How About You Guys Find a Different Savior

Xi Jianxi had to admit that Rin, with her five elemental affinities, was indeed superior to Sakura in some ways.

It was precisely out of this slight jealousy on Sakura's behalf that Xi Jianxi never let Sakura attend his magic lessons with Rin.

All of Sakura's magic training was handed over to Morgan.

Since the students' aptitudes were roughly equal, the difference had to be made up on the teacher's level.

"In three months, Mr. Tokiomi will begin transferring the crest to his daughter ahead of schedule," Xi Jianxi continued. "And have Rin succeed him as the next head of the Tohsaka Family. This has already been reported to the Mage's Association."

After that, Tokiomi would only act as a father, handling many of the Tohsaka Family's miscellaneous affairs for Rin until she came of age.

Although he could no longer teach his daughter as a Magus, he was still not too dissatisfied with the current situation.

Being alive was better than anything.

"The Mage's Association..." Waver muttered.

Just a few days after the Holy Grail War ended, Waver, as a surviving Magus, received the war report.

Xi Jianxi, standing before him, had killed Kayneth and his Servant in direct combat.

"Don't look at me like that. The Holy Grail War is a life-or-death matter. Kayneth was aware of that himself," Xi Jianxi raised an eyebrow.

"I know," Waver sighed.

Ever since he learned about it, he had started to feel a bit responsible for Kayneth's death.

If the King of Conquerors' Master had been Kayneth instead of Waver, the outcome of the battle between his teacher and Xi Jianxi might have been uncertain.

"So, classmate Waver, aren't you going back to Britain?" Xi Jianxi asked. "Weren't you a student skipping class at the Clock Tower to participate in the Holy Grail War?"

"I'll probably take a leave of absence for a while," Waver said naturally. "After that, I plan to travel around the world and see things I never thought I'd want to understand."

The world was vast, and because of that, there were countless things waiting for Waver to understand.

"As expected... the existence of a king does influence a person," Xi Jianxi said with deep empathy.

Irisviel couldn't help but laugh after hearing this.

After their conversation ended, Irisviel went to reunite with her husband and their family, and they drove towards Shin-yamachō.

Kiritsugu Emiya had bought a house there and was currently renovating it, apparently planning to settle down.

Waver also went to the shopping mall in Shintoshi to purchase supplies for his travels.

"Are you done talking?"

Morgan, who had been having snacks upstairs with Sakura and Karen, came downstairs again after confirming everyone else had left.

She was still wearing the same blue kimono, seemingly quite fond of the clothes Xi Jianxi had picked out for her.

"We're done. We can go to the park to admire the cherry blossoms later," Xi Jianxi said, deliberately looking at Sakura as he spoke.

Karen covered her mouth and giggled, "Are you looking at your sister, or the flowers on the trees?"

"Dad!" Sakura protested indignantly to Xi Jianxi.

While dodging, Xi Jianxi mentioned another matter to Morgan.

"I don't plan to stay in Fuyuki or Japan forever. In a couple of years, when Sakura and Karen are a bit older, I'll often take them traveling abroad to broaden their horizons and experience," Xi Jianxi said with one eye closed. "So, you'll need a false identity to some extent, to keep a low profile."

After all, a Servant was a high-level familiar, and a renowned witch at that; it was bound to attract trouble.

"You mean?"

"You'll need to take on a different alias. If you have any good ideas, you can tell me. There's no rush."

Morgan pinched her chin and thought for a moment.

"Actually, it won't take that long. I've already thought of it. We'll keep your surname, and for the name—"

She looked at Xi Jianxi with a gentle gaze that left him speechless and uttered the name.

"Let's call me Toneriko (Ash)."

End of Volume

Thank you all for your companionship. This book has finally reached the end of its first volume today.

I wonder if the final developments have satisfied everyone.

If there are any shortcomings, please bear with me.

As this is my first Fate fanfiction, I feel quite fortunate. For instance, the anniversary Servant implemented this summer and the latest FGO setting book released in August have both played very important roles in the writing process of this book.

As you can see, the plot of the first volume is set against the timeline of FZ.

Next, I can roughly inform you about the plans for the subsequent two volumes.

The second volume will mainly focus on Xi Jianxi's life as a Magus at the Clock Tower, with the story primarily corresponding to parts of "Lord El-Melloi II Case Files."

For the third volume, I think some readers may have already guessed it; it will actually connect to the timeline of the Fifth Holy Grail War in FGO. After all, Morgan has appeared, so the plot is definitely heading in that direction (laughs).

I hope that this advance notice will not affect the reading experience of those who are still following this book.

Finally, I'd like to add a small explanation about the protagonist's setting.

The name Xi Jianxi is somewhat of a personal indulgence.

The surname Shiomi comes from Shiomi Kotone, the default protagonist's name for the female lead in Persona 3 Portable.

As for Tenkei, I stumbled upon the pen name of a writer named Hasegawa Tenkei, thought it sounded nice, and decided to use it.

Coincidentally, "Tenkei" and "Apocalypse" have the same pronunciation in Japanese.

And so, it was decided.

Regarding the male protagonist's setup, there were actually some subtle adjustments made during the writing process. Because of this, I secretly made a few changes to the initial prologue. As for the specific reasons why, please allow me to keep them a secret for now.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all again for your support.

Even though it's the National Day holiday, I won't be slacking off and will work hard to fulfill the promised bonus chapters.

Happy National Day, everyone.

Shadow Realm Interlude: Life (1)

"Gotcha!"

"Too slow!"

