Math is born from humanity’s love of accuracy.
1 and 2 are separated and one of them hastwice the value of the other. 1 is 1 and it only becomes 2 when its valuedoubles. This simple difference is the entire purpose behind math’s existence.
But look at it from a certain angle andnothing traps people’s minds in inaccuracy quite like math.
101 and 102 are clearly different accordingto match, but finding a difference between them in reality is difficult. Evenif you prepared two rulers, you could not be certain there was not a 0.001mmdifference between them.
So Miss A had long since stopped seekingaccuracy.
Math had been her worst subject in school.During her witch training, a few potions had blown up in her face because sherefused to measure the ingredients. She was fine with “about 3” as a definitionof pi.
Science always used math when discussingunits and it strived to be as accurate as possible.
Miss A stood at the top of that field, butit was not well known how careless she was about accuracy.
“Nn, there.”
Once again, the girl was in the verdant holyground in the depths of FeTUS headquarters. She sat in a rocking chair thatcould not keep an accurate center of gravity.
She had a teacup on the white wooden table.A Springloaded modeled after a wild rabbit watched on as she wound a pocketwatch decorated with a bear-print ribbon.
That was her favorite watch. Itunfortunately needed to be wound quite frequently, but an atomic clock would nolonger be accurate after 100,000 years. It was little difference.
“I wonder what time it is now.”
Once she finished winding it, she smiledbitterly toward the rabbit.
She had to set the watch’s hands, but shedid not know the current time.
The wild rabbit machine blinked its redeyes as if to say it did not know either.
“Exactly 11, then.”
She set the watch to 11 when she saw a girl walk into the room.
Machina had been ordered to be here at11:00, so she sat down in the seat across from Miss A at precisely that time.She was not even a second late or any other unit that a human could sense.
And a few seconds later…
“Did I keep you waiting?”
The gra.s.sy field displayed in the room switched over to something else.
When the projected image vanished, it revealedempty water tanks covering every surface.
The projector picked up an outside signaland displayed 12 monoliths. The 12 guests were represented by playing cards.Specifically, the jacks, queens, and kings of all four suits.
Twelve people surrounded the table.
“Is it only Miss A and Miss E today?”
“We have little to discuss,” answered MissA. “I will inform the other witches later.”
“Understood. Now, if you don’t mind gettingright to the topic at hand…”
All 12 voices coming from the monolithswere clearly excited.
Miss A set down the watch and reached forher cup instead.
“As I told you in my message, the HolyGrail is complete.”
“Splendid!!”
“Splendid!!”
“Splendid!!”
The monolith voices were br.i.m.m.i.n.g withexcitement. Some of the voices grew fainter as if they had moved away from themicrophone to dance with joy.
“Then when will you be executing the plan?This will be a turning point in human history, so please allow my company tosupport you in every way possible.”
“No, wait. I would like to provide the twoof them with G.o.d’s blessings first. I will arrange a visit to my office.”
“A boy doesn’t want all that formalnonsense. What matters is the honeymoon. The best way for two youths tocelebrate is to take a relaxing vacation.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We must research the TrueAncestor. This is no time to be messing around!”
The excited monoliths argued on and on.
Miss A had predicted this, but it was evenmore annoying than she had expected. She shrugged and looked to the rabbitsitting on the table.
It blinked its red eyes and the 12monoliths vanished.
The room was wrapped in silence. Machinawas as taciturn as ever, so the only sound was the clink of Miss A placing hercup on its saucer.
After another blink of red eyes, the 12monoliths reappeared.
“My apologies. We got carried away.”
Miss A had not said a word, but the cardsacted like she had yelled at them.
Those men and women ran the world’s mostpowerful conglomerates and corporations, so the twelve of them togetherpossessed more than a third of the world’s a.s.sets. But here, they were no morethan Miss A’s sponsors.
“As for our plans…we are only justbeginning to investigate the egg cell extracted from the Holy Grail. It appearsimplantation would be possible, but it is unclear if this would produce a TrueAncestor. Thus, I believe we should still wait and see what happens.”
“That again?”
The cards ceased their celebrations andinstead sighed in disappointment.
“We can only watch and wait for so long,Miss A. You have been late to act every single time since the discovery of theSerpent’s Eye holder. And as a result, the angels stole the boy, a troublesomedemon intervened, and your frontline facility there was nearly destroyed.”
“You need to give it a rest already.Reconstructing the holy ground there cost us enough to bankrupt a few smallnations.”
Now they started griping.
The rabbit looked up to ask if she wantedto cut off the transmission again, but Miss A shook her head.
The monoliths must have remembered therewas someone else there because they changed who they were speaking to.
“How about you, Miss E? The completion ofthe Holy Grail is your problem, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you seek the cooperation ofthe Adam boy right away?”
“You have all the research equipment youneed!”
“Hweh hweh hweh. If you want a honeymoon, Ican get one set up for you right away.”
“Don’t you think watching and waiting isfoolish?”
They talked on and on toward Machina.
The girl had been silently observing theconversation, but now she raised her head.
