or rather, humanity.”

Chapter Seventy Inquiry

Orange's remarks exceeded Aoko's expectations.

The reason why Aozaki Aoko appeared in 2001 in her past form is precisely because "if left unattended, the whole world will be destroyed."

Then her sister suddenly says that one day in the future, the world has been destroyed.

It's almost like saying—

"Let me make this clear from the start. Although you, Aoko, are unwilling to reveal the inside story of this singularity, I can tell you that the world destruction I'm talking about has nothing to do with this singularity." Orange took off her glasses, and her voice changed in an instant, even her tone becoming cold and masculine. "After all, we are also in the process of resolving the crisis of humanity and uncovering the truth."

"Is that so..." Aoko's tense body relaxed a little.

Orange, however, smiled with interest at this change: "I'm starting to wonder, if we leave these anomalies here alone... how will the already destroyed world change?"

“I’m speechless. Are you planning to cover up the existing destruction with another one, Miss Orange?” Ayumi said.

Although not particularly interested, I still pondered this future based on the facts Orange revealed.

If the world were to be destroyed, what should a survivor do?

As a pure-blooded witch, her immortality is extraordinary; if certain conditions are not met, she will not disappear even if the planet dies.

But if everything on that planet disappeared, even Aoko and that person disappeared...

"That's hard to say. It's just a hypothesis," Orange said with a sneer. "Only humans from that era could interfere with the fixed band of quantum records and decide the next future. If we were to investigate whether the subsequent parts of life that humans in this era make choices would disappear and be reconstructed, don't you think that's an interesting topic?"

"What's so interesting about using the destruction of humanity as experimental material?" Aoko asked with her eyes closed.

Orange then put her glasses back on, her tone returning to its soft and gentle tone, exuding the intellectual charm of a mature woman: "Nowhere is interesting. I'm just explaining the situation to you."

She's definitely not the type to worry about the future of humanity.

How can someone who isn't attached to himself be attached to the fate of all living beings as a whole?

But when the situation actually came to her, and someone important reached out to ask if she wanted to fight together to save the world, she couldn't help but feel inexplicably excited.

Of course, Orange might feel excited for other reasons.

"Is that so?" Aoko felt a little unsettled, yet helpless.

Only the people at that time could handle the situation.

If that's something for the future, then we can only trust this frivolous older sister in front of us.

“But more than that, I want to confirm something with Kuonji.” Touko looked at Yuzu.

"Forget about the money, I won't lend it to you," Youzhu said.

Orange was both amused and exasperated: "...It has nothing to do with money. What I want to ask is about the guests here."

"Huh?" Aoko asked, puzzled.

"Putting aside the others, is the Shiomi family, who brought three girls to stay here, also here to participate in the exorcism competition?" Orange asked.

Yuzhu lowered her eyes and thought for a moment: "I remember they were just here for tourism, but after hearing about this and realizing my identity, the man said that exorcism would be a good training ground for a novice magician."

"So, it was originally unrelated, but because it just happened to happen, it got involved?" Orange thought for a moment.

This is indeed very much in Shiomi's style.

They don't seek trouble, but they're not afraid of it either.

Judging from Sakura and Kallen of Chaldea, he did indeed raise the two girls well into independent magicians, without losing their goodness as human beings.

This demonstrates their painstaking efforts.

"Wait a minute, this doesn't make sense, does it?" Aoko realized a certain detail didn't add up. "Big sister's... you know, isn't she from the future like you? And what Yuuju just said was—"

“I noticed it.” Orange smiled. “Tianxi and his wife, who originally came to travel with their family from this era, have disappeared. According to the boss, they went missing three days ago.”

In other words, while investigating this singularity, the Chaldea team also needs to find the missing Shiomi and Morgan.

After all, if those two from 2001 just disappeared like that, it's hard to predict how the Human Logic Calculation will deal with the outcome once the singularity is resolved, and what impact it will have on Shiomi and Morgan now.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it concerns the very survival of Shiomi and Morgan.

"is that so……"

Aoko closed her eyes, as if she was thinking about something, but she hadn't figured it out yet and was stuck in a dead end.

"Anyway, if you find anything else later, you can tell me if you don't mind." Orange waved her hand. "If you mind, then go and tell them directly."

"I will do that." After saying that, Yuzhu turned and left.

They originally met by chance on their way down to the hot spring, but Aoko didn't quite trust Touko, so she came with Aoko to "test" her.

Aoko quickly followed Yuzhu. She had wanted to complain to her older sister about something in person, but she didn't get the chance.

Watching them leave, Orange got up from the vending machine and wondered if she should go back to Shio to get some money to buy cigarettes. But he walked out from behind her as naturally as a petal falling onto a mat.

"Is there always such tension between you two?" Shiomi asked worriedly.

"After all, when we fought, we were both aiming to kill each other. And I don't think there was any real animosity between us, just that our relationship wasn't that good—"

After answering subconsciously, Orange paused for a moment, then smiled broadly.

"When did you get here? I didn't sense your presence at all."

“Just a little bit of the Shadow Country’s stealth skills,” Shiomi said. “It’s nothing compared to orthodox assassins. I just came downstairs to find you, and when I saw you here, I kept an eye on things so I could pull them into the Reality Barrier if a fight broke out, so they wouldn’t destroy this inn.”

"If a fight breaks out, I won't be caught off guard." Orange shook her head with a smile. "By the way, do you have any money on you?"

"I knew it." Shiomi opened her hand, revealing a handful of 500-yen coins. "Here you go."

As Orange reached for the coin, just as she grasped it, tide Jian wrapped her arms around her waist and gave her a deep kiss.

"What's going on all of a sudden?"

"After all, the smell of tobacco will be present when we kiss later, and I don't want to waste the opportunity."

"So you don't like the smell of smoke on me?"

"No, it's just that the feeling is completely different when I have it and when I don't."

"They're quite particular."

Orange returned the kiss.