"I understand the situation," Daniel raised an eyebrow as he watched Mordred describe Morgan's abnormality with a dead-serious face. "Although Morgan's behavior does seem somewhat inconsistent with her usual personality, from a general rational perspective, this change of hers does have some traceable logic."
"Traceable logic?" Mordred tilted her head in confusion.
"Because those children are all good kids," Daniel shrugged in reply. "Surrounded by so many strong, gentle, and kind children, even Morgan, who was once a wicked woman, being softened a little isn't impossible."
"See, even when you talk to those children, your tone unconsciously becomes much gentler, doesn't it?" Daniel reminded her.
"Well, you're not wrong about that," Mordred scratched her head. "But it still feels really annoying."
Daniel thought Mordred was jealous.
He just didn't know if she was jealous of the children or jealous of her mother.
"Forget it, I'll go pick up more children," Mordred gave up complaining. "You just focus on tilling the land here."
"Even though the ones actually doing the work are mostly the homunculi."
Not long after Mordred left, the subject of their conversation suddenly appeared.
"Morgan? What brings you here?" Daniel asked, surprised to see Morgan, who had teleported beside him using magecraft.
"I came to make a suggestion," Morgan replied. "A single RV can only carry about a dozen children at most before reaching its limit."
"So, I suggest you send out everyone who can drive to pick up the children. After all, vehicles are everywhere on the streets."
"The sooner we bring them back, the sooner more children can receive aid and protection," a shadow of gloom flickered in Morgan's eyes. "From talking with the newly arrived children, I've seen clearly just how hopeless the humans of this world are."
"So, I believe that even as we speak, countless children are suffering torment, facing death, and threatened by the erosion of the gastrula virus."
"Even if you say that, we're surprisingly short-handed here," Daniel shrugged as a reminder. "After all, only the homunculi can help with tilling the land."
"If that's the only issue, I can summon some familiars. They may not be as good as the homunculi at tilling, but if it's just about enhancing soil fertility and making the land more suitable for crops, they can manage that," Morgan replied.
"Hmm, alright then," Daniel nodded in agreement. "Then I'll leave the specific dispatch of the homunculi to you, Morgan."
"After all, the one you sent over now is just a magecraft-created duplicate, right?"
"Ara, you noticed?" A mysterious smile played on Morgan's lips.
With a wave of her hands, all the homunculi disappeared from the field, replaced by some worm-like, elongated creatures.
By the time Daniel looked back, Morgan had already vanished.
"...Fine, I'll head back to the palace," Daniel muttered, watching the worms start working on their own, and decided to leave.
Watching homunculi till the land was one thing, but watching worms churn the soil was something he really couldn't stomach.
Entering the palace's main hall, Daniel immediately saw Kriemhild, Sanzang, and Gray leading ten homunculi in organizing books on various subjects.
Rikudou Reika, meanwhile, was in the kitchen with a few homunculi skilled in cooking, preparing various pastries and meals.
Of course, Rikudou Reika was there to learn.
Jeanne was still tirelessly weaving the shroud of turin.
Over this period, she had woven enough shroud of turin bandages to fully arm hundreds of children.
In the Throne Room at the very top, Artoria was driving her abilities to the limit, continuing to expand Camelot and ensuring all buildings within the city were perfect.
Back in the Sixth Singularity, without a Holy Grail, it took her considerable time. But this time, with the greater grail's magical energy support, recreating a city of that scale would save a lot of time.
However, if she wanted to build Camelot into a city large enough to accommodate millions, it would take far more time than she spent in the Sixth Singularity.
Fortunately, she only needed to focus on city construction now. As for expanding various defensive barriers, Morgan would handle that.
If buildings were insufficient, the children could squeeze in, but life-saving items like the shroud of turin couldn't be short. So, Artoria consciously estimated, while expanding Camelot, how much the greater grail's magical energy could assist her after accounting for the energy used for the shroud of turin.
If it wasn't enough, she would have to ask Daniel to lie in bed for a while.
She would extract the magical energy from his Magic Circuits as a backup power source, without draining him dry.
Meanwhile, on another side, Albedo and Shalltear were drawing maps of Camelot together.
And hastily drafting sewer blueprints reported by Shalltear's subordinates.
Looking at it this way, Daniel suddenly felt like he was the idlest person in the entire city.
"If you feel too idle, why not find something to do?" When Atalanta heard Daniel's reason for coming, a troubled look appeared on her face.
She was here observing the surroundings of Camelot to prevent attacks by humans or Gastrea and really had no interest in listening to Daniel complain about being too idle.
"Can't be helped," Daniel sighed. "I can't drive, so I can't go out as a driver; I can't cook or make pastries, so I can't go to the kitchen; I don't know farming—it was okay with the homunculi, at least I could offer some advice, but now it's worms, so if I go, I'd just be spacing out."
"As for helping Sanzang and Kriemhild organize books... honestly, my Japanese isn't great, I can't really read those books," Daniel added with an awkward twitch of his lips.
"...Unbelievable. How on earth did you become the leader of this team?" Atalanta looked at Daniel in astonishment. "I feel like even Jason is more useful than you."
That really stung!
But it couldn't be helped. After all, Daniel had no prior social experience.
Although he occasionally had ingenious ideas, those ideas were of no use in city-building.
"Ah, right, speaking of which, in a room underground at a certain university-affiliated hospital in the Tokyo Area, lives one of the smartest people in this world," Daniel suddenly remembered the one area where he was useful: his knowledge of this world's information. "Her name... something like Shidou?"
