Bazett: Open Up, You Big Jerk! Tax Bureau! Pay Your Back Taxes! (New Book, Please Support!)

January 23, 2004, late at night.

In Fuyuki City's Shinto, inside a somewhat remote hotel—or rather, small inn—that felt especially secluded due to being too close to Miyama Town, Shinji sat in a lit suite at the end of the third-floor corridor. His hands were clasped beneath his chin as he quietly listened to the meeting coming from the laptop in front of him.

The meeting concerned the amusement park project that had been in preparation since last year.

At present, the indoor water park and indoor snow park had already begun trial operations. As for the final large-scale amusement park, it too would enter its trial operation phase within the coming week.

At eleven at night, Shinji ended the lengthy meeting, shut down his computer, and gave a huge stretch.

"It feels like I got things in this life with barely any effort that I might not have obtained even after struggling through several lifetimes in my previous one," Shinji said with a hint of emotion as he stretched. "But for some reason, I don't feel as happy as I imagined I would."

They are merely worldly possessions. Set your sights farther, Grandson. An emperor is one who possesses everything in this world.

Ignoring the Dog System, Shinji casually opened the System page.

Over the years, even though he took speed-up medicine every month, he had only barely condensed the Three Souls. Even his Yin Spirit had yet to fully form, leaving only the final step.

With less than a month left until the main quest's deadline, Shinji had already given up on reaching Spirit Tempering Stage Three, which was required for the quest to redeem Zouken.

Unless he could get another ten years, perhaps then he might be able to temper three of the Seven Souls—Heavenly Rush, Spiritual Wisdom, and Vitality. After all, tempering the souls was far, far more difficult than solidifying the Three Souls and keeping them within the body.

However... it was not entirely impossible. For instance, a certain item had suddenly refreshed in the shop recently—the Spirit Tempering Stage Three Experience Card. Ten minutes, single-use.

System, are you treating me like a cash crop? You did this on purpose, didn't you?

Shinji desperately wanted to curse. The price of one experience card was practically the overwhelming majority of all the points he had saved over the years.

After deducting the cost of several items he had purchased in advance, he had accumulated a total of sixty thousand points. One experience card cost exactly fifty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine!

Looking at the red lettering, the exclamation mark, and the "Bestseller" label on the experience card, all of which made it look like some kind of special promotion, Shinji wanted to drag the System out and fight it. Unfortunately, that would accomplish nothing.

I act out of goodwill, wishing to help my good Grandson complete his quest. Why are you so irritable? Very well, very well. I shall remove this experience card from the shop at once. A vegetable is still a vegetable; at least you can keep me company.

Wait the hell up!

If you are not buying it, it would be better to remove it.

Damn it!

Shinji cursed inwardly, then immediately put on an expression of agonized reluctance.

"Buy... I'll buy it."

Deal.

Shinji: I...

On a deserted path late at night, Shinji walked slowly toward Miyama Town beneath the streetlights, his hands tucked into his coat pockets.

Thanks to his growth spurt and training, Shinji had left the Second Master from the setting materials so far behind that he was nearly out of sight, reaching an astonishing 185 centimeters!

His physique was also the kind his shut-in former self had never dared dream of: slim while clothed, packed with muscle once undressed. Combined with his already decent face, he had naturally become the most popular boy among the girls at school.

Still, there was something Shinji found strange. For some reason, despite being the most popular boy, he had never found a pink letter covered in hearts in his desk or shoe locker—something that had seemed perfectly natural to expect.

Did this world bug out?

So if you're not the protagonist, you just don't get that?

Lost in wild thoughts, Shinji unknowingly reached the depths of the woods, arriving before an old, dilapidated Western-style house covered in moss.

Suddenly sensing something, Shinji stopped in front of the unlit mansion, which he had never seen inhabited for as long as he could remember, and turned his head toward it.

The smell of blood...

Shinji frowned slightly. Since beginning his cultivation, his six senses had become increasingly sharp. Even through the magecraft barrier, the courtyard, and the tightly shut front door, he could smell the thick scent of blood inside.

And it was human blood. His keen hearing caught an extremely faint, intermittent breathing sound, telling Shinji that there was only one person inside—and that person was already at death's door.

Only a few days remained until the Fifth Holy Grail War. Honestly, Shinji did not want to get involved in this kind of trouble at a time like this. If he ended up exposed to Bug Grandpa's all-seeing surveillance bugs...

"I don't want to die..."

The voice was unbelievably weak—so weak that even Shinji, whose hearing was several times sharper than an ordinary person's, could only make it out in fragments.

Formation, activate.

As though he had made up his mind, Shinji silently called out after confirming that there were no strange insects watching nearby.

In an instant, a thin barrier like an invisible wall enveloped the entire mansion, Shinji included.

It was merely a simple barrier that distorted the five senses, something Shinji had learned from the Beginner Formation Compendium he had won from the lottery wheel.

Those inside would not notice any change, but anyone passing outside would unconsciously overlook everything within the barrier without realizing it. That was what was known as sensory distortion.

"Ah~ I really am such a kind person~" Shinji sighed softly, then gently pushed open the rusted iron gate and entered the courtyard.

That was right, it was only because Shinji was kind by nature. It had absolutely nothing to do with the voice belonging to a woman!

Inside the second-floor reception room of the old mansion... no, perhaps it should have been called Ghost Mansion or Twin Mansion, a woman with rose-red short hair and eyes lay listlessly in a pool of blood. She had a beauty mark beneath her left eye, wore a dark red suit, and had a rose-red tie.

A closer look revealed that the woman's left sleeve was empty, while her body was covered in wounds pierced by sharp weapons. Strange symbols emitting a blue glow were spread across the floor around her. It was these Rune Symbols that were barely sustaining her life.

They had probably been arranged by some big jerk—Wolf—at the very end.

The woman's name was Bazett Fraga McRemitz.

I don't want to die...

As her consciousness gradually sank into darkness, Bazett kept repeating those words. Yet no sound could leave her throat anymore. Put simply, only faint breaths escaped; none came in.

Tap, tap, tap...

Hearing footsteps approaching from the stairway, a trace of hope seemed to appear in Bazett's despair-filled eyes.

When the owner of those footsteps—Shinji Matou—came upstairs and saw the suited woman lying facedown in a pool of blood, he imperceptibly curled his lips.

Tax evader—Mapo, Kirei Kotomine.

Senior tax collector—Bazett.

Wasn't this development rather entertaining?

As he thought about it, Shinji suddenly realized that he, too, was feeling delighted.

Bazett, whose heart had turned to ashes after being betrayed by that blue man, did not recognize Shinji as he slowly approached and crouched before her.

Yet in the final moment before she completely lost consciousness, she still managed to make out by the moonlight outside the window the handsome boy with blue hair like that of the hero she admired—Lancer, who until a few hours ago had been her Servant...