Type-Moon, Does a Small Cheat Count as a Cheat?

She did know that Sajyou Manaka had been Novia's Master in the recent Sub-species Holy Grail War, but that did not seem useful. Why use it only now? Could Command Spells reach inside the hot spring? Let me take a look too...

Out of curiosity, and out of her own desire to soak in the hot spring with Novia, all of the Thought Partitions in her mind reached a decision. The micron-scale fifth imaginary-element Aether Lines connected to the Sion bracelet invaded Aika's cranial nerves from behind like living creatures, completely plugging into her signals.

She began examining what was currently surfacing in Aika's mind—

This is... the labyrinth's hot spring? From high up? So this is a third-person view? Do Command Spells have a surveillance function too...?

Just as Sion roughly sorted out the situation, her vision began looking down toward the hot spring below.

"This is my first time bathing with you, Melusine."

"I love it. This is precious to me too—my first time."

A boy and a girl, or perhaps a human and a dragon. Yet there seemed to be an infatuated look in the dragon's eyes.

Probably because Novia's body had entered both Sion and Aika's view at the same time.

"Your body is amazing. Mm, amazing... Let me get a better look, Novia."

The silver-haired girl's breath and voice spilled from her lips. Then, with a splash, she wrapped her arms around Novia.

Thus, their skin—flushed red from soaking in the mana spring—pressed tightly together.

"Oh? After seventeen rounds, it still failed in the end? I thought it would succeed. I had even looked forward to it a little."

In a place completely shrouded in blood-red, the sky was a deep, dense crimson, as though covered in thick blood. Not a ray of sunlight could pierce it. The ground was blanketed in blood, forming patches of dark-red marshland.

A seven-headed dragon sprawled amid the blood. Something that had once existed and ought no longer to exist, yet had crawled back of its own accord from an unfathomable abyss.

Beyond waves that rose without wind, a great city drew near. It was another desire born at the heart of a giant golden vortex—the King of the World who possessed the authority to profane all things, governing the phenomena of adornment and decadence.

"But the Counter Force must have intervened. Did it summon one of those so-called Saints? In the end, both their quality and quantity are nothing but third-rate."

In this blood-colored world, a throne stood out in particular.

The throne had been carved from dark-red stone, vivid blood flowing across it as though seeping from within the rock itself.

Upon it sat the petite figure of Nero, fallen into a Beast and now called Draco, flickering in and out of sight. Her Beastly form was exactly as Novia had seen during their first meeting.

Her face was veiled in bloody shadows, with only a pair of scarlet eyes gleaming dangerously.

She supported Goetia's planned Human Order Incineration, but she had her own private designs as well. For instance, the Solar Magic Circle within the Alcatraz Seventh Labyrinth had been modified and deployed through her earlier handiwork. She wanted to see whether a Vampire Species that had devoured numerous Spirit Cores could pull someone down directly without going through the Throne of Heroes.

Otherwise, how could a Vampire Species possibly possess the ability to bind Servants in one place?

But unfortunately, it had failed.

Still, Draco did not particularly care whether the Counter Force had intervened. In any case, the experiment had failed.

After all, this experiment had merely been a whim to her. It did not even deserve Draco treating it as a priority.

"Teacher."

She called out to the irreplaceable existence in her life.

"...Teacher."

I want to see you so badly. Where exactly are you?

The Saintess Pope who had fallen into a Beast would never say such words.

She knew that everything she had done was something that should never have happened in the eyes of her teacher, Novia, but—

"...I am already a Beast of sin. You will have to come punish me eventually, won't you?"

She looked away from the swaying sea of blood, hugged her tail as she curled up upon the throne, and closed her eyes to reminisce about the past.

Then, by the Beast's ears, a distant and dearly missed voice from the past seemed to ring out.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Generally speaking, being able to soak in a hot spring all night was obviously unlikely.

But for the girl who was the incarnation of the Strongest Dragon, and for Novia, whose Dragon Heart provided him with stamina, one night was still far too short.

Still, it was Novia's first time truly experiencing such a thing. To be honest, he naturally felt somewhat shy at first, but he quickly got into the swing of it.

In short, after remaining incredibly energetic through the entire night, Novia ultimately decided it was best to leave soon. There was no need to overdo this sort of thing; there would be more chances anyway.

