To become a king and a magician

"Oh, things are going well."

The real world.

Through magic that connects to the realm of consciousness, events happening in the conscious world are projected onto the television screen. Watching Natsukawa Torato and Sajou Aika's somewhat intimate interaction, Merry, lying on the sofa, nodded while cracking sunflower seeds.

"Is this what would happen if those two met normally? It's really full of the unique awkwardness of teenagers, it makes me want to fall in love."

"Sister Meryl, dinner is ready."

Grey came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of stir-fried vegetables and called out to Mary, then went to the television: "How is my brother?"

"As you can see, we're living a rather harmonious youthful romantic comedy life—speaking of which, I just heard a door close. Someone went out... no, should I say someone else left?"

"Yes, Sister Lydel just left. She said she had some things to take care of at the Clock Tower."

It is now four days after the end of the Holy Grail War. Many of those who originally stayed at this base have already left, as everyone has their own things to do.

Ryougi Shiki and Aozaki Touko were the first group to leave. Ryougi Shiki still needed to manage the Ryougi family, while Aozaki Touko had to go back to work and open the Garan no Do store because the store had received a new order.

Following closely behind was Aozaki Aoko. In her words, watching her husband being intimate with other women in his dreams was torture, so she simply chose to avoid it and flew away. However, before leaving, she went to Natsukawa Torami's room and bit him a few times while he was asleep.

Next up are Atalanta and Okita Souji. However, their departure is not for their own sake, but a temporary one, in order to obtain their identity documents in this world. If Artoria hadn't gone to help Natsukawa Torato, she would actually have gone with them.

As for handling the paperwork, it was Tokiomi Tohsaka who did it. In addition, since both of them plan to work in the future, they need to get some academic credentials and such, so they need to go out for a day or two.

Therefore, the only ones still remaining here are Morgan, Mordred, Merry, Gray, and Sajou Rei. Arcueid went back to Millennium Castle to sleep on the day the Holy Grail War ended. For her, the Holy Grail War was partly to meet Natsukawa Tora, and partly because she was summoned by the Counter Force to keep an eye on things.

Now that we've seen the person and the mission is over, it's time to go back.

Seeing Natsukawa Tora standing quite close to Sajō Aika on TV, cooking together in the kitchen, Gray couldn't help but feel a little envious.

"Does little Grey also want to cook right next to His Majesty the King like this?"

"Huh? I...I...um, I kind of want to."

After hesitating for a moment, Grey nodded. "However, now is not the time to talk about this. We need to wait for my brother to wake up first. I remember Miss Morgan is on night watch tonight, right?"

Since both Natsukawa Tora and Artoria are currently in a coma, in order to ensure that their bodies do not have any problems during their sleep, everyone is taking turns keeping watch at night—when Lydel and Aozaki Aoko were still around, Natsukawa Tora almost had an accident while they were keeping watch.

After cracking the last of the sunflower seeds in her hand, Mary patted the crumbs off her hands: "Okay, let's go have dinner—wait a minute, I'm going to set up a video magic trick. It would be a huge loss if something inappropriate happened while we were eating."

"Sister Meryl..."

Remember to send me a copy later, Mary! I think silly Grey would really like it!

"Don't talk nonsense, Yad!"

16. Who are the people who like each other?

"Hey Pendragon, when it comes to nighttime, it's usually a time for people to rest, right?"

"Ah."

"Eat dinner, take a shower, and then go to bed, or watch TV."

"Ah."

"Then why... are we out patrolling so late at night?"

On a street in Fuyuki City, Natsukawa Tora complained to Artoria beside him, unable to bear it any longer.

It's 11 p.m., and several hours have passed since he had dinner with Ayaka Sajou. Normally, Natsukawa Tora would be in bed by now, but today he had just finished showering and walked out of the bathroom when Artoria dragged him outside.

[Because we don't know when the monster will appear, we need to patrol Fuyuki City in order to be able to deal with it as soon as possible]—that's roughly the reason.

Since tomorrow is Saturday and there's no school, Artoria went out to patrol the streets late at night with Natsukawa Tora.

Although he himself was extremely unwilling. It's true that he's willing to fight monsters, and he would take the fight seriously, but right now he just wants to sleep; it's already 11 p.m.

Faced with Natsukawa Torato's complaints, Artoria could only encourage him, "Hang in there a little longer, Master. You don't want to suddenly wake up and fight monsters while you're sleeping, do you?"

"In that case, I'd be so grumpy when I wake up that I'd beat that monster half to death, without even using any beams, just my fists."

Disturbing someone's sleep is something that will get you struck by lightning!

"So, monsters don't appear every day after all?"

"Every day... why do you think like that, Master?"

"Well... isn't that how it is in Ultraman? It seems like a monster appears every now and then. You just defeat one today, and another one appears tomorrow or the day after."

Artoria sighed softly: "That's not the case, Master. The appearance of monsters is not actually governed by any pattern. We cannot prevent them, we can only stop them as quickly as possible when they appear."

"Oh, I see. We're really going to have a tough time. Will we have to do this every day from now on?"

I think so.

Spare me—Natsukawa Tiger felt the pressure on his shoulders increase.

"Do monsters only appear at night?"

"It's uncertain. It could happen during the day. After all, the monster has only appeared once so far, so we can't say for sure what the pattern of its appearance is."

