Chaldea is a strange place where heroic spirits from all across history gather to protect the world. Master Ritsuka Fujimaru wakes up one morning to find their pillow missing, the cafeteria transformed into a battlefield, and Dr. Roman cheerfully announcing that there's absolutely nothing scheduled for the day.
A free day. Finally.
Except it really, really isn't.
Artoria Pendragon shows up with a deadly serious expression to request that Ritsuka 'guard the cake.' Emiya starts cooking lunch fo
A Lively Day at Chaldea - The Secret of Basement Level 4! The Lost Master and the Abandoned Plan Document
Ritsuka let out a relieved breath as they reached the cafeteria exit.
The sense of accomplishment from protecting the cake still lingered in their body. But their legs were definitely trembling. The result of standing the whole time, throwing their body at the Servants. Ritsuka thought the human body was honest.
"Thank you for your hard work, Master"
Altria's voice came from inside the cafeteria. Ritsuka gave a small wave and stepped into the hallway.
Okay. Time to head back to my room. This time I'm actually going to lie down. That's what they were thinking when they turned the corner and——
Thud.
Something was at their feet.
No, not "something." A Servant. One Servant was sprawled out on the hallway floor in a starfish position. Next to them, another Servant lying face-down. And a little further ahead, another Servant sitting slumped against the wall.
A low rumbling sound kept coming from the direction of the training grounds——the simulation room on the first basement level. Scathach's training was still going on. It was obvious that this was the aftermath.
"……Are you alright?"
"No problem."
One of the sprawled Servants answered. Their voice didn't sound fine at all.
Ritsuka tried to move forward. But Servants were lying around from left, right, and front——there was nowhere to step. Trying not to step on anyone, they slowly twisted their body sideways and moved. Leaning right, leaning left, leaning right again——
"Huh?"
Before they knew it, they'd wandered into an unfamiliar hallway.
The white walls and blue lighting were the same as always. But they'd never been down this hallway before. It seemed a bit narrower. The spacing between lights felt farther apart. No notices on the walls. Too quiet.
(Which way did I come from?)
Ritsuka looked around. The hallways to the left and right looked almost identical. While avoiding the Servants, they'd completely lost their sense of direction.
They sighed and decided to try going right. After walking for a while, the hallway started sloping downward. There was an incline. Heading underground.
"……Huh?"
They tried to turn back, but looking behind them, they couldn't even remember where they'd turned. Whichever way they went, it looked like the same hallway. Only emergency lights lined the ceiling, casting an orange glow that dimly lit their feet.
(This is bad.)
After the cake defense battle, their stamina was already depleted. Their legs were still faintly shaking. Rather than standing here thinking, it would be faster to find a room and look for a facility guide or map.
There was an old sign on the wall. Black letters on a white plate.
——Basement Level 4 · Materials Storage Section C——
"Basement Level 4……"
They'd come deeper than expected. They knew about the materials storage. They remembered hearing in orientation that it was where food and medicine supplies were kept. But they'd never actually been there.
They tried to open a nearby door. The closest one. They pulled, but it wouldn't budge. It was locked. They tried another door. This one wouldn't open either. The third door——this one opened smoothly.
It was dim.
Only the emergency light cast a faint, reddish glow inside.
Cardboard boxes were stacked against the wall.
Piled so high they almost reached the ceiling. Each box had a white label on it. Ritsuka carefully approached one and read the label.
Candidate No. 12 · Yamakawa Dai
The box next to it.
Candidate No. 31 · Suzuki Akira
And the next one.
Candidate No. 07 · Hashimoto Yu
Ritsuka's hand stopped.
(……Ah.)
They understood. These were the personal belongings of the 48 Master candidates.
Chaldea had originally gathered 48 Master candidates. Ritsuka was one of them. But there was an accident——they hadn't heard the details——and 47 of them became unable to operate. Only Ritsuka remained.
Maybe no one had come to clean up. Or maybe someone thought "we might be able to return these someday" and left them. The labels only had the candidate's number and name. The boxes weren't damaged. They were just covered in dust.
Ritsuka read the labels one by one without speaking.
Candidate No. 22 · Tamura Haruna. Candidate No. 44 · Kimura Takeshi. Candidate No. 03 · Inoue Saki.
(It's kind of……lonely.)
While they'd been at Chaldea, running around chaotically with the Servants every day, they'd never once thought about this storage room. They'd never even tried to know that something like this existed here.
It wasn't that they felt particularly sad. But their chest felt a little heavy. Ritsuka took their hand off the cardboard box and stepped back.
