Chapter 455

Mosaic City Tallahassee.

It is one of the few Mosaic City in the Americas after the war. Before the war, it was the capital of Florida. During the Holy Grail War that swept the globe, Cape Canaveral, a space facility in Florida, was the first to be attacked and became a battlefield.

Today, due to the rise in sea level after the war, it has a strong Bounded Field just like the cities in Japan. Also, due to its location in the Americas, the capital city is equipped with equipment to deal with large monsters, just like the City of Tama in Japan.

To some extent, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the world where humanity lives in this New Era a wasteland. After all, there are uncontrolled Drone left over from before the war in the sky and sea that prevent people from flying into the sky and using ships to navigate the sea, and there are even a certain number of large monsters on land.

At this very moment, the central square of Tallahassee is bustling with crowds and large screens are displayed on the buildings.

In one corner of the square, a chestnut-haired girl wearing a white top was playing a blue Guitar.

This is a very typical street musician, commonly seen in various City areas in the New Era. However, no passersby stop, and everyone walks quickly past the girl. This is probably because although her music style is also the Americas, it is too old-fashioned, belonging to the style of the 1980s.

The Guitar was connected to the amplifier via a wire, and the music played came out of the amplifier. For a New Era street performer, her volume was really a bit too loud.

It was a passionate and uplifting Melody...

Sadly, the piece the girl played was completely out of place with the atmosphere of the Mosaic City Tallahassee, where people were expected to be careful and not disturb others.

Therefore, this is the biggest reason why her performances are not popular with the audience.

If this were in the old days, it might be acceptable, or perhaps it could be placed in another Mosaic City, but this is Tallahassee, the first place attacked in the Holy Grail War. No citizen would want to be in this place filled with passion, a Melody that evokes memories of past misfortunes.

In 1824, the capital of Florida was not Tallahassee, but two separate cities, one in the east and one in the west. However, due to the prevalence of Yellow Fever at the time, a healthy inland location needed to be chosen. So, the envoys from the two states set off from west to east and from east to west, respectively. The place where the two met became the new capital, Tallahassee, a town where one could see meadows full of flowers in the distance.

Its name means "ancient land" in Apalachee, and in a sense, it is the 'New Canaan', the Promised Land.

For many years, Florida has been a vibrant place, and its people are known for their passion and enthusiasm. Although Cape Canaveral, Aviation Holy Land, was established there based on its geography, logistics, and transportation conditions, this very fact testifies to the courage of the locals.

Regardless, those who dare to challenge the darkness are always incredibly passionate. They don't fight to win, but to reject humanity's definition of darkness.

But all of this came to an end in 2011. After Cape Canaveral was destroyed, Tallahassee was also indiscriminately attacked. Just like Cape Canaveral, which was overgrown with vines and left unattended, and was eventually submerged by rising sea levels, the people who continued to live there, whether they were Old Humanity or New Humanity, were as if they were bound by invisible vines and seawater, and became cautious.

If someone were to bring an old-fashioned rocket or airplane to the New Humanity of Tallahassee and ask them about it, their answer would invariably be something like, "I don't know what it is... It looks like it's swallowed something huge, it looks terrifying."

That's why passionate music isn't welcome here. Compared to places where large audiences gather and performers put on exaggerated acts, the place where the chestnut-haired girl is located can truly be described as a remote corner. Even the Guitar case, placed at her feet as a place for audiences to tip or throw money, only contains a few coins and bills.

To be honest, these physical currencies are rarely used in the New Era, and it seems her earnings weren't very good either.

But he seemed completely unconcerned, simply playing the Guitar with his eyes closed as if he were completely absorbed in his hobby.

"Wow—why is the style so Abhimanyu...?"

Upon hearing this, the chestnut-haired girl playing the Guitar opened her eyes and saw a silver-haired girl squatting beside her, listening to her performance.

The chestnut-haired girl stopped playing and said with a smile, "Jack of Tallahassee?"

"Huh? Big sister, why are you calling me Jack like that?"

The silver-haired girl, one of the many Jack of the New Era, asked with some confusion.

"Because I've seen Jack in other City too. According to you, you have a group chat, right? And the nickname is just the location Jack, plus you guys look very similar."

The chestnut-haired girl grinned at Jack nodded in return. "Thank you for listening to me play for so long."

"You can actually travel between City on different continents?! That's amazing..."

Jack from Tallahassee looked at the girl in surprise.

