Feeling peckish, I take some simple food out of my room.
Cheese, smoked pork, and pickled herring.
It's a combination I ate often back in my janitor days. Why?
Because they were preserved foods that were being thrown out by Chaldea. Well, they weren't exactly being thrown out; I was the one who was supposed to throw them out.
Chaldea stocks up on new preserved foods every year, and the existing ones are discarded, even if they're far from their expiration date. Why? To make room for new, better preserved foods.
It was my job to throw them away, but it felt like a waste, so I pocketed some of them. Not things like jerky, but substantial stuff like this.
I slice the smoked pork, place a slice of good quality cheese on top, and add some pickled herring. You might wonder why the herring, but it's surprisingly good.
The pork is smoked but not seasoned, so the pickled herring provides the perfect amount of saltiness.
I usually eat in the cafeteria, but when I was too busy, I used to just throw together a quick meal like this.
And when I'm relaxing in my room and just a little hungry, I eat this.
But today...
"Senpai, is this paltry meal what you usually eat?"
"Sho, you must have had it rough in the past."
"You're the first person I've seen in Chaldea eating like this."
"I'll raise your salary. Let's renegotiate your annual pay."
"No, I'm eating this because I want to."
There are a few too many people.
My room, or rather, since we moved into Ritsuka's room. There are a lot of guests today.
Ritsuka and Mash, of course. But BB and the Director have been added to the mix.
"Is it really that good~?"
"Yep."
"Then give me a bite. Come on, don't be shy."
BB shamelessly sticks out her head and opens her mouth. Power is in her hands, so I guess I have to play along. I know BB's personality. I'm just a toy to her. A playmate.
I put a piece in her mouth, and BB chews it thoughtfully.
"Mmm~ It's delicious, maybe because it's seasoned with your touch, Senpai."
BB licks her lips. She smiles and stares at me intently. This time, Ritsuka sticks her head out.
I put a piece in Ritsuka's mouth, and this time, Mash stares at me with an expectant look and sticks her head out.
I feed Mash as well.
Then, I stare at the Director. The Director, noticing my gaze, hesitates for a moment, then slightly sticks out her head and opens her mouth a tiny bit.
She's cute when she's shy. I feed her too, and she reacts as if it's more delicious than she expected.
"Don't you all have anything to do? I know there's still some time before we go to the Singularity, but is it okay for all of us to just spend time in this room like this?"
I'm being serious. I thought the Director, BB, and Mash would have their own work to do. I'm not just telling them to go to work.
In the past, after the Incineration, I not only did janitorial work but also helped the Director with her work. It was just simple tasks like organizing things, but I helped out where I could.
"I had things to do, but not anymore."
The Director's subsequent words. Then, BB next to her puts on a triumphant expression.
"A little work like that is nothing before this BB-chan. After all, I am the best AI on Earth."
"So this is the route where everyone becomes unemployed."
To think the saying that AI will make everyone unemployed would come true. How much time has passed since the Luddite movement? Was humanity destined to be defeated by machines after all?
Well, I'm from a generation that understood that, so I don't feel much of anything.
"Yes. Except for the work that requires physical movement, Ms. BB has taken care of everything else."
"So what do we do now?"
I could relate to Ritsuka's words. Things had suddenly become too comfortable. If this situation had come about gradually, I might have felt a sense of accomplishment, but instead, it was a 'and then suddenly BB appeared!' kind of development, so it doesn't feel real.
In particular, I don't like that she just kicked out Ryuuji and Da Vinci. I was planning to keep them close and cook them slowly.
"Can't you just enjoy this peaceful daily life? You like it, don't you? Ordinary peace."
BB leaned against me and grinned. Enjoying a normal daily life.
Yes, it's what I and Ritsuka had longed for. But now that it's in my hands, it feels awkward.
This is a King Crimson with the process erased.
"It's nice, but it's complicated in many ways because it was achieved too easily. The process is gone."
I put only cheese on the pork and pop it into my mouth. Everything has a process, and that process is important.
Without that process, who would be convinced? Everything can only be acknowledged if there is a process to solve it. One must be able to explain it, there must be a clear process to be acknowledged.
But I feel like that process has been stolen from me, so I can't see BB in a completely positive light. In the first place, I don't even know what her purpose is here.
If only I were as pure as Ritsuka, I wouldn't have to harbor such troublesome suspicions.
