Chapter 57: Zero (5)

Servant and Master are connected by magical energy.

This connection does not merely serve as a mana conduit to keep the Servant materialized.

They can confirm each other's location and know their condition.

This morning. Right after waking up, I learned one more fact.

The Master can see the Servant's memories from their lifetime.

“...That was a strange dream.”

My Caster seems to have been a truly magnificent hero.

In the hazy scenes of the dream, she was fighting against a great evil.

The way she responded to the evil flooding into the town with large-scale magecraft was nothing short of what modern magi would aspire to.

In the end, she was victorious. There was not a single casualty.

However, the reason I judged it to be a strange dream was,

none other than the fact that no one thanked her.

Despite being saved from the threat of an irresistible evil, not a single person was left to say thank you.

To make matters worse, she herself left the town nonchalantly, as if it were a very familiar occurrence.

A savior who helps those who do not thank her.

What a terrible sight that was.

I had many questions about Caster's life, but after seeing something like that, my curiosity wasn't strong enough to make me ask.

I should be considerate.

“I shouldn't ask about her life.”

Wiping away the sweat, I got out of bed.

As I opened the door and stepped out, I saw Caster right away.

She had taken off her armor and was walking around the house wearing only a thin windbreaker.

The house, of course, is the hospital.

My hospital is a three-story building, and I use the top floor as my home.

The second floor has the operating room and patient rooms.

The first floor has the reception and consultation room.

It's a large hospital for one person to manage, but what can you do?

If there are no patients, there are no nurses.

The second floor is just gathering dust.

“You're awake?”

As soon as Caster saw me, she greeted me cheerfully.

When I waved back, she trotted over to me.

I must be a mess, having just woken up, but she didn't seem to mind and grabbed my arm.

“What are you up to?”

“I tried to cook, but even with the knowledge from the Holy Grail, I'm not used to modern equipment. I was waiting for you to wake up.”

Servants cook, too? Considering the meaning of the word, perhaps it's not so strange.

But Caster has the important job of reinforcing the workshop.

She can't waste time.

“What? I finished reinforcing the workshop before you went to sleep, Master.”

“...You finished in two hours?”

“I just touched up the barrier you had prepared a little. The defense is perfect, so please don't misunderstand.”

I sent my magical energy flowing into the wall. I checked the barrier that had been placed around the entire hospital.

I was once again in awe.

I had only lightly cast a barrier spell on the steel rebar.

Contrary to her claim of just "touching it up," Caster had gone a step further and cast spells on every part of the hospital, including the glass windows and the concrete.

Even in the small, hand-sized space I was touching now, a magic circle with a density far greater than my own Magic Circuits was embedded.

Seriously, its defensive power was in no way inferior to that of the Holy Church's headquarters.

In a hospital in the Far East that no one ever visits.

“It would be safe even if a nuclear bomb fell, wouldn't it?”

“I made it so it would be fine even if a hundred were fired. As long as the ley lines aren't depleted, it should be able to withstand for thousands of years. How is it?”

“Amazing. It's so perfect I'm at a loss for words.”

I lost my confidence. My confidence in dying.

This Holy Grail War. It is our survival...!

“This Holy Grail War. It is our victory.”

Tohsaka Tokiomi said, looking at the summoned Servant.

What he saw was brilliant golden hair.

Captivating crimson eyes that seemed to see through everything.

Shining golden armor.

She did not even stand. She answered the summons while seated on a throne.

A posture far too arrogant for a Servant.

But Tokiomi knew who she was.

He revered the arrogance that only she could display.

“A humble magus has been given the opportunity to have an audience with the King of Kings. This is an honor for my family.”

“………You do not have black hair. Who are you?”

“My name is Tohsaka Tokiomi, Your Majesty.”

Tokiomi's mind raced.

Gilgamesh.

The hero of the first epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh; the King of Heroes, the one and only king. The owner of all creation.

The holder of so many titles it would be tiresome to list them all.

And most importantly, the strongest Servant.

Without offending her, he would cater to her ego as much as possible and win the Holy Grail War.

Victory was assured. All that remained was to guide her heart towards victory.

Having finished his thoughts, Tokiomi carefully began to speak.

“I am….”

“Silence. No further speech is permitted.”

But Gilgamesh cut him off without even a glance.

This was still within his range of expectations.