After the New Era, the disruption of air and sea routes led to the decline of intercontinental communication, and civilization returned to a state of fragmented city-states. In addition, the New Humanity themselves do not like to go out, so communication relies on the AI in various City, which is not real-time, making it quite troublesome. Therefore, to travel to City in other continents, it is basically necessary to rely on Servant who have established Underground Routes, but the cost is astronomical.

"It's just so-so."

The chestnut-haired girl nodded with a smug expression, then immediately pulled a square plastic shell from the Guitar case on the ground, her eyes shining as she stared at Jack in front of her.

"Jack the Ripper, you've listened to my performance for so long, are you willing to buy it? I'm really sorry, but it's just so good, there's nothing I can do about it. But do you have cash? If you want to use a checkout code, just stick it over there."

"Okay, okay."

As Jack pulled out his phone to scan the chestnut-haired girl's QR code, Jack thought, "Wow, that's expensive! I'd have to participate in the Holy Grail Elimination Tournament three times to earn that many Q coins..."

"It's definitely worth the price; after all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the emotional value is the best."

"Um, but big sister, can I ask you a question?"

What's the problem?

"That is..."

Jack waved the plastic shell in his hand blankly, "What is this?"

"Oh, so Jack from Tallahassee doesn't know..."

The chestnut-haired girl hesitated, "This is a CD, you know. Simply put, it's something that stores music, so it needs a player—"

"But Jack, I don't have a media player either."

It's heartless of me, but... if I can't sell them, I'll be broke today. This is the only way.

Thinking of this, the girl suddenly brightened up and said again, "... How about buying another one? I have some here, cheap and affordable."

"OK."

Upon hearing the notification from her phone that the money had been credited to her account, the beaming girl turned to Jack, who was holding a CD player, and strummed a very romantic Melody on her Guitar.

"By the way, Jack, do you have any favorite songs? If I know them, I can play them for you."

"No need, I've heard enough... Um, since it's come to this, could you do me a favor Jack?"

Jack, having slashed the media player with his knife, pulled out his phone, smoothly logged onto the Holy Grail Elimination Tournament's official website, selected the Japan Holy Grail Elimination Tournament in Shinjuku, Japan, and handed it to the chestnut-haired girl. "Could you help Jack out in this 'Demon King's' tournament?"

"... Oh, you want me to become an online troll?!"

"No, it's just sending encouraging messages like 'Keep it up! You look so cool!'..."

"I didn't expect you Jack to be like this."

The chestnut-haired girl's lips curled up subtly. "This really surprised me, but it's not impossible."

"In that case, could you perhaps create a song for this Demon King after watching her match? Using the song you made yourself, and I'll pay for Jack."

Jack from Tallahassee was naturally in Jack from Shinjuku's group. Although most of them didn't think she looked like a 'mother' in the photos, since Jack from Shinjuku said so, it must be true. After all, Jack wouldn't lie to Jack, so that's why Jack from Tallahassee did it this way.

Upon hearing this, the girl casually scratched her hair and said with a smile:

"Oh well, this doesn't really suit my personality, but it's rare for a customer to ask for this, so I'll give it a try."

"Thanks!"

Overjoyed, Jack skipped away like a bouncy ball. Although it was just one person's change, it seemed to brighten the whole corner of the square where the girl was.

Just then, as the chestnut-haired girl was about to pick up the banknotes from her Guitar case and leave, a shadow appeared in front of her, causing her to instinctively look up.

An orange-haired woman raised a lit cigarette, looking down at her with a mocking smile:

"You're almost fifty years old, and you're still deceiving children, Aoko."

A moment later, at an outdoor table prepared for waiting customers at a restaurant in the central square, the two who had just met stared at each other expressionlessly.

As if to break the silence, Touko Aozaki calmly said:

"I never expected you to come to Tallahassee."

"That's normal. After all, there are only so many City in the world now, you'll run into them just by strolling around."

"Yeah, they're scamming kids out of their money."

"Objection!"

The chestnut-haired girl, Aoko Aozaki, made an X gesture. "Jack is Servant, and in terms of age, he's over a hundred years old."

"Oh."

Touko gave a mocking laugh, "Clearly, all the Jack who possessed were born after the New Era, the oldest being no more than eight years old."

"... That was a reasonable deal."

"Never mind, I have no intention of asking you these things."

Touko took a sip of her Black Tea. "What is your purpose in coming to Tallahassee?"

Touko understood her younger sister's personality quite well. Although she was traveling the world, she tried her best to answer the various mysteries of the New Era, such as "Why is the death rate of the Holy Grail War that swept the world so high?", "Why are there no flying objects in the air in the New Era?", and "Who planned the Holy Grail War in various countries?"

