To become a king and a magician

"Sigh, it's really a pity. I was thinking that a male personality combined with a female spirit, or a man's body combined with a woman's spirit, would create some kind of unique being. But it all came to nothing."

“I don’t think anything will happen even if we merge,” Natsukawa Tora sighed. “Although we’re not the same person, as for King Arthur… even if it’s a simulated spirit, she probably won’t do anything to take over my spirit.”

Because that is the noble knight king, Artoria.

She pursed her lips and spread her hands: "That's true. Sigh, it's rare to pick up my old trade again, but it ended up being a flop. It's because I haven't done my old job for too long, and my skills have become rusty."

"Speaking of which, about that ten years you just mentioned—" Natsukawa Torato paused, "maybe I'm overthinking it, but you're giving Grey ten years specifically, is there some plan behind that?"

It's 1995 now, and ten years from now it will be 2005, which roughly matches the timeline of the Fifth Holy Grail War. To be honest, I don't believe Natsukawa Torato doesn't have some ulterior motives involved.

With a mysterious smile, Merry said, "Hmm... more or less. It's alright to tell you the truth. The Holy Grail War you experienced should theoretically be held once every sixty years, but last year, due to too many unexpected events, the magical energy accumulated in the ley lines was not fully used up. Therefore, the next Holy Grail War will be held much earlier, about ten years—oh no, nine years from now."

Has this not changed?

Because of Ayaka Sajou's situation, Natsukawa Torato thought the Fifth Holy Grail War would be different from the original one, perhaps with a postponement of the event.

“And in the next Holy Grail War, King Arthur of this world will undoubtedly be summoned,” Merry said firmly. “You should understand what that means.”

"Grey will be completely assimilated by King Arthur's appearance—that's what I say, but why are you so sure that King Arthur will be summoned?"

"Because Morgan is still alive."

"Varied--?!"

Xia Chuanhu couldn't help but suddenly stand up.

Morgan is still alive? That Morgan? The summoned Servant Morgan?!

"How could she—"

"Shortly after you and Arthur defeated that beast, she went to Mount Yuanzang and gained a body through a tiny fraction of the beast's remaining magic and the Chaos Tide. I met her by chance before, though we didn't talk much."

"I thought she had already left the stage."

After all, if Kiritsugu Emiya, as the Master, were glared at by Torata Natsukawa with his Mystic Eyes, he would almost certainly die. And without the ability to act independently after losing his Master, the Servant can only return to the Throne of Heroes.

Because of this, Natsukawa Torato always thought Morgan had already left the scene, but he never expected that Morgan would survive.

"You mean, Morgan will participate in the next Holy Grail War?"

"For her, it would be quite satisfying to be able to summon her most hated sister as a subordinate and use her at will. There's no need to worry about not being able to summon her, since her very existence can serve as a catalyst and a relic."

In other words, will Artoria appear in Fuyuki City nine years later, just like before?

That was certainly not good news for Grey.

"So, what are your plans?"

“That’s not something you need to know right now.” Merry smiled mysteriously. “Besides, everything I’m saying now is just speculation. There are still several years until the next Holy Grail War. Who knows what will happen then? Morgan might even kick the bucket in the next few years.”

"..."

"So, at this stage, you don't need to delve into things that are so far into the future. You just need to deal with the things in the present, such as the debts you have."

"Who do you think gave this to you for free?!"

31. Grey's Avatar: A Machine to Raise a Useless Person

"elder brother."

In the early morning, in the hazy light, Natsukawa Tiger heard someone calling his name.

"Um...don't make a sound..."

He turned over and muttered a couple of things in a low voice.

Beside Xia Chuanhu's bed, seeing him still lying in bed, Grey sighed in exasperation. She then went to the window and pulled back the curtains, and the bright midday sun immediately shone into Xia Chuanhu's eyes.

His vision turned bright red in an instant. He shielded his eyes from the sunlight with his hand and looked helplessly at Gray: "It's like this again today... Gray, this is bad for your eyes."

“But Miss Lilyne said that if you want to stay in bed, this is how I’ll wake you up.”

"That bastard... I told you not to lead him astray..."

After giving Merry a piece of his mind, Natsukawa Tora sat up in bed while rubbing his eyes and yawning loudly: "Haaaaaahhhhhhh, what time is it, Grey?"

"It's already noon. Miss Lilyn asked me to call you down for lunch, brother. Also, you have class this afternoon."

As she spoke, Grey helped Natsukawa Tiger bring the clothes hanging on the chair to him.

Taking the clothes, Natsukawa Tiger couldn't help but smile: "Ah, I know. Thank you for calling me, Grey—and good afternoon."

"Yes, good afternoon, brother."

--------------------------

On the first floor, inside the apartment's restaurant.

Seeing Natsukawa Tora walk in one after the other with Grey, Webber, who had been sitting there for a while, couldn't help but tease, "Oh, you were woken up by Grey again today, Tora. Is it just my imagination? Ever since Grey moved in a month ago, you've gotten lazier and lazier?"

"You'll have to ask you, the culprit who assigned me a ton of homework and extra assignments."

Sitting down opposite him, Xia Chuanhu glared at him irritably.

