To become a king and a magician

"If we limit it to ten meters, the impact shouldn't be too great."

Speaking incomprehensible words, Natsukawa Tiger lightly snapped his fingers, and the next instant after the sound rang out, the body of the fake Gilgamesh stopped in place, and then, as if weathered away, rapidly dissipated, leaving only a class card floating in the air.

Realizing fantasy.

Arcueid's strongest power. The ability to rewrite the world at will, a privilege reserved only for spirits born of nature.

This is a power that cannot be used against humans. The manifestation of imagination can interfere with the world, but it cannot interfere with living beings. Only nature can be changed.

But the fake Gilgamesh is different. He is not a living being. To put it bluntly, he is just a collection of magic power that has been given a certain degree of personality. He is just a lump of magic power. So as long as the magic power in this area is restored to its original state, the fake Gilgamesh will naturally disappear.

It's just like a one-click clear.

"Recycling complete."

Catching the falling Class Card, Natsukawa Tora sighed softly: "Normally, Gilgamesh should be a formidable opponent, right? But it ended so easily... Arcueid, isn't your power a bit too much?"

[Hmph~~~ I've already said, I'm the strongest! No matter who the enemy is, they can never be my match!]

Arcueid's triumphant laughter echoed in his mind.

[By the way, Tiger, could you please not undo your possession after you've used up all my power? Talk to me a little more, it's so boring even if I can see what's going on your end.]

Ever since she went out and made friends, Arcueid has felt more and more how uncomfortable it is to be locked up in the Millennium City, with no one to talk to.

"Hmm... maintaining your possession requires quite a bit of magic power."

【Then chat with me until your magic runs out!】

"Are you trying to drain me dry...?"

35. News from Eindsworth and Romania

Several days later, inside the villa of Natsukawa Tora's family.

"In other words, making dolls is creating life itself, using the human body as a blueprint to create automata that are infinitely close to the human body. Although not every doll maker aims for this due to different areas of specialization, they all ultimately return to the field of human body creation..."

The re-enactment device, transformed into the appearance of Aozaki Touko, was explaining the key points of doll making to Natsukawa Torato.

Because he was going to stay in this world for five years, Natsukawa Tora was afraid of neglecting the production of the doll, so before coming, he used the re-enactment device to read Aozaki Touko's data and copied all the knowledge about dolls in her mind.

In other words, what Natsukawa Torato is facing now is a teaching machine disguised as Aozaki Touko.

For the past month or so, Xia Chuanhu has been using it to teach himself whenever he has free time, trying to make the doll he wants as soon as possible. However, the progress is much slower than he expected. He hasn't even finished the sketches yet, let alone completed the doll.

That's really dangerous.

"The quality of a doll depends on two aspects: the craftsmanship of the maker and the magic materials used in its creation."

The orange doll continued its explanation.

A skilled puppeteer can create a decent-looking puppet even with only a pile of fertilizer at hand, while a poor puppeteer cannot make a puppet that meets the standard specifications, even if the most precious magic materials are placed in front of him.

Because of the reenactment device, magic materials are not a particularly big problem for Natsukawa Torato. He doesn't even need the materials themselves; he only needs a template, and the reenactment device can perfectly reproduce the materials.

His biggest problem is still his own skills.

It's easy to say, but once he actually started working on it, Natsukawa Torato realized how big a goal he had set for himself. According to Aozaki Touko, if he actually made this doll, the Clock Tower would immediately assign him the lowest color rank and seal him.

Okay, that's all for today.

After writing down what the orange doll said in his notebook, Natsukawa Tiger snapped his fingers, and the orange doll, which was giving a lecture, immediately shrank into a red sphere and floated back into Natsukawa Tiger's hand.

The teaching progress has been recorded. The next teaching session will begin from where the record was taken.

"Thanks for your hard work."

After putting away the re-enactment device, Natsukawa Tora stood up and went to the window, stretching lazily towards the outside. Just then, a figure appeared in his field of vision as usual.

It's Karen.

Ever since Xia Chuanhu said he could support her, she's become increasingly audacious, coming to his place for meals every day after work before returning to church. Since he'd asked her to do something akin to being a mole, Xia Chuanhu couldn't really say anything about her behavior.

It's worth mentioning that Kirei Kotomine surprisingly didn't react at all to Kallen's situation.

(But...that makes sense, the church must be very busy right now, right?)

A week has passed since the eighth class card was retrieved. After the retrieval was completed, Natsukawa Torato handed it over to Rin Tohsaka and the others. It's estimated that the Clock Tower has already started researching it. Judging from the information Kallen was able to obtain from inside the Clock Tower, there is probably a mole within the Church inside the Clock Tower. Right now, both sides are probably plotting something over the eighth class card.

Although all of this has absolutely nothing to do with Natsukawa Torato.

"Boom boom boom..."

There was a knock at the door, and then Grey opened it: "Brother, you can come down for dinner now. Sister Karen is back."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

————————————————————————————————————

Inside the restaurant.

"You really come here every day. How about you come back to church for dinner once in a while? Father Kotomine must be feeling lonely."

"It would be good if he felt lonely."

Karen said without any emotion.

