Recording Conditions (2/3): 1. Gain Diarmuid's approval (Completed) 2. Defeat/Kill Diarmuid (Incomplete) Condition 1 met. Reward obtained: Minor increase to the "Agility" parameter!
It was not enough to raise the parameter by a full rank directly, but he could indeed feel an improvement in his movement and reaction speed. If he had to quantify it, assuming it took ten points to break through one rank, then this reward had added roughly one point.
Sakutsuki withdrew his gaze from the panel, reached into the Imaginary Numbers Pocket, and continued pulling things out.
They were steaming dishes that gave off mouthwatering aromas.
On the first floor of the Hyatt Hotel, civilians orderly evacuated under large-scale suggestion magecraft surged outside, while the three people in the reception hall were shielded by a barrier, like steady rocks amid rushing currents.
The warrior of Fiona and the magical girl sat facing each other as the dinner on the table grew ever more lavish.
Teriyaki chicken rice, spring chirashi sushi, smelt fried with eggs, wakame miso soup, and foil-baked salmon.
Dutch pancakes, fries and white wine soup, smoked pork with potatoes, cheese fondue, paella, creamy broad bean salad, pan-seared French foie gras...
For some reason, there were far more European dishes than Japanese ones—at least enough for two Servants. What looked like masterpieces that required several chefs working together had come from the hands of a single young man.
"Magecraft really is useful for this. Even after sitting around for half a day, it can preserve the original taste." Once the final dish had been served, Sakutsuki clapped his hands in satisfaction. "All right, Miyu, dig in. Your big brother carefully prepared all this for you! Lancer, don't be polite either. Try my cooking! I spent the whole morning preparing this!"
"Mm." Miyu's response was cool and quiet, but her eyes had already curved into crescents. After simply saying, "I'm digging in," she began enjoying the delicious dinner.
Meanwhile, Lancer, who had only been persuaded into sitting here after much coaxing and trickery from Sakutsuki, set down his knife and fork with a helpless smile.
"I say, Lord Sakutsuki..."
"Just call me Sakutsuki, Diarmuid. Or Lancer Bro for short."
"All right, Sakutsuki." The handsome man coughed lightly. "No matter what, I am a Servant opposed to you. Even if we have not fought each other, you should not be letting me sit at the same table as your Servant."
The implication was: Aren't you afraid I'll stab Caster with my spear?
In response, Sakutsuki smiled as he stepped behind Miyu and pinched her bun-like cheek. "The question is, could you bring yourself to do it? Could you bear to kill a girl who holds no hostility toward you and is this kawaii—cute? Lancer, your chivalry would weep."
"Urgh..." Diarmuid was instantly left speechless. In his era, protecting the old, the weak, women, and children had been a conviction every knight had to uphold. Asking him to harm a little girl really did make it difficult for him to act.
"Besides, Kayneth only told you to fend off enemies downstairs. He never said you had to defeat my Servant, right?" Sakutsuki pressed his advantage, speaking unhurriedly. "I'll leave Miyu here and challenge Kayneth's Magic Workshop alone. There is no need for you two to fight, so why insist on deciding a winner? Or is the Knights of Fianna's 'Face of Glory' nothing more than a brute who only knows how to fight and kill?"
"Of course not." After reflexively rebutting him, Diarmuid finally sighed helplessly. Amid the bizarre atmosphere of "enjoying a dinner made by an opponent alongside that opponent's Servant," he cut off a piece of foie gras and put it in his mouth.
Then his eyes widened.
Even in his Servant body, Diarmuid had never experienced anything like that delicate texture that melted on his tongue, nor that elegant fragrance like wine.
Glancing up unconsciously, he saw the little girl before him with her eyes narrowed in blissful enjoyment. At last, Diarmuid understood why she had not spoken a word since she began eating.
Before finishing all the delicious food in front of him, he could not bear to waste time talking either!
Wait... Were flowers blooming around Caster? Why had the background become so warm and cozy too? This was the FZ set, damn it! Had they wandered onto the wrong show?!
Diarmuid stared at Miyu in stunned silence for a long while before finally giving up on thinking and starting to eat.
It was delicious!
The two Servants ate with great enthusiasm, while Sakutsuki himself slowly sipped a glass of orange juice. He secretly took out his phone and snapped a picture of Diarmuid and Miyu immersed in their meal, along with the huge spread of food on the table, then checked the time.
It was eleven at night, exactly when night owls were feeling hungry.
With a malicious grin on his lips, Sakutsuki's fingers flew across the screen. Then, as if realizing something, he simply put down the phone and used magecraft to take a screenshot!
Phones in the '90s had truly terrible image quality, but magecraft could capture every detail of the scene.
Locking onto their auras, establishing magecraft guidance circuits, loading the magecraft image—send!
Four streaks of light shot into the sky, then flew toward different destinations.