Using the smoke from his Explosive Flame Magic bombardment to obscure vision, Shiomi Tenkei seized the opportunity to move behind his opponent and launch an attack.

However, before his gun could strike, his opponent turned around at even greater speed and knocked it away.

Tumbling several times across the hard, uneven stone ground, Shiomi's body finally stopped after crashing into a stone wall.

"Hiss..."

Shiomi lay on the ground, gasping.

That last strike had hit his shoulder blade squarely, and Shiomi thought his bone was going to break.

Even with the aid of healing Runes, the pain was unavoidable.

Watching the tall, slender purple figure land in front of him, Shiomi habitually reached for his gun, which had fallen nearby, preparing to get up and continue fighting the person before him.

"That's enough for today. Your body is already at its limit." The woman with long purple hair flicked her toe, and Shiomi's gun flew up into her hand.

Upon hearing the declaration that it was over, Shiomi finally breathed a sigh of relief and remained motionless on the ground.

Although time couldn't be measured here, and the passage of time was invisible, with the sky always overcast, Shiomi could still roughly estimate from his physical sensations that the training had lasted for most of the day.

Fatigue alone made his whole body ache, so he simply lay on the ground, waiting for the Runes to heal him.

"You've improved. I only intended to test your limits, but you managed to hold on longer than I expected," the woman said, half-squatting beside Shiomi with a pleased expression.

"Am I the one who held on? You're the one who didn't call it quits, Master..." Shiomi closed his eyes, not wanting to look at her beautiful face, which wasn't even a hair out of place.

This place was known as the Shadow Realm, and the person he called Master was the mistress, or rather, the queen, who guarded this land.

Scathach.

Shiomi could barely remember when he first arrived here. All he knew was that a long time had passed.

Because he could survive in this land, Scathach was satisfied with his potential and took him on as a disciple.

Shiomi could have refused, but she said if he did, she would leave him in the wilderness and abandon him.

Tired of fighting the undead, Shiomi readily accepted her offer and became her disciple.

"Is that so? I felt I was merely testing the waters. Of course, my disciple could endure that much," Scathach said.

"Alright..." Shiomi half-opened his eyes. "So, Master, did you go easy on me today?"

He asked again.

Training sessions like this, which felt like a marathon of spitting blood, weren't new.

Yet, he felt today hadn't been as difficult—even though he still lost in the end.

"Oh? I didn't expect you to say that. It looks like we can proceed with more difficult content in the next training session," Scathach's smile carried a dangerous signal.

Shiomi realized there was no turning back. He got up from the ground and leaned against the castle's stone wall.

Scathach, with her usual casual demeanor, sat down next to Shiomi in an equally uninhibited posture.

"But speaking of which, there's really nothing here," Shiomi said. "No food, no drink... It's a miracle I managed to survive."

Scathach smiled knowingly. "Not entirely. Unlike the outside world, the Great Source here is still abundant. As long as you have sufficient magical energy, you can survive."

She extended her hand, and magical energy naturally gathered in her palm, mere inches away from crystallizing.

"If you're tired, fight fatigue with magic. If you're hungry, fight hunger with magic. If you're injured, heal yourself with magic," Scathach said. "This level of self-sufficiency shouldn't even require me to teach you."

"Uh..." Shiomi grinned, unable to articulate a proper response.

He had thought Scathach had bestowed some sort of magical blessing upon him, but it seemed the opposite was true.

"Just from this alone, your talent in this regard is already the most outstanding among all the disciples I've ever taught." Scathach was ruthless during training, but she never hesitated to praise when it was due.

Shiomi sat cross-legged, placing his hands on his ankles. "Since the magical energy here is abundant enough for me to survive... then is it possible to use magic to create plants and make them bear fruit?"

"I've already told you, this is a land of death," Scathach replied calmly. "To put it another way, this is a place like the underworld. The concept of 'life' basically doesn't exist here."

Hearing this, Shiomi was about to ask, "Then aren't you and I considered life?", but the words caught in his throat, and he swallowed them back.

Scathach, who had already semi-deified, could no longer be considered life in the ordinary sense.

For her, death was not a possibility.

Whether it was a beautiful death or an ugly one.

She simply maintained an eternal existence like this.

Perhaps only when the moment the world and everything beyond it perished would she finally experience something that could be called "death."

As for him—

"Well, you don't need to worry about that. I'm just lucky and can't die."

Xi Jianxi had once asked Scathach this, but his master had given him an answer that was somewhat unfathomable.

Knowing that no matter how much he asked, he wouldn't get any other answer, Xi Jianxi didn't press further.

"So... is it really impossible?" Xi Jianxi asked.

Scathach smiled comfortably. "What? Do you want to try?"

"I'm a little curious, Master. Can you teach me?" Xi Jianxi's spirits lifted.

But Scathach's next words poured cold water over him. "Figure it out yourself. I've already taught you everything I can about magecraft."

"...Master..." Xi Jianxi complained.

"Don't force yourself. Do it if you want to, and don't bother if you don't," Scathach chuckled to herself. "Just don't let it interfere with your training."

Xi Jianxi immediately got annoyed. He brushed off the dust and jumped up from the ground. "Hey, Master, do you think I'm trying to use this as an excuse to get out of training?"

Seeing him trying to control his emotions while still letting them show, Scathach decided not to clear up the misunderstanding.

"It's best if you don't. You know the consequences of skipping training. You can use anything in the castle. If you can actually achieve something, then perhaps I can reduce your subsequent training intensity."

After Xi Jianxi nodded silently, he left without looking back.