The two attracted considerable attention along the way, though most people focused primarily on Amiya walking ahead. Whenever they met someone who was not too busy, they would stop to greet her.
As for Archer…
He attracted attention as well.
Though most of it centered around the twin pistols holstered on his body. After noticing this, Archer removed them.
Being the center of attention made him uncomfortable. If Amiya had not specifically requested otherwise, he definitely would have preferred moving in spirit form.
During their brief conversation earlier, Amiya had specifically requested that Archer stop calling her "Master" and simply call her by name instead.
At first, Amiya had not corrected him simply because she did not understand the meaning. But after asking and learning what "Master" actually implied, she became somewhat embarrassed.
"Where are we going now?"
Looking at the little rabbit hopping ahead of him, Archer could not help but ask.
Along the way, she had introduced quite a few places, but most of them were only briefly mentioned in passing. None of them seemed to be the destination she actually wanted to take him to.
"The first stop after waking up is obviously the cafeteria! Rhodes Island's cafeteria has a really wide variety of dishes! If you want, you can even apply to use the kitchen yourself and cook your own food!"
Amiya had already grown very used to Archer's tone, which easily made people think he was angry. She was no longer intimidated by it at all and continued speaking enthusiastically about their destination.
"The cafeteria, huh? Makes sense."
Hearing that their first stop was the cafeteria, Archer frowned for a moment. But after looking at the small Amiya walking ahead of him, his expression relaxed again.
"I feel like you were thinking about something very rude just now."
Sensing the gaze and emotional shift coming from behind her, Amiya stopped walking and said that.
Archer merely shrugged and had no intention of answering.
Without getting a reply, Amiya slowly narrowed her eyes. After a few seconds, she turned around and continued leading Archer forward as if nothing had happened.
After walking for quite a while, the two finally arrived at the cafeteria.
In truth, the cafeteria was not very far from the office where Archer had stayed that morning. Amiya had simply taken a detour so she could introduce the facilities around Rhodes Island to him while also avoiding the cafeteria's busiest hours.
Inside the cafeteria, Amiya carried her tray around while greeting people she knew, receiving many of her favorite dishes along with a cup of hot milk.
As for Archer, he sat at the seat Amiya had reserved earlier, watching her circle around the cafeteria before finally returning with an overflowing tray and sitting across from him.
"You are not eating?"
After sitting down steadily, Amiya finally noticed that Archer's side of the table was completely empty.
"For a Servant, eating is not necessary."
Leaning back against his chair, Archer answered.
"Not necessary... so that means you still can eat, right?"
Amiya completely failed to realize that he was politely refusing. Or perhaps she did realize it and deliberately chose not to think of it that way.
The Doctor had once told her that if you wanted to build a good relationship with someone, you should communicate with them as much as possible and work on building rapport. As long as they did not directly reject you, there was still room to negotiate.
Clearly, Archer had not directly rejected her.
Perhaps because of the contract between them, Amiya felt that Archer treated her completely differently from how he treated everyone else.
When dealing with her, he usually followed along with her thoughts But when dealing with others...
Well, not very well.
Actually, Archer's attitude toward everyone except her was downright terrible. It was almost as if the words "keep away from strangers" were written directly across his face.
"For me as I am now, the act of eating has absolutely no meaning."
Hearing Amiya's words, Archer did not think too deeply about it.
For Servants, eating was usually just a matter of tasting food.
As for Archer himself, eating was almost completely meaningless.
"But it has meaning for me. Eating alone feels kind of lonely."
Realizing he had not understood what she meant, Amiya decided to say it directly.
"...Fine."
Hearing her words, Archer fell silent for a moment as he thought things over. He looked at the mountain of food in front of her, then at the empty table before him, before finally standing up and leaving his seat.
Archer moved quickly. From the moment he stood up to the moment he returned only a few seconds had passed. Earlier, while Amiya had been running around the cafeteria, he had already roughly memorized what dishes were available.
He was not picky, so he simply chose the nearest station that still had plenty of food remaining, grabbed a boxed meal, and came back.
"Guh—"
The instant Amiya saw what was on the table in front of him, she let out a strange sound that was part shock and part fear.
She was shocked because she never expected someone to pick that dish at this hour.
