Ring~~~
After returning to his hotel room, Wang Xiaoming suddenly heard his phone ring. He pulled it out and saw that the caller was the head of the Fuyuki Police Department he'd spoken with earlier.
"Hello—"
"..."
"I see."
"..."
"Sorry for the trouble. Thank you so much."
"..."
After hanging up, Wang Xiaoming thought back over what the police chief had told him.
His title of "Honorary Citizen" had been granted. But more than the title, Wang Xiaoming cared about the bonus that came with it.
Five million yen was a pretty hefty bit of extra cash, even if he had earned it with his life on the line.
During their conversation, the chief had also told Wang Xiaoming about Ryunosuke's current situation.
Ryunosuke was being held at Fuyuki City Prison. All that remained was for the verdict to come down, after which he'd be given a bullet to end his evil life.
"Medea, what did you do to Ryunosuke Uryu back then?"
Wang Xiaoming turned to Medea, who was on the other side of the room.
"Ryunosuke Uryu? Who's that?"
Medea had been restoring her magical energy. Hearing Wang Xiaoming's question, she opened her eyes and asked in confusion.
"The madman who was there when you were summoned." Wang Xiaoming gave her a hint.
"Oh, I just put a curse on him. It makes him experience certain hallucinations." Medea remembered the man and answered casually.
"What kind of hallucinations?"
"Whatever methods he used to kill people, those same methods will be perfectly reenacted on him, one by one." He'd dared to call her a Demon the moment they met. There was no way she'd let someone like that die quickly.
"Uh..."
"What? Did something go wrong?" Wang Xiaoming wouldn't bring someone up out of nowhere. If he did, something must have happened beyond what Medea remembered. She straightened up, her expression turning serious.
"Nothing went wrong..." Wang Xiaoming waved a hand to reassure her.
It was just—
Thinking about Ryunosuke's nature, Wang Xiaoming couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from twitching wildly.
What if he's enjoying himself in those hallucinations?
I hope he doesn't take things too far.
Fuyuki City Prison
"Hey, we've got a new guy!"
As the iron door swung open, a man with orange hair was shoved inside.
"What'd you do to end up here, kid?"
There was another inmate in the cell: a burly, scar-faced man with a vicious look who put on a kind expression as he questioned the orange-haired man. The result was downright comical.
"..."
The orange-haired man's eyes were empty and unfocused. He looked like a walking corpse. Just then, the scar-faced man noticed the name tag on his chest.
"Ryunosuke Uryu?"
That perverted serial killer was still alive? But he looked like he'd be better off dead. Medea must have had a lot to do with that.
"Tsk, they even put you in leg irons. You must've done something pretty bad, kid."
The scar-faced man looked down and spotted the shackles on Ryunosuke's ankles. Leg irons were reserved for the most deranged and dangerous prisoners.
"..."
Ryunosuke still didn't react.
"Tsk, what a shame."
The scar-faced man studied Ryunosuke Uryu again, finally certain that the man in front of him was broken. He couldn't help sighing.
But then again—
This kid was pretty good-looking—
After serving time for so long, the scar-faced man had started to tire of his two "wives." A change of pace now and then could be nice.
As he thought about it, the scar-faced man's smile grew increasingly "pure." In a greasy voice that made one's skin crawl, he asked Ryunosuke Uryu:
"Kid, do you like playing games♂?"
"..."
"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes!"
After getting up, Wang Xiaoming completed the daily magecraft training Medea had assigned him. He glanced at the time; it was about when he and Kayneth had agreed to meet the day before.
He didn't wake Little Shirou, who was still fast asleep. The boy had stayed up alone in the room for a long time the night before, waiting for Wang Xiaoming and Medea to return.
Kids needed plenty of sleep—
Wang Xiaoming took a relatively formal outfit from his luggage, tidied himself up a little, and was about to head out.
"Wait—"
Medea appeared in the living room, walked up to Wang Xiaoming, and reached out to straighten his collar.
"Uh—"
Medea's gesture caught Wang Xiaoming completely off guard. He froze on the spot.
"All done."
Afterward, Wang Xiaoming couldn't even remember how he'd managed to walk out the door.
Since this was a visit, Medea didn't use magecraft to hide Wang Xiaoming's movements. So the moment he stepped outside, Kayneth received a warning from his bounded field.
"How interesting. So they were hiding here."
When the warning came, Kayneth was momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered. He waved a hand and deactivated the bounded field's defensive functions.
Since the other party had revealed their base as a show of good faith, refusing to lower his defenses would make Kayneth seem petty.
