I am the one who carries out all the evil in this world.
And you, blinded by chaos, shall serve me.
You are the one imprisoned in the cage of madness; I am the one who holds its key.
You, bound by the Seven Heavens of the Three Great Words of Power.
Come forth from the wheel of restraint, guardian of the scales—!"
The moment Xi Jianxi recited the incantation, he felt the magical energy throughout his body surge. This was the bone-deep chill and pain a Magus had to endure as magical circuits writhed within the body.
His vision grew darker and darker. The runes engraved upon his body were absorbing mana from the atmosphere in support of this magecraft.
His body had now forgotten its functions as a human being, transforming into a component meant to accomplish a miracle—a circuit linking spirit and matter.
His body let out faint cries under the rapid circulation of magical energy, but compared with Scathach's merciless training in the Shadow Realm, it was nothing.
Behind him, Sakura clasped her hands and watched the descent ritual nervously.
A violent gale and lightning erupted. The powerful wind pressure kept her from opening her eyes, forcing her to shield them with her hand.
At the center of the storm, the summoning pattern shone brilliantly.
The passage within the magic circle finally connected to another world. A figure woven from deep azure and black emerged from the blinding light.
"Servant, Berserker, answering the summons. Magus over there, are you the one who summoned me... summoned me..."
A cool, almost mechanical voice rang out from the mist and light.
Just as Xi Jianxi was astonished that Berserker could introduce herself with such rational and logical wording, she seemed no less shocked than he was.
Tap, tap, tap, tap—
Berserker stepped out of the mist and approached Xi Jianxi directly.
She was a female Servant around 170 centimeters tall, with cascading silver hair and refined features.
The tips of her hair carried a faint bluish hue, just like her eyes.
Something like delight flashed through those eyes, which resembled a frozen lake, then vanished.
"..." The female Servant stared at him without saying a word.
"That's right. I'm the Magus who summoned you." Unable to understand her reaction, Xi Jianxi took it as a peculiar symptom of Berserker's lack of reason. He raised his left hand and revealed the Command Spells on its back. "Your Master."
The next second, she extended a finger and touched the Command Spells on the back of Xi Jianxi's hand, leaving him no time to react.
If she chose to betray him at that moment, a casual sweep would have been enough to sever the hand bearing the Command Spells.
As Xi Jianxi considered that possibility, she had already withdrawn her hand.
"I am the Servant who will assist you in this Holy Grail War. I suppose this can be called fate."
The surprise had faded from her voice, replaced by composed teasing. With an exceedingly frivolous gesture, she lifted Xi Jianxi's chin.
Though he did not know her intentions, Xi Jianxi understood one thing: she was flirting with him.
He narrowed his eyes and used the ability granted to Masters by the Holy Grail War system to confirm the Servant's true name.
The instant he received the answer, Xi Jianxi was dumbfounded as well.
"Heh~ Then forget my earlier lapse and allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Morgan, the Fairy Queen. I am willing to become your Servant and lend you my strength."
"You said you were who?!"
Even though he had already learned the answer, Xi Jianxi still cried out in disbelief at Morgan's declaration of her true name.
Master and Servant
After the summoning ritual ended, Xi Jianxi first sent Sakura back to her room to sleep.
Though Sakura was already seven years old, Xi Jianxi was not a strict person. She had become somewhat spoiled by his affection, so he had no choice but to carry her back to her room and tuck her into bed.
Fortunately, the immense magical energy fluctuations from merely witnessing the summoning ritual had placed tremendous pressure on the still-young Sakura. She did not even have the strength to listen to a Norse myth before quickly falling asleep.
After confirming that Sakura and Karen were both sleeping soundly, Xi Jianxi returned outside.
After the ritual ended, Berserker... Morgan had turned into spirit form. As the summoning stabilized, he could feel the connection born of their contract. The magical energy passage between them had been successfully established.
Through that connection, Xi Jianxi found Morgan in his study.