“This is only my personal opinion, but…”
She calmly glanced at Miss A who jerked herchin, telling her to speak.
“I agree we should seek Fujita-kun’sa.s.sistance. And I think we should hurry toward the birth of the True Ancestor.”
“See!?”
“But I will obey Miss A.”
“Kh…”
Just as the monoliths thought they had theperfect ally, they were silenced.
She was personally opposed to watching andwaiting, but she would go along with it if Miss A said so.
Miss A must have known Machina would saythat because she did not hesitate to take a sip of tea.
She understood why the monoliths andMachina felt the way they did.
From a pure efficiency standpoint, theyshould immediately call in the Adam boy, Fujita Mutsuki. They should tell himeverything and get his help with their research.
His help was the only path left forhumankind.
But…
“…”
The tea had gone cold. She had apparently spent too long winding her watch.
A clock that would be off by a singlesecond in 100,000 years and a pocket watch that needed to be wound once everyfew days were the same in the sense that neither kept the time with perfectaccuracy.
The girl who understood science better thananyone simply could not trust in “efficiency”.
“That is all I have to say. You aredismissed.”
She set down the cup.
They must have known that there was no usearguing with her calmly-given order. After some sighs and grinding teeth, themonoliths vanished.
The gra.s.sy plain returned.
Miss A breathed a quiet sigh and pulled asingle hard candy and a small bell from her pocket. When she tossed the candyin her mouth and rang the bell, a large maid entered and prepared two new cupsof tea.
“…Miss A.”
Machina spoke quietly to the girl whorolled the candy around in her mouth.
“I agree with them,” added the maid. “Wehave pa.s.sed the time for watching and waiting.”
The girl nodded to say she understood whatMiss E and D were saying.
She looked down at the pocket watch she hadpicked up once more. The ticking hands moved with what appeared to be aflawless tempo.
Were those hands accurate or not?
It was impossible for human eyes to becertain of the current second.
“I will leave the rest with you, Miss E.”
“Eh…?”
She tossed the watch aside.
“Do what you think is right. No one knowsthat boy better than you, so that would probably be best.”
“Probably? Miss A, this is too much.”
The maid frowned at this extremely carelessdecision. However…
“That’s an order. Miss E, this is in yourhands.”
“Um…”
“The feelings of those involved are of theutmost importance in such things. That means the Adam boy’s and yours.”
With that, she picked up her teacup to saythe discussion was over.
Machina remained expressionless, but shewas confused and started to open her mouth to speak.
But at that very moment…
“I see you haven’t changed, Miss Alice.”
A brief disturbance ran through the room’sprojected image and the King of Hearts monolith appeared.
The gra.s.sy plain remained and the monolithformed a human silhouette.
It was a horribly emaciated old man in awheelchair. This signal was not sent through the previous secret line, so theholographic image displayed his true form.
The old man saw no need to hide who he wasand the wheelchair’s wheels squeaked as he approached the table.
“What do you want, Dr. Strangelove? It isrude to interrupt teatime.”
“Ho ho. There is no need to worry aboutthat given how well we know each other. Maid, give me some tea as well.”
He smiled in a way that made it look likehe had just eaten someone.
The maid hesitated but finally prepared therequested tea.
The old man was only a hologram and thus couldnot pick it up, so it remained on the table.
“I created Miss C and you created Miss E.But it seems it was your Miss E who was chosen for the Holy Grail. This is acause for celebration, but that one point is a tad disappointing.”
“Do not say we ‘created’ them. They areboth my daughters.”
“Heh heh. Now about Miss C…aboutElisabeth.”
“…”
Miss A’s eyebrows twitched.
“You don’t need her anymore, do you? Thenperhaps I’ll retrieve her.”
The girl had been calmly listening to theold man, but now a crunching sound came from her mouth. She had apparentlybitten through her hard candy.
“Fine, fine. I’ll leave her with you,” saidthe man. “You can use her however you like.”
Silent anger filled the 600-year-old girl’seyes and the old man responded with a thin smile.
“But as I’ve said countless times before,Elisabeth has quite a few flaws introduced by that creation plan. It would befairly dangerous to trust her outside of battle.”
“Silence.”
“You must understand. All people are G.o.d’schildren. Attempting this using human knowledge was absurd. The basic theoryused was old. The researchers were under a lot of pressure to achieve immediateresults. She was raised in an inferior environment. And…”
He pushed on the wheelchair’s tires to rollit back.
“The Schwarze Lab was run by the Kurosakifamily.”
“…”
He returned to his original position.
“Heh heh heh. Miss Alice, didn’t you sayyou were good friends with Miss Elisa, the genetic base used for Miss C?”
“Silence!”
By the time the girl’s voice rang out, theold man had vanished without a trace.
She had carelessly grown emotional, so shesighed and leaned back in the rocking chair. She shook her head to tell theshocked maid not to worry about it.
And she faced Machina once more.
“I will simply…watch and wait for a while…MissE,” she said quietly. “I leave this with you.”
“…Positive.”