To become a king and a magician

“I don’t know. It was an emergency. I only had time to protect you, Master. But Lancer is there, so he should be fine. — And Master, I’m behind you.”

"I can't see anything because I'm wearing the sealing cloth!"

Natsukawa Tora grabbed the sealing cloth and turned around.

"However... blowing up an entire building all at once, that's really Kiritsugu Emiya's style."

"Emiya Kiritsugu? Master, do you know who the attackers are?"

"I'm afraid that besides me, this Holy Grail War is inseparable from magicians like magicians. You saw it yourself; he even used explosives to defeat his opponent. Although I'm a little curious as to why Kiritsugu Emiya knew our location, let's get out of here as soon as possible, Arthur."

Natsukawa Torara didn't know if Emiya Kiritsugu was still aware that he was alive. If he was, he should already be on his way to find him. For safety's sake, it would be better to move the base immediately.

As for Kenneth, as long as it's during the Holy Grail War, in order not to violate the contract, the other party will definitely take the initiative to come to him.

(Relocating our base... If we're talking about the safest place right now, no, it should be the place where we can best hide... that's probably the only place left.)

Natsukawa Tiger climbed onto Arthur's back.

“Let’s go to the ruins of the Matou family, Arthur.”

"Yes."

22. Can Caster get close to Saber face-to-face?

Choosing the Matou family as a temporary base was not a decision Natsukawa Torara made on a whim, but rather a choice made after careful consideration.

When a magician chooses a location, the first thing to consider is the spiritual vein. As one of the founding three families, the Matou family's residence was naturally built on a spiritual vein. Although it couldn't compare to the Tohsaka family, it was more than enough for Natsukawa Torata.

Furthermore, geographically speaking, the Matou family is located in the suburbs of Fuyuki City, near Fukayama Town, far from the new capital, the current heart of the Holy Grail War.

Finally, the place is well hidden.

Because Kiritsugu Emiya destroyed the Fuyuki Grand Hotel, almost all the factions are now focused on the new capital, and few people will pay attention to the Matou family deep in the mountains. The Matou family was already a declining family of mages, and with Arthur's destruction of it, even the friendly Tohsaka family won't pay much attention to this area.

In other words, everyone is currently engaged in a chaotic mid-lane battle, while Natsukawa Tiger has secretly slipped to the side lanes to steal lane kills.

Of course, Natsukawa Torara had another purpose in choosing the Matou family.

......

Because Arthur had already broken through once, all of the Matou family's defenses were destroyed, including the main gate, which was badly damaged and the mansion's main gate was in a dilapidated state.

Supported by Arthur, Natsukawa Tora stopped and called out into the dark room, "Are you there, Matou Kariya?"

Yes, Matou Kariya.

This was another purpose of Natsukawa Torato's visit to the Matou family. Although he rejected Matou Kariya's request for cooperation, since Matou Kariya had already thrown himself into this war, Natsukawa Torato might as well make use of him a little.

However, several tens of seconds after the sound faded, there was no echo at all.

Natsukawa Tora sighed, "He's not here? That means he doesn't use this place as a base. Take me to the basement, Arthur."

"The basement? That insect nest?"

"Correct."

“I do not recommend that you go there, Master. Although I killed all the insect familiars, their corpses were still left behind. You may not be able to accept that, Master.”

An entire basement infested with bugs—even Arthur would find that disgusting scene hard to accept, let alone Natsukawa Tora.

Shaking Arthur's hand, Natsukawa Torama laughed, "Have you forgotten that I can't see right now? The basement should be the closest place to the Matou family's spiritual vein. I'll set up a simple magical barrier there. We can't just leave it undefended, can we?"

Today is the second day of the Holy Grail War, and Kenneth is giving him his second magic lesson. Although Kenneth wanted to proceed step by step, at Natsukawa Torato's insistence, he changed the lesson to basic barrier techniques.

"It's really fortunate that I managed to memorize several simple barrier setup methods during the day."

