Type-Moon: Root Seiko

"That was my punishment."

Standing atop the cross, Kyoko hugged herself, her voice trembling.

She felt genuine fear; her self-esteem was shattered.

A cold wind howled high above, blowing her dress and skirt.

But this stimulation made her feel very at ease, and she regained the sense that she "still actually exists".

This made her feel even more ashamed as she regained her senses, and she choked back tears.

“That great man found me,” she said. “The great man wearing a mask, the shadow of the Primordial Old Man. His compatriots in later generations did not even know which generation of Hassan he was. The records are ambiguous, and some even believe that he did not exist at all.”

"But the moment I actually saw him, I knew. He was a great man who had given everything, truly deserving of the title, and willingly became the shadow of the Primordial Elder."

Kyoko almost went mad after experiencing that silence that isolated her from everything in the world for only a few minutes.

This is completely different from the tedium of asceticism.

Stripped of their very foundation as human beings, with nowhere to go and nowhere to return, they can only become shadows of the world…

(Only those who reach this level are qualified to be called Hassan)

Kyoko understood this immediately and felt even more disgusted with her past naiveté.

"What did he say?" Luo Zhen asked calmly.

He continued to look up at Kyoko.

The girl's trembling gradually subsided.

“He asked, ‘Why did you go up the mountain?’” Kyoko sighed silently. “He said, ‘You are different from us,’ and ‘You are a walker, not a climber.’”

"Keep your words simple." Luo Zhen's calmness was tinged with disappointment.

With reddened eyes, Kyoko glared at Ryouma.

But that momentum lasted for less than a second.

She fell freely, tilting backward as she plummeted from the tip of the cross at the top of the church.

Just as she was about to crash onto the roof, she deftly flipped over and landed gracefully on her toes without a sound.

This basic skill was purely muscle memory; Kyoko completely ignored Luo Zhen's cheers and applause.

She stood next to Luo Zhen, her shoulders hunched:

"The meaning of 'mountain' in our faith can only be one."

"It is the path pointed out by the Primordial Old Man, Hassan-Sabah himself."

"That shadowy figure questioned my pursuit of the Dao, pointed out my shortcomings, and denied my blind faith. Then he said, 'The Primordial Elder refuses your entry into the secluded valley.'"

"The meaning is very clear: I have been truly stripped of the possibility of becoming Hassan, and it was personally pointed out by the First Lord... That Lord was so disappointed in me that he even sent his own shadow to reprimand me... What a grave sin I have committed! For someone as self-righteous as me, the First Lord wasted so much of his time...!"

“The first Hassan was the Old Man of the Mountain himself, wasn’t he?” Luo Zhen remained calm as always.

He ignored Kyoko's self-pity; once this girl got stuck on something, she couldn't stop.

He was just analyzing.

The Assassin class is very special.

The Holy Grail War is confined to the sect of Hassan-Sabbah, the etymological group of the word "Assassin".

Other world-renowned assassins and killers, whether it be Jack the Ripper or the poison queen Semiramis, are usually unsummonable.

Above ordinary Heroic Spirits, the "Grand Rank" is used to protect humanity and fight against the great crisis threatening primates. Among them, the "Grand Assassin" is of course Hassan.

He was the first generation, the founding elder of the Mountain Elder Sect.

Although Luo Zhen had never met him, he remembered his existence in the Root, which shows how influential he was in the chaotic history of humankind.

As for Kyonobu, he is now being rejected by the shadow sent by him out of disappointment and frustration.

"Xiao Kuang, tell me more." Luo Zhen quickly asked a few more questions.

"The First Shadow you mentioned, you said, 'The Primordial Ancestor should have come as a Grand Master to eliminate the threat of the Beasts,' right?"

"……Um."

"And now he hasn't come, but only sent a shadow to lecture you?"

"Another inch."

"That shadow doesn't have a Master or anything, so it's a Servant summoned independently?"

"Yes."

"And after he lectured you, he even let you stab him? His Spirit Origin went back to the Greater Grail?"

"...You're so annoying."

Xiao Kuang was bullied by Luo Zhen to the point of tears, a large tear of grievance falling from the corner of her eye.

Her voice was muffled, as if she were breathing heavily like a child:

"I already told you, that's how it is... The First Generation Lord and the Shadow Lord are utterly disappointed in me, and because of that, they refuse to come and save the world... It's all my fault, I'm just too incompetent!!"

Luo Zhen suddenly hugged this self-pitying little fool and made her jump around excitedly!

Overjoyed, Luo Zhen even activated his Command Spell Wings and flew through the air for a while, causing the orange on the ground to breathe heavily on him.

After landing back on the church roof, Luo Zhen, still bewildered, leaned on Xiao Kuang:

"You're amazing, Xiao Kuang! I love you to death, you're my lucky charm!"

"what?"

Xiao Kuang looked bewildered; his neatly tied double braids had become rough and frizzy from his hugging.

Luo Zhen's eyes flashed with a sharp light: "How could a Grand Servant abandon their responsibility? Especially the most diligent assassin, that old man in the mountains would never leave a crisis of humanity unattended."

"The fact that he only sent a shadow to preach shows that he believed 'that's enough.'"

"You don't actually think that your family's first Hassan was the kind of person who would just abandon the world that should be saved because he saw that one of his disciples was too incompetent, do you? That would be too absurd. He's not some golden king."

"...It seems that's really true?" Xiao Kuang blinked.

This girl is too stubborn and inflexible, so she always scares herself.

Luo Zhen hugged her tightly again.

And he vigorously rubbed her head and back, kneading her like a large, soft body pillow:

“Your boss wasn’t scolding you; he just thinks you have the ability! With you here, there won’t be any problems. There’s no need for him, a Grand Assassin, to take action.”

"Now I can rest assured, the formula for victory has been designed! Go for it, Little Madman, show your cult's old man what it's all about!"

"…(ο€€€€д€€)??"

Xiao Kuang was completely bewildered, being rubbed, kneaded, and hugged by Luo Zhen, and completely forgot to resist.

She thought Luo Zhen's words made a lot of sense and had no idea how to refute them.

But what do those denials mean? Why didn't the first generation allow himself to go up the mountain?

"Hey, stop doing all that nonsense up there!" Orange shouted. "The barrier's ready, we're about to start digging! Come down!"

I don't have time to think about these things now.

Luo Zhen pulled along the little madwoman who had just awakened, but only grasped the basics.

He took her hand, his eyes holding the entire universe: "Let's go, it's time to save the world."

"……Um."

This is indeed something I should do, and something I'm trying my best to do.

The girl did not shake off the man's hand again.

Chapter 103 Go back and I'll make you scream!

"Then let me briefly explain the situation."

Orange sat on a bench in the square outside the church.

She manipulated the ethereal threads with both hands, adjusting them within the armory filled with densely packed gears, and said without looking up:

"The accumulation points of the spiritual veins are now limited, and my puppet is continuing to excavate."

"Dig..." Luo Zhen murmured these two words.

He looked at the chilling scene in the square.

A bunch of expressionless dolls, carrying other temporarily modified dolls on their shoulders and in their hands, are like a bunch of living human tools.

The lower half of the doll was modified into a giant drilling machine, which dug into the ground with a thumping sound.

Some of the dolls had their upper bodies modified into giant sledgehammers, and were held by their legs by other dolls as they smashed large rocks.

The other puppets that worked to move sand and soil were also modified to become efficient human tools.

"How terrifying..." Kyoko's younger sister rubbed her arms, her face ashen.