Fate/Alternative Order

Bonus Chapter: Pressure

"..."

"...?"

Dr Roman stares into Emilya's dull hazel eyes, who look back with a tilt of her head in confusion, wondering why he's staring into her for the past 3 minutes.

"Well, doctor? Have you found the cause of her rapid usage, burning her emotions more than necessary? I may have more than plenty enough money to sustain her as long as possible but even material for an artificial homunculus core that is capable of storing memories and data, not to mention, material to rebuild her body ain't cheap. She is an important member of Chaldea, with an impressive amount of magic circuits, even compare to your average homunculus, despite her limited skills in magecraft other than the very advanced projection. She is not someone we can lose willingly, especially how much work she had done for Chaldea" a young man who goes by the name of Marisbury Animusphere asked. The director of Chaldea and the head of the Marisbury family, both rich and handsome, were the ones who won the Holy Grail War and wished for money instead of reaching the Root.

"That is the thing, director. She did a lot of work for us, too much even. Make sure FATE is maintained properly, check on SHEBA for any irregularities, make sure TRISMEGISTUS is working correctly, and train upcoming Master candidates in the Simulator and other extra works that happened to be available at that time. She's the embodiment of overworking and most of the listed duty isn't even hers, to begin with, she was supposed to make sure that TRISMEGISTUS is working properly" Roman sighs in frustration, he knows with the time he had spent with Emilya, that she is the type of person to get her nose into other people's business and even to go as far as doing their work for them. She had mallow out recently compared to her recklessness during her first time at Chaldea, but I guess some habits aren't easy to kill off.

"I see, so it wasn't because I got scammed about the material's quality. Good good, the material not being a scammed products I meant, not her condition. Now that I think about it, I guess I shouldn't have doubted Atlas's equipment when it comes to quality", Marisbury muttered into his hand, thinking deeply into his thought.

"Maybe instead of having her body burn emotions as a fuel, how about, we burn her memories instead, since memory is very easy to gain just by experiencing life-"

"No, for the last time, we won't do that, that's too inhumane", Roman interjected. Which raises Marisbury eyebrow.

"And burning her emotion isn't? Don't forget, you also contributed with the Demi-Servant experiment", Roman has no come back to that statement as he could only open his mouth in silence.

"Perhaps you're right...No, you're right, everything that I had been contributed is inhumane. But this is different, if she keeps losing her memories more than she gains, then she will be a mindless doll, more than she is at the current moment. At least she can act and do the job even without her emotions, though less effectively, it is better than her not being able to do anything at all", Roman reasoned. Standing up for his second ever friend, the first being Marisbury. Marisbury chuckles in amusement.

"I suppose you are correct. Besides, I don't really want the A-Team to hate me more than they already had, especially Hinako. Alright, do what you must. I should wait for the good news. Oh and before I leave, how is the new core doing? I'm not talking about the homunculus core, I'm talking about the core acting as a Psuedo-Holy Grail replacement, you know, the one that actually is keeping her soul from slipping away from her body, her true body?"

"Not too surprisingly, it can barely act as a vessel for her soul to stay in. The Lesser Grail is an abundance of miracles, it can do the impossible possible. The one she had within her is no longer useful due to being damaged, I don't know when it happened but thanks to that, the miracles within it started to wane and disappear over time. But we can thank her sacred relic that she happened to have within her body, Avalon since that itself have some decent amount of miracles. After we gained data on it, we managed to merge her soul through Avalon and sealed it into the artificial core. But at least it gives me a sense of relief that even if the body dies, as long as we have Avalon, we can still retrieve her soul to transfer into another body later", Roman smiles as he leads a clueless Emilya into a pod, similar to Mashu's. Emilya, like an obedient child, follows him without questioning anything.

"You really like her, don't you? Is it because she reminds you of your previous life as well? The one where you had no choice but to abandon your humanity?" Roman stays silent, before turning on the pod, which was slowly filled to the brim with some kind of blue chemical liquid.

"?" Emilya had no difficulty breathing in the pod, in fact, she seems to be very amused by the bubbles that are coming from her mouth.

"She looks amused at her surrounding, that means the chemical is working", Roman smiles in relief, unintentionally ignoring Marisbury's comment.

"Nevermind, I will be off your back now, oh and, tell her this when she regains herself back. No doing other people's job from now on, or else I will be taking a chunk of her paycheck" Marisbury kids, though coming from him, it sounds like he really meant it. But Roman knows him too well that he was in fact, just kidding around. He did mean it though when he said no to doing other people's work.

On that note, he left the room and proceed to go to his office. Emilya, who had been staring at her air bubbles, started to become drowsy, having a hard time staying awake. Dr Roman notices it and smiles gently, placing his hand on the pod.

"It's ok, there's nothing to be worrying about. Just let the tiredness take in and sleep it away, you will be back to perfect health by tomorrow", after gaining some sense of awareness of her emotion, her body relax after hearing his comforting voice and fell into slumber.

"...I really only have the chance to comfort you during this time, since you always comfort me every day when I need it the most. Wish I can comfort you more than just this one specific time", with that in his mind, he went to his desk and check on his supercomputer to make sure nothing goes wrong with the procedure.