Seeing Natsukawa Tora's relieved expression, Arthur couldn't help but ask curiously, "Master, why did you want to become a magician?"

"Hmm? What's wrong? Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"I'm just curious, Master, you don't seem like someone who's very interested in magic. What made you want to become a magician?"

Why did I become a magician?

Natsukawa Tora smiled and said, "There's no particular reason. It's just because of my own selfish desires."

"desire?"

"Arthur...you must have been an exceptionally skilled magician in both of your previous Holy Grail Wars, right?"

Is it excellent?

That's for sure. Ayaka Sajou is the Root Princess, and although Ayaka Sajou isn't as exceptional as Ayaka, she has gradually grown into a mature magician through battle.

But what about Natsukawa Tora?

"I should say... I want to compete with them. Since your previous Masters were all such outstanding individuals, I can't be inferior to them. Even if I can't support you in the Holy Grail War, I can't hold you back."

At this point, Natsukawa Tiger scratched his ear somewhat embarrassedly: "That's all there is to it. It's selfish and boring, right? Laugh if you want!"

“How could I laugh at you, Master?” Arthur stroked Natsukawa Tora’s hair. “I am very proud and honored that Master has such awareness. This time, you are the Master, and perhaps that is the reason why I was summoned by you.”

"Oh...oh...it's good that you understand—and don't touch my head! Do you think I'm a child?!"

He slapped Arthur's hand away and was about to walk deeper into the room, but the moment he took a step forward, a chill ran up his spine and he stopped halfway and pulled his foot back!

someone!

At the same time, Arthur suddenly appeared in front of Natsukawa Torato, reaching out to block him behind him and gripping the Holy Sword: "Be careful, Master, I sense the presence of a Servant."

"Um....."

Xia Chuanhu nodded, still shaken. For a moment, he truly felt that if he took another step forward, he would die! Although there was nothing in front of him, his body kept warning him—he must not take another step forward.

The next moment, a woman's voice suddenly rang in his ears.

"Huh? You didn't step on it?"

"——————!"

Behind him—the moment he realized this, Natsukawa Tora instinctively wanted to turn around, but before he could move, Arthur had already grabbed his hand and pulled him into his arms, while at the same time the Holy Sword slashed out backward!

"boom------!"

The magical slash swept across the area in an instant! The Matou residence, which was already in ruins, was instantly blasted away by more than half of it!

However, compared to the Matou residence that was blasted away, the figure that appeared in the dust not far away seemed to be rooted to the ground, remaining unmoved even when hit head-on by the holy sword's strike.

"Hmm, it is indeed the power of the Holy Sword, but something's strange. It's slightly stronger than I remember the Holy Sword being. Without using the Wind King's Barrier, the Holy Sword itself doesn't have such a long attack range."

A slightly puzzled female voice reached their ears, and upon hearing it, Arthur's eyes flickered, and his body tensed even more.

"Saber?"

Sensing Arthur's change, even though he couldn't see, Natsukawa Tora couldn't help but look in the direction from which the voice came. As the dust gradually dissipated, the owner of the voice appeared before the two of them.

A magnificent black dress, moonlight-like white hair, a black crown, and red patterns tattooed on her chest and waist—even though her face was covered by a black veil, obscuring her true features, and even though she was protected by defensive magic, Arthur could still recognize the person before him, or rather, the Servant, based solely on these characteristics.

“Caster......Morgan....."

23. To manipulate at will

Morgan had anticipated that Natsukawa Torato and Saber would come to the Matou residence.

Unlike the other Masters, he is the only one who is not a magus. He cannot use a large number of magical artifacts and barriers to build a fortress like Kenneth, nor can he hide among the crowd by using hint magic like Waver Velvet, and he does not have the support of the Einzbern family or the Tohsaka family.

In this Holy Grail War, he and Kariya Matou are the only two people who have nothing.

Therefore, when he encounters difficulties, the first thing he thinks of is to ask for help from people in the same situation.