"She's an expert on Gastrea research."
Daniel clapped his hands.
"If we kidnap her to assist Morgan, do you think there's a chance they could develop a cure to eliminate the gastrula virus from the children's bodies?"
"...Then what are you waiting for here? Go back and rack your brains right now!" Atalanta's eyes widened as she glared fiercely at Daniel. "Even if you forget your own name, you must recall the name of the hospital where that Shidou-something person is and her full name!"
The shroud of turin could only suppress the spread of the gastrula virus in the children's bodies, not eradicate it.
But if they kidnapped an expert with deep knowledge of Gastrea now and paired her with Morgan's extraordinary magecraft research and creation abilities, eradicating the threat of the gastrula virus didn't seem impossible!
Whether the expert agreed or not was not within Daniel and Atalanta's considerations.
Because Morgan's hypnotic magecraft would make her come willingly.
"Morgan!" Daniel looked at Atalanta. "Get Morgan here! She's peered into my memories; she should know that person's full name and where she is!"
Atalanta didn't say a word; she immediately drew her bow and loosed an arrow in the direction of Morgan.
Three seconds later, Morgan appeared before Daniel and Atalanta.
"What are you doing? Don't you know I'm in the middle of telling the children a story?" Morgan glared at Daniel and Atalanta, complaining, "And another thing, don't shoot arrows in front of the children; you'll scare them!"
"Morgan, hurry up and use your invincible magic. Try to recall the full name and hideout of that person in the Tokyo Area—what was it, Muroto something?—that you read from Daniel's memories!" Atalanta urged.
"Muroto? Ah, you mean Muroto Sumire!" Morgan looked at Daniel. "Bringing up her name at a time like this... are you trying to borrow that woman's intellect? Regarding Gastrea?"
"No, regarding the gastrula virus!" Daniel replied. "She should have conducted research on the gastrula virus. If we use her data combined with your magecraft, do you think you'd have a chance to create a spell that could completely purge the gastrula virus from the children's bodies?"
"I can't guarantee anything, but I can give it a try." Morgan nodded in agreement, then pointed at Daniel and instructed, "In that case, go keep the children company so they don't feel lonely. I'll head to the Tokyo Area right now and kidnap Muroto Sumire to bring her here for our research."
"Oh, and Atalanta, go notify the Purification Knights. Tell them not to dispose of all the Gastrea corpses yet. Leave some of the higher-level Gastrea corpses behind; we might need them later."
"Huh? What could we possibly use those things' corpses for?" Atalanta asked with a look of disgust.
"Dissection and research," Daniel reminded her from the side. "We might be able to collect some new data from those bodies."
"So Morgan, when you kidnap Muroto Sumire, don't forget to bring along a batch of equipment. Oh, right, we also need to solve a series of issues regarding the city power grid and connecting to this world's network." Daniel scratched his hair. "I suddenly realized I might not have any time to slack off from here on out!"
"Hmm—in that case, the entire process might require quite a few talented individuals in various fields." A look of annoyance appeared on Morgan's face. "I'll try my best to hypnotize some talent who don't have a good attitude toward the children. Once they've been used for all they're worth, we can just throw them out and bury them."
"I agree." Atalanta nodded in approval.
Daniel didn't join the conversation; he had already turned and headed down, preparing to go see the children and get familiar with them.
---
"So, is Big Brother the leader of this city?"
After confirming that Daniel, just like Mordred and Morgan, not only held no malice toward them but actually treated them with kindness, the little girls immediately let down their guard and happily crowded around Daniel, chattering away with endless questions.
"No," Daniel shook his head and replied. "I'm just the leader of a team. As for the leader of this city, she is currently on the top floor of that palace, working hard to expand this city so it can accept more children just like you."
"That's amazing!" The children gathered together and laughed non-stop.
"Why?" A child who looked about six years old tilted her head and looked up at Daniel, looking puzzled. "Big Brother, why are you and the big sisters so nice to us?"
"Yeah, even though we're 'Cursed Children'." After hearing that child's question, the other children instantly became dejected.
"Children," Daniel crouched down, trying to keep his gaze level with theirs. "You are not 'Cursed Children,' but 'Hurt Children'."
"The gastrula virus hurts you, and those scumbags who are so incompetent that they can only vent their anger on innocent children like you are also hurting you."
"Are we really not at fault?" Someone looked up at Daniel after hearing this. "If we're not at fault, then why did Mom abandon me? And why are those adults so cruel to us?"
"Just as I said before, it's because they are incompetent, and they are scumbags."
"They don't have the courage to take revenge against the Gastrea that took away their families, friends, and everything they once had in their lives, so they can only turn to inflict violence on you innocent children, who aren't even ten years old, and show their ugly side."
"Even now, the reason they can still live in safe areas is because they rely on those giant walls and on the fighting of children like you against the Gastrea."
"Those people are already rotten beyond saving."
"You have the right to live under the sun and run anywhere you want to go."
"No one has the right to inflict violence upon you."
Daniel said all of this in a long string of words, just to avoid another question: 'Why did Mom abandon me?' This question was one Daniel truly had no way to answer. And this wound was likely a shared psychological trauma for all the children. They could ignore people who had nothing to do with them who hated and despised them, or even jump up and slap them. But the reason their mothers—who gave birth to them only to abandon them—left them was likely a topic all the children wanted to know but were too afraid to find out.
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