Caster Who Couldn't Use Magecraft

The Servant Caster, the Heroic Spirit summoned by Carl, could not, strictly speaking, even be considered a Heroic Spirit.

His parameters were simply far too weak in every respect.

Moreover, no flow of magical energy could be detected. That was far too strange. If he had been an Assassin, it could have been explained by Presence Concealment, but a Caster?

And this Heroic Spirit clearly did not look like much of a fighter. He appeared to be an old man in his sixties or seventies, with white hair and beard, shriveled skin, and a hunched figure. He wore nothing but a loose gauzy robe. No matter how one looked at him, he was just an old man fresh out of the bath. If this were truly some Heroic Spirit from myths and legends, it would be enough to make people laugh their heads off.

He had heard that Odin, the chief god of Norse Mythology, particularly liked disguising himself as an old man. But this old man was neither one-eyed nor possessed the slightest trace of the heroic air a Heroic Spirit should have had...

"Hmm, I see."

For some reason, this elderly Heroic Spirit seemed to quickly grasp something. His dry, tangled hand, like the roots of an ancient tree, stroked the thick beard beneath his chin as he nodded in understanding.

"The Holy Grail War... Heroic Spirits... summoning... I see. Then... the Heroic Spirit Caster, Leonardo di Piero da Vinci. A mere scientist."

Da Vinci was a universally renowned genius of omniscient and omnipotent talent, proficient in many fields, including painting, sculpture, and science...

Yes, science.

Da Vinci, summoned as a Caster, was an elderly scientist who knew nothing of magecraft!

Science and magecraft stood at opposite ends of the road.

Even in this relatively open-minded age, Magi still looked down on science. Abner had been branded a heretic for studying science, while Lord El-Melloi II had received no small amount of criticism for passing the time with video games.

Likewise, scientists always tried to explain everything around them with stiff formulas devoid of beauty and mystery. To science, there were no unexplainable things, only things not yet understood. Thus, they dismissed everything related to magecraft as monsters and spirits, keeping their distance and considering it nothing more than absurd fantasy.

The two were fundamentally different.

Magi believed the world was founded upon mysticism. Humanity understood the laws of mysticism, used those laws, and sought to explore mysticism's highest realm—the domain of true magic, which humans could not achieve.

Scientists, meanwhile, believed the world was material. Everything had its own laws; one merely had to understand and use them. There was nothing science could not accomplish, only things that had not yet been explained.

Scientists hated the baseless nonsense of monsters and spirits, while Magi felt those foolish mortals were impossible to communicate with.

A scientist summoned as a Caster?!

It was utterly ridiculous. It was like buying a pound of peanuts because one wanted to eat watermelon. There was simply no understanding why this had happened.

And yet, it made perfect sense.

Without the support of a Holy Relic, the Heroic Spirit summoned in a Holy Grail War would inevitably be affected by the Master's qualities, summoning a Heroic Spirit comparable to the Master. A first-rate Magus would naturally summon a Heroic Spirit with first-rate attributes. By the same logic, the reverse was also true...

Carl's condition had now deteriorated to rock bottom. Even his life was under threat. How could he possibly summon a powerful Heroic Spirit?

Even while on the verge of death, he had not lost his qualifications as a Master. In his current state, he could only summon a Heroic Spirit suited to him. And parameters at the brink-of-death level were not something one could find casually. Few who had gone down in history as Heroic Spirits were weak to such an extent.

The Grail itself had probably racked its brains before finding a scientist to serve as Caster, linking him to the brink of death with parameters that were all E-rank.

A dying Master and a Magus who knew no magecraft—what a fitting pair!

If there was any pairing more perfectly matched than this, it could only have been Caster Bluebeard and the serial killer Ryunosuke Uryu during the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Perhaps even the person who designed the Holy Grail War system had never considered such an inconceivable situation?

Only now did Tsukahara Meiji finally understand why this Heroic Spirit's abilities were all E-rank. He should never have been summonable as a Heroic Spirit in the first place, just as a dying person normally could not become a Master. These were all exceptions...

And the Sixth Holy Grail War was taking place after the Grail had been dismantled... That was clearly another exception.

An unsettling exception.

Tsukahara Meiji felt his head starting to throb.

"Caster?! You, what magecraft can you use... Hurry and save him!!"

Tsukahara Meiji had just been about to ask whether he knew healing magecraft when Da Vinci crouched down first. Though hunched over, he moved with remarkable agility, nothing like an old man.

"These marvelous crystal pieces... I see. So this is magecraft? Hmm, lend it to me."

Before Tsukahara Meiji could react, Da Vinci had already snatched the Crystal Playing Card from his hand. The exquisite circuits upon it faintly outlined crisscrossing lines. The old man's shriveled, root-like thumb slowly but firmly traced those translucent patterns across the smooth crystal surface. His gaze was clear and forceful, as though he intended to commit the crystal piece completely to memory with his eyes alone.