The characteristic of the weak is that they like to gather together. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. No matter how unwilling they are or how much they deny it, when the weak need others, encounter difficulties, or have nowhere to go, the first people they think of are not those who are much stronger than themselves, but those who are just as weak as themselves.

Morgan knew Natsukawa Tora all too well what a "weakling" was like.

So when Kiritsugu Emiya gave her the order to deal with Natsukawa Torato and Arthur, she did not chase after the two who had escaped. Instead, she went straight to the Matou residence to wait for them and set up a barrier that would surely kill any ordinary person.

If Natsukawa Torato had actually taken that step, he would have been instantly killed by the fatal curse the moment he landed. And because of his Master's death, Saber, having lost her contract partner, would naturally disappear and return to the Throne of Heroes—Morton originally intended to reappear at that time.

She knew exactly what her sister was thinking. What would that heartless king, who had given everything for Britain and Camelot, think after she had essentially caused Camelot's destruction? What wish would she make with the Holy Grail? As her sister, Morgan could guess perfectly well.

She would blame herself, think it was her fault, and attribute all the blame to herself—Morgan was sure that would be the case if it were Artoria, because she had seen far too many similar situations.

War defeats, administrative problems, the collapse of the round table... In the face of one problem after another, Artoria's first thought is not to blame others, but regret—regret for not being able to make the right response in time, even though she made what she thought was the right decision at the time.

So how would Artoria view Camelot's downfall?

She would believe that everything was her fault, that she was responsible for Camelot's downfall, and that making her king was a completely wrong decision.

Therefore, if she responds to the call of the Holy Grail (Wishing Machine), she will only make one wish.

Since it was a mistake for her to become king, then she shouldn't have become king, and she shouldn't have pulled the sword from the stone—she would make a wish to return to the day of the election and start all over again.

Morgan knows his sister better than Artoria herself.

Your enemy knows you better than you know yourself.

So, [It's fine if you disappear, but if you want to save Camelot, how about signing a contract with me to stay in the Holy Grail War?] – Morgan intended to say this to the soon-to-disappear Artoria, thus eliminating a rival and gaining a powerful ally – killing two birds with one stone.

but--

"I didn't expect two unexpected problems to occur."

Morgan looked at Natsukawa Tiger and Arthur and laughed self-deprecatingly.

"It's a minor matter that the Master didn't die; an ordinary person with no combat ability could easily take care of that. But what I never expected was—"

"When did King Arthur become a man?"

Feeling Morgan's gaze fall upon him, trying to penetrate his vision, Arthur frowned: "Male? Judging from what you're saying, it seems that the 'me' here is different from my own gender. Is the 'King Arthur' of this world female?"

This world?

“I see.” Morgan quickly understood the meaning behind Arthur’s words. “Although I knew long ago that the Throne of Heroes had no concept of time and space, I really didn’t expect such a thing to happen. Even that nightmare probably didn’t foresee that King Arthur from another world would do such a thing.”

"Indeed, I didn't expect to meet the [Sister Wang] from this world. But even if the world is different, the actions of [Morgan LeFee] don't seem to change much."

A surge of magical power erupted from Arthur.

Morgan shook his head upon seeing this: "You want to defeat me? Give up, Saber. Although in terms of class, it is almost impossible for me, as a Caster, to defeat you, as a Saber, the aptitude of our Masters is worlds apart. Are you sure the child in your arms can withstand your exploitation and demands?"

As Morgan said, even if the magic circuits have been opened, Natsukawa Tiger still wouldn't be able to withstand a serious fight if Arthur were to fight seriously. He hasn't fully adapted to his newborn body yet, and if Morgan continues to play defensively, Natsukawa Tiger will be the first to fall in a real fight.

"Also, Saber, why do you think I, a Caster, would give up my advantages and appear in front of you head-on?" Morgan said with a smile, and before Arthur could react, she had already tapped the ground with her staff.