To become a king and a magician

—The rest are just some trivial matters.

"Will it take another year or two to get to Chaldea? That's to be expected... Speaking of which, Zero, was Marisbury the only one who sent this letter?"

"No, the messenger delivered it through a familiar; no one came to the door."

"If you're asking about the king's situation after his wish was granted, I can answer that for you," Mary interjected with a smile. "You want to know, don't you? What's the situation like for King Solomon after his wish was granted?"

Of all the things mentioned in the letter, none were related to King Solomon. It is unclear whether Marisbury deliberately omitted them or not. In any case, the letter only discussed his own affairs and did not mention King Solomon.

King Solomon's wish was to be reborn as a human being—not to gain a physical body, but to relinquish everything and be born as an ordinary human being. This wish has likely already been fulfilled.

So, what has become of King Solomon after his reincarnation, the [Romani Archman] whom Natsukawa Torama knew so well? Natsukawa Torama was somewhat curious.

"Wait a moment, they'll call him over right away."

"Call him over? How?"

“Use your phone.” Meryl said as she dialed a number. “Hello, is this XX o’clock? I want to place an order as usual. Yes, I’ll still request Mr. Romani to deliver it. Thank you—okay, I’ll wait for him to come.”

"..."

Okay, Natsukawa Torato probably knows what Dr. Roman's current situation is.

.......

Several tens of minutes later.

Inside the living room.

Looking at Natsukawa Tora and Artoria sitting on the sofa, the orange-haired man with a ponytail put down a bag of takeout on the table and immediately understood the meaning of this delivery: "I was wondering why you specifically asked me to deliver again. So that's what it is, Merlin."

“It’s Melly, don’t confuse her with the people here.” Melly laughed. “Come, Your Majesty, let me introduce you. This guy who works as a deliveryman at the convenience store and looks so easy to bully is the human reincarnation of King Solomon—[Romani Archman].”

The description "looking like someone who's easy to bully" is unnecessary.

Sitting down across from Natsukawa Tora, Romani Archman took a few deep breaths: "Phew~~~~ Let me introduce myself again. I am Romani Archman, you can just call me Roman, the Holy Sword Wielder. You've finally woken up. If you had remained asleep, the pressure on my shoulders would have been immense."

"Pressure... The fact that you say that means you've already seen it, hasn't it? In the moment when you relinquished King Solomon's power, your all-seeing eye saw it all at the very end."

"Ah."

The burning of humanity—the future that Natsukawa Tora spoke of, which was previously unobservable, was clearly seen by King Solomon at the moment he was about to be reborn as a human after giving up his power. He saw that the earth was burning red.

Having just been reborn as a human, Roman, who hadn't even felt a moment of joy, was immediately overwhelmed by the despair of the future. He wanted to stop it, but having given up all his power, he had no idea how to stop it. He wanted to ask Xia Chuanhu for help, but when he arrived, Xia Chuanhu was unconscious.

To be honest, he felt like he was being crushed by the pressure lately. He was struggling to make ends meet by working odd jobs, and desperately studying all sorts of knowledge to cope with the crisis of humanity's demise...

If he were still King Solomon, he could handle this level of pressure, but now he is just an ordinary person without even magic circuits, and the immense pressure makes him almost afraid to rest.

Gazing at his furrowed brows, Xia Chuanhu reached out and patted his shoulder, then used his fingers to smooth out the furrow between his brows: "OK, relax, Roman, we still have plenty of time. Even though I've been delayed by some things, from now on, you can share some of the pressure on my shoulders."

"Just like the consensus we reached before, no matter what the outcome of this Holy Grail War is, we will work together to stop the burning of humanity—so relax, don't put too much pressure on yourself. What's the point of putting so much pressure on a baby who's only half a month old?"

"A little... a baby?"

Roman knew that Natsukawa Tiger was trying to comfort him, but this unexpected address still made him lose his composure, even though theoretically he was indeed a baby.

However, the fact that even King Solomon could not completely defeat the Holy Sword Envoy could say such a thing was a relief to Rome, who had been on tenterhooks all along. As soon as he relaxed, his body went limp uncontrollably.

"Hey, Roman, are you alright?"

"It's nothing... I just suddenly relaxed and all my strength was drained away. I'm sorry..." Roman touched his head awkwardly. "Anyway, thank you, Holy Sword Master. I feel really at ease knowing you're willing to help. I'll be relying on you from now on."

"Just call me Xia Chuan or Hu, just like you told me to call you Roman—oh right, give me your hand."

As if suddenly remembering something, Natsukawa Tora grabbed Roman's hand, then pulled off the ring on his finger and tossed it to Sajou Rei: "Rei, keep this safe, and don't take it out."

"As ordered."

"Wait, wait a minute! Xia Chuan, what are you doing? Give me back my ring!"

“No, I’m confiscating it.” Natsukawa Tora refused outright. “This is just in case, to prevent you from having dangerous thoughts like ‘using ArsNova’ in your head. The ring will be kept by Rei.”

"You can forget about leaving this world in this lifetime, Dr. Roman."

33. Stay with me one last time.

Two hours after Roman left.

In his own room, Natsukawa Tora lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Although he had been lying down for half a month, during that time, Xia Chuanhu's mind was actually in a state of intermittent awakening, like being awake for several hours and then falling asleep for several seconds. He did not get effective rest, which was equivalent to being awake for almost half a month.

Even if he is a half-elf, it's still not good for him to not rest properly for half a month. Plus, he ate so much, he really deserves a good night's sleep.

However, Natsukawa Tora is wide awake right now.

Who can sleep in the middle of the day?

Behind the drawn curtains was a bright, sunny sky. It was still noon, and sleeping at this time would be the height of laziness—but similarly, he didn't want to get up and move around.