She had materialized and was sitting on the sofa, casually flipping through a book.
"You are even less like a Magus than I knew," Morgan remarked without looking up.
Xi Jianxi shrugged, utterly relaxed. "In the eyes of a Divine Era Magus, modern Magi like us naturally aren't worth much. Perhaps the only one you would consider worthy is the Magus King, who single-handedly established the system of Magi, wouldn't you say?"
"This is not sarcasm." Morgan closed the book and looked up at Xi Jianxi. "There is too much tenderness in you that does not belong to a Magus."
In their pursuit of the magecraft path, most Magi gradually divorced themselves from worldly ethics and morality during their upbringing, developing a set of values and rules entirely separate from the mundane world.
"Hey, hey... I only put a child to sleep. Is that really worth praising to this extent?" Xi Jianxi shook his head and sat down across from Morgan.
Morgan lowered her eyes and said as though speaking to herself, "Still, thanks to that, I understand your personality better now."
"Better?"
Xi Jianxi was surprised again. Then he recalled Morgan's series of actions after answering the summons and watched her with probing eyes.
Servants were incarnations of Heroic Spirits, the highest-ranked familiars summoned solely for the duration of a Holy Grail War. Their mystery exceeded even the realm of magecraft.
They answered the summons of Holy Grail War Magi from the Throne of Heroes, crossing the ages to descend into this era.
To facilitate their actions, the Holy Grail granted them a certain degree of knowledge appropriate to the era.
But... that knowledge did not include any intelligence or information about their Masters.
"I was curious when we introduced ourselves earlier." Xi Jianxi voiced the question in his heart. "Your reaction upon seeing your Master was strange. Are you dissatisfied with something?"
What came next would be a thorough slaughter, with seven Servants following their respective Masters.
A true "war" in every sense of the word.
That was why trust between a Servant and Master was so important. Any misunderstanding or mismatch between them could produce fatal consequences.
Especially since Xi Jianxi had no intention of dying here.
That was why he had decided to broach the matter with Morgan and clear up any possible misunderstandings.
Yet Morgan's reaction was difficult to read. She let out what sounded like an amused chuckle.
"...No, it is nothing. I was merely a little surprised." Morgan raised a hand, palm upward, as though she wished to gather Xi Jianxi into it. "If the one who summoned me had merely been an ordinary modern Magus, that would have been one thing."
"Hm?" Xi Jianxi was slightly surprised.
"But I fear the Masters participating in this Holy Grail War still do not know that their opponent is someone who has mastered Divine Era magecraft," Morgan said.
After his surprise passed, Xi Jianxi instead relaxed.
"Not bad. You actually saw through my nature as a Magus." Xi Jianxi stretched lazily. "If you can notice that much, it will make planning our future strategy much easier."
Morgan retained that faint smile, like distant mountains. She was neither moved by his praise nor offended by his casual manner.
"Rather than that, what about you?" Morgan asked.
"What?"
Xi Jianxi, who had just been about to return to his room to sleep, could only sit back down at the question.
"It seems you are not very interested in my identity," Morgan pointed out.
Aside from being surprised at first that the Berserker he had intended to summon was not some warrior famed in legend for martial prowess, but rather a Heroic Spirit more inclined toward magecraft, Xi Jianxi had shown little reaction afterward.
"Well, how should I put this?" Xi Jianxi folded his arms, looking troubled. "I do know about the Servant classes in the Holy Grail War. A Heroic Spirit can have different aspects due to their legends and therefore manifest in different classes. Logically speaking, Morgan the Fairy Queen would be best suited to the Caster class, but perhaps there is some reason I don't know about that allows you to manifest as Berserker..."
Whoosh—
Morgan turned into spirit form. When she materialized again, she was seated beside Xi Jianxi. He drew in his shoulders as though startled.