And she was scared because... she had once had the unfortunate chance to taste it before.
All she could say was that it had left a very deep impression.
"Did you not make an appointment with the HR department?"
After casually taking a few bites from the lunchbox, Archer noticed that Amiya had completely frozen up and had barely touched the food on her own tray.
Not understanding the situation at all, he simply urged her once before continuing to clear out the contents of his meal.
As for what dishes were inside, he did not care.
Even while alive, his attitude toward food had always been that as long as it replenished energy, it was fine. Naturally, after becoming a Servant, he cared even less.
The employer had a request, so he fulfilled it. Simple as that.
"Ah? Oh, right."
Snapping back to reality, Amiya quickly turned her attention back to her own food and began eating breakfast.
Right now, Amiya cherished the freedom to eat whatever she wanted while she still could. If she remembered correctly, Doctor Kal'tsit had already started planning her future diet.
Strictly speaking, her meals were already being managed. It was just going to become much stricter later on.
Ignoring everyone else's gazes, the two quickly finished their respective meals, cleaned up after themselves, and left the cafeteria, leaving behind a crowd of operators staring at them as if they had just witnessed true warriors.
"What a hassle."
Following behind Amiya, Archer let out a quiet sigh.
His voice was so low that only he himself could hear it.
Accompanying a child around while sightseeing was an enormous waste of time and energy. But she was his Master, and becoming familiar with the surroundings was necessary, so he continued following her around.
After all, he had already more or less figured out the situation here over the course of the night. At this point, indulging a child's antics for a while did not really matter anymore.
"It should still be in time. I will take you to the HR Department to register later, Archer. After that, you will be free to access most of Rhodes Island's facilities."
Taking out her terminal to check the time, Amiya slowed her pace slightly and began explaining the purpose of the HR Department to Archer.
Access to most facilities within Rhodes Island required verification. Usually, after registering with the HR Department, a person would receive an identification pass that allowed entry into most areas.
As for some of the stricter facilities, higher-level permissions were required. The permissions Kal'tsit had arranged for Archer happened to be of that level, roughly equivalent to those of an elite operator.
With those permissions, aside from the truly confidential sections of Rhodes Island, he would basically be able to move around without restriction.
"So they are quite strict about this."
After learning the purpose behind it, Archer regained a little of his patience.
At the same time, his opinion of Rhodes Island as an organization changed slightly.
Only slightly.
Along the way, some people looked at Amiya with hostility. A few even seemed restless, though most of them hid it very well. Without careful observation, the problem would not have been noticeable.
But for him, those hostile gazes were all too familiar.
They were the eyes of people who wanted to kill.
And the target, naturally, was the Amiya walking in front of him.
Worth mentioning was that most of those people were Sarkaz. Combined with the fact that Rhodes Island had been surrounded by Sarkaz when he was summoned, it was likely that they belonged to the same group.
The reason they had not acted was probably because they were wary of the guards hidden nearby protecting Amiya.
Or perhaps they feared him.
Archer did not know which it was, nor did he need to know. As long as they did not make a move, he would treat them as though they did not exist.
As for how Kal'tsit would handle things after learning about it, that was none of his concern.
He was not some overly kind fool who felt the need to interfere in everything. As long as things did not get in his path, he would pretend not to notice.
Of course, if eliminating those Sarkaz could complete a mission, then he would gladly lend a hand.
"Of course!"
Unlike Archer, who was occupied with all sorts of thoughts, Amiya had far fewer worries. Upon hearing him praise Rhodes Island, her rabbit ears immediately began swaying from side to side.
"..."
Seeing her like that, Archer thought for a while but ultimately decided not to tell her about the suspected infiltrators.
The two quickly arrived at the HR Department.
The place was somewhat chaotic. Large stacks of documents could be seen piled across the desks, and the staff inside were all diligently handling their work.
One operator wearing an operator jacket noticed Amiya entering, set down the documents in her hands, and greeted her.
"You are here? Right on time too. I assume the gentleman behind you is the one here to register personnel records today? Please follow me to the next room so we can complete the registration."
After greeting them, the operator immediately got to the point. She led Amiya and Archer into a separate small room, then handed Archer a terminal to fill out some basic information.
"..."
Archer accepted the terminal and began filling in the details.