"Alright, it is about time we stopped. We have soaked long enough."

Novia gave Melusine a gentle kiss on the corner of her lips.

"Ehehe..." Melusine carefully leaned close to Novia's ear and whispered, "It has only been one night. You have my Dragon Heart supporting you, so three days and three nights would not be a problem..."

The dragon girl's beautiful voice, along with the breath escaping from her rosy lips, brushed against Novia's ear. That alone was enough to create a strange itch in one's heart.

"Behave."

"Alright. I will listen to you, Novia."

The silver-haired girl withdrew her fair, slender wrist from Novia's chest and slowly began getting dressed. She lifted the hem of her skirt slightly, then replaced her white thigh-high stocking, which had been soaked by the water.

"By the way, Novia, can you help me put it on? Can you?"

Perhaps the girl was only making a little joke in her own way, but she really did stop putting on her stocking. She lazily lifted one leg slightly, her toes swaying against Novia's chest.

Novia did not say, "Do your own things yourself. Do you think you are a child?" Instead, he followed the direction of her outstretched toes with his gaze, narrowed his eyes, then grabbed her foot and traced circles over her sole.

"N-Novia, do not do that... It tickles... I cannot hold it in anymore..."

"Then do not."

In the end, he delayed their departure by a little longer, eventually carrying Melusine out of the hot spring where the two had spent the night.

Once he dispelled the magecraft that isolated the hot spring's environment, perhaps due to its having been sealed off for so long, warm air immediately flooded the entire third floor of the labyrinth.

Like Novia and Melusine, whose bodies had turned red all over after soaking in the hot spring for the entire night, Sajyou Manaka and Sion were slightly flushed as well. When they saw Novia and Melusine emerge, both of them, who had been lying on the ground, involuntarily trembled before taking a deep breath and slowly getting to their feet.

The hazy, sleepless-looking eyes they instantly turned toward Novia clearly swept meaningfully over his entire body from top to bottom, as though they wanted to say something but held themselves back.

Seeing this, Novia roughly understood why. Perhaps Melusine's soundproofing magecraft had not worked very well?

They could deal with it after returning to Romania. He was not particularly worried, and he had already thought about what would come next.

This time, he had brought Melusine out. After some time, he would go to America to participate in the Holy Grail War there and summon Nero.

Friendly reminder: your one-day limited traversal is about to end.

The moment they stepped out of the labyrinth's entrance, the group saw a dense green forest and a gentle sunset.

But immediately afterward, a system notification window suddenly appeared before Novia's eyes.

He stared stiffly at the system text before him, because the "traversal" option was faintly flashing as it refreshed.

Unlike before, this time no era was marked beside the traversal option. There was only: ???

And a final five-minute countdown. Novia thought for a moment. If it was a one-day limit, then it had probably triggered sometime after he defeated Wolfgang and spared that blond Dead Apostle. So was it related to Dead Apostles and Vampire Species?

Could it be... an era when the Age of Gods had not yet declined?

But he dismissed that thought as soon as it arose, because it seemed impossible. From the moment he obtained this system until now, it had never displayed any timeline from the Age of Gods. The common Norse Age of Gods, Greek Age of Gods, and Japanese Age of Gods had all been absent.

Still, the lack of a marked era cut off Novia's chance to seriously research historical records before this traversal and ultimately grasp the overall course of events.

In other words, for this traversal, Novia could only rely on whatever history, legends, and myths his own mind could remember.

But Novia did not actually need to take this risk. After all, the status and deeds he had gained in Rome had all been carved into the world itself—that is, the dream the planet made every life experience.

That was already enough for him to ignore the possible coming Human Order Incineration. Come to think of it, Goetia still owed Novia a life.

Emotionally and rationally, Novia no longer needed to care at all about a time period of unknown origin. If he were to go anywhere, he ought to choose an era whose historical development he knew and pass through it easily. He only needed to wait slowly, anyway.

But—

Novia had a premonition that something behind it was deeply connected to him, as though it was an event that had begun because of him.

That premonition was so powerful that, even when faced with an unknown possibility, he made up his mind.

"Melusine, Aika, Sion, I have to go to sleep now. I will be counting on you three afterward."