Medea, who had already taken control of half the bounded field, naturally knew what Kayneth was doing. She gave a cold snort but said nothing.
Just like that, Wang Xiaoming made his way unimpeded to Kayneth's suite on the top floor.
"Good day, Lord Kayneth."
Wang Xiaoming attempted an awkward mage's greeting. He'd only managed it after a last-minute crash course from Medea.
"You can skip the unnecessary formalities. A clumsy attempt at them will only lower my opinion of you."
Kayneth sat in the main seat of the reception room, fingers interlaced beneath his chin, and studied Wang Xiaoming with interest.
"I imagine you went to verify the information I gave you last night, Lord Kayneth."
After taking a seat opposite Kayneth, Wang Xiaoming smiled as he asked the question without a hint of nervousness.
"Indeed."
Kayneth nodded and honestly recounted what he'd learned the previous night.
"Several familiars I used to gather information were silently eliminated. They weren't important, but I doubt any Servant other than Assassin could have done something so stealthily."
That was exactly why Kayneth valued the information Wang Xiaoming had. It was also why he wasn't treating Wang Xiaoming with his usual arrogance.
"As for whether Archer and Assassin's Masters are working together, I haven't been able to verify that yet."
Kayneth had no choice but to admit that the rest of the information remained unconfirmed.
"Archer's Master is Tohsaka Tokiomi. Assassin's Master is Kirei Kotomine, the son of the man overseeing this Holy Grail War, Risei Kotomine." Wang Xiaoming revealed the identities of Archer and Assassin's Masters as though it had nothing to do with him.
"So one of the Three Founding Families is working with those fanatics. They've truly fallen into disgrace."
Kayneth sneered at a certain king of blunders.
As a Clock Tower mage, Kayneth considered it self-degradation for self-proclaimed noble mages to work with those hypocritical frauds from the Church.
Seeing that Kayneth had begun to believe him, Wang Xiaoming felt relieved. He was just about to request their cooperation again when an unexpected turn of events occurred—
Kayneth suddenly said:
"Now that I've got the information I wanted, why should I keep you around? I can use it to find another, more capable group to work with."
Cold... Dizzy. Orz
"Now that I've got the information I wanted, why should I keep you people around? I can use it to find another, more capable group to work with."
"That's not a very funny joke."
Wang Xiaoming's heart skipped a beat, but he still put on a calm front.
He and Medea had considered something like this before he came. Even so, he hadn't expected Kayneth to turn on him quite so quickly.
"I'm afraid I wasn't joking."
Kayneth settled into a comfortable position on the sofa and spoke in an unhurried tone:
"The amount of information you possess determines how much control you have. Naturally, the fewer people who know it, the better. But the information you have puts me in a difficult position..."
"So what?"
Wang Xiaoming understood that he couldn't afford to show weakness now. Even the slightest change in his expression might cause the negotiations to fail.
Thanks to his years as a reporter, he'd at least gotten very good at keeping a straight face.
"If you're willing to tell me the rest of your information, I'll consider sparing your life and taking only Caster. How about that?"
Kayneth stated his terms directly.
After returning to the hotel the previous night, Kayneth had thought it over again. In his view, Wang Xiaoming and Caster were an extremely weak combination. With the abilities of a half-baked mage like Wang Xiaoming, they couldn't bring out even half of a Servant's strength.
That meant the only thing of value in this partnership was the information Wang Xiaoming possessed.
"Even if you let me live, I doubt things would end well for me."
Wang Xiaoming looked at Kayneth and sneered.
"Sorry, but right now, I can do whatever I want with you..."
"Ha. You can do whatever you want with me? That's quite a boast."
Wang Xiaoming's mind raced as he tried to find a way out, but he kept his face expressionless as he dealt with Kayneth.
When Kayneth saw that Wang Xiaoming didn't believe him, he smiled.
"This entire building has already been transformed into my magecraft workshop, Kayneth El-Melloi's. I don't know how you hid yourselves inside it, but I never expected you to reveal your base directly. To do something so reckless in my domain..."
Kayneth rose and strode over to Wang Xiaoming, looking down at him.
"Tell me, what chance do you think you have of winning?"
"Winning?"
Under Kayneth's gaze, Wang Xiaoming smiled—not a cold smile, but a genuinely delighted one. It was the first time since arriving that he'd shown such an expression.
"Your own words gave me the answer!"
"What did you—"
Wang Xiaoming's reply first left Kayneth stunned, but what happened next shocked him.
The bounded field, which had been providing the magecraft workshop's perfect defense, suddenly slipped out of Kayneth's control and began slaughtering the wraiths patrolling the workshop one by one!
Before you continue