"Haaah~, I'm back."

Sitting in the helicopter, the young man who had a pretty good time in the Type-Moon world gazed at the small island in the distance, his mood cheerful.

"Yes, you're back."

Beside him, Miss Mei, with her gentle voice, looked at the young man who seemed to have... shrunk a little, her expression a bit strange.

Is it my imagination?

The answer was no.

"Zihan, did you... put on makeup? You look younger than before."

Miss Mei, having clearly noticed the change in his physique, organized her thoughts and then spoke the awkward words.

Li Zihan's mental age was around sixteen to nineteen, the same as hers, but his body was clearly that of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old.

The adjective for someone who looked even younger than fourteen or fifteen was... childlike.

"For various reasons, my physical age has regressed slightly."

The young man, whose age had been rolled back because of Aoko, blinked and explained.

"Once I complete a certain study related to time, I'll be able to return to my original state."

This was a fact.

Accelerating or slowing the flow of time within a Reality Marble, which was not subject to the world's interference, was the Emiya family's magecraft.

It was originally a family magic that specialized in manipulating the time within one's own body or small-scale causality. However, in the fourth generation, the head of the Emiya family—the unlucky bastard who was KO'd by his son's single shot—was a super genius who elevated the family magecraft to the realm of a Sealing Designation.

The legitimate heir, Emiya Kiritsugu, only inherited less than twenty percent of the Magical Crest—the Magus Association took most of the valuable research results, leaving the scraps for him.

The Emiya family's magecraft was by no means as simple as what Emiya Kiritsugu had displayed.

After seeing Aozaki Aoko alter the state of things by disrupting the order of time, Li Zihan had suddenly become interested in time manipulation. Thus, he had paid a small price to take the Emiya family's true Magical Crest.

The knowledge Zelretch had taught him included a section on time—entering a parallel world, then jumping back to the original worldline, choosing a new arrival point midway.

The prerequisite for such time travel was the ability to observe different points in time across multiple worldlines and then accurately perform a cross-worldline spatial transfer.

Li Zihan couldn't learn such an insane maneuver at all, so he had to honestly stick to practicing spatial magecraft.

However, after seeing Aozaki Aoko reassemble a new timeline by disrupting the flow of time and destroying order, he had some ideas.

For example, integrating the knowledge of the Fifth Magic he got from Aoko into the Emiya family's magecraft, allowing him to manipulate time more easily by destroying the time flow itself.

As long as the integration was successful, achieving time stop, deletion, and reversal within a Reality Marble would be as easy as eating and drinking.

The young man, who had already thought of names for a series of future skills, had a faint smile on his lips.

For example, The World, King Crimson, Bites the Dust, Made in Heaven...

"Then... Zihan, you should probably speed up your research."

Miss Mei looked at the young man, who looked quite compatible sitting next to the girl who was said to be Bronya's sister, and reminded him awkwardly.

She felt that if she stood next to the current Li Zihan, outsiders would definitely see them as brother and sister.

To be seen as an older sister while standing next to the person who was practically her fiancé—just thinking about it made Miss Mei feel terrible.

"Mhm, I'll try to accelerate the research."

The young man, who would be practically invincible within a Reality Marble if the research succeeded, nodded.

"Big Brother seems so amazing."

Miss Seele, who had seen everyone look at Li Zihan with a sense of awe, whether at the Clock Tower or in Fuyuki Town, had clear admiration in her eyes.

Researching time... just thinking about it sounds incredible.

"It's just so-so."

The young man, who had probably put only slightly more effort into learning magecraft than Miss Banya put into cooking, shrugged and said something that was asking for a beating.

He was also running on pure talent.

"You just have to look at it a few times and then experiment a little."

Experimenting is not something that can be summed up with "just so-so," Murata Himeko thought.

"Vice-Commander Li, you're quite the scholar."

Murata Himeko, a top student herself, looked at the man who was actually the second-in-command and captain air-dropped from Schicksal's European HQ to the Far East Branch, and decided to test the waters.

A certain hat wholesaler who wished to remain anonymous was not very fond of the Schicksal Far East Branch because his granddaughter had left him to establish it.

Therefore, the development funds received by the Far East Branch had always been insufficient.

He seemed to hope that through these economic sanctions, he could make Theresa return to his side sooner.

However, it didn't seem to have much effect.

Theresa still remained in the Far East, rarely returning to Europe.

This had continued until about twenty days ago—

The Overseer who disliked the Far East Branch had air-dropped a second-in-command.

Such a development truly made one suspect if there was something fishy going on.

"May I ask, what ambitions do you have for coming here?"

Miss Murata A—, ahem, Miss Himeko, looked at the air-dropped commander, her expression a bit strange.

She wasn't doubting Li Zihan's ability, she just felt that this guy's appearance was a bit off right now.

This guy was completely reverse-aging.

I'm here in the Far East for three things: my salary, my salary, and goddamn it, my salary!!

Li Zihan thought to himself, but the words that came out were something else entirely.

"Probably to establish the Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Finis Chaldea."

The young man, who was simply here to fulfill his promise to Otto, didn't mention his salary at all.

The reason was simple: the financial authority of the Far East Branch had been handed over to him, the Vice-Commander.

Where was the logic in demanding a salary from himself?

The young man, who would probably be using Theresa's salary to take Seele to the ocean park, decided not to hold a grudge over Theresa having previously used his salary.

"What's that?"

Magic Big Aunt Theresa, who felt she could understand every word but couldn't comprehend them when put together, had a look of pure illiteracy in her eyes.

She did not yet understand that her salary card was facing an unprecedented crisis.

"A very money-burning project."

Li Zihan summarized Chaldea's greatest feature in incredibly concise language.

Maintaining Chaldeas's operation was an extremely expensive affair. The power supply alone required multiple nuclear power plants; it wasn't just your average money-burner.

Everyone present was stunned.

This introduction... wasn't it a little too concise?

"Huh?"

The shorty white-haired old hag who had asked the question made a bewildered sound.

"This thing is super complicated. I can't explain it clearly in a short time."

The young man, who was simply too lazy to describe the functions and operating principles of Chaldea, shrugged and said.

"You just need to know that once it's built, it can modify many tragedies that have occurred."