Akira glanced at the magic circles spread across the table.
"…Anyway," he said, "you know servants have a pretty serious flaw, right?"
Selena's voice echoed in his mind immediately.
"You mean how they can't disobey their master… and how they slowly start breaking down?"
She continued,
"First, they lose their sense of taste. Then their sleep cycles get longer and longer, even to the point similar to hibernation… until some of them end up in that half-dead state where they only move when ordered."
She took a short pause and added.
"That's why Erika-chan doesn't want to make one, right?"
Akira nodded slightly.
"Exactly."
He adjusted one of the circles.
"Even the more compatible ones aren't exempt. The process just takes longer."
He paused for a moment, then asked,
"Do you know why that happens?"
Selena's reply came flat and immediate.
"You already know the answer, right. Just say it."
Akira smiled faintly.
"Well… the process of creating a servant is flawed. And that, in turn, makes their transformation unstable."
He leaned slightly against the table, continuing naturally,
"You know how, when a vampire turns someone into their servant, they feed them their own blood under the full moon? When that happens, the vampire blood mutates the human body and turns them into a servant…"
He took a small pause and added.
"But the mutation isn't perfect."
Selena cut in,
"What's imperfect about it?"
Akira answered simply.
"The brain."
A brief pause—
Selena repeated.
"…The brain?"
Akira smiled.
"Yeah. The human brain isn't made for immortality… or for handling the vampire mutation. So when a human turns into a servant, their body might be close to immortality… But their mind isn't. It can't handle the immortality."
He paused a bit and added.
"It can't even handle the mutation."
Selena didn't let the point settle for long.
"But there are other ways humans gain that kind of power… and even longevity, right?"
Akira nodded slightly.
"Yeah, but those methods change the brain too."
He paused, then continued,
"If I have to give you a comparison… think of it like this. When a devil turns a human into a reincarnated devil through an Evil Piece… They completely turn that person from a human into a devil. That's a stable mutation."
He tapped lightly on the table.
"But a servant is something in between a human and a vampire. Not a dhampir… just a biological mutation that isn't complete. That's why they have those problems."
There was a brief silence before Selena pressed again.
"Then what exactly are you going to do to fix it?"
Akira didn't hesitate.
"I actually have a way. It involves three steps."
Selena asked in a curious voice.
"…What is it?"
He raised a finger.
"First, use magic circles to maintain control over the transformation."
He opened another finger.
"Second, make Raven and Rose gain traits of an actual magical creature so they can be compatible with the process. And finally…"
He opened the third finger.
"Personally guide the process using my own blood as a catalyst—along with my evolution ability—so nothing can go wrong."
He exhaled slightly.
"What do you think?"
Selena paused for a moment before responding.
"That actually makes sense…"
Then she added,
"But why are you changing Raven and Rose into a magical creature?"
"Because they're just normal crows," Akira answered. "Who knows what the servant ritual—which is meant for humans—would do to normal animals? And I can also use that to fix the whole cognitive decline problem with servants… By turning them into proper long-lived creatures instead."
Selena's voice came again,
"And how are you going to do that?"
Akira replied,
"Well… I'm going to do it during the servant ritual. When they transform… I'll use a crow-type magical creature as a catalyst. And then use my rewrite ability to make it so that when they transform, they gain the traits and powers of that magical creature. That should stabilize the mutation."
Selena paused briefly.
"…That sounds like it could work."
Then she added,
"But what magical crow are you talking about? Do you even have one? The ritual is tonight."
Akira waved it off.
"Oh, come on, did you forget? During my travels around the world with our parents, I fought and killed a lot of magical beasts and monsters. And I didn't forget to collect their remains."
He smiled slightly.
"I'm sure there are plenty of crow-type creatures in there. I just need to pick one as the catalyst."
He opened his inventory—
Then froze.
"…Huh? …What happened? Where did they go?"
Selena's voice came immediately.
"Brother… did you forget? Before you went to the Demon Slayer world, you dumped all of them in the castle storage room to clear your inventory. You even made your robot army organize them. Remember?"
Akira blinked.
"…Oh… Yeah. I completely forgot."
He straightened.
"Alright then. Let's go check how things are there."
The next moment—
Akira disappeared.
And reappeared inside the castle storage room.
Only to see—
His robot army is still trying to organize everything.
Mountains of items filled the place.
Monster parts.
Entire monster corpses.
Half-finished inventions.
