Ice Castle

The lake water seemed to take on a physical form, shooting up from the surface and piercing the sky. The translucent river water reflected the streetlights with a gentle sheen, pale ice-blue with silvery edges glinting along its borders. Then, like the lake itself, the flowing water was swiftly covered in a thin layer of ice, like a meticulously crafted ice sculpture. An invisible giant hand rapidly used river water and ice shards as materials to build its majestic structure.

It was a fortress-like ice castle roughly thirty meters tall and covering around two thousand square meters. It had the shape of a medieval castle, but every sheet of ice gleamed faintly with moisture. Through its translucent structure, one could vaguely make out what the people inside were doing. Then, a nauseatingly dense wave of magical energy spread from within the castle...

Even Archer, who knew little about magecraft, understood that this had to be the Magus's workshop!

She simply had not expected a Magic Workshop of this type to exist!

Generally speaking, even if a Magus's workshop could alter its internal structure, none could alter its exterior... A Magic Workshop like Abner's, hidden in the currents during the day and revealing its towering form only at night under the guidance of magical energy, was practically unheard of!

In truth, this was no easy feat.

However, Abner was a genius.

Otherwise, he would not have succeeded as head of the Winifred Family at such a young age. Though barely an adult, he had displayed greater talent in magecraft than the previous family head, who had devoted himself to the mystic arts and inherited the family crest. For the family's better development, the previous head had chosen to step down, hoping that a more talented Magus could further develop the family crest.

Moreover, Abner specialized in water-element magecraft, especially Precision Manipulation. It would not be an exaggeration to call him a construction worker who excelled at building things with water. He had also studied fluid mechanics to support his control. Though many at the Clock Tower looked down on Abner for studying science, when it came to manipulating water, even the older generation of Magi at the Clock Tower would have to sigh: "The waves behind drive on those before; the new generation replaces the old."

Abner's control over water was so precise that he could direct every water molecule in an entire river. Proficient in modern science, he could use the least possible effort to exploit the properties of flowing water and construct his own Magic Workshop anywhere along the river. Reinforced with Rune magecraft, he could quickly assemble a powerful Magic Workshop.

Thus, although Abner's workshop appeared to be a Disposable Workshop, it was fundamentally different.

The benefits gained from a Magic Workshop of this level were simply not worth spending so much magical energy.

A workshop was a place where Magi laid out magecraft and made preparations in advance. Put simply, it was like a modern research institute, where test tubes, potions, and all sorts of things could be quickly prepared for any experiment. But if one spent the entire budget on buying the research institute itself, that would be more trouble than it was worth.

That was why what Abner had done... was truly shocking.

Before coming to Qianxi, he had investigated all the local waterways. Moreover, this place was close to Beijing, China's capital, an ancient city built upon a Dragon Vein. Using water as a medium, Abner had forcibly turned this entire river into his Magic Workshop! In other words, as long as he was anywhere along this river, he could effortlessly draw upon the magical energy flowing through the Dragon Vein in its waters and gather it within his workshop.

That allowed him to bypass the enormous consumption drawback of a Disposable Workshop.

That was why Abner did not mind his workshop being discovered. It was a disposable consumable, like a paper cup. People used them not only to drink water, but also to hold things or put out cigarette butts, precisely because they were cheap.

Abner did not care in the slightest if his workshop was discovered.

Because any corner of this river could become his workshop.

A workshop like this was useless defensively. In an open palace, magical energy dispersed too easily, making it impossible to gather enough power to set traps or construct defenses.

But... if it was used solely as a Mana Reactor, then all the flowing water in this artificial river would provide Abner with magical energy through this fortress...

That was an utterly terrifying amount of magical energy.

So that was it... Loxia desperately suppressed her shock and let the lemon flavor in her mouth spread across her tongue. She turned around, wanting to see how the people in the shop reacted. Yet every man and woman there was simply staring at her...

Could it be?!

Archer Loxia immediately understood...

This was probably some kind of Invisibility Spell.

It made the pedestrians around them ignore everything happening on the river... Or perhaps it was a large-scale illusion that made them believe this was still the river they knew...

Loxia quickly shifted her gaze away and stopped staring at the castle. Instead, she put on the appearance of a girl waiting for someone, anxiously looking around.

Abner's intention was probably to see who paid attention to the castle. That would reveal who had not been affected by the magecraft, allowing him to identify those with magical energy.

Then she could only do her best to appear innocent.

Archer had no intention of sniping him.

Archer's Noble Phantasm was only Rank C. It was merely an ordinary weapon capable of affecting Servants, and it could not even release its True Name. Sniping Abner inside the castle was impossible.

Besides... with him making such a spectacle of himself, someone was bound to notice him and issue a challenge. Archer did not need to act. Those involved could not see clearly, while onlookers saw everything. From an outsider's perspective, many things became obvious. Waiting for the exhausted enemy and bringing back as much intelligence as possible—that was a spy's job.

Even if no one came to challenge him, she could still analyze the character and habits of the other participants.