"Sorry, Master. There are no usable medicinal herbs nearby."

Suddenly, Archer's slightly apologetic voice sounded beside Tsukahara Meiji's ear, snapping the boy out of his stunned state. Only then did he notice that his Servant was in Spirit Form, attending him at his side.

It was only natural that there were no medicinal herbs. This place had been developed as an artificial tourist attraction; how could rare herbs possibly grow here? Was the construction crew supposed to specially select medicinal plants and grow them during construction? Don't be ridiculous. How much would that cost...

"No, it's nothing, Ro... Archer..."

While brushing off his Servant, Tsukahara Meiji focused all his attention on Caster. He had a strange feeling that this old man possessed a special quality that made people trust him. It felt as though he had a kind of power that made people believe in him.

If Carl died, Da Vinci, as his Servant, would surely die as well. Even for his own sake, he would do everything he could, right?

Perhaps sensing that expectation, Archer also turned her attention to Caster Da Vinci. Seemingly having confirmed that he posed no threat, she found even drawing her bow troublesome and simply watched from the side.

"I understand. So this is magecraft?"

In an instant, Da Vinci let out a voice of realization. His grizzled beard trembled slightly with excitement, and joy erupted from the thin body of this skeletal, emaciated old man, overflowing with such passion that it infected everyone around him.

His seemingly powerless hand clenched, mercilessly crushing Tsukahara Meiji's Crystal Playing Card. Then he turned Carl onto his back. His eyes were already vacant, like a fish that had been stranded on shore too long and deprived of oxygen...

Carl might not make it.

The old man's withered hands moved with a young man's sharpness. A Heroic Spirit's appearance was merely a vessel; what truly determined their strength was magical energy, not lifespan. Though he looked like an old man, Da Vinci's body still possessed the condition of a human in their prime. He simply lacked the magical energy needed to wield any great power.

He inserted the crystal fragments into Carl's body in a certain sequence. The sharp shards pierced his flesh, yet no blood flowed out. It was clear that Carl's snake venom had reached a lethal level.

Could these be the acupoints of Chinese legend?

Thinking this, Tsukahara Meiji blankly watched as Da Vinci deftly inserted the fragments into Carl's body one after another. He knew a little about China, but as a Japanese person, his understanding was limited. As for acupoints, one of the core elements of martial arts novels, he could only claim a superficial understanding.

In truth, Da Vinci had indeed inserted them all into Carl's acupoints. In his day, in order to thoroughly study science and better understand art, Da Vinci had dissected corpses more than once, learning about human muscles, bones, and deeper internal structures. He was confident that his understanding of the human body, that work of art, was second to none.

Eastern acupoints had been at the heart of Chinese medicine since ancient times. There was no smoke without fire; the fact that acupoints had been used in Chinese medicine to this day naturally meant they had a scientific basis. Whether they could be clearly explained was one matter; whether they existed was another. Though Da Vinci did not understand Chinese medicine, the knowledge he had accumulated in his youth had allowed him to fully recognize the vital significance of these special points to the human body.

Suddenly, Da Vinci stopped working, gave a slight nod, and said, "Do you have blood?"

"Yes! There's plenty here! How much do you need!"

That meant there was hope! Tsukahara Meiji was overjoyed and quickly rolled up his sleeve, offering over his yellow-skinned arm.

"Master!"

There was a hint of anger in Archer's voice. How could someone casually offer his arm to another person like that? That was his artery! If that Caster had malicious intentions, one slash would be enough to finish him!

Archer, in Spirit Form, furrowed her brows... No, she had no brows in Spirit Form right now. It was merely a feeling.

"It's fine, Archer. Carl saved my life. Even if something happens, I'll only be paying him back."

Tsukahara Meiji was surprisingly open-minded about that. He shook his arm, signaling Da Vinci to hurry, because Carl's complexion was growing worse and worse...

Da Vinci smiled, and a pleased curve faintly appeared beneath his grizzled beard.

"I will not need much."

Using a shard of crystal, he cut Tsukahara Meiji's finger. Then, treating that index finger like a quill, he used blood to draw complex Magic Circuits across Carl's chest.

Yes, Magic Circuits.

His hands moved swiftly. In barely more than ten seconds, a bloody pattern spread across Carl's chest was complete. Was it because he was a Heroic Spirit famous as a painter? Even without brush and ink, even created in such haste, the lines Da Vinci drew still possessed an artistic beauty.

Having completed all this, Da Vinci nodded in satisfaction with an artist's poise as he examined his work. Beneath his grizzled beard, the elderly Heroic Spirit spoke in a firm, decisive tone:

"Come, Magus. Pour magical energy into it—my analysis should not be wrong. I have learned another new piece of knowledge... This feeling of fulfillment is truly addictive."