The silver-haired boy spoke as he looked into the three girls' eyes. As soon as his resolve settled, his vision suddenly went black, and his body, robbed of support, fell against Aika, who had reached out fastest.

In the pitch-blackness of his consciousness, after an unknown amount of time had passed, an aged voice, seemingly exhausted beyond measure, slowly sounded beside his ear.

"Elder, this child... There is actually an abandoned child in a place like this... This is the Great Desert..."

"This must be divine will. God is telling us that our interpretation of the inherited murals is correct. If we keep following this path, we will surely find traces of God."

"Then this child..."

"We will raise him. Trade with the Romans has opened up as well. We can afford to feed one child now."

The time was ripe. The ancient bells would ring once more, and a new world was about to arrive.

Beneath the star's dream that the countless masses had failed to achieve, bells rang across the white earth.

Purple orchids kindled hope. Here it halted; death was not life.

Black came from the end, lingering once more; darkness too was light.

—Around 400 AD, the Huns' interpretation of their inherited murals.

AD 418, Western Roman Empire

AD 418.

The Holy Church, created by Pope Novia, had become the state religion and unified the faith. Through Emperor Nero's reforms, it had thoroughly gained control of the entire nation. More than three hundred years after its founding, the Roman Empire that had endured until now had, twenty-three years ago, split into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires due to the increasingly fierce struggle between ecclesiastical and imperial authority that had lasted for a century.

Even today, the two Romes, friendly on the surface, continued to compete behind the scenes. In the Western Roman Empire, where ecclesiastical authority held sway, the idea that heretics were not human had become increasingly prevalent. Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire, where imperial authority dominated, upheld the old ideal of peaceful believers.

Because of this, the Holy Church headquarters in Rome of the Western Roman Empire and the church alliance centered around the Patriarch of Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire had gradually developed a rift.

At this moment, Novia, who had arrived in this era, was fourteen years old and sitting in a room within a small courtyard in the imperial palace of Milan, capital of the Western Roman Empire, set aside specifically for "hostages," writing a letter.

Other than the young him, the old house was empty. Its walls were badly weathered, and weeds and moss grew from the cracks between them.

Novia sat before a battered table, staring at the yellowed paper. The pen clenched in his hand had not moved for several minutes, and he remained silently still.

Looking out from the room, gray-white snowflakes drifted softly from the sky. Before long, they gathered in thick clusters and took over the entire land.

Perhaps the cold weather had stimulated his mind. After drinking the water that had long since gone icy cold, he set the cup down where raindrops had previously fallen onto the ground, producing a crisp sound.

Then he began to write:

Dear King Lua, I have accompanied her to the great city of Milan for three months now. Although our movements are restricted, she has still received a good education at the Roman court. Please rest assured. As I am slightly older, I will naturally take responsibility for her food and daily needs, as well as handling interactions with the Roman imperial family.

Incidentally, she tried to escape several times, but after I brought her back, she became much more obedient.

She no longer dislikes how her name sounds when spoken. Unlike before, she no longer complains that she wants a cuter-sounding name.

Perhaps it is because the elders can no longer hear her protests, and no one will smile and say to her, "At it again?"

For that very reason, she has gradually become someone who can stand on her own.

In any case, everything is well here. We have not been treated differently because we are not believers, and our treatment has been good. Please do not worry.

The King Lua mentioned in the letter was a leader of the Hunnic tribes. This year, he had reached a peace treaty with the Western Roman Empire. According to the treaty, both sides had to send a noble member to the other's territory as a hostage.

After sealing the letter in its envelope, Novia rose, intending to send it out.

The moment he stood, the wind amid the heavy snow battered the window, making it rattle violently as though it were about to collapse.

Though it was a house fit for habitation, living here long-term might be worse than staying in a slightly better prison.

With an indescribable feeling in his heart, Novia slowly walked toward the door.

The moment he opened it—

"I do not want to stay here any longer. The people here are rotten to the core. They are nothing like how you said they would be. I do not want to remain here for even another moment. I want to go home. Let us leave together, Avia."

At the door, a twelve-year-old white-haired girl with brown skin stared tightly at him with blood-red eyes like rubies.

And Avia was the name given to Novia, born in this era, after the Hunnic tribe found him.

"Attila—"