A national highway route stretched westward from Fuyuki City, leading into a deep, undeveloped mountain forest. The highway wound through the silent woods like a serpent until it crossed the prefectural border.
Though it was a two-lane road, there were no vehicles on the sparsely lit highway. At midnight, the national road seemed forgotten amid that stillness.
A silver-white beast suddenly tore through the tranquility of the night, racing at high speed.
It was a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe. Its classic, graceful curves resembled an elegant noblewoman, while the roar of its inline six-cylinder SOHC engine was like that of a wild beast.
And naturally, the one driving that luxurious classic at the dangerous speed of over one hundred kilometers per hour was our gentle and refined Mrs. Irisviel!
To be fair, driving at one hundred kilometers per hour on a national highway was not all that fast. However, the road the Mercedes-Benz was speeding down twisted and turned, with cliffs along one side. Taking corners at that speed meant either being an exceptionally skilled street racer or a crazed biker gang member.
Thus, after Kiritsugu Papa and Sakutsuki, Saber had the honor of experiencing Mrs. Irisviel's downright violent driving skills.
"See? See? This car is really fast, isn't it?" Irisviel gripped the steering wheel, her face full of pride.
"Y-Yes, it is." Saber, seated in the passenger seat, was covered in cold sweat. She felt more pressure than when facing the combined assault of Lancer and Berserker.
"Right? I may not look it, but I've practiced a lot." With a cheerful shout, Irisviel casually changed gears. Her movements were crisp and clean. It seemed that after competing with Sakutsuki, her driving skills had improved greatly again.
"Hm? Wait, Irisviel. Haven't you been driving on the left side of the road this entire time?"
"Ah, I have."
Irisviel nodded with a smile, as though she had made only a trivial mistake. She sharply turned the steering wheel and immediately switched lanes.
Just then, a streak of light carrying the aura of magecraft flew toward them. Mrs. Irisviel hurriedly hit the brakes, stopping right before the glowing mass of magecraft.
"This is... from Sakutsuki?"
The next moment, the magecraft sphere unfolded, revealing Diarmuid and Miyu enjoying their food.
The dazzling array of delicacies on the table instantly left both beautiful women dazzled.
"Th-This, could this be..." Saber swallowed and said with difficulty, "the Hyatt Hotel?"
"No, it seems Sakutsuki made it himself. At Winter's Castle, Illya and I were fortunate enough to try that child's cooking before." Mrs. Irisviel held her cheeks, looking intoxicated. "But even I have never seen so many exquisite dishes."
"Guh, what an insidious tactic!" The girl's ahoge immediately sprang upright, only to droop listlessly again. "To think... to think he would show me this at midnight... Did I really miss such a sumptuous banquet?!"
The King of Knights' wail echoed down the empty road.
There also seemed to be a faintly embarrassing sound caused by hunger?
At last, as Britannia's Red Dragon and the radiant king revered by countless people, Saber's azure eyes became resolute, as though she had made some weighty decision.
"I've decided! As Saber, I shall punish this rebellion! I cannot allow that food to fall into enemy hands!"
Driven by the temptation of food, the petite girl erupted with astonishing initiative. She took Irisviel's place in the driver's seat, shifted gears, and stepped on the accelerator!
"Wait, Saber, Kiritsugu said—whoa!"
The Mercedes-Benz roared, turned around, and charged off even more wildly than it had arrived.
"To hell with Kiritsugu! Forward, East Stallion!"
Tempted by food, Artoria, utterly unaware that she was becoming a little Alter-like, stomped down on the accelerator. Amid Mrs. Irisviel's excited shrieks, the Mercedes-Benz sped toward the Hyatt Hotel!
Opening the front door with a key—such a simple act alone took nearly three minutes. For Kariya Matou, who was already exhausted beyond measure, even that little task was a burdensome labor as difficult as scaling the heavens with his last shred of strength.
Like a lowly office worker returning home after a draining social engagement, Kariya dragged his weary feet inside. He did not even want to turn on the lights before throwing himself onto the sofa with a long groan that was half comfort, half helplessness.
He had been prepared for it, but the mana consumed to support Berserker's actions was still far too outrageous, wasn't it?
Whenever he recalled the entire jar of mana worms that had been drained dry, Kariya could not help wanting to sigh again.
Unlike the other Masters, he was merely a hastily trained magus. Carelessness, arrogance, and such mindsets had nothing to do with him. Even if he went to the battlefield alongside his Servant like the others, he had no confidence in fighting other magi. Besides, his Servant was Berserker. Even if he wanted to give strategic instructions at close range, Berserker could not possibly obey his control.
So he simply released Berserker like a bomb and threw him into the enemy camp, allowing him to go mad and rampage to his heart's content. Kariya believed that he should prioritize his own survival and watch from somewhere safe.
It should not have consumed so much mana... but after Berserker saw Saber, he had completely slipped beyond his control. Even now, recalling the chaotic emotions transmitted through the other end of their contract made Kariya shudder.
