FATE: Target of Grand Master

As Romulus's spirit core dissipated in the flames, Nero plunged the "Primordial Flame" into the ground, knelt on one knee, and bowed his head in farewell to the founding emperor of Rome.

The words of the ancestor still echoed in his ears; this was the best reward for Nero.

Xia Yan slowly walked behind Nero and waited quietly until Nero stood up.

"Thank you, player."

Nero's smile was brighter than ever before.

"Let's go."

Xia Yan accepted Nero's thanks without hesitation and was about to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Nero looked at the petrified Li Zhuang and found that the statue's head had fallen to the ground.

"Don't worry, I won't make the same mistake twice."

"Mmm."

Nero followed Xia Yan contentedly into the elevator that was waiting for them.

When the two returned to the first floor of the building, all eyes immediately turned to them. When they saw Xia Yan and Nero walk out of the elevator, most of their gazes were filled with wariness and disappointment, except for one person.

"Hello, Xia Yan, I knew you would win."

Hu Xia seemed to have finished the fight early and was now holding a bag of potato chips, eating and waving at him.

Xia Yan was not surprised at all that Hu Xia was able to advance. However, there was still no trace of a Servant around the other party, which showed that the other party had done a good job of keeping the Servant information confidential.

"Come sit here for a while. Father Kotomine said that no one can leave until all the advanced Masters have come out."

Xia Yan looked at the gazes coming from other directions and could only choose to sit next to Hu Xia, the only one who did not show hostility towards him.

"Want some?"

Hu Xia, as if they were old friends, handed the already opened bag of potato chips to Xia Yan.

"No, thank you."

Xia Yan wasn't naive enough to eat other Masters' food, even though he was certain that Hu Xia hadn't tampered with the potato chips.

Hu Xia didn't insist, withdrew his arm, and continued eating on his own.

Soon, three more Masters emerged from the elevator, bringing the total number of Masters advancing this round to eight.

Following the instructions of the candy vine, Kirei Kotomine announced the subsequent arrangements.

"The draw and matches for the second round of the elimination tournament will be held tomorrow. As you've probably noticed, Candy Vine's arrangements are more compact than BB's original plan. As the Holy Grail War supervisor, my authority is not as high as the host's, so I cannot appeal on your behalf. Masters, please get some rest. A rest room has been prepared for you on the second floor. The layout and items inside are exactly the same as the rest room you were in before you were teleported. You just need to find the location of your rest room."

After explaining the arrangements with a smile, Kirei Kotomine turned and returned to the convenience store.

"Want to grab a bite to eat together?"

Hu Xia suggested.

"No, I still prefer to take my food back to the lounge to eat."

Xia Yan did not accept Hu Xia's warm invitation and instead led Nero to the cafeteria.

"How indifferent."

Hu Xia continued to follow Xia Yan like a leech, but her tone revealed no trace of regret.

Nero wanted to turn away from this annoying Master and keep him away from his musician, but Xia Yan stopped her.

"The more you show your emotions, the more you fall into her trap. People like her love to see how others react. Anyway, she hasn't done anything to harm us so far, so just ignore her and treat her like she's not there."

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, Hu Xia once again warmly invited Xia Yan to dinner, offering to treat him, but Xia Yan declined again.

After packing the food, Xia Yan and Nero went straight back to their lounge.

Before leaving, Xia Yan still replied to Hu Xia, "This place is different from before. With other Masters present and you not knowing their backgrounds, eating in such an open environment as the cafeteria could lead to being poisoned. I advise you to pack some food to take home and eat it."

Hu Xia was taken aback. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of this, but she hadn't expected Xia Yan to kindly remind her. This made Hu Xia stop bothering him and let Xia Yan leave the cafeteria.

"An interesting observation target" was the label Hu Xia gave Xia Yan before entering the cafeteria, but now she has changed it to "A kind and interesting observation target".

Back in his lounge, the layout was exactly as Kirei Kotomine had described, unchanged.

After finishing their packed dinner with Nero, Xia Yan immediately closed his eyes to rest.

With the next round of matches scheduled for tomorrow, rest is the top priority right now.

-----------------

Late at night, in the principal's office on the top floor of the school's teaching building.

The candy vine is talking into the dedicated chat box.

"These are the adjustments I need to make in this round and in the matches that follow."

There was no immediate reply from the other end of the chat window; they seemed to be deep in thought.

After a long silence, BB's slightly helpless voice came from the other end of the chat box.

"Alright, I approve, but don't go too far."

The candy vines smiled with satisfaction.

"Don't worry. Compared to the others, I'm the one who gives you the least trouble."

"Really? But I always feel that compared to the other kids whose emotions are easily read on their faces, you, who seem well-behaved on the surface but like to cause trouble behind the scenes, are the ones I should be more wary of."

"Ugh, that's so mean. So that's how bad my image is in your eyes?"

The candy vine's tone was very affected.

"Rather than saying you have a bad image, I would say I know the true nature of each of you very well."

"cut."

The candy vine muttered something, but did not deny it.

After all, SAKURA FIVE are all Alteregos separated from BB, and BB knows each of them very well.

What was that saying again?

We're all ancient foxes, why are you playing these ghost stories with me? (If one of these foxes heard this, they'd probably demand compensation for defamation.)

"Let me reiterate, I can agree to let you do whatever you like, but the bottom line is that at least one Master must win and at least one Master on my Grand Master candidate list must pass this trial."

"Okay, okay. If you do it my way, those two Grand Master candidates you've chosen will actually have a greater chance of passing this trial together."

"Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up."

"Wait a moment."

The candy vines called out to BB.

"BB, answer me a question. Given the current situation, even if all of SAKURA FIVE are awakened, the entire trial probably won't last much longer, right? I heard from Lilith that the black and white octopus-headed creature still hasn't been completely wiped out, and several more Descendants have secretly infiltrated. Add to that the BEAST data you'll be using in the later trials, what are your plans after that? Are you just going to dump all this trouble on these Masters?"

Silence fell again on the other end of the chat window.

"It was my mistake for them to discover this trial, but it's too late for regrets now. All we can do is do our best to sustain this trial to the end and believe in the power of miracles that can be created within the human race."

This time, the candy vines fell silent.

"BB, this is really not something you would say."

"Yes, if it were me in the past, I certainly wouldn't have said something so baseless, but if you've witnessed miracles in different people, you'll understand that there was no intention to shirk responsibility in what I just said."