During this time, Amiya, seated nearby, took over part of the HR operator's work and explained which information should be entered into some of the more detailed sections.
It was useless for Archer, however, because aside from the most basic information, he had no intention of filling out anything else.
That left Amiya, who had hoped to learn more about Archer through his records, slightly disappointed.
Only slightly.
After the HR operator took back the terminal, she pointed at one of the sections on the screen and spoke.
"Um... excuse me, Mr. Archer. The codename 'Archer' has already been registered. Would it be possible for you to choose another one? You could also register under your real name."
Rhodes Island already had quite a number of operators, so duplicate codenames were not uncommon. Most people would simply feel a little regret before thinking of a new codename or registering under their real name instead.
Originally, it was only a minor issue.
But when the HR operator saw Archer frown, and his already intimidating face grow even fiercer, she realized things had become serious.
"Archer? Are you alright?"
Noticing something was wrong, Amiya quietly used her still immature emotional sensing Arts to check Archer's condition.
At first, she assumed the codename was extremely important to him, and that he frowned because he could not register it.
But after sensing his emotions, she realized something was off.
In her perception, Archer's emotions were incredibly calm.
Yet beneath that calmness churned something murky enough to send chills down her spine.
At this point, her mastery over her abilities was still shallow. The only reason she noticed something unusual was because her control over her Originium Arts remained unstable.
And precisely because it was unstable, she could not see very much.
"It is nothing. I just could not remember my name."
Noticing the change in the HR operator's expression and Amiya's concern beside him, Archer quickly returned to his usual expressionless poker face.
However, unlike his indifferent attitude, what he said was rather shocking.
"You could not remember it? Wait, you can actually forget your own name?"
After hearing Archer's words, the HR operator forgot her fear entirely and blurted out her response.
Only after speaking did she realize she might have said something inappropriate, and she hurriedly covered her mouth.
"It is just a form of address anyway. It is not something important."
Archer paid no attention to her remark. He simply leaned back into his chair.
His completely unconcerned attitude left both Amiya and the HR operator exchanging glances, unsure what to say.
"Ahem... anyway, Archer, do you have any other codename or name that you would prefer?"
After thinking for a moment, Amiya decided not to continue the topic.
But after speaking, she vaguely recalled the dream she had this morning.
The dream had been fragmented, with chaotic scenes flashing one after another. Combined with the many nightmares she had been having recently, the impression it left on her was not particularly deep.
Yet when she asked whether Archer had another preferred codename or name, a certain scene from that dream suddenly surfaced in her mind.
In it, a male voice had been muttering to itself.
"──Looks like I really have become a nameless Heroic Spirit now."
Although it was only one of her dreams, for some reason Amiya felt that those words had truly been spoken by Archer himself.
Unfortunately, aside from that single sentence, Amiya could no longer remember the dreams she had that day. She could not even recall the voice or tone of the person speaking.
"No. Otherwise, you can just call me Servant."
Archer clearly did not want to linger on the subject.
He did not care how others addressed him, but whenever this topic came up, fragments of familiar yet strangely distant images would involuntarily surface in his mind.
As soon as those images appeared, they would vanish without a trace, as though they had never existed at all. The sensation gave him a headache.
"No one has registered that one before. Are you sure?"
After hearing Archer's suggestion, the operator searched through the database before responding. However, she still sounded uncertain about whether he truly wanted to use that as a codename.
Just as Archer nodded and she was about to register it, Amiya suddenly came back to her senses and stood up.
"How about using 'Nameless' as your codename instead?"
"Hm? That one... works."
After hearing Amiya's suggestion, the operator searched again and confirmed that the name had not been registered either.
"..."
As for Archer, the moment the words "Nameless" were spoken, he immediately realized that Amiya had dreamed about his past.
After all, their relationship was that of Master and Servant. They were connected through the Command Spell contract, and their minds were linked as well. Because of that, either side could potentially glimpse the other's memories and past.
It was simply progressing much faster than Archer had expected.
After all, it meant that Amiya trusted him, her Servant, very deeply. That was why she had dreamed of those things.
"That is fine. Let us use that one."
Since his employer had shown him such goodwill, rejecting it any further would have been pointless.
And so, Archer or rather, Nameless officially registered his codename within Rhodes Island.