"It's simple, because of Cape Canaveral."

Was it merely a coincidence that this Aviation Holy Land was the first to be attacked? Given humanity's desire to explore the stars, prioritizing its destruction might first and foremost stifle the possibility of human development, imprisoning civilization on a surface shrouded in death.

However...

Aoko sighed and continued, "Cape Canaveral is now submerged. Even if I overcome the massive underwater monsters and swarms of Drone, I can't open the Great Gate to Cape Canaveral. It's a place that requires a staff member's card to open."

"What are the AIs in Tallahassee saying?"

"They said they were powerless; all the data from Cape Canaveral had been lost, and most of the old government's records, which they had no right to access, had also disappeared."

Aoko glanced at the sky. "Although I'd like to use Violence to open it, it might destroy the remaining Cape Canaveral, so I can't."

"Yeah."

After Touko finished speaking, the two fell silent again.

"Hey, you two—you haven't seen each other in so long, at least catch up on how you've been?"

At this moment, a blonde person dressed in White Sweater, whose gender was unclear, interjected.

Although this person appeared suddenly, it was as if he had been there from the very beginning, leaning against the wall some distance away from the sisters, staring at them with curious eyes.

Touko glanced at the blond man with a cold look in her eyes.

"It's Beo, long time no see."

Its essence is Star Drop, a high-dimensional life whose soul has been materialized. It can change its form as needed. After being with the Touko, it was named Beowulf. In Novia, during the time of the King of the Huns Avia, it was brought to Avia by Sinfjötli, the Norse hero summoned by Odin.

However, at that time, he appeared as a young Werewolf.

"Long time no see, Aoko —speaking of which, wasn't the clerk just calling your number? Aren't you going in?"

"Ah... um..."

Aoko smiled. "I must have missed it."

This is a lie; she simply didn't want to spend money and wanted to get the snacks the shop gave to waiting customers for free.

"Oh, I see. What a pity. We'll just have to get a new number then."

Beo said in a nonchalant tone, "But how have you been lately? Touko and I just came from New York. It's a great place, with Bunyan statue from early United States stories. Legend says he was a male woodcutter, but it turns out he's a three-meter-tall little girl in Present World..."

"In the 2011 Holy Grail War in the New York area, Paul Bunyan appeared as Berserker. She fought desperately to protect New York from the destruction of the New York with her Noble Phantasm, which is why the surviving New York erected a statue in her honor."

Touko explained softly.

Although the Holy Grail War that swept the globe was generally a disaster for ordinary people at the time, the Servant involved were not all willing to do anything for victory. Some Servant were willing to give up their long-cherished wishes for the sake of what they had now, after all, they were heroes.

"Speaking of which, I have met Robespierre, Mordred before..."

Aoko narrowed her eyes slightly. "Anyway, they're all a bunch of pretty sassy guys."

"Robespierre? He must have been in Paris?"

"That's right, but because of its original deeds, it's been marked as a 'high-risk entity' by the City, which means that a 'loyalty shackle' will be forcibly attached when it's summoned..."

While speaking, Aoko recalled her encounter with Sherlock Holmes in London. The great detective had told her that this action clearly contradicted the Holy Grail's tendency to only respond to Servant 'maintain the status quo,' while suppressing the appearance of Servant would overthrow the existing system, and the templated therapy in the group psychotherapy room.

However, when Aoko told him about it a few days later, Sherlock Holmes looked blank and at a loss, as if he had never said anything about it.

"By the way, you still haven't summoned Servant?"

Touko, who was smoking, keenly noticed the Command Spell in Aoko's hand; the dotted patterns were a unique design characteristic of those who became Master later in life.

"It doesn't say that having this means you have to summon a Servant. Can't I just leave it as is...? Aren't you the same?"

I don't think I need to.

In fact, there are also people who obtain the Holy Grail through acquired factors but do not accept Holy Grail and insist on not using Holy Grail power. They have never even used Command Spell. This means that their Servant have never been summoned and are simply left unused. There are a few people like this in the New World, such as the parents of Erice's friend Karin.

"Anyway, the Crowd has the new Command Spell, but only Chizuru has the old Command Spell."

Aoko said it casually.

The so-called old-style Command Spell are Command Spell that belonged only to the Master in past Holy Grail War, meaning they could only be used three times.

"Ugh, I really want this too! If I had it, I could summon Servant..."

Beo muttered to himself, "Who would it be, according to my wishes? My master? King Attila? Or that Three-Headed Dragon?"