Britannia?!
Upon hearing this extremely familiar place name, Ian felt as if his head had been stabbed, and it let out a buzzing sound.
That's right.
This was Boudica's hometown, a place that had once been ravaged and turned into a hell by Agrippina's ambition, and then burdened with heavy taxes like shackles.
Fortunately, the misunderstanding was successfully resolved afterward, so Britannia and Rome did not fall into endless war.
And now...
The Rayshift system had sent him here and not to Rome.
Could something have happened here too?
Thinking of this, Ian planned to further confirm the current situation. He once again asked BB:
"BB, so what period is it now?"
This was something Chaldea could theoretically confirm.
In the last Hundred Years' War between England and France, Olga Marie had used her ability to confirm the era in advance.
Since she could do it, BB should also be able to.
"Piggy, you're asking what period it is now..." BB's muttering voice came through. "Give BB some time to confirm."
After a short silence, the answer came.
"Hmm... after 300 million calculations, BB confirms that it is the period when the Roman emperor Nero was on the throne."
"To be more specific, it should be the period just after she tore down the palace and rebuilt the Domus Aurea."
As a super-high-performance future AI Servant, BB's performance in terms of information was unique. Even Chaldea's most advanced computer system's computing power was less than one ten-thousandth of hers.
The information she was giving at this moment was naturally accurate and correct.
However—
For Ian, this was not something to be happy about.
Assuming that BB's information was accurate and correct, Nero's current situation would probably be very dangerous.
The man took a deep breath. For a moment, he felt at a loss as to what to do.
"..."
As a virtuous wife, Tamamo-no-Mae quickly noticed that her lover's expression was a little off at the moment. She went along with BB's words and began to answer her.
"That's great, BB. The information you provided is very important to our Master."
"But it looks like our Master now has to take me and little Mash on our way—how about we contact you again when we get to a suitable place?"
"No problem."
BB didn't think too much about Tamamo-no-Mae's words. "You guys must be careful on your way. If you encounter any problems, call BB immediately."
"The super-advanced AI BB will be by your side 24/7~☆."
"Hmm, I understand."
Smoothly ending the communication with BB for the time being, Tamamo-no-Mae took Ian's hand and asked with a worried look.
"Master, what's wrong with you?"
"Does the era that BB just mentioned have some bad memories for our Master? Or does it, as a Singularity, have some extremely serious problem?"
Tamamo-no-Mae's question was very subtle. She didn't even mention Ian's expression just now.
Obviously, she was worried that her words would make it difficult for Ian to answer in front of Mash, so she spoke very vaguely.
A virtuous wife would not want to add any extra burden to her husband.
"This..."
Realizing that this wouldn't do, Ian temporarily cleared the long string of memories from his mind and looked at Tamamo-no-Mae and Mash beside him.
"No, it's nothing."
"We should hurry up and figure out the reason for the birth of the Singularity—to avoid any more unexpected troubles."
"Hmm... I'll listen to you, Senpai," said Mash, while Tamamo-no-Mae said, "I was thinking the same thing."
After reaching an agreement, the group began to head toward the nearby city according to the guidance BB had sent earlier.
However, even with help from Chaldea, the road they had to take was still there.
This was the era of the Roman Empire. At this time, there were no means of transportation, and even the roads were only in the "clearing" stage. Walking was still quite difficult.
Realizing that there was still a long way to go, Tamamo-no-Mae glanced at Ian beside her and then at Mash behind her, and then she spoke up on her own initiative.
"Mash, why are you walking behind me and Master?"
"If you do that... it feels like I'm chasing you away from Master."
"Eh—?!"
Mash, who was wearing a purple tight-fitting battle suit and holding a large shield, quickly shook her head.
"That's not true!"
"Lady Tamamo-no-Mae, I never thought you were chasing me away from Senpai."
"Then come over quickly—" Tamamo-no-Mae smiled slightly. "Opportunities to hold Master's hand like this are rare~"
"If you miss this one, you don't know when the next one will be."
"..."
Seeing that Mash was still hesitating, Ian took her hand on his own initiative.
He was not so dense that he couldn't hear the meaning in Tamamo-no-Mae's words, which was to share him with Mash.
"Senpai, I..."
"Shh—don't say anything, just listen to me."
"O-okay."
Seeing how happy Mash was from Ian holding her hand, the joy in Tamamo-no-Mae's heart grew even more.
Once upon a time, she was also worried like this, so she could completely understand how Mash felt.
"By the way—"
"Little Mash, you were quite outstanding when everyone was together. I still remember how hard you worked."
This was not Tamamo-no-Mae flattering Mash; she didn't need to do that.
But in that girlfriend party before they set off, Mash, who was in charge of the final cleanup, had a performance that was beyond Tamamo-no-Mae's imagination.
The clever fox demon could never have imagined that this quiet and gentle-looking girl would be so hardworking and meticulous when serving Ian.
She was not only the girl who knew how to clean the room the best but also knew what she should do to finish the job as quickly as possible.
And what was even more terrifying was that as long as Ian didn't tell her to stop, even if she had already cleaned everything up, Mash would never stop. Instead, she would continue to wait for Ian's command.
"Eh?"
Suddenly being mentioned for her outstanding performance, Mash became a little embarrassed, but her voice in answering sounded very firm.
"Because I have to save Ritsuka—so I have to work very hard to get magical energy from Senpai."