"……Well."
They murmured it under their breath, then looked for an exit. Walking along the wall opposite the direction they'd come, they found a section with shelves.
There, a single file lay on the ground.
At the edge of a shelf, in a position like it had slid out from a gap. The cover was yellowed, covered in dust.
They could read handwritten letters.
——Chaldea Goodwill Grand Sports Festival · Program Draft (Rejected)——
"……Rejected?"
Ritsuka picked up the file. So someone had planned a sports festival before. They flipped through it carefully.
A page with a list of events appeared. Ball toss, relay race, pole toppling, treasure hunt——almost the same as what was written on the notices in the hallway.
And on the last page, a single sentence written in red letters, large and bold.
——Reason for Cancellation: Servant combat power exceeds the safety standards of normal competitions, with significant risk of facility damage. Following deliberation, implementation has been postponed——
Ritsuka didn't close the page. They read it again.
"……Significant risk of facility damage."
They slowly turned the page again. In the margin of the events section, a note had been added in pencil.
——Ball Toss: Balls exceeded penetration velocity, creating 40 holes in facility walls (during test implementation)——
Ritsuka's expression shifted back a notch.
——Pole Toppling: Pole was classified as a Noble Phantasm and disappeared the moment the match started——
Second notch back.
——Treasure Hunt: When "Servant personal belongings" were designated as items to borrow, all participants refused with full force. The competition could not be held——
Ritsuka stared at that note for three seconds.
(……The Servants at Chaldea now are definitely even worse than those candidates.)
The people who'd tried before had hit the same wall and given up. And now, the notice in the hallway says "Coming Soon."
They gently placed the file back on the shelf. In the same spot, at the same angle. So that if someone came here again, they'd find it properly.
The exit was easy to find. It was a different door than the one they'd entered, but it led to the hallway.
This time, they walked carefully, checking the signs on the wall. Basement Level 3. Basement Level 2. Basement Level 1——another loud BOOM echoed from the direction of the training grounds, and Ritsuka hurried up the stairs.
The moment they reached the first floor, they heard voices.
Many voices. In the hallway in front of the cafeteria, Servants had gathered. More than ten of them——different from the ones who'd been sprawled out earlier, these Servants looked energetic, standing in the hallway talking.
In the center was——blonde hair catching the hallway lights——Altria.
"As a knight, I shall go to victory in this sports festival with honor. Those who desire a fair match, come forth!"
"Interesting! I shall participate as well."
"It's an opportunity to test the results of our training."
"I'm in, I'm in!"
The Servants each spoke up. All of them had shining eyes. They looked happy. Really happy. Not a trace of the danger sense from that rejected program's notes——"balls pierced the walls" or "the pole disappeared"——showed on their faces.
(I need to escape.)
Ritsuka immediately turned on their heel.
They took one step.
Then they felt a gaze.
They turned back.
Their eyes met Altria's.
Golden hair swayed, and clear blue eyes looked straight at them. Altria's expression——rarely, truly rarely——softened. The Saber King was smiling. That alone was already an unusual sight.
"Master!"
A hand landed on their shoulder. Strong. Naturally strong, since it was a Servant's hand. There was no escape.
"You're participating as well, yes? Let us fight with honor, fairly!"
"Ah, well——today's supposed to be my day off——"
"Oh, the Master is participating too!"
"That's wonderful!"
The Servants around them erupted in excitement. Before Ritsuka could finish their denial, they were already caught up in the enthusiasm. They'd completely lost the timing to object.
Altria's hand still hadn't left Ritsuka's shoulder.
"……I understand."
Ritsuka nodded weakly.
They weren't threatened. They weren't talked down. It was just that the combination of Altria's smile and the heat of the crowd around them made the words to refuse disappear somewhere. It wasn't anyone's fault. But they definitely couldn't escape.
Another BOOM echoed from deeper in the hallway. From the direction of the training grounds.
(Can I really……get any rest today?)
Ritsuka whispered it quietly in their heart. The same words they'd thought when they woke up in their room this morning.
Outside, the blizzard probably continued. It was a story about a snow mountain in the Arctic. Today and tomorrow would be the same. But inside the hallway, it was filled with the voices of Servants.
Altria had already turned to face the other Servants and started talking passionately about the sports festival events. The words "with honor" drifted over. It was her catchphrase.
Standing at the edge of the circle, Ritsuka thought a little about those cardboard boxes in the storage room. The labels with 47 names written on them. The fact that no one had cleaned them up.
(Well, I'll figure it out somehow.)
They didn't say it out loud. But they thought it.
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