They didn't waste much time at Roman's place instead, they maintained a perfunctory attitude of "whatever you say" and headed to Chaldea's control room. The scene here was a bit different from what Aoko remembered, but as the core that allowed Chaldea's establishment, the miniature Earth environment model—Chaldeas—had already begun official operations.
On the surface, Marisbury claimed this device was simply a Mystic Code to observe the future of Earth, but in reality, it was a genuine foreign star. In a certain worldline, it would ultimately become the planet that replaced the current Earth. For Marisbury, it was a crucial proof of his path to the Root.
However, Aoko wasn't worried about Marisbury successfully steering the future in that direction. Not only had his magic circuits failed, but with Solomon—who hadn't completely abandoned his full powers—still in Chaldea, it would be almost impossible for Marisbiury to complete his alien star project.
In Aoko's view, all of Marisbury's efforts were nothing but a dying clown's struggle. As a major shareholder of Chaldea, she was more than happy to watch this schemer fail in the end—and she would take the opportunity to extract all remaining value Chaldea could provide her.
While Aoko was indulging in these villainous, double-dealing thoughts, a figure caught her attention: a sensual, black-haired Caucasian woman dressed in gorgeous Renaissance-era red-and-blue attire. However, the craftsmanship and materials far surpassed the standards of that era, and she leaned on an extravagantly large staff.
"This is Chaldea's technical advisor,…" Kirschtaria seemed about to introduce the woman to Aoko but found himself at a loss for words.
"Is this the person you mentioned in your reports before, the first successful case of Chaldea's Servant Summoning System?" Aoko sized up the woman, comparing her to the image in her memory.
"…Yes, that's right," Marisbury said. "She is the one lauded as a universal genius in history, a representative figure of the Italian Renaissance, and a significant contributor to Chaldea's creation and operation—Leonardo da Vinci."
Upon hearing this, Da Vinci performed a particularly self-satisfied lady's bow, adjusted her glasses, and displayed the smile from that famous painting.
"So this is the genius herself?" Artoria exclaimed in surprise. "I never imagined that the real Da Vinci would be a woman… This is truly astonishing."
"I think the feeling is mutual, Your Majesty," Da Vinci replied confidently. "Who would have thought that the famed and eternal King of Knights, Her Majesty, would also be such a beautiful and imposing woman?"
Aoko glanced at Kirschtaria, who had half-raised his hand and was at a loss for words and found it all rather amusing. The Chaldea crew was just too entertaining… As long as the future events weren't too grim, she'd be very interested in teasing these fun people.
"Mona Lisa's smile is indeed a great work," Aoko said with a grin. "No matter what era's perspective you use, her smile is always lifelike."
Aoko's pointed remark didn't embarrass Da Vinci at all; instead, she proudly straightened her chest, displaying her body's beauty without a care for others' gazes.
"I've long wanted to meet you, the Fourth Magician of this age," Da Vinci said warmly to Aoko. "I've heard that, besides inheriting the Fifth Magic, your accomplishments in magecraft are astonishing, and your beautiful, unique body truly fascinates me…"
Aoko had expected such remarks from Da Vinci, so she responded with an awkward but polite smile, but Da Vinci didn't seem to notice.
"I believe Da Vinci's original gender wasn't female," Aoko answered Artoria's earlier question. "I mentioned the Mona Lisa just now because the lady before us is Mona Lisa herself, Artoria."
With that, Aoko snapped her fingers. An illusionary image appeared in midair, displaying Da Vinci's most famous painting in history, and she made sure to position it near Da Vinci herself for comparison.
As for Da Vinci… even being exposed didn't embarrass her; instead, she struck the same pose as the Mona Lisa in the painting to make it easier for others to recognize her.
"So, does that mean the 'Da Vinci' before our eyes isn't…" As a Servant with a physical body, Artoria knew some Servants impersonated others, so her suspicion was reasonable.
"No, I am Da Vinci herself," Da Vinci said confidently. "It's just that, upon being summoned into this world, I chose to create the most perfect and beautiful body in my mind—my own 'Mona Lisa'. There's nothing shameful about it."
"This body is even more perfect than the real Mona Lisa," Aoko praised as she admired Da Vinci's masterpiece. "You must have plenty to talk about with Touko."
"You mean Miss Touko Aozaki, the Third Magician?" Da Vinci replied. "Two sisters both becoming Magicians is already remarkable. To think that the Third Magician has such mastery in human art makes me truly admire her."
"If Touko heard you say that, she'd be quite happy," Aoko said. "She's spent a lot of time and money on sculpture, architecture, and ergonomics."
"Then Miss Touko will surely become a heroic spirit remembered throughout history…" Da Vinci said admiringly.
"No, you're mistaken, Lady Da Vinci," Aoko explained seriously. "Magicians generally can't become Heroic Spirits, and for Touko, it's completely impossible."
"…Ah, my apologies," Da Vinci said after thinking. "Is it because, as the Third Magician, Miss Touko can't die?"
"The two of us sisters aren't very popular with Alaya," Aoko shrugged. "So since the Throne of Heroes is under Alaya's jurisdiction, I don't think either of us will enter it. The Counter Force even tried to kick us out of this world before."
"…That's quite surprising," Da Vinci said, blinking. "After all this talk, let's get to today's main topic."
---Divider---
"That's the situation," Da Vinci said, adjusting her glasses. "Before you arrived at Chaldea, we'd already done a trial run of the spiritron transfer. But in that experiment, we didn't plan to fully transfer the test subject."
"…So, did some unsolvable accident occur during that experiment?" Aoko glanced meaningfully at Marisbury, who still feigned ignorance.
"Mm… We originally just wanted to decompose the test subject into spiritrons and transfer them to the current time point," Da Vinci explained, "But unfortunately, an accident happened—the participant disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Aoko asked.
"Yes, disappeared," Da Vinci continued. "We immediately began searching but ultimately determined that the test subject had indeed been accidentally spiritron-transferred. The locator Mystic Code he carried was observed by the Sheba Scope traveling to 7th-century Britain—the era of King Arthur's activity."
"I see," Aoko nodded. "But didn't you try to contact that unlucky guy? I remember Chaldea has the tech for that."
"We did contact him," Kirschtaria suddenly spoke up. "The communication was successful, which is how we were able to pinpoint the test subject's era and location, but…"
"But from our observations, the test subject's communication Mystic Code was not on his person," Da Vinci continued. "Or in other words, we could only detect the Mystic Code, not the person himself. All we contacted was the communication device."