"And... Senpai seemed to like me doing that too, so I didn't want to hold back even more."
After saying this, Mash realized that she seemed to have gotten a little too proud and quickly apologized.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to show off."
"It's okay," Tamamo-no-Mae forgave Mash very generously. "Little Mash, you don't have to be so nervous in front of me—we agreed to share our Master, didn't we?"
"Of course you have the right to serve him, don't you?"
"But speaking of which—how did you first think of doing this for our Master? I'm a little curious."
This was a difficult question to answer.
Even if Tamamo-no-Mae had no ill intentions, for Mash, the reason was still hard to talk about.
But Ian answered it directly at this moment: "Little Tamamo-no-Mae, I was the one who taught her to do this."
"Master taught her?" Tamamo-no-Mae heard an unexpected answer.
"That's right."
Ian let go of Mash's hand and then reached his arm behind her, skillfully wrapping it around her waist.
In her shy response, he continued:
"She didn't have any friends in Chaldea at that time—and I also lacked a good girl who was willing to work so hard."
"So we made a deal. I would help her make friends, and she would be responsible for satisfying the thoughts in my head."
"But—it's different now."
Ian lowered his head and gently kissed Mash's cheek.
"Now she can make friends on her own. I think she's still doing this more because I like it, and she's just obediently cooperating, right?"
"I'll be honest."
"The current Mash is indeed a very tempting existence for me. If I don't properly arrange it, I will be condemned by the heavens."
The words were extremely blunt, but they did not cause any disgust from Mash and Tamamo-no-Mae.
On the contrary—
It was precisely because Ian said his most primitive thoughts that the two girls could confirm that he didn't just like them out of nowhere but also had a physical instinct.
This was much more realistic than any promise.
"Yes."
Mash carefully went along with Ian's actions, allowing him to hold her slender waist.
"Because Senpai likes it, so I like it too."
"So—"
"I really enjoy seeing Senpai happy—no, it should be that Senpai is pleased because of me."
"I really like a Senpai who is that happy, and I'm willing to serve him."
"..."
Finally, figuring out the whole story, Tamamo-no-Mae nodded thoughtfully.
"Then it seems that my training on the path of serving our Master is still far from enough."
The fox demon took the young woman's hand.
"Little Mash, will you teach me how to do this next time?"
"Eh, okay! If we have a chance next time, let's do it together."
With the man's body as the foundation, Tamamo-no-Mae and Mash's friendship developed in a strange direction.
This seemed to be nothing bad.
And... it seemed like something to look forward to.
In any case, the journey that should have been boring and tedious turned into a decent conversation under Tamamo-no-Mae's initiative.
The three of them unknowingly encountered a new predicament.
In front of the three of them was an incomparably thick city wall, made of gray-green stone bricks. Every so often, a torch was inserted into it for lighting.
So even though it was night, they could still roughly see what it looked like.
But this still made Tamamo-no-Mae and Mash look at each other in confusion.
One of them was from the old Heian-kyō, and the other was from modern-day Chaldea. They naturally didn't know what this city-wall-like thing in front of them was.
But Ian was different. He looked at it and muttered to himself.
"This is the repaired Hadrian's Wall."
The man didn't know this name out of nowhere.
During Nero's reign, in order to appease Boudica, who had sworn not to rebel again, Rome planned to build a wall that stretched for hundreds of miles to protect Britannia and at the same time defend against enemies from the north.
But before he could see it completed, he...
However, Ian was sure he wasn't wrong, because only in this era could Rome have such exquisite construction technology. It was absolutely impossible for Britannia to do this on its own.
But here's the problem.
From the perspective of their position, the three of them were clearly outside Hadrian's Wall—which meant that they had not yet arrived in Britannia.
So—
Why did BB, who was in Chaldea, first pinpoint this place outside as Britannia?
It couldn't be that she made a mistake, could it?
Ian felt that the possibility of that happening was even less likely than Mash suddenly throwing a tantrum and refusing his request to be intimate with her.
Something was wrong, very, very wrong.
Given that BB couldn't make a mistake, the land under his feet could not possibly be defined as Britannia.
And the early completion of Hadrian's Wall also seemed very abrupt and wrong.
There must be something wrong!
Tamamo-no-Mae and Mash didn't know what Ian was thinking at this moment. They didn't even understand how Ian knew that the wall in front of them was called Hadrian's Wall.
But—
Since Ian said so, as his girlfriends, they naturally trusted him.
After all, this man's judgment had always been very accurate.
"Master, what should we do now?"
Tamamo-no-Mae looked at the illuminated wall, and her expression looked a little complicated.
"If I'm not mistaken—the real destination should be behind this, right?"
"Hmm," Ian nodded. "You're right."
"Then—"
Tamamo-no-Mae offered her suggestion.
"How about we ask BB?"
"If we just stand here, I don't think we'll get any results."
"You're right." Ian agreed with Tamamo-no-Mae. "Let's ask BB first—she must have a way."
However—
Just as Ian was about to use the communication system that Chaldea had pre-configured (or rather, that BB had designed herself), a gray-black figure suddenly appeared on a distant hill.
Its face was completely unrecognizable, looking as if it had been completely burned by fire.
"Give it back to me—give me back my Rome."
"It's mine alone! It's mine alone!"
The figure's hysterical and arrogant roar spread through the night outside the wall.
In the next moment, countless black shadows emerged from the ground in the night and then began to march step by step toward Hadrian's Wall!