Completed machines.
Magical artifacts.
All piled together—
While the robots struggled to sort them.
Then—
Selena appeared beside him.
Akira looked around and said,
"Didn't I put all this here like… almost a year ago?"
"I stopped time, remember?" Selena replied calmly, "You spent all that time in the Demon Slayer world. While you were there, time here was frozen. So it's only been a few days."
Akira frowned slightly.
"I know that, but I thought time in this dimension flowed normally, only the world outside stopped."
"No." Selena shook her head. "I only let time flow normally in the throne room. The rest of the dimension is frozen too. I don't want to waste too much Fate Energy on that."
She gestured at the mountain.
"Anyway… how are you planning to find a crow-type monster in that?"
Akira looked at the massive clutter.
Then sighed.
"Well… we just have to go through it, I guess."
He suddenly raised his voice.
"HEY! Everyone!"
All the robots stopped.
Then turned to look at him.
"I've got new work for you."
Akira pointed forward.
"All of you—search and find me a crow-type monster and bring it to me."
The robots immediately moved.
Even though there were around fifty of them—
Different sizes, different types—
Still, the mountain was enormous.
It was going to take time.
Selena crossed her arms.
"…I don't think we can find it today."
Akira shook his head.
"Don't worry, we can do it. As long as all of us work together, nothing is—"
He suddenly paused.
"…Wait. Where is Za-kun?"
He looked around.
But couldn't find the commander of his robot army anywhere.
"You sent him to feed the crows outside last night, remember." Selena answered, "And you never brought him back. He's probably still there."
Akira finally remembered. "Oh, right…"
Then he said.
"Well, we need all hands on deck."
And snapped his fingers.
A magic circle appeared—
And Za-kun, who already finished feeding the crows and was now tending to the garden, suddenly dropped into a magic circle that appeared below him.
And reappeared in the storage room, facing Akira.
Akira pointed.
"Za-kun. Go search for a crow-type monster in there. We need it fast."
Za-kun let out a mechanical sound as if questioning him.
Akira sighed.
"I know the time is limited, but I can't help it, alright? Me and my sister will help too, so don't worry."
Za-kun made another mechanical noise As if accepting.
Then nodded—
And walked off to search.
Selena spoke up,
"…I'm helping too?"
Akira glanced at her.
"Of course. We need all the help we can get."
He snapped his fingers again—
And his elemental wolf pack appeared.
Without hesitation, they spread out and began searching.
Selena asked,
"What about Erika?"
Akira shook his head.
"She's sleeping, right?"
"Don't disturb her."
Then he stepped forward into the mountain of clutter.
"Now get in there and help me."
Selena sighed and followed him.
And so—
Everyone dove into the mountain and started searching.
The larger robots lifted heavy chunks of debris to look underneath.
The smaller ones slipped into tight corners and narrow gaps.
Even then—
With this much stuff…
It wasn't easy to search through everything.
Akira and Selena split up, covering different directions while using magic to speed things up and cover more ground.
—
After a while—
Selena suddenly found something.
She lifted it up.
"…Hey bro… is this a wyvern egg?"
Akira glanced over.
"Oh… so that's where it was."
"I've been searching for it for a while."
Selena paused.
"…You lost a wyvern egg?"
Akira shrugged.
"Don't blame me for losing something that small in this mess."
Selena sighed.
"It's your fault for not arranging anything."
Then she tossed it aside and went back to searching.
—
Just then—
One of the robots rolled up to Akira.
It looked like an exact replica of R2D2.
It presented a large black feather and let out a series of beeps.
Akira looked at it.
"No, R2… that's not a crow feather. That's a black condor feather."
R2 froze.
Then let out a sad beeping noise—
And slowly rolled away.
Selena snorted.
"…Why did that sound like you just crushed his hopes and dreams?"
Akira waved it off.
"Just ignore him. He's a drama queen."
And went back to searching.
—
A moment later—
Selena called out again.
"Brother… why is there a three-headed dragon corpse here? There's even a marking on it saying... Probably Useful."
Akira didn't even look up.
"I don't know, it might be useful in the future."
Selena stared at him.
"…Of course it is."
—
Then Za-kun approached.
Carrying a large monster body covered in black feathers.
He presented it proudly.
Akira looked at it—
Then made a weird expression.
"…Za-kun. That's not a crow. That's a Boobrie."
Za-kun made a confused mechanical noise.