Tokiomi was not flustered.

Be elegant. He recalled his creed.

This was not a typical Servant-Master relationship.

It was the relationship between a vassal and a king. Tokiomi reminded himself of this fact.

“My apologies.”

“Hmph. You are not a fool, I see.”

He quietly bowed his head and awaited the next royal command.

Unlike the composed Tokiomi, Gilgamesh's insides were in turmoil.

Less turmoil, and more filled with irritation.

What in the world is this Caster aptitude to get in the way of a king?

Gilgamesh recalled the events of a short while ago.

Observing the world with her Clairvoyance from the Throne of Heroes, she had observed a world where a Holy Grail War was taking place.

Holy Grail Wars were as common as a hundred of them happening at once, but this world was special.

Because he was there.

Because the Beast, of which only one exists per world, was present, Gilgamesh took great interest in that world.

She was not the only one.

All those who could see were watching him.

Some with love. Some for a dopamine party. Some out of boredom.

Gilgamesh pretended not to, but she wanted to see him once more.

Because her older self had succeeded in winning his favor, but she had not yet.

Of course, she would rather die than speak her true feelings of wanting to be forgiven.

On the surface, it was 'I will give you a chance to return to me'.

But to give him a chance, she had to be chosen by him one way or another.

She had to meet him to start over.

Therefore, from the moment he obtained the Command Spells, the mark of a Master,

a fierce battle of wits had broken out on the Throne of Heroes.

Who would be chosen?

The Servant summoned in a Holy Grail War, as long as there is no medium, is the Heroic Spirit with the best compatibility.

Compatibility? Of course I'm confident in our compatibility.

All the Heroic Spirits aiming for him nodded in agreement.

Even those who were aiming for him with the sole intention of causing chaos were confident in their compatibility.

One only needs to win the Beast's favor once. Since the hurdle only needed to be cleared once, the best and brightest Heroic Spirits were overflowing with confidence.

-Shall I aim for Caster?

But when the limitation of the Caster class was set, many Heroic Spirits despaired.

Of all the many classes, why did it have to be Caster!

In the case of martial arts, it is difficult to determine superiority.

Between a master of the spear and a master of the sword, who is stronger? If they fight with spears, the spearman is stronger; if they fight with swords, the swordsman is stronger.

Then what about a martial artist? An assassin?

What if they fight on mud? What if they fight on a clear afternoon? What if they fight in a forest?

No one knows who would win. No one can say for sure.

A fight is decided in the brief instant of 0.001 seconds, amidst countless what-ifs.

It was a self-evident fact that the best Servant would be able to claim his side.

In the case of martial types, as long as they had at least one thing to boast about, they could put themselves forward as a candidate.

But in the case of magecraft, it is different.

Magecraft may have a wide range of schools, but in the end, the one who is smarter and has more magical energy is the stronger one.

In other words, magecraft is a competition to determine the number one in the entire world.

The closer one is to the Age of Gods, the higher one's fame, the more one has contributed to the development of magecraft, the more outstanding a magus one is.

Only then can one be selected as a Caster.

In the frantic competition of the top scholars, magi closer to the modern era couldn't even get their foot in the door.

'I'm a Pope, you know….'

was the reality for a certain woman who claimed so, unable to even take the test for the Caster class.

But while there were Heroic Spirits who couldn't even submit an application, there were others who were being begged by every university to please enroll.

For example, the fox yokai here.

She was already confident of her victory.

“As I thought, Father must want me, mustn't he? To want a Caster while pretending not to. Isn't it already decided? I'm already looking forward to our cozy newlywed life~. Fufu!”

Tamamo-no-Mae, one of the Three Great Evil Yokai of Japan. A nine-tailed fox and an aspect of the sun goddess Amaterasu.

As the number one in Japan, she could confidently submit her application.

“If Father wishes it, I will follow him anywhere~!”

The other Heroic Spirits also believed she would be summoned.

There was their connection, and she would also receive a fame boost from the location.

Who could doubt Tamamo-no-Mae, the very model of the Caster class?

Well, there was one.

“You speak foolishness. For a Beast, living in isolation is the ideal state. Know when to step forward.”

“Oh my. If it isn't the unpleasant king? I'm not quite sure who it is that doesn't know when to step forward.”

Gilgamesh confidently submitted her application.