I want to sleep, but I don't really want to sleep.

Natsukawa Tora is currently in this limbo state of mind. Of course, environmental factors aren't the only reason he's in this state; his previous conversation with Roman also led him to some rather unnecessary thoughts.

For example, how to deal with the burning of human reason—and so on.

It's no exaggeration to say that he could easily cut his way from Fuyuki all the way to the United States. As for the singularities, he wouldn't have to worry about environmental factors; he could just bombard them with moonfall attacks without any problems. And the sixth and seventh singularities, with their intelligence advantage and superior numbers, shouldn't be too difficult either.

As for the final singularity...

(If I remove the ring, Goetia's immortality will have to be broken in another way, plus anti-summoning... Should I use the ritual? Or should I use my Mystic Eyes?)

For the past ten years, the internal space of the Mystic Eyes has been completely filled because of the sealing of Ayaka Sajyo. However, with Ayaka Sajyo's release, the sealing ability of the Mystic Eyes can be reused, and it is not impossible to seal the entire Goetia inside.

If I had to say something, we have quite a few ways to deal with Goetia.

"Sigh, what am I thinking? Humanity will be destroyed in ten years, there's no use thinking about this now."

He rolled over and pulled the blanket over himself, closing his eyes to try and fall asleep, but he had only just closed his eyes—

"Click..."

A soft sound of a door opening suddenly reached his ears, followed by a familiar voice.

"Looks like he's asleep."

It's Merry.

As if afraid of waking Natsukawa Tora, Meryl tiptoed slowly to the bedside and sat down next to Natsukawa Tora, who was lying on the bed pretending to be asleep: "Phew~~~ You made it to base safely without making a sound. As expected of me. Although I used illusion magic to shield Tora's senses because he might still be awake, I didn't need to since he was asleep."

(What's this guy up to?)

Pretending to be asleep, Natsukawa Tiger pondered Meryl's thoughts as he sneaked into her room, even using illusion magic to avoid being discovered.

He definitely has ill intentions!

(I'd like to see what she's planning to do.)

He planned to wake up immediately and arrest her on the spot when she made her move—that was what Natsukawa Torato thought.

but......

"rustle....."

A sense of pressure came from beside her. Pressing close to Natsukawa Tora's back, Meryl lay down and carefully slipped her hands through his arms to hug him from behind, pressing her chest against his back.

"—!"

The pressure on his back caused Natsukawa Tiger's breathing to become disordered for a moment, and his thoughts to pause.

(What...what does this mean? Is this some new prank? She...shouldn't know I'm awake, right? She's probably not pretending not to notice I'm awake, trying to make fun of me, is she?)

Just as Natsukawa Tiger began to have these wild thoughts and speculate about Meryl's various intentions, Meryl, who was hugging him from behind, moved again. This time, she put her thigh on his waist. If Natsukawa Tiger hadn't been sleeping on his side, she probably would have put her other leg on as well and wrapped both legs around his waist.

"......"

(What is this situation?)

Natsukawa Tora was completely bewildered. Why would Meryl suddenly be so proactive in getting close to him? Was it a prank? There had been similar incidents before, but this time the atmosphere seemed different. At least Natsukawa Tora didn't sense any hint that she was going to play a prank on him.

What exactly is Merry doing here?

"He really sleeps very soundly, Tiger."

"Merry suddenly spoke up."

Whether she saw through Natsukawa's pretense of sleep, or thought he was asleep and wanted to speak her mind, Meryl tightened her grip slightly, rested her face on Natsukawa's shoulder, and breathed warm air into his ear—

"Well, no wonder. During the Holy Grail War, you hardly rested for a single day. In total, you fought against almost every Servant once, a three-way battle against Servants, including an opponent like King Solomon. It's amazing that you were able to persevere, although it probably didn't take much effort for you."

"In addition, after that, I was dragged along by little sister Aige to deal with her affairs. I rested for less than two days and then worked hard for another half month... You really have had a tough time."

"But that's really going too far. Logically speaking, she should be the heroine of this Holy Grail War, right? But one rival after another appeared, and her initial idea of ​​stepping on everyone else to rise to the top was completely shattered. Then she was rejected in marriage and her sister Aika stole her away, so afterwards she was left to watch you, Lia, and Aika being all lovey-dovey on TV..."

At first, Meryl's voice was somewhat normal, but towards the end, it carried a hint of jealousy—this guy actually gets jealous?

Could it be... that she's actually looking forward to getting married?

"After that, you'll probably be running around again after a while, and even when you're free, you'll be surrounded by a bunch of people, so... let them have you all to themselves for a little while, my king."

"Haa~~~"

After a moment of silence, Natsukawa Tora suddenly sighed. And it was this sigh that made Merry, who was hugging her from behind, freeze instantly.

He pushed her hands and feet aside and turned her over, meeting the gaze of the frozen Mary. Xia Chuanhu said with a wandering look in his eyes, "You... I'm really not used to you being so frank sometimes."

"Eh? Eh? Your Majesty, you're awake?"

"Ah."

"When?"

"At the beginning... when you came in."

"You heard everything...?"

"Um....."

Meryl's face instantly turned bright red! She looked like a teenage girl being cornered and pinned against a wall by her crush; shyness must have filled her heart.

"You...you...you..."

"Let me make this clear beforehand, I didn't do it on purpose. Who told you to sneak in like that? I thought you were up to something again and was preparing to give you a piece of my mind, but who knew you were here to..."

"Hmm...you should have said so sooner..." Meryl blushed and buried her face in Natsukawa Tora's chest. "You wanted to see me make a fool of myself, didn't you? The King can be quite wicked sometimes."