—
Soon after—
Selena came over again, dragging something massive.
"Brother, what about this?"
A giant crow.
Nearly seven meters tall.
Akira looked at it.
"Oh… that's the giant crow that stole my lunch."
Selena paused.
"…You fought a crow over lunch?"
Akira crossed his arms.
"Well, it was good food, alright."
Selena sighed.
"…Anyway, is it useful?"
Akira shook his head.
"Not really. Other than size, it's nothing special."
—
Just then—
One of the elemental wolves brought another crow.
It looked bloated.
Half-decomposed.
It dropped it in front of Akira.
Selena frowned.
"…What is that?"
Akira glanced at it.
"Oh, that's a carrion crow. They eat too many corpses… Get fat… And end up unable to fly."
Selena immediately turned away.
"…Yeah, no. Throw that away."
—
Another wolf brought something else.
A crow whose body looked partially like a spirit.
Flickering slightly.
Selena leaned in.
"What about this?"
Akira shook his head.
"Those are phantom crows. They are actually part spirit. Not stable enough to use as a catalyst."
—
Time passed.
They kept searching.
Again and again.
—
Then—
Selena picked up another bird.
"…Hey bro, is this a three-legged—"
Akira immediately cut her off.
"Don't ask."
Selena blinked.
"But these are—"
Akira shook his head.
"No. It's better if they just stay in that pile."
Akira sighed, looking into the distance, and added.
"…As a secret."
—
And so—
They continued searching.
Again.
And again.
But no matter how much they searched—
They couldn't find a perfect specimen.
Soon—
The afternoon arrived.
And they still hadn't found one.
While the search continued—
Elsewhere—
Erika sat at the dining table, slowly eating.
She had woken up a while ago.
But…
She hadn't gone to see Akira.
Her grip tightened slightly on the spoon.
"…How am I supposed to face him now…"
Last night flashed through her mind.
The training.
The illusions.
All the ridiculous things Selena made "Akira" do.
Her face turned red.
"…Nope. I can't."
She immediately shook her head.
Then a sigh escaped her.
"…I can't just avoid him forever either…"
In the end—
She gave up.
"…Where even is he…"
She reached out telepathically.
"Selena… where's Akira?"
Selena's voice came back, a bit more tired than usual.
"Oh… Erika, you're awake? If you are, can you come help us? We're in the castle storage room."
Erika frowned slightly.
"What happened? Why do you sound this tired?"
Selena replied,
"Just come, you'll see…"
Then added,
"Oh—and just teleport like I taught you last night. You'll get here."
Erika sighed.
"…Fine."
Just like Selena taught her—
She imagined the location.
Used her magic—
And in the next moment—
She appeared inside the storage room.
Then froze.
In front of her—
Akira, Selena, and all of Akira's army were digging through a mountain of items like they were doing some kind of evacuation work.
For a moment—
Even the awkwardness from last night disappeared.
"…What's happening?"
Akira heard her voice.
He turned, smiled slightly, and said,
"Oh, Erika. You're awake?"
Erika immediately remembered everything.
She looked away awkwardly.
"…Yeah… just woke up… So what's happening here…?"
Selena noticed her.
"Oh, Erika-chan, you're here? Good, good. Now help us too."
Erika turned to her.
"…What's going on?"
Selena replied,
"We're searching for a crow-type monster. To use as a catalyst during the servant ritual tonight—for Raven and Rose."
Erika nodded slightly.
"…Oh, I see."
Then she paused.
"But… I don't think the servant ritual needed that, right?"
Selena waved it off.
"It's a long story, I'll explain later. For now, just help us search."
Erika nodded.
"…Okay."
She looked around.
Then—
Almost immediately—
Something near her foot caught her eye.
A black crow.
About the size of an eagle.
Its feathers dim—
Almost blending into the shadows.
She bent down.
Picked it up.
"…Do I have to find something like this?"
Silence.
Everyone froze.
Akira.
Selena.
The robots.
Even the elemental wolves.
All turned—
And stared at her.
Akira stepped closer, eyes fixed on the bird.
"…That's a Shadow Crow."
He paused a bit and added.
"I've been searching for it all this time…"
He looked at her.
"…Where did you find it?"
Erika blinked.
"…Right here… Near the entrance."
Silence.
A heavy silence filled the room.
Whether it was the siblings—
The robots—
Or even the elemental wolves—
Everyone just stood there.
Without saying a word.