"Then tell me. Judging from your reaction, you do not seem to have no thoughts on the matter." Morgan did not look at him, but an intense pressure radiated from her and bore down on Xi Jianxi.
He sucked in a breath. "Hiss— It's nothing much. I just know King Arthur's legend fairly well. I often tell those two children bedtime stories—King Arthur's legends, Greek myths, Norse myths, even American myths. I've told them everything I could. If the storyteller doesn't know the stories well, wouldn't that be nonsense?"
"Oh?" Morgan maintained her relentless questioning.
"After all... King Arthur's death, or rather, the fracture of the Knights of the Round Table and Britain's collapse, were all connected to you, weren't they?"
Xi Jianxi did not particularly enjoy exposing others' wounds.
Especially when he had no idea whether Morgan took pride in those events or found them insufficient.
"Anyway, to cause that kind of outcome, you must have had at least a little madness in your heart... That makes sense, doesn't it?" Xi Jianxi gave a wry smile.
Legend was legend. If Morgan, as a Servant, chose to betray him, he had ways to deal with it.
"Such a frivolous answer suits you perfectly," Morgan finally replied.
"Satisfied? Then let's leave it at that."
Xi Jianxi rose from the sofa.
Having such an unparalleled beauty as Morgan so close instead made him feel as though he were sitting on pins and needles.
"Are you going to the battlefield? Then bring me my Demon Spear." With a flick of Morgan's hand, a weapon combining a lance and longsword, like a staff, leaned against a nearby armchair.
"I'm the Master, right?" Xi Jianxi nearly slipped. He thought he had misheard.
"You are, so what?" Morgan asked blandly. "I offer my strength and fight for you. Naturally, you should fulfill your duties as Master. How could merely providing magical energy be enough?"
With that, Morgan stood. "Have you chosen the first enemy we will crush?"
"Who said we were going to the battlefield?" Xi Jianxi's eye twitched. "The seven Servants haven't all descended yet. It's not time to fight. Don't be so impatient."
"Then—"
Before Morgan could finish, Xi Jianxi had already waved as he left the study.
"It's late. Time to sleep. Make yourself at home, Morgan."
In Morgan's faint astonishment, she watched her Master vanish through the door.
Only after a while did she return to where she had been sitting and pick up the copy of The Legends of King Arthur she had only read a few pages of.
"With that lazy, carefree appearance, it is truly difficult to associate him with that 'Tyrant' who fought that endless war against me without cease for two thousand years."
The Fairy Queen's nostalgic voice echoed through the quiet study before fading away.
No one else heard it, and no one could answer the meaning behind it.
Morning at the Xi Residence
It was a land beneath an eternally unchanging twilight sky.
Someone spoke to Morgan like this.
'Let us begin our war.'
Then blood stained the soil red, and arrows pierced flowers. Iron hooves trampled land that grew food, while flesh and blood became mud and returned to the earth as nourishment.
Morgan opened her eyes from sleep. Before her was the Xi residence's study.
Servants did not originally need sleep. As long as a Master possessed sufficient aptitude and could provide stable, ample magical energy, these high-ranking familiars could wage war without rest.
But if a Master lacked ability and the Servant could not receive an adequate supply of magical energy, then she would need to replenish it through rest and food, just like a human.
Xi Jianxi was such an outstanding Magus that it was almost wasteful.
With his supply of magical energy, Morgan originally had no need for sleep.
Yet she had fallen asleep in the study while holding a thick book, then dreamed a long-lost, somewhat distant dream.
This was the first morning she had welcomed as a Servant descended for the Holy Grail War.
By the rules of the Holy Grail War, battles were generally fought at night. Daytime was often when Masters and Servants laid traps for and tested one another.
What was her Master doing now?
With that question in mind, she went to the living room.
It was an utterly ordinary morning, an utterly warm scene.
Xi Jianxi was busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen, while Sakura stood on a small stool, watching and learning life skills that had absolutely nothing to do with being a Magus.
Before you continue