Dating Caster

Ring~~~

Returning to his hotel room, Wang Xiaoming suddenly heard his phone ringing. He pulled it out to see that it was the person in charge of the Fuyuki City Police Department.

"Hello--"

"..."

"Is that so?"

"..."

"You really went to a lot of trouble, thank you so much."

"..."

After hanging up the phone, Wang Xiaoming recalled what the police chief had just told him:

His [Honorary Citizen] title had been approved, but compared to the title, Wang Xiaoming cared more about the prize money that came with it.

5 million yen could barely be considered a generous windfall, after all, this money was truly earned with his life.

During their conversation, the chief also happened to inform Wang Xiaoming about Ryunosuke Uryu's current situation.

Ryunosuke was currently being held in the Fuyuki City prison, waiting for his sentence to be passed so they could grant him a bullet to end his sinful life.

"Medea, what exactly did you do to Ryunosuke Uryu back then?"

Wang Xiaoming turned his head and asked Medea, who was on the other side of the room.

"Ryunosuke Uryu? Who is that?"

Medea, who was in the middle of recovering her mana, opened her eyes and asked in confusion after hearing Wang Xiaoming's question.

"He's that lunatic of a man from when you were first summoned." Wang Xiaoming gave her a hint.

"Oh, I just placed a curse on him that would cause him to experience some hallucinations." Medea recalled the man and said nonchalantly.

"What kind of hallucinations?"

"Whatever methods he used to kill people before, those methods would be perfectly recreated on his own body one by one." Daring to call her a Demon the moment they met, there was no way she would let such a person die quickly and painlessly.

"Uh..."

"What? Did something go wrong?" Wang Xiaoming naturally wouldn't bring up a person for no reason unless there was a change outside of his memories. So, Medea also straightened her expression.

"Nothing went wrong..." Wang Xiaoming waved his hand to signal Medea to relax.

It's just that--

Whenever Wang Xiaoming thought of Ryunosuke's personality, he couldn't help but feel his mouth twitch uncontrollably.

He wouldn't be finding pleasure in those hallucinations, would he?

He just hoped things wouldn't get out of hand.

Fuyuki City Prison

"Yo, we've got a newcomer!"

As the iron door opened, a man with orange hair was pushed inside.

"What did you do to get in here, kid?"

There was another cellmate in this room, a fierce-looking man with a scarred face who tried to put on a friendly facade while asking the orange-haired man. However, the look on his face seemed rather comical no matter how you looked at it.

"..."

The orange-haired man's eyes were hollow and unfocused, looking just like a walking corpse. At this moment, the scarred man noticed the name tag on the orange-haired man's chest.

"Ryunosuke Uryu?"

This perverted serial killer wasn't dead yet? But looking at his current state of being worse off than dead, Medea must have had quite a bit to do with it.

"Tsk tsk, you're even wearing shackles; you must have committed a serious crime, kid."

The scarred man looked down and discovered that Ryunosuke was actually wearing a pair of leg shackles. You had to know that things like shackles were only put on those deranged, high-security criminals.

"..."

Ryunosuke still didn't have any reaction.

"Tsk tsk, what a pity."

After taking another close look at Ryunosuke Uryu, the scarred man finally confirmed that the person in front of him was truly broken. He couldn't help but sigh.

But come to think of it--

This kid is actually quite good-looking--

Having been incarcerated for so long, the scarred man had long since grown tired of his two "wives," and occasionally changing his palate sounded pretty good.

Thinking this, the smile on the scarred man's face gradually became [pure], and he asked Ryunosuke Uryu in a greasy tone that made one's skin crawl:

"Hey kid, do you like playing games♂?"

"..."

"If you don't speak, I'll take that as your consent!"

After waking up and completing the daily magecraft training set by Caster, Wang Xiaoming checked the time and realized it was nearly the hour he had agreed upon with Kayneth yesterday.

He didn't wake Little Shirou, who was still fast asleep; after all, the boy had waited for Wang Xiaoming and Caster to return last night, spending a long time alone in his room.

Children really need their sleep—

He took a relatively formal outfit from his luggage, tidied himself up a bit, and prepared to head out.

"Wait a moment—"

Caster appeared in the living room, walked up to Wang Xiaoming, and reached out to straighten his collar.

"Uh—"

Caster's actions caught Wang Xiaoming off guard, and he froze in place for a moment.

"There."

Afterward, Wang Xiaoming couldn't even recall how he had walked out the door.

Since this was a formal visit, Caster did not use magecraft to conceal Wang Xiaoming's movements. Therefore, the moment he stepped out of the room, Kayneth received a warning from his bounded field.

"Interesting, to think he was hiding right here."

Upon receiving the alert, Kayneth was momentarily stunned, but his emotions returned to normal in an instant. With a wave of his hand, he deactivated the defensive functions of the bounded field.

Since the other party had shown sincerity by exposing their base, it would seem petty if he continued to drag his feet and keep the defenses active.