In other words, in the future, we might have to fight monsters on our way to class, or maybe while eating, or even while using the toilet... Natsukawa Tiger sincerely hopes that monsters won't appear at those times; he doesn't want to be halfway through using the toilet and have to rush out.

As they spoke, the two arrived at a park.

After buying two cans of drinks from the vending machine and tossing one to Artoria, Natsukawa Tiger plopped down in a chair: "Let's rest here for a while. We've been walking for several hours, let me rest."

"Thank you for your hard work, Master."

Sitting down next to Natsukawa Torama, Artoria opened her drink and took a sip. Watching her drink, Natsukawa Torama remained silent for a moment before suddenly asking, "What did you and Aika talk about?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"When the two of you went to the supermarket, you must have talked about some things, right... Well, if you can't say, then never mind. I just wanted to ask on a whim."

What were the topics we talked about at the supermarket?

[Pendragoon, I like tigers, I really like him.]

Sajō Aika's words floated into Artoria's mind, and as if possessed, she softly uttered, "I like it."

"Huh? Like? What do you like?"

"Satiao said... that she really likes you."

After hesitating for a moment, Artoria told the truth. Continuing to hide it... felt pointless. After all, Ayaka Sajou hadn't told her not to tell anyone, and besides, even if she didn't tell now, given their relationship, she would probably tell sooner or later.

Not to mention the monsters.

After thinking it over, Artoria decided it would be better to take the initiative herself: "That's what she said, she likes you a lot."

"Clang!"

Xia Chuanhu stood frozen in place as if he had been rooted to the spot, and the beverage can he was holding fell straight to the ground. It wasn't until the sound of it hitting the ground that he came to his senses and quickly bent down to pick up the drink.

He opened his drink, took a sip, and tried to calm himself down. Natsukawa Tora forced a smile and said, "You...you're kidding, right? Aika would talk to you about something like this? You girls just love talking about love—"

“It’s not fake, I’m sure of it. Sajō-san definitely likes you, Master. She’s absolutely not lying about that.” Artoria stared at Natsukawa Torama and said, “Master, you should be able to sense it to some extent, right? No, you definitely know. I’m not joking.”

"..."

After silently taking a large gulp of his drink, Natsukawa Tora paused for a while before asking, "Why are you talking about this kind of topic?"

"It seems that because my relationship with my Master is a bit too close in her eyes, Sajou-san misunderstood something. I have already explained it to her."

"A monster?"

"I didn't say that. Like with Master, I only told her what she could understand—but more importantly, how do you plan to respond to Sajō-san's feelings? Master, do you like her?"

Do you like Aika Sajou?

Without answering the question immediately, Xia Chuanhu squeezed the can in his hand until it deformed before nodding: "Yes, I like it."

A childhood friend who's been with me for ten years, always taking care of me, practically always granting my every wish, and as cute and beautiful as an angel—how could I not like such a person? What kind of twisted aesthetic sense would I have to have to?

At least Natsukawa Torato couldn't do that.

Therefore, there is no doubt that he likes love songs.

"You two like each other... So, do you want to confess to Sajou-kun? After knowing Sajou-kun's feelings, are you going to do it?"

"No, that's a bit... well, too early." Natsukawa Torama shook his head decisively this time. "We still have the monster problem to solve, so we have to deal with the monster problem first, right?"

Of course, this is only one of the reasons. The more important reason is Xia Chuanhu himself. Confessing one's love is such an important event, so one should prepare properly, such as choosing an important day and a very special place to confess... and so on.

For example, birthdays, or the usual school festivals or school trips. Kyoto's Kiyomizu Stage is said to be a famous place for confessions, so choosing there would be a good idea, right?

"—Buzz!"

Just as Natsukawa Tora was thinking this, the sky, which had been pitch black a second ago, suddenly lit up with a rainbow of light, instantly filling Natsukawa Tora and Artoria's entire field of vision! The light was so intense that the two had to raise their hands to shield their eyes!

"This is.......?"

"Could it be a monster?"

Any unusual occurrences can always be attributed to monsters, and soon, the intense light that filled the field of vision only flashed for a few seconds before disappearing into the night sky like the receding tide.

Xia Chuanhu looked up at the sky—there was nothing above.

“Pendragon, this is…”

"I don't know, but I think it should be... a monster."

Artoria said with a somewhat serious expression.

17. Who is the real professional wingman?

The next day, early in the morning.

"You don't seem very energetic, Tiger."

Looking at the somewhat listless Natsukawa Tora beside her, Sajou Aika couldn't help but ask with concern, "Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"It's not so much that I didn't sleep well, but rather that I didn't sleep at all. Didn't it suddenly get light for a while last night? I couldn't fall asleep after that."

With slightly sleepy eyes, Natsukawa Tiger spoke while yawning.

Last night, after seeing a rainbow in the sky near the park, he and Artoria thought it might be a monster and started searching the surrounding area. However, no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find any trace of the monster. They didn't stop until one or two in the morning and went home to sleep.

That wouldn't necessarily make Natsukawa Tora sleep-deprived, but more importantly, it was about what Artoria had told him before that Sajou Aika liked him—after going back home last night, he could recall her words as soon as he closed his eyes in bed.

There's no way he can sleep!