What was that blond, seemingly petite girl knight to Berserker—to Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table?
Silently burying that doubt in his heart, Kariya immediately considered another pressing question.
That golden, supremely arrogant Archer—Hero King Gilgamesh.
Could Berserker defeat him?
How far was this road to defeating Tokiomi Tohsaka?
And after that, how far was it to defeating every enemy... to reaching the Holy Grail?
But for his pursuit, for his dream, Kariya could only keep moving forward. He absolutely could not be eliminated. Even if he had to burn away every final scrap of flesh and blood, he had to achieve his goal. Otherwise, everything would have been for nothing.
What was more, the Holy Grail had another use for him...
Just as Kariya was thinking, a glowing ball of mana carrying Sakutsuki's aura squeezed into the living room, illuminating his vacant face.
Looking at Miyu and Lancer enjoying their meal in the image, Kariya froze for a long time, feeling the emptiness in his stomach.
He had begun tracking Lancer's aura early in the morning, so he had not eaten anything all day.
"Grrrr..." His empty stomach voiced its protest.
"Sakura... sigh." The words reached his lips before he stopped himself. At this hour, Kariya did not want to wake Sakura.
Hungry, Kariya turned his head and met Berserker's silent gaze.
The black-armored knight said nothing. Only the red light within his helmet flickered like a signal lamp, and he even tilted his head almost imperceptibly.
Berserker: What are you looking at?
Kariya Matou: ...
You could not expect a Berserker to wash his hands and cook soup.
Kariya closed his eyes in disappointment, gradually giving off resentment no less intense than Berserker's.
"Sakutsuki, you little bastard..."
Kirei Kotomine sat beneath the church, quietly examining the two small creatures laid out before him.
One was the corpse of a bat with its head twisted off. A palm-sized electronic device with a round battery was tied to its abdomen—it was a wireless pinhole camera.
The other had no normal shape, looking like a shifting shadow. It was clearly the product of some kind of Imaginary Numbers Magic.
After Assassin had been dragged out by Berserker, exposing the alliance with Archer, Kirei Kotomine had not only immediately sent another of Hundred-Faced's bodies to the scene, but also had Assassin split off personnel to patrol the church regularly.
That was when he discovered these two familiars, each carrying their owner's distinctive traits.
There was no doubt that the bat belonged to the Magus Killer, Kiritsugu Emiya—the magus who "would stop at nothing and possessed not the slightest pride of a magus."
And as for Imaginary Numbers Magic, until now, only Sakutsuki, Caster's Master, had mastered it.
You suspected me from the beginning, and therefore suspected the Holy Church as well? Is this extraordinary attention because I am Assassin's Master, or because of... me myself?
Kirei stared at the corpses of those two familiars for a long time. Compared with the Servants' chaotic battle tonight, the meaning represented by these corpses was far more profound, occupying a place in his heart.
What he did not realize was that a golden king sat on the sofa opposite him. He had not materialized, remaining hidden as he quietly appreciated Kirei's troubled expression, an intrigued smile on his face.
In Archer's hand, the light sphere Sakutsuki had mass-sent was crushed into pieces.
"Caster's Master, Sakutsuki? Interesting. In this Holy Grail War, apart from Tokiomi, all the Masters seem quite interesting... This journey has not been in vain for me."
"Hey, hey, Master, I want that!"
"Calling me that won't help!" Webber was lifted up by Rider in a fluster, but he still desperately clutched his wallet. "Even if you sold me, you couldn't afford food that expensive! That's cuisine only a top-rated chef could make!"
"That kid Sakutsuki is that impressive?" Rider seemed greatly surprised, but quickly came up with an idea. "Then we can go ask him for some!"
"No, I don't want to go there!" Webber immediately struggled upon hearing that. "Put me down, Rider! If this keeps up, I'm using a Command Spell!"
"Ah, how boring..." Though he grumbled, Iskandar still put Webber down. "He's just a slightly impressive magus. What's there to be afraid of?"
Webber straightened his disheveled clothes and shot the red-haired giant an irritated look. "I am afraid, yes. After all, I stole the Holy Relic used to summon you from my teacher. But that is not why we should avoid going there."
Having walked the line of death once, this immature Clock Tower student seemed to have gained a different kind of bearing. "Don't forget, Sakutsuki announced in public that he was going to seek instruction in my teacher's magecraft. Whether they want to gather intelligence or fish in troubled waters, those Masters with ideas must already be on their way, right?"
"In terms of mana capacity alone, I am absolutely inferior to most Masters. Besides, there is still plenty of intelligence to sort through tonight, and we need to decide our plans for the future." Webber frowned, looking much like the future Lord El-Melloi II. "We will not take part in this disturbance. Sending familiars over to gather intelligence will be enough."
This time, Rider did not refute him. Instead, he looked at the frantic yet composed Webber and smiled faintly.
"Then we'll do as you say, kid."
Before you continue