How could Kayneth's actions escape the notice of Caster, who had already mastered half of the bounded field? She let out a cold snort but said nothing.

Just like that, Wang Xiaoming arrived at Kayneth's top-floor suite without obstruction.

"Good day, Lord Kayneth."

Wang Xiaoming performed a clumsy mage's salute, which was the result of a last-minute crash course from Caster.

"Spare me the superfluous formalities; such awkward displays only lower my estimation of you."

Kayneth sat in the main seat of the parlor, his fingers interlaced beneath his chin, watching Wang Xiaoming with interest.

"I assume Lord Kayneth went to verify my intelligence last night?"

After sitting down across from Kayneth, Wang Xiaoming asked with a smile, showing no signs of nervousness.

"Naturally."

Kayneth nodded and truthfully shared the results of his verification from the previous night.

"Several of my scouting familiars were silently eliminated. While they were inconsequential, I suspect no other Servant besides Assassin could pull off such a stealthy feat."

It was precisely because of this that Kayneth valued the information in Wang Xiaoming's hands so highly. That was why he hadn't displayed his usual arrogant attitude when facing him.

"As for whether the Masters of Archer and Assassin are collaborating, there is currently no way to verify that."

Kayneth could only express his helplessness regarding the latter piece of information.

"Archer's Master is Tohsaka Tokiomi, while Assassin's Master is the son of the Holy Grail War's overseer, Risei Kotomine—Kirei Kotomine." Wang Xiaoming revealed the identities of the two Masters as if it were none of his concern.

"To think he would collaborate with that group of fanatics; the so-called Three Founding Families have truly fallen this far."

Kayneth sneered at the man responsible for the mess.

After all, coming from the Clock Tower, in Kayneth's eyes, a self-proclaimed noble magus collaborating with those hypocritical church swindlers was nothing short of a disgrace.

Seeing that Kayneth had begun to believe his words, Wang Xiaoming felt a weight lift from his heart. Just as he was about to propose the partnership again, an unexpected turn occurred—

Kayneth said out of the blue:

"Since I have already obtained the information I wanted, why should I keep you alive? I could easily rely on this intelligence to seek out a more capable pair to partner with."

Catching a cold... feeling dizzy Orz

"Since I have already obtained the information I wanted, why should I keep you alive? I could easily rely on this intelligence to seek out a more capable pair to partner with."

"That's not a very funny joke."

Wang Xiaoming's heart skipped a beat, but he maintained a calm and composed expression on the surface.

Although he and Caster had considered such a scenario before coming, he hadn't expected this man to cross the bridge and burn it so quickly.

"I'm afraid I don't consider myself to be joking."

Kayneth settled into a comfortable position on the sofa and spoke in a measured, deliberate tone:

"After all, the amount of intelligence one possesses represents the amount of initiative one holds, so naturally, the fewer people who know this information, the better. But the information you hold makes things very difficult for me..."

"And so?"

Wang Xiaoming knew that at this moment, he absolutely could not show weakness. Even the slightest fluctuation in his expression might cause these negotiations to end in failure.

Thanks to his years of training as a journalist, his ability to remain poker-faced was, at the very least, quite refined.

"If you are willing to truthfully reveal the rest of your intelligence, I will consider sparing your life and only taking Caster, how about that?"

Kayneth stated his conditions directly.

After returning to the hotel last night, Kayneth had pondered the situation once more. In his view, the combination of Wang Xiaoming and Caster was simply too weak; a half-baked magus like Wang Xiaoming could never bring out even half of a Servant's true potential.

Thus, the only thing of value in this pairing was the intelligence held in Wang Xiaoming's hands.

"Even if I stay alive, I don't imagine I'll have a very good ending, will I?"

Wang Xiaoming looked at Kayneth and sneered.

"My apologies, but right now, you are entirely at my mercy."

"Heh—at your mercy? Isn't that a bit of an overstatement?"

Wang Xiaoming's brain raced, desperately trying to come up with a way to break the deadlock, while his expression remained impassive as he dealt with Kayneth.

Seeing that Wang Xiaoming seemed unconvinced, Kayneth laughed.

"This building has long since been converted into my, Kayneth El-Melloi's, magecraft workshop. Although I don't know what method you used to hide within this building, I never expected you to expose your own base of operations so directly. To commit such a reckless act within my private domain."

Kayneth stood up and paced over to stand in front of Wang Xiaoming, looking down at him from above.

"Tell me, how much of a chance do you have left?"

"A chance?"

Under Kayneth's gaze, Wang Xiaoming smiled. It wasn't a sneer, but a look of genuine joy—the first time Wang Xiaoming had worn such an expression since entering.

"The chance is right there in what you just said!"

"What did you—"

Wang Xiaoming's answer initially left Kayneth stunned, but what happened next was enough to leave him truly shocked.

The barrier that served as the perfect defense for the magecraft workshop began to slip out of his control, one by one slaughtering the evil spirits that were patrolling the workshop!