It's truly ironic.
Ritsuka and I are complete opposites.
Ritsuka sees the ideal reality, while I see the negative reality.
Because I see the world through the cold eyes of a working adult, and because in a world like this, I can't easily trust many things.
Can I really trust BB?
The Director also seemed to have started trusting BB. Though she probably didn't have a choice in the first place.
Will there ever come a time when I can purely trust others in a world like this?
I wonder.
To protect Ritsuka, Mash, and Olga Marie, I must constantly doubt everything. I have to protect them.
I never want to see a horrific reality like the previous timeline ever again.
"You can trust me. This BB-chan is helping you, Senpai, with a pure heart. You are the humanity that I have acknowledged. My role is to protect and support such humans. So please, believe me."
BB says, hugging me. Does BB usually give others such a benevolent smile and comforting words while hugging them? This is a gentle side she doesn't even show to Ritsuka in the original story, a side reserved only for Hakuno.
Can I really trust this version of BB, a BB from a world like this?
I... don't know.
Since when did I become so overly distrustful of people?
I hope this is pure goodwill. At the same time, I can't help but doubt her goodwill.
In the first place, I want to know.
What she is, and why she is so interested in me.
"Of course, I won't just ask you to believe me. Because that's the kind of person you are, Senpai."
She then stands up and says with a bright smile. She tells me to follow her, and I put down my food for a moment and follow her.
"Isn't she being a little too friendly? She met you after I did."
"Are you jealous, Director?"
"Jealous? Of course not. It's just... I just think she's being too forward for someone who encountered your true worth later than I did."
That is jealousy. Her dependency has gotten worse than in the original story. No, it wasn't even this bad in the original story.
"Why have we come to the workshop, Ms. BB?"
"Maybe BB-chan is going to show us something fun~"
The place BB brought us to was Da Vinci's workshop. I wondered why we had come to a place that was like that bastard's love hotel. BB went inside and proceeded to the deepest part.
"Let's see, it was around here, wasn't it?"
In a corner of the workshop, there was something covered with a large cloth. BB smiled, grabbed the cloth, and pulled it away. As the cloth was removed, a giant test tube was revealed.
Floating in a solution-filled tube, connected by several wires, was a small girl.
Gran Cavallo.
It was Lolinci.
"First, shall we wake her up?"
I can understand her knowing about Lolinci, but why is she trying so hard? From BB's perspective, it shouldn't make a difference whether she's here or not.
"I understand that you can't trust me right away, Senpai. But~ if I put in this much effort, one thing at a time, you'll come to trust this BB-chan, right?"
Just to earn my trust?
Why? As BB smiled at me, I saw an overlap with Ritsuka.
Can I really trust her? My mind is in a jumble.
For some reason, seeing her smile makes me feel at ease. It's a feeling that's somehow familiar and nostalgic.
================================
(Ryuuji's POV)
"Damn it, those damn bastards!"
A land of blue plains.
The France Singularity.
"Now, now, calm down. We're almost there. We'll be at the village soon."
There, expelled by BB, were Ryuuji and Da Vinci.
Ryuuji was fuming, furious at BB's outrage. Da Vinci tried to soothe him and cater to his mood, but he still couldn't quell his anger.
"I can see a village over there, but... hmm. It's on fire?"
"Nothing's going right. But what's that?"
"They're wyverns. Don't worry, I can handle them."
They weren't kicked out empty-handed, so Da Vinci used the inventions she had made to launch a preemptive strike on the wyverns.
It wasn't enough to completely defeat them, but it was powerful enough to suppress or drive them away.
In the midst of this, Ryuuji sniffed the air and caught a certain scent.
"I smell a woman."
Ryuuji said something that would make anyone else think he was crazy, without a second thought. And his senses were accurate.
A woman was walking out of the burning, nameless village.
"A human and a Servant. It seems you are the ones from the observatory that Caster mentioned."
A swaying animal tail, and perked up animal ears.
It was the Greek huntress, Atalante.
"Well, well, a slender, beast-type? You look delicious."
Ryuuji drooled and licked his lips as he strode towards Atalante.
"Hmph, foolish. Do you intend to challenge me with a human body? I have no words to describe such foolishness. As if I would lose to an ordinary man."
Atalante spoke the fated words and nocked an arrow to her bowstring.
She did not know. Her future, where in a short while, she would be defeated by that man and become a mere female.