Having thought it through, Archer Loxia calmly continued pretending to be a girl anxiously waiting for her no-show boyfriend. Amid the indignant grumbling in the shop—"Why isn't that bastard here yet?! Making a girl wait this long is practically a death sentence!"—she peacefully savored her milk tea.

The night gradually deepened, and streetlamps replaced daylight as the dominant color of the world. No one expressed any strange amazement at the castle in the water. It seemed Abner's precautions were exceptionally thorough.

As expected of a first-rate Magus.

As the night deepened, fewer and fewer pedestrians remained on the streets. After ten o'clock, almost no one was wandering outside. The reason was simple: people chose Qianxi for its slow pace, so they could enjoy life. And people who enjoyed life would not be aimlessly wandering around so late at night.

Even those who enjoyed nightlife would already be sitting in their favorite bars, or taking their favorite girls to their favorite hotels... Wandering around? How could that be possible?

Yet Archer's long wait finally paid off.

At some unknown moment, a pitch-black figure silently entered Loxia's field of vision.

There was no need to say more. It was the Assassin-class Servant, Hattori Hanzo.

Both Servants possessed the ability known as Presence Concealment, allowing them to hide easily among crowds and making it difficult for enemies to detect them. Yet this ability was meaningless against each other. Though they could not track one another through magical energy, they could still see and notice each other with their eyes.

Perhaps he trusted his Presence Concealment too much. Assassin walked toward Abner's ice city on the water as casually as if he were strolling through a garden.

Inside the milk tea shop, Archer keenly maintained the disguise of an anxious girl and successfully deceived Assassin... Or rather, Assassin was so focused on the ice castle that he had paid no attention to his surroundings.

Even if he had looked around, it would have been useless. Archer also possessed a stealth ability and could conceal her magical energy. To Assassin, Loxia was nothing more than an ordinary girl.

Meanwhile, Loxia had indeed seen Assassin's appearance during their battle, but she had been wearing that green robe at the time...

Show me, then, Assassin-class Servant. How exactly do you fight?

With that thought in mind, Archer subtly watched Assassin's movements from the corner of her eye.

The man dressed in black swiftly moved through the crowd. Then he stepped onto the frozen river, his dark silhouette forming a stark contrast against the pale ice walls. He silently approached the gate, and then...

He formed a hand seal with both hands. A cloud of green smoke surged forth, and when it dispersed, Assassin's figure had already appeared vaguely within the ice wall!

Ninjutsu!

If they had not been enemies, Archer would truly have wanted to applaud him. As expected of a Ninja, a profession so mythologized that anime and film still continued to elevate it to legend. It was an incredibly bold method.

At the same time, Assassin had already infiltrated the ice castle. Without triggering a single mechanism, he silently approached Abner's room at the center of the castle.

Normally, a Magus's workshop would be equipped with an airtight warning system. Unfortunately, in this particular terrain, the magical energy used for defensive magecraft dispersed too severely, which was practically the same as telling the enemy where the traps were. Once the trap locations were known, avoiding them was easy. Furthermore, Abner had never intended to use this place as a long-term base. He was happy to keep things simple, so he had not set up any defensive warning system at all. He had merely made a few mechanisms, symbolically establishing the concept of it being a workshop.

Assassin displayed his Rank A Agility to its fullest, cleverly stepping through the gaps between mechanisms like an acrobat. Without the slightest injury, he slipped inside and quietly approached Abner's bed.

Upon a bed formed from ice shards, the fair-skinned, blond Magus rested as if asleep. He had not noticed Assassin's approach at all. He was still wearing the gray suit from the day, his whole body as still as a corpse awaiting burial. His arms were crossed over his chest, and his eyes were closed.

What a foolish thing to do.

He actually dared sleep like this before eliminating Assassin?

Assassin inwardly sneered at the Magus's naivety. Courage was a fine quality, but this was far too reckless. Then he looked at the Heroic Spirit built like a mountain, who was squatting in the corner against the wall. His clothes had long since been replaced by a golden cuirass and a crimson cloak. His muscles were hard as stone, his arms wrapped around his knees. A spear ran through the gap in his posture and rested upon his shoulder. He appeared to be meditating with his eyes closed.

You trust your Servant too much.

Thinking this, Assassin quietly drew a short blade from his robe. Throwing a projectile would have been more convenient, but considering the Heroic Spirit's enormous shield, Assassin decided not to gamble. He had already caused his Master one failure. He absolutely could not allow a second.

After all, Presence Concealment, the specialty of the Assassin class, was an ability that made one's presence faint so long as killing intent was not revealed. Yes, concealing killing intent was the prerequisite. Even at Rank A, Assassin still could not release killing intent without drawing attention.

Therefore, he had to close the distance until being discovered no longer mattered.

He silently edged closer to Abner, straddled his body, and raised the blade high with both hands. Under the surge of his Rank B Strength, veins bulged across the backs of his hands as the sharp dagger stabbed toward the Magus's peacefully sleeping face!!