To become a king and a magician

"Huh?"

The information transmitted back from the replay device abruptly brought Natsukawa Tora to a halt in his thoughts.

There's... nothing at all?

In reality, the stone platform beneath them was just an ordinary stone platform. Although there were some residual magical reactions, it did not constitute any complete spell, let alone the Holy Grail spell; it was at most like breadcrumbs.

But how is that possible?

Isn't the Holy Grail's spell supposed to be inside the Great Void? Natsukawa Torama was certain that his memory was accurate, but the results from the re-enactment device's scan couldn't possibly be wrong either.

"So, the Holy Grail... has disappeared?"

(Could it be that because of Miyu's arrival, the underground void spaces of the two worlds were swapped, resulting in the current situation here... No, that's impossible. The underground void in Eindsworth's world also has the Holy Grail's formula; both worlds are the same in this respect.)

But why? Why has the Holy Grail ritual itself, which should have been here, disappeared?

"Ruby, I have a question for you."

What's up?

"Was there a Holy Grail War in this city ten years ago?"

[The Holy Grail War? Doesn't that happen every now and then?]

Ruby said with some doubt.

[It started about ten years ago. Suddenly, news about the Holy Grail War spread throughout the magic world. Because it was the most likely way to reach the Root, most magicians went crazy and started holding sub-Holy Grail Wars. Although the scale was not as large as Fuyuki, most of them were battles with two to five Servants.]

Subspecies Holy Grail War?

"you sure?"

[Confirmed, confirmed. In fact, that's why we came to Fuyuki City this time. Ostensibly, it was to collect Class Cards, but actually, we were investigating whether the Class Cards were related to the Subspecies Holy Grail War, and to confirm whether the regular Holy Grail War, which originated in Fuyuki City, could be restarted—but now it's been confirmed that there's absolutely no connection~~~]

Ruby's answer made Natsukawa Tiger fall into deep thought.

The lost Holy Grail, the frequent sub-Holy Grail Wars over the past decade...

"Ruby, how many years ago was the last recorded formal Holy Grail War that took place in Japan?"

[If you count it now, it's been about seventy years, right? It's said that even the German army got involved back then.]

Seventy years ago, the German army intervened.

(Oh, I see.)

This world isn't simply the timeline of Magical Girl Illya; Magical Girl Illya is merely a major subplot within this parallel world. The main storyline is actually—

"Fate//Apocrypha...?"

22. Eindsworth: Danger!

—Fate/Apocrypha.

Also known as the Holy Grail War.

An unprecedented seven-on-seven Holy Grail War taking place in Tulifas, Romania.

Although it cannot be completely confirmed yet, based on the current situation and the various clues provided by the ruby, within the scope of Xia Chuanhu's knowledge, this is the only conclusion he can reach.

Otherwise, there's really no way to explain why the Holy Grail, which should have been in the Great Hollow, would have disappeared.

(But so far, only the subspecies Holy Grail War has been held... Has the main FA series not started yet? I remember it being set in the 1990s. Does the Holy Grail War start at different times in different timelines?)

The only reason that comes to mind is that the Yggdrasil Clan is not yet ready to wage a full-scale war against the Mage Association.

The Holy Grail War was originally convened because Danic, the patriarch of the Yggdrasil clan, wanted to establish a new Mage's Association to fulfill his ambitions after obtaining the Greater Grail. This was a ceremony to establish his authority, and he had spent decades accumulating power beforehand.

He took over various impoverished magician families, quietly building his power, and using his eloquence and political maneuvering to reach the Grand rank... until the time was ripe, he officially raised the banner of rebellion. The reason he hasn't started yet is probably because he hasn't accumulated enough power; it's a change he can accept.

After putting away the re-enactment device and getting up, Natsukawa Tora sighed slightly: "Sigh, unexpected things really keep happening. It seems I'll have to find some time to go to Romania again."

[Romania? Why?]

"Secret."

Although his need for the Greater Grail wasn't particularly strong, even without it, Natsukawa Torato would still continue making the dolls, the only difference being the quality of their completion. He would take the Greater Grail if he could, but it didn't matter if he couldn't.

He was even more interested in the Servants he would encounter in the Holy Grail War than the Greater Grail.

Let's not even talk about the village girl who's always running around the map. She was the first five-star servant he pulled when he played FGO, and besides Mash, she was the servant who spent the most time with him. Now that he has a chance to actually meet her, how can he not make the most of it?

There's also Mordred.

Natsukawa Tora is now practically half King Arthur, but what if he runs into Mo Zai...?

Come on, Mordred, call me daddy—if you just greet me like that, you'll probably get a vicious stab from that damn sword!

(I'll ask Rin Tohsaka and Luvia to keep an eye on things in Romania for me, or maybe I should just move there? No... that won't work. I can get a house for free here in Fuyuki, but I'd have to figure things out myself over there, it's not worth it.)

Shaking his head, Natsukawa Tora said, "Well, let's put everything else aside for now and get to the main purpose of our trip here. Let me think about how many traps we should set up here."

——————————————————————————————————

By the time Natsukawa Tiger finished setting up the trap, it was already sunset.

Because Einzworth possessed an almost invincible displacement magic, which could prevent ordinary magic from taking effect, Natsukawa Torato specifically used Arcueid's power to semi-permanently transform the entire underground cavern into an alternate dimension with completely chaotic spatial coordinates.

If Eindsworth dared to use space displacement inside, they would only be taken to an unknown place by the chaotic space—simply put, the keys on the keyboard would be completely messed up.