Weber spread his hands innocently: "But wasn't it you who asked me to give you extra tutoring after class? You've shown such a strong desire to learn, so as your instructor, I naturally have an obligation to respond to your eagerness to learn."

"Weber, I want to thank you—ah, thank you Grey, could you please serve me some rice?"

"It's ok."

"You still say you haven't become lazy? Miss Grey, this is just my suggestion. Perhaps you don't need to take such meticulous care of his daily life, otherwise he'll become a useless person."

A month has passed since Grey moved into the apartment. After the initial week of shyness and discomfort, Grey quickly adapted to life there with Mary's help. She also began to help Mary with some simple apartment management, such as cleaning, cooking, and taking care of Natsukawa Tora's daily life.

Xia Chuanhu's life used to be very regular, but since becoming a magician, due to various homework assignments and practical experiments, he has gradually become a person whose daily routine has been completely disrupted, and this has happened in the last two months.

In order to help Natsukawa Torata, Gray volunteered to take care of him, specifically acting as his alarm clock and memo, and tidying up his messy room when he was away.

Hearing Weber's suggestion, Natsukawa Tiger couldn't help but sneer twice: "Heh, I think you're just jealous. If you really want someone, go find someone to take care of your daily life."

“I don’t have that kind of spare money, and besides, unauthorized people aren’t allowed in here. Grey is a special case—and I’m not jealous.”

"Who would believe that?"

That's what he said, but looking at Gray standing beside him and Waver opposite him, Natsukawa Tiger felt a little emotional. Originally, Waver should have been the one being taken care of by Gray, but because of his intervention, Waver ended up all alone.

After a pause, Natsukawa Tora picked up another piece of bread and threw it at Weber's face.

What are you doing?!

"It's nothing, I just have too much bread and can't finish it all, can you help me with some?"

"Was it necessary to throw it in my face?"

"Who told you to have that face like a corporate slave who's been working overtime all night? It's exhausting to look at."

"You bastard..."

Weber immediately glared at Xia Chuanhu and decided to double his homework for the day—a student dared to talk back to the teacher? Wouldn't that make things difficult for him?

Watching the two bickering like usual, Grey couldn't help but laugh. This relaxed and harmonious scene at the dinner table, though she'd seen it for over a month, still felt novel to Grey; after all, such a scene was practically impossible in that lifeless village.

And at that very moment—

"Is anyone there? Could you come and help me with something?"

Suddenly, Meryl's cries for help came from the doorway.

As they walked from the kitchen to the entrance, the three of them paused for a moment, stunned to see the several large pumpkins and a big bag of apples that Mary was carrying.

Why did you buy so much stuff?

"We'll talk about it later, we'll talk about it later. First, help me move these things to the kitchen, they're so heavy!"

Seeing that Merry was pretending to be struggling and even holding her breath until her face turned red, Natsukawa and Weber exchanged a glance, then sighed and took the pumpkin and apple from Merry's hands respectively. Only after taking them did Natsukawa realize that there was also a large bag of candy mixed in with the apple.

Pumpkin, apples, and sugar...

"Huh? Halloween?"

"Bingo!"

Mary clapped her hands and laughed.

"Halloween is next weekend. Although it's still early, I want to start preparing now. It's also a good opportunity to throw a party for little Grey to commemorate her one-month stay."

"Eh? Eh? Eh?" Gray was flattered and waved her hand, "No need for all this trouble, you really don't need to do so much for me at the banquet!"

"It's rare that you've spoken like a human being."

"A banquet, huh? It sounds like it would be quite nice."

Unlike Grey's panic, Natsukawa Torato and Waver readily accepted Mary's suggestion, which only made Grey more flustered.

Natsukawa Tora patted Grey's head through the hood: "Relax, Grey, it's just a celebration. Halloween is a holiday for celebration anyway. Strictly speaking, celebrating for you is just a side thing—Waveber, why did you hit me?"

"You idiot, do you even know how to talk? How can you explain things to a child like that?"

"You talk as if you could do it."

"Well......"

Seeing Weber speechless, Natsukawa Torato immediately gave him a mocking look—why bother?

32. Start the Halloween event!

"Halloween."

In the afternoon, during recess at the Clock Tower, Natsukawa Tora and Weber sat under a tree.

"What's wrong? Tiger, what's up with Halloween?"

"No, it's just that this is my first time properly celebrating Halloween, so I don't really understand what Halloween is all about—ah, I do know some of the related activities, like kids going trick-or-treating and dressing up as ghosts to scare people, but actually doing it myself..."

"Then why don't we just do it that way? By the way, do they celebrate Halloween in Japan too?"

At this point, Natsukawa Tora couldn't help but sigh, "It's less about celebrating Halloween and more about using the Halloween gimmick to hold a large-scale entertainment event, and incidentally boost the sales of various stores."

I'm not sure about Natsukawa Torato in other parts of Japan, but in Fuyuki City, although it wasn't a large-scale event, the Fuyuki City government did hold an event last Halloween. However, it was mainly held in Shinto, while in Fukayama Town, the shopping street and Ryudouji Temple joined forces for a fun event.

Incidentally, Homura Academy also held a festival for Halloween, but Natsukawa Tora didn't participate at all—he was working at the time.

In addition, Halloween in his previous life was just so-so, so this was actually the first time Natsukawa Tora had a proper Halloween.