"He doesn't have much emotion to begin with. If I had to say, the only time he would show any so-called happiness is when he eats Mapo Tofu. Otherwise, he always has a poker face. Even if I died one day, he probably wouldn't react."

"Besides, I told him that I haven't been home for dinner lately so I can keep an eye on you, and that he should take care of himself. So there's nothing wrong with that."

What a loving father and filial daughter!

But speaking of surveillance...

"I haven't noticed you putting a camera in my room lately, have I?"

“Well, because I don’t have any money.” Karen gave him a reproachful glare. “After all, someone quite decisively broke several of them before, and the church’s subsidies aren’t much. I basically had to pay for them myself, and now I don’t have any money to buy new ones.”

"Teach me how to use some simple surveillance magic, right?"

"I don't know how."

The church has explicit rules prohibiting the use of most magic tricks, with only baptismal chants being permitted. However, Karen doesn't even know how to chant baptismal chants. After all, her role within the church is that of an assistant, and she has no need to learn magic.

and--

"After observing you for a while, I personally believe that there is absolutely no need to monitor someone like you."

"Then why are you still hanging around here eating for free? If there's no need to monitor you, then get out of here."

"Didn't you say you'd take care of me?" Karen lay sprawled on the sofa, a slightly seductive smile playing on her lips. "What, you've changed your mind? What a fickle man, full of lies. I've been working tirelessly to investigate church secrets for you, and if I'm caught, I'll be imprisoned immediately..."

"That's why I said I'd take care of you when the time comes."

As Karen said, what she was doing was no different from betraying the church—following the magician's orders to investigate church secrets. If discovered, she would certainly be treated as a heretic. And if she wished, Natsukawa Torato could take her in.

"But I didn't ask you to come here every day to freeload, are you trying to get a free meal?"

"How could that be? I occasionally bring you some information that might be useful, don't I?"

As Karen spoke, she stood up and went to the dining table: "A snow-covered forest suddenly appeared directly above the Great Hollow. One or two magicians from the Clock Tower have started their journey to Romania. Also, a magician from Romania has come to Japan."

"—How about it? Is it enough for you to feed and hold me now?"

"Please don't use such misleading language."

"It's just a fact. Every time I come here, I always leave with a big belly."

36. Let me see how many blows you can take.

Xia Chuanhu felt that he had been quite busy lately.

He's been to Fuyuki City, such a big place, several times, especially around Mount Enzo, where he's been four or five times in the last two weeks.

"Actually, you didn't need to come."

Walking along the mountain path, Natsukawa Tora looked back at Karen and Grey.

"I'm more than capable of handling things on my own."

"Who told me to keep an eye on you? Don't worry, I'll find a place to hide so you won't get beaten up for trying to protect you." Karen waved her hand casually. "Little girl, come with me too. You don't have to stick with your brother all the time, do you?"

Karen's invitation made Grey nod. She was only coming along out of habit and had no intention of holding her brother back.

Seeing that both of them were so self-aware, Xia Chuanhu couldn't say anything more and could only turn around and continue walking forward.

According to the church's surveillance, about half a day ago, an unexplained spatial distortion occurred on Mount Enzo. Although it was similar to the spatial changes caused by the class cards, there were still some differences. After the spatial distortion ended, part of what was originally a lush forest turned into a withered forest covered in snow, as if it had gone directly from summer to winter.

Furthermore, whether by coincidence or not, the dead trees appeared directly above the large cavity.

The great void where the Holy Grail descended, the distortion of space, the withered forest covered in snow... all these strange phenomena made it impossible for the church to remain indifferent.

(Just half a day ago... none of the traps I set had any effect. Does that mean Eindsworth didn't come? Or is he on his way?)

Thinking of this, Natsukawa Tora paused for a moment, then asked Grey, "Grey, did you check on Luvia's family before you came out? Is anyone home?"

"The lights are all on, so they should all be here."

"Very well, let's get things sorted out before they get our attention."

Natsukawa Torama knew that Miyu was terrified of Eindsworth, genuinely afraid of them, and that fear wouldn't change even now that she was a magical girl. Therefore, Natsukawa Torama didn't intend to let her confront that fear again. Elementary school students should just enjoy the joys of childhood; there was no need for fighting. Facing her inner fears could wait until she was a little more mature.

This time, it's not the elementary school students' turn to save the world, nor is it their turn to fight to the death.

Because this time, he was there as a reliable adult.

The entrance to the Great Hollow was already in sight. Looking at the pitch-black cave that seemed to lead to hell, Karen suddenly stopped and pulled Grey to stop with her.

"We'll wait for you here; the rest is up to you."

"Brother...please don't force yourself."

Without answering, Natsukawa Tora simply waved his hand with his back to the two of them, then walked into the darkness without looking back.

————————————————————————————————————————

There are far fewer traps in the cave compared to before.

After dismantling a lot of structures for the sake of the ley lines last time, Natsukawa Tiger did not reassemble everything that had been dismantled, but only reassembled a portion of them.

He was too lazy to pretend, partly because of that, but mostly to follow the rules of mystery and secrecy.

If the traps in the passage are triggered, it means that Einzworth's people are about to arrive in the outside world. If war breaks out then, it will be impossible to hide it. He is naturally fine with whatever happens, but Karen, who will be cleaning up the mess for him, will definitely complain bitterly to him.