Of course, Natsukawa Torara didn't think that this would be enough to deal with Einzworth. After all, Darius Einzworth was still there. As the first leader of Einzworth, Natsukawa Torara wouldn't be surprised if he could break free from the disordered space.

So in addition to the disordered space, he also planted a large number of magic bombs in the underground cavern. They only have one detonation condition: sensing a change in space. They will definitely give Einzworth a good blast!

Furthermore, Natsukawa Tora set up numerous rune traps within the passageway leading to the outside.

He was a disciple of Aozaki Touko, and although he mainly studied puppetry, he also learned a lot about runes. When constructing the rune trap, Natsukawa Torama thoughtfully implemented double concealment on both the physical and magical levels.

"Brother, I think...aren't you setting a bit too many traps?"

On her way home, Grey couldn't help but ask.

Those traps took an entire noon and afternoon to set up! Not only were there many of them, but the traps themselves were all devised by Natsukawa Tora with all his might and ingenuity. They were as hellish as they could possibly be, and there were even follow-up traps set up with the premise of "falling into the trap." It was practically an endless hell of traps!

This was the first time Grey had ever known that her brother could be so sunny.

Upon hearing Gray's question, Natsukawa Torato couldn't help but laugh and say, "Grey, you need to know something. It's easy to defeat someone; I basically never lose in a head-on fight. But as the ancients said, psychological warfare is superior to physical warfare. It's more important to strike at the opponent's spirit than to defeat their body."

Natsukawa Tora himself is a living example.

In terms of actual combat strength, if Arthur's power is removed, he is inferior to Ayaka Sajou. However, every time he fights Ayaka Sajou, she falls into a state of madness because of Arthur.

This is a classic example of psychological warfare.

Young Grey was completely unaware of the error in Natsukawa Torato's seemingly logical statement.

"I see... So you mean you have to subdue the enemy before you can defeat them?"

"No, to be precise, it's about breaking the enemy's spirit, making them question why they're alive, completely shattering their mentality, and turning them into a single-celled organism driven by anger, only capable of repeating simple actions. Of course, this process can't be rushed; it must be done little by little, ideally with a sliver of hope in between—"

[Have you suffered any psychological trauma?]

Yad couldn't help but interrupt Natsukawa Tiger.

What grudge do you hold against Eindsworth? Is it worth going through all this trouble for them?

"It's not that I have psychological trauma. I just directly applied the same approach that others used on me in the past. I am a perfectly upright and good person."

Go back and look at all those insane traps you've set before saying that. Grey, please don't follow his example!

“I wouldn’t let Grey learn that even if you told me,” Natsukawa Tora patted Grey’s head. “More importantly, I’m a little hungry. We haven’t even had lunch yet, have we? What should we have for dinner?”

"It's all because you, brother, are completely obsessed with traps..."

"Sorry sorry."

23. Season 2 begins!

Ilya felt that something was off about her neighborhood lately.

First, a little over a month ago, the two families across the street moved out, and then in less than a day, they were replaced by two super luxurious villas. Coincidentally, Meiyou, who had recently transferred to my class, was living there.

At school, they sat at desks in front of and behind each other; off school, they were neighbors facing each other.

This is truly an incredible coincidence.

However, because they took the same route home, Illya and Miyu became good friends over the course of a month. Although Miyu didn't know why she kept forgetting Illya's name, it didn't bother her.

Compared to Miyu, Illya wasn't very familiar with the family across the street, the Natsukawa family. Although Gray, who lived in the Natsukawa family, was from the same school as her, she was a year older and they didn't usually interact. She had never even met Mr. Natsukawa.

However, it seems that Ilya's brother and the family maid often run into him at the supermarket.

According to them, Mr. Natsukawa didn't seem to like going out much, and the reason he went to the supermarket was because his sister might not be able to carry the things and would need his help.

Although she didn't know much about it, Ilya had occasionally heard her classmates mention that this kind of person was called a "homebody"?

After glancing at the Natsukawa family's house diagonally across the street from her own front door, Ilya pushed open her own door.

"I am back."

"Ah, Ilya, welcome back."

On the sofa in the living room, Illya's brother, Shirou Emiya, was processing vegetables. This was a scene Illya often saw when she returned home. However, unlike usual, Shirou Emiya was not alone this time; a blond stranger was sitting next to him.

Are you a foreigner?

"Are you Illya, the one Emiya talks about all the time? This must be our first meeting. I'm Natsukawa Toraya, who lives across the street. Nice to meet you, little princess."

Seeing Natsukawa Tora bowing to her so politely, looking like a prince from an anime, Ilya, who was still just an elementary school student, couldn't resist the visual overload. Her cheeks immediately turned bright red: "N-Nice to meet you, Mr. Natsukawa."

"Natsukawa, stop teasing my sister. Besides, I don't talk about Ilya all the time."

"I remember every time we met at the supermarket, you were thinking about what Ilya wanted to eat."

"Huh? Really?"

"Didn't you notice?" Natsukawa Tora laughed, then placed the prepared vegetables in front of Emiya Shirou. "By the way, Emiya, do you think this is okay? I've broken off the roots as you said."

Natsukawa Torato came to the Emiya household simply to learn cooking from Emiya Shirou. While he could cook himself, his skill level was certainly no match for Shirou's. As for why he wanted to learn cooking...

(I can't have Grey cook for me every day, and then I have to go back and cook for Mary, and also for Orange and Shiki. If it doesn't taste good, Shiki will stab me with a knife again.)

This is no exaggeration; Ryougi Shiki is truly capable of such an act. Although she is no match for him at all, Natsukawa Torato doesn't want to be ambushed every evening during